In this post, I will look at a tribe of Jats called the Chhina or sometimes spelt Cheena. Let me start of by clearing up some confusion, the Chhina are distinct from the Cheema, also well-known tribe of Jats. The Chhina are also an important clan of the Thal desert, and I would ask the reader to look at my post on the Bhachar tribe, which gives some background information on the region, and tribes found there. They are among the most widespread of the Jat tribes stretching from the Mianwali Thal to the Jalandhar Doab. In the Doab region, the Chhina are largely Sikh.
Origins
According to tribal traditions, they are really a branch of the Bhatti Rajputs. Almost all the various Chhina groups claim to have come from Bhattiana, a region which now covers Sirsa, northern Rajasthan, and the old Firozpur district. Horace Arthur Rose, the early 20th Century British ethnologist wrote the following about this region:
On the south-east border of the Punjab the subject population of Bikaner is largely composed of Bhattis, and tradition almost always carries us back to the ancient city of Bhatner, which lies on the banks of the long since dry Ghaggar, in the territory of that State bordering on Sirsa. But in that tract, which corresponds to the old Bhattiana, the Bhatti is no longer a dominant tribe and the term is loosely applied to any Muhammadan Jat or Rajput from the direction of the Sutlej, as a generic term almost synonymous with Rath or Pachhada
Indeed prior to partition, there were three Chhina Jats village in the Sirsa Tehsil, along the border with Bikaner, now district in Haryana. The Bahawalpur Chhinas claimed to have from this region. They closely connect themselves with the Wattu and Joiya tribes, and give the following genealogy: The Muslim Chhina of southern Punjab and the Thal claim descent from Pheru, 18th in descent from Chhina, who was converted to Islam by Bawa Farid-ud-Din of Pakpattan ((c. 4 April 1179 – 7 May 1266). Their genealogy gives them a common origin with the Wattus : —
H.A. Rose writes further that the Chhina are:
A Jat clan is found in Shahpur and Amritsar. The Chhina are undoubtedly distinct from the Chima Jats of Sialkot and Gujranwala, though the two tribes are frequently confused. That there are Chhina in Sialkot appears from the fact that the town of Jamke in that District was founded by a Chhina Jat who came, from Sindh and retained the title of Jam, the Sindhi equivalent for Chaudhri. Yet if the Chhina spread up the Chenab into Sialkot and the neighbouring Districts in large numbers, it is curious that they should not be found in the intermediate Districts through which they must have passed. The Chhina are also found in Mianwali and in Bahawalpur state. In the latter they are mainly confined to the Minchinabad kārdāri, opposite Pakpattan, and there have three septs, Tareka Mahramka and Azamka, which own land. Other septs are tenants. Their genealogy gives them a common origin with the with the Wattu”.
However, I believe Rose is wrong to say that there were no Chhina in the intermediate districts. Gujranwala and Sheikhupura both had a large Chhina presence.
There are a number of other traditions as to the origin of the Chhina. In a second genealogy, claimed by the Chhina of Sialkot, Chhina was a descendant of Jaypal, the brother of Rajpal, from whom are descended the Wattu. Rose also lists an alternate theory of the Chheena being descended from Raja Agarsen Surajbansi. According to the Manjha tradition, where the Chheena had a slight Sikh majority, they were a clan of the Jadubansi Kshatriya. Their ancestor was a Chheena Rao, who was one of the sixteen sons of Raja Salawan, the mythical ruler of Punjab. He held the lands between the Ravi and the Beas. However, Sir Lepel Henry Griffin alludes to Miru, the founder of the Chheena villages in Amritsar district, as a Gill Jat. The Bhatti are also a Jadubansi clan, therefore the claim of the Manjha Chhina to be Jadubansi does not contradict the claim of the Muslim Chhena of the Ghaghar and Sutlej to be Bhatti.
Finally Dr Lal Bux Naich, who has written extensively on the Jat tribes of Punjab gives the following geneology:
Moolraj → Chachak Raj → Saroya → Mal Raj (ancestors of the Malhi Jats) → Naich → Naul→ Cheena Pal
The trouble with this geneology, which connect the Chhina will the Naul and Naich tribes, generally goes against most Chhina origin stories, which connects them with the Wattu and Bhatti from the Bhattiana region.
Migration into Western Punjab
Rose mentions that there was a migration of various Jat clans, including the Chheena from Bahawalpur and Multan, in the early 15th century. These clans went up the Indus, gradually occupied the country on the edge of the Mianwali Thal, and then crossed the Indus. The Chhina were one of these clan, and came to hold large tracts in the Thal. In the Thal, the Chhina country lies between the Thal Desert and the part of Chenab river valley, which flows after its confluence with the Jhelum River at Atharan Hazari in Jhang district. Parts of the districts of Jhang, Bhakkar, Muzaffargarh, and Layyah form this region. In Bhakkar, the Chhina lands extend across from Chhina, Behal, Lappi and Notak, on the edge of the Kachha, to Mankera and Haidarabad on the further side of the Thal. These Chhina are interesting, as they founded an independent principality, which was destroyed by the Sikhs under Ranjit Singh. The Chhina Maliks of Mankera in Bhakkar District have maintained their influence in this part of the Thal throughout Sikh and British rule and remain influential now. Malik Ghazanfar Abbas Cheena was the member of the Punjab Assembly until the last election in 2018.
A second group of Chhinas migrated northwards, founding the town of Jamke, near Sialkot. All the other Chhinas of Sialkot and Gujrat claim to have originated from Jamke. Chheena settlement in then spread further north of Punjab, which the Chhina settling in Jhelum and Gujarkhan Tehsil of Rawalpindi. Rose claims that founder of the tribe held the held the title of Sindhi title Jam. Its hard to confirm this fact, as the Chhina in Thal, and the river valleys of Jhelum and Chenab hold the title Malik. The village of Jajopur near Pasrur, was found by a group of Chhina who moved from Jamke. Similarly, the village of Chhina near Khankah Dogaran in Shiekhupura District, was also founded by immigrants from Jamke.
The Chhina are now found in Gujrat, Jhelum and Rawalpindi, these Chhina all claim to have orignated in Jamke. In Jhelum District, they are found in the villages of Malikpur and Shah Kamir.
Muslim Chhina Jat Population According to the 1901 Census
| District | Population |
| Mianwali | 1,580 |
| Chenab Colony | 1,054 |
| Dera Ghazi Khan | 913 |
| Gujranwala | 885 |
| Lahore | 885 |
| Amritsar | 739 |
| Rawalpindi | 703 |
| Shahpur | 538 |
| Gurdaspur | 488 |
| Gujrat | 287 |
| Sialkot | 215 |
| Montgomery | 44 |
| Firozpur | 32 |
| Other Districts | |
| Total | 8,487 |
As the table shows, the majority of the Chhina were settled in Mianwali, in what was then Bhakkar Tehsil. In neighbouring Khushab Tehsil, part of Sargodha, there were also several Chhina villages such Chhina. Further south in Dera Ghazi Khan, the Chhina are found in the villages of Basti China and Chak Cheena.
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