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The Malaise of Jat
Consciousness
Ajmer Singh
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The Jat's democratic
or fraternal spirit has been confined mainly to his own
community. He has never brooked any non-Jat in the village as
the owner of land. This shows a congenital lack of democratic
spirit. His self-esteem, a distinct feature of his character, is
offset by his yearnings gained through Manu’s influence. |
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 The jat factor
has played the dominant role in the politics of
Punjab,
especially after 1947. This factor needs some deeper analysis.
Several legends
about the origin of the Jat community are available. The more
acceptable belief is that the fore-fathers of the Jats had been the
roaming tribes of
Central Asia,
namely the ‘Huun’, ‘Shuk’ and ‘Cythian’ tribes. They had migrated
to this land much later than the Aryans. As these tribes did not
have permanent settlements, they survived through skirmishes and
loots etc. Fighting got imbued in their blood. They are counted
amongst the most adventurous and ferocious people in the world. It
is believed that after migration in this region these tribes drove
the Aryan settlers away towards the
Ganga
basin and began land cultivation. It was maybe this reason that the
brahamnical influence on the farming community was limited to areas
other than the
Punjab.
The economic and
community bonds that defined the clannish setup, visible through its
spirit of freedom, equality and self-assertion, had been the
striking traits of the Jats settled in
Punjab. The
second defining trait of this community has been its belief in the
personality cult. In a way, the Jat is highly individualistic. He
does what suits him or what he likes and does not bother the
implications of his actions for others. Nor does he tolerate
anybody’s interference in the pursuit of his goal. He is full of
excessive self-confidence, which borders on arrogance. A doer of
things, a Jat is a man of initiative and drive. Whenever he is
required to act he acts even without consulting his leader. Records
prove that a Jat has failed miserably whenever he is required to
think deeply of an issue and act collectively. There have been
exceptions when he was motivated by a strong personality to act for
a higher cause. The jat has shown greater interest in land
cultivation and farming than in administration.
The Jat does not
accept any other caste superior to his own. He has a strong
inclination to denigrate others. Unlike other non-brahamnical or
non-upper caste communities, he has never suffered from inferiority
complex and has nursed self-esteem of being superior to any other
caste. Whenever he is economically strong his self-importance shoots
out of the roof.
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The Jat’s democratic or fraternal spirit has been confined
mainly to his own community. He has never brooked any non-Jat in
the village as the owner of land. This shows a congenital lack
of democratic spirit. His self-esteem, a distinct feature of his
character, is offset by his yearnings gained through Manu’s
influence. He revels in denigrating and humiliating low caste
people. His behaviour, in general, makes him no different from
the arrogant members of the so-called swarna castes. |
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The Jat’s
democratic or fraternal spirit has been confined mainly to his own
community. He has never brooked any non-Jat in the village as the
owner of land. The very idea of a non-Jat buying land around the
village inflames him. This shows a congenital lack of democratic
spirit. His self-esteem, a distinct feature of his character, is
offset by his yearnings gained through Manu’s influence. He revels
in denigrating and humiliating low caste people. His behaviour, in
general, makes him no different from the arrogant members of the
so-called swarna castes.
The Jat’s sense
of close-circuit fraternity, as also his fighting spirit, attracted
him towards Sikhism. The Sikh ideology gave a boost to his fraternal
spirit but the same could not be sustained for a long time. His
social behaviour and economic interests were at odds with the basic
ideals of the rupture created by Sikhism. His contempt for the lower
caste menials and members of the artisan class had been antithetical
to the tenets of Sikhism. Deadly opposed to share land with the
depressed classes he had never been prepared to treat them his equal
(except for a brief period when the egalitarian spirit prevailed in
the sikh society i. e. during the ascendancy of Baba Banda Singh
Bahadur and the formative years of the Misls). The democractic and
socially revolutionary spirit of the Sikh movement had no value if
it negated his psychic predilections. That’s the reason whenever the
jats had an edge over the rulers, and the Sikhs felt empowered, the
Sikh ideals got a beating. Instead of ‘Bhai’, a spiritual honorific
title given to a revered Sikh, the empowered jats were proud to be
called ‘Sirdars’. During the later period of the Misls, and what
happened later, the Sikh ideals were forgotten.
