Thus, the result was the spread of the population of a caste division towards its fringes. That the sociological study of urban areas in India has not received as much attention as that of rural areas is well known, and the studies made so far have paid little attention to caste in urban areas. Many of these names were also based on place names. They worked not only as high priests but also as bureaucrats. When divisions are found within a jati, the word sub-jati or sub-caste is used. Before publishing your articles on this site, please read the following pages: 1. 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 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. 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. The pattern of inter-divisional marriages shows how the idea of free marriage, which guides most of the inter-caste marriages, is restricted, modified, and graded according to the traditional structure of caste divisions. Not only that, there were also third-order divisions (i.e., ekdas) in one or more second-order divisions, and finally one or more fourth-order divisions (i.e., tads) in one or more third-order divisions. For example, there was considerable ambiguity about the status of Anavils. In some parts of Gujarat they formed 30 to 35 per cent of the population. Far too many studies of changes in caste in modern India start with a general model of caste in traditional India which is in fact a model of caste in traditional rural India. As weaving is an art and forms one of the most important artisan community of India. The significant point, however, is that there were small endogamous units which were not, like ekdas and tads, part of any higher-order division. stream All the small towns sections in each of the ekdas resented that, while the large town section accepted brides from small towns, they did not reciprocate. In 1931, their total population was more than 1,700,000, nearly one-fourth of the total population of Gujarat. Frequently, a division among Vanias corresponded to a division among Brahmans. There were Brahman and Vania divisions of the same name, the myths about both of them were covered by a single text. 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. A large number of priestly, artisan and service castes also lived in both villages and towns: Bramhans, barbers, carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, leather-workers, scavenges, water-carriers, palanquin-bearers, and so on. If the first-order divisions are called jatis and castes, the second-order divisions would be called sub-jatis or sub-castes. 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. A block printed and resist-dyed fabric, whose origin is from Gujarat was found in the tombs of Fostat, Egypt. The idea of inter-caste marriage is, moreover, linked with the idea of creating such a society involves a compromise with, if not subtle negation of, the ideal. Privacy Policy 8. <> I know some ekdas, and tads composed of only 150 to 200 households. In addition, they carried on overland trade with many towns in central and north India. The population of certain first-order divisions lived mainly in villages. (surname) Me caste; Mer (community) Meta Qureshi; Mistri caste; Miyana (community) Modh; Motisar (caste) Multani Lohar; Muslim Wagher; Mutwa; N . Created Date: So in this way, the Maharashtra caste list is given to all cast Aarakshan belonging to the Scheduled Castes category for the state of MH. Let me illustrate briefly. Gujarat- A state in India. 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. The Rajputs relationship with the Kolis penetrated every second-order division among them, i.e., Talapada, Pardeshi, Chumvalia, Palia, and so on. 3.8K subscribers in the gujarat community. This category has the following 18 subcategories, out of 18 total. In other words, it did not involve a big jump from one place to another distant place. The handloom weavers of Gujarat, Maharastra and Bengal produced and exported some of the world's most desirable fabrics. Also, the horizontal spread of a caste rarely coincided with the territorial boundaries of a political authority. 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). A fundamental difficulty with these paradigms of change, as indicated by the above analysis, is that they are based on a partial conception of the systematic or structural whole in the past partially because it does not cover the urban situation and the complexity of horizontal units. Real Estate Software Dubai > blog > manvar surname caste in gujarat. Moreover, the king himself belonged to some caste (not just to the Kshatriya Varna) and frequently a number of kings belonged to the same caste (e.g., Rajput). Kolis were the largest first-order division in Gujarat. Village studies, as far as caste is a part of them, have been, there fore, concerned with the interrelations between sections of various castes in the local context. Usually, the affairs of the caste were discussed in large congregations of some fifty to hundred or even more villages from time to time. 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. hu)_EYUT?:fX:vOR,4g4ce{\(wcUO %OW-Knj|qV]_)1?@{^ $:0ZY\fpg7J~Q~pHaMVSP5bLC}6+zwgv;f f^v4[|vug+vO0h t7QNP}EYm+X[x~;O|z5tq ]-39aa{g-u5n:a56&`3y.f-a@a"0v-a@$%`Z]]Iqb56aR0g 30V9EM%K"#|6uN? =O|8alCcs):~AC<5 q|om57/|Sgc}2c#)U~WL}%T]s> z. The Khedawals, numbering 15,000 to 20,000 in 1931 were basically priests but many of them were also landowners, government officials, and traders. These prefixes Visa and Dasa, were generally understood to be derived from the words for the numbers 20 (vis) and 10 (das), which suggested a descending order of status, but there is no definite evidence of such hierarchy in action. A comment on the sociology of urban India would, therefore, be in order before we go ahead with the discussion of caste divisions. 