The Hazaras

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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.

Hazaras

(Caste No. 183) Besides the 38 Hazaras shown for the Peshawar district in table VINA., 44 others have returned themselves as Hazara Pathans, of whom 39 are in Kohat. But this certainly does not represent the whole number of Hazaras who were in the Panjab at the time of the Census, and it is probable that most of them have returned themselves as Pathans simply, without specifying any tribe. The Hazaras of Kabul have abeady been noticed in section 396. They hold the Parapo misus of the ancients, extending from Kabul and Ghazni to Hirat, and from Kandahar to Balkh. They are almost certainly Mongol Tartars, and were settled in their present abodes by Changiz Khan. They have now almost wholly lost their Mongol speech, but retain the physical and physiognomic characters of the race, and are '^ as pure Mongols as when they settled 600 years ago with their famihes, their flocks, and their worldly possessions.' They intermarry only among themselves, and in the interior of their territory are almost wholly independent. They are des -ribed at length by Dr. Bellew in Chapter XIN of his races of Afghanistan. General Cunningham says that in Babar's time the Karluki (? Karlaghi) Hazaras held the country on both banks of the Sohan in Ruwalpindi ; and he refers to them the well known coins of Sri Hasan Karluki of the bull and horseman type, which he as .'ribes to the beginning of the 13th century. But the descendants of these people are apparently returned as Turks and not as Hazaras, and they will, be discussed later on under the former head. Their history in the Ilazara district has been sketched in section 412. Dr. Bellew describes the Hazaras as a —

very simple-uuuJcd people, and very much in the hands of their priest. They are for the most part entirely illiterate, are governed by tribal and clan chiefs whose authority over their people is absolute, and they are generally very poor and hardy. Many thousands of them come •' down to the Panjab every cold season in seareh of labOur either on the roads, or as well-sinkers, wall-buildcrs, &c. In their own country they have the reputation of being a brave and hardy race, and amongst the Afghans they are considei-ed a faithful, industrious and intelligent people as servants. Many thousands of them find employment at Kabul and Ghazni and Kandahar during the winter months as labourers — in the two former cities mainly in removing the snow from the house-tops and streets. In consequence of their being heretics, the Sunui Afghans hold them in slavery, and in most of the larger towns the servant-maids are purchased slaves of this people.

They are all Shiahs.