However, because
of the Sikh religion the lethal effect of caste system had not been
as deadly as it had been in other areas of the country. However, the
jat’s assumed superiority towards the artisan and other lowly castes
had been so blatant that his rise to power was always looked with
unease by other castes.
As Sant Fateh
Singh sidelined Master Tara Singh in early sixties, the dominance of
the Jat-farming class on the Akali Dal’s political line-up was
complete. The educated urban middle class Sikh felt marginalised.
That was another factor which created apprehensions in the lower
caste Sikhs in the countryside. It is difficult for the weaker
sections of the society to compete with those in power. As a device,
they align with new spiritual masters, gurus or cultists offering
solace to the under-privileged. In
Punjab
the under-privileged sections of the society turned to the Radha
Soami sect or the ‘Sacha Sauda’ sect and yet others sought shelter
in the cult propounderd by Dera Wadbhag Singh. Many became followers
of Nirankaris and Namdharis, etc. Besides, there were local ‘babas’,
the spiritual vendors, at several places.
This was a
highly detrimental situation for the Sikh movement. The sects and
cults had serious implications: they divided the Sikh society into
fragments of believers and pitted them against each other; besides,
through their self-seeking activities the sects polluted the ideals
of the Sikh religion thus paving the way for, and facilitating the
process of, assimilation of Sikhism in to the absorbent current of
Hinduism. The blame for such aberrations and distortions lay
squarely on the Akalis. They proved to be cause of the boost these
sects got. Their casteist arrogance and insensitive approach to the
weaker sections of the Sikh society literally drove them away from
the Sikh fold. To compound this lapse, the Akali leaders not only
got reconciled to what the sects and cults were indulging in, they
sought their help on the sly to seek votes of their followers.
The
semi-literate leadership of the Akalis had been past masters in the
game of obscurantist beliefs and superstitions; they had never
refrained from bowing before the sadhus and sants of any hue. Their
support to such men was a source of encouragement to the cult
vendors, particularly in the rural areas. So long as the Akali
leadership had remained in the hands of the urban middle class
leaders, the above tendencies got discouraged. The Jat culture,
fondly flaunted by the Akalis, had been responsible for such
distortions.
As for the
fighting spirit of the Jat, it had been in his blood as they had
originally been landless wanders. They fought for their survival.
Having faced sudden dangers they would just plunge into fighting for
survival, unable to give much thought to the whole scenario. It
appears during the ages fighting became their second nature and
‘thinking’ was never needed; not thinking about doing or not doing
something too became a habit with them. However, another truism
about them is that in times of external danger, they fight unitedly
and as soon as the danger disappears they fight with each other. A
study of the Jat’s role in history suggests that time has not
changed his basic clannish traits. He has preserved the legacy of
‘fighting without thinking’ though it is a proven fact that Sikhism
was able to give his traits and characteristics a revolutionary
coating. His behaviour gives a negative projection if not seen
through the prism of Sikh ideology. In the eighteenth century there
were sections of the Jat community who remained aloof from the Sikh
principles.
They were
instrumental in giving a fillip to the negative practices and
tendencies. But those who were awash with the spirit and principles
of Sikhism demonstrated high character and commitment. Thus, when a
Jat is imbued with the spirit and principles of Sikhism, he is worth
his weight in gold. Otherwise, he stands devalued and is no
different from brass. When he prides himself as Jat he behaves like
an arrogant rustic. The late Professor Kishan Singh puts it aptly:
“A serious contradiction afflicts the Jat farmer of the
Punjab. He has
unflinching faith in Guru Gobind Singh, yet at the same time he is
inbued with traits typical of a Jat. There are two sides to the
Jat’s known traits.
One has a
positive effect in the sense that it saves him from feeling
inferior; and the other side is negative. It makes him overbearing
and arrogant which is a disease. A jat’s negative traits can be
suppressed only through the true spirit of Sikhism.” A Jat, drained
off political consciousness, can be a foot soldier of any political
power, can kill for nothing and with any justification and can be
foolhardy enough to be proud of his misdeeds. Any ruler is
acceptable to him if he does not damage his economic interests and
lets him indulge in his micro world. Such characteristics of the Jat
were too well known to the British and the same are amply being
demonstrated in contemporary times.
13 August, 2008
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