Jats

Jat also known as Jadgal, Jutt or Jaat is a community of traditionally elite peasants and agriculturalists ^{[lower-alpha 1][lower-alpha 2]} found in northern India and Pakistan. The Jat community is found majorly in three religions: Hindu, Muslim and Sikh.^[3][4]

History

Jats had its origins in pastoralism in the lower Indus valley of Sindh until they were forced northwards due to the Islamic conquests.^[5]

"... (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".^[6]

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.

Distribution

Jaats inhabited throughout the Punjab region, Sindh and some other northwestern parts of Subcontinent. ^[source?]

References

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. "Jat | Ethnic Group | Britannica". www.britannica.com. 2024-08-03. Retrieved 2024-08-31.
4. Etienne, Gilbert (2023-11-15). Studies in Indian Agriculture: The Art of the Possible. Univ of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-32378-0.
5. Asher, Catherine B.; Talbot, Cynthia (2006). India Before Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 270. ISBN 0-521-80904-5.
6. 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.

Notes

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]

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.