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Monday, July 28, 2014

relation between the Indian Jats and the Nordic and European Goths

A relation between the Indian Jats and the Nordic and European Goths?
An old book about races mention the relation between the Jats of India and the Scandinavian Goths: "The Ruling Races of Prehistoric Times in India, Southwestern Asia, and Southern Europe" by James Francis Katherinus Hewitt (1894). Here is a cut and paste from this book from page 480 to 483.
"480.
The two most numerous of the agricultural castes in the Muttra district, are the Jats, numbering 117,265 persons, and the Chaniars, 99,110. The crops grown consist almost entirely of autumn crops, Joar {Holcus sorghum), Bajra (Holcus spicatus) and cotton, and winter crops wheat, gram (Cicer arietinum) and barley — barley being the crop which is most grown, while rice crops are unknown. Hence we see clearly that the people who first cleared the land of forest were the race who grew millets, cultivated, according to the Song of Lingal, by the Gonds who were saved from the Flood and the hostility of the alligator Mug-ral, by the tortoise, and were followed by the first growers of barley, who were, as I have shown in Essay III., immigrants who had come to India from Asia Minor. Of the two most numerous agricultural tribes descended from these early immigrants, the Chamars, who are hereditary slayers
  481.
  of cattle and dealers in leather, are undoubtedly the descendants of a race of cattle herdsmen, who under Kushite rule, when the artisans were divided into septs practising special trades, became tanners and sellers of leather goods. The Jats, on the other hand, are pure agriculturists, who boast that they can produce better crops from their lands than any other race of hereditary farmers. Their chiefs still hold extensive estates in the district, and it must have been they who originally cleared, not only the lands of Muttra, but also those of all the other districts west of the Ganges, in which the Jats hold a similar position as leaders of the agricultural tribes to that held by the Kurmis in Oude to the east of the Ganges, in Bengal, Central India, and Bombay, where Jats are unknown. The Jats must, therefore, be the race known in the Mahabharata and Rigveda as the Srinjaya or sons of the sickle (srini), the Panchala rulers of the Gangetic Doab, who conquered India under the Pandavas, and they must also have belonged to the tribes who formed in India the confederacy of the sons of the tortoise, for they trace their descent to the land of Ghuzni and Kandahar , watered by the mother-river of the Kushika race, the sacred Haetumant, or Helmend. Their name connects them with the Getæ of Thrace, and thence with the Guttones, said by Pytheas to live on the southern shores of the Baltic , the Guttones placed by Ptolemy and Tacitus on the Vistula in the country of the Lithuanians , and the Goths of Grothland in Sweden . This Scandinavian descent is confirmed by their system of land- tenures, for the chief tenure of the Muttra district is that called Bhayachara, in which the members of the village brotherhood each hold as their family property a separate and defined area among the village lands, according to the custom of the Bratsvos of the Balkan Provinces and the Hof-Bauers of North- west
482. 
Germany, which I have already described in Essay II., and not the mere right to an allotted portion of the village lands held in common by the rice-growing matriarchal village communities. The Getæ of the Balkans are said by Herodotus to be the bravest and most just of the Thracians , who worshipped one god, called Zalmoxis, or Grebeleizen, the thunder and lightning-god, to whom they send a messenger every five years, the mission being accomplished by throwing him on three spears and thus sacrificing him. These Thracian Getæ must, as a Northern race of individual proprietors, have held their lands on the tenure existing in the Jat villages, and these Indian Jats, or Getæ, have not degenerated from the military prowess of their forefathers, for those Jats, who have become Sikhs in the Punjab, are known as some of the best and most reliable Indian soldiers . Further evidence both of the early history and origin of the race of Jats, or Getæ, is given by the customs and geographical position of another tribe of the same stock, called the Massagetæ, or great (massa) Getæ. Herodotus describes them as living on the western shores of the Caspian Sea in the lands watered by the Araxes and its tributary, the Kur. Thus their home is the same as that of the ancient Iberians, whose mother-mountain is Ararat, whence the Araxes rises, which stands almost halfway between the Caspian and Black Seas, and the names of the former sea and of the river Kur, preserve the roots kus and kur, the two forms of the name of the father of the tortoise race. It was here, in the land of Georgia, that the reverence for the rain- god as the father of life originated, and it was here, as I have shown in discussing the myth of St. George, that the festival to the plough-god, the Naga, held in the month of April-May, the original form of the Palilia of Italy, and Maifeuer of Germany was first instituted, and it is this festival which is still observed by the Jats of Muttra and the Gonds of Central India as the Akht-uj" (End of quote). It is indeed interesting to see how this author as many of the same generation particularly during the late 1800-eds completely turned the facts, as if the very sparsely populated Scandinavia could have been the cradle of people in Europe, Caucasus and India. Additionally many authors of this time- period often had a "one cradle" theory of the Goths. It is more likely that the Goths came to e.g. different parts of Europe and Caucasus from Asia, than the other way around. The origin of the Goths and the Jats were unlikely in Scandinavia.

haryana me vikash ya vinash???


