Jat Clan: Bajwa
Distribution	Punjab (India) Punjab (India) Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...   District District Districts are a type of administrative division, in some countries managed by a local government. They vary greatly in size, spanning entire regions or counties, several municipalities, or subdivisions of municipalities.-Austria:...  - Gurdaspur Gurdaspur Gurdaspur is a city in the state of Punjab, situated in the northwest part of the Republic of India. It is located in the center of and is the administrative head of Gurdaspur District. It was the location of a fort which was famous for the siege it sustained in 1712 from the Mughals... , Pakistani Punjab, Sialkot District Sialkot District Sialkot District or the District of Sialkot , is one of the districts of the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is located in the north-east of the province... , Narowal Narowal Narowal is a city in the northeast of the Punjab province of Pakistan. The city is the capital of Narowal District and tehsil. It is situated on the banks of Ravi River about 4–5 km from the Indian border.-Etymology:...
Descended from:	Sikh Sikh A Sikh is a follower of Sikhism. It primarily originated in the 15th century in the Punjab region of South Asia. The term "Sikh" has its origin in Sanskrit term शिष्य , meaning "disciple, student" or शिक्ष , meaning "instruction"...  Muslim Muslim A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...  Jatt
Branche:	Suryavanshi
Religion	Hinduism Hinduism Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...  Sikhism Sikhism Sikhism is a monotheistic religion founded during the 15th century in the Punjab region, by Guru Nanak Dev and continued to progress with ten successive Sikh Gurus . It is the fifth-largest organized religion in the world and one of the fastest-growing...  Islam Islam Islam . The most common are and .   : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
Languages	Punjabi Punjabi language Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...
Surnames:	Bajwa

Bajwa is a Jat

Jat people

The Jat people are a community of traditionally non-elite tillers and herders in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and subsequently into the Delhi Territory,...

 gotra

Gotra

In the Hindu society, the term Gotra broadly refers to people who are descendants in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor. Panini defines gotra for grammatical purposes as apatyam pautraprabhrti gotram , which means "the word gotra denotes the progeny beginning with the son's son"...

or clan

Clan

A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clan members may be organized around a founding member or apical ancestor. The kinship-based bonds may be symbolical, whereby the clan shares a "stipulated" common ancestor that is a...

. They originally belonged to the region known as 'Bajwath' situated on the border of Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir

Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...

, and Punjab

Punjab (British India)

Punjab was a province of British India, it was one of the last areas of the Indian subcontinent to fall under British rule. With the end of British rule in 1947 the province was split between West Punjab, which went to Pakistan, and East Punjab, which went to India...

. They are now spread across the Punjab region

Punjab region

The Punjab , also spelled Panjab |water]]s"), is a geographical region straddling the border between Pakistan and India which includes Punjab province in Pakistan and the states of the Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh and some northern parts of the National Capital Territory of Delhi...

 divided between Northern India and Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

.

Etymology

BAJU in Persian

Persian language

Persian is an Iranian language within the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European languages. It is primarily spoken in Iran, Afghanistan, Tajikistan and countries which historically came under Persian influence...

 means "those who levied tax" [i.e. the ruling class]. Bajwas living in the Bajwat area comprising 65 villages (the Sialkot

Sialkot District

Sialkot District or the District of Sialkot , is one of the districts of the Punjab province of Pakistan. It is located in the north-east of the province...

 and Narowal

Narowal District

Narowal District is a district in the province of Punjab of Pakistan. Narowal city is the capital of the district. Narowal District is divided into three tehsils: Narowal, Shakargarh and Zafarwal. Before the independence of Pakistan in 1947, Shakargarh town was the headquarters of Shakargarh...

 districts in Punjab) were known to be the bravest and used to fight against the invading armies who attacked India from the North-West, e.g. Timur

Timur

Timur , historically known as Tamerlane in English , was a 14th-century conqueror of West, South and Central Asia, and the founder of the Timurid dynasty in Central Asia, and great-great-grandfather of Babur, the founder of the Mughal Dynasty, which survived as the Mughal Empire in India until...

, Ahmed Shah Abdali and others. Since they used to keep a hawk's eye on such invaders, they were named after the warrior-bird "baaz" [hawk, eagle, falcon (a bird that symbolises 'Gruda' of Ramayana -- a Hindu Epic & Scripture)]. The last ruler/owner/administrator of the 'Riyasat' called 'Bajwat' was Sharam Singh (or Sharam Kumar) who was also a Saint whose 'samadhi' ['mazaar'] is situated in Sialkot and is known as the samadhi of Kali baba. His brother's son was a Zaildar [owner of a 'zail' (sub-district), 'zilla' means a district] whose son was Wing Commander Bajwa [whose role in the Khemkaran Battle is played by Jackie Shroff in the popular movie 'Border'], and Sharam Singh's grandson became an IPS Officer who stood 4th in the IPS Exams in the year 1961.

Bajwa is a well-known last name amongst Punjabis

Punjabi people

The Punjabi people , ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ), also Panjabi people, are an Indo-Aryan group from South Asia. They are the second largest of the many ethnic groups in South Asia. They originate in the Punjab region, which has been been the location of some of the oldest civilizations in the world including, the...

. They claim their descent from Hindu Surya-vanshi Rajput dynasty, according to Hindu mythology; however, strictly speaking 'Bajwa' is not a 'gotra' because Bajwas can be Muslims, Hindus & Sikhs. They are either 'jats' or 'kshatriyas'.
According to one theory, the word "Bajwa" is derived from the term Baaz Wala, which can be loosely translated to "Owner of Falcon or Person having Falcons". "Baaz or Baaj" ' onMouseout='HidePop("65512")' href="/topics/Punjabi_language">Punjabi

Punjabi language

Punjabi is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by inhabitants of the historical Punjab region . For Sikhs, the Punjabi language stands as the official language in which all ceremonies take place. In Pakistan, Punjabi is the most widely spoken language...

) is the Arabic

Arabic language

Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...

 word for hawk

Hawk

The term hawk can be used in several ways:* In strict usage in Australia and Africa, to mean any of the species in the subfamily Accipitrinae, which comprises the genera Accipiter, Micronisus, Melierax, Urotriorchis and Megatriorchis. The large and widespread Accipiter genus includes goshawks,...

 or falcon

Falcon

A falcon is any species of raptor in the genus Falco. The genus contains 37 species, widely distributed throughout Europe, Asia, and North America....

, while "wala" is an Indian suffix indicating a person owning (a given thing) or living (in a given area).

Religion

A large majority of Bajwa's are Muslim or Sikh.

• 50% Muslim
• 40% Sikh
• 10% Hindu

The majority of Muslim Bajwa's live in Pakistan, while most Bajwa's of the Christian, Hindu & Sikh faiths live in India and many have also migrated to North America, Canada and Europe. A great number of Bajwa Clan have migrated from Sialkot dist. to dist. Faisalabad (Old name Lyle Pur),Toba Tek Singh,Raheem Yar Khan etc. within Pakistan.