Nijjar

Nijjar is a Jat clan from the Northern Indian state of Punjab. Most of the members of the clan are Sikhs by religion. Nijjars are found mostly in the Doaba area of Punjab. Fatehpur, Chomon, Nijjaran, Gobindpur, Kurali, Bhar Singh Pura, Nijjaran Di Pandori are among prominent villages (pinds) in district Jalandhar of Nijjars. Domeli (Kapurthala district) near Phagwara is also a prominent village of Nijjars.

Today, this clan is comprised of renowned historians (Dr. Bakshish S. Nijjar), Judges (Punjab & Haryana High Court Justice, Surinder S. Nijjar), as well as accomplished agriculturalists. Nijjars have also played a distinct role in Sikh History, providing leadership to the Babbar Akali movement of the early 1920s.

Despite the Doab region being their ancestral homeland, some Nijjars owned vast amounts of agricultural land in Lyallpur, West Punjab, prior to the Partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Partition brought great loss and suffering to the Nijjars of Lyallpur (as it did to many Sikhs in West Punjab at the time, who were forced to give up their homes and livelihood, in order to move to India). The Nijjars of Lyallpur moved back to the Doaba region after 1947. Today, their descendants can be found in Fatehpur and Chomon.

The 1970s and 1980s saw many Nijjars leave their native Doaba, to reside in California, Canada, and the UK.

References

• Max Arthur Macauliffe: A History of the Sikhs; Vol. I, Princeton, 1963.
• Bakshish S. Nijjar: History of the Babar Akalis; Jalandhar, ABS Publications, 1987.
• Bakshish S. Nijjar: Indian Panjab; Jalandhar, ABS Publications, 1985.
• Balbir S. Nijjar: Census Records and Family History (Pre-Partition to 2000)