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. 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; The Khedawals, numbering 15,000 to 20,000 in 1931 were basically priests but many of them were also landowners, government officials, and traders. For example, a good number of villages in central Gujarat used to have both Talapada and Pardeshi Kolis and Brahmans belonging to two or three of their many second-order divisions. The Hindu population of Gujarat was divided first of all into what I have called caste divisions of the first order. Thus, finding any boundary between Rajputs and Kolis in the horizontal context was impossible, although there were sharp boundaries between the two in the narrow local context. I would suggest that this feature of urban caste, along with the well known general tendency of urban culture to encourage innovation, provided the groundhowever diffuse that ground might have beenfor a favourable response to the anti-hierarchical ideas coming from the West. 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. Disclaimer 9. A comment on the sociology of urban India would, therefore, be in order before we go ahead with the discussion of caste divisions. Since the beginning of the modern reform movement to encourage inter-caste marriages-most of which are in fact inter-tad or inter-ekda marriagesthe old process of fission into ekdas and tads has come to a halt, and it is, therefore, difficult to understand this process without making a systematic historical enquiry. Together they provide a slice of Gujarati society from the sea- coast to the bordering highlands. I have, therefore, considered them a first-order division and not a second-order one among Brahmans (for a fuller discussion of the status of Anavils, see Joshi, 1966; Van der Veen 1972; Shah, 1979). The tad thus represented the fourth and last order of caste divisions. In the second-order divisions of the Vanias the small endogamous units functioned more effectively and lasted longer: although the hypergamous tendency did exist particularly between the rural and the urban sections in a unit, it had restricted play. Division and hierarchy have always been stressed as the two basic principles of the caste system. 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. Far from it, I am only suggesting that its role had certain limitations and that the principle of division was also an important and competing principle. 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. 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). In a paper on Caste among Gujaratis in East Africa, Pocock (1957b) raised pointedly the issue of the relative importance of the principles of division (he called it difference) and hierarchy. They adopted Rajput customs and traditions, claimed Rajput status, and gave daughters in marriage to Rajputs in the lower rungs of Rajput hierarchy. More of them were located in the plains, than in the bordering highlands. I have bits and pieces of information about relations between a considerable numbers of other lower-order divisions in their respective higher-order divisions. The tribal groups in the highland area, such as the Bhils and Naikdas, also did not have any urban component. 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). 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. 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. They married their daughters into higher Rajput lineages in the local area who in turn married their daughters into still higher nearly royal rajput lineages in Saurashtra and Kachchh. A few examples are: Brahman (priest), Vania (trader), Rajput (warrior and ruler), Kanbi (peasant), Koli (peasant), Kathi (peasant), Soni goldsmith), Suthar (carpenter), Valand (barber), Chamar (leatherworker), Dhed (weaver) and Bhangi (scavenger). 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. In recent years, however, there has been a tendency to emphasize hierarchy as the primary principle encompassing the principle of division. The Rajputs, in association with Kolis, Bhils, and such other castes and tribes, provide an extreme example of such castes. Homo Hierarchicus. In central Gujarat, at least from about the middle of the 18th century, the population of the wealthy and powerful Patidar section of the Kanbis also lived in townsan extremely interesting development of rich villages into towns, which I will not describe here. 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. James Campbell (1901: xii), the compiler of gazetteers for the former Bombay presidency comprising several linguistic regions, wrote about Gujarat: In no part of India are the subdivisions so minute, one of them, the Rayakval Vanias, numbering only 47 persons in 1891. The most important example of primarily political caste association is the Gujarat Kshatriya Sabha. The ekdas have not yet lost their identities. It used to have a panch (council of leaders) and sometimes also a headman (patel). For example, in a Rajput kingdom the families of the Rajput king and his nobles resided in the capital town, while the Rajput landlords and cultivators resided in villages. No sooner had the village studies begun that their limitations and the need for studying caste in its horizontal dimension were realized. The institutions of both bride and bridegroom price (the latter also called dowry) were rampant in castes with continuous internal hierarchydowry mainly at the upper levels, bride price mainly at the lower levels, and both dowry and bride price among status-seeking middle level families. For describing the divisions of the remaining two orders, it would be necessary to go on adding the prefix sub but this would make the description extremely clumsy, if not meaningless. 