A village where Hindus also keep Muslim surnames: ‘Gilani’ surname of 5000 population in Nalanda, said – will not break the tradition

Even in today’s changing environment, there is such a village in Bihar, where Hindu or Muslim, all keep their title the same. That too especially Muslim surnames. This village is Gilani of Nalanda district. It is being told that people are still following the tradition which has been going on for centuries. Now even the youth take pride in associating the name of the village with them. He loves his village and the soil there. There are many people who have been living in other states for decades. Even after this, he did not leave the side of the village.

It is known from their name which village they belong to. The people of Geelani village associate Geelani with their name. Similarly, Asthanvi of Asthawan, Harganvi of Hargawan, Dumranavi of Dumrawan, Uganavi of Ugawan, Chakdinvi of Chakdin and people of Desna village use Desnavi surnames.

‘Gilani’ is the most special

Of all these, Geelani is the most special. In the other six villages, only people of Muslim religion are following this tradition. At the same time, people of both Hindu and Muslim communities are following this tradition in Gilani. According to Saba Azam Gilani of the village, this tradition is going on since the Mughal period. It is believed that the name ‘Gilani’ has been named after Hazrat Abdul Qadir Jilani, a follower of Islam. There is no letter ‘G’ in Arabic language, so people call them Jilani. Because of this the full name of the village is Mohiuddinpur Geelani.

According to Maulana Muzaffar Gilani’s book ‘Majmeen’, Gilan is the name of a place. Where the followers of Bade Pir used to live. From there some people had come to Mohiuddinpur Geelani for some reason. The surnames of those people also had Gilani. Seeing the influence and mutual harmony of those people here, people started putting the name of the village in their surname.

Anil Kumar Geelani and Imdad Ahsan Gilani, residents of the village.

There is a population of 5000 in the village, where half a dozen castes live

Geelani village has total population of 5000 people. Where apart from the Muslim community, people of Hindu religion Paswan, Koiri, Yadav, Nai, Ravidas, Kahar, Kumhar Pandit caste live. People of both religions use the Gilani surname behind their respective names. Imdad Ahsan Gilani, a resident here, says that he feels proud that he uses the word Gilani after his name. Here all Hindus and Muslims put Gilani in front of their names. From old to now new people are also following this tradition.

One difference has come that the people of the old generation used to use the word Gilani after applying the title of the caste. Young generation people remove the caste and put Geelani directly with the name. For example, people named Anil Kumar Geelani, Imran Geelani, Masood Azhar Geelani, Doman Geelani, Abhishek Geelani live in the village and use surnames.

Geelani is a centuries old village

The people of the village told that Mohiuddinpur Geelani is a centuries old village. There have been not one, but many scholars, scholars, litterateurs, many IAS, engineers, doctors. Not only this, many people here have also raised the flag in foreign countries. The book of Maulana Manazir Ahsan Gilani, who lives here, is world famous. 14 books written by him have become world famous. This village is also very famous for mango. There are big mango orchards here. People from other districts also come here to buy mangoes.