Jump to content

Jats: Difference between revisions

Page extended-protected
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Browse history interactively
← Previous editNext edit →
Content deleted Content added
VisualWikitext
revising letter case—MOS:HEAD
Gagandeep (talk | contribs)
204 edits
No edit summary
Line 10: Line 10:
}}
}}


The '''Jat people'''{{Pronunciation-needed}} are a community of traditionally non-elite tillers and herders in [[Northern India]] and Pakistan.{{#tag:ref|"Glossary: '''Jat''': title of north India's major non-elite 'peasant' caste."<ref name=sbayly-p385>{{cite book|last=Bayly|first=Susan|title=Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=HbAjKR_iHogC&pg=PA385|accessdate=15 October 2011|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-79842-6|page=385}}</ref>|group=lower-alpha}}{{#tag:ref|"... in the middle decades of the (nineteenth) century, there were two contrasting trends in India's agrarian regions. Previously marginal areas took off as zones of newly profitable 'peasant' agriculture, disadvantaging non-elite tilling groups, who were known by such titles as Jat in western [[North-Western Provinces|NWP]] and Gounder in Coimatore."<ref name=sbayly-p201>{{cite book|last=Bayly|first=Susan|title=Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=HbAjKR_iHogC&pg=PA201|accessdate=15 October 2011|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-79842-6|page=201}}</ref>|group=lower-alpha}}{{#tag:ref|"In the later nineteenth century, this thinking led colonial officials to try to protect Sikh Jats and other non-elite 'peasants' whom they now favoured as military recruits by advocating legislation under the so-called land alienation."<ref name=sbayly-p212>{{cite book|last=Bayly|first=Susan|title=Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=HbAjKR_iHogC&pg=PA212|accessdate=15 October 2011|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-79842-6|page=212}}</ref>|group=lower-alpha}} Originally [[pastoralism|pastoralist]]s in the lower [[Indus river]]-valley of [[Sindh]], Jats migrated north into the [[Punjab region]] in [[late medieval]] times, and subsequently into the [[Delhi Territory]], northeastern [[Rajputana]], and the western [[Gangetic Plain]] in the 17th and 18th centuries.<ref name="AsherTalbot2006-p269"/> Of Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu faiths, they are now found mostly in the Pakistani provinces of Sindh and [[Punjab, Pakistan|Punjab]] and the Indian states of [[Punjab, India|Punjab]], [[Haryana]], [[Uttar Pradesh]] and [[Rajasthan]].
The '''Jat people'''{{Pronunciation-needed}} are a community of traditionally tillers and herders in [[Northern India]] and Pakistan.{{#tag:ref|"Glossary: '''Jat''': title of north India's major non-elite 'peasant' caste."<ref name=sbayly-p385>{{cite book|last=Bayly|first=Susan|title=Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=HbAjKR_iHogC&pg=PA385|accessdate=15 October 2011|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-79842-6|page=385}}</ref>|group=lower-alpha}}{{#tag:ref|"... in the middle decades of the (nineteenth) century, there were two contrasting trends in India's agrarian regions. Previously marginal areas took off as zones of newly profitable 'peasant' agriculture, disadvantaging non-elite tilling groups, who were known by such titles as Jat in western [[North-Western Provinces|NWP]] and Gounder in Coimatore."<ref name=sbayly-p201>{{cite book|last=Bayly|first=Susan|title=Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=HbAjKR_iHogC&pg=PA201|accessdate=15 October 2011|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-79842-6|page=201}}</ref>|group=lower-alpha}}{{#tag:ref|"In the later nineteenth century, this thinking led colonial officials to try to protect Sikh Jats and other non-elite 'peasants' whom they now favoured as military recruits by advocating legislation under the so-called land alienation."<ref name=sbayly-p212>{{cite book|last=Bayly|first=Susan|title=Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=HbAjKR_iHogC&pg=PA212|accessdate=15 October 2011|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-79842-6|page=212}}</ref>|group=lower-alpha}} Originally [[pastoralism|pastoralist]]s in the lower [[Indus river]]-valley of [[Sindh]], Jats migrated north into the [[Punjab region]] in [[late medieval]] times, and subsequently into the [[Delhi Territory]], northeastern [[Rajputana]], and the western [[Gangetic Plain]] in the 17th and 18th centuries.<ref name="AsherTalbot2006-p269"/> Of Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu faiths, they are now found mostly in the Pakistani provinces of Sindh and [[Punjab, Pakistan|Punjab]] and the Indian states of [[Punjab, India|Punjab]], [[Haryana]], [[Uttar Pradesh]] and [[Rajasthan]].


