ravichaudhary
February 13th, 2003, 09:27 PM
I am going to post her articles as separte topics. there is enough material to discuss.
What wish do about it, can I suggest, stay on the Jat bashing topic, unless someone has a better idea
Forming an identity
By Nonica Datta
WHAT does the term Jat mean or convey? Who are they and where did
they come from? For one, they live in Punjab, Rajputana and on the
banks of the Yamuna and the Ganges. They seem to have first appeared
during the seventh century in Sind, gradually moved into Punjab and
the Yamuna valley, and then settled in the Indo-Gangetic plains.
Early historical accounts of Sind indicate that the term Jat was
popularly applied to a `servile creature' tied to his qaum. The
Brahuis, Afghans and Persians resented this group which eked a poor
living out of agriculture and moved about the barren plains tending
and breeding camels. Early eighteenth-century accounts described the
non-Sikh Jats, who were dominant in the regions south and east of
Delhi after 1710, as `plunderers and bandits preying on the imperial
lines of communication'. They gained notoriety for attacking the
caravans on the important Delhi-Multan route passing through Mahim
(Meham), Jhajjar, Hansi, Sirsa, Hissar and Panipat, the qasbahs on
the fringes of their hinterland. Around the same time, they were
involved in colonising lands around the banks of the Yamuna river and
were gradually transformed into a wider category of warrior-
cultivators and semi-pastoralists. Clearly, they were not a rigid
caste, but a socially inclusive group with a remarkable capacity to
incorporate `pioneer peasant castes, miscellaneous military
adventurers and groups living on the fringes of settled agriculture'.
Geographically, the Jats were separated by the Yamuna river into two
groups. One of them, lived on the western side of the river Yamuna in
the area traditionally known as Hariana, famous for its cattle and
pasturage. It included the regions of Hissar and Rohtak.
The name has an ancient connotation. According to one version, Paras
Ram (incarnate of Harri) had killed the Chattris in a village called
Ramridth, four kos (miles) west of Jind, on twenty-one occasions.
Harri in Shastri (Sanskrit), means slain, and ana assembly. Hence the
name Hariana. Another view is the Hariana was named after Raja Hari
Chand. Some have even pointed out that the name is derived from a
wild wood called harriaban. Although Rajputs, Brahmans, Jats, Gujars,
Bakkals, Afghans and the Syeds lived in the region for centuries, the
popular Jat claim has been that Hariana, formerly a green forest, was
peopled and later brought under cultivation by their ancestors from
Bagar (Bikaner). According to them, Hariana was a Jat country.
Hissar, Rohtak, Gurgaon and Panipat, with their bhaiachara (co-
sharing) tenures and the khudkasht (peasant-proprietor), were part of
the Jatiyar or Jatiyat the country of the Jats. Here lived the
Deswali or Hele and the Dhe or Pachchade Jats. The Deswali claimed to
be the descendants of the `original' Jats settled in India about a
thousand years ago, while the Dhe were late arrivals who extended
their sphere of influence following the disintegration of the Mughal
Empire. In Rohtak, situated on the right bank of the Yamuna river,
the Deswali Jats appear to have settled some seven or eight hundred
years ago while the Dhe Jats, probably the descendants of immigrants
from Bagar, a tract just beyond the border of Bikaner, moved into the
western parts of the Hissar district around 1783 and took up the
lands abandoned after the terrible Chalisa famine of that year. Some
of them came from Bikaner and Nabha in the early nineteenth century.
The areas adjoining Bikaner and to the west of Bhiwani, such as
Hissar and Fatehabad, were called Bagar, a term meaning `dry country'
in common parlance. Those living in the region were descendants of
the itinerant Bagri Jats and the Bishnois.
