The Sindhi Jats (Sindhi: سنڌي جت/جاٽ) are an indigenous community of Sindh, Pakistan. They are mostly Muslims. Name In the Sindhi language, there are three words which can be romanized as Jat,جاٽَ (p. 640), جَتُ (p. 649), ڄَٽُ (p. 683), in Nabī Bakhshu Khānu Balocu. Jāmiʻ Sindhī lughāta. Karācī: Ḥaidarābād Sindhu, Pākistān: Sindhī Adabī Borḍ, 1960–1988. Available online at the Digital South Asia Library. those being: Jāṭ (جاٽ), which is the transliteration of Jats; Jat (جت), sometimes spelled Jath, pronounced with a softer t, which refers to the camel-herding Jats of Makran, Sindh, and Kutch; J̱aṭ (ڄٽ), pronounced with an implosive j, which is a generic term for peasant, and is sometimes used as an insult
Background The Jats of Sindh can be divided into three sections:
Larai Jats (Sindhi: جت), known for their camel-herding profession. They speak a dialect of Sindhi called Jatki. They are mainly found in lower Sindh, and the city "Jati" is named after them. Central Sindhi Jats (Sindhi: جاٽ). Sirai Jats (Sindhi: سيرائي جاٽ).
History The Arabic form Zuṭṭ is Arabicised from the ethnonym Jat.Maclean, Derryl N. (1984). Religion and Society in Arab Sind. McGill University. . Pg. 45.Nizami, Khaliq Ahmad (1994). "Early Arab Contact with South Asia". Journal of Islamic Studies. 5 (1): 52–69. . . Pg. 57.ʿAthamina, Khalil (1998). "Non-Arab Regiments and Private Militias during the Umayyād Period"]. Arabica. 45 (3): 347–378. . Pg. 355. Zakeri, Mohsen (1995). Sāsānid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society: The Origins of ʻAyyārān and Futuwwa. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. . Pg. 123, 195, 196. Jats were originally nomadic pastoralists in lower Sindh and Makran. They had been settling in lower Iraq from the 5th to the 11th century CE, where their name in Arabic literature became Zuṭṭ ().Zakeri, Mohsen (1995). Sāsānid Soldiers in Early Muslim Society: The Origins of ʻAyyārān and Futuwwa. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. . Pg. 123, 195, 196.Wink, André (2002). Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7Th-11th Centuries. BRILL. . "Sind, in point of fact, while vaguely defined territorially, overlaps rather well with what is currently Pakistan. It definitely did extend beyond the present province of Sind and Makran; the whole of Baluchistan was included, a part of the Panjab, and the North-West Frontier Province."Wink, André (2002). Al-Hind, the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: Early Medieval India and the Expansion of Islam 7Th-11th Centuries. BRILL. . Pg. 48, 157.Maclean, Derryl N. (1984). Religion and Society in Arab Sind. McGill University. . Pg. 45. The Jats were among the first people from Indian subcontinent to embrace Islam. While some Jats soldiers also assisted in the Arab conquest of Sindh, although according to some sources, this did little to remove the restrictions placed on rebellious Jat tribes in Sindh, such as the Samma and Lakha.Vijaya Ramaswamy, ed. (2017). Migrations in Medieval and Early Colonial India. Routledge. .Jackson, Peter (2003), The Delhi Sultanate: A Political and Military History, Cambridge University Press, p. 15, , A caliphal governor of Sind in the late 830s is said to have … (continued the previous Hindu requirement that) … The Jats and their rebellious clans, such as the Samma and Lakha (as mentioned in the Chachnama), were required, when walking outdoors, to be accompanied by a dog. As the dog was considered unclean in both Hindu and Muslim traditions, this practice served as a symbolic means of reinforcing their subjugated status. In effect, the new regime of the eighth and ninth centuries did not abolish the discriminatory regulations inherited from earlier Hindu sovereignty but rather maintained them. (page 15)"
Another migration northwards into upper Punjab would take place between the 11th and 16th centuries, where they settled in newly cultivatable land and gradually took up farming.Ansari, Sarah F. D. (1992). Sufi saints and state power: the pirs of Sind, 1843–1947. Cambridge University Press. p. . Quote: "Between the eleventh and sixteenth centuries, groups of nomadic pastoralists known as Jats, having worked their way northwards from Sind, settled in the Panjab as peasant agriculturalists and, largely on account of the introduction of the Persian wheel, transformed much of western Panjab into a rich producer of food crops. (page 27)"Grewal, J. S. (1998), The Sikhs of the Punjab, Cambridge University Press, p. 5, , retrieved 12 November 2011 Quote: "... the most numerous of the agricultural tribes (in the Punjab) were the Jats. They had come from Sindh and Rajasthan along the river valleys, moving up, displacing the Gujjars and the Rajputs to occupy culturable lands. (page 5)"
See also
Sindhi Sammat Meds Muslim Jats
References