Gujars

divergent groups of a once large family-tribal union, settled mainly in the western part of the Himalayan foothills in India and Pakistan and numbering about 1.2 million (1970, estimate). They speak several related dialects of western Pahari, which belongs to the group of Indie (Indo-Aryan) language family. Almost all Gujars are Sunnite Muslims. Their basic occupation is seminomadic cattle raising. The Gujars supply milk products to local markets. Some of their ancestors constituted the ethnic base of the Gujaratis; others settled along the plains of Rajasthan and the central Ganges, lost their language, and became the agricultural caste called Gujars.