The term Bagri was applied to a Hindu Rajput or Jat from the Bagar
region. According to local traditions, it was a corrupted form of
Nagri who claimed to be Chauhan Rajputs. The Godars and Punias, too,
considered themselves to be Bagri Jats. In general, they were neither
permanent settlers nor attached to the land which they abandoned in
seasons of drought. They kept camels for ploughing in favourable
seasons and for carrying goods to more secure parts during hard
times. The Bishnois were mainly Jats or carpenters who, having
discarded their caste names, called themselves Bishnois. They were
mobile armed groups who brought with them their own distinctive
cultures and infused dynamism in the areas they inhabited. While the
Bagri Jats forged cultural links and matrimonial alliances with the
Jats living in Rajasthan beyond the desert, the Deswali Jats did the
same with their counterparts in western UP living on the other side
of the Yamuna river. There were some Muslim Jats as well. They were
called `Mula' or `Mule' a few of whom were found in Rohtak. In the
Delhi territory, the term `Mula'/ `Mule', was applied to the Muslim
converts from the Jat caste only, frequently being used for those
whose `ancestors were forcibly circumcised by the Emperors, and not
converted by persuasion'. They called themselves Sheikhs. They
intermarried and smoked with the Hindu Jats.
The relationship of the Jats with the other groups was defined
through their got (clan) — an exogamous kin-group. The Deswalis were
members of twelve different gots which were further divided into at
least 137 sub-clans. Locally, they were organised under the tappa
system, a territorial and not a kinship grouping. The tappa was
controlled by the dominant landholding Jat clan group in a given area.
The Jat clans had different versions of territoriality denoting a
segmented lineage. Among the main clans in Rohtak, the stronghold of
the Ghatwalas (Maliks) was at Ahulana in the Gohana tahsil of the
district. The Dagars lived in Delhi and Gurgaon, while the Dahiyas
inhabited the northeastern border of Sampla and the adjoining portion
of the Sonepat tahsil in Rohtak and Delhi. The Rathi Jats were
concentrated in Gurgaon, Delhi and Rohtak, the Golias in Rohtak and
Karnal. They were indistinguishable from Gwalas and Ahirs in some
areas. The Dalals lived in the adjoining territory of Delhi, Hissar
and Jind. The Deswals were more numerous in Rohtak, Gurgaon and
Karnal; the Dhankars in Jhajjar (Rohtak); the Phogats in Jind and the
neighbouring areas of Gurgaon and Rohtak; and the Sangwans in Jind,
Hissar and Rohtak. The Bahniwals, who were settled mostly in the
Hissar division, moved up to the Lower Sutlej in Montgomery and
claimed to be Bhatti Rajputs. The Pawania, a clan from Hissar,
settled in Rohtak, Sirsa and Jind. The Nains, having lived in
Patiala, moved into Hissar and Delhi.
An important feature of Jat society in pre-colonial Hariana was the
absence of a political authority or a monarchical form. This was not
so in the case of either the Jat state of Bharatpur in the south or
the Sikh states of Jind and Patiala in the north. Generally speaking,
the Harianavi Jats, with their distaste for headmen and chiefs, had
their villages managed by their panch, a committee of elders (heads
of families). Hierarchy and dominance were shaped by the clans which
were, nonetheless, at loggerheads with one another. This also meant
that some gots wielded power and controlled economic resources, while
the less-privileged sections had to eke out a living in areas which
were not always conducive to agricultural production. In the long
run, this led to social and economic tensions within the Jat
community. For example, the Dahiyas were jealous of the Ghatwalas who
had access to water supply and better irrigation facilities. The
Bagri Jats, too, resented the prosperity that came the way of the
Deswali Jats.
During the eighteenth century, the Jats, like the rest of the mobile
pastoral and peasant groups in north India, formed armed roving
bands. This started with the rise of the Bharatpur kingdom which
introduced the Jats to military culture. During the rule of Begum
Samru, they were inducted into her irregular armies. George Thomas
recruited about 5000-6000 men into his army, including the Jats, paid
pensions to them and encouraged them to settle in Hariana. The
colonisation of land through pensions to sipahis contributed to
Hariana becoming a stable military labour market in the 1790s.
Eventually, Thomas raised an army of eight battalions of infantry
comprising 6000 men, fifty pieces of cannon, 1000 cavalry, and 1500
Rohillas along with 2000 men incharge of his different forts.
A new social order
The strengthening of the Brahman literati and the Banias, along with
the emergence of the Jats as sepoys and agriculturists, led to the
creation of a new social order in southeast Punjab. This had serious
implications. For one, the increasing hierarchical social order
resulted in serious tensions between the Jats, who were placed lower
down the caste hierarchy, and the upper castes. The Jat headmen and
their powerful allies began to challenge the dominance of Brahmans
and tried to scale the caste hierarchy through a conscious and
organised endeavour. They were in a much stronger position to do so
because of their landholdings, their key role in the village-based
economy, and their representation in the army.
