The Amazing Khatris of Punjab

There’s a rhyme that my mom used to sing to us… I can’t remember the whole poem, but here’s how it goes like:

Way Khatria, Way Khatria
Ser manji, Moday TarakRia

Translation: O Khatri, O Khatri; where are you going with sleeping cart on your head and TrakRee (weighing balance) on your shoulder?

tahmed:

Perhaps Ally was kidding and you took it lightly too, but I was wondering whether some day someone will write a good book on Gujjars now living in kind of diaspora. That will make a good read. See Imran Khan came up with a book on Pathans, although he belongs to non-Pashto speaking Pathan tribe of Punjab. That book sold many copies. Reason: all Pakhtoons who visited bookstores almost always bought one copy :-)

History of peoples do make good read.

Thanks to Dost Mittar jee also, although our particular discussion drifted into another group of people.

Re: # 175

Excuse me dear DM your reply with regard to Priyanka was a little off the point. Whereas the word `chopri` (imagine `Chprhi roti` in Punjabi, which brings water in our mouth like Sheroo`s `Chhola-kulcha) is very meaningful, nay, even becomes more meaningful when used with refence to Priyanka, the word `Setha` is meaningless and rather leaves a bad taste in our mouth.

Re: # 179
Tahmed,
There was also one famous Gujjar Khan too, who might have been an offshoot of same family as Gujjar Singh, at least that is what I had heard in passing from older people.

DM and/or anybody else:
Bhai Gurdaas Jee`s Vaar#11 talks about Sikh of his time. And many of the Punjabi Last names(Khatri/Jat, and even Pandits) can be seen there.

That is how we know that some of my ancesstors became Sikhs around 6th Guru`s time.

Re: # 176
Tu Phir anpee chootiyanpa per utar gya.

Why would my ancesstors Vedas?

But is it not a fact that Geeta and Pracheen Ramayana(Not Tulsidas) were written where Pakistan is today?
Even RSS agrees to it.

Re: # 180
Tahmed: gujjars are very tough people based on my experience. They can be very violent too. I had one Gujjar school friend in high school and he used to drink DESI Tharra(homemade sharab) in school.
Meanwhile, for Sharif kids like me the biggest adventure would be missing one or two classes to goto Cinema and this guy would be talking about whores and Sharab. This was in 10th grade.

#171, Mannyd {``The Chauhan boy`s family was probably the only one in town. He got special attention from his class mates, because of Prithvi Raj Chauhan.``}

Of course. Nowadays, people ask me if I am related to Sunidhi Chauhan. :) How times change.
I am interested in castes, last names, locations, and ethnicity from a purely historical perspective. While I pay no attention to people`s stature as a result of their ancestry, I am fascinated by historical events and the struggles and triumphs of people who are long gone.
As one Arab proverb says, about a lower ranking person talking to a noble:
``Your pedigree ends with you and mine begins with me.`` :)

#172 by teshah {``Sir, we know he is for sure a syed``. When asked how he can vouchsafe this, he said, ``Because, Sir, he became syed in our very presence after migration``. }

Shah Sahib,
LOL :) That is funny.

A lot of this usurpation of last names happened with people from UP and elsewhere. Some nawab types were surprised to find new ``relatives`` when they migrated to Karachi from India. I have heard that some of these ``relatives`` were former employees of the ``noble`` ones back in India. HA HA. Change always brings opportunity for some.

ally: sure i will write the book!! IF you will write the first chapter. :-)

but seriously, there is a crying need for some scientific research on the various peoples of the subcontinent. I will try to learn more on the ``case study`` of the gujjar family, but it will take several years I think and plenty of good luck in coming across material for this. I think such studies will also tend to bring greater empathy between people in india and pakistan - since, after all, the downtrodden ban (forest) gujjars of the indian himalayas as well as the not-so-downtrodden fellows like Gujjar Singh are part of the same gujjar family.

btw, in the course of my research, I also noticed a website for matrimonials among the gujjars in India!! gujjar matrimonial website from india

That website indicates that in India the gujjars have a much stronger sense of kinship than we do in Pakistan, since I cant imagine anything similar in Pakistan. I dont think it is too healthy though to be so closely tied to traditional communities - but what the heck. :-)

delhiwala: my internet research has paid off!! There actually was a Gujjar Singh after whom Qilla Gujjar Singh is named. He preceded ranjit singh, and conquered and ruled Lahore for 30 years, and extended his conquests northwards all the way to Rawalpindi and Hasanabdal. In addition, he successfully fought off attacks by Ahmed Shah Abdali (including one where along with other sikh rulers he managed to save Amritsar). Died around the end of the 18th century.

