Jat (people)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Maharaja Suraj Mal of Bharatpur (ruled 1756–1763) is considered to be the most important historical representative of the Jat people.

The Jat or Jats are a people or an ethnic group in northwest India (mainly in the Punjab including Haryana ) and in parts of Pakistan . Today they are followers of various religions ( Hinduism , Sikhism , Islam ), but the veneration of the ancestors is still an essential element of their world of ideas and beliefs; Furthermore, for a long time they rejected secular and religious authorities and also the caste system because they felt that they were “casteless” and thus ultimately as “ untouchable ”.

history

The Jats people are traced back by most researchers to pre-Aryan , sometimes also to Scythian equestrian and nomadic tribes , which in the course of the 2nd and 1st millennium BC. BC penetrated into the southern Indus valley, gradually settled down there and practiced agriculture . The oldest written reports about the Jats come from Arab authors of the 8th century AD who encountered this people during the Islamic conquest of Sindh . Some tribal groups of the Jats who remained nomadic migrated from the 11th to the 16th century along the rivers of the Five Rivers to today's India and populated large parts of the Punjab (including Haryana ) as well as smaller areas in Rajasthan and in the west of today's federal states, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh . During this time they too settled down, outwardly adopted the beliefs of the dominant religion and developed into landowners up to maharajas (e.g. in Deeg or Bharatpur ); other Jat groups led a gang-like and predatory life along the caravan routes and within and near the cities. There were repeated rebellions of the Jats in the 17th century (the uprising of 1669 was directed against the religious policy as well as against the overall centralistic and thus restrictive administration by the great mogul Aurangzeb ) and in the first decades of the 18th century the Maharaja Jai Singh II. several campaigns against them; on the other hand, members of the Jats served in his army.

Population shares

Lancer company of the Jats (watercolor around 1900)

In 2012, the Hindustan Times put the number of India's Jat population at 82.5 million, but there are also significantly lower numbers (see table).

region Jat population
1931		 Jat population
1988		 Share in the Jat people
Punjab (incl. Haryana ) 6,068,302 22,709,755 approx. 73.0%
Rajasthan 1,043,153 3,651,036 approx. 12.0%
Uttar Pradesh 810.114 2,845,244 approx. 9.2%
Jammu and Kashmir 148.993 581,477 approx. 2.0%
Balochistan 93,726 369.365 approx. 1.2%
Bombay 54,362 216.139 approx. 0.7%
Delhi 53,271 187.072 approx. 0.6%
Ajmer -Marwar 29,992 104,972 approx. 0.3%

Social status

A uniform social status of the Jats within Indian or Pakistani society cannot be determined because they have completely different professions and activities and thus have different reputations among the population. The British recognized the warlike potential of many Jats, classified them as a Martial Race and set up an infantry regiment that was taken over by the Indian Army and enjoyed a high reputation. Jats also serve in the Punjab regiments of the Pakistani army . The Jats also include influential politicians such as Chaudhary Charan Singh , the 6th Prime Minister of India, who ruled for only six months . The Pakistani Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar, who was in office from 2011 to 2013, also comes from a Jat family, which, however, had risen to become influential landowners centuries ago.

Many jats in India also feel disadvantaged and oppressed in the late 20th and early 21st centuries; they are demanding a classification as Other Backward Class (OBC) or Scheduled Caste , which would allow them to benefit from an existing quota system for employment in the public sector and in business. On February 20, 2016, insurgent Jats blocked and destroyed all traffic connections and parts of the Munak Canal , which supplies the capital Delhi with drinking water, in the former Punjab state of Haryana . The army was deployed to secure the hydraulic structure; there were dead and wounded. Thousands of commuters and travelers were stuck in train stations and streets for days. The insurgents destroyed private and public property on a large scale - in the city of Rohtak , the riots turned into social unrest, as businesses and companies belonging to non-Jats were primarily attacked and sometimes set on fire.

literature

Web links

Commons : Jat (people)  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Remarks

  1. ↑ The following is a summary of the WP article 'Jat people' and the article 'Jats' on Jatland Wiki
  2. ↑ Jat uprising of 1669 - Jatland Wiki
  3. ↑ Jats in the 17th and 18th centuries
  4. ↑ Abbreviated table from the article 'Jats' at Jatland Wiki
  5. ^ Jat protests in 2016
  6. ^ Jat riots in Rohtak 2016