The emergence of Jat identity needs to be related to the wider
changes in nineteenth century society: the decline of the warrior
culture, the rise of village-based peasant economy, the neutral
position of the East India Company towards the local peasant-pastoral
culture and the interrelated diminution of syncretic traditions.
Though the population of Rohtak-Hissar was predominantly rural, new
towns mushroomed by early twentieth century and old towns began
losing much of their importance. Hissar, an old prominent Muslim
qasbah and fortified town, became less important while Rohtak emerged
as an important market and recruiting centre. Strategically located
on the Delhi-Multan route, Hansi, Panipat, Mahim, Narnaul, Sirsa and
Jhajjar also diminished in importance as trading and sufi centres,
particularly due to the reduction of caravan trade after the 1760s.
Bhiwani, a town founded by the British, was gradually transformed
from an insignificant village to a `free market' in 1817. Thus, many
old cultural centres turned into mandis (market towns).
By the late nineteenth century a new culture pattern emerged in
southeast Punjab. The Jats emerged as a dominant economic group
simultaneous with the decline of the nawabi and the old Islamic
pastoralist culture. In Rohtak, the Hindus constituted 80 per cent of
the population by the early part of the twentieth century; the Hindu
Jats were about a third. In the mid-1880s, out of 511 estates in the
district, the Jats held about 366. By 1931, the Maliks numbered
20,000 males out of the total Jat male population of 142,764, owning
22 villages, while the Dahiyas, numbering about 20,000 males, held 16
villages. In the creation of Jat identity in southeast Punjab, these
two clans played a significant role initially. Later, many other
clans began playing their part in accelerating the process of Jat
identity formation. But despite the fact that the warrior culture had
been on the decline since the 1820s and community boundaries were
being more clearly defined thereafter as a result of the disruption
of a pluralist culture, the crystallisation of a self-conscious Jat
identity took place after 1880 and, more significantly, in the
context of the Arya Samaj movement.
(Excerpted from Forming an Identity: A Social History of the
Jats.Oxford University Press, Delhi).
The Tribune (Saturday Plus)
Saturday, July 3, 1999
What wish do about it, can I suggest, stay on the Jat bashing topic, unless someone has a better idea
Forming an identity
By Nonica Datta
WHAT does the term Jat mean or convey? Who are they and where did
they come from? For one, they live in Punjab, Rajputana and on the
banks of the Yamuna and the Ganges. They seem to have first appeared
during the seventh century in Sind, gradually moved into Punjab and
the Yamuna valley, and then settled in the Indo-Gangetic plains.
Early historical accounts of Sind indicate that the term Jat was
popularly applied to a `servile creature' tied to his qaum. The
Brahuis, Afghans and Persians resented this group which eked a poor
living out of agriculture and moved about the barren plains tending
and breeding camels. Early eighteenth-century accounts described the
non-Sikh Jats, who were dominant in the regions south and east of
Delhi after 1710, as `plunderers and bandits preying on the imperial
lines of communication'. They gained notoriety for attacking the
caravans on the important Delhi-Multan route passing through Mahim
(Meham), Jhajjar, Hansi, Sirsa, Hissar and Panipat, the qasbahs on
the fringes of their hinterland. Around the same time, they were
involved in colonising lands around the banks of the Yamuna river and
were gradually transformed into a wider category of warrior-
cultivators and semi-pastoralists. Clearly, they were not a rigid
caste, but a socially inclusive group with a remarkable capacity to
incorporate `pioneer peasant castes, miscellaneous military
adventurers and groups living on the fringes of settled agriculture'.
Geographically, the Jats were separated by the Yamuna river into two
groups. One of them, lived on the western side of the river Yamuna in
the area traditionally known as Hariana, famous for its cattle and
pasturage. It included the regions of Hissar and Rohtak.
The name has an ancient connotation. According to one version, Paras
Ram (incarnate of Harri) had killed the Chattris in a village called
Ramridth, four kos (miles) west of Jind, on twenty-one occasions.
