Gujarat- A state in India. The Khedawals, numbering 15,000 to 20,000 in 1931 were basically priests but many of them were also landowners, government officials, and traders. From the 15th century onwards we find historical references to political activities of Koli chieftains. Jun 12, 2022. A comment on the sociology of urban India would, therefore, be in order before we go ahead with the discussion of caste divisions. Use census records and voter lists to . Britain's Industrial Revolution was built on the de-industrialisation of India - the destruction of Indian textiles and their replacement by manufacturing in England, using Indian raw materials and exporting the finished products back to India and even the rest of the world. The earliest caste associations were formed in Bombay in the middle of the 19th century among migrants belonging to the primarily urban and upper castes from Gujarat, such as Vanias, Bhatias and Lohanas (see Dobbin 1972: 74-76, 121-30, 227f, 259-61). Even if we assume, for a moment, that the basic nature of a structure or institution was the same, we need to know its urban form or variant. Britain's response was to cut off the thumbs of weavers, break their looms and impose duties on tariffs on Indian cloth, while flooding India and the world with cheaper fabric from the new steam mills of Britain. In 1931, the Rajputs of all strata in Gujarat had together a population of about 35,000 forming nearly 5 per cent of the total population of Gujarat. The Levas, Anavils and Khedawals provide examples of castes whose internal organization had a strong emphasis on the principle of hierarchy and a weak emphasis on that of division. All Brahman divisions did not, however, have a corresponding Vania division. 92. For the sake of bravity and simplicity of presentation, I have not provided detailed documentation. In the second-order divisions of the Leva Kanbis, the Anavils and the Khedawals, while the hypergamous tendency was strong, attempts were continually made to form small endogamous units: although the strength of the hypergamous tendency did not allow these units to function effectively, they nevertheless checked its free play to some extent. caste: [noun] one of the hereditary social classes in Hinduism that restrict the occupation of their members and their association with the members of other castes. The understanding of changes in caste is not likely to be advanced by clubbing such diverse groups together under the rubric of ethnic group. Caste associations in Gujarat were formed mainly among upper castes to provide welfare (including recreation), to promote modern education, and to bring about reforms in caste customs. Many second-order divisions were further divided into two or three status categories. In each of these three divisions the top stratum was clear. A block printed and resist-dyed fabric, whose origin is from Gujarat was found in the tombs of Fostat, Egypt. The two former ekdas continued to exist with diminished strength. If this rule was violated, i.e., if he married a girl with whom the Vanias did not have commensal relations, the maximum punishment, namely, excommunication, was imposed. That the role of the two principles could vary at different levels within a first-order division has also been seen. Although it has been experiencing stresses and strains and has had ups and downs on account of the enormous diversity between the royal and the tribal ends, it has shown remarkable solidarity in recent years. Most inter-divisional marriages take place between boys and girls belonging to the lowest order in the structure of divisions. //]]>. Since Vankars were involved in production and business they were known as Nana Mahajans or small merchants. We will now analyze the internal structure of a few first-order divisions, each of which was split into divisions going down to the fourth order. Prohibited Content 3. Co-residence of people, belonging to two or more divisions of a lower order within a higher order was, however, a prominent feature of towns and cities rather than of villages. When divisions are found within a jati, the word sub-jati or sub-caste is used. Homo Hierarchicus. To have a meaningful understanding of the system of caste divisions, there is no alternative but to understand the significance of each order of division and particularly the nature of their boundaries and maintenance mechanisms. In the case of some of them the small population was so dispersed that a division such as that of barbers, blacksmiths, or carpenters, would be represented by only one or two households in each village and by a significant number of households in towns. The larger castes and even larger subdivisions among them used to have their houses segregated on their own streets (called pol, sheri, khadki, vad, khancho). Usually, a single Koli division had different local names in different parts of Gujarat, but more about this later. For example, among the Khadayata Vanias there are all-Khadayata associations as well as associations for the various ekdas and sometimes even for their tads (see Shah, Ragini 1978). The three trading castes of Vania, Lohana and Bhatia were mainly urban. To whichever of the four orders a caste division belonged, its horizontal spread rarely, if ever, coincided with that of another. Together they provide a slice of Gujarati society from the sea- coast to the bordering highlands. This surname is most commonly held in India, where it is