Bajwa

Bajwa
Jat Clan
Location India: Punjab (India), Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Sirsa, Jalandhar, Pakistan: Sialkot District
Language Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu
Religion Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism,

Bajwa is a major landowner clan of the Jat community, native to the Punjab region of India and Pakistan.[1]

Etymology

The word "Bajwa" means the 'Clan of the Hawk' and is derived from the word "Baaz Wala", the Persian word for hawk or falcon. Bajwas are believed to be the bravest clan amongst the Jat community. The Bajwas reside in the Bajwat, which means 'the land of Bajwas', and are the native inhabitants of Bajwat Areas of the Sialkot and Narowal districts in Punjab (Pakistan) and Gurdaspur District in India. The Bajwat is now known as Bajwat sector; an area bordering Pakistan and India.

Origin and mythology

Bajwa is a prominent and longstanding Jat clan (tribe) of the Punjab. Their origins are unclear, but according to Hindu mythologies the Bajwa are descendants of the Suryavansh, or "the sons of Sun God"; the family of superiors of the subcontinent.

Such myths assert that the ancestor of the Bajwas is Baba Manga and that the tribe's origin was Bajwat in the Sialkot and Narowal districts of Pakistan (in the Shiwalik foothills and quite near the Indian border as well as the city of Jammu). Baba Manga was said to have had had seven sons: Naro, the eldest, established a village named Naro Bajwa Narowal; the second son Deepa founded Kotli Bajwa; and the third son, Chandu founded Chanduwal. The small city of Pakistan Chawinda at the Indian border the in Sailkot district was also established in the name of Sardar Chawinda Singh Bajwa. It is said that Bajwa Jats had eighty-four villages in the Sialkot area.

History

The ancestors of the Bajwa clan, Bajwa (or Wajab) lived in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan, evidenced by the presence of a small railway station named Bajwa in the area of Rajistan-Gugrat province. From there, the ancestors of the Bajwa clan migrated to Sialkot, Gujranwala, Jammu, Gurdaspur and Northern Indian Punjab, with one tribe member (Raja Shilp) becoming the ruler of Multan before being ousted by Sikandar Lodhi.

Bajwas in India are mostly Sikhs, while Bajwas in Pakistan are usually Muslims. Bajwas became Sikhs under the religious influence of Great Baba Guru Nanak Dev Ji, the founder of the Sikh Religion, and were the companions of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Distribution in India and Pakistan

There is a roughly equal distribution of Bajwas in both India and Pakistan. In India they are mainly Sikh but with a strong Hindu Bajwa ("Bajia" in Rajasthan) community presence. In Pakistan, Bajwas are Muslim, Sunni, or Ahmadiyya.

People of the Bajwa community are spread across various locations across India and Pakistan, mainly in:

Notable Bajwas

Entertainment

Sportsmen


Politicians

Writers

Notable Military Officials

References

  1. ↑ "Home of the Bajwa Family". bajwa.net. Retrieved 23 May 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 B. S. Dhillon, History and study of the Jats. ISBN 1895603021, ISBN 9781895603026
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