Traditionally involved in peasantry, the Jats took up arms against the [[Mughal Empire]] during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.<ref name="AsherTalbot2006">{{cite book | author1=Catherine Ella Blanshard Asher | author2=Cynthia Talbot | title=India before Europe | year= 2006 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-521-80904-7 | page=265}}</ref> The community played an important role in the development of the martial [[Khalsa]] ''[[panthan]]'' of Sikhism.<ref name="Karine1987">{{cite book | editor = Karine Schomer and W. H. McLeod | title=The Sants: studies in a devotional tradition of India | year = 1987 | publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ. | isbn=978-81-208-0277-3 | pages=242}}</ref> The Hindu Jat kingdom reached its zenith under [[Suraj Mal]] of [[Bharatpur, Rajasthan|Bharatpur]] (1707–1763).<ref name="Unit1973">{{cite book | title=The Gazetteer of India: History and culture | year=1973 | publisher=Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India | oclc = 186583361 | page = 348 }}</ref> By the 20th century, the landowning Jats became an influential group in several parts of North India, including [[Punjab (India)|Punjab]],<ref name="Srinivas1962">{{cite book | author=[[M. N. Srinivas|Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas]] | title=Caste in modern India: and other essays | year=1962 | publisher=Asia Pub. House | oclc = 185987598 | page = 90 }}</ref> [[Western Uttar Pradesh]],<ref name="Nuna1989">{{cite book | author=Sheel Chand Nuna | title=Spatial fragmentation of political behaviour in India: a geographical perspective on parliamentary elections | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=hjjriYh_hykC&pg=PA61 | accessdate=20 January 2012 | date=1 January 1989 | publisher=Concept Publishing Company | isbn=978-81-7022-285-9 | pages=61–}}</ref> [[Rajasthan]],<ref name="RudolphRudolph1984">{{cite book | author1=Lloyd I. Rudolph | author2=Susanne Hoeber Rudolph | title=The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=7guY1ut-0lwC&pg=PA86 | accessdate=20 January 2012 | year=1984 | publisher=University of Chicago Press | isbn=978-0-226-73137-7 | pages=86–}}</ref> [[Haryana]] and [[Delhi]].<ref name="CarlMelvin2004">{{cite book | ediors = Carol R. Ember and Melvin Ember | title = Encyclopedia of medical anthropology | year=2004 | publisher=Springer | isbn=978-0-306-47754-6 | page=778}}</ref> Over the years, several Jats abandoned agriculture in favour of urban jobs, and used their dominant economic and political status to claim higher social status.<ref name="Sunil2009">{{cite book | author=Sunil K. Khanna | title=Fetal/fatal knowledge: new reproductive technologies and family-building strategies in India | year = 2009 | publisher=Cengage Learning | isbn=978-0-495-09525-5 | page=18}}</ref>
Traditionally involved in peasantry, the Jats took up arms against the [[Mughal Empire]] during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.<ref name="AsherTalbot2006">{{cite book | author1=Catherine Ella Blanshard Asher | author2=Cynthia Talbot | title=India before Europe | year= 2006 | publisher=Cambridge University Press | isbn=978-0-521-80904-7 | page=265}}</ref> The community played an important role in the development of the martial [[Khalsa]] ''[[panthan]]'' of Sikhism.<ref name="Karine1987">{{cite book | editor = Karine Schomer and W. H. McLeod | title=The Sants: studies in a devotional tradition of India | year = 1987 | publisher=Motilal Banarsidass Publ. | isbn=978-81-208-0277-3 | pages=242}}</ref> The Hindu Jat kingdom reached its zenith under [[Suraj Mal]] of [[Bharatpur, Rajasthan|Bharatpur]] (1707–1763).<ref name="Unit1973">{{cite book | title=The Gazetteer of India: History and culture | year=1973 | publisher=Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India | oclc = 186583361 | page = 348 }}</ref> By the 20th century, the landowning Jats became an influential group in several parts of North India, including [[Punjab (India)|Punjab]],<ref name="Srinivas1962">{{cite book | author=[[M. N. Srinivas|Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas]] | title=Caste in modern India: and other essays | year=1962 | publisher=Asia Pub. House | oclc = 185987598 | page = 90 }}</ref> [[Western Uttar Pradesh]],<ref name="Nuna1989">{{cite book | author=Sheel Chand Nuna | title=Spatial fragmentation of political behaviour in India: a geographical perspective on parliamentary elections | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=hjjriYh_hykC&pg=PA61 | accessdate=20 January 2012 | date=1 January 1989 | publisher=Concept Publishing Company | isbn=978-81-7022-285-9 | pages=61–}}</ref> [[Rajasthan]],<ref name="RudolphRudolph1984">{{cite book | author1=Lloyd I. Rudolph | author2=Susanne Hoeber Rudolph | title=The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India | url=http://books.google.com/books?id=7guY1ut-0lwC&pg=PA86 | accessdate=20 January 2012 | year=1984 | publisher=University of Chicago Press | isbn=978-0-226-73137-7 | pages=86–}}</ref> [[Haryana]] and [[Delhi]].<ref name="CarlMelvin2004">{{cite book | ediors = Carol R. Ember and Melvin Ember | title = Encyclopedia of medical anthropology | year=2004 | publisher=Springer | isbn=978-0-306-47754-6 | page=778}}</ref> Over the years, several Jats abandoned agriculture in favour of urban jobs, and used their dominant economic and political status to claim higher social status.<ref name="Sunil2009">{{cite book | author=Sunil K. Khanna | title=Fetal/fatal knowledge: new reproductive technologies and family-building strategies in India | year = 2009 | publisher=Cengage Learning | isbn=978-0-495-09525-5 | page=18}}</ref>
Line 147: Line 147:


Most Sikh Jats were converted from Hindu Jats<ref>The transformation of Sikh society&nbsp;— Page 92 by Ethne K. Marenco - ''The gazetteer also describes the relation of the Jat Sikhs to the Jat Hindus ...to 2019 in 1911 is attributed to the conversion of Jat Hindus to Sikhism. ...''</ref><ref>Social philosophy and social transformation of Sikhs by R. N. Singh (Ph. D.) Page 130 - ''The decrease of Jat Hindus from 16843 in 1881 to 2019 in 1911 is attributed to the conversion of Jat Hindus to Sikhism.'' ...</ref> so they would join forces with the [[Khalsa]] to fight against the [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] monarchy.
Most Sikh Jats were converted from Hindu Jats<ref>The transformation of Sikh society&nbsp;— Page 92 by Ethne K. Marenco - ''The gazetteer also describes the relation of the Jat Sikhs to the Jat Hindus ...to 2019 in 1911 is attributed to the conversion of Jat Hindus to Sikhism. ...''</ref><ref>Social philosophy and social transformation of Sikhs by R. N. Singh (Ph. D.) Page 130 - ''The decrease of Jat Hindus from 16843 in 1881 to 2019 in 1911 is attributed to the conversion of Jat Hindus to Sikhism.'' ...</ref> so they would join forces with the [[Khalsa]] to fight against the [[Mughal Empire|Mughal]] monarchy.

