Originally Posted by
ravichaudhary
Thakur Desraj
As some know, looking for the history of our people, - the Jats, has been a bit of a passion of mine.
Initially for many years I would wonder, how it was that the Jats were not mentioned in history books, and the few places they were mentioned, was casually, in a few lines and certainly not in any laudatory manner.
Some where along the line I cam across a reference to book on the Jat history by K R Quanango, who was portrayed by another well known historian – Sir Jadunath Sarkar, as the most knowledgeable of historians on Jat matters, and what his book did not contain was not worth knowing.
I was fortunate enough the acquire a copy of Thakur Desraj’s book ‘Jat ithihaas’ from the Surajmal Institute, who had republished the book in its entirety.
The book was first published by around 1936. The book was lost for many years, and a copy was gifted by his family to the Surajmal Trust, and the book was re published, I believe in the late seventies.
One cannot but wonder, what our loss would have been, had his family members not kept the book safely, much as one wonders sometimes about the protection of the Historical records of the Jat Sarv Khaps at Shoram, which were discovered by Chaudhary Kabul Singh. The papers were being used usefully by a young Bahu to light the kitchen fire. Some were saved, and we do not how many historical records were lost forever.
Fortune was favouring our community and this book was saved.
Why is Thakur Desraj so important to us?
In the early part of the 20th century, there were only three authors who appear to have written on the subject.
K R Quanango circa 1925
Thakur Desraj circa 1930s
Captain Ram Swarup Joon Circa 1930s
We might almost say that were the pioneer modern historians of the Jats.
Professor Quanango’s work, though well written, is essentially a history of the Jats of the Bharatpur house. He does in a chapter refer to various theories of Jat origin- from the Aryans, the Yadhavs etc, but it not, one would consider today, to be a path breaking book.
At the time he was writing, we have to be aware, that communication as we know it today did not exist, one wonders if he had heard of Professor Quanango. He was certainly aware of the Bharatpur house, and the vast number of small kingdoms, and republics of the Jats, including the Sikh Jats of Punjab.
He did not seem to be aware of the Sarv Khap of Haryana and its headquarters at Shoram (Muzzafarnagar. One does not fault him for that. The lack of awareness can easily be ascribed to the documents of the Sarv Khap coming to light only in the early 1950’s, much after his passing away.
Only memories of the Jat republics of Rajasthan were left, having been thorough erased by the feudalism that lasted for centuries.
The Jat histories had been lost; whatever documentation there was did not survive the invasions after 600 CE
Thakur Desraj did, to his everlasting credit, a tremendous amount of primary research. He identified many original sources, inscriptions, and unearthed much Jat history which had buried for ages.
Having done that he painted a vast and deep panaroma of Jat history though the ages. A panaroma that would make any member of the community proud of his ancestors.
Practically all modern Historians researching and writing on Jat history have lifted off from the seminal work of Thakur Desraj.
His book in Hindi is a highly readable book, and highly recommended to all.
An online copy is available in the files section of the yahoo Jathistory group.
It should be put up here too.
W e all owe a huge debt to him.
Ravi Chaudhary
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Originally Posted by ravichaudhary