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. While some of the divisions of a lower order might be the result of fission, some others might be a result of fusion. In particular, the implications of the co-existence of lower-order divisions within a higher- order division in the same town or city should be worked out. The migrants, many of whom came from heterogeneous urban centres of Gujarat, became part of an even more heterogeneous environment in Bombay. This account of the divisions is based on various sources, but mainly on Bombay Gazetteer (1901). Traditionally, the Brahman division was supposed to provide the priests for the corresponding divisions. This stratum among the Kanbis coped with the problem mainly by practising remarriage of widows and divorced women. The main aim of this paper is to discuss, on the basis of data derived mainly from Gujarat, these and other problems connected with the horizontal dimension of caste. Ideally, castes as horizontal units should he discussed with the help of population figures. But the hypergamous tendency was so powerful that each such endogamous unit could not be perfectly endogamous even at the height of its integration. Hypergamy tended to be associated with this hierarchy. Division and hierarchy have always been stressed as the two basic principles of the caste system. The Vanias provide an example of such castes. Sometimes a division corresponding to a division among Brahmans and Vanias was found in a third first-order division also. 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. 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. In each of these three divisions the top stratum was clear. 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. But during the 18th century, when the Mughal Empire was disintegrating, a large number of small kingdoms came into existence, and each had a small capital town of its own. They have been grouped in Vaishya category of Varna system. Simultaneously, there is gradual decline in the strength of the principle of hierarchy, particularly of ritual hierarchy expressed in purity and pollution. Among the Kanbis, while there was hypergamy within the Leva division and possibly, similar hypergamy within the Kadva division, there was no hierarchy or hypergamy between the two second-order divisions. 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. (Frequently, such models are constructed a priori rather than based on historical evidence, but that is another story). It used to have a panch (council of leaders) and sometimes also a headman (patel). The Kanbis (now called Patidars) had five divisions: Leva, Kadya, Anjana, Bhakta, and Matia. Tirgaar, Tirbanda. Moreover, some leading Anavils did not wish to be bothered about Brahman status, saying that they were just Anavil. The marital alliances of the royal families forming part of the Maratha confederacy, and of the royal families of Mysore in south India and of Kashmir and Nepal in the north with the royal families of Gujarat and Rajasthan show, among other things, how there was room for flexibility and how the rule of caste endogamy could be violated in an acceptable manner at the highest level. There were similar problems about the status of a number of other divisions. so roamed around clueless. In fact, inter-tad marriages have increased so much that the tads have more or less lost their identity and such marriages are no longer considered as violating the rule of tad endogamy. These marriage links do not seem to have allowed, among the Kolis, formation of well organized, small, endogamous units (ekadas, gols) as were found among some other castes. 4 0 obj This does not, however, help describe caste divisions adequately. We need to formulate some idea of the nature of the Indian urban society and its relation with the rural society in the past, at least at the beginning of the 19th century. endobj Some of the other such divisions were Kathi, Dubla, Rabari, Bharwad, Mer (see Trivedi 1961), Vaghri, Machhi, Senwa, Vanzara, and Kharwa. They were involved in agriculture in one way or another. When the rural population began to be drawn towards the new opportunities, the first to take advantage of them were the rural sections of the rural-cum-urban castes. There was also a tendency among bachelors past marriageable age to establish liaisons with lower-caste women, which usually led the couple to flee and settle down in a distant village. Since Rajput as a caste occurred all over northern, central and western India (literally, it means rulers son, ruling son), the discussion of Rajputs in Gujarat will inevitably draw us into their relationship with Rajputs in other regions. Their origin myth enshrined in their caste purana also showed them to be originally non-Brahman. TOS 7. The main point is that we do not completely lose sight of the lowest boundary among these three hypergamous divisions as we do among the Rajputs. * List of Scheduled Tribes in Gujarat; A. . 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. In the city, on the other hand, the population was divided into a large number of castes and each of most of them had a large population, frequently subdivided up to the third or the fourth order. manvar surname caste in gujarat. 