Jats
The Jat people, also spelt Jaat and Jatt, are a traditionally agricultural caste in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, many 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. Of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh faiths, they are now found mostly in the Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and the Pakistani regions of Sindh, Punjab and AJK.
By the 20th century, the landowning Jats became an influential group in several parts of North India, including Punjab, Western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi. 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.
Origin and etymology
The Indo-Aryan term Jat descends from the Prakrit form Jaṭṭa, itself from Jarta or Jartika, the name of a tribe stated in antiquity as residing in Bahlika. The first mention of Jats are in an inscription found in modern Gilgit Baltistan, dated to the 6th or 7th century, which records some Jats as having passed through the area.Historically, the term 'Jat' was loosely applied to various tribes, especially in West Punjab and Sindh. In Sindh, the romanised term 'Jat' could be used as a transliteration for Jat, or to refer to a member of the "Jath" community. It is also sometimes used pejoratively to refer to a peasant. In Punjab, especially from the Mughal era onwards, the term "Jat" was also used more as a socioeconomic status than an ethnic label, and they were often associated with the peasantry.
The Arabic term "Zutt" is derived from Jat, and referred generally to most of the tribes found in Arab Sind, including tribes who were not necessarily Jat, such as the Qufs, Andaghars, and Sayabijas. The term "Jadgal" is also derived from Jat, and was used by the Baloch to refer to the Indic tribes living amongst them.
History
The Jats are a paradigmatic example of community identity formation in the early modern Indian subcontinent. "Jat" is an elastic label applied to a wide-ranging community from simple landowning peasants to wealthy and influential Zamindars.By the time of Muhammad bin Qasim's conquest of Sind in the eighth century, Arab writers described agglomerations of Jats, known to them as Zutt, in the arid, the wet, and the mountainous regions of the conquered land of Sindh. Several medieval Muslim chronicles such as the Chach Nama, Tarikh-I-Baihaqi and Zainul-Akhbar have recorded battles between Jats and forces of Muhammad ibn al-Qasim, at the Battle of Aror, the united forces of Dahir of Aror and the eastern Jats jointly fought against Muhammad ibn al-Qasim. The Arab rulers, though professing a theologically egalitarian religion, maintained the position of Jats and the discriminatory practices against them that had been put in place in the long period of Hindu rule in Sind. Between the eleventh and the sixteenth centuries, Jat herders at the Sind migrated up along the river valleys, into the Punjab, which may have been largely uncultivated in the first millennium. Many took up tilling in regions such as western Punjab, where the sakia had been recently introduced. By early Mughal times, in the Punjab, the term "Jat" had become loosely synonymous with "peasant", and some Jats had come to own land and exert local influence. The Jats had their origins in pastoralism in the Indus valley, and gradually became agriculturalist farmers. Around 1595, Jat Zamindars controlled a little over 32% of the Zamindaris in the Punjab region.
According to historians Catherine Asher and Cynthia Talbot, Over time the Jats became primarily Muslim in the western Punjab, Sikh in the eastern Punjab, and Hindu in the areas between Delhi Territory and Agra, with the divisions by faith reflecting the geographical strengths of these religions.
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. Many new rulers of the 18th century came from such martial and nomadic backgrounds. The effect of this interaction on India's social organisation 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. During the heyday of Mughal rule, Jats had recognised rights. According to Barbara D. Metcalf and Thomas R. Metcalf:
As the Mughal empire faltered, there were a series of rural rebellions in North India. Although these had sometimes been characterised as "peasant rebellions", others, such as Muzaffar Alam, have pointed out that small local landholders, or zemindars, often led these uprisings. 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.
These communities of rising peasant-warriors were not well-established Indian castes, 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. The Mughal Empire, even at the zenith of its power, functioned by devolving authority and never had direct control over its rural grandees. It was these zemindars who gained most from these rebellions, increasing the land under their control. The triumphant even attained the ranks of minor princes, such as the Jat ruler Badan Singh of the princely state of Bharatpur.
Hindu Jats
Starting in the 10th century, Jat chiefs established semi-autonomous states in historical Jangladesh, with the most powerful clans being the Poonias, Godaras, Sarans, Asiaghs, Beniwals, and Johiyas, among others. In the 15th century, the Rathore Rajputs exploited the rivalry between the clans and conquered the region, establishing the Bikaner State. The Jat chiefs were forced to recognise the suzerainty of the Rathores, although some, particularly the Godara Jats who had previously allied with the forces of Rao Bika, were given certain privileges under the Bikaner realm.In 1505, the Bamraulia Jats migrated and settled in the trans-Chambal tract, laying the foundations for the Kingdom of Gohad. The Jats of Gohad briefly captured and held the Gwalior fort, before losing it to the Marathas. In 1805, the last ruler of Gohad, Rana Kirat Singh, as part of an arrangement made with the British East India Company, established the Dholpur State.
In 1669, the Hindu Jats, under the leadership of Gokula, rebelled against the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb in Mathura. The community came to predominate south and east of Delhi after 1710. According to historian Christopher Bayly
The Jats had moved into the Gangetic Plain in two large migrations, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries respectively. 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. According to Christopher Bayly:
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 Deeg. According to historian, Eric Stokes,
Leading up to the partition of India, Hindu Jats, alongside other Hindu castes, would take up arms and organise into Dhars, aiming to eliminate Muslim influence in the Mewat region. The forces of nearby Hindu princely states, including the Hindu Jat-ruled Bharatpur State, would support rioting Hindus in expelling the Meos and other regional Muslims. After the partition, Hindu Jats continued to play a dominant role in the politics of Haryana.
Muslim Jats
The Jats were one of the first communities in the Indian subcontinent to interact with the Muslims. They were known to the Arabs as the Zutt, although this term also referred to several other groups found along the Indus River. The Arab conquerors noted several important concentrations of Zutts in the towns and fortresses across Central and Lower Sind.Between the 11th and 16th centuries, some Sindhi Jats migrated into Punjab. Several clans have traditions of converting to Islam during this period, claiming to be influenced by Sufi saints. The conversion process was gradual. André Wink writes: By the 16th century, many of the Punjabi clans west of the Ravi River had converted. However, even after conversion, some Muslim Jats continued to challenge imperial Muslim powers such as the Timurids, Mughals, and Surs. Others chose to cooperate with the Muslim rulers instead, leading to prominent Jat figures such as Grand Vizier Saadullah Khan, and Faujdar Rahmat Khan Bajwa.
As the Mughals declined, various groups fought to fill the power vacuum, including some ambitious Muslim Jat chiefs and princes. The Rohilla Nawabs founded the Kingdom of Rohilkhand and Rampur State. A descendant of Saadullah Khan, Muzaffar Jang Hidayat, briefly became the third Nizam of Hyderabad. And several smaller polities competed with each other on a local level, such as the Pakpattan and Chattha states who fought the rising Sikh Misls in Punjab.
With the establishment of the British Raj, all formerly independent or autonomous polities were either annexed or integrated into the colonial empire as princely states. When the British left and the Subcontinent was partitioned, many Muslim Jats migrated to the newly formed Pakistan. However, some remained in India, where they are known as Muley Jats.