'''Arain''' ([[Urdu]]: آرائین) refers to a clan or tribe which may well have become contiguous due to their common attribute of being small land owning vegetable growers in the [[Punjab]].
Since a large percentage of the Arain are [[Muslim]], there have been various efforts by Arain Muslims to refer to themselves as of [[Arab]] (i.e. [[Semitic]]) rather than [[Indo-European]] ([[Aryan]]) descent. Such claims are, of course, nonsense and but portray a desire of the Muslim Arain to attribute to themselves Muslim rather than [[Buddhist]] or [[Hindu]] ancestors. The people of the Punjab have been historically Buddhists [http://www.shaikhsiddiqui.com/punjab.html] and Hindus until the arrival of Islam in the second half of the first millenium. Ethnically, ancestry of the Arain may arise from the [[Scythians]], [[White Huns]] ([[Hephthalites]]) and other non-Semitic tribes.
[[Rudyard Kipling]]'s [[Kim]] contains a reference to the ''Arain'' as farmers and market gardeners.