held by 2,496 people, or 1 in 307,318. For example, if they belonged to two different second-order divisions, such as Shrimali and Modh, the punishment would be greater than if they belonged to two different ekdas within the Shrimali or the Modh division. It is possible that there were a few divisions each confined to just one large city and, therefore, not having the horizontal dimension at all. This bulk also was characterized by hierarchy, with the relatively advanced population living in the plains at one end and the backward population living along with the tribal population in the highlands at the other end. Radhvanaj Rajputs were clearly distinguished from, and ranked much above local Kolis. In these divisions an increasing number of marriages are taking place against the grain of traditional hierarchy, i.e., girls of traditionally higher strata marry boys of traditionally lower strata. The chiefly families constituted a tiny proportion of the total population of any second-order division among the Kolis. The main thrust of Pococks paper is that greater emphasis on difference rather than on hierarchy is a feature of caste among overseas Indians and in modern urban India. The lowest stratum in all the three divisions had to face the problem of scarcity of brides. This category has the following 18 subcategories, out of 18 total. 91. There were about three hundred divisions of this order in the region as a whole. Once the claim was accepted at either level, hypergamous marriage was possible. stream While we do get evidence of fission of caste divisions of a higher order into two or more divisions of a lower order, the mere existence of divisions of a lower order should not be taken as evidence of fission in a division of a higher order. Most associations continue to retain their non-political character. In the meanwhile, it is important to note that there does not seem to have been any attempt to form small endogamous units (ekdas, gols) at any level among the Rajputs unlike attempts made as we shall see, among some other hypergamous castes in Gujarat. For example, there were Khedawal Brahmans but not Khedawal Vanias, and Lad Vanias but no Lad Brahmans. Division and hierarchy have always been stressed as the two basic principles of the caste system. The Hindu and Muslim kingdoms in Gujarat during the medieval period had, of course, their capital towns, at first Patan and then Ahmedabad. Report a Violation, Caste Stratification: Changing Rural Caste Stratification, Caste in Rural India: Specificities of Caste in Rural Society. The decline was further accelerated by the industrial revolution. Let me illustrate briefly. In 1931, their total population was more than 1,700,000, nearly one-fourth of the total population of Gujarat. Thus, the result was the spread of the population of a caste division towards its fringes. The primarily urban castes linked one town with another; the primarily rural linked one village with another; and the rural-cum-urban linked towns with villages in addition to linking both among themselves. Sometimes castes are described as becoming ethnic groups in modern India, particularly in urban India. Thus, while each second-order Koli division maintained its boundaries vis-a-vis other such divisions, each was linked with the Rajputs. We have seen how one second-order division among Brahmans, namely, Khedawal, was marked by continuous internal hierarchy and strong emphasis on hypergamy on the one hand and by absence of effective small endogamous units on the other. However, it is well known that there were subtle arguments regarding the status of certain royal families being Rajput. These divisions have, however, been kept out of the present analysis for reasons which have become well known to students of Hindu society since the 1950s. Before publishing your articles on this site, please read the following pages: 1. In the past the dispersal over a wide area of population of an ekda or tad was uncommon; only modern communications have made residential dispersal as well as functional integration possible. Further, during this lengthy process of slow amalgamation those who will marry in defiance of the barriers of sub-caste, will still be imbued with caste mentality (1932: 184). No analytical gains are therefore likely to occur by calling them by any other name. It seems the highland Bhils (and possibly also other tribes) provided brides to lower Rajputs in Gujarat. There are other sub-castes like Satpanthis, who are mainly centered in Kutch district and have some social customs akin to Muslims . Finally, while an increasing number of marriages are taking place even across the boundaries of first-order divisions, as for example, between Brahmans and Vanias, and between Vanias and Patidars, such marriages even now form an extremely small proportion of the total number of marriages. Both were recognized as Brahman but as degraded ones. This reflects the high degree of divisiveness in castes in Gujarat. I am dealing here only with certain typical situations. The fact that Mahatma Gandhi came from a small third-order division in the Modh Vania division in a town in Saurashtra does not seem to be an accident. They were thus not of the same status as most other second-order divisions among Brahmans. Sindhollu, Chindollu. The point is that there was nothing like the endogamous unit but there were only several units of various orders with defined roles in endogamy. Although caste was