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Abstract
India is considered as a home land of multiple tribes and communities’ population in the world. At present thirty Indian states and union territories having tribal population and they are divided into 705 individual ethnic group. Article 342 of the Indian constitution provides special privileges to Tribal Communities. Jammu and Kashmir hold 2nd rank in schedule tribe’s population after Madhya Pradesh with 11.9% and 14.7% respectively. Jammu and Kashmir have 14.9 lakh schedule tribe population and sub- divided into twelve tribes (community). Gujjar is the 3rd largest community in term of population after Kashmiri and Ladakhi. Gujjar community initially found in Gurjistan (Georgia) but latter on they started migration towards east Iran, Afghanistan crossed Suleiman and finally entered in Indus valley with the passage of time, again they started migration towards south and reached to Gujarat, eventually spread in different places of India i.e. Kathiawar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir (J&K). main objective of this paper is the detail analysis of the origin, historical background and socio-cultural aspects of Gujjars in J&K. This study has been conducted in Jammu and Kashmir based on secondary data sources.