“Why are there so many Butts?”


A thread (serious content follows, unfortunately)

The story begins *around* Chauburji. Many people know Chauburji as the gate of Zebinda begum’s garden. After the invasion of Ahmad Shah Abdali, Lahore was ruled by an installed regime, called the Three Hakims. What they don’t know is that the Garden became the fort of Nawankot...

Soobha Singh, one of the 3, turned Zebinda’s garden into a fort, while Gujjar Singh fortified near Shalimar Gardens (now Qilla Gujjar Singh), and Lehna Singh took Lahore fort for himself. Each of them represented a Sikh Misl, and paid tribute to Abdali. Then came Ranjit Singh...

Ranjit Singh’s Khalasa defeated the Bhangi Sikh Misl (led by Gujjar Singh), and the regime quickly broke down. Qilla Gujjar Singh, due to its location between Lahore and Amritsar continued to prosper. Lahore fort became the capital. But Nawankot was left abandoned, decaying...

Here enter the Kabulis and Kashmiris. Punjab (Sikh Empire), as one of the last stable States of former Mughal India, invited all sorts of refugees and migrants from the peripheries. So, when the 1833 Kashmir famine struck, Kashmiris poured into Amritsar and Lahore...

It is said that Ranjit Singh opened up the granaries of Punjab for the refugees, and so Kashmiris started settling in the main cities: Lahore and Amritsar. In Lahore, Nawankot, a poor locality, became their refuge, where families settled in hundreds. Chauburji was their Shrine... https://twitter.com/thelahorewala/status/1335255583579103235

In 1846, the Sikh Rule also ended when the British annexed Punjab and gave the Sikh fiefdom of Kashmir to the Dogra Raja. With it also began the persecution of Muslims. The Bhatts were Brahmin converts to Islam, and became a target. This accelerated immigration to Punjab...

Those going south through Potohar to reach Lahore, also started settling there and took up the local dialect, and within a generation “Bh” became “bb” i.e. Bhatt was pronounced as Butt, in Potohari and Punjabi. Those going from Jammu to Amritsar are still called Bhatt...

Back in Lahore, Kashmiri families lived in the lower class quarter of Nawankot (expanded to Samnabad and Gulshan-i-Ravi), along with other “foreigners” like Kabulis/Khans. These foreigners quickly adopted Punjabi, joined the workforce, opened shops, took up small govt jobs... https://twitter.com/thelahorewala/status/1336310426087419905

Another important factor for the concentration of Butt Kashmiris in certain urbanised regions is the Punjab Land Alienation Act of 1900. The British had developed canal colonies, and they wanted Agricultural land to be owned by certain castes, who were their collaborators...

Kashmiris, because of being considered “foreigners”, could not benefit from this Act. While conditions grew worse for them 1880s onwards in Kashmir; more famine, cholera and persecution followed; more exodus out of Kashmir, and more settlement around Chauburji...

In this way, many thousands of Butt/Bhatt Kashmiris, along with other clans like Wani, Dar, Lone, Rathore/Rather and others came to Punjab. The Butt clan, in particular, probably, only became more prominent due to mistaken enumeration of other similar foreigners as Butts...

To this day, they are an urban, entrepreneurial, white/blue-collar class, rather than Landed as Punjabis were.

Most Kashmiris can also trace back their families to Nawankot (now Samnabad).

Sadly, any memory of their origin lands in Kashmir has been lost over generations.