Dear Admin. Please move this to appropriate forum if required.
Why I am writing this article ?
I belong to a community called Pachhade jatt in western U.P. and since my childhood I wanted to search for the roots of our community. I thought posting it here might help in finding the same. Me being the 5th generation in U.P. don’t have any clue obout our origin and reason for migration to U.P. My family is sikh.
Here is some information about us from internet :
http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Pachhada_Jats
Pachhada Jats
Pachhada Jats are the Jat people, that are mostly found in the western districts of Uttar Pradesh. There are about 400,000 Pachhada's there. Their biggest concentration is in the Moradabad district where some 785 villages are mostly populated by them. They belong to the Jat caste, but are differentiated from the Hindu Jats of western U.P. by their names 'Pachhade' (from the west) Jats as opposed to the Hindu Jats who are called Deswali (of this land - UP) Jats. Their name is a clue to their origins. According to the author of the Gazetteer of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh ( present U.P ) writing in 1878 these tribes migrated about a hundred years ago into their present areas and settled there. The author also remarks that the language spoken by them is Punjabi and not Hindi.
Relation With Sikhi :
Although the Pachhadas claim that their ancestors came to U.P. during Banda Singh Bahadur's assault on the Mughal power at Saharanpur in 1711, it is possible that given the approximate date given by the Gazetteer that these Sikhs might have migrated during the great famine of 1783, the so-called Chalisa ( 1783 AD was 1840 in Bikrami calendar ). Whatever their date of settlement they are certainly the descendants of Sikhs. Although they do not keep the 5 K's, they like the Banjaras use the Guru Granth Sahib in their ceremonies. During the 1920s and 1930s there was a great desire amongst them to be accepted as Sikhs and between the 1921 and 1931 census the number of Sikhs in the Moradabad jumped from a mere 231 to 20631 due to the Pachhadas of moradabad registering themselves as Sikhs. Unfortunately these Pachhadas reverted back to Hinduism after 1947. Since the 1930s the U.P. Sikh Mission in active in these areas and there has been some success with regard to their reversion back to Sikhism.
Here I want to add from my side about the culture here which will be very confusing to lot of people here.
Language/Boli : The language spoken is some distorted form of Punjabi . It has 50% hindi and 50 % Punjabi. The accents are neutral and no where matches with Punjabi people.
Example : “Where are you going ” will be spoken as “kithhe nu jaaye raye ho”.
Population: The current population is 7-8 lakh, 90 % of us live in villages.
Occupations: 90 % of the people are farmers. Military and police is another preferred option.
Life style: is very simple most of us are farmers. Unlike Punjab Youth don’t flaunt on royal enfield bullets and jeeps due to limited resources. No show off.
Food : The diet is very rich. Love to have milk,ghee,makhhan,missi roti and simple food. No spicy food is preferred. Unlike Punjabi people no one here likes chatar patar food like chhole bhature etc. Although non-veg food is popular.
Religion: Biggest confusion. 90 % of the people are registered as Hindus in their religion but they all go to gurudwaras . Even few marriages are conducted by gyani ji in the presence of Guru granth sahib. Paths are very common and funerals are done through sikh methods. Overall it has lot of influence of Sikhism. Ladies do fasting also and participate in gurudwara sahib deewans as well.(contradicting)
Marriages: Marriages are done based on the cast and not religion. Sikhs can marry in hindus . Hindus can marry Sikhs family. There is only condition “both bride and grooms should be pachhade jats.” The marriages with local jat (called deshwali jats) are very rare.
We are sikh but my mother/wife is from hindu family. My sister is married in hindu families. But all the marriages happened in gurudwara.
Relations with other Punjabis (migrated during 1947): friendly but no marriages happen with them.
Relations with original jats from U.P.: Same as above.
Status of Guru Nanak dev/Guru govind Singh/Guru Granth sahib : All the gurus are considered as avatar of Gods and people worship them like gods.
Five k’s : Only few people follow 5 K’s. like my grandfather converted to sikhism but the count is very low. Although Sikhs keep kesh but all Sikhs are not amritdharis. Interesting thing is sikh are not considered different from others. Many example are there when one son is hindu other one is sikh from the same father . confusing
Connection with Punjab: No one has even single relative in Punjab. We don’t know what was our original location. The world pachhade means westerns . That mean we came here from west is the only clue.
Current trend : Lot of radha-swami deras have opened and attracting people towards them . SGPC and other bodies have failed to attract people so ultimately everyone will turn Hindu here.
Request you to please share any information that ay help me in tracing the roots. I don’t know why our ancestors came to U.P. ?
Questions are welcome.
