Changar

Last updated
Group of seven crouched Changar people in Lahore, ca.1862-72 Group of seven crouched Changar people in Lahore, ca.1862-72.png
Group of seven crouched Changar people in Lahore, ca.1862–72

Changar or Chingar are an ancient mysterious vagabond tribe of South Asia.

Contents

Changars sometimes called Cingân, Tsingan, Chingari, Tsingari, Tschangar etc., are mostly vagabond and speak their own Changhri dialect. According to Johann Galletti and Franz Miklosich and some other early European historians, the Romani People of Europe are closely related to the Changar (German: Tschangar) and are Tschandala.

Origin

According to Indian and Pakistani scholars, they are remnants of the Indo-Greeks and Greco-Bactrians, who intermingled with Jats, some of them left India at the time of Migration period and went in different ways to Europe, under the Hindu caste system, they are considered as Chandala [1]

Present circumstances

In Pakistan

The majority of the Changars within northern and central Punjab are agricultural labourers, visiting villages during harvest time. They have established routes that they follow, and each Changar sub-group is allocated a particular village, and often serve a particular family in that village. Their patrons tend to belong to the large Muslim Jat community. In addition to agricultural labour, the Changar are also involved in the manufacture of baskets and brooms, which they sell to settled communities. Nowadays only 10% are involving in this work. Many of Shamsi (Changar) are now in good Jobs and local business after getting education. In local Government they have their own Counselors and have Chairmanship. In 1990 many of Shamsi moved toward Dubai for better future, they earn for his family and country now getting part of i community progress. [2]

Related Research Articles

Lohana are a trading or mercantile jāti mostly in India and also in Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wapishana</span> Indigenous people of Brazil

The Wapishana or Wapichan are an indigenous group found in the Roraima area of northern Brazil and southern Guyana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Moga district</span> District of Punjab in India

Moga district is one of the twenty-two districts in the state of Punjab, India. It became the 17th district of Punjab State on 24 November 1995 cut from Faridkot district. Moga District is among the largest producers of wheat and rice in Punjab, India. People from Moga City and Moga District belong to the Malwa culture. The district is noted for being the homeland for a high proportion of Indian Punjabi expatriates who emigrated abroad and their descendents, which has given it the nickname of "NRI district".

Jat Sikh or Jatt Sikh is an ethnoreligious group and a subgroup of the Jat people and the Sikh people from the Indian subcontinent. They are one of the dominant communities in the Punjab, India owing to their large land holdings. They form an estimated 20–25% of the population of the Indian state of Punjab. They form at least half of the Sikh population in Punjab, with some sources estimating them to be about 60–66% appx. two-third of the Sikh population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nangal Sirohi</span> City in Haryana, India

Nangal Sirohi, famous for the painted Shekhavati Rajput architecture Havelis, is a village in Mahendragarh district in the Indian state of Haryana. It is 9.5 km from Mahendragarh towards Narnaul in South Haryana.

Khaglan Wala (ڪھگلانواله) is a village and union council of Isakhel Tehsil of Mianwali District in the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is part of Isa Khel Tehsil and is located at 32°37'60N 71°16'0E. Located on the northern bank of Kurram River, it is one of the villages situated on the western borders of Punjab province adjacent to KPK province. Its population is about 3000 people. This is comparatively a developed village. Basic facilities like electricity, telephone, metalled road, internet, schools, water supply system and sewerage system are provided to the inhabitants of this village. It is also a well-planned village situated on a 40 feet wide metalled road. A 30' wide main street runs east to west through the village, equally dividing the entire village into two parts. Three other streets run north to south crossing the main street at 90°. There are four mosques i.e Grand Mosque, Masjid Naurang Khel, Masjid Khizar Khel in Mohalla Khizar Khel and Masjid Abadi Tajpora in this settlement. The scene of river Kurram alongside bela jungle provides beautiful look to this historical village. Khaglanwala is hub of different routes coming from various villages situated on other side of the River Kurram, to reach Isa Khel city.

Rajiasar Meetha is a cluster of three villages located in the Churu district of Rajasthan.

