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?
