Jats of Balochistan

Ethnic group in Pakistan.

Ethnic group

Jats of BalochistanRegions with significant populations

Balochistan, Sindh, Punjab
Languages
Balochi, Sindhi, Saraiki and Jadgali languages
Religion
Islam
Related ethnic groups
• Baloch people • Jat Muslims

The Jats of Balochistan are tribes of Jat origin[1] found in the Balochistan province of Pakistan.[2][3] They are estimated to be around 10% of the total population of Balochistan, being the fourth largest ethnic group of Balochistan. A large proportion are in the profession of camel herding.[4] Jadgals are another Jat ethnic group living in Balochistan.[5]

## List of tribes

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The major Jat tribes in Balochistan include:

* Bizenjo
* Sardarzahi[6][7]
* Babbar
* Dograni
* Chakkar
* Gurchani
* Lanjwani
* Sasoli
* Dodai[8]
* Mirani (clan)

## History

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By the time of Muhammad bin Qasim's conquest of Sind in the eighth century, Arab writers described agglomerations of Jats and Meds in the arid, the wet, and the mountainous regions of the conquered land of the Sindh[9] and Makran regions of today's Pakistani province of Balochistan, which at that time was part of Sindh. The Arabs referred to the Jats as "Zutts" (Arabic: الزُّطِّ). The Jats were present in Makran and Lasbela long before the migration of ancestors of the Baloch from Kerman, Khorasan and the Sistan and Baluchistan provinces of present-day Iran. The Arab rulers though professing a theologically egalitarian religion, maintained the position of Jats and the discriminatory practices against them that had been put in place in the long period of Hindu rule in Sind between the eleventh and the sixteenth centuries.

## See also

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* The Sindhis of Balochistan

## References

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1. ^ Khan, Sabir Badal (2013). Two Essays on Baloch History and Folklore: Two Essays on Baloch History and Folklore. Università di Napoli, "l'Orientale". p. 61.
2. ^ Baluchistan (Pakistan) (1979). Balochistan Through the Ages: Tribes (reprint ed.). Nisa Traders (sole distributors Gosha-e-Adab).
3. ^ Sir Richard Francis Burton (1898). William Henry Wilkins (ed.). The Jew, The Gypsy and El Islam. H. S. Stone. p. 215.
4. ^ Westphal-Hellbusch, Sigrid; Westphal, Heinz (1986). The Jat of Pakistan. Lok Virsa.
5. ^ "Oman's Diverse Society: Northern Oman" (PDF). JE Peterson.
6. ^ Baluch, Muhammad Sardar Khan (1977). History of Baluch Race and Baluchistan. Gosha-e-Adab : distributors Nisa Trader. p. 268\. "...Bizanjo, Mengal, Sajdi and Zehri as Jadgal or Jats..."
7. ^ "The Brahuis are not Brahuis". Araingang.
8. ^ ʻAlī, Anṡārī ʻAlī Sher (1901). A Short Sketch, Historical and Traditional, of the Musalman Races Found in Sind, Baluchistan and Afghanistan, Their Genealogical Sub-divisions and Septs, Together with an Ethnological and Ethnographical Account. Printed at the Commissioner's Press.
9. ^ Mayaram, Shail (2003). Against history, against state : counterperspectives from the margins. New York: Columbia University Press. ISBN 0-231-12730-8. OCLC 52203150.