Source: TW
In 1891, there were a total of 4.4 million Jats in Punjab Province (Haryana plus Hill States included). Hindu Jats were the most numerous at 1.7 million, followed by Muslim Jats at 1.6 million and Sikh Jats at 1.1 million.
However, a rapid shift was to happen as in just a few decades there was a mass shift of Jats away from Hinduism to Sikhism combined with higher Muslim fertility rates and in the 1931 census, Hindu Jats had become less numerous than their Sikh and Muslim counterparts.
The total increase among Sikh Jats can be gauged from the table in the preceding paragraph. which shows that during the last fifty years Hindu Jats have decreased by nearly half a million, while Sikh Jats have risen by more than a million. In the central Panjab. particularly in Hoshiarpur and Jullundur Districts, several reasons can be assigned for the conversion of Hindu Jats to Sikhism.
The foremost of these is the intensive campaign of religious preaching (parchar), carried on by the Akalis during the last decade. At the time of the census considerable propaganda was carried on by the Akalis, who went round the villages of Hindu Jats and induced them to return themselves as Sikhs. My inquiries show that the propaganda was successful in many villages.
Very few of the Hindu Jats of the two Districts mentioned above are in the Army, and it is considered easy by a Jat to get himself enrolled as a soldier if he offers himself as Sikh Jat. For this reason also the tendency to go over to Sikhism has gained ground.
Numerous Khalsa schools have been established in rural areas during the last decade, and the children of Hindu Jats, who form a small minority in these schools, do not feel very happy and so in many cases, their parents give them pahol and convert them to Sikhism.
It may be said here that a Hindu Jat of the Doub districts has no scruples whatever in converting his children to Sikhism while he himself remains a Hindu.
Another circumstance worth mentioning is that Sikh Jats during the last decade, mainly owing to the Akali movement, have developed a prejudice against giving their daughters in marriage to Hindu Jats; formerly inter-marriages between Hindu and Sikh Jats were of common occurrence.