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 most Mehta families were found in USA in 1920. From the 15th century onwards we find historical references to political activities of Koli chieftains. Systematic because castes exist and are like each other in being different (298). Frequently, the shift from emphasis on co-operation and hierarchy in the caste system to emphasis on division (or difference or separation) is described as shift from whole to parts, from system to elements, from structure to substance. They are divided into two main sub-castes: Leuva Patels and Kadva Patels, who claim to be descendants of Ram's twins Luv and Kush respectively. While some of the divisions of a lower order might be the result of fission, some others might be a result of fusion. In other words, it did not involve a big jump from one place to another distant place. Secondly, it is necessary to study intensively the pattern of inter-caste relations in urban centres as something differentat least hypotheticallyfrom the pattern in villages. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Social_groups_of_Gujarat&oldid=1080951156, Social groups of India by state or union territory, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 4 April 2022, at 12:36. 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. manvar surname caste in gujaratbest imperial trooper team swgoh piett. 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. Thus, while each second-order Koli division maintained its boundaries vis-a-vis other such divisions, each was linked with the Rajputs. The handloom weavers of Gujarat, Maharastra and Bengal produced and exported some of the world's most desirable fabrics. As could be expected, there were marriages between fairly close kin, resulting in many overlapping relationships, in such an endogamous unit. The small town sections therefore separated themselves from the respective large town sections and formed a new ekda. This was dramatized in many towns at the mahajan (guild) feasts when all the members of the guild of traders would eat together. Leva Kanbis, numbering 400,000 to 500,000 m 1931, were the traditional agricultural caste of central Gujarat. 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. 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. Since Vankars were involved in production and business they were known as Nana Mahajans or small merchants. The number of tads in an ekda or go I might be two or more, and each of them might be an endogamous units. The census reports provide such figures until 1931, but it is well known that these pose many problems for sociological analysis, most of which arise out of the nature of castes as horizontal units. There were also a number of first-order divisions, mainly of artisans, craftsmen and specialized servants, with small populations. Use census records and voter lists to . 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. endobj For the sake of bravity and simplicity of presentation, I have not provided detailed documentation. I describe here three prominent units of the latter type, namely, Anavil, Leva Kanbi, and Khedawal Brahman. The boundaries of caste division were fairly clear in the village community. ), as contrasted with the horizontal unity of the caste. We have analyzed the internal structure of two first-order divisions, Rajput and Anavil, which did not have any second-order divisions, and of several second-order divisionsTalapada and Pardeshi Koli, Khedawal Brahman, and Leva Kanbiwhich did not have any third-order divisions. This list may not reflect recent changes. 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. Our analysis of the internal organization of caste divisions has shown considerable variation in the relative role of the principles of division and hierarchy. Systematic study of small caste divisions in villages as well as in towns still awaits the attention of sociologists and anthropologists. 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). Some ekdas did come into existence in almost the same way as did the tads, that is to say, by a process of fission of one ekda into two or more ekdas. Since after expansion of British textile markets and decline of Indian textile industry Vankars suffered a lot. This tendency reaches its culmination in the world of Dumont. The humble Charkha (spinning wheel) and khadi became a dominant symbol of self-reliance, self-determination and nationalist pride. The existence of flexibility at both the levels was made possible by the flexibility of the category Rajput. Frequently, each such unit had a patron deity, housed in a large shrine, with elaborate arrangements for its ownership. Frequently, The ekdas or gols were each divided into groups called tads (split). For example, there were two ekdas, each with a large section resident in a large town and small sections resident in two or three neighbouring small towns. 92. 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. The bulk of the population was spread all over the villages as small landholders, tenants and labourers. 