found in both village and town, did it possess any special characteristics in the latter? I have bits and pieces of information about relations between a considerable numbers of other lower-order divisions in their respective higher-order divisions. Typically, a village consists of the sections of various castes, ranging from those with just one household to those with over u hundred. But many Rajput men of Radhvanaj got wives from people in distant villages who were recognized there as Kolisthose Kolis who had more land and power than the generality of Kolis had tried to acquire some of the traditional Rajput symbols in dress manners and customs and had been claiming to be Rajputs. The Brahmans were divided into such divisions as Audich, Bhargav, Disawal, Khadayata, Khedawal, Mewada, Modh, Nagar, Shrigaud, Shrimali, Valam, Vayada, and Zarola. Census officials-turned-scholars, from Risley to Hutton, wrote many of the earlier general works on caste. <> Gujarati migrations to the nearby metropolis of Bombay the first new centre of administration, industry, commerce, education, and western culture, followed the same links. The above brief analysis of change in caste in modern Gujarat has, I hope, indicated that an overall view of changes in caste in modern India should include a careful study of changes in rural as well as in urban areas in relation to their past. The small ekda or tad with its entire population residing in a single town was, of course, not a widespread phenomenon. <> The emphasis on being different and separate rather than on being higher and lower was even more marked in the relationship among the forty or so second-order divisions. The point is that the Rajput hierarchy, with the princely families at the top, merged at the lower level imperceptibly into the vast sea of tribal and semi-tribal people like Bhils and Kolis. Many of these names were also based on place names. The arrival of the East India Company, however sounded the death knell for the Indian textile industry. For example, the Patanwadia population was spread continuously from the Patan area to central Gujarat, and the Talapada population from central Gujarat to Pal. As regards the rest of Gujarat, I have used various sources: my work on the caste of genealogists and mythographys and on the early 19th century village records; the available ethnographic, historical and other literature; and observations made while living m Gujarat. The Kolis seem to have had only two divisions in every part of Gujarat: for example, Talapada (indigenous) and Pardeshi (foreign) in central Gujarat and Palia and Baria in eastern Gujarat (significantly, one considered indigenous and the other outsider). No sooner had the village studies begun that their limitations and the need for studying caste in its horizontal dimension were realized. But the hypergamous tendency was so powerful that each such endogamous unit could not be perfectly endogamous even at the height of its integration. The Rajputs, in association with the Kolis, were probably the only horizontal unit which had continuous internal hierarchy, i.e., hypergamy unbroken by any endogamous subdivisions, and which did not have discernible boundaries at the lowest level. At the other end were castes in which the principle of division had free play and the role of the principle of hierarchy was limited. rogers outage brampton today; levelland, tx obituaries. He stated: hereditary specialization together with hierarchical organization sinks into the background in East Africa (293). One may say that there are now more hypogamous marriages, although another and perhaps a more realistic way of looking at the change would be that a new hierarchy is replacing the traditional one. This list may not reflect recent changes. It is important to note that the more literate and learned Brahmans lived in towns, more particularly in capital and pilgrim towns, which were, indeed, the centres of higher Hindu culture and civilization. to which the divisions of the marrying couple belong. History. The small endogamous units, on the other hand, did not practise either. This meant that he could marry a girl of any subdivision within the Vania division. At one end there were castes in which the principle of hierarchy had free play and the role of the principle of division was limited. While we can find historical information about the formation of ekdas and tads there are only myths about the formation of the numerous second-order divisions. 3.8K subscribers in the gujarat community. Such a description not only overlooks the diversity and complexity of caste divisions and the rural-urban Link- ages in them but also leads to placing them in the same category as Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Jains, Buddhists, and so on. The Khadayatas were divided into about 30 ekdas. While certain first-order divisions were found mainly in towns, the population of certain other first-order divisions was dispersed in villages as well as in towns, the population of the rural and the urban sections differing from one division to another. An important idea behind the activities of caste associations is: service to ones caste is service to the nation. In spite of them, however, sociologists and social anthropologists have not filled adequately the void left by the disappearance of caste from the census and the gazetteer. This was unlike the situation among the Rajputs who did not make any attempt to form