1 84 PANJAB CASTES.
2 " and Lis clan as li'is idt. Nothing less than a direct question as to whether he is a ItAjput or a
3 " Jat will elicit from him the fact that he is a Bajput. As for ' got ' he prohahly has never heard
4 " the word. The ti'uth is that the present Mahomedan tribes of the Western Panjah, though
5 " immigrants from Hindustan, have forgotten theu' 'pots' entirely and very often their' asl
6 " ' kauni.' In some few instances only is the name of the ' got ' preserved, and then the tribesmen
7 " are quite unaware that their tribal name is that of their old ' gd.'
8 " The next question is. What are the asl iaums in each district f I notice that in one of the
9 " specimen entries Giijar is so entered. There are various theories as to whether the Gnjar is a
10 " separate tribe of Tartar or Hiudu origin, or whether it is an offshoot of tlie great Jat tribe. In
11 " Jhang and Dera Ismail Khan and Shahpur the JIahomcdan agriculturists are usually divided
12 " into Rajputs and Jats in local parlance. I mean that if a Rajpi'it is asked whether he is a Jat
13 " he will at once deny it, while a Jat admits that he is a member of the tribe. I do not mean to
14 " as=ert that, excluding Eaipiits and other tril)es who have migrated from the other side of the
15 " Indus, all other agriculturists must be Jats ; hut if they are not I ask who are the numerous
16 " tribes who reside in the Chach and Sind Sagar Doabs and along the left hank of the Chanab ?
17 " What is their a si taKf» ? Their Hindu origin is undoubted. They arc not Ra.iputs. If they
18 " were they would claim theii- relationship. 1 have not room here to go fully into this question. I
19 " have noticed it in the Final Report of the Jbang Settlement. Butmy object is I think attained,
20 " and that is to indicate how verv necessary it is that instrnctions should be given separately for
21 " each district as to what tribes are to be considered ' Asl kaum.' Take the Khokhars. They are
22 " an influential tribe in Jhelam, Shahpur, and Gnjrat. Are they converted Rajputs as many
23 " claim, or descendants of the son-in-law of the prophet as the Shahpur Khokhars state, or mere
24 " Jats as their enemies allege. In the second case only can they be an asl kaum. If in the
25 " tabulatioii of different districts the tribe is sometimes entered as an ' asl kaum ' and at othei-s as
26 " a branch of the Rajput and Jat tribes, the results are likely to be misleading. Then again there
27 " are tribes who are admittedly of ancient standing and yet have no ti'aditions. Who are these ?
28 '' It is not unlikely that they were the original inhabitants before the immigration of the Hindu
29 " settlers. As far as my limited experience goes I think it would be an easy matter to settle this
30 " point beforehand for all the main tribes of each district, and also to give a few general instructions
31 " as to how doubtful tribes were to be treated. The question Are you a Rajput or a Jat ? would
32 " clear up most cases of doubt wdiere the tribe was originally Hindu, the enumerator being warned
33 " of the custom of calling all agricultui'ists Jats. Then all tribes who came from the other side of
34 '■ the Indus would also be ' asl kaum, ' the Pathans, Biloches, Mughals, &c. The village Kamins
35 '• would also be included in the same list. Here the enumerators would ho warned to ask the
36 '' individual whether he was a Kamin by trade only or both hy trade and tribe.' I would
37 '' arbitrarily cla=8 all agi-iculturists who admitted that they were not Bajpiits and who were of
38 " undoubted Hindu origin, as Jats. This classification is perhaps not ethnologically accurate, but
39 " every Patwari and most zamindars would understand what is meant. I think too for the
40 " Mahomedan population two columns would have been enough. It seems unnecessary to ascer-
41 " tain the numbers of each sub-division. We want to know the total Syal, Ghakkar, and Awan
42 "population. I do not think much is gained by working out returns showing the total population
43 " of the Bharwana, Chuchkana, Admal, Firozal, and Bugdial families. There are no restrictions on
44 " intermarriage between members of the different families."
45 I have already explained the reason why three columns were taken instead of two. We
46 wanted two facts only ; but we wanted to make sure of getting them in the many cases where
47 three facts were available and one was not wanted, by recording all three and rejecting for
48 onrsclves the useless one ; otherwise if we had had two columns only, one of them might have been
49 wasted on the useless fact. As it was, one i if our three c dumns was commonly occupied bv the
50 name of some wholly unimportant sept or family. And I do not agree with Mr. Steedman in his
51 proposal to issue detailed instructions concerning the agricultural tribes of each district.
52 Who is to issue them ; and how is it to be ensured that the same tribe is classed similarly in two
53 different districts ?
54 367. Reasons why the scheme did not work.— I think that ou the whole the scheme was
55 the best 'hat could have been adopted ; and if it had been possible to carry it out to the end as
56 it bad been intended to do when the instructions were framed, I believe that results of very con-
57 siderable accuracy would have been obtained. What was intended was this — to record every-
58 thing, to tabulate all the entries, and ihen to classify them throughout and produce the results
59 as the final caste table. Thus, supposing one man had entered himself as Jat Bhatti and
60 another as Rajput Bhatti, or one man as Qureshi Khattar, another as Awan Khattar,
61 and a third as Qutbshahi Khattar, we should have tabulated them all separately, and then classed
62 them as might he decided upon after consideration and inquiry. It was not expected that the
63 material would be properly arranged in tie schedules ; but we hoped that it would all be recorded
64 • Would not this suggest to the artisan the setting up for himself of a mythical oi-igin from
65 some aaits of glorious renown i'