Why I am writing this article ?
I belong to a community called Pachhade jatt in western U.P. and since my childhood I wanted to search for the roots of our community. I thought posting it here might help in finding the same. Me being the 5th generation in U.P. don’t have any clue obout our origin and reason for migration to U.P. My family is sikh.
Here is some information about us from internet :
http://www.sikhiwiki.org/index.php/Pachhada_Jats
Pachhada Jats
Pachhada Jats are the Jat people, that are mostly found in the western districts of Uttar Pradesh. There are about 400,000 Pachhada's there. Their biggest concentration is in the Moradabad district where some 785 villages are mostly populated by them. They belong to the Jat caste, but are differentiated from the Hindu Jats of western U.P. by their names 'Pachhade' (from the west) Jats as opposed to the Hindu Jats who are called Deswali (of this land - UP) Jats. Their name is a clue to their origins. According to the author of the Gazetteer of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh ( present U.P ) writing in 1878 these tribes migrated about a hundred years ago into their present areas and settled there. The author also remarks that the language spoken by them is Punjabi and not Hindi.
Relation With Sikhi :
Although the Pachhadas claim that their ancestors came to U.P. during Banda Singh Bahadur's assault on the Mughal power at Saharanpur in 1711, it is possible that given the approximate date given by the Gazetteer that these Sikhs might have migrated during the great famine of 1783, the so-called Chalisa ( 1783 AD was 1840 in Bikrami calendar ). Whatever their date of settlement they are certainly the descendants of Sikhs. Although they do not keep the 5 K's, they like the Banjaras use the Guru Granth Sahib in their ceremonies. During the 1920s and 1930s there was a great desire amongst them to be accepted as Sikhs and between the 1921 and 1931 census the number of Sikhs in the Moradabad jumped from a mere 231 to 20631 due to the Pachhadas of moradabad registering themselves as Sikhs. Unfortunately these Pachhadas reverted back to Hinduism after 1947. Since the 1930s the U.P. Sikh Mission in active in these areas and there has been some success with regard to their reversion back to Sikhism.
Here I want to add from my side about the culture here which will be very confusing to lot of people here.
Language/Boli : The language spoken is some distorted form of Punjabi . It has 50% hindi and 50 % Punjabi. The accents are neutral and no where matches with Punjabi people.
Example : “Where are you going ” will be spoken as “kithhe nu jaaye raye ho”.
Population: The current population is 7-8 lakh, 90 % of us live in villages.
Occupations: 90 % of the people are farmers. Military and police is another preferred option.
Life style: is very simple most of us are farmers. Unlike Punjab Youth don’t flaunt on royal enfield bullets and jeeps due to limited resources. No show off.
Food : The diet is very rich. Love to have milk,ghee,makhhan,missi roti and simple food. No spicy food is preferred. Unlike Punjabi people no one here likes chatar patar food like chhole bhature etc. Although non-veg food is popular.
Religion: Biggest confusion. 90 % of the people are registered as Hindus in their religion but they all go to gurudwaras . Even few marriages are conducted by gyani ji in the presence of Guru granth sahib. Paths are very common and funerals are done through sikh methods. Overall it has lot of influence of Sikhism. Ladies do fasting also and participate in gurudwara sahib deewans as well.(contradicting)
Marriages: Marriages are done based on the cast and not religion. Sikhs can marry in hindus . Hindus can marry Sikhs family. There is only condition “both bride and grooms should be pachhade jats.” The marriages with local jat (called deshwali jats) are very rare.
We are sikh but my mother/wife is from hindu family. My sister is married in hindu families. But all the marriages happened in gurudwara.
Relations with other Punjabis (migrated during 1947): friendly but no marriages happen with them.
Relations with original jats from U.P.: Same as above.
Status of Guru Nanak dev/Guru govind Singh/Guru Granth sahib : All the gurus are considered as avatar of Gods and people worship them like gods.
Five k’s : Only few people follow 5 K’s. like my grandfather converted to sikhism but the count is very low. Although Sikhs keep kesh but all Sikhs are not amritdharis. Interesting thing is sikh are not considered different from others. Many example are there when one son is hindu other one is sikh from the same father . confusing
Connection with Punjab: No one has even single relative in Punjab. We don’t know what was our original location. The world pachhade means westerns . That mean we came here from west is the only clue.
Current trend : Lot of radha-swami deras have opened and attracting people towards them . SGPC and other bodies have failed to attract people so ultimately everyone will turn Hindu here.
Request you to please share any information that ay help me in tracing the roots. I don’t know why our ancestors came to U.P. ?
Questions are welcome.
