Introductory - Global Sikh Studies

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caste (e.g. Sandhu, Sidhu, Gill, Dhillon etc.), by which the
common Jats use to distinguish their identity and to which
units they owe their primary loyalty?
(ii)
(iii)
Ibbeston has given the names of twentyone prominent Jat tribes
of the Sikh region in the Punjab. These tribes were often at
loggerheads with one another. ‘Villages quarelled with villages,
tribes with tribes, and weaker among them were always liable
to be ousted by the stronger and the more compact. There is
no instance, except in the Sikh movement, of these Jat tribes
having risen above their respective clannish or tribal loyalties
and to have made common for a joint undertaking, much less
for a noble purpose.
The Jats are known for their democratic spirit within the Jat
brotherhood, but they are averse to sharing it with the so-called
lower castes. How is it, they overcame this averison and actively
collaborated in a spirit of commradeship with sweepers,
carpenters, Kalaals, Calico-printers weavers and the like, and
even worked under their leadership? Again, why the Jats among
the Khalsa Dal, agreed to accept the leadership of only two of
the five Jathas, that were formed when the Taruna Dal was
divided for the purpose of capturing political power by the
Khalsa. And, why did the Jat leaders of what later came to be
called the Ramgarhia Missal, hand over, on their own and
without any pressure, the leadership of that Missal to the
carpenters if they were aiming at Jat ascendency? And how is
it that, as soon as the period of ideological ascendancy
weakened, the same Jats were again, in nor small measure,
responsible for lowering the social status of these vary castes
from the level it had been raised to by the movement?
(iv)
All observers, Indian and European, unite in remarking about
the wonderful patience and resolution with which about 700
prisoners taken along with Banda faced their execution.