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). <> The Kolis in such an area may not even be concerned about a second-order divisional name and may be known simply as Kolis. Ideally, castes as horizontal units should he discussed with the help of population figures. What may be called the census approach influenced a great deal of scholarly work. Rajput hypergamy seems to have provided an important mechanism for integration of the lower caste and tribal population into the Hindu society over the entire length and breadth of northern, western, central and even eastern India. By the beginning of British rule in the early 19th century, a considerable number of these chieftains had succeeded in establishing petty chiefdoms, each composed of one, and occasionally more than one, village, in all parts of Gujarat. The primarily rural and lower castes were the last to form associations and that too mainly after independence (1947). How many sub-divisions existed in the various divisions of the various orders is a matter of empirical investigation. The arrival of the East India Company, however sounded the death knell for the Indian textile industry. The significant point, however, is that there were small endogamous units which were not, like ekdas and tads, part of any higher-order division. Marriages were usually confined to neighbouring villages, so that marriage links were spread in a continuous manner from one end of the region to another. Many of them became the norm-setting elite for Gujaratis in the homeland. The incidence of exchange marriages and of bachelors in the lowest stratum among the Anavils also was high. The members of a kings caste were thus found not only in his own kingdom but in other kingdoms as well. The prohibition of inter-division marriage was much more important than the rules of purity and pollution in the maintenance of boundaries between the lower-order divisions. 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. There were Brahman and Vania divisions of the same name, the myths about both of them were covered by a single text. Content Filtrations 6. This reflects the high degree of divisiveness in castes in Gujarat. The migrants, many of whom came from heterogeneous urban centres of Gujarat, became part of an even more heterogeneous environment in Bombay. (Frequently, such models are constructed a priori rather than based on historical evidence, but that is another story). Nowadays, in urban areas in particular, very few people think of making separate seating arrangements for members of different castes at wedding and such other feasts. There are thus a few excellent studies of castes as horizontal units. I know some ekdas, and tads composed of only 150 to 200 households. Most of the second-order divisions were further divided into third-order divisions. There were similar problems about the status of a number of other divisions. Copyright 10. Sometimes a division could even be a self-contained endogamous unit. 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 have not yet come across an area where Kolis from three or more different areas live together, excepting modern, large towns and cities. Privacy Policy 8. The Brahmans were divided into such divisions as Audich, Bhargav, Disawal, Khadayata, Khedawal, Mewada, Modh, Nagar, Shrigaud, Shrimali, Valam, Vayada, and Zarola. To whichever of the four orders a caste division belonged, its horizontal spread rarely, if ever, coincided with that of another. As a consequence, the continuities of social institutions and the potentiality of endogenous elements for bringing about change are overlooked (for a discussion of some other difficulties with these paradigms, see Lynch 1977). The understanding of changes in caste is not likely to be advanced by clubbing such diverse groups together under the rubric of ethnic group. to which the divisions of the marrying couple belong. The co-residence of people belonging to two or more divisions of a lower order within a division of a higher order has been a prominent feature of caste in towns and cities. 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. 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). 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. Unfortunately, such figures are not available for the last fifty years or so. I am not suggesting that the principle of hierarchy was insignificant in the inter- or intra-caste relations in urban centres. The name, Talapada, meaning mdigenous, commonly used in the 19th century, is most clear, since it is clearly distinguished from the other division called Pardeshi, meaning foreign, who during the last one or two centuries immigrated here from the area around Patan in north Gujarat and were, therefore, also called Patan- wadias. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Radhvanaj Rajputs were clearly distinguished from, and ranked much above local Kolis. A block printed and resist-dyed fabric, whose origin is from Gujarat was found in the tombs of Fostat, Egypt. 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 most important of them was the Koli division, which was, the largest division and mainly included small landholders, tenants and labourers. 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. No analytical gains are therefore likely to occur by calling them by any other name. Nevertheless, a breakdown of the population of Gujarat into major religious, caste and tribal groups according to the census of 1931 is presented in the following table to give a rough idea of the size of at least some castes. Hypergamy tended to be associated with this hierarchy. Weavers became beggars, manufacturing collapsed and the last 2000 years of Indian textile industry was knocked down. endobj When divisions are found within a jati, the word sub-jati or sub-caste is used. Apparently this upper boundary of the division was sharp and clear, especially when we remember that many of these royal families practised polygyny and female infanticide until middle of the 19th century (see Plunkett 1973; Viswa Nath 1969, 1976). //]]>. Even the archaeological surveys and studies have indicated that the people of Dholavira, Surkotada. A recent tendency in sociological literature is to consider jatis as castes. Each unit was ranked in relation to others, and many members of the lower units married their daughters into the higher units, so that almost every unit became loose in the course of time. rogers outage brampton today; levelland, tx obituaries. In 1931, their total population was more than 1,700,000, nearly one-fourth of the total population of Gujarat. 