1 .
2 THE RACES, CASTES, AND TRIBES OF THE PEOPLE. { Pe. ar
3 . Part Ill—The Jat, Rajput, and Allied Castes.
4 retained their independence till yesterday, and where many of them still enjoy as great social authority as
5 éver, the twin processes of degradation from and elevation to R4jpit rank are still to be seen in operation.
6 The Raja is there the fountain not only of honour but also of caste, which is the same thing in India. Mr.
7 Lyall writes :-—
8 “ Till lately the limita of caste do not seem to have been so immotably fixed in the hills as in the plains. The Raja waa the
9 fountain of honour, and could do mach as he liked. I have heard old men quote instances within their memory in which e Raja
10 “ promoted a Girth to be a Réthi, and a Thakar to be a Rajput, for service done or money given; and at the present day the power
11 ie ce ane back into caste fellowship persona put under » ban for some grave act of doilement, isa source of income to thedagir
12 bd jas.
13 ] betiove that Mr, Campbell, the present Lientenant-Governor of Bengal, has asserted that there is no auch thing as a distinct
14 “ Rajput stock; that in former times before caste distinctions had become crystallized, any tribe or family whree ancestor or head rose
15 “to rosal rank became in time Rajput. This is certainly the conclusion to which many facts point with regard to the Rajputs of
16 these hills, ‘Two of the old royal and now essentially Rajput fantilies of this district, viz., Koulcbr end Bangdhal, are said to be
17 “ Brahmin by original stock. Mr, Barnes saya that in Kangra the son of a Rajput by a low-cnete woman takes place a4 a Rathi: in
18 « Seoréj and other places in the interior of the hills 1 bave met familjes calling themselves Rajputs, and growing into general so-
19 * coptance as Bajputs, in their own country at leset, whose only claim to the title was that their father or grandfather was the
20 « offepring of a Kanetni by foreign Brahmin, On the borderline in the Himalayas, between Thibet and India proper, any one
21 “ can observe caste growin, fore his eyes ; the noble ia changing into a Rajput, the priest into a Bruhmin, the peasant into # Jat,
22 “and so on down to the bottom of the scale, The same process was, 1 babeve, more or Jess in fores in Kangra proper down to a
23 “ period not very remote from to-day.”
24 .,. 423. The reverse process of degradation from Rajput to lower rank is too common to require proof of
25 its existence, which will be found if needed, together with further instances of elevation, in the section
26 which treats of the Réjptts and kindred castes. In the eastern districts, where Brahminism is stronger than
27 in any other part of the Panjdb and Dehli too near to allow of families rising to political independence, it
28 is probable that no elevation to the rank of R4jpat has taken place within recent times. But many Rajput
29 families have ceased to be Réjpits. Setting aside the general tradition of the Panjab Jats to the effect
30 that their ancestors were R4jpiits who married Jats or began to practice widow-marriage, we have the
31 Gaurwa R4jpiits of Gurg4on and Dehli, who have indeed retained the title of Rajpit because the caste
32 feeling is too strong in those parts and the change in their customs too recent for it yet to have died out,
33 but who have, for all purposes of equality, communion, or intermarriage, ceased to be Rdjputs since they
34 ‘took to the practice of arewa; we have the Sahnsars of Hushydrpur who were R4jpits within the last two
35 or three generations, but have ceased to be so because they grow vegetables like the Ardfn ; in Karn4l we
36 have Rajputs who within the living generation have ceased to be Rajputs and become Shekhs, because
37 poverty and loss of land forced them to weaving as an occupation; while the Dehli Chauhén, within the
38 shadow of the city where their. ancestors once ruled and led the Indian armies jn their last struggle with
39 the Musalmdn invaders, have lost their caste by yielding to the temptations of farewa. In the Si fh tract,
40 as I have said, the Jat is content to be a Jat, and has never since the rise of Sikh power wished to be any-
41 thing else. In the Western Plains the freedom of marriage allowed by Isl4m has superseded caste restric-
42 tions, and social rank is measured by the tribe rather than by the larger unit of caste, But even there,
43 families who were a few generations ago reputed Jats have now riseh by social exclusiveness to be
44 recognised as Rdjptts, and families who were lately known as R4jpiits have sunk till they are now class-
45 ed with Jats ; while the great ruling tribes, the Sidl, the Gondal, the Tiwdna are commonly spoken of as
46 Réjptts, and their smaller brethren as Jats. The same tribe even is R4jpét in one district and Jat in
47 another, according to its position among the local tribes. In the Salt-range Tract the dominant tribes, the
48 Janjéa, Manhds and the like, are Rajputs when they are not Mughals or Arabs; while all agricultural
49 tribes of Indian origin who cannot establish their title to R4jpit rank are Jats. Finally, on the frontier
50 the Path4n and Biloch have overshadowed Jat and Réjpét alike ; and Bhatti, Punwdr, Tanwar, all the
51 proudest tribes of Rajpitdna are included in the name and have sunk to the level of Jat, for there can be
52 no Réjpiits where there are no Réjas or traditions of R4jas. 1 know that the views herein set forth will be
53 held heretical and profane by many, and that they ought to be supported by a greater wealth of instance than
54 l have produced in the following pages. But I have no time to marshal my facts ; I have indeed no time to
55 record more than a small proportion of them ; and all [ can now attempt is to state the conclusion to which
56 my enquiries have led me, and to hope to deal with the subject in more detail on some future occasion.
57 424, The position of the Jat in the Panjab.—The Jat is in every respect the nlost important of the
58 Panjab peoples, *In point of numbers he surpasses the R4jpdt whU*comes next to him in the proportion
59 of nearly three to one; while the two together constitute 27 per cent. of the whole population of the
60 Province, Politically he ruled the Panjab till the Khdlsa yielded to our arms. Ethnologically he is the
61 peculiar and most prominent product of the plains of the five rivers. And from an ceconomical and ad-
62 ministrative point of view he is the husbandman, the peasant, the revenue payer par excellence of the Prov~
63 ince. His manners do not bear the impress of generations of wild freedom which marks the races of our
64 frontier mountains. But he is more honest, more industrious, more sturdy, and no less manly than they.
65 Sturdy independence indeed and patient vigorous labour are his strongest characteristics. The Jat is of
66 all Panjdb races the most impatient of tribal or communal control, and the one which asserts the freedom
67 of the individual most strongly. In tracts where, as in Rohtak, the Jat tribes have the field to themselves,
68 and are compelled, in default of rival castes as enemies, to fall back upon each other for somebody to
69 quarrel with, the tribal ties are strong. But as arulea Jat is a man who does what seems right in his
70 ‘own eyes and sometimes what seems wrong also, and will not be said nay by any man. I do not mean
71 ‘however that he is turbulent: as 2 rule he is very far from being so. He is independent and he
72 is self-willed; but he is reasonable, peaceably inclined if left alone, and not difficult to manage.
73 He jis usually content to cultivate his fields and pay his revenue in peace and quietness if people will
74 let him do so; though when he does go wrong he “takes to anything from gambling to murder, with
75 perhaps a preference for stealing other people’s wives and cattle.” As usual the proverbial wisdom
76 of the villages describes him very fairly, though perhaps somewhat too severely: “The soil, fodder,
77 “clothes, hemp, grass fibre, and silk, these six are best beaten; and the seventhistheJat.” ‘A Jat,a Bhat,
78 ‘a caterpillar, and a widow woman ; these four are best hungry. If they eat their fill they do harm.” “The
79 Fat