The historian and political scientistChristophe Jaffrelot believes that the Arain are displaced farming communities who moved to Punjab from Sindh and Multan as Arab Muslim armies encroached; they originally practised Hinduism but many later converted to Islam. He says that the community is related to the KambojRajput community mainly located in northern India and eastern Pakistan. Ishtiaq Ahmed, a political scientist who is also a member of the Arain community, acknowledges that some early Arain texts ascribe a Suryavanshi Rajput origin, while others note a Persian one to reflect to others the status of being “conquerers”. He believes that the Arains "are a mix of many ethnicities and races", similar to other "farming castes of the Punjab and Haryana".
According to Ahmed, during the Mughal and Sikh periods some Arains held prominent positions, such as governors and army generals; he also believes that numerous names adopted by the community may indicate a tradition of military employment. At the end of the period of governance mostly by the British East India Company, the rebel leaders of the 1857 uprising included Shah Abdul Qadir Ludhianvi, whose actions with fellow Arains were in part why the authorities of the newly-created British Raj subsequently considered the tribe to be dangerous, leading to them being denied recruitment to the army and having lands confiscated. This treatment was also applied to many other of the rebellious communities. Later, in Lahore District of British India, the Arain were the main Muslim landowning group among those located close to the urban areas, whilst Jats held a similar position in the rural areas. When the British wanted land developed in the Punjab Province, the Arain were brought in to cultivate lands around the cities, and were one of the agricultural communities given preference to assist with the opening up of the agrarian frontier in the Canal Colonies between 1885 and 1940. Traditionally associated with farming, Shahid Javed Burki says that the British favoured the Arain for their "hard work, frugality and sense of discipline". Subsequent development of towns and cities and increasing urbanisation resulted in the value of the land settled by Arain to rise significantly, and Arain families thus flourished. Education was prioritised with the new-found wealth and the Arain came to dominate the legal profession amongst urban Punjabi Muslims. Many used law to enter politics. Although at first denied entry to the British Indian Army following the events of 1857, in the early 20th century the Arain were classified by the Raj as an "agricultural tribe", which was then effectively synonymous with the "martial race" classification.
Organisation
Several meetings were held to establish an organisation to represent the Arain community in the 1890s. Eventually, in 1915, Anjuman Ra’iyan-i-Hind emerged as such a body in Lahore and a national community newspaper, titled Al-Rai, was established.
Culture
The Arains are in majority in Lahore and this biradari is also active in industrial and commercial activities. A few families play a significant role in the politics of Lahore at national and local level.
Diaspora
There are several diasporic Arain communities in British towns and cities, such as Manchester and Oxford. The tribe has its own organisation, Arain Council UK, which was established as Anjuman-e-Arains in the 1980s and renamed in 2008.
