Gakhars (also Gakkhar or Ghakhar or Ghakkar) are a Punjabi community living in India with an ancient recorded history, originally belonging to the areas of West Punjab which now fall in the territory of Pakistan. Gakhars are found among Hindus and Sikhs in India and also among Muslims, and a large section of Muslim Gakhars are settled in Pakistan.
The Gakhars are an ancient tribe settled in Rawalpindi, Islamabad, Jhelum, Kashmir, Gilgit, Baltistan (Tibet), Chitral, and Khanpur regions in modern day Pakistan and India.
Before the independence of Pakistan, the Gakhar Hindus shared their ancestral homes with the rest of the tribe. After independence the Gakhar Hindus moved to India and they now live in various parts of north India.
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After the arrival of Islam into the South Asia a predominant section of Gakhars converted to Islam. The Muslim Gakhars in Pakistan are a prominent community in that country.
Ferishta records the conversion of the Gakhars to Islam by Muhammad of Ghor:
This barbarous people continued to make incursions on the Muslims till in the latter end of this kings reign, their chieftain was converted to the true faith when a captive. After becoming a proselyte he procured his release from the king, who endeavored to persuade him to convert his followers.[1]
Ferishta goes on to record about the conversion of the Gakhars and other local people at the hands of Ghor -
most of the infidels who inhabited the mountains between Ghazni and the Indus were also converted, some by force and others by persuation [2]
Hindu Marriage customs are recorded prevalent among Muslim Gakhars as late as the 18th century in the district gazetteer of Rawalpindi
old religious customs, obviously of Hindu origin are still observed by the Gakhars, or were until within a very short period, such as customs at marriage of lawa-pherna and Khari par baithana, and the Kazi and the Brahman are both present on such occasions. Further it is curious that their headmen always call themselves Raja and not by any other distinctively Musalman title. The name Gakhar too , seems to partake more of a Hindu than of Persian or Arabic form".[3]
According to S A A Rizvi
the motives of Muizzuudin's conquests were no different from those of Mahmud of Ghazni. Both were in need of plunder from India to maintain their slave armies and to attract the wandering bands of Islamicized mercenaries known as "ghazis" to their forces. The Islamicization of India was not their main objective, although some tribal leaders such as the Gakkhars were encouraged to embrace Islam".[4]
While a significantly large majority of Gakkhars did convert to Islam from Hinduism, during the medieval period many Gakhar Hindus did not convert and continued to live in their traditional homelands of Jhelum, Kashmir, and West Punjab (which now falls in the Pakistan Punjab).
Hasan Nizami and Ferishta record the killing of Ghor at the hands of the Gakhars. However, Ferishta is known to have often confused them with the Khokhars, other historians have alluded the killing to a band of Hindu Khokhars.[5]
Some Muslim historians record the encounter of Ghor with the Gakkhurs and him being killed by the Hindu Gakhars. Some other sources attribute his killing to the Khokhars, another ancient clan. Hasan Nizami in his book the Taju-L-A'Sir has recorded the Kokars killing Ghori in the chapter The Return of Muhammad Ghori from Khwarzim and his war against the Gakkhurs and the Death of the Sultan of Sultans, Muhammad Sam [6]
The pandas or record keeping pandits of the Gakhars are located in Pehowa near Kurukshetra and Kankhal near Haridwar, both places in India, which are visited for spiritual reasons as well as to complete religious ceremonies after death. These are primary sources for the clan histories of the Gakhars. Often these Pandas are able to shed considerable light on Muslim clans as well converted from Hindus.