===Varna status===
The Hindu [[Varna (Hinduism)|varna]] system is unclear on Jat status within the caste system. Some sources state that Jats are regarded as [[Kshatriya]]s<ref>{{Cite book|title=From hierarchy to stratification: changing patterns of social inequality in ... |last=Miller |first=D.B. |year=1975 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn= |page= 64|url=http://books.google.com/books?ei=zTWdS7mmDIOUlAS-9fGtCQ&cd=7&id=K98EAAAAMAAJ&dq=jat+kshatriya&q=Jat+kshatriya#search_anchor }}</ref> or "degraded Kshatriyas" who, as they did not observe [[Vedic Brahmanism|Brahmanic]] rites and rituals, had fallen to the status of [[Shudra]].<ref>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.com.au/books?id=W_nVHIDgbogC&pg=PA777&lpg=PA777&dq=jatts+are+shudras&source=bl&ots=2B_tLhsqd0&sig=Wq_NllPsYbt5R0j1ESxY5f2V1mI&hl=en&ei=Q0swSs2uHpOCkQW5t4T_Dg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7#PPA777 |title=M1 Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology |editor-first=Melvin |editor-last=Ember |chapter=Jat |page=777 |first=Sunil K |last=Khanna}}</ref> Another author reports that the varna status of the Jats improved over time, with the Jats starting in the untouchable/chandala varna during the eighth century, changing to shudra status by the 11th century, and with some Jats striving for zamindar status after the Jat rebellion of the 17th century.<ref>{{cite book|last=Krishnaraj|first=Uma Chakravarti ; series editor, Maithreyi|title=Gendering caste through a feminist lens|year=2003|publisher=Stree|location=Calcutta|isbn=978-81-85604-54-1|url=http://books.google.co.in/books?id=nLMDxv_L-U8C&lpg=PA23&dq=jats%20are%20shudra%20caste&pg=PA23#v=onepage&q=JATS&f=false|edition=1. repr.}}</ref>


===Social customs===
===Social customs===

Revision as of 13:00, 25 September 2012

Jat
Chaudhary Charan Singh, the first Jat Prime Minister of India, accompanied by his wife, on his way to address the nation at the Red Fort, Delhi, Independence Day, 15 August 1979.
Regions with significant populations
India and Pakistan
Languages
Punjabi • Hindi • Rajasthani • Urdu • Haryanvi • Gujarati
Religion
Hinduism • Islam • Sikhism
Related ethnic groups
other Indo-Aryan peoples

The Jat people[pronunciation?] are a community of traditionally tillers and herders in Northern India and Pakistan.[a][b][c] Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and subsequently into the Delhi Territory, northeastern Rajputana, and the western Gangetic Plain in the 17th and 18th centuries.[4] Of Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu faiths, they are now found mostly in the Pakistani provinces of Sindh and Punjab and the Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Traditionally involved in peasantry, the Jats took up arms against the Mughal Empire during the late 17th and early 18th centuries.[5] The community played an important role in the development of the martial Khalsa panthan of Sikhism.[6] The Hindu Jat kingdom reached its zenith under Suraj Mal of Bharatpur (1707–1763).[7] By the 20th century, the landowning Jats became an influential group in several parts of North India, including Punjab,[8] Western Uttar Pradesh,[9] Rajasthan,[10] Haryana and Delhi.[11] Over the years, several Jats abandoned agriculture in favour of urban jobs, and used their dominant economic and political status to claim higher social status.[12]

History

A Jutt (Jat) Muslim camel-driver from Sind, 1872
Jat Sikh of the "Sindhoo" clan, Lahore, 1872.
Jats in the Delhi Territory in 1868.
Jat girl from Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India, 1868.
Ethnographic photograph of Jat zemindars (land owners) in Rajasthan, playing pachisi, 1874
The durbar of the teenage Hindu Jat ruler of Bharatpur, a princely state in Rajasthan, early 1860s.

The Jats are a paradigmatic example of community- and identity-formation in early modern South Asia.[4] "Jat" is an elastic label applied to a wide-ranging, traditionally non-elite,[d] community which had its origins in pastoralism in the lower Indus valley of Sindh].[4] At the time of Muhammad bin Qasim's conquest of Sind in the 8th century, Arab writers described agglomerations of Jats in the arid, the wet, and the mountainous regions of the conquered land.[14] The new Islamic rulers, though professing a theologically egalitarian religion, did not alter either the non-elite status of Jats or the discriminatory practices against them that had been put in place in the long period of Hindu rule in Sind.[15] Between the eleventh and the sixteenth centuries, Jat herders migrated, up along the river valleys,[16] into the Punjab,[4] which had not been brought under the plough in the first millennium.[17] Many took up tilling in regions such as the Central and East Punjab, where the Persian wheel had been recently introduced or where the land was less arid;[4] others, especially in the West Punjab, continued herding.[4][18] By early Mughal times, in the Punjab, the term "Jat" had become loosely synonymous with "peasant,"[19] and some Jats had come to own land and exert local influence.[4]

According to historians Catherine Asher and Cynthia Talbot,[20]