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. The hierarchy, however, was very gradual and lacked sharpness. On the other hand, there was an almost simultaneous spurt in village studies. But there was also another process. It has already been mentioned that every first-order division was not divided into second-order divisions, and that every second-order division was not divided into third-order divisions, and so on. Usually, it was a small population. No one knows when and how they came into existence and what they meant socially. Literally, ekda meant unit, and gol circle, and both signified an endogamous unit. I describe here three prominent units of the latter type, namely, Anavil, Leva Kanbi, and Khedawal Brahman. Similarly, the Khedawal Brahmans were divided into Baj and Bhitra, the Nagar Brahmans into Grihastha and Bhikshuk, the Anavils into Desai and Bhathela, and the Kanbis into Kanbi and Patidar. The sub- the manner in which the ideas of free marriages and castles society are used by both the old and the young in modern India and how a number of new customs and institutions have evolved to cope with these new ideas is a fascinating subject of study. 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 humble Charkha (spinning wheel) and khadi became a dominant symbol of self-reliance, self-determination and nationalist pride. For example, all Vania divisions were divided into a number of ekdas or gols. I shall first provide an analysis of caste in the past roughly during the middle of the 19th century, and then deal with changes in the modern times. 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. Hindu society is usually described as divided into a number of castes the boundaries of which are maintained by the rule of caste endogamy. First, since the tads were formed relatively recently, it is easier to get information about their formation than about the formation of ekdas. Sometimes a division could even be a self-contained endogamous unit. www.opendialoguemediations.com. Second, there used to be intense intra-ekda politics, and tads were formed as a result of some continuing conflict among ekda leaders and over the trial of violation of ekda rules. There was an emphasis on being different and separate rather than on being higher and lower. A recent tendency in sociological literature is to consider jatis as castes. Typically, a village consists of the sections of various castes, ranging from those with just one household to those with over u hundred. No sooner had the village studies begun that their limitations and the need for studying caste in its horizontal dimension were realized. The Chumvalias and Patanwadias migrated possibly from the same tract and continued to belong to the same horizontal unit after migration. Marco Polo a Venetian merchant on his visit to India in 13th century Gujarat observed that "brocading art of Gujarat weavers is par excellent". There was apparently a close relation between a castes internal organization and the size and spatial distribution of its population. Jun 12, 2022 . As for the size of other castes, I shall make mainly relative statements. 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. 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. To illustrate, among the Khadayata or Modh Vanias, an increasing number of marriages take place between two or more tads within an ekda. If the Varna divisions are taken into account, then this would add one more order to the four orders of caste divisions considered above. This tendency reaches its culmination in the world of Dumont. Till the establishment of democratic polity in 1947, hardly any caste association in Gujarat had manifest political functions. It is not easy to find out if the tads became ekdas in course of time and if the process of formation of ekdas was the same as that of the formation of tads. I am dealing here only with certain typical situations. to which the divisions of the marrying couple belong. The main reason was that Anavils did not practise priesthood as a traditional occupation, nor were they involved in traditional Sanskrit learning. The Brahmans were divided into such divisions as Audich, Bhargav, Disawal, Khadayata, Khedawal, Mewada, Modh, Nagar, Shrigaud, Shrimali, Valam, Vayada, and Zarola. Caste associations have been formed on the lines of caste divisions. These and many other artisans, craftsmen and servants reflected the special life-style of the town. A great deal of discussion of the role of the king in the caste system, based mainly on Indological literature, does not take these facts into account and therefore tends to be unrealistic. The migration of the Kolis of north Gujarat into central Gujarat and those of the latter into eastern Gujarat was a process of slow drift from one village to another over a period of time. Weavers became beggars, manufacturing collapsed and the last 2000 years of Indian textile industry was knocked down. While some hypergamous and hierarchical tendency, however weak, did exist between tads within an ekda and between ekdas within a second- order division, it was practically non-existent among the forty or so second-order divisions, such as Modh, Porwad, Shrimali, Khadayata and so on, among the Vanias. The handloom weavers of Gujarat, Maharastra and Bengal produced and exported some of the world's most desirable fabrics. Report a Violation, Caste Stratification: Changing Rural Caste Stratification, Caste in Rural India: Specificities of Caste in Rural Society. The Rajput hierarchy had many levels below the level of the royal families of the large and powerful kingdoms: lineages of owners of large and small fiefs variously called jagir, giras, thakarat,thikana, taluka, and wanted-, lineages of substantial landowners under various land tenures having special rights and privileges; and lineages of small landowners.
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