View source for Foreign races’ in the Punjab

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This article is an extract from <br/>

PANJAB CASTES <br/>

SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. <br/>

Being a reprint of the chapter on <br/>
The Races, Castes and Tribes of <br/>
the People in the Report on the <br/>
Census of the Panjab published <br/>
in ''' 1883 ''' by the late Sir Denzil <br/>
Ibbetson, KCSI <br/>

Lahore : <br/>

Printed  by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, <br/>

1916. <br/>
''Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees ''<br/> 
''with the contents of this article.''
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[[Category:India|F]]
[[Category:Communities|F]]

==’Foreign races’ in the Punjab==

I have called the groups of which the figures are 
given On the next page* in Abstract No. 87 Foreign Races, because they bear *P- 207. 
titles properly foreign to India and for the most part lay claim to foreign 
origin. It will presently be seen how little real right many of them have to 
the names they bear. The Saiyads might have been included in the group, but 
they have been classed with the priestly castes. The present group is divisible 
into three sections, the Arab and Shekh, the Turk and Mughal, and the 
Ghulam and Qizilbash. The last two and probable many of the Arabs and 
Turks are tme foreigners, and have a good claim to the names they bear ; but 
the Shekhs and Mughals are for the most part mere pretenders. What Rajput 
is to the Hindu, Sheikh, Saivad, and in the west of the Paujab Mughal, are 
to the  Musalman ; and every convert of low caste wlio wishes to glorify himself 
assumes one of these titles, while tribes whose origin is lowly or has been for 
gotten, trace their descent from the people of the Prophet or of one of the 
Mahomedan conquerors of India. As Mr. Thompson puts it : Pride of race 
leads to the invention of some royal progenitor, and pride of religion is a 
perpetual inducement to escape from the admission of an idolatrous ancestry.

==The Arab== 

(Caste No. 140) 

Arabs are returned in the Panjab 
chiefly from the Multan and Peshawar divisions. They are probably Arab 
merchants from Bombay, where I believe men of true Arab extraction are 
somewhat numerous. That they have not come direct from Arabia is shown 
by the language table, in which Arabic is returned as the mother-tongue of 
only 63 persons. More than half the Arabs in the Panjab are to be found in 
Peshawar itself. This is hardly to be wondered at, for Peshawar is a 
city in which may be found representatives of almost every Eastern nation, 
and is the half-way house between India and Asia. It is possible that some of 
our Shekhs, whether truly or falsely so called, may have returned themselves as 
Arab.s, but I do not think it likely. The true Shekhs are of course of Arab  
origin ; but I believe that such men when their settlement in the Pan j fib is of 

any long standing, always call themselves Shekh or Qureshi, and not Arab. 

==The Shekh== 

(Caste No, 17)  

Shekh is an Arabic word meaning an 
elder or Chief, and proliably corresponds very closely among the tribes of 
Arabia with Chandri  among those of the Panjab. Thus the title should 
properly be confined to, and is very generally assumed by tribes of true Arab 
descent. But it has been degraded to a much more vulgar use. If a Rajput 
or Jat turn Mahomedan he retains his caste name, and is still a Rajput or 
Jat ; though I have known Musalman Rajputs who had fallen in life and 
taken to weaving call themselves Shekhs, though still recognized as relations 
by their brethren of the village whence they came. So if an outcast or 
man of impure calling becomes Musalman and retains his occupation, or at 
least substitutes for it another only slightly less degrading, he also retains 
his caste name or is known by an entirely new one, such as Dinddr or 
IMusalli. But the class which lie between these two extremes, and are 
neither so proud of their origin as to wish, nor so degraded by their occupa
tion as to be compelled to retain their original caste name, very generally 
abandon that name on their conversion to Islam and adopt the title of Shekh, 

There Is a Persian proverb : The first year I was a weaver (Julaha) ; the 
next year a Shekh. This year if prices rise I shall be a Saiyad.Moreover 
many of the inferior agricultural Musalman tribes of Indian descent have, 
especially in the west of the Province, set up a claim to Arab orig-in ; and 
though they are still known by their tribal name, have probably or almost 
certainly returned themselves as Shekhs in the present Census. In these 
last cases they will in all probalullty have often shown then- tribal name as 
the sub-division of the Shekhs to which they belong, and it is to be hoped 
that the detailed clan tribes will, when published, throw much light upon 
the tme composition of our figures for Shekhs. Meanwhile only a few of 
the largest sub-divisions can be examined. In one respect I myself am res
ponsible for the uncenainty of meaning which attaches to these figures. 
There are certain agricultural tribes whose claims lo Qureshi origin appear to 
be valid, such as the Khagga and Hans of Montgomery ; and these men I 
included under the head Shekh. It was most certainly a mistake to do so, 
and I shall give separate figures for them below. With them I shall discuss 
some of the larger sub-divisions of Shekhs which have been returned in our 
papers. In many cases the titles here given are no less misleading than the 
original title of Shekh. The Shekhs who have returned themselves as Jats 
in the Multan and Derajat division are shown in Abstract No. 72,  page no 224

Shekhs do not bear the best of characters in some parts. In Rohtak 
they are said to supply recruits to our armies and jails with praiseworthy 
indifference,and in Derail Ismail Khan the Naumuslim Shekhs are described 
as a lazy thriftless set of cultivators.The true Qureshis of the south
western districts, however, are often possessed of great influence, and hold a 
high character for sanctity. Such are the descendants of Baha-ul-haqq the 
renowned saint of Multan, who are known as Hashmi Qureshis, and whose 
family is described at pages 490ff of Griffin''s Panjab Chifs. They are chiefly 
found in the Llultan, Jhang. and Muzaffargarh districts.