Muslim Rajputs

Muslim Rajputs
Regions with significant populations
India and Pakistan
Languages
Religion
Islam
Related ethnic groups
Rajputs and other Indo-Aryan peoples

Muslim Rajputs are the descendants of Rajputs, a community from northern India and Pakistan, who are adherents of Islam. The community converted from Hinduism to Islam from the medieval period onwards, founding various dynasties and states while retaining original clan names, and are further divided into different clans.

History

The term Rajput is traditionally applied to the clans who claimed Suryavanshi, Chandravanshi and Agnivanshi lineages of Kshatriyas in the Hindu varna system.[citation needed] They are sometimes also known as Ranghars.

Conversion to Islam and ethos

Upon their conversion from Hinduism to Islam, many Muslim Rajputs maintained some of their Hindu customs. Muslim Rajputs also often retained common social practices, such as purdah (seclusion of women), with Hindu Rajputs.

Despite the difference in religious faith, Muslim Rajputs have cooperated with Hindu Rajputs on several occasions against common threats. For example, the Khanzadas of Mewat fought with Rana Sanga against Babur.

In 1993, instances of conversions of Rajputs to Islam were recorded in Khurja tehsil of Bulandshahr, in western Uttar Pradesh.

Muslim Rajput clans

Khanzada of Mewat

Mewat was a kingdom in Rajputana with its capital at Alwar which was ruled by a Khanzada Rajput dynasty in the Delhi Sultanate. Hasan Khan Mewati fought along with Rana Sanga in the Battle of Khanwa against Babur, and died in the battle. Mewat covered a huge area in present-day Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The Meo Khanzadas claimed to have been descended from Hindu Yadu Rajputs.

Kindwar of Kharagpur

The Kharagpur Raj was a Muslim Kindwar Rajput chieftaincy in modern-day Munger district of Bihar. Raja Sangram Singh led a rebellion against the Mughal authorities and was subsequently defeated and executed. His son, Toral Mal, converted to Islam and took name Roz Afzun. Roz Afzun became a loyal commander of Jahangir and Shah Jahan, and Jahangir referred to him as his "favourite" commander in the empire. Another prominent chieftain of this dynasty was Tahawar Singh who played an active role in the Mughal expedition against the nearby Cheros of Palamu.

Lalkhani of Bulandshahr

Ahmad Said Khan, the Nawab of Chhatri and a Lalkhani Rajput

The Lalkhanis are a Muslim Rajput community and a sub-clan of the Bargujars. They were the Nawabs of various estates in western Uttar Pradesh. These included Chhatari and neighbouring regions including parts of Aligarh and Bulandshahr.

Qaimkhani of Fatehpur-Jhunjhunu

The Qaimkhanis were a Muslim Rajput dynasty who were notable for ruling the Fatehpur–Jhunjhunu region in Rajasthan from the 1300s to the 1700s. They claimed to have descended from Hindu Chauhan Rajputs.

Mayi of Bihar

The Mayi clan were the chieftains of the Narhat–Samai (Hisua) chieftaincy in modern-day Nawada district in south Bihar. Descended from the Bhatti Rajputs of Talwandi, one of their notable figures was Daulat Khan Mayi, a Rajput subahdar of Kandahar. The founder of the Mayi clan was Nuraon Khan who arrived in Bihar in the 17th century. His descendants were Azmeri and Deyanut who were granted zamindari rights over six parganas by the Mughal authorities. Deyanut's son was Kamgar Khan who expanded his land by attacking and plundering neighbouring zamindars. Kamgar Khan also led numerous revolts against the Mughals and attempted to assert the Mayi's independence. His descendant was Iqbal Ali Khan who took part in the 1781 revolt in Bihar against the British however his revolt failed and Mayi's lost much of their land.

Bias and Ghosi of Bengal

Rajput communities began settling in Bengal during the Sultanate period where they were given high ranks in the Bengal government. One notable example is of Bhagirath of Ayodhya, who belonged to the Hindu Bais clan, who was appointed as the Dewan of Sultan Ghiyasuddin Mahmud Shah. His son, Kalidas Gajdani embraced Sunni Islam through the guidance of Ibrahim Danishmand and became known as Sulaiman Khan. Bhagirath's grandson, Isa Khan, grew to become the chief of Bengal's Baro-Bhuyan confederacy which posed as a threat to the Mughals who wanted to conquer Bengal. The diwans of Mymensingh and Dhaka during the 19th-century were said to be the descendants of Muslim Rajputs.

