Forming an identity- (All about JAT)
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'....
tribuneindia.com
|
