Bhau

My nanke are in jind district. They settled here after partition from Tehsil Chunian Dist. Lahore. The sikh rulers dont have an impressive record of doing parchar and spreading sikhi to the masses. We missed a huge oppurtunity of bringing a large number of muslims of west punjab and jats of haryana into the fold of sikhi.

Everyone knows about this hero brother. But nothing is absolute and there are always a few exceptions. And in this case these exceptions are akin to a drop in the ocean. There were many hindu and muslim militants supporting the cause for that matter.

Brother the figure of 250k is too far fetched to be true. Jaswant singh khalra found records of about 8-10000 bodies being illegally cremated by police in amritsar-tarn taran area during height of militancy. But the main point to take into consideration is that more than 50% of total casualties took place in the majha area. So we cant argue that other areas were affected the same as amritsar-tarn taran-gurdaspur division. Historians and investigators from all spectrums put the death toll between 30 to 50 thousand casualties.

Thats the reason the perception of a sikh in india is that of a khatri/bhapa sikh. Most people dont even know the there is a separate entity called jatt sikhs with their own nature, customs, characteristics etc because the only sikhs they have come across are urban khatri sikhs. No wonder sikhs have been made an object of ridicule by some. I recently had a debate with a bhapa acquaintance and when i presented him with facts about how jatt sikhs were instrumental in creation of sikhism and khalsa and hugely disproportionate sacrifices made by them to preserve the religion, he, like others, played the 'equality' card saying how our gurus preached that there are no castes etc and everyone is equal. But facts are facts. And when i asked him that how come after 3000 sikhs were butchered in delhi, no bhapa from delhi joined the struggle and picked an AK47, he drew a blank. Meanwhile we lost 35000 young men between 1984-1993, 90% of them jatt sikhs in an effort to pick up and put the turban back on the head of the kaum. Sorry if i offended anyone since i am majhail and we are known to be a tad bit emotional and impulsive.

Right jonny101. Even i have a bhua and some relatives over there. They battled jungle, marshes and malaria to make the land useable. They practically created their own little Majha with huge tracts of lands and their 'Behaks'. Many families suffered a lot during militancy. Another hotbead of militancy was in haryana in districts of jind, karnal etc which too were settled by jatt sikhs from lahore, sialkot etc.

Other than that i agree whole heartedly that public perception of partition is greatly skewed in favour of migration and hardships of khatri sikhs from potohar, rawalpindi, peshawar etc by the indian media and writers. The loss of life and property of jatt sikhs has been relegated to a secondary role, if any. Also want to point out that a significant and prosperous jatt sikh community is present in UP in rural Terai region in areas like Pilibhit etc. They migrated mostly from lahore, sialkot and lyallpur districts. The Terai region was the biggest hotbead of militancy outside Amritsar-Tarn Taran-Gurdaspur division.

I was only referring to first part of proactive's statement in which he stated that the sikh jatts from lyallpur and montgomery made about 1/3rd of total sikh jatt population that migrated from west to east punjab. Also wanted to give other members a brief history of canal colonies.

I have to agree with brother proactive on this one. The areas of lyallpur and montgomery(sahiwal) are referred to as 'Bars'. The name Bar was given to areas which were covered with thick forests but fertile soil and were recently sparcely populated until the advent of canals by the British. As a result large tracts of lands became available and large number of people including jatt sikhs settled here from as far as jalandhar district. District lyallpur is known as 'Sandal Bar' and montgomery is known as 'Neeli Bar'. Its from this area that the famous buffalo species 'Neeli Ravi' derives its name. But strictly speaking the areas of bar are not included in historical Majha because of their own Bari culture. My own family is from village Kalu Khara Tehsil Kasur Dist. Lahore. Its only about 10 km from Khem Karan Dist. Tarn Taran but on the other side of border:( I remember my grandparents always talking and longing to go see our village and cities of lahore and kasur. It was always on their minds. My grandfather used to say famous proverb ' Jine Lahore ni vekhya, oh jammya e koni. ' Jatt sikhs were the most dominant community in western punjab owning most of the land along with one of the best irrigation system in Asia.