Another Bengali Rajput community are the Ghosi, who can predominantly be found in the 24 Parganas and Midnapore districts, particularly near the towns of Barrackpur and Kharagpur. They migrated to Bengal from Kanpur five centuries ago and are descended from Amar Singh Rathore, a Rajput nobleman from Jhansi who converted to Islam. They are divided into several clans; Rathore, Dogar, Chauhan, Khelari, Tatar, Lehar, Nahar and Maidul.[need quotation to verify]

Gichki of Makran

The Makran state was ruled by Gichki Nawabs, who were of Rajput origin. Their ancestor, Jagat Singh, had migrated from Rajputana in the 17th century and converted to Islam, although the clan later Balochised.

Demographics

British India

Punjab

In the Punjab Province of British India, comprising Punjab and some parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa in modern Pakistan as well Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, and some parts of Himachal Pradesh in modern India, in 1921, 70.7% of the Punjabi Rajputs were Muslims while 27.7% were Hindus, with the highest percentage of Rajputs found in Rawalpindi, with 21%.

Pakistan

In 2008, it was estimated that the Rajput population in Pakistan stood at 15 million, with around 9 million in Punjab, nearly 5 million in Sindh, followed by 643,000 in Azad Kashmir, 223,000 in Islamabad, 174,000 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 37,000 in Balochistan.[citation needed]

Punjab

In Pakistan's Punjab province, the Rajputs are dominant in the Pothohar Plateau through its politics and military.

As per the 2017 Pakistan census, Rajputs numbered around 5% of Lahore's population, their population amounting to some 550,000 individuals out of Lahore's total population of around 11 million.

India

Uttar Pradesh

In India's Uttar Pradesh, many Rajput communities have embraced Islam, such as the Bais or the Gautam, the Gautamanas or Gautam Thakurs as they like to call themselves being the largest such group in the Fatehpur district, where they number around 100,000.

