Our History
The geographical origins of the Bhatia caste are uncertain. Denzil Ibbetson, an ethnographer of the British Raj, noted that many were found in Sindh and Gujarat in the 19th century CE but that there were grounds to believe that they had migrated from Bhatner, Jaisalmer and the area then known as Rajputana (approximating to modern-day Rajasthan). A more recent study by André Wink traces a 12th-century connection between the Bhatias of Jaisalmer and the Caulukyas of Gujarat, while Anthony O'Brien almost-contemporaneous attempt to discover their homeland caused him to place them around Sindh from the 7th century. Wink, who is a professor with interests in medieval and early modern Indian history, records that many of the community in Sindh converted to Islam during the reign of Firoz Shah Tughluq, although Robert Vane Russell, another Raj ethnographer, was of the opinion that those engaged in foreign trade in the 19th century were exclusively Hindu