माननीय

भूपेंदर सिंह हुड्डा  जी

मै आपका एक पक्का समर्थक हूँ | हालाँकि मै कांग्रेस का कट्टर विरोधी हूं पर आपके प्रति मेरी विशेष सहानुभूति है | मै उत्तर प्रदेश के बाघपत जिले का एक साधारण नौजवन हूं, इस हिसाब मुझे हरयाणा के बारे में कुछ बोलने का हक तो नहीं बनता पर एक जाट होने के कारण मेरी कुछ चिंताए है जिसका बारे में आप और आपके समर्थको को सोचने की जरुरत है | कुछ लोग आज कल आपकी तुलना चौधरी छोटूराम , चौधरी चरण सिंह जैसे नेताओ से कर रहे है पर मुझे लगता है कि वे बिलकुल गलत है | आपने जाट समाज को आरक्षण दिलवाया , इस एहसान को पूरा जाट समाज कभी नहीं भूलेगा | पर आरक्षण के एहसान के तले आप जाट समाज का नुकसान करे ये भी नहीं हो सकता | 

     मै आपकी विचारधारा के बिलकुल खिलाफ हू| जिस पूंजीवाद के खिलाफ हमारे जाट समाज ने कुबनिया दी उसी पूंजीवाद को आप आगे बढ़ा रहे है| आपके विकास का modal बिलकुल गुजरात जैसा ही है| यानी विनाश का modal| मेरे समझ में नहीं आता की उद्योगपतियो को जमीन बेचकर आप कौन सा विकास करना चाहते है??

अगर आपने जाट जाति के इतिहास को पढ़ा हो तो पता चलेगा की जाट हमेशा खेती करते आये है|| भारत से लेकर यूरोप तक जाटों के पास दुनिया की बेहतरीन जमीन है | जाटों ने तो राजस्थान के बंजर में भी खेत बना दिए | ये जमीन हमरे पूर्वजो की दें है जिसके पीछे हजारो सालों का संघर्ष है, बलिदान है |आज हमें जमीन एक मामूली सी चीज लगती है पर अगर आप जाट देवताओ के बलिदान को देखेगे तो पता चलेगा की ये कोई मामूली चीज नहीं है| इसकी कीमत इतनी है की एक साधारण आदमी इसकी कीमत नहीं दे सकता| आप कहते है की जाट जमीन बेचकर अन्य काम कर सकते है, हा जरूर कर सकते है पर अपनी जमीन पर बिहारियों को बसाकर नहीं| अगर जाट अपनी जमीन दुसरे जाट को बेचे तो मुझे कोई परेशानी नहीं है पर अगर गैर जाट हमरे पूर्वजो की जमीन पर कब्ज़ा कर ले तो मुझे बड़ा दुःख होता है |

     आप पूंजीपतियो को जमीन बेचकर, पुरे हरयाणा में कंक्रीट के जंगल तयार कर रहे हो , जहाँ बहार के लोग आकर बस रहे है और हमारी संस्कृति को नष्ट कर रहे है , अगर ऐसा ही चलता रहा तो जाट ही अपनी जमीन पर अल्पसंख्यक हो जायेंगे | ये मात्र मेरी शंका ही नहीं है बल्कि हम ऐसा जाटलैंड दिल्ली में देख चुके है| जाटों की दिल्ली बिहारियों और गढ़वालियो की दिल्ली बन चुकी है| जाट अपना रानीतिक वजूद खो चुके है| जाटों के घर अब बिहारिओ के ठिये बन गए है, मुझे बिहारिओ से कोई परेशानी नहीं, बस दुःख है तो अपनी संस्कृति के नष्ट होने का, बलिदान की भूमि पर ऐरो गेरो के राज होने का | ऐसा ही कुछ आप गुडगाँव , फरीदाबाद में देख सकते है|और अगली डेस्टिनेशन सोनीपत, पानीपत, बहादुरगढ़ आदि होगे|

       कहते है की घणे आगे की नि सोचनी चाहिए पर मै आगे की पहले सोच लेता हु| दुनिया में किसी के पास कोयला है, किसी के पास पेट्रोलियम है, किसी के पास सोना है , तो किसी के पास और कुछ| और ये सब जयादा दिन नहीं चलेगा, जल्द ही ख़त्म हो जाएगा , इस से कमाए पैसे भी जरूर ख़त्म होगे, और फिर सब वही होगे जहा से चले थे यानी सब कंगाल| पर जाटों के पास एसी चीज है जो हमेशा सोना उगलेगी, जो कभी ख़त्म नहीं होगी  , यानी जमीन!!!! पर ऐसा तभी संभव होगा जब हम आगे की सोचे, अपनी कौम में एक अटूट एकता पैदा कर दे, पूंजीवाद को ख़त्म कर दे |