The Jats also provide an important insight into how religious identities evolved during the precolonial era. Before they settled in the Punjab and other northern regions, the pastoralist Jats had little exposure to any of the mainstream religions. Only after they became more integrated into the agrarian world did the Jats adopt the dominant religion of the people in whose midst they dwelt.[20]

With passage of time, in the western Punjab, the Jats became primarily Muslim, in the eastern Punjab, Sikh, and in the areas between Delhi Territory and Agra, primarily Hindu, their divisions by faith reflecting the geographical strengths of these religions.[20] During the decline of Mughal rule in the early 18th century, the Indian subcontinent's hinterland dwellers, many of whom were armed and nomadic, increasingly interacted with settled townspeople and agriculturists.[21] Many new rulers of the 18th century came from such martial and nomadic backgrounds.[21] The effect of this interaction on India's social organization lasted well into the colonial period. During much of this time, non-elite tillers and pastoralists, such as the Jats or Ahirs, were part of a social spectrum that blended only indistinctly into the elite landowning classes at one end, and the menial or ritually polluting classes at the other.[21] Earlier, during the heyday of Mughal rule, Jats had benefited from Mughal munificence. According to Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf:

Upstart warriors, Marathas, Jats, and the like, as coherent social groups with military and governing ideals, were themselves a product of the Mughal context, which recognized them and provided them with military and governing experience. Their successes were a part of the Mughal success.[22]

As the Mughal empire now faltered, there were a series of rural rebellions in North India.[23] Although these had sometimes been characterized as "peasant rebellions," scholars, such as Muzaffar Alam, have pointed out that small local landholders, or zemindars, often led these uprisings.[23] The Sikh and Jat rebellions were led by such small local zemindars, who had close association and family connections with each other and with the peasants under them, and who were often armed.[24]

These communities of rising peasant-warriors were not well-established Indian castes,[25] but rather quite new, without fixed status categories, and with the ability to absorb older peasant castes, sundry warlords, and nomadic groups on the fringes of settled agriculture.[24][26] The Mughal Empire, even at the zenith of its power, functioned by devolving authority and never had direct control over its rural grandees.[24] It was these zemindars who gained most from these rebellions, in both cases, increasing the land under their control.[24] The more triumphant even attaining the ranks of minor princes, such as the Jat ruler Badan Singh of the princely state of Bharatpur.[24] The non-Sikh Jats came to predominate south and east of Delhi after 1710.[27] According to historian Christopher Bayly

Men characterised by early eighteenth century Mughal records as plunderers and bandits preying on the imperial lines of communications had by the end of the century spawned a range of petty states linked by marriage alliance and religious practice.

The Jats had moved into the Gangetic Plain in two large migrations, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries respectively.[27] They were not a caste in the usual Hindu sense, for example, in which Bhumihars of the eastern Gangetic plain were; rather they were an umbrella group of peasant-warriors.[27] According to Christopher Bayly:

This was a society where Brahmins were few and male Jats married into the whole range of lower agricultural and entrepreneurial castes. A kind of tribal nationalism animated them rather than a nice calculation of caste differences expressed within the context of Brahminical Hindu state.[27]

By the mid-eighteenth century, the ruler of the recently established Jat kingdom of Bharatpur, Raja Surajmal, felt sanguine enough about durability to build a garden palace at nearby Dig (Deeg).[28] Although, the palace, Gopal Bhavan, was named for Lord Krishna, its domes, arches, and garden were evocative of Mughal architecture, a reflection ultimately of how much these new rulers—aspiring dynasts all—were products of the Mughal epoch.[28] In another nod to the Mughal legacy, in the 1750s, Surajmal removed his own Jat brethren from positions of power and replaced them with a contingent of Mughal revenue officials from Delhi who proceeded to implement the Mughal scheme of collecting land-rent.[27] According to historian, Eric Stokes,

When the power of the Bharatpur raja was riding high, fighting clans of Jats encroached into the Karnal/Panipat, Mathura, Agra, and Aligarh districts, usually at the expense of Rajput groups. But such a political umbrella was too fragile and short-lived for substantial displacement to be effected.[29]

Jat states of the 18th century

File:Raja Mahendra Pratap.jpg
Raja Mahendra Pratap

Jat states of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries included Kuchesar (ruled by the Dalal Jat clan of Mandoti, Haryana), and the Mursan state (the present-day Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh) ruled by the Thenua Jats.[citation needed] A recent ruler of this state was Raja Mahendra Pratap (1886–1979), who was popularly known as Aryan Peshwa.[30][31][32]

The Jat people also briefly ruled at Gwalior and Agra. Following the decline of Mughal Empire, the fort was usurped by Gohad dynasty by a Jat Rana King.[33] The Jat rulers Maharaja Bhim Singh Rana and Maharaja Chhatar Singh Rana occupied the Gwalior Fort thrice:

  • 1740 to 1756 by Maharaja Bhim Singh Rana[34]
  • 1761 to 1767 by Maharaja Chhatra Singh Rana[35][36][37]
  • 1780 to 1783 by Maharaja Chhatra Singh Rana[38]

Maharaja Suraj Mal captured Agra Fort on 12 June 1761 and it remained in the possession of Bharatpur rulers till 1774.[39]

Sikh states

Maharaja Bhupinder singh sidhu of patila.

