A self-conscious community,[1] several meetings were held to establish an organisation to represent the Arain community in the 1890s. Eventually, in 1915, Anjuman Ra’iyan-i-Hind emerged as such a body in Lahore and a national community newspaper, titled Al-Rai, was established.[4]
History
Origins
The historian and political scientist Christophe Jaffrelot believes that the Arain are displaced farming communities who moved to Punjab from Sindh and Multan as Arab Muslim armies encroached; they originally practised Hinduism but many later converted to Islam. He says that the community is related to the Kamboj and Rajput communities mainly located in northern India and eastern Pakistan.[5]
Ishtiaq Ahmed, a political scientist who is also a member of the Arain community, acknowledges that some early Arain texts ascribe a Suryavanshi Rajput origin, while others note a Persian one to reflect to others the status of being "conquerors". He believes that the Arains "are a mix of many ethnicities and races", similar to other "farming castes of the Punjab and Haryana".[6]
Medieval period
According to Ahmed, during the Mughal and Sikh periods Arain held prominent positions, such as governors and army generals; he also believes that numerous names adopted by the community may indicate a tradition of military employment.[7]
Colonial period
During the Indian rebellion of 1857, Shah Abdul Qadir Ludhianvi, an Arain, led an uprising from Ludhiana to Delhi where he was killed. In the aftermath, the British viewed the Arain as a disloyal community, and categorised them as a non-martial caste which denied them entry into the Bengal Army.[7] Due to lobbying by the Arain community, in the early 20th century the Arain were officially re-classified as an "agricultural tribe", then effectively synonymous with the martial race classification.[8]
Traditionally associated with farming, when the British wanted land developed in the Punjab, Arain were brought in to cultivate lands around cities, and were one of the agricultural communities given preference to assist with opening up the agrarian frontier in the Canal Colonies between 1885 and 1940.[9][10][11]Shahid Javed Burki says that the British favoured the Arain for their "hard work, frugality and sense of discipline". The development of towns and cities and increasing urbanisation resulted in the value of the land settled by Arain to rise significantly, and Arain families flourished. Education was prioritised with the new-found wealth and Arain came to dominate the legal profession amongst urban Punjabi Muslims. Many used law to enter politics.[12]
During the colonial era, detailed decadal census reports covered the plethora of castes, subcastes and tribes that existed throughout British India. Information regarding the Arains was highlighted in census reports taken from Punjab Province.
"Arains are mostly Muhammadans. They have been declared an agricultural tribe throughout the Province with the exception of the Rohtak, Gurgaon, Simla, Kangra, Jhelum, Rawalpindi and Attock Districts, where their number is very limited. Apparently a functional caste with a strong nucleus of converted Kambohs, some of whom still call themselves Kamboh Arains. There are still 1,186 Hindu Arains, mostly in Patiala (803) and Karnal (290), and the Kambohs have a sub-caste called Arain. The term is derived probably from Rain or Rahin, equivalent to Rahak (tiller of soil).".[13]: 445
— Excerpt from the Census of India (Punjab Province), 1911 AD
Demographics
Numbers
In 1921, Arains formed 9,5% of British Punjab's total Muslim population, up from 8,3% in 1901 and 6,6% in 1881.[14]
At the time of the 2017 Pakistan census, Arains constituted the largest community of the Lahore District, making up 40% of the district's total population or 4,45 million out of the total of 11 million back then, followed by Kashmiris (30%).[15]
The Arain biradari is particularly active in Lahore's industrial and commercial activities as well as in its politics.[4]
Religion
The 1881 Census of India detailed the Arain population was 795,032 in Punjab, of which 791,552 (99.56 percent) were Muslims, 2,628 (0.33 percent) were Hindus, 848 (0.11 percent) were Sikhs, and 4 (0.0005 percent) were Christians.[16][a]
As of 1931 Census of India, out of the total Arain population of 1,331,295 in Punjab, 1,330,057 (99.91%) were Muslims, 1,146 (0.086%) were Hindus, 67 (0.005%) were Sikhs and 5 (0.00038%) were Christians.[17]
Academic Ashish Koul, who specializes in the history of the group, has said of the Arains that they have been "a distinctive Muslim community with innately Islamic attributes."[1]
Diaspora
There are several diasporic Arain communities in British towns and cities, such as Manchester, Glasgow and Oxford.[18] The tribe has its own organisation, Arain Council UK, which was established as Anjuman-e-Arains in the 1980s and renamed in 2008.[19]
^Ibbetson, Report on the Census of the Punjab, vol. 1, 266 and v. 2, Tables I and III ; Imperial Gazetteer of India Provincial Series on Punjab, v. 1, p. 48 and 50 ; J. T. Marten, Census of India, 1921, v. 1, part II, 40, 43, 162. See Tables VI and XIII.
^"About". Arain Council UK. Retrieved 22 May 2020.
^ ab"British home secy belongs to TT Singh". The Nation. 8 May 2018. Archived from the original on 2 October 2019. Retrieved 2 October 2019. Newly appointed British Home Secretary Sajid Javed belongs to a Toba Tek Singh village.
^The Arain Diaspora in the Rohilkhand region of India: A historical perspective: General History of Arain tribe of Punjab & Sindh with sociocultural background of the diaspora in Rohilkhand, India. N.p., Rehan Asad , 2017.
^Contemporary Problems of Pakistan. Netherlands, Brill, 1974.
^Encyclopaedia of Muslim Biography: I-M. India, A.P.H. Publishing Corporation, 2001.
^International Journal of Punjab Studies. India, Sage Publications, 1994.
^Ahmed, Ishtiaq (2022). The Punjab: Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed. Classy Pub. On Tuesday, 3 May 2005, cricket legend and arguably one of the greatest left-arm fast bowlers of all times, Pakistan's Wasim Akram and his father Chaudhary Mohammed Akram, visited their ancestral village Chawinda Devi, Amritsar district. Chawinda Devi was a mixed village with Arain and Syed biradaris of Muslims and Sikh and Hindus constituting an equal population. Wasim's family belonged to the Arain section of Chawinda Devi.
Koul, Ashish (2017). "Making new Muslim Arains: reform and social mobility in colonial Punjab, 1890s-1910s". South Asian History and Culture. 8 (1): 1–18. doi:10.1080/19472498.2016.1260348. S2CID151332565.
