Jats
Jaat is a community of traditionally non elite peasants[a][b][c] in northern India and Pakistan.
History
Jats had its origins in pastoralism in the lower Indus valley of Sindh until they were forced northwards due to the Islamic conquests.[4]
- "... (North India) contained large numbers of non-elite tillers.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".[5]
Many 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.[69].
Distribution
Jaats inhabited throughout the Punjab region, Sindh and some other northwestern parts of Subcontinent.[source?]
Jats Media
Jat Zamindars Hindoos Rajpootana 1874
Jat Sikh of the "Sindhoo" clan, Lahore, 1872
The Hindu Jat Maharaja of Bharatpur, 1882
A Jutt (Jat) Muslim camel-driver from Sind, 1872
The Sikh Jat Maharaja of Patiala, 1898
14th Murrays Jat Lancers (Risaldar Major) by AC Lovett (1862–1919).jpg
A contingent of the Jat Regiment of Indian Army, during the Republic day parade
_by_AC_Lovett_(1862-1919).jpg)
References
- ↑ "Glossary: Jat: title of north India's major non-elite 'peasant' caste."[1]
- ↑ "... 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]
- ↑ "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]
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ Asher, Catherine B.; Talbot, Cynthia (2006). India Before Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 270. ISBN 0-521-80904-5.
- ↑ 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.
Further reading
- Census Of India 1911 Volume XIV Punjab Part 2 by Pandit Narikishan Kaul
- 'A glossary of the tribes and castes of the Punjab and North West Frontier Province' by H.A. Rose, Page 354, published in 1919.