UP, 17/2: Local legend has it that the village of Swaheri in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district was entirely a Muslim village till the middle of the 18th Century, a period during which Nawab Najib-ud-Daulah of Najibabad was a powerful figure in the region. During that period, a military rival of the Nawab sought the assistance of a band of Jats, who had come from Rajasthan and camping in the vicinity. The Jats readily agreed and assisted him in beating back the Nawab’s troops in one skirmish. In gratitude, the rival “emptied” Swaheri of its residents and handed it over to the ancestors of its present occupants