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Home | Ethnic Group | Jat people
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Originally most of the Jats were Hindu. Some of these Jats were converted to Islam and Sikhism as was the case with other castes and clans, and now call themselves Jat-Muslims and Sikh Jatt respectively. On demographics, the Encyclopædia Britannica states: "In the early 21st century the Jat constituted about 20 percent of the population of Punjab, nearly 10 percent of the population of Balochistan, Rajasthan, and Delhi, and from 2 to 5 percent of the populations of Sindh, Northwest Frontier, and Uttar Pradesh. The four million Jat of Pakistan are mainly Muslim; the nearly six million Jat of India are mostly divided into two large castes of about equal strength: one Sikh, concentrated in Punjab, the other Hindu." The Jats rose to prominence following the 1669 Jat uprising against Mughal rule, and they ruled various princely states throughout the 18th century. After 1858, under the British Raj, the Jats were known for their service in the Indian Army. In 1931, the date of the last census of the British Raj before the abolition of caste, they were distributed throughout North India, mostly in the Punjab and Rajputana. |