Jat Muslim or Musalman Jat, also spelled Jatt or Jutt, are an elastic and diverse ethno-social subgroup of the Jat people, who are composed of followers of Islam and are native to the northern regions of the Indian subcontinent. They are found primarily throughout the Sindh and Punjab regions of Pakistan. Jats began converting to Islam from the early Middle Ages onward and constitute a distinct subgroup within the diverse community of Jat people.

The Punjabi Saudagaran-e-Delhi, sometimes referred to as the Qaum-e-Punjabian, Delhi Walay, Aldehlawi, or simply Shamsi Biradari are a community of Muslim Khatris that historically came from Sargodha in Punjab and then lived mainly in Old Delhi, India. They also settled in a number of other cities such as towns in western Uttar Pradesh, such as Agra, Aligarh, Meerut, Moradabad, Bareilly, Rampur, Kanpur; including areas within western Uttar Pradesh that now falls in the state of Uttarakhand; namely Roorkee, Nainital and Haldwani. After the partition of India, and subsequent independence of Pakistan in 1947, many members of the community migrated to Pakistan, particularly Karachi and Lahore, while few chose to migrate to Mecca and Medina.

Rajasthani people or Rajasthanis are a group of Indo-Aryan peoples native to Rajasthan, a state in Northern India. Their language, Rajasthani, is a part of the western group of Indo-Aryan languages.

Buddha Goraya / Budha Goraya / Budha Guraya is a town and Union Council in Nowshera Virkan Tehsil, Gujranwala District, Punjab, Pakistan.The land of buddha goraya produce many great personalities like Ch Ziaullah Goraya, Ch Attaullah goraya(Retired headmaster and a recognized farmer), and bureaucrates from their family mainly Ch Khalid Javed Goraya and Ch Khizar Zahoor Goraya and DSP CH Faisal goraya.

Chak No. 4/G.D. is a village in Okara District near Renala Khurd in Pakistan. It is located in a fertile area just under 13 kilometers north of the city across the Lower Bari Doab canal. It is the main village on the Chuchak Road and is also a union council center.

There are several ethnic groups in Afghanistan which traditionally lead a peripatetic life. This means they are nomadic and their main occupations centre around providing services to the settled populations they travel among, like peddling particular goods or performing music. In this way, they contrast both with the settled population and with the pastoralist nomads. They are of low social status and are known to outsiders as Jats, a derogatory term that none of the groups use as a self-designation.

The Dogra Muslim are a Muslim community found in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. They are Muslim converts from the larger Hindu Dogra community. Many Dogra Muslim are also now found in the province of Punjab in Pakistan. They are also known as Rajahs, especially in Pakistan.

The Deha, sometimes pronounced as Dahiya, Dhaya, Dhea, Daiya and Dheya are a caste found in India, and have other backward caste status in Haryana. They forms the largest jat community in Haryana.

Mochi are a community, found in North India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.They are the traditional shoemakers of South Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bhangra (dance)</span> Several types of dance originating from the Punjab

Bhangra is a type of traditional folk dance of Punjab area of the Indian subcontinent. It is done in the season of harvesting. According to Manuel (2001), bhangra is especially associated with the vernal Vaisakhi festival.

The Med, Medh or Meid are an indigenous Sindhi fishermen community found in the coastal areas of Balochistan, Pakistan, mainly in the regions of Makran, Las Bela, Hub and southern Sindh, and the Makran region of Sistan and Baluchestan Province of Iran.

The Jat people are a traditionally agricultural community in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, many Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and subsequently into the Delhi Territory, northeastern Rajputana, and the western Gangetic Plain in the 17th and 18th centuries. Of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh faiths, they are now found mostly in the Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and the Pakistani provinces of Sindh and Punjab.

Folk practices prevalent in Punjab incorporate local mysticism and refers to the beliefs and practices strictly indigenous to the Punjabi people, of the Punjab region including ancestral worship, veneration of saints, and local festivals. There are many shrines in Punjab which represent the folk religion of the Punjab region which is a discourse between different organised religions. These shrines represent inter-communal dialogue and a distinct form of cultural practice of saint veneration.

References

  1. "Indogriechen". Archived from the original on 25 April 2023. Retrieved 5 July 2022.
  2. Servicing the Ordinary Folk: Peripatetic People and their Niche in South Asia by Joseph C Berland in Nomadism in South Asia Edited by Aparna Rao and Michael J Casimir