     सर छोटूराम जी , चौधरी चरण सिनघ जी ने कहा था की कम से कम एक जाट को हर परिवार से शहर में भेजना चाहिए , ये एक दूरगामी सोच थी| गाँव की ज्यादातर समस्याओ का हल था इस सोच में | अगर परिवार से एक दो जाट शहर के संसाधनों का इस्तमाल करके अपने गांवों को आगे बढ़ने का काम करेगा तो ज्यादातर समस्या ख़त्म हो जायेगी | अगर कोई जाट जमीन बेचे भी तो केवल जाटों को ही दे |न की इन पपूंजीपतियो को जो जमीन के साथ साथ संस्कृति को भी नष्ट कर दे|  कुछ जाट सोच रहे है की उनका गाँव भी एनसीआर में हो, हर जगह फलैट बन जाए, हम भी दिल्ली वालो की तरह माकान के किराये पर मौज करे| कुछ कहते है की केवल विकास गुडगाँव , सोनीपत, रोहतक में हो गया म्हारे यहाँ कुछ नि हुआ| उनके कुछ का मतलब है की जमीन की बिक्री|  उनको दूर के ढोल सुहाने लग रहे है|  कुछ कहते है की यहाँ की जमीन बेचकर और जगह ले लेगे, पर इस बात की क्या गारंटी है की वहा की जमीन भी आप नहीं बेचोड़े??? यानि बेच बेच कर कितनी पीढियों का गुजरो करोगे, इस बिरादरी  को क्या देकर जाओगे??

      मेर सोच पूंजीवाद विरोधी है, शोश्लिस्ट विचारधारा को मै मानता हु, थोडा साम्यवादी भी हु पर ऐसा कहकर आप मुझे गलत सिद्ध नहीं कर सकते और न ही मेरी शंकाओ को नकार सकते |

     मेरे पास इसका समाधान भी है, पर ये तभी लागु होगा जब हम अपनी खप व्यवस्था को सर्वोचता के साथ स्थापित करेगे, खप को परिवार की जजागीर  न बनकर पुरे जाट समाज की भागीदारी के साथ इसको मजबूत करेगे |हमें अपने स्तर पर भूमि सुधर आन्दोलन चलाना पड़ेगा\ नौकरी करने वाले जाट, विदेशो में रहने वाले जाट ,, को अपनी जमीन खापो के माध्य\म से जरूरतमंद जाट को दान करनी चाहिए ताकि खेती करने वाले जाट को जमीन की कमी न पड़े, वो भी आपके साथ आगे बढ़ सके| फिर देखना सारे जाट पूरी दुनिया को मुट्ठी में कर लेगे|खेती करने वाले किसान के बालक भी बड़े शहरो में पढेगे, वे भी विदेश जायेगे, एक दो जो पढ़ नि पायेगा वो भी खेती करके मौज करेगा| अगर जाट किसान खुश होगा तो निश्चित  तौर पर जाटों पर निर्भर जातियों को भी आगे बढ़ने का मौका मिलेगा |जिस दिन हर जाट मेरी तरह से सोचेगा टो मई गारंटी लेता हु की कोई जाट दुखी नहीं होगा| आरक्षण का फायदा भी तभी होगा|

       इसलिए हुड्डा जी कुछ सोचिये समाज के बारे में भी, अगर सोच नहीं सकते तो हमारी जमीनों को टो मत बेचो| इतनी भी क्या रानीतिक मबोर है जो वद्र को जमीन सौंप रहे हो, आरक्षण का बदला टो जाट पहले ही उतार चुके है, बोहत जमीन दे चुके वद्र , अम्बानी को| सब आपकी तरह अमीर नहीं है, जरा आँख खोलकर देखो, बोहत विनाश कर चुके है आप| क्रांति की शुरआत घर से होती है, तो मैंने ये लेख लिख दिया| भगत सिंह जी ने कहा था की विचार क्रांति की धर को तेज़ कर देते है, मैंने अपने विचार रख दिए , आगे मर्जी आपकी है |

धन्यवाद

 चौधरी अभिषेक लाकड़ा
 
नोट - पोस्ट राजनितिक उद्देश्य से बिलकुल नहीं लिखी गयी है, अतः फालतू में समय बर्बाद न करे| सुझाव के लिए abhichaudhary06@gmail.com par likhe.

Sunday, July 27, 2014

Jats are not comunal, they are devta

ONLY JAT ,NO HINDU ,NO MUSLIMS I was commissioned in the [[Jat Regiment]], which had two companies of JAT Hindus and two of Muslims. I served with a Punjabi Muslim company. I found the regimental spirit among the men strong. There was no communal divide. This continued in the Army till the end of 1946 but started cracking in 1947, reaching breaking point by August 1947. Yet I saw that when the Muslim companies of the Jat Regiment were going to Pakistan, tears were shed on both sides. Indian officers during British rule hardly ever discussed political matters among themselves. I recall that in Rangoon, soon after the end of World War II, one junior British officer referred to the INA as traitors and used vulgar epithets. There was no senior officer present in the Mess. This led to a heated discussion between the British and Indian officers, both Hindus and Muslims.

By Lt.Gen. S.K. SINHA, PVSM, Formar cheif of army staff

Jat of pakistan love indian jat, a true story.

