Minor Dominant Tribes

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This article is an extract from PANJAB CASTES SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. Being a reprint of the chapter on The Races, Castes and Tribes of the People in the Report on the Census of the Panjab published in 1883 by the late Sir Denzil Ibbetson, KCSI Lahore : Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1916. Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this article.

Minor dominant tribes

The tribes or castes which I have included in Abstract No. 83 on the next page* are those which are, like the Jats and Rajputs, dominant in parts of the Panjab, but are not so numerous or 67. so widely spread as to rank with those great races. Indeed many of them are probably tribes rather than castes or races ; though in some cases their origin has been forgotten, while in others an obviously false origin has been invented. They are divided into four groups, the Karral, Gakkhar, Awan, and Khattar of the Salt-range Tract, the Khokhar, Kharral and Daudpotra of the Western Plains, and the Dogar, Ror, Taga, Meo and Khan zadah of the Eastern Plains ; wliile the Gujar, who is more widely distributed than the rest, comes last by himself. With the Western Plains group are included the Kathia, Hans, and Khagga, for whom I have no separate figures : indeed it will be apparent from a perusal of the following paragraphs that the figures for all these minor castes in the western half of the Province are exceedingly imperfect. Not only are the lax use of the word Jat and the ill defined nature of the line separating Jats from Rajputs already alluded to sources of great confusion, but many of these tribes have set up claims to an origin which shall connect them with the founder of the Mahomedan religion, or with some of the great Mahomedan conquerors.

Thus we find many of them returned or classed as Shekh, Mughal, or what not ; and the figures of the Abstract alone are exceedingly misleading. I have in each case endeavoured to separate the numbers thus returned, and to include them under their proper caste headings ; and it is the figures thus given in the text, and not those of the tables, that should be referred to. Even these are not complete, for till we have the full detail of clans we cannot complete the classification.

The ethnic grouping of the tribes discussed in this section is a subject which I had hoped to examine, but which lack of time compels me to pass by unnoticed. I will only note how the tendency on the frontier and throughout the Salt-range Tract is to claim Arab or Mughal, and in the rest of the Province to claim Rajput origin. The two groups of tribes which occupy the mountain country of the Salt-range and the great plateaus of the Western Plains are the most interesting sections of the Pan jab land-owning classes, need the most careful examination, and would reward it with the richest return.

The Karral

Caste No. 101

The Karrals are returned for Hazara only ; and I have no information concerning them save what Major Wace gives in his Settlement Report of that district. He writes : The Karral country consists of the Nara ihiqah in the Abbottabad tahsil. The Karrals were formerly the subjects of the Gakkhars, from whom they emancipated them selves some two centuries ago. Originally Hindus, their conversion to Islam is of comparatively modern date. Thirty years ago their acquaintance with the Mahomedan faith was still slight ; and though they now know more of it, and are more careful to observe it, relics of their former Hindu faith are still observable in their social habits.

They are attached to their homes and their fields, which they cultivate simply and industriously. For the rest, their character is crafty and cowardly Major Wace further notes that the Karrals are identical in origin and character with the Dhunds. This would make the Karrals one of the Rajput tribes of the hills lying along the left bank of the Jahlam ; and I have been informed by a native officer that they claim Rajput origin. They are said too to have recently set up a claim to Kayani Mughal origin, in common with the Gakkhars ; or, as a variety, that their ancestor came from Kayan, but was a descendant of Alexander the Great ! But the strangest story of all is that a queen of the great Raja Rasalu of Panjab folklore had by a paramour of the scavenger class four sons, Seo, Teo, Gheo, and Kam, from whom are respectively descended the Sials, Tiwanas, Ghebas, and Karrals. They intermarry with Gakkhars, Saiyads, and Dhunds.

See The Gakkhar