Patiala and Nabha were two important Sikh[40][41] states in Punjab, ruled by the Jat-Sikh [42] people of the Siddhu clan.[43] The Jind state in present-day Haryana was founded by the descendants of Phul Jat of Siddhu ancestry.[43] These states were formed with the military assistance of the sixth Sikh guru, known as Guru Har Gobind.[40]

The rulers of Faridkot were Brar Jat Sikhs.[44] The princely state of Kalsia was ruled by Sandhu Jat Sikhs.[45]

Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780–1839) of the Sandhawalia[43] Jat clan (other historians assert a Sansi Caste lineage to Maharaja Ranjit Singh[46]) of Punjab became the Sikh emperor of the sovereign country of Punjab and the Sikh Empire. He united the Sikh factions into one state, and conquered vast tracts of territory on all sides of his kingdom. From the capture of Lahore in 1799, he rapidly annexed the rest of the Punjab. To secure his empire, he invaded North-West Frontier Province (NWFP) (which was then part of Afghanistan), and defeated the Pathan militias and tribes. Ranjit Singh took the title of "Maharaja" on April 12, 1801 (to coincide with Baisakhi day). Lahore served as his capital from 1799. In 1802 he took the city of Amritsar. In the year 1818, Ranjit Singh successfully invaded Kashmir.

Demographics

According to Encyclopædia Britannica, "In the early 21st century the Jat constituted about 20 percent of the population of Punjab, nearly 10 percent of the population of Balochistan, Rajasthan, and Delhi, and from 2 to 5 percent of the populations of Sindh, Northwest Frontier, and Uttar Pradesh. The four million Jat of Pakistan are mainly Muslim; the nearly six million Jat of India are mostly divided into two large castes of about equal strength: one Sikh, concentrated in Punjab, the other Hindu."[47]

Census under the British Raj

The census in 1931 in India recorded population on the basis of ethnicity. In 1925, the population of Jats was around nine million in South Asia, of which 47% were Hindu, 33% Muslim and 20% Sikh.[48]

According to earlier censuses, the Jat people accounted for approximately 25% of the entire Sindhi-Punjabi speaking area, making it the "largest single socially distinctive group" in the region.[49]

The region-wise breakdown of the total Jat people population in 1931 (including Jat Hindus, Jat Sikhs and Jat Muslims) is given in the following table. The Jat people, approximately 73%, were located mainly in the Punjab region.[50][51]

Name of region Jat population 1931 Approx
Percentage
Punjab (British India) 6,068,302 73%
Rajputana 1,043,153 12%
United Provinces of Agra and Oudh 810,114 9.2%
Kashmir and Jammu 148,993 2%
Balochistan 93,726 1.2%
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa 76,327 1%
Bombay Presidency 54,362 0.7%
Delhi 53,271 0.6%
Central Provinces and Berar 28,135 0.3%
Ajmer-Merwara 29,992 0.3%
Total 8,406,375 100%

Post-independence estimates

Dhillon states that by taking population statistical analysis into consideration the Jat population growth of both India and Pakistan since 1925, Quanungo's figure of nine million could be translated into a minimum population statistic (1988) of 30 million.[52]

From 1931 to 1988 the estimated increase in the Jat people population of the Indian subcontinent including Pakistan respectively is 3.5% Hindu, 3.5% Sikh and 4.0% Muslim.[53] Sukhbir Singh estimates that the population of Hindu Jats, numbered at 2,210,945 in the 1931 census, rose to about 7,738,308 by 1988, whereas Muslim Jats, numbered at 3,287,875 in 1931, would have risen to about 13,151,500 in 1988. The total population of Jats was given as 8,406,375 in 1931, and estimated to have been about 31,066,253 in 1988.

Republic of India

Some specific clans of Jat people are classified as Other Backward Castes in some states, e.g.Jats of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi,[54][55][56] Muslim Jats in Gujarat[57] and Mirdha Jat people (except Jat Muslims) in Madhya Pradesh.[58]

Land reforms, particularly the abolition of Jagirdari and Zamindari systems, Panchayati Raj and Green Revolution, to which Jat people have been major contributors, have contributed to the economic betterment of the Jat people.[original research?]

The Jat people are one of the most prosperous groups in India on a per-capita basis. (Haryana, Punjab, and Gujarat are the wealthiest of Indian states). Haryana has the largest number of rural crorepatis in India,[59]

In the 20th century and more recently, Jats have dominated as the political class in Haryana.[60] and Punjab.[61]

Some Jat people have become notable political leaders, including the sixth Prime Minister of India, Prime Minister Chaudhary Charan Singh.

Adult franchise has created enormous social and political awakening among Jat people. Consolidation of economic gains and participation in the electoral process are two visible outcomes of the post-independence situation. Through this participation they have been able to significantly influence the politics of North India. Economic differentiation, migration and mobility could be clearly noticed amongst the Jat people.[62]

Pakistan

See also: Jats of Azad Kashmir and Muslim Jat of Punjab

A large number of the Jat Muslim people live in Pakistan[50] and have dominant roles in public life in the Pakistani Punjab and Pakistan in general.[48][52] In addition to the Punjab, Jat communities are also found in Pakistani-administered Kashmir, in Sindh, particularly the Indus delta and among Seraiki-speaking communities in southern Pakistani Punjab, the Kachhi region of Balochistan and the Dera Ismail Khan District of the North West Frontier Province.