कहते है की आँखों को वीज़ा नहीं लगता, आज भी दो मुल्को के जाट एक दुसरे को चाहते है | एक भारतीय लेखक की डायरी में लिखी ये छोटी सी कहानी दिल को छु जाती है | आखिर बंटवारा क्यों हुआ, क्यों जाटों को दो हिस्सों में बाँट दिया??????
I enter a grubby tea-stall. A giant kettle sits on a coal fire, spewing out clouds of smoke. The stall is run by a Jat family and caters mainly to autorickshaw drivers, artisans, small shopkeepers and daily wage labourers. 'Do not discuss politics here', announces a slogan on the wall, above a blow-up of half a dozen scantily-dressed Bollywood actresses, whose presence here makes me feel decidedly embarrassed.
Choudhri Sahib, the amiable patriarch of the family, sits on an ornate, delicately-carved chair that seems at least a century old but is now badly worn-out. He bears an enormous turban on his head and puffs away at a clay hukkah. When he learns I am from India he refuses to take any payment from me. Instead, he insists I should drink another cup of milky tea. 'I was born in India', says Choudhri Sahib. 'Your grandparents were born in what is Pakistan. But you live in India and I in Pakistan. Strange, is it not?'.
'We are Mula Jats, originally from what is now Haryana in India', Choudhri Sahib explains. 'There are Hindu, Sikh and Muslim Jats. Jats live in both India and Pakistan. We follow different religions but we are all Jats', he adds.
Mula Jats, Choudhri Sahib tells me, followed both Hindu as well as Muslim customs and could not easily be classified as either Hindu or Muslim. Perhaps they were a bit of both. Starting in the early twentieth century, Hindu and Muslim revivalist religious organisations began targetting the community, trying to convert them to their respective faiths.
'Some of us became Arya Samajists, others became better Muslims. Many of us remained just as our ancestors had been', Choudhri Sahib reveals.
Then, in 1947, the Mula Jats were faced with an unenviable choice. Choudhri Sahib lowers his voice. 'We owned a lot of land. So, Hindu mobs attacked our village. They said that we should either convert to Hinduism, abandon our lands and flee to Pakistan or else be ready to be killed'.
Scores of Mula Jats were killed in the Partition violence. Many more fled across to the newly-created Pakistan. But a small number of remained in their ancestral land. Many of them converted to Hinduism through the Arya Samaj. Some continued being Muslim, in some sense.
Some of those who became outwardly Hindu retained their faith in Islam secretly while others lost completely their association with Islam. And there were others who became Hindu for a while and, after peace was restored, turned Muslim again after a few years. 'Their conversion was probably just tactical. They found that despite their conversion the Hndu Jats refused to eat or intermarry with them', says Choudhri Sahib.
'My brother, Shiv Khan, decided to stay on i India. The last time I heard from him was around twenty years ago', the patriarch reminisces. 'He was the most hardworking and sincere of us all. Now I don't know what has happened to him. I sent him so many letters but I have had no news. Allah bless him'.
I see tears well in Choudhry Sahib's tired eyes. I decide to leave. I still have not changed my money and that, I remind myself, I must do at once, for, today being Friday, the shops will probably close early. I bid farewell and reluctantly head back for the chaos of Mall Road.

 Yoginder Sikand in Pakistan dairy.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Goths, or Geats, or Jutes, or Gotlanders or jatt ( international journal on jat history)


Published, edited  by Kenneth S. Doig

Geats (Old English Geatas, [ˈjæɑ̯tɑs];(like [yay-uh-tahz]) Old Norse Gautar [ˈɡɑu̯tɑr]; SwedishGötar, [ˈjøːtar]), and sometimes Goths,) were a North Germanic tribe inhabiting what is now Götaland ("land of the Geats") in modern Sweden. The name of the Geats also lives on in the Swedish provinces of Västergötland and Östergötland, the Western and Eastern lands of the
Geats, and in many other toponyms. 

History

Earliest mentioned in history

The earliest mention of the Geats may appear in Ptolemy (2nd century A.D.), where they are
referred to as Goutai. In the 6th century, they were referred to as Gautigoths and Ostrogoths(the Ostrogoths of Scandza) by Jordanes and as Gautoi by Procopius. In the Norse Sagas they are referred to as Gautar, and in Beowulf and Widsith as Gēatas. Geats should not be confused with theThracian Getae.

Etymology

The tribal name Geat (from the Proto-Germanic *Gautaz, plural *Gautōz) is related, although notidentical, to the etymology of the name tribal Goth (*Gutaniz) and they are both derived (specifically they are two ablaut grades) from the Proto-Germanic word *geutan, meaning "to pour". This means according to the mainly accepted etymology "men", a heiti of the men in the tribe, see further in Goths (etymology). It could also allude to watercourses in the land where they were living.
A more specific theory about the word Gautigoths is that it means the goths who live near the riverGaut, today's Göta älv (Icelandic and early Swedish: Gautelfr). In the 17th century the nameGöta älv, "River of the Geats", was introduced instead of the earlier names Götälven and Gautelfr. The etymology of the word Gaut is as mentioned derived from from the Proto-Germanic word *geutan, and the extended meaning of "to pour" is "flow, stream, waterfall" and this could aim at the Trollhättan Falls or at the river itself.
The short form of Gautigoths was Old Norse Gautar and this referred at first and still in some Icelandic sagas to just the inhabitants of Västergötland, or the western parts of today's Götaland.

