Pardeshi

Pardeshi is a Hindi/marathi word meaning someone who does not belong to this local place/region or someone coming from distant far-off place. This is a surname used by the "Rajput communities" and is failry common in states like Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Gujrat. The origin of this name has pretty interesting story. As the Rajputs in Rajasthan lost the wars to the invading Mughal powers they fanned out of their native place to withohold diginity of religion/future. With invading army hot on their trail, many made inroads into adjoining states like Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Doing so they wanted to make sure they don't regonized and they introduced themselves as "Pardeshi's" i.e. foreigner's. Since then as time-rolled by they got fully-integrated into the local culture, language and customs. Majority of them settled and never went back - thanks to the warmness and prosperous environment which let them live their dreams. To this day, though generations have passed by the 'Pardeshi' are very much identified so and continue to live as part-n-parcel of the foreign lands ironically with the name as "foreigners" or Pardeshi. Pardeshi's are basically Rajputs-better known as the lions family. Moreover , some of them have adopted to the local languages from their original language "Hindi" while many of them have retained to their mother tongue.