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User:Choudhary Ahmad

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Arain Tribe
Regions with significant populations
Pakistan
Languages
PunjabiUrduSaraikiSindhiPashto
Religion
Islam

The Arain (Urdu: آرائیں‎) are a Pakistani zamindars(landlord) tribe who are found mainly in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh. However, some of the Arains are also found in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but with very least population speaking Pashto and Saraiki, Specially in the Tank District of Dera Ismail Khan. They are also found in Delhi, Amritsar, Kanpur of Indian.

Families/ Surenames

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Arains mostly use the family names (some former titles) of: Choudhary, Mian(Man of honour), Mehar(Masters),Ramay, Ramday(red-eyed solider),Kardar, Saleemi, Hijazi, Malik(Sharaqpuri Arains), Bhutta, Ghurki, Alrai, Bhutto, Sardar.

Origins

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The origin of Arain is uncertian. However, Arains (Urdu: آرائین) are descendants of Arab invaders to the Indian subcontinent. Sheikh Akbar Shah Khan Najeebabadi, an Indian historian of Islam, wrote that they entered India thru Debal, Sindh with Muhammad Bin Qasim in 92 Hijri, 712 AD. He refered to them as Ari-hai from Ariha (Jericho) which was Punjabized with a nasal sound to Arain. It is also believed that the word Arain is derived from the Arabic name Ar-Ra'i, "The shepherd", a title indigenous to Arabia. The historian and political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot, agrees with that and wrote that they are displaced farming communities who moved to Punjab from Sindh and Multan as Arab Muslim armies encroached.

Most Arains are very fair, and many have coloured eyes, and all of them are Muslims, which means that they could not be of Indian ancestary. Under the British Raj after the two Anglo-Sikh wars the Arains who were classified by the British as a non-martial race (at that time they were an almost exclusive agricultural caste of Muslim farmers and small land holders.) were brought into the Punjab to replace the Sikhs, who classified as a martial race were sought by the British as new recruits. Unlike many of the Muslims from Afganistan, who were slow to accept the change to the British educational system and the change from Persian to English, the Arains stressed the importance of education for their children, and with the wealth gained from their hard work they were soon dominating the legal profession in Punjab and as lawyers have found around the world, their move into politics was an easy one. Arain is the Largest and most populated Muslim Tribe of Pakistan and Subcontinent with Population of over 30 Million People approximately.

British Raj period

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Arain were an agricultural caste of Muslim farmers and land holders, they owned thousand of acers of land. The British favoured them for their "hard work, frugality and sense of discipline".In pre-partition Lahore district they were the main Muslim-landowning group located close to the urban areas while in the rural areas of the districts Jats predominated. When the British wanted land developed in the Punjab after its annexation, the Arain were brought in to cultivate lands around the cities, and were one of the preferred agricultural castes to assist with the opening up of the agrarian frontier in canal colonies between 1885 and 1940.[7] The Arain received 86 per cent of the land that was allotted to Muslim agricultural castes in canal colonies. Subsequent development of towns and cities and increasing urbanisation resulted in the value of the land settled by Arain to rise significantly, and Arain families thus flourished. Education was prioritised with the new-found wealth and the Arain came to dominate the legal profession amongst urban Punjabi Muslims. Many used law to enter politics.

Notable family members

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.

References

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  1. ^ The Garrison State: Military, Government and Society in Colonial Punjab, 1849-1947 by Tan Tai Yong pg.263
  2. ^ Shalamar Bagh, World Heritage Series published by UNESCO
  3. ^ Aditya Pandey (2005). South Asia: Politics of South Asia. Gyan Publishing House. pp. 21–. ISBN 978-81-8205-303-8.
  4. ^ Muneeza Shamsie (11 July 2015). And the World Changed: Contemporary Stories by Pakistani Women. Feminist Press at The City University of New York. pp. 5–. ISBN 978-1-55861-931-9.
  5. ^ Justice Shah Din: A Biography by Bashir Ahmad, 1962.

Category:Tribes