The Jat people (Jat: जाट, also spelt Jatt: जट्ट), are a 31 million strong ethnic group of people[1][2] native to South Asia in mainly the Punjab region of India and Pakistan. Other regions include Balochistan, NWFP, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra. They are a ethnic group, race, tribe .The Jat people are considered to be the merged descendants of Indo-Aryans, Indo-Scythian tribes of the region, merging to form the Jat people.[6]
The Jat people were designated by the British Empire as a Martial Race. Martial Races were races & peoples that were naturally warlike and aggressive in battle, and possess qualities like courage, loyalty, self sufficiency, physical strength, resilience, orderliness, hard working, fighting tenacity and military strategy. The British Empire recruited heavily from these Martial Races for service in their Armies. A strategy that is still used today (21st century) in Armies of South Asian countries e.g. The famous Jat Regiment & the Gurkhas.
Many uneducated people think Jat means farmer-caste (caste = social group) but Jat really means race (race = ethnic group), which is very different. There are over 900 million farmers in south Asia and if Jat meant farmer then all of them would call themselves Jats but they don't. The reason why this is because Jat means race/ethnic group. In order to be a Jat you have to have the Jat DNA markers in your genetics highlighted in the (see Jat DNA Genetics section).
