In this post, I will look at the Bhinder, sometimes pronounced as Bhindar, tribe of Jats, who are concentrated in Sialkot District, with villages also found in Gujranwala districts. Like all post, I start off with British sources, and then move on tribal and oral sources.
British Sources
There three separate entries on the Bhinder by H. A Rose, an early 20th Century British colonial official who co-authored A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province, which is one of the most comprehensive glossaries on the tribes of Punjab, and a good source on many Punjabi tribes. This may be on account of the different pronunciations of Bhindar. He writes the following in his first entry:
a Jat clan (agricultural) found in Amritsar.
In his second entry, he gives a bit more detail:
a tribe of Jats claiming Solar Raput origin through eponym, whose descendant Badar embraced Islam. It holds five villages in Sialkot
Finally, in his third entry he contradicts himself by calling the tribe Lunar as opposed to Solar Rajputs.
a tribe of Jats of the Lunar branch of the Lunar Rajputs, through its eponym, who settled in Punjab under Rai Tanar. Found in Sialkot.
I believe the only thing ascertained from these three accounts is that the Bhinder are found between Sialkot and Amritsar and are Jats and get their name from Bhinder, there ancestor. The various tribal genealogies of the Punjabi tribes are based on bardic traditions of the Punjab, which classifies every Jat clan within the three sub-divisions of the Rajputs, the Suryavansh, Chandravanshi and Agnivanshi. Rose seems to be confused as which branch the Bhinder fall under, calling them both Solar (Suryavansh) and Lunar (Chandravanshi). This confusion also occurs in the other sources on the tribe.
Other Written Sources
Anjum Sultan Shahbaz, author of Aqwam-e-Pakistan ka encyclopaedia reinforces the account that connects them with the Tanar or Toor Rajputs. He writes that the tribe gets its name from Bhinder, who was a Tanor or Toor Rajput. In my article on the Ghag, I go into some detail about this lineage. Makhia Rai, a descendent of Rai Bhinder is said to have settled in Sialkot. All the other Bhinder families trace their origin to the Sialkot Bhinders. A branch then migrated to Gurdaspur, settling in Talwandi Bhinder, and from their they expanded to other regions of Punjab.
Baba Bajwa of the YouTube channel Baba Bajwa, whose sources seem to be the tribal mirasi (genealogist) however gives a different genealogy. He gives the following genealogy.
Mul Raj (ancestor of the Surayvanshi tribes)
↓
Saroya
↓
Mal Rai
↓
Ghatwal Rai
↓
Pillar Rai
↓
Maan (ancestor of the Maan tribe)
↓
Bhinder Rai
↓
Pannar + Waand + Charar + Gabla
This makes Bhinder of Saroya and not Toor ancestry, thus a Suryavanshi (Solar Rajput) branch. However, most Bhinder connect themselves with the Toor Rajputs.
Distribution
Muslim Bhinder Jats are found mainly in Narowal and Gujranwala, with smaller numbers in Sheikhupura. Rose refers to five villages in Sialkot, these are now all in Narowal District, with exception of Bhorekay and Fattnaywali. In Narowal district, they are found in Bhattawala, Gaggeywala, Halowaal, Talwandi Bhinder and Joon Bhinder, In Gujranwala, they are found in Aroop, Ballowali, Dattawali, Lohiwala, Mari Bhindran, Said Naggar and Uggo Bhinder.
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