small endogamous units. Unfortunately, although the Kolis are an important element in Gujarats population, their earlier ethnography is confusing, and there is hardly any modern, systematic, anthropological, sociological or historical study, so that the confusion continues to persist. Most of them were, true to their name, rulers at various levels of the political hierarchy from the kingly level to the level of dominant caste in many villages. The complex was provided a certain coherence and integrityin the pre- industrial time of slow communicationby a number of oral and literate traditions cultivated by cultural specialists such as priests, bards, genealogists and mythographers (see in this connection Shah and Shroff 1958). manvar surname caste in gujarat. In no other nation has something as basic as one's clothing or an act as simple as spinning cotton become so intertwined with a national movement. Bougies repulsion) rather than on hierarchy was a feature of caste in certain contexts and situations in traditional India, and increasing emphasis on division in urban Indian in modern times is an accentuation of what existed in the past. (Frequently, such models are constructed a priori rather than based on historical evidence, but that is another story). Another clearly visible change in caste in Gujarat is the emergence of caste associations. There were also a number of first-order divisions, mainly of artisans, craftsmen and specialized servants, with small populations. Nor were ekdas and tads entirely an urban phenomenon. They were involved in agriculture in one way or another. Hypergamy was accompanied by sanskritization of at least a section of the tribal population, their claim to the Kshatriya Varna and their economic and political symbiosis with the caste population. I have done field work in two contiguous parts of Gujarat: central Gujarat (Kheda district and parts of Ahmedabad and Baroda districts) and eastern Gujarat (Panchmahals district). Many of them claimed that they were Brahmans but this claim was not accepted by most established Brahmans. window.__mirage2 = {petok:"uGhRfiuY26l2oZgRlfZRFSp4BWPIIt7Gh61sQC1XrRU-3600-0"}; As could be expected, there were marriages between fairly close kin, resulting in many overlapping relationships, in such an endogamous unit. They worked not only as high priests but also as bureaucrats. The indigenous Kolis in the highland area of Pal in eastern Gujarat were called Palia, but there was another smaller population of KoUs, who were locally called Baria but were actually Talapada immigrants from central Gujarat. The Chumvalias and Patanwadias migrated possibly from the same tract and continued to belong to the same horizontal unit after migration. %PDF-1.7 Of particular importance seems to be the fact that a section of the urban population was more or less isolatedsome may say, alienatedfrom the rural masses from generation to generation. <>/ExtGState<>/ProcSet[/PDF/Text/ImageB/ImageC/ImageI] >>/Annots[ 9 0 R] /MediaBox[ 0 0 612 792] /Contents 4 0 R/Group<>/Tabs/S/StructParents 0>> There was an emphasis on being different and separate rather than on being higher and lower. The Kolis in such an area may not even be concerned about a second-order divisional name and may be known simply as Kolis. The population of certain first-order divisions lived mainly in villages. Then there were a number of urban divisions of specialized artisans, craftsmen and servants, as for example, Sonis (gold and silver smiths), Kansaras (copper and bronze smiths), Salvis (silk weavers), Bhavsars (weavers, dyers and printers), Malis (florists), Kharadis (skilled carpenters and wood carvers), Kachhias (vegetable sellers), Darjis (tailors), Dabgars (makers of drums, saddles and such other goods involving leather), Ghanchis (oil pressers), Golas ferain and spice pounders and domestic servants), Dhobis (washermen), Chudgars (banglemakers), and Tambolis (sellers of area nuts, betel leaves, etc.). Many of them became the norm-setting elite for Gujaratis in the homeland. They were found in almost every village in plains Gujarat and in many villages in Saurashtra and Kachchh. The primarily urban castes and the urban sections of the rural-cum- urban castes were the first to take advantage of the new opportunities that developed in industry, commerce, administration, the professions and education in urban centres. Similarly, although the number of marriages between the second-order divisions in the Vania division, i.e., between Khadayata, Modh, Shrimali, Lad, Vayada, etc., has been increasing, the majority of marriages take place within the respective second-order divisions. Even the archaeological surveys and studies have indicated that the people of Dholavira, Surkotada. The method is to remove first the barriers of the divisions of the lowest order and then gradually those of one higher order after another. 2 0 obj The humble Charkha (spinning wheel) and khadi became a dominant symbol of self-reliance, self-determination and nationalist pride. First, since the tads were formed relatively recently, it is easier to get information about their formation than about the formation of ekdas. Briefly, while the Varna model was significant in the total dynamics of the caste system to fit the numerous first-order divisions into the four-fold Varna model in any part of India is impossible, and, therefore, to consider varnas as caste divisions as such is meaningless. All associations originated in large towns, are more active in towns than in villages, and are led by prominent members in towns. The tribal groups in the highland area, such as the Bhils and Naikdas, also did not have any urban component. manvar surname caste in gujarat. yorba linda football maxpreps; weiteste entfernung gerichtsbezirk; wyoming rockhounding locations google maps; x[? -E$nvU 4V6_}\]}/yOu__}ww7oz[_z~?