On Gujranwala (Pakistan) and the Indian state of Gujerat: the internet sites say they were named after gujjar tribes, but are silent on the details.

ahmedzai #73 Thanks. I am sure a lot of gujjar herdsmen in kashmir lost their lives (or livelihoods) in the earthquake. On the other hand, it seems many lives may have been saved because the herdsmen (or women) were out in the open fields with their cows at early morning (when the earthquake struck), and so escaped being crushed under their houses as tens of thousands of our poor brothers and sisters were. I say this based on anecdotal evidence only - my mother-in-law`s servant is from kashmir and this is exactly what happened to his sister`s family and mother who lived in the mountains: their house was totally destroyed, but they escaped because they had taken the cows out early morning to pasture. The terrible dilemma they faced was of leaving their source of livelihood (cows) in order to find refuge from the elements in the city. The servant had to go to the hills and spend a lot of time convincing them to come live with him. I dont know how they dealt with their coes. (btw, I dont know if he is a gujjar by the way, nor does that make any difference since we have decided to help him and his family rebuild their homes).

teshah #172 The Bhagvad Gita, as I understand it, was written at least a couple of millenia BC, and possible as early as 3,000 BC, whereas from all literature i have seen the gujjar tribes entered india around the 5th century AD. So, it wouldnt seem possible to have any references to the gujjars in the Bhagvad Gita.

This actually provides another example why we need to separate religion (and religious texts) from science (or more specifically in this case, from anthropology). There may be some references to historical events that one could perhaps relate to events that have would actually seem to have taken place based on a rigorous scientific study, but there is so much allegorical material (e.g. the story of Solomon talking to birds and jinns in the Quran) in religious texts that it is best to rely only on scientific evidence rather than religious texts for real life events. Thus (to continue the example), based on archaeological evidence, there seems little doubt there was an actual King David and an actual King Solomon, but the latter`s supernatural powers were obviously allegorical (to put it gently), just like the supernatural powers attributed by chamchas in Pakistan to the dictator-du-jour (``Sir, you are God`s gift to Pakistan``) are mythical. :-)

The castes and biradaris of india became rather rigid, which created a large babu class for the british. khatris, kayastahs, lalas, brahmins, bhadra lok, salriayats etc are all members of this class. Commie op-ed amberish diwanji had a nice piece which articulated the problems of rigidity.

e.g. while shoveling snow for first time in his life, within 10 minutes my learned high-caste FOB relative started spewing ideas about how to make things easier for him, the pain was so real. So, if a khatri with some book knowledge had to do the back-breaking work of tilling the land, he would become more inventive. But it was the jat doing it, and continued to do it. Similarly, the lohar or mistry trades would develop some nice tools (e.g. the screw) of more thought-oriented folks were doing this work. Even the household chores..when i see the indian cooking utensils, there is little improvement in these since the time dilliwalas ancestors wrote the vedas.

even in the modern hi-tech times, indians do the software (or chip-design which is still software). they are obsessed with the ``atma`` and have little understanding of the solid form. in music, the western music has rich timbre from a variety of instruments, and indian music insist on perfecting the Sa and Pa. Looks like i have diverged in the rant.

Mughals loved the castes even more. They became the highest caste. They even abandoned their old expertize of war-machinary..Shahjehan onwards most Topchi and Golandaz were ferners.

teshah#172:

Thanks for your comments. As regards Priyanka, she is not called Chopri for the same reason that your friend Sethi was not called ``Setha`` :-)

You are right about Krishna being a Yadav and a cowherd. But I believe he was so not because of his birth but because he was brought up by a family of cowherders. If you believe in the Aryan Invasion/Migration theory, this means that they adopted the earlier Dravidian gods as their own.

great article.. possibly one of the best ever here.

I knew quite a bit about accomplishments of punjabis in India but didnt know that a lot of this is associated with the khatri caste. Likewise, the minority brahmins in tamil nadu are all over the place and over achieve. I recently learnt about the marwaris as well who dominate industry (incl one mr. mittal the richest man in europe)... The interesting thing is that there is very little documentation about the history and traditions and members of these groups are often clueless.

India is quite unique in that we have had endogamy within groups for centuries. what this probably means is that groups have different ``profiles``.. ie.. the groups/castes are not all alike. I suspect that if one looks at the folks actually responsible for all the high tech work being done in India, they probably come from a relatively limited section of the population.

With the recent methods of molecular genetics much more is being done to investigate the history of various peoples.

theres also a very recent research article that talks about the high intelligence of ashkenazi jews and links it to the professions these people have been (requiring intelligence) and how selection for mates and endogamy resulted in a matter of centuries (rather than tens or thousands of years) a group that is highly accomplished (and also as a side effect has its share of distinct genetic diseases). I found the type of occupations that the khatris were in to be quite interesting as it makes a connection with this article.

to your list of khatris add one subir sachdev, prof of physics at harvard and possible future nobel.