Early history

Beowulf and the Norse sagas name several Geatish kings, but only Hygelac finds confirmation inLiber Monstrorum where he is referred to as Rex Getarum and in a copy of Historiae Francorumwhere he is called Rege Gotorum. These sources concern a raid into Frisia, ca 516, which is also described in Beowulf. Some decades after the events related in this epic, Jordanes described the Geats as a nation which was "bold, and quick to engage in war".
Before the consolidation of Sweden, the Geats were politically independent of the Swedes or Svear, whose old name was Sweonas in Old English. When written sources emerge (approximately at the end of the 10th century), the Geatish lands are described as part of the still very shaky Swedish kingdom, but the manner of their unification with the Swedes is a matter of much debate.
Based on the lack of early medieval sources, and the fact that the Geats were later part of the kingdom of Sweden, traditional accounts assume a forceful incorporation by the Swedes, but the only surviving traditions which deal with Swedish-Geatish wars are of semi-legendary nature and found in Beowulf. The actual story in Beowulf, however, is that the Geatish king helps a Swede to gain the throne. What historians today think is that this realm could just as well be the force behind the creation of the medieval kingdom of Sweden. The historians make a distinction between political history and the emergence of a common Swedish ethnicity. The, so far more or less imagined, Swedish invasion of Geatish lands has been explained with Geatish involvement in the Gothic wars in southern Europe, which brought a great deal of Roman gold to Götaland, but also naturally depleted their numbers (see Nordisk familjebok). The Hervarar saga is believed to contain such traditions handed down from the 4th century. It relates that when the Hunnish Horde invaded the land of the Goths and the Gothic king Angantyr desperately tried to marshal the defenses, it was the Geatish king Gizurwho answered his call. In fact, no explanation is needed, because there is no actual evidence of any successful invasion.
Today, historians believe that the medieval kingdom of Sweden was created as a union to oppose foreign forces, mainly the Danes, where the mainly inland Västergötland was easier to defend and be protected in than in the coastal areas.[8] According to Curt Weibull, the Geats would have been finally integrated in the Swedish kingdom c. 1000, but according to others, it most likely took place before the 9th century, and probably as early as the 6th century. The fact that some sources are silent about the Geats indicates that any independent Geatish kingdom no longer existed in the 9th century. In Rimbert's account of Ansgar's missionary work, the Swedish king is the sole sovereign in the region and he has close connections not only with the king of the Danes but also with the king of the Franks. However, the oldest medieval Swedish sources present the Swedish kingdom as having remaining legal differences between Swedes and Geats for example in weights and measurements in miles, marks etc. They also tell us that there were kings, ruling by the title of Rex Gothorum as late as in the 12th century, and that one of those kings went on to become king of a united realm. Furthermore, that some sources do not mention Geatish kings in the 9th century, is not so very interesting. It is quite possible that kings were not part of the Geatish political system at the time.

Viking Age

In the Heimskringla, Snorri Sturluson writes about several battles between Norwegians and Geats. He wrote that in the 9th century, there were battles between the Geats and the Norwegian kingHarald Fairhair, during Harald Fairhair's campaign in Götaland, a war the Geats had to fight without the assistance of the Swedish king Erik Emundsson. He also wrote about Haakon I of Norway's expedition into Götaland and Harold I of Denmark's battle against Jarl Ottar of Östergötland, and about Olaf the Holy's battles with the Geats during his war with Olof Skötkonung.

Middle Ages

The Geats were traditionally divided into several petty kingdoms, or districts, which had their own things (popular assemblies) and laws. The largest one of these districts was Västergötland (West Geatland), and it was in Västergötland that the Thing of all Geats was held every year, in the vicinity of Skara.
Unlike the Swedes, who used the division hundare, the Geats used hærrad, like the Norwegians and the Danes. Surprisingly, it would be the Geatish name that became the common term in the Swedish kingdom. This is possibly related to the fact that several of the medieval Swedish kings were of Geatish extraction and often resided primarily in Götaland.
In the 11th century, the Swedish House of Munsö became extinct with the death of Emund the Old. Stenkil, a Geat, was elected king of Sweden, and the Geats would be influential in the shaping of Sweden as a Christian kingdom. However, this election also ushered in a long period of civil unrest between Christians and pagans and between Geats and Swedes. The Geats tended to be more Christian, and the Swedes more pagan, which was why the Christian Swedish king Inge the Elder fled to Västergötland when deposed in favour of Blot-Sweyn, a king more favourable towards Norse paganism, in the 1080s. Inge would retake the throne and rule until his death c. 1100.