=|nNT=|qq{\//]/Ft>_tV}gjjn#TfOus_?~>/GbKc.>^\eu{[GE_>'x?M5i16|B;=}-)$G&w5uvb~o:3r3v GL3or}|Y~?3s_hO?qWWpn|1>9WS3^:wTU3bN{tz;T_}so/R95iLc_6Oo_'W7y; Further, the castes there are unable to take cognizance of each other in terms of hierarchy or of occupation, and it is in this situation that they can be said to exist by virtue of their differences (296) it is the systematic recognition of difference which is most apparent. To obtain a clear understanding of the second-order divisions with the Koli division, it is necessary first of all to find a way through the maze of their divisional names. The Kanbis (now called Patidars) had five divisions: Leva, Kadya, Anjana, Bhakta, and Matia. New Jersey had the highest population of Mehta families in 1920. In many villages in Gujarat, particularly in larger villages, one or two first-order divisions would be represented by more than one second-order division. A first-order division could be further divided into two or more second-order divisions. As regards the specific case of the Rajput-Koli relationship, my impression is that, after the suppression of female infanticide in the first half of the 19th century, the later prohibition of polygyny, and the recent removal of princely states and feudal land tenures among the Rajputs on the one hand, and the increasing sanskritization as well as Rajputization among the Kolis on the other, marriage ties between these divisions have become more extensive than before. Although they claimed to be Brahman they were closely associated with agriculture. It has been pointed out earlier that an emphasis on the principle of division existed in the caste system in urban centres in traditional India. The latter continued to be the provincial capital during Mughal rule. Since these were all status categories rather than clear- cut divisions, I have not considered them as constituting third-order divisions. Caste associations have been formed on the lines of caste divisions. The bulk of the population was spread all over the villages as small landholders, tenants and labourers. The degree of contravention is less if the couple belong, let us say, to two different fourth-order divisions within a third-order division than if they belong to two different third-order divisions within a second-order division, and so on. All of this information supports the point emerging from the above analysis, that frequently there was relatively little concern for ritual status between the second-order divisions within a first- order division than there was between the first-order divisions. Dowry not only continues to be a symbol of status in the new hierarchy but is gradually replacing bride price wherever it existed, and dowry amounts are now reaching astronomical heights. Almost all the myths about the latter are enshrined in the puranas (for an analysis of a few of them, see Das 1968 and 1977). The Rajputs in Radhvanaj, the village I have studied in central Gujarat, had no great difficulty in establishing their claim to being Rajputs: they owned substantial amounts of land under a traditional Rajput tenure, dominated village politics and possessed certain other traditional Rajput symbols. Usually, these divisions were distinguished from one another by prohibition of what people called roti vyavahar (bread, i.e., food transactions) as well as beti vyavahar (daughter, i.e., marital transactions). Thus, at one end, there were first-order divisions, each of which was sub-divided up to the fourth-order, and at the other end there were first-order divisions which were not further divided at all. We shall return later to a consideration of this problem. Although the name of a Brahman or Vania division might be based on a place name, the division was not territorial in nature. In contrast, there were horizontal units, the internal hierarchy and hypergamy of which were restricted to some extent by the formation of small endogamous units and which had discernible boundaries at the lowest level. For example, all Vania divisions were divided into a number of ekdas or gols. endobj Systematic because castes exist and are like each other in being different (298). The boundaries of caste division were fairly clear in the village community. This was because political authorities were hierarchized from little kingdom to empire and the boundaries of political authorities kept changing. The division had an elaborate internal hierarchy, with wealthy and powerful landlords and tax-farmers at the top and small landholders, tenants and labourers at the bottom. Frequently, the urban population of such a division performed more specialized functions than did the rural one. State Id State Name Castecode Caste Subcaste 4 GUJARAT 4001 AHIR SORATHA 4 GUJARAT 4002 AHIR 4 GUJARAT 4003 ANSARI 4 GUJARAT 4004 ANVIL BRAHMIN 4 GUJARAT 4005 ATIT BAYAJI BAKSHI PANCH 4 GUJARAT 4006 BAJANIYA 4 GUJARAT 4007 BAJIR . When Mr. H. Borradaile in A.D. 1827 collected information regarding the customs of Hindus, no less than 207 castes which did not intermarry, were found in the city of Surat alone.
