Sansi is a nomadic tribe, originally located in the

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern s ...

area of northwestern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, but expelled in the 13th century by Muslim invaders and now spread to states of

as well as scattered throughout India and Sindh,

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

. There were two distinct offshoots of the tribe: the first was a criminal vagrant community connected to the Jat tribes of Central Punjab; the second was an agricultural Jat clan found in

Sahiwal Sahiwal ( Punjabi and ur, ), formerly known as Montgomery, is a city in Punjab, Pakistan. It is the 21st largest city of Pakistan by population and the administrative capital of both Sahiwal District and Sahiwal Division. Sahiwal is appro ...

, Amritsar and Gujranwala. They are often confused with other ethnic groups called Sansi, as Sansi is a widespread name in

South Asia South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth descr ...

Language

Their language is Sansiboli, or Bhilki too that is a highly

endangered An endangered species is a species that is very likely to become extinct in the near future, either worldwide or in a particular political jurisdiction. Endangered species may be at risk due to factors such as habitat loss, poaching and in ...

Indo-Aryan language The Indo-Aryan languages (or sometimes Indic languages) are a branch of the Indo-Iranian languages in the Indo-European language family. As of the early 21st century, they have more than 800 million speakers, primarily concentrated in India, Pa ...

of the Central group, total speakers in India 60,000 (2002) and Pakistan 20,000.Ethnologue.com: Ethnologue report for Sansi
/ref>
/ref> Their traditional occupations vary, from trading to farming.

History

During

British rule in India The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent; * * it is also called Crown rule in India, * * * * or Direct rule in India, * Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...

they were placed under the

Criminal Tribes Act Since the 1870s, various pieces of colonial legislation in India during British rule were collectively called the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA), which criminalized entire communities by designating them as habitual criminals. Under these acts, ethni ...

1871, hence stigmatized for a long time,Punjab - Police and Jails
''

The Imperial Gazetteer of India ''The Imperial Gazetteer of India'' was a gazetteer of the British Indian Empire, and is now a historical reference work. It was first published in 1881. Sir William Wilson Hunter made the original plans of the book, starting in 1869.< ...

'', 1908, v. 20, ''p. 363.'' after independence, however, they were denotified in 1952.Bania Arrested for Spying
by Dilip D'Souza. '' Rediff.com'', 18 January 2003 As the Sansiya, they were recorded in Uttar Pradesh in the

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

. There they were a Scheduled Caste, with a population of 5689.

References

{{Ethnic groups, tribes and clans of the Punjab Indian castes Social groups of Rajasthan Social groups of Punjab, India Social groups of Haryana Ethnic groups in India Scheduled Castes of Haryana Punjabi tribes Denotified tribes of India Scheduled Castes of Uttar Pradesh

Language

History

Further reading

References