1 16* PANJAB CASTES.
2 PART IV.— MINOR LAND-OWNING AND
3 AGRICULTURAL CASTES.
4 460. Introductory and General. — I Lave roughly grouped the tribus and t^- 2B3;]|
5 castes which I propose io discn&s in this" part of the present chapter under three j
6 heads, IMinor Dominani Tri)ies, Minor Agricultural and Pastoral Tribes, and ]
7 Foreign Races. The figures for each group will be found prefixed to the i
8 detailed discussion of the castes which compose it. No very definite line can ]
9 be drawn between the several groups ; Init the general idea of the classification
10 has been to include in the first such tribes or castes as, while not of sufficient ;
11 magnitude or general importance to rank with the four great races which have
12 been discussed in the two preceding parts of the chapter, yet occupy a social '
13 position somewhat similar to theirs, and either are or have been within .
14 recent times politically dominant in their tribal territories. In the second
15 group I have included those cultivating tribes who, while forming a very
16 large and important element in the agricultural section of the population,
17 occupy a siibiect or subordinate position, and have not, at least within recent
18 times, risen to polit ical prominence. The third group includes that miscella-
19 neous assortment of persons who bear titles, such as Shckh or Mughal^ which
20 pm-port to denote foreign origin. Many, perhaps most of them, are really of
21 Indian origin, and many of them are neither agriculturists nor land-owners.
22 But no general grouping of castes in the Panjab can hope to be exact ; and
23 this appeared to be the most convenient place in which to discuss them. The I
24 tribes discussed in this part of the chapter complete the essentially land-own- j
25 ing or agricultural tribes of the Panjab. The Brahmans and Saiyads cultivate
26 largely, while the mercantile classes own large areas ; but they will be more .
27 conveniently dealt with under a separate head in the next part of the chapter. 1
28 MINOR DOMINANT TRIBES.
29 461. Minor dominant tribes. — The tribes or castes which I have included ■
30 in Abstract No. S3 on the next page* are those which are, like the Jats and *p.ie6-!
31 Rajputs, dominant in parts of the Panjab, but are not so numerous or 67.
32 so widely spread as to rank with those great races. Indeed many of them :
33 are probably tribes rather than castes or races ; though in some cases their
34 origin has been forgotten, while in others an oliviously false origin has
35 been invented. They are divided into four groups, the Kan-al, Gakkhar, I
36 Awan, and Khattar of the Salt-range Tract, the Khokhar, Kharral and '
37 Diiudpotra of the Western Plains, and the Dogar, Ror, Taga, Meo and Khiin- |
38 zadah of the Eastern Plains ; wliile the Gujar, who is more widely distributed
39 than the rest^ comes last by himself. With the Western Plains group are
40 included the Kiithia, Hans, and Khagga^ for whom I have no separate figures : '■■
41 indeed it will be apparent from a pemsal of the following paragraphs that
42 the figures for all these minor castes in the western half of the Province are
43 exceedingly imperfect. Not only are the lax use of the word Jat and the ill-
44 defined nature of the line separating Jats from Rajputs abeady alluded to |
45 soiu-ces of great confusion, but many of these tribes Lave set up claims to an
46 origin which shall connect them with the founder of the Mahomedan religion, i
47 or with some of the great Mahomedan conquerors. i