Harri in Shastri (Sanskrit), means slain, and ana assembly. Hence the
name Hariana. Another view is the Hariana was named after Raja Hari
Chand. Some have even pointed out that the name is derived from a
wild wood called harriaban. Although Rajputs, Brahmans, Jats, Gujars,
Bakkals, Afghans and the Syeds lived in the region for centuries, the
popular Jat claim has been that Hariana, formerly a green forest, was
peopled and later brought under cultivation by their ancestors from
Bagar (Bikaner). According to them, Hariana was a Jat country.
Hissar, Rohtak, Gurgaon and Panipat, with their bhaiachara (co-
sharing) tenures and the khudkasht (peasant-proprietor), were part of
the Jatiyar or Jatiyat the country of the Jats. Here lived the
Deswali or Hele and the Dhe or Pachchade Jats. The Deswali claimed to
be the descendants of the `original' Jats settled in India about a
thousand years ago, while the Dhe were late arrivals who extended
their sphere of influence following the disintegration of the Mughal
Empire. In Rohtak, situated on the right bank of the Yamuna river,
the Deswali Jats appear to have settled some seven or eight hundred
years ago while the Dhe Jats, probably the descendants of immigrants
from Bagar, a tract just beyond the border of Bikaner, moved into the
western parts of the Hissar district around 1783 and took up the
lands abandoned after the terrible Chalisa famine of that year. Some
of them came from Bikaner and Nabha in the early nineteenth century.
The areas adjoining Bikaner and to the west of Bhiwani, such as
Hissar and Fatehabad, were called Bagar, a term meaning `dry country'
in common parlance. Those living in the region were descendants of
the itinerant Bagri Jats and the Bishnois.
The term Bagri was applied to a Hindu Rajput or Jat from the Bagar
region. According to local traditions, it was a corrupted form of
Nagri who claimed to be Chauhan Rajputs. The Godars and Punias, too,
considered themselves to be Bagri Jats. In general, they were neither
permanent settlers nor attached to the land which they abandoned in
seasons of drought. They kept camels for ploughing in favourable
seasons and for carrying goods to more secure parts during hard
times. The Bishnois were mainly Jats or carpenters who, having
discarded their caste names, called themselves Bishnois. They were
mobile armed groups who brought with them their own distinctive
cultures and infused dynamism in the areas they inhabited. While the
Bagri Jats forged cultural links and matrimonial alliances with the
Jats living in Rajasthan beyond the desert, the Deswali Jats did the
same with their counterparts in western UP living on the other side
of the Yamuna river. There were some Muslim Jats as well. They were
called `Mula' or `Mule' a few of whom were found in Rohtak. In the
Delhi territory, the term `Mula'/ `Mule', was applied to the Muslim
converts from the Jat caste only, frequently being used for those
whose `ancestors were forcibly circumcised by the Emperors, and not
converted by persuasion'. They called themselves Sheikhs. They
intermarried and smoked with the Hindu Jats.
The relationship of the Jats with the other groups was defined
through their got (clan) — an exogamous kin-group. The Deswalis were
members of twelve different gots which were further divided into at
least 137 sub-clans. Locally, they were organised under the tappa
system, a territorial and not a kinship grouping. The tappa was
controlled by the dominant landholding Jat clan group in a given area.
The Jat clans had different versions of territoriality denoting a
segmented lineage. Among the main clans in Rohtak, the stronghold of
the Ghatwalas (Maliks) was at Ahulana in the Gohana tahsil of the
district. The Dagars lived in Delhi and Gurgaon, while the Dahiyas
inhabited the northeastern border of Sampla and the adjoining portion
of the Sonepat tahsil in Rohtak and Delhi. The Rathi Jats were
concentrated in Gurgaon, Delhi and Rohtak, the Golias in Rohtak and
Karnal. They were indistinguishable from Gwalas and Ahirs in some
areas. The Dalals lived in the adjoining territory of Delhi, Hissar
and Jind. The Deswals were more numerous in Rohtak, Gurgaon and
Karnal; the Dhankars in Jhajjar (Rohtak); the Phogats in Jind and the
neighbouring areas of Gurgaon and Rohtak; and the Sangwans in Jind,
Hissar and Rohtak. The Bahniwals, who were settled mostly in the
Hissar division, moved up to the Lower Sutlej in Montgomery and
claimed to be Bhatti Rajputs. The Pawania, a clan from Hissar,
settled in Rohtak, Sirsa and Jind. The Nains, having lived in
Patiala, moved into Hissar and Delhi.