One can not say that the Geats were not treated as equals with the Swedes. For example, Saxo, wrote about a situation that happened well before his birth, where one of the participants had to be pictured in black. For Saxo, Magnus Nielsen was a bad person. In his Gesta Danorum (book 13), the Danish 12th century chronicler Saxo Grammaticus noted that the Geats had no say in the election of the king, only the Swedes, but Saxo did not know how kings were chosen in Sweden around 1120. When in the 13th century, the West Geatish law or Westrogothic law was put to paper, it reminded the Geats that they had to accept the election of the Swedes: Sveær egho konong at taka ok sva vrækæ meaning "It is the Swedes who have the right of choosing ["taking"] and also deposing the king" and then he rode Eriksgatan "mæÞ gislum ofvan"  "with hostages from above [the realm]"through Södermanland, the Geatish provinces and then through Närke and Västmanland to be judged to be the lawful king by the lawspeakers of their respective things. The king was "taken" by the first thing possibly similar to the customs in early medieval Norway where the king was chosen by acclamation (see about this custom called konungstekja ("choosing king") and also the section Coronation, in the article Monarchy of Norway). The way to become king in Sweden could however also be to defeat opponents in battle and not only to be elected by the formal procedure.
One of these Swedish kings was Ragnvald Knaphövde, who in 1125 was riding with his retinue in order to be accepted as king by the Geats of Västergötland. As he despised the Geats, he decided not to demand hostages from their prominent clans. He was slain near Falköping.
In a new general law of Sweden that was issued by Magnus Eriksson in the 1350s, it was stated that twelve men from each province, chosen by their things, should be present at the Stone of Mora when a new king was elected.
The distinction between Swedes and Geats lasted during the Middle Ages, but the Geats became increasingly important for Swedish national claims of greatness due to the Geats' old connection with the Goths. They argued that since the Goths and the Geats were the same nation, and the Geats were part of the kingdom of Sweden, this meant that the Swedes had defeated the Roman empire. The earliest attestation of this claim comes from the Council of Basel, 1434, during which the Swedish delegation argued with the Spanish about who among them were the true Goths. The Spaniards argued that it was better to be descended from the heroic Visigothsthan than from the  stay-at-homers in Sweden. This cultural movement, which was not restricted to Sweden went by the name Gothicismus or in Swedish Göticism, i.e. Geaticism, as Geat and Goth were considered synonymous back then.

Modern times

After the 15th century and the Kalmar Union, the Swedes and the Geats appear to have begun to perceive themselves as one nation, which is reflected in the evolution of svensk into a common ethnonym. It was originally an adjective referring to those belonging to the Swedish tribe, who are called svear in Swedish. As early as the 9th century, svear had been vague, both referring to the Swedish tribe and being a collective term including the Geats, and this is the case in Adam of Bremen's work where the Geats (Goths) appear both as a proper nation and as part of theSueones.The merging/assimilation of the two nations took a long time, however. In the early 20th century, Nordisk familjebok noted that svensk had almost replaced svear as a name for the Swedish people.
Today, the merger of the two nations is complete, as there is no longer any tangible identification in Götaland with a Geatish identity, apart from the common tendency of people living in those areas to refer to themselves as västgötar (West Geats) and östgötar (East Geats), that is to say, residents of the provinces of Västergötland and Östergötland. The city Göteborg, known in English asGothenburg, was named after the Geats (Geatsburg or fortress of the Geats), when it was founded in 1621.
Until 1973 the official title of the Swedish king was King of Sweden (earlier: of the Swedes), the Geats/Goths and the Wends (with the formula "Sveriges, Götes och Vendes konung"). The title "King of the Wends" was copied from the Danish title, while the Danish kings called themselves "King of the Gotlanders" (which, like "Geats", was translated into "Goths" in latin) were also used by Danish royalty. The Wends is a term normally used to describe the Slavic peoples who inhabited large areas of modern east Germany and Pomerania. See further in the Wikipedia articles King of the Gothsand King of the Wends.
The titles, however, changed when the new king Carl XVI Gustaf in 1973 decided that his royal title should simply be King of Sweden. The disappearance of the old title was a decision made entirely by the king. The old title in Latin was "N.N. Dei Gratia, Suecorum, Gothorum et Vandalorum Rex."
Goths

Geatas was originally Proto-Germanic *Gautoz and Goths and Gutar (Gotlanders) were *Gutaniz. *Gautoz and *Gutaniz are two ablaut grades of a Proto-Germanic word *geutan with the meaning "to pour" (modern Swedish gjuta, modern German giessen). The word comes from an Indo-European root meaning to pour, offer sacrifice. There were consequently two derivations from the same Proto-Germanic ethnonym.
It is a long-standing controversy whether the Goths were Geats. Both Old Icelandic and Old English literary sources clearly separate the Geats on one hand (Isl. Gautar, OEng Geatas) from the Goths/Gutar (Isl. Gotar, OEng. Gotenas); on the other, however, the Gothic historian Jordanes wrote that theGoths came from the island of Scandza. Moreover, he described that on this island there were three tribes called the Gautigoths (cf. Geat/Gaut), theOstrogoths (cf. the Swedish province of Östergötland) and Vagoths (Gutar?) - this implies that the Geats were Goths rather than vice versa. The wordGoth is also a term used by the Romans to describe related, culturally linked tribes like the Tervingi and the Greuthungs, so it may be correct to label Geats as Goths.
Scandinavian burial customs, such as the stone circles (domarringar), which are most common in Götaland and Gotland, and stelae (bautastenar) appeared in what is now northern Poland in the 1st century AD, suggesting an influx of Scandinavians during the formation of the Gothic Wielbark culture. Moreover, in Östergötland, in Sweden, there is a sudden disappearance of villages during this period.

