>Ohnoitsjamie at 19:25, 5 July 2021

2021-07-05T19:25:14Z

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{{Infobox caste
|caste_name=Bhatia
|classification=
|subdivisions=[[Kutchi people|Kutchi]], Halai, [[Kanthi]], Navgam, Pachisgaam, Thathai
|populated_states= [[Rajasthan]], [[Punjab, India|Punjab]], [[Gujarat]], [[Sindh]]
|religions=[[Hinduism]], [[Islam]] and [[Sikhism]]}}
'''Bhatia''' is a group of people and a [[Caste system in India|caste]] found in [[Punjab region|Punjab]], [[Rajasthan]], [[Sindh]] and [[Gujarat]]. The Bhatias primarily live in Northwestern India and Pakistan.<ref>Tribalism in India, pp 160, By Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya, Edition: illustrated, Published by Vikas, 1978, Original from the University of Michigan.</ref>

==History==
{{multiple image
| align = right
| direction = horizontal
| image1 = Bhattias (9938720746).jpg
| width1 = 242
| caption1 = Bhatia men in western India (c.1855-1862)
| image2 = Bhattia Women (9938694664).jpg
| width2 = 261
| caption2 = Bhatia women in western India (c.1855-1862)
}}

The geographical origins of the Bhatia caste are uncertain. [[Denzil Ibbetson]], an ethnographer of the [[British Raj]], noted that many were found in Sindh and Gujarat in the 19th century CE but that there were grounds to believe that they had migrated from [[Bhatner]], [[Jaisalmer]] and the area then known as [[Rajputana]] (approximating to modern-day Rajasthan). A more recent study by André Wink traces a 12th-century connection between the Bhatias of Jaisalmer and the [[Caulukya]]s of Gujarat, while [[Anthony O'Brien]] almost-contemporaneous attempt to discover their homeland caused him to place them around Sindh from the 7th century. Wink, who is a professor with interests in medieval and early modern Indian history, records that many of the community in Sindh converted to [[Islam]] during the reign of [[Firoz Shah Tughluq]], although [[Robert Vane Russell]], another Raj ethnographer, was of the opinion that those engaged in foreign trade in the 19th century were exclusively Hindu.<ref name="Levi2007p64">{{cite book |title=Global Indian Diasporas: Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory |editor-first=Gijsberk |editor-last=Oonk |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-90-5356-035-8 |first=Scott |last=Levi |chapter=Multanis and Shikarpuris: Indian Diasporas in Historical Perspective |pages=64–65 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BkwsMTyShi8C&pg=PA64 |accessdate=1 May 2013}}</ref>

The Bhatias, who had been associated in particular with the [[Multan]] area in Sindh, were historically merchants and they probably formed part of the earliest Indian diaspora found in Central Asia, together with the [[Bhora]] and the [[Lohana]] communities.{{efn|Claude Markovits, whose studies encompass commercial networks in colonial India, says that the ''Lohana'' term referred to all merchant communities of Sindh other than the Bhatias and the [[Khatri]]s.<ref name="Levi2007p64" /> Mark-Anthony Falzon considers all Sindhi Hindu communities to be jatis of the Lohana caste, with the exception of Brahmins and Bhatias.<ref>{{cite book |title=Cosmopolitan Connections: The Sindhi Diaspora, 1860-2000 |first=Mark-Anthony |last=Falzon |publisher=BRILL |year=2004 |isbn=978-90-0414-008-0 |pages=32–34 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ljbS-I5Y8WMC&pg=PR9 |accessdate=1 May 2013}}</ref>}} Their emergence as a significant merchant group pre-dates the 17th century and certainly by the time that India became subject to colonial rule, the Bhatias and the other two early diaspora communities had established trade and moneylending networks that, according to Scott Levi, who specialises in the history of Central Asia, "... extended across Afghanistan, Central Asia, and eventually reached even beyond the Arabian Peninsula and East Africa to the Caribbean islands in the west, and to Southeast Asia and China in the east."<ref>{{cite book |title=Global Indian Diasporas: Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory |editor-first=Gijsberk |editor-last=Oonk |publisher=Amsterdam University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-90-5356-035-8 |first=Scott |last=Levi |chapter=Multanis and Shikarpuris: Indian Diasporas in Historical Perspective |pages=44–46 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=BkwsMTyShi8C&pg=PA44 |accessdate=1 May 2013}}</ref>

==Sub-groups==
Among the Bhatias, there are different sub-castes, such as [[Jakhar (clan)|Jakhar]], [[Kutchi people|Kutchi]], Veha, Halai, [[Kanthi]], Pavrai, Navgam, Pachisgaam, [[Thattai Bhatias|Thattai]] and [[Punjab, India|Punjabi]]. Bhatias from [[Kutch]] are Kutchi Bhatias, those from around [[Jamnagar]] district are known as Halai Bhatia, those from [[Sindh]] in present-day Pakistan are known as Sindhi Bhatias and those from Punjab in present-day India and Pakistan are known as Punjabi Bhatias. A large number of Punjabi Bhatias settled in Pakistani [[Punjab, Pakistan|Punjab]] in 1947.<ref>People of India: Gujarat Part 1, pp 201, 899, By Kumar Suresh Singh, Rajendra Behari Lal, Published by Popular Prakashan, 2003</ref>

Some of the major groups derived from the principal professions they follow or the crafts they practice.<ref>The Sikhs in History, pp 92, By Sangat Singh, Edition: 2, Published by S. Singh, 1995, Original from the University of Michigan</ref>

==Profession==
Mainly Bhatias are engaged in agriculture profession. In many district of [[Punjab]] they are known as [[Landlord]] or [[Zamindar]].Although zamindars were considered to be equivalent to lords and barons<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,896979,00.html|title=Cinema: A Tragedy of Pride|date=13 September 1963|work=TIME.com|accessdate=14 January 2015}}</ref>{{qn|date=May 2019}} in some cases they were seen as independent, sovereign princes.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kS-IQ8w-V_oC&pg=PA135|title=Posthumous Memoirs of His Own Time. Volume 2|publisher=|accessdate=14 January 2015}}</ref>{{qn|date=May 2019}}

== References ==
'''Informational notes'''
{{notelist}}

'''Citations'''
{{reflist}}

'''Further reading'''
*{{cite book |first=Claude |last=Markovits |year=2000 |title=The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750 - 1947: Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama |series=Cambridge Studies in Indian History and Society (Book 6)|publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge}}
*{{cite book |first=Anthony |last=O'Brien |year=1996 |title=The Ancient Chronology of Thar: the Bhattika, Laukika and Sindh Eras |location=Delhi |publisher=Oxford University Press}}
*{{cite book |first=André |last=Wink |year=1997 |title=Al-Hind - The Making of the Indo-Islamic World: The Slave Kings and the Islamic Conquest, 11th - 13th Centuries |volume=2 |location=Leiden |publisher=E. J. Brill}}

== See also ==

* [[Jatt Sikh]]
* [[Muslim Jat of Punjab]]
* [[Gujjar]]
==External links==
* {{commons category inline|Bhatia caste}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bhatia (Caste)}}
[[Category:Social groups of Punjab, India]]
[[Category:Social groups of Rajasthan]]
[[Category:Social groups of Gujarat]]
[[Category:Social groups of Sindh]]
[[Category:Surnames]]
[[Category:Punjabi tribes]]

Bhatia caste - Revision history

>Ohnoitsjamie at 19:25, 5 July 2021