The Gurjar (or Gujjar, Gujar, Gurjara[1]) are an agricultural[2] ethnic community, residing mainly in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan,[3] divided internally into various clan groups.

[1][8] The pivotal point in the history of Gurjar identity is often traced back to the emergence of a Gurjara kingdom in present-day Rajasthan and Gujarat during the Middle Ages (around 570 CE).

The Gujrat and Gujranwala districts of Pakistani Punjab have also been associated with Gurjars from as early as the 8th century CE, when there existed a Gurjara kingdom in the same area.

[14][15] The Hindu Gurjars are mostly found in Indian states of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab Plains and Maharashtra.

Muslim Gurjars are mostly found in Pakistani province of Punjab, mainly concentrated in Lahore and northern cities of Gujranwala, Gujrat, Gujar Khan and Jhelum; Indian Himalayan regions such as Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Garhwal and Kumaon divisions of Uttarakhand; and Afghanistan.

The word Gujjar represents a caste, a tribe and a group in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, locally referred to as jati, zaat, qaum or biradari.

[16][17] It has been suggested by several historians that Gurjara was initially the name of a tribe or clan which later evolved into a geographical and ethnic identity following the establishment of a janapada (tribal kingdom) called 'Gurjara'.

[18] This understanding has introduced an element of ambiguity regarding ancient royal designations containing the word 'gurjara' such as gurjaraeshvara or gurjararaja, as now it is debatable whether the kings bearing these epithets were tribal or ethnic Gurjaras.

[26] The oldest known reference to the word Gurjara is found in the book called Harshacharita (Harsha's Deeds), a biography of king Harshavardhana written around 630 CE.

According to scholars such as Baij Nath Puri, the Mount Abu (ancient Arbuda Mountain) region of present-day Rajasthan had been an abode of the Gurjars during the medieval period.

[28] These Gurjars migrated from the Abu mountain region and as early as in the 6th century CE, they set up one or more principalities in Rajasthan and Gujarat.

[30][31] Babur, in the context of revolt, wrote that Jats and Gujjars poured down from hills in vast numbers in order to carry off oxen and buffaloes and that they were guilty of the severest oppression in the country.

A fort in Parikshitgarh in Meerut district, also known as Qila Parikishatgarh, is ascribed to a Gurjar king Nain Singh Nagar.

The Gurjar people are predominantly found in the northeastern regions of Afghanistan, including Kapisa, Baghlan, Balkh, Kunduz, Takhar, Badakhshan, Nuristan, Laghman, Nangarhar, and Khost.

They demanded schools and hospitals be built in their areas and the Afghan government give scholarships to Gurjar students to study abroad.

[43] However, in Jammu and Kashmir and parts of Himachal Pradesh, they are designated as a Scheduled Tribe under the Indian government's reservation program of positive discrimination.

In the early 2000s, the Gurjar community in Dang region of Rajasthan was also in news its falling sex ratio, unavailability of brides, and the resultant polyandry.

[74] The Gurjars of Jammu and Kashmir in 2007 demanded that this tribal community be treated as a linguistic minority in the erstwhile state and provided with constitutional safeguards for their language Gojri.

[76] Gurjars and Bakarwals have at times been targeted by militants of the insurgency in the territory, such as during the Kot Charwal and Teli Katha massacres.

[78][page needed] The Van Gujjars have had conflicts with forest authorities, who prohibited human and livestock populations inside reserved parks.

The conflict between local forest officials, who claim rights over the newly created parks, and the thousand year nomadic traditions of the Van Gujjars has been ongoing.

[80] In 1999, British anthropologist Stephen Lyon estimated their total population in Pakistan to number 30 million and theorized the notion of "Gujarism", the fact that Gujjars in Pakistan are conscious of their identity and often base their social activities, such as local political participation, on this basis, what he calls kin-network activism.

[82] Gujjars are also present in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where they're the third largest ethnic groups after the Pashtuns and the Awan, found in the Hazara region as well places like Dir, Swat, and Bajaur, often being conversant in Pashto, the provincial language.