North American diaspora communities

The Association of Jats of America (AJATA) is an organisation which serves as a forum and lobby for Jat people in North America.[63] The North American Jat Charities (NAJC) is one of the main charities for Jat people in that area.[64]

Culture and society

The life and culture of Jats is full of diversity and approaches most closely to that ascribed to the traditional Central Asian colonists of South Asia.[48][65] Jat people became tillers of soil.[48] They are fiercely independent in character and value their self respect more than anything, which is why they offered heavy resistance against any foreign force that treated them unjustly.[48] In the government of their villages, they appear much more democratic. They have less reverence for hereditary right and a preference for elected headmen.[48]

Military

14th Murrays Jat Lancers (Risaldar Major) by AC Lovett (1862-1919).jpg

A large number of Jat people serve in the Indian Army, including the Jat Regiment, Sikh Regiment, Rajputana Rifles and the Grenadiers, where they have won many of the highest military awards for gallantry and bravery. Jat people also serve in the Pakistan Army especially in the Punjab Regiment, where they have also been highly decorated. The Jat Regiment is an infantry regiment of the Indian Army, it is one of the longest serving and most decorated regiments of the Indian Army.[66] The regiment won 19 battle honours between 1839 and 1947[67] and post independence 5 battle honours, eight Mahavir Chakra, eight Kirti Chakra, 32 Shaurya Chakra, 39 Vir Chakra and 170 Sena Medals.[66] Major Hoshiar Singh of Rohtak won the Param Vir Chakra during Indo-Pak war of 1971. Rohtak district in Haryana.

The Jat people were designated by British officials as a "martial race", a designation created by officials of British India . The British recruited heavily from these martial races for service in the colonial army.[68]

Religion

In 1925, the population of the Jat people was around nine million in British India, made up of followers of three major religions: Hinduism (47%), Islam (33%) and Sikhism (20%).[48] During the early 1900s, four million Jats of present-day Pakistan were mainly Muslims by faith and the nearly six million Jats of present-day India were mostly divided into two large groups: Hindus concentrated in Haryana and Rajasthan and Sikhs, concentrated in Punjab.

Most Sikh Jats were converted from Hindu Jats[69][70] so they would join forces with the Khalsa to fight against the Mughal monarchy.

Social customs

Main article: Social customs of Jat people

Clan system

See also: Jat clan system and Gotras of Jats

The Jat people have always organized themselves into hundreds of patrilineage clans, Panchayat system or Khap. A clan was based on one small gotra or a number of related gotras under one elected leader whose word was law.[71]

In addition to the conventional Sarva Khap Panchayat, there are regional Jat Mahasabhas affiliated to the All India Jat Mahasabha to organize and safeguard the interests of the community, which held its meeting at regional and national levels to take stock of their activities and devise practical ways and means for the amelioration of the community.[72]

Some of the Jat clan names overlap with other groups.[73] Jat clans have been compiled by several historians, such as Ompal Singh Tugania,[74] Bhaleram Beniwal.[75][76] and Mahendra Singh Arya.[77] These lists have more than 2700 Jat gotras. Thakur Deshraj and Dilip Singh Ahlawat have mentioned history of some of Jat gotras.

See also

Footnotes

  1. ^ "Glossary: Jat: title of north India's major non-elite 'peasant' caste."[1]
  2. ^ "... in the middle decades of the (nineteenth) century, there were two contrasting trends in India's agrarian regions. Previously marginal areas took off as zones of newly profitable 'peasant' agriculture, disadvantaging non-elite tilling groups, who were known by such titles as Jat in western NWP and Gounder in Coimatore."[2]
  3. ^ "In the later nineteenth century, this thinking led colonial officials to try to protect Sikh Jats and other non-elite 'peasants' whom they now favoured as military recruits by advocating legislation under the so-called land alienation."[3]
  4. ^ According to Susan Bayly, "... (North India) contained large numbers of non-elite tillers. In the Punjab and the western Gangetic Plains, convention defined the Rajput's non-elite counterpart as a Jat. Like many similar titles used elsewhere, this was not so much a caste name as a broad designation for the man of substance in rural terrain. ... To be called Jat has in some regions implied a background of pastoralism, though it has more commonly been a designation of non-servile cultivating people."[13]

