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I am interested in history of Jats which live mostly in states of Punjab, Haryana, Western U.P. , Rajasthan. I am not reading from historians of the Jat community as they wrote in Hagiographical Style (I have read a couple of books).

This community is about 25% in state of Panjab and Haryana but owns about 70% of the land of these states. Similar situation might be in other states where they live. I have read in my history book that they used to fight for the British (in the British Army, even in WW1 and WW2) and the brits used to give them land in exchange. They have strong influence in current politics at state levels in above mentioned states and, by nepotism, favors their community in govt. jobs (This sort of nepotism/ corruption is common in India by the dominant castes of the states). They are a landowning community (a lot of them are landlords). They have been overly represented in Indian Defence forces as well.

Land is a very powerful source in India as due to casteism (which is a part of Hindu religion, proof of this comment can be found in B. R. Ambedkar's Philosophy of Hinduism) the majority of Indian's were not allowed to own land by Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishyas. (Example: When the British allowed the Dalits (formerly the Untouchable caste) to own land or buy the land of the Jats in Panjab, the Jats revolted and the British had to take back this law, source: Kranti Kumar Gupta's History and Culture of Panjab ( B.A. Year -3), Panjab University).

These observations made me wonder how the Jats started to own lands (They are not the "twice born" castes. They are originally sudras (slave) caste and still practice widow remarriage, which twice born castes don't)? Did they use to fight in the armies of Rajputs and central Asian invaders (like Khilji, Tuglaq, Sher Shah Suri, Mughals) like they fought for the British and now Indian state? If yes, armies of which rulers they used to be in? Or they began to own land by some other ways?

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These are actually pastorolist, agriculturist community, who over time became warriors and land owners and administrators. They had various dynasties and kingdoms. They turned out to be a mighty force in rural Haryana, western UP region. Large landowning gave them natural advantage and later the green revolution made them superpowers. They are socially rich and powerful. Pretty much upper caste-like.

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    – Community Bot
    Aug 17, 2022 at 19:00
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    This describes the outcome, but doesn't answer the question; how did the Jats come to own so much land?
    – MCW
    Aug 17, 2022 at 20:49
  • @Lumbini What you mean by "socially rich"?
    – James
    Aug 18, 2022 at 16:32
  • It means they are rich and powerful, thus occupying a strong position in the society(ie.Socially rich and powerful) Aug 24, 2022 at 15:49
  • They were agriculturists, who got a lot of power in administration because of 1) Their own clan-kingdom community rule and 2)Favours from other rulers who later ruled the region, because of the support they could get from a United community block sort of. Aug 24, 2022 at 15:51

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