Notable people

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Rajput". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 30 October 2014.
  2. ↑ "UNHCR Refugee Review Tribunal. IND32856, 6 February 2008" (PDF).
  3. 1 2 Singhal, Damodar P. (1972). Pakistan. Prentice Hall. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-13-648477-6. Large communities converted to Islam from among Hindus carried with them Hindu customs and usages, and often passed them on to other Muslims. Many Rajput converts even retained their family names, such as Chauhan and Rajput.
  4. ↑ Singh, Yogendra (1973). Modernization of Indian Tradition. Oriental Press. p. 74. The next in status are a few higher caste Hindu converts to Islam, particularly the Rajputs
  5. ↑ Cambridge South Asian Studies, Issue 16. 1965. p. 24. ISBN 978-0-521-20432-3. The latter may be subdivided into three distinct groups: converts from Hindu high castes such as Muslim Rajputs, converts from clean occupational castes such as Julahas and Qassabs, and converts from unclean occupational castes such as Bhangis and Chamars.
  6. 1 2 توصیف الحسن میواتی الہندی (23 August 2020). تاریخِ میو اور داستانِ میوات.
  7. ↑ Ashok Pratap Singh and Pratija Kumari (2007). Psychological implications in Industrial Performance. Global Vision Publishing House. pp. 694–696. ISBN 9788182202009.
  8. ↑ Self and sovereignty: Individual and Community in South Asian Islam Since 1850 by Ayesha Jalal, Routledge 2000, p480, p481
  9. ↑ Muslim Women by Zakia A. Siddiqi, Anwar Jahan Zuberi, Aligarh Muslim University, India University Grants, M.D. Publications Pvt. Ltd., 1993, p93
  10. 1 2 "Tareekh-e-Miyo Chhatri by Hakeem Abdush Shakoor". Rekhta. Retrieved 20 June 2022.
  11. ↑ Bharadwaj, Suraj (2016). State Formation in Mewat Relationship of the Khanzadas with the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal State, and Other Regional Potentates. Oxford University Press. p. 11. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199462797.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-946279-7. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
  12. ↑ Tahir Hussain Ansari (20 June 2019). Mughal Administration and the Zamindars of Bihar. Taylor & Francis. pp. 22–28. ISBN 978-1-000-65152-2.
  13. ↑ Yogendra P. Roy (1999). "Agrarian Reforms in "Sarkar" Munger under Raja Bahrox Singh (1631-76) Of Kharagpur". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 60: 287–292. JSTOR 44144095.
  14. ↑ Yogendra P. Roy (1993). "Raja Roz Afzun of Kharagpur (AD 1601 - 31". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 54: 357–358. JSTOR 44142975.
  15. ↑ Yogendra P. Roy (1992). "Tahawar Singh-A Muslim Raja of Kharagpur Raj (1676 - 1727)". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 53: 333–334. JSTOR 44142804.
  16. ↑ Eric Stokes (1978). The Peasant and the Raj: Studies in Agrarian Society and Peasant Rebellion in Colonial India. CUP Archive. pp. 199–. ISBN 978-0-521-29770-7.
  17. ↑ Sunita Budhwar (1978). "The Qayamkhani Shaikhzada Family of Fatehpur-Jhunjhunu". Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 39: 412–425. JSTOR 44139379.
  18. ↑ Dr Dasharatha Sharma, Kyam Khan Raso, Ed. Dasharath Sharma, Agarchand Nahta, Rajsthan Puratatva Mandir, 1953, page-15
  19. ↑ Kolff, Dirk H. A. (2002). Naukar, Rajput, and Sepoy: The Ethnohistory of the Military Labour Market of Hindustan, 1450-1850. Cambridge University Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-521-52305-9.
  20. ↑ Gyan Prakash (30 October 2003). Bonded Histories: Genealogies of Labor Servitude in Colonial India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 87–89. ISBN 978-0-521-52658-6.
  21. ↑ Ahmed, ABM Shamsuddin (2012). "Isa Khan". In Sirajul Islam; Miah, Sajahan; Khanam, Mahfuza; Ahmed, Sabbir (eds.). Banglapedia: the National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh (Online ed.). Dhaka, Bangladesh: Banglapedia Trust, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. ISBN 984-32-0576-6. OCLC 52727562. OL 30677644M. Retrieved 26 October 2026.
  22. ↑ Eaton, Richard Maxwell (1993). "Bengal under the Sultans". The rise of Islam and the Bengal frontier, 1204-1760. University of California Press. p. 122. ISBN 978-0-520-20507-9.
  23. ↑ M. K. A. Siddiqui (2004). Marginal Muslim communities in India. Institute of Objective Studies (New Delhi, India). pp. 295–305. ISBN 978-81-85220-58-1.
  24. ↑ Malik, Fida Hussain (14 October 2020). Balochistan: A Conflict of Narratives. Saiyid Books. p. 11. ISBN 978-969-2200-02-8.
  25. ↑ Quddus, Syed Abdul (1990). The Tribal Baluchistan. Ferozsons. p. 63. ISBN 978-969-0-10047-4. The former rulers of Makran and Lasbela, Gichki and Jamots respectively, are Rajputs.
  26. ↑ Spooner, Brian (1964). "Kūch u Balūch and Ichthyophagi". Iran. 2: 53–67. doi:10.2307/4299552. ISSN 0578-6967. JSTOR 4299552. The Gichki are the descendants of a Rajput family which settled in 17th century.
  27. ↑ Ahmed, Manzoor; Khan, Gulawar (2017). "The History of Baloch and Balochistan: A Critical Appraisal" (PDF). South Asian Studies. 32: 39–52. The Gichki (the ruling family of British Makran during mid 18th century) are said to have migrated from the Rajputana under Jagat Singh and settled in Kech (Makran). Their descendants, called Gichkis, have ruled over Makran for decades. The Gichki have been living in Balochistan since 18th century and identify as Baloch.
  28. ↑ Sharma, Subash Chander (1987). Punjab, the Crucial Decade. New Delhi: Nirmal Publishers & Distributors. p. 105. ISBN 978-81-7156-173-5.
  29. ↑ Arshad, Sameer (7 May 2013). "Caste plays dominant role in Pak elections". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 15 January 2024. Rajputs are dominant in northern Punjab, where Abbasi's constituency is located, followed by Jats in central and Balochs in the province's south.
  30. ↑ "District Profile". District Lahore - Government of Punjab. Archived from the original on 27 November 2023.
  31. ↑ Sethi, Atul (8 July 2007). "The Muslim Rajputs of UP". The Times of India. Retrieved 27 January 2024.

Further reading