The Jats are one of the most important races among the Indian population today, as during the Muslim period, and their traditions go back to dim antiquity. A critical study of the past history of such a race on the basis of all the available material cannot fail to be a subject of deep interest and instruction to all Indians. Such a study is presented in this book History of the Jats by Professor Kalika R. Qanungo All known sources, printed and manuscript, Persian, Marathi, French and English, have been utilised here, and this History of the Jats represents a synthesis never attempted before. In his History of the Jats, Prof. Qanungo has not been content to be a closet student of written records. He has lived and worked among the Jat boys of his former college at Delhi, he has won their love and confidence and has visited their historic places and tribal gatherings and talked with old Jats whose memories are richly stored with the past. The information he has thus gathered by a personal quest spread over a wide field is concentrated in this book and gives it a unique value.
He has here sifted the evidence impartially and reviewed events and characters from the broad point of view of India as a whole, instead of narrowing his vision to a single tribe. This wider outlook, this philosophical detachment from the particular dynasty or community dealt with, is specially necessary in any history of India in the 18th century that deserves to live as a true history. For, the Jats were only one out of the many threads that made up the tangled web of North Indian history during the decline of the Mughal empire. The Jats, Ruhelas, Sikhs, Marathas, Rajputs, Oudh Nawabs, English Company, French adventurers, besides the Delhi Emperors and their semi-independent nobles - all entered into the criss-cross of Indian politics during that one century which saw the rise, maturity and downfall of the Jats as the makers of Indian history; and, therefore, Professor Qanungo has done wisely in studying the contemporary history and interplay of all of these Powers. Here is a first-rate contribution to the critical study of the Fall of the Mughal Empire.
The Jats are fortunate to have Prof. Qanungo as their historian, as the Rajputs had Col. Tod, the Marathas Grant-Duff, and the Sikhs Cunningham. In this edition annotations based on recent findings describing and clarifying certain facts have been added to update this pioneering work. We honestly hope that this updated work will provide a clean mirror of the Jat history to the readers.
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