The Jat people (Hindi pronunciation: [dʒaːʈ]) (also spelled Jatt) are a traditionally agricultural community in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh,[1][2] Jats migrated north into the Punjab region, Delhi Territory, Rajputana, and the western Gangetic Plain in late medieval times.[2][3] Primarily of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh faiths, they now l
ive mostly in the Indian States of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh and the Pakistani provinces of Punjab and Sindh. Traditionally involved in peasantry, the Jat community saw radical social changes in the 17th century, the Hindu Jats took up arms against the Mughal Empire during the late 17th and early 18th century.[4][5] The Hindu Jat kingdom reached its zenith under Maharaja Suraj Mal of Bharatpur (1707–1763).[6] The Jat community of the Punjab region played an important role in the development of the martial Khalsa Panth of Sikhism, they are more commonly known as the Jatt Sikhs.[7] By the 20th century, the landowning Jats became an influential group in several parts of North India, including Haryana, Punjab,[8] Western Uttar Pradesh,[9] Rajasthan,[10] and Delhi.[11] Over the years, several Jats abandoned agriculture in favour of urban jobs, and used their dominant economic and political status to claim higher social status.[12]
