Question

Who was considered a ‘foreigner’ in the past?

Answer 1

Hint: A foreigner in today's time is considered as someone who is not an Indian. However, a foreigner in the past was someone different.

Complete answer: Historians today have to be very careful in using terms. Foreigner was one such example of this. In today's time, a foreigner is someone who is not an Indian, however, in the medieval period, a foreigner was a stranger who appeared in a village, someone who was not a part of the clan, community, culture or society. In Hindi, it is often known as pardesi or ajnabi. Therefore a forest dweller is a foreigner for a city dweller, but two peasants, artisans, blacksmith etc. sharing the same village are not foreigners to each other, even though they may belong to a different caste or religious backgrounds.
Thus a foreigner is anyone who does not share a common village, clan or community. This was the problem faced by historians. As medieval Persian was different from modern Persian. Meanings of the words changed completely. For instance the term Hindustan. Today we understand it as ‘India’ whereas in the thirteenth century the Persian chronicle used the term for the areas of Punjab. By contrast in the sixteenth century, Babur used the term for geography, culture and fauna of the subcontinent.

Note: Historical texts that existed years ago have been changed in meanings. Many terms like foreigner and Hindustan, which meant different in the medieval period, have changed in today's time.