The above account clearly indicates the social position of the
Jat. His is the highest caste except the aristocracy consisting
of the Brahmans and Rajputs, the Khatris who are derived from the
Rajputs, and the Banias who are recognised as ranking not much
below the Rajputs. The derivation of some of the Rajput clans from
the Jats seems highly probable, and is confirmed by other instances
of aristocratic selection in such castes as the Marathas and Kunbis,
the Raj-Gonds and Gonds, and so on. If, however, the Rajputs are a Jat
aristocracy, it is clear that the Jats were not the Sudras, who are
described as wholly debased and impure in the Hindu classics; and the
present application of the term Sudra to them is a misnomer arising
from modern errors in classification by the Hindus themselves. The
Jats, if Sir D. Ibbetson's account be accepted, must have been the
main body of the invading host, whether Aryan or Scythian, of whom
the Rajputs were the leaders. They settled on the land and formed
village communities, and the status of the Jat at present appears to
be that of a member of the village community and part-holder of its
land. A slightly undue importance may perhaps have been given in the
above passage to the practice of widow-marriage as determining the
position of a great caste like the Jats. Some Rajputs, Kayasths and
Banias permit widow-marriage, and considerable sections of all these
castes, and Brahmans also, permit the practice of keeping widows,
which, though not called a marriage, does not differ very widely from
it. The Jat probably finds his women too valuable as assistants in
cultivation to make a pretence at the abolition of widow-marriage in
order to improve his social status as some other castes do. The Jat,
of course, ranks as what is commonly called a pure caste, in that
Brahmans take water to drink from him. But his status does not depend
on this, because Brahmans take water from such menials as barbers,
Kahars or bearers, Baris or household servants, and so on, who rank
far below the Jat, and also from the Malis and other gardening castes
who are appreciably below him. The Jat is equal to the Gujar and Ahir
so far as social purity is concerned, but still above them, because
they are graziers and vagrants, while he is a settled cultivator. It
is from this fact that his status is perhaps mainly derived; and
his leading characteristics, his independence, self-sufficiency,
doggedness, and industry, are those generally recognised as typical
of the peasant proprietor. But the Jat, in the Punjab at any rate,
has also a higher status than the principal cultivating castes of
other provinces, the Kurmi and the Kunbi. And this may perhaps be
explained by his purer foreign descent, and also by the fact that
both as Jat and as Sikh his caste has been a military and dominant
one in history and has furnished princes and heads of states.