Citations

  1. ^ Bayly, Susan (2001). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age. Cambridge University Press. p. 385. ISBN 978-0-521-79842-6. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  2. ^ Bayly, Susan (2001). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age. Cambridge University Press. p. 201. ISBN 978-0-521-79842-6. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  3. ^ Bayly, Susan (2001). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age. Cambridge University Press. p. 212. ISBN 978-0-521-79842-6. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Asher, Catherine Ella Blanshard; Talbot, Cynthia (2006). India before Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 269. ISBN 978-0-521-80904-7. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
  5. ^ Catherine Ella Blanshard Asher; Cynthia Talbot (2006). India before Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 265. ISBN 978-0-521-80904-7.
  6. ^ Karine Schomer and W. H. McLeod, ed. (1987). The Sants: studies in a devotional tradition of India. Motilal Banarsidass Publ. p. 242. ISBN 978-81-208-0277-3.
  7. ^ The Gazetteer of India: History and culture. Publications Division, Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. 1973. p. 348. OCLC 186583361.
  8. ^ Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas (1962). Caste in modern India: and other essays. Asia Pub. House. p. 90. OCLC 185987598.
  9. ^ Sheel Chand Nuna (1 January 1989). Spatial fragmentation of political behaviour in India: a geographical perspective on parliamentary elections. Concept Publishing Company. pp. 61–. ISBN 978-81-7022-285-9. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
  10. ^ Lloyd I. Rudolph; Susanne Hoeber Rudolph (1984). The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India. University of Chicago Press. pp. 86–. ISBN 978-0-226-73137-7. Retrieved 20 January 2012.
  11. ^ Encyclopedia of medical anthropology. Springer. 2004. p. 778. ISBN 978-0-306-47754-6. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |ediors= ignored (help)
  12. ^ Sunil K. Khanna (2009). Fetal/fatal knowledge: new reproductive technologies and family-building strategies in India. Cengage Learning. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-495-09525-5.
  13. ^ Bayly, Susan (2001). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age. Cambridge University Press. p. 37. ISBN 978-0-521-79842-6. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  14. ^ Mayaram, Shail (2003), Against history, against state: counterperspectives from the margins, Columbia University Press, p. 19, ISBN 978-0-231-12730-1, retrieved 12 November 2011
  15. ^ Jackson, Peter (2003), The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History, Cambridge University Press, p. 15, ISBN 978-0-521-54329-3, retrieved 13 November 2011 Quote: "... Nor can the liberation that the Muslim conquerors offered to those who sought to escape from the caste system be taken for granted. ... a caliphal governor of Sind in the late 830s is said to have ... (continued the previous Hindu requirement that) ... the Jats, when walking out of doors in future, to be accompanied by a dog. The fact that the dog is an unclean animal to both Hindu and Muslim made it easy for the Muslim conquerors to retain the status quo regarding a low-caste tribe. In other words, the new regime in the eighth and ninth centuries did not abrogate discriminatory regulations dating from a period of Hindu sovereignty; rather, it maintained them. (page 15)"
  16. ^ Grewal, J. S. (1998), The Sikhs of the Punjab, Cambridge University Press, p. 5, ISBN 978-0-521-63764-0, retrieved 12 November 2011 Quote: "... the most numerous of the agricultural tribes (in the Punjab) were the Jats. They had come from Sindh and Rajasthan along the river valleys, moving up, displacing the Gujjars and the Rajputs to occupy culturable lands. (page 5)"
  17. ^ Ludden, David E. (1999), An agrarian history of South Asia, Cambridge University Press, p. 117, ISBN 978-0-521-36424-9, retrieved 12 November 2011 Quote: "The flatlands in the upper Punjab doabs do not seem to have been heavily farmed in the first millennium. ... Early-medieval dry farming developed in Sindh, around Multan, and in Rajasthan, ... From here, Jat farmers seem to have moved into the upper Punjab doabs and into the western Ganga basin in the first half of the second millennium. (page 117)"
  18. ^ Ansari, Sarah F. D. (1992). Sufi saints and state power: the pirs of Sind, 1843-1947. Cambridge University Press. p. 27. ISBN 978-0-521-40530-0. Retrieved 30 October 2011. Quote: "Between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries, groups of nomadic pastoralists known as Jats, having worked their way northwards from Sind, settled in the Panjab as peasant agriculturalists and, largely on account of the introduction of the Persian wheel, transformed much of western Panjab into a rich producer of food crops. (page 27)"
  19. ^ Mayaram, Shail (2003), Against history, against state: counterperspectives from the margins, Columbia University Press, p. 33, ISBN 978-0-231-12730-1, retrieved 12 November 2011
  20. ^ a b c Asher, Catherine Ella Blanshard; Talbot, Cynthia (2006). India before Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 270. ISBN 978-0-521-80904-7. Retrieved 29 October 2011.
  21. ^ a b c Bayly, Susan (2001), Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age, Cambridge University Press, p. 41, ISBN 978-0-521-79842-6, retrieved 1 August 2011
  22. ^ Metcalf, Barbara Daly; Metcalf, Thomas R. (2006). A concise history of modern India. Cambridge University Press. p. 23. ISBN 978-0-521-86362-9. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  23. ^ a b Asher, Catherine; Talbot, Cynthia (2006). India before Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 271. ISBN 978-0-521-80904-7. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  24. ^ a b c d e Asher, Catherine; Talbot, Cynthia (2006). India before Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 272. ISBN 978-0-521-80904-7. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  25. ^ Metcalf, Barbara Daly; Metcalf, Thomas R. (2006). A concise history of modern India. Cambridge University Press. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-521-86362-9. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  26. ^ Bayly, C. A. (1988). Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770-1870. CUP Archive. p. 20. ISBN 978-0-521-31054-3. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  27. ^ a b c d e Bayly, C. A. (1988). Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of British Expansion, 1770-1870. CUP Archive. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-521-31054-3. Retrieved 15 October 2011.