Jutish hypothesis

There is a hypothesis that the Jutes also were Geats, and which was proposed by Pontus Fahlbeck in 1884. According to this hypothesis the Geats would have not only resided in southern Sweden but also in Jutland, where Beowulf would have lived.
The generally accepted identification of Old English Gēatas as the same ethnonym as Swedish götarand Old Norse gautar is based on the observation that the ö monophthong of modern Swedish and the au diphthong of Old Norse correspond to the ēa diphthong of Old English.
Correspondences
Old NorseSwedishOld English
brauð
laukr
lauf
austr
draumr
dauðr
rauðr
naut
kaup
auga
haugr
saumr
taum (rein)
auðr
hlaupa
bröd
lök
löv
öst
dröm
död
röd
nöt
köp
öga
hög
söm
töm (rein)
öd (archaic)
löpa
brēad
lēac (onion, cf. leek)
lēaf
ēast
drēam
dēað
rēad (red)
nēat (head of cattle)
cēap (purchase, cf. cheap)
ēage (eye)
hēah (high)
sēam
tēam
ēad (wealth/property)
hlēapan (run)

etc.
Thus, Gēatas is the Old English form of Old Norse Gautar and modern Swedish Götar. This correspondence seems to tip the balance for most scholars. It is also based on the fact that inBeowulf, theGēatas live east of the Dene (across the sea) and in close contact with the Sweon, which fits the historical position of the Geats between the Danes and the Swedes. Moreover, the story of Beowulf, who leaves Geatland and arrives at the Danish court after a naval voyage, where he kills a beast, finds a parallel in Hrólf Kraki's saga. In this saga, Bödvar Bjarki leaves Gautland and arrives at theDanish court after a naval voyage and kills a beast that has been terrorizing the Danes for two years (see also Origins for Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki).
The Geats and the Jutes are mentioned in Beowulf as different tribes, and whereas the Geats are called gēatas, the Jutes are called ēotena (genitive) or ēotenum (dative). Moreover, the Old English poem Widsith also mentions both Geats and Jutes, and it calls the latter ȳtum. However, Fahlbeck proposed in 1884 that the Gēatas of Beowulf referred to Jutes and he proposed that the Jutes originally also were Geats like those of southern Sweden. This theory was based on an Old English translation of Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People attributed to Alfred the Great where the Jutes (iutarum, iutis) once are rendered as gēata (genitive) and twice as gēatum(dative) (see e.g. the OED which identifies the Geats through Eotas, Iótas, Iútan and Geátas). Fahlbeck did not, however, propose an etymology for how the two ethnonyms could be related.
Fahlbeck's theory was refuted by Schück who in 1907 noted that another Old English source, theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle, called the Jutes īutna, īotum or īutum. Moreoever, Schück pointed out that when Alfred the Great's translation mentions the Jutes for the second time (book IV, ch. 14(16)) it calls them ēota and in one manuscript ȳtena. Björkman proposed in 1908 that Alfred the Great's translation of Jutes as Geats was based on a confusion between the West Saxon form Geotas("Jutes") and Gēatas ("Geats").
As for the origins of the ethnonym Jute, it may be a secondary formation of the toponym Jutland, where jut is derived from a Proto-Indo-European root *eud meaning "water".

Gutnish hypothesis

Since the 19th century, there has also been a suggestion that Beowulf's people were Gutes (from the island of Gotland in Sweden). According to the poem, the weather-geats or sea-geats, as they are called are supposed to have lived east of the Danes and be separated from the Swedes by wide waters. Some researchers have found it a little far fetched that wide waters relates to Lake Vänern inVästergötland or Mälaren. The weather in weather-geats, and sea-geats marks a people living at a windy, stormy coast by the sea. The Geats of Västergötland was historically an inland people, making an epithet such as weather- or sea- a little strange. Moreover, when Beowulf dies he is buried in a mound at a place called Hrones-naesse, meaning "the cape of whales". Whales have for obvious reasons never lived in Vänern, where, according to Birger Nerman, Beowulf is buried. However, an expanse of water separates the island of Gotland from the Swedes. The island lies east of Denmark and whales were once common in the Baltic Sea where Gotland is situated. The name of the Gutes in Swedish, Gutar, is an ablaut-grade of the same name as that of the Geats in Beowulf. These facts made the archeologist Gad Rausing come to the conclusion that the weather-Geats may have been Gutes. This was supported by another Swedish archeologist Bo Gräslund. According to Rausing, Beowulf may be buried in a place called Rone on Gotland, a name corresponding to the Hrones in Hrones-naesse. Not far from there lies a place called Arnkullcorresponding to the Earnar-naesse in Beowulf, which according to the poem was situated closely to Hrones-naesse.
This theory does not exclude the ancient population of Västergötland and Östergötland from being Geats, but rather holds that the Anglo-Saxon name Geat could refer to West-geats (Västergötland), East-geats (Östergötland) as well as weather-geats (Gotland), in accordance with Jordanes account of the Scandinanian tribes Gautigoth, Ostrogoth and Vagoth.