An important feature of Jat society in pre-colonial Hariana was the
absence of a political authority or a monarchical form. This was not
so in the case of either the Jat state of Bharatpur in the south or
the Sikh states of Jind and Patiala in the north. Generally speaking,
the Harianavi Jats, with their distaste for headmen and chiefs, had
their villages managed by their panch, a committee of elders (heads
of families). Hierarchy and dominance were shaped by the clans which
were, nonetheless, at loggerheads with one another. This also meant
that some gots wielded power and controlled economic resources, while
the less-privileged sections had to eke out a living in areas which
were not always conducive to agricultural production. In the long
run, this led to social and economic tensions within the Jat
community. For example, the Dahiyas were jealous of the Ghatwalas who
had access to water supply and better irrigation facilities. The
Bagri Jats, too, resented the prosperity that came the way of the
Deswali Jats.
During the eighteenth century, the Jats, like the rest of the mobile
pastoral and peasant groups in north India, formed armed roving
bands. This started with the rise of the Bharatpur kingdom which
introduced the Jats to military culture. During the rule of Begum
Samru, they were inducted into her irregular armies. George Thomas
recruited about 5000-6000 men into his army, including the Jats, paid
pensions to them and encouraged them to settle in Hariana. The
colonisation of land through pensions to sipahis contributed to
Hariana becoming a stable military labour market in the 1790s.
Eventually, Thomas raised an army of eight battalions of infantry
comprising 6000 men, fifty pieces of cannon, 1000 cavalry, and 1500
Rohillas along with 2000 men incharge of his different forts.
A new social order
The strengthening of the Brahman literati and the Banias, along with
the emergence of the Jats as sepoys and agriculturists, led to the
creation of a new social order in southeast Punjab. This had serious
implications. For one, the increasing hierarchical social order
resulted in serious tensions between the Jats, who were placed lower
down the caste hierarchy, and the upper castes. The Jat headmen and
their powerful allies began to challenge the dominance of Brahmans
and tried to scale the caste hierarchy through a conscious and
organised endeavour. They were in a much stronger position to do so
because of their landholdings, their key role in the village-based
economy, and their representation in the army.
The emergence of Jat identity needs to be related to the wider
changes in nineteenth century society: the decline of the warrior
culture, the rise of village-based peasant economy, the neutral
position of the East India Company towards the local peasant-pastoral
culture and the interrelated diminution of syncretic traditions.
Though the population of Rohtak-Hissar was predominantly rural, new
towns mushroomed by early twentieth century and old towns began
losing much of their importance. Hissar, an old prominent Muslim
qasbah and fortified town, became less important while Rohtak emerged
as an important market and recruiting centre. Strategically located
on the Delhi-Multan route, Hansi, Panipat, Mahim, Narnaul, Sirsa and
Jhajjar also diminished in importance as trading and sufi centres,
particularly due to the reduction of caravan trade after the 1760s.
Bhiwani, a town founded by the British, was gradually transformed
from an insignificant village to a `free market' in 1817. Thus, many
old cultural centres turned into mandis (market towns).
By the late nineteenth century a new culture pattern emerged in
southeast Punjab. The Jats emerged as a dominant economic group
simultaneous with the decline of the nawabi and the old Islamic
pastoralist culture. In Rohtak, the Hindus constituted 80 per cent of
the population by the early part of the twentieth century; the Hindu
Jats were about a third. In the mid-1880s, out of 511 estates in the
district, the Jats held about 366. By 1931, the Maliks numbered
20,000 males out of the total Jat male population of 142,764, owning
22 villages, while the Dahiyas, numbering about 20,000 males, held 16
villages. In the creation of Jat identity in southeast Punjab, these
two clans played a significant role initially. Later, many other
clans began playing their part in accelerating the process of Jat
identity formation. But despite the fact that the warrior culture had
been on the decline since the 1820s and community boundaries were
being more clearly defined thereafter as a result of the disruption
of a pluralist culture, the crystallisation of a self-conscious Jat
identity took place after 1880 and, more significantly, in the
context of the Arya Samaj movement.
(Excerpted from Forming an Identity: A Social History of the
Jats.Oxford University Press, Delhi).
The Tribune (Saturday Plus)
Saturday, July 3, 1999