  28. ^ a b Metcalf, Barbara Daly; Metcalf, Thomas R. (2006). A concise history of modern India. Cambridge University Press. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-521-86362-9. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  29. ^ Stokes, Eric (1980). The Peasant and the Raj: Studies in Agrarian Society and Peasant Rebellion in Colonial India. Cambridge University Press Archive. p. 69. ISBN 978-0-521-29770-7. Retrieved 24 October 2011.
  30. ^ Life and Times of Raja Mahendra Pratap, Ed by Dr Vier Singh, Delhi 2005, ISBN 81-88629-32-4, p.44
  31. ^ Dr Vir Singh: My Life Story 1886-1979: Raja Mahendra Pratap Vol. 1, 1886-1941. 2004
  32. ^ Thakur Deshraj:Jat Itihas, p. 563-568
  33. ^ Thorton p. 68-69
  34. ^ Dr Natthan Singh (2004) : Jat-Itihas, p. 359
  35. ^ An Historical Sketch of the Native States of India’, by Col. G B Malleson. Facsimile reprint published by The Academic Press, Gurgaon, 1984.
  36. ^ V.S.Krishnan:Madhya Pradesh District Gazetteer, Gwalior
  37. ^ ‘Gohad ke jaton ka Itihas’, Dr. Ajay Kumar Agnihotri, Nav Sahitya Bhawan. (New Delhi, Delhi. 1985), p. 29
  38. ^ Dr Natthan Singh (2004) : Jat-Itihas, p. 360
  39. ^ Prakash Chandra Chandawat: Maharaja Suraj Mal aur unka yug, Jaypal Agencies Agra, 1982, Pages 197–200
  40. ^ a b Singh, Bhagat (1993). A History of Sikh Misals. Patiala: Punjabi University. p. 130.
  41. ^ Patiala Heritage Society. "Reference to Sikh State". Patialaheritage.in. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
  42. ^ "Reference to Sikh States". Patiala.nic.in. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
  43. ^ a b c History of the Jatt Clans — H.S. Duleh.
  44. ^ Indian states: a biographical ... - Google Books
  45. ^ The Golden Book of India: A ... - Google Books
  46. ^ Sir Lepel Griffin, Punjab Chiefs, Vol. 1, p 219 "...and from Sansi the Sindhanwalias and the Sansis have a common descent. The Sansis were the theivish and degraded tribe [sic] and the house of Sindhanwalia naturally feeling ashamed of its Sansi name invented a romantic story to account for it. But the relationship between the nobles and the beggars, does not seem the less certain and if history of Maharaja Ranjit Singh[disambiguation needed] is attentively considered it will appear that much his policy and many of his actions had the true Sansi complexion"
  47. ^ Britannica, Encyclopedia. "Jat (caste)". Encyclopædia Britannica. p. 1. Retrieved 22 November 2010. {{cite web}}: Check |archiveurl= value (help)
  48. ^ a b c d e f g Kalika Ranjan Qanungo: History of the Jats, Delhi 2003. Edited and annotated by Vir Singh
  49. ^ The People of Asia by Gordon T. Bowles. Weidenfeld and Nicolson, London. 1977, p. 158.
  50. ^ a b Pawar, Hukum Singh (1993). The Jats — Their Origin, Antiquity and Migration. ISBN [[Special:BookSources/81-85253-22-8 |81-85253-22-8 [[Category:Articles with invalid ISBNs]]]]. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: invalid character (help)
  51. ^ Census of India 1931, Vol. I, Pt. 2; Delhi: 1933. Encl. Brit. Vol. 12, 1968 Jats, p. 969
  52. ^ a b Dhillon, B. S. (1994). History and study of the Jats. Beta Publishers. ISBN 1-895603-02-1.
  53. ^ Sukhbir Singh q. in "Suraj Sujan", August, September and October Issues, 1990, Maharaja Suraj Mal Sansthan
  54. ^ Sheila puts Delhi Jats on OBC list
  55. ^ So why are the Gujjars hungry for the ST pie?
  56. ^ Political process in Uttar Pradesh: identity, economic reforms, and governance By Sudha Pai, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Centre for Political Studies
  57. ^ "Central List Of Other Backward Classes: Gujarat". National Commission for Backward Classes. Retrieved 2007-06-24.
  58. ^ "Central List Of Other Backward Classes: Madhya Pradesh". National Commission for Backward Classes. Retrieved 2007-06-24.
  59. ^ "Poor rural India? It's a richer place". International Herald Tribune.
  60. ^ Book by Ghansyam Shah on cast and politics , Google book store
  61. ^ History of Punjab politics: Jats do it!
  62. ^ K L Sharma:The Jats — Their Role and Contribution to the Socio-Economic Life and Polity of North and North West India, Vol.I, 2004. Ed. by Vir Singh, page 14
  63. ^ "Association of Jats of America". AJATA. Retrieved 2009-08-09.
  64. ^ "About". North American Jat Charities.
  65. ^ Jindal, Mangal sen (1992). History of Origin of Some Clans in India. Sarup & Sons. pp. 17, 36. ISBN 81-85431-08-6.
  66. ^ a b Army's Jat Regiment Best Marching Contingent in Republic Day 2007 Parade | India Defence
  67. ^ BHARAT RAKSHAK MONITOR: Volume 3(4)
  68. ^ H A Rose, Glossary of the tribes and castes of the Punjab and NWFP
  69. ^ The transformation of Sikh society — Page 92 by Ethne K. Marenco - The gazetteer also describes the relation of the Jat Sikhs to the Jat Hindus ...to 2019 in 1911 is attributed to the conversion of Jat Hindus to Sikhism. ...
  70. ^ Social philosophy and social transformation of Sikhs by R. N. Singh (Ph. D.) Page 130 - The decrease of Jat Hindus from 16843 in 1881 to 2019 in 1911 is attributed to the conversion of Jat Hindus to Sikhism. ...
  71. ^ Maheswari Prasad:The Jats — Their role & contribution to the socio-economic life and polity of North & North-West India, Vol.I Ed. Vir Singh, ISBN 81-88629-17-0, p.27
  72. ^ B.K. Nagla, "Jats of Haryana: A sociplogical Analysis", The Jats, Vol. II, Ed. Vir Singh, p.308
  73. ^ J. A. Marshall, Guide to Taxila, Cambridge University Press, London, 1960, pp. 24.
  74. ^ Ompal Singh Tugania: Jat samudāy ke pramukh Ādhār bindu, Jaypal Agencies, Agra 2004
  75. ^ Bhaleram Beniwal: Jāton kā Ādikālīn Itihāsa, Jaypal Agencies, Agra 2005.
  76. ^ Bhaleram Beniwal: Jāt Yodhaon ke Balidān, Jaypal Agencies, Agra 2005
  77. ^ Mahendra Singh Arya, Dharmpal Singh Dudi, Kishan Singh Faujdar & Vijendra Singh Narwar: Ādhunik Jat Itihasa (The modern history of Jats), Agra 1998

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Jat people.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jats&oldid=514482788"