Nagra (clan)

The Nagra are a Jat clan found in the province of Pakistani Punjab and the Indian state of Punjab.^[1]

The clan claim descent from Nagra, who is said to be a Chauhan Rajput, and the tribe also claim a common origin with the Cheema. They are said to have left Delhi during the rule of Alauddin Khilji, and settled initially in Jalandhar, and them moved to Pasrur, near Sialkot. There are however still some Sikh Nagra villages in Jalandhar district, such as Kohala, Jabowal and Nagra.^[2]From there they spread to as far east as Gurdaspur, and the Nagra tribal territory stretched from Pasrur in the west to Gurdaspur in the east. Like many Jat clans in this region, they are partly Muslim and partly Sikh. Many Nagras, like other Jat clans were settled in the Canal Colonies of Lyalpur and Montgomery in the 19th and early 20th Century. One such Nagra village in the canal colonies is Chak 351 GB Nagra in Toba Tek Singh District.^[3]

The Sikh Nagra consider the Sikh Cheema to be their collaterals, and as such these two clans do not intermarry.

After the partition of Punjab in 1947, the Sikh Nagra of Sialkot District moved to India, while the Muslim Nagra undertook a similar migration from Gurdaspur District.

References

1. ^ A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of Punjab and North West Frontier Province Volume III page 139 by Horace Arthur Rose
2. ^ A Gazetteer of Jullunder District 1904 Part A page 65
3. ^ A Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of Punjab and North West Frontier Province Volume III page 139 by Horace Arthur Rose