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 castes pervaded by hierarchy and hypergamy had large populations spread evenly from village to village and frequently also from village to town over a large area. The patterns of change in marriage and in caste associations are two of the many indications of the growing significance of the principle of division (or separation or difference) in caste in urban areas in Gujarat. We had seen earlier that in the first-order division, such as that of the Rajputs, there were no second-order divisions, and no attempt was made to form small endogamous units: hypergamy had free play, as it were. 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. 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. 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.). 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. They had an internal hierarchy similar to that of the Leva Kanbis, with tax-farmers and big landlords at the top and small landowners at the bottom. Many of these names were also based on place names. . The two categories of castes have been deeply conscious of these differences between them and have been talking freely about them. Although I have not, during my limited field work, come across hypergamous marriages between Rajputs and Bhils, ethnographic reports and other literature frequently refer to such marriages (see, for example, Naik 1956: 18f; Nath I960. The census operations, in particular, spread as they were over large areas, gave a great impetus to writings on what Srinivas has called the horizontal dimension of caste (1952: 31f;1966: 9,44,92,98-100,114-17). Division and Hierarchy: An Overview of Caste in Gujarat! In each of these three divisions the top stratum was clear. 4 0 obj I do not, however, have sufficient knowledge of the latter and shall, therefore, confine myself mainly to Rajputs in Gujarat. Image Guidelines 5. All associations originated in large towns, are more active in towns than in villages, and are led by prominent members in towns. stream The Chumvalias and Patanwadias migrated possibly from the same tract and continued to belong to the same horizontal unit after migration. I do not propose to review the literature on caste here; my aim is to point out the direction towards which a few facts from Gujarat lead us. Third, although two or more new endogamous units came into existence and marriage between them was forbidden thereafter, a number of pre-existing kinship and affinal relationships continued to be operative between them. Tapodhans were priests in Shiva temples. Advances in manufacturing technologies flooded markets in India and abroad with cheap, mass-produced fabrics that Indian handlooms could no longer compete with. Although the ekda or tad was the most effective unit for endogamy, each unit of the higher order was also significant for endogamy. 100 Most Popular Indian Last Names Or SurnamesWhy Don't Tamil People Have Last Names?-----A . For example, all Vania divisions were divided into a number of ekdas or gols. The population of certain first-order divisions lived mainly in villages. 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. Today, there are two kinds of Koli areas. There would be a wide measure of agreement with him on both these counts. A block printed and resist-dyed fabric, whose origin is from Gujarat was found in the tombs of Fostat, Egypt. The Rajputs relationship with the Kolis penetrated every second-order division among them, i.e., Talapada, Pardeshi, Chumvalia, Palia, and so on. 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 . This does not, however, help describe caste divisions adequately. As weaving is an art and forms one of the most important artisan community of India. Pages in category "Social groups of Gujarat" The following 157 pages are in this category, out of 157 total. The two together formed a single complex of continental dimension. 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). But the hypergamous tendency was so powerful that each such endogamous unit could not be perfectly endogamous even at the height of its integration. 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. Inclusion of a lower-order division in a higher-order one and distinction between various divisions in a certain order was not as unambiguous. 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. Moreover, a single division belonging to any one of the orders may have more than one association, and an association may be uni-purpose or multi-purpose. Caste divisions of the first-order can be classified broadly into three categories. 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. In all there were about eighty such divisions. It is not claimed that separation, or even repulsion, may not be present somewhere as an independent factor (1972: 346,n.55b). As soon as there is any change in . The village was a small community divided into a relatively small number of castes; the population of each caste was also small, sometimes only one or two households, with little possibility of existence of subdivisions; and there were intensive relationships of various kinds between the castes.