Jats - Are they showing signs of restlessness?

For the last couple of years the Jats have become restless due to several pressures viz. pressure of livelihood, pressure of acquisition of land, rampant unemployment, diminishing return on land holdings, squeeze on the size of land holdings, political wilderness at the national level and lack of a towering personality as leader, disliking of Jats by other communities, malicious propaganda against Khaps in the national media, tarnishing of image of the Kaum or the race in history and calling them Lootera or plunderer and a subtle scheme to downgrade them at all fronts be it were for high posts in national institutions, foreign service or all India services, honor killing etc.

I could gather that at least a hundred meetings in the last four-five years have been convened by various Jat community bodies or organizations to deliberate on the above noted issues and to regain the lost honor and identity. In fact it was a search for the honor for the race that lost identity as soon as the British had left. It were only the British that had organized the Jats into a fine soldier and constituting Army units as formidable fighting force against the Axis Powers during the First and the Second Great Wars and given them the status of a Marshal Race. They called the Jats as finest farmers in the world and admitted that their nutritional status and physics is matchless throughout the Indian sub-continent. The British relied upon them as their integrity was beyond suspicion and promoted their cause and honored them so that they could sit in the front row when the British Monarch wished to meet them.

In the years that followed independence from the British in 1947 a gradual decline in the honor and status of the Jat race could be seen and the system became so cruel that they found themselves neglected at many fronts despite the fact that there was always a government in Haryana that was called 'Jat Govt.' despite their secular attitude and benevolence. The race could hardly eschew this humiliation that hung large on every Jat face. In fact nothing could come out of the hundreds of so meeting in recent years that ended only with passing of some resolutions and announcements. Everything seemed to have faded away in the oblivion because no solid system -administrative as well as financial, could exist for accomplishing the targets, which in way were false but unattainable in the given milieu.

Again a new meeting has been announced -the second one in the series within a week, that seeks support of the Jat intellectuals. The first one called at Rohtak on 26th ended up as political rally in which Mr Birender Singh, Union Agriculture Minister, was present. The second one is scheduled for 9th January. The former was on the occasion of 251 birth anniversary of Maharaja Suraj Mal and the latter on the occasion of the 157th Martyrdom Day of Raja Nahar Singh of Ballabhgarh Principality. Except expression of views, no outcome is expected from this meet too as told previously that Jats lacks a strong and powerful institution that can carry on the task with missionary zeal. It requires lots of funding sources that are hard to come by. In this instance I can site the example of Sikhs who can attain anything through SGPC. Regrettably, the Jats don't have such agencies as SGPC.