Jutish hypothesis

There is a hypothesis that the Jutes also were Geats, and which was proposed by Pontus Fahlbeck in 1884. According to this hypothesis the Geats would have not only resided in southern Sweden but also in Jutland, where Beowulf would have lived.
The generally accepted identification of Old English Gēatas as the same ethnonym as Swedish götarand Old Norse gautar is based on the observation that the ö monophthong of modern Swedish and the au diphthong of Old Norse correspond to the ēa diphthong of Old English.
Correspondences
Old NorseSwedishOld English
brauð
laukr
lauf
austr
draumr
dauðr
rauðr
naut
kaup
auga
haugr
saumr
taum (rein)
auðr
hlaupa
bröd
lök
löv
öst
dröm
död
röd
nöt
köp
öga
hög
söm
töm (rein)
öd (archaic)
löpa
brēad
lēac (onion, cf. leek)
lēaf
ēast
drēam
dēað
rēad (red)
nēat (head of cattle)
cēap (purchase, cf. cheap)
ēage (eye)
hēah (high)
sēam
tēam
ēad (wealth/property)
hlēapan (run)
etc.
Thus, Gēatas is the Old English form of Old Norse Gautar and modern Swedish Götar. This correspondence seems to tip the balance for most scholars. It is also based on the fact that inBeowulf, theGēatas live east of the Dene (across the sea) and in close contact with the Sweon, which fits the historical position of the Geats between the Danes and the Swedes. Moreover, the story of Beowulf, who leaves Geatland and arrives at the Danish court after a naval voyage, where he kills a beast, finds a parallel in Hrólf Kraki's saga. In this saga, Bödvar Bjarki leaves Gautland and arrives at theDanish court after a naval voyage and kills a beast that has been terrorizing the Danes for two years (see also Origins for Beowulf and Hrólf Kraki).
The Geats and the Jutes are mentioned in Beowulf as different tribes, and whereas the Geats are called gēatas, the Jutes are called ēotena (genitive) or ēotenum (dative). Moreover, the Old English poem Widsith also mentions both Geats and Jutes, and it calls the latter ȳtum. However, Fahlbeck proposed in 1884 that the Gēatas of Beowulf referred to Jutes and he proposed that the Jutes originally also were Geats like those of southern Sweden.[19] This theory was based on an Old English translation of Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People attributed to Alfred the Great where the Jutes (iutarum, iutis) once are rendered as gēata (genitive) and twice as gēatum (dative) (see e.g. the OED which identifies the Geats through Eotas, Iótas, Iútan andGeátas). Fahlbeck did not, however, propose an etymology for how the two ethnonyms could be related.
Fahlbeck's theory was refuted by Schück who in 1907 noted that another Old English source, theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle, called the Jutes īutna, īotum or īutum. Moreoever, Schück pointed out that when Alfred the Great's translation mentions the Jutes for the second time (book IV, ch. 14(16)) it calls them ēota and in one manuscript ȳtena. Björkman proposed in 1908 that Alfred the Great's translation of Jutes as Geats was based on a confusion between the West Saxon form Geotas("Jutes") and Gēatas ("Geats").
As for the origins of the ethnonym Jute, it may be a secondary formation of the toponym Jutland, where jut is derived from a Proto-Indo-European root *eud meaning "water".
Gutnish hypothesis
Since the 19th century, there has also been a suggestion that Beowulf's people were Gutes (from the island of Gotland in Sweden). According to the poem, the weather-geats or sea-geats, as they are called are supposed to have lived east of the Danes and be separated from the Swedes by wide waters. Some researchers have found it a little far fetched that wide waters relates to Lake Vänern inVästergötland or Mälaren. The weather in weather-geats, and sea-geats marks a people living at a windy, stormy coast by the sea. The Geats of Västergötland was historically an inland people, making an epithet such as weather- or sea- a little strange. Moreover, when Beowulf dies he is buried in a mound at a place called Hrones-naesse, meaning "the cape of whales". Whales have for obvious reasons never lived in Vänern, where, according to Birger Nerman, Beowulf is buried. However, an expanse of water separates the island of Gotland from the Swedes. The island lies east of Denmark and whales were once common in the Baltic Sea where Gotland is situated. The name of the Gutes in Swedish, Gutar, is an ablaut-grade of the same name as that of the Geats in Beowulf. These facts made the archeologist Gad Rausing come to the conclusion that the weather-Geats may have been Gutes. This was supported by another Swedish archeologist Bo Gräslund. According to Rausing, Beowulf may be buried in a place called Rone on Gotland, a name corresponding to the Hrones in Hrones-naesse. Not far from there lies a place called Arnkullcorresponding to the Earnar-naesse in Beowulf, which according to the poem was situated closely to Hrones-naesse.
This theory does not exclude the ancient population of Västergötland and Östergötland from being Geats, but rather holds that the Anglo-Saxon name Geat could refer to West-geats (Västergötland), East-geats (Östergötland) as well as weather-geats (Gotland), in accordance with Jordanes account of the Scandinanian tribes Gautigoth, Ostrogoth and Vagoth.