Khokhar

Regions with significant populations
Pakistan,  India
Languages
Punjabi, Haryanvi, Hindi-Urdu
Religion
Islam, Hinduism[1]
Related ethnic groups
Khokhar Khanzada, Gakhars, Jats, Rajputs

Khokhar^[2] are a tribe found in the Pothohar Plateau of Pakistani Punjab and the Indian states of Punjab and Haryana.^[3][1] Khokhars originally followed Hinduism, although they now predominantly follow Islam in Pakistan following their large-scale conversion, while those living in India, continue to follow Hinduism.^[1][4][3] Many Khokhars converted to Islam from Hinduism after coming under the influence of Baba Fariduddin Ganjshakar.^[5][3][6] The Persian historian of the medieval period, Firishta, has called the then Khokhar people a "race of wild barbarians without religion and morality".^[7]

History

The murder of Muhammad Ghori by the Khokhars

Muhammad of Ghor undertook many campaigns against the Khokhars and defeated them in his final battle fought on the bank of Jhelum and subsequently ordered a general massacre of their populace. While returning back to Ghazna, he was assassinated at Dhamiak located in the Salt Range in March 1206 by the Qarmatians whom he persecuted during his reign.^[8][9] Some later acoounts attributed the assassination of Muhammad of Ghor to the Hindu Khokhars, however these later accounts are not corroborated by early Persian chroniclers who confirmed that his assassins were from the rival Ismāʿīlīyah sect of Shia Muslims.^[10][11]

During his final campaign, Muhammad also took many of the Khokars as prisoners who were later forcefully converted to Islam from Hinduism.^[12] During the same expedition, he also converted many other Hindu Khokhars and Buddhists who lived between Ghazna and Punjab. According to the Persian chroniclers "about three or four lakhs of infidels who wore the sacred thread were made Muslamans during this campaign".^[13] The 16th century Indo-Persian historian, Ferishta states - "most of the infidels who resided between the mountains of Ghazna and Indus were converted to the true faith (Islam)".^[12]

Under Delhi Sultanate

In 1240 CE, Razia, daughter of Shams-ud-din Iltutmish, and her husband, Altunia, attempted to recapture the throne from her brother, Muizuddin Bahram Shah. She is reported to have led an army composed mostly of mercenaries from the Khokhars of Punjab.^{[14] [15]} From 1246 to 1247, Balban mounted an expedition as far as the Salt Range to eliminate the Khokhars which he saw as a threat.^[16]

Although Lahore was controlled by the government in Delhi in 1251, it remained in ruins for the next twenty years, being attacked multiple times by the Mongols and their Khokhar allies.^[17] Around the same time, a Mongol commander named Hulechu occupied Lahore, and forged an alliance with Khokhar chief Gul Khokhar, the erstwhile ally of Muhammad's father.^[18]

In 1320, Ghazi Malik launched an attack with the use of an army of Khokhar tribesmen and killed the then Sultan of Delhi, Khusro Khan to assume power.^[19][20]

The governor of Nagaur, Rajasthan under the Delhi Sultanate was Jalal Khan Khokhar. Jalal Khan Khokhar married the sister of the wife of Rana Chunda, the ruler of the emergent Marwar kingdom.^[21] Rana Chunda was killed in a battle against Jalal Khokhar.^[22]

According to Richard M. Eaton, Khizr Khan, the founder of the Sayyid dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate was a Khokhar chieftain.^[23] He travelled to Samarkand and profited from the contacts he made with the Timurid society.^[24]

Independent Chieftains

Mustafa Jasrat Khokhar (sometimes Jasrath or Dashrath)^[25] was the son of Shaikha Khokhar. He became leader of the Khokhars after the death of Shaikha Khokhar. Later, he returned to Punjab. He supported Shahi Khan in the war for control of Kashmir against Ali Shah of Sayyid dynasty and was later rewarded for his victory. Later, he attempted to conquer Delhi, after the death of Khizr Khan. He succeeded only partially, while winning campaigns at Talwandi and Jullundur, he was hampered by seasonal rains in his attempt to take over Sirhind.^[26]

When the Punjabi Muslim Muzaffarids declared independence of a Sultanate centered in Gujarat,^[27] Nagaur came under the subah of Gujarat, and Jalal Khan acknowledged the sovereignty of the Muzaffar Shah.^[28] Jalal Khan became the ruler of Nagaur.^[29]

Colonial era

In reference to the British Raj's recruitment policies in the Punjab Province of colonial India, vis-à-vis the British Indian Army, Tan Tai Yong remarks:

The choice of Muslims was not merely one of physical suitability. As in the case of the Sikhs, recruiting authorities showed a clear bias in favor of the dominant landowning tribes of the region, and recruitment of Punjabi Muslims was limited to those who belonged to tribes of high social standing or reputation - the "blood proud" and once politically dominant aristocracy of the tract. Consequently, socially dominant Muslim tribes such as the Gakkhars, Janjuas and Awans, and a few Rajput tribes, concentrated in the Rawalpindi and Jhelum districts, ... accounted for more than ninety percent of Punjabi Muslim recruits.^[30]

In reference to the historical residence of Khokhars at their traditional seat, the Salt Range:

The history of this region (the Salt Range) from the thirteenth century onward had been a sickening record of wars between various dominant landowning and ruling clans of Punjabi Muslims including the Janjuas, Gakhars, Thathals and Bhattis for political ascendancy.^[31][32]

See also

• List of Rulers of Pothohar Plateau
• Tribes and clans of the Pothohar Plateau
• List of Punjabi tribes

References

Citations

Bibliography

• Wink, Andre (1991). Al-Hind the Making of the Indo-Islamic World: The Slave Kings and the Islamic Conquest : 11Th-13th Centuries. BRILL. ISBN 9004102361.