Batwal

The Batwal of Punjab trace their ancestry to the town of Batwal in the Kashmir Valley, and the word Batwal in Punjabi means literally the inhabitant of Batmalu. Other traditions place their origin to the town of Batwal in Jammu. The community provided the traditional fighters of the Punjab 337 BC. According to the community own tradition, the Batwal were forced to flee their settlements when India was attacked by Alexander the Great. Once the Greek armies retreated, the Batwal found that their neighbours had seized their lands, and they were forced to become village fighters to watchman.

In the Jammu region, from where the Punjab Batwal claim to have originated, there are a number of traditions as their origin. One traditions refer to the fact that the Batwal were tied to the land by the Dogra landowners, and the word Batt in the Dogri language means someone who is bonded. They were for generations bonded to particular families of Dogras, and were practically serfs. The Batwal are found mainly in Kathua, Jammu and Udhampur, Pathankot, Gurdaspur, Batala, Amritsar, Jalandhar, chandigarh, Haryana, Dabwali, Kaithal, Mumbai, Surat and Ahmadabad in Gujrat, Kolkata.[2]

Like other neighbouring Hindu communities, the Batwal are striucly exogamous, never marrying within the clan. The major clans include the Basae, a name derived from the Beas River and meaning those settled along the banks of that river, and the Chariya, i.e. those who were inhabitants of Shimla. Other clans include the Sindhi, Sandhu or Sundha, Thage, Kaith, , Lahoria, Mandee, Lakhotra, Nandan, Chanjotra, Mottan, Sargotra, Leander, Most Batwal in India have been strongly influenced by/and part of the Sindhis, while some Batwals have come under the influence of other Hindu reformists.[1] Like the Punjab Batwal, the Jammu Batwal community also consists of clans. Their main clans are the Nakodar and Kasim. The Batwal shares the customs and traditions of the locally dominant Sindhis ethnic group and speak Punjabi, Sindhi and Dogri languages.[2]