Both Borradaile and Campbell were probably mixing up small endogamous units of various kinds. 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. 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. The humble Charkha (spinning wheel) and khadi became a dominant symbol of self-reliance, self-determination and nationalist pride. Because of these two major factors, one economic and the other political, Gujarat at the beginning of the 19th century had a large urban population, distributed over a large number of small towns. 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. This does not, however, help describe caste divisions adequately. Some of the other such divisions were Kathi, Dubla, Rabari, Bharwad, Mer (see Trivedi 1961), Vaghri, Machhi, Senwa, Vanzara, and Kharwa. 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 Rajputs, in association with Kolis, Bhils, and such other castes and tribes, provide an extreme example of such castes. Visited Ahmedabad for the weekend to meet a friend but her family had a medical emergency. While some of the divisions of a lower order might be the result of fission, some others might be a result of fusion. Reference to weaving and spinning materials is found in the Vedic Literature. 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. All Brahman divisions did not, however, have a corresponding Vania division. We shall return to this issue later. Here, usually, what mattered was the first-order division, as for example Brahman, Vania, Rajput, Kanbi, carpenter, barber, leather-worker, and so on. A new view of the whole, comprising the rural and the urban and the various orders of caste divisions, should be evolved. Usually, the affairs of the caste were discussed in large congregations of some fifty to hundred or even more villages from time to time. 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. Many primarily rural castes, such as Kolisthe largest castehave remained predominantly rural even today. (Frequently, such models are constructed a priori rather than based on historical evidence, but that is another story). 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. A block printed and resist-dyed fabric, whose origin is from Gujarat was found in the tombs of Fostat, Egypt. There is enormous literature on these caste divisions from about the middle of the 19th century which includes census reports, gazetteers, castes-and- tribes volumes, ethnographic notes and monographs and scholarly treatises such as those by Baines, Blunt, Ghurye, Hocart, Hutton, Ibbet- son, OMalley, Risley, Senart, and others. 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). 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; endobj 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. One of the reasons behind underplaying of the principle of division by Dumont as well as by others seems to be the neglect of the study of caste in urban areas (see Dumonts remarks in 1972: 150). 3.8K subscribers in the gujarat community. The degree of contravention is highest if the couple belong to two different first-order divisions. 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. The four major woven fabrics produced by these communities are cotton, silk, khadi and linen. The essential idea in the category was power, and anybody who wielded powereither as king or as dominant group in a rural (even tribal) areacould claim to be Rajput. Thus, while each second-order Koli division maintained its boundaries vis-a-vis other such divisions, each was linked with the Rajputs. 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 urban community included a large number of caste groups as well as social groups of other kinds which tended to be like communities with a great deal of internal cohesion. <>/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>> 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. They were involved in agriculture in one way or another. History. The Brahmans and Vanias seem to have had the largest number of divisions as mentioned earlier, about eighty in the former and about forty in the latter. The migrants, many of whom came from heterogeneous urban centres of Gujarat, became part of an even more heterogeneous environment in Bombay. professor melissa murray. r/ahmedabad From Mumbai. Although the ekda or tad was the most effective unit for endogamy, each unit of the higher order was also significant for endogamy. The Khedawals, numbering 15,000 to 20,000 in 1931 were basically priests but many of them were also landowners, government officials, and traders. While fission did occur, fusion could also occur. Image Guidelines 5. Hindu society is usually described as divided into a number of castes the boundaries of which are maintained by the rule of caste endogamy. Systematic because castes exist and are like each other in being different (298). 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. Also, the horizontal spread of a caste rarely coincided with the territorial boundaries of a political authority. 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. The arrival of the East India Company, however sounded the death knell for the Indian textile industry. With the exclusion of caste (except scheduled caste) from the census since 1951 (practically since 1941, because the census of that year did not result in much reporting), writings on castes as horizontal units greatly declined. In any case, castes are not likely to cease to be castes in the consciousness of people in the foreseeable future. In most parts of Gujarat it merged into the various second-order divisions of the Koli division and possible also into the widespread tribe of Bhils. 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. 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. Report a Violation, Caste Stratification: Changing Rural Caste Stratification, Caste in Rural India: Specificities of Caste in Rural Society. 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. It will readily be agreed that the sociological study of Indian towns and cities has not made as much progress as has the study of Indian villages. Pages in category "Social groups of Gujarat" The following 157 pages are in this category, out of 157 total. Gujarat did not have anything like the non-Brahmin movement of South India and Maharashtra before 1947. 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. This was unlike the situation among the Rajputs who did not make any attempt to form small endogamous units. Early industrial labour was also drawn mainly from the urban artisan and servant castes. Leva Kanbis, numbering 400,000 to 500,000 m 1931, were the traditional agricultural caste of central Gujarat. The most important example of primarily political caste association is the Gujarat Kshatriya Sabha. That Rajputs were one of the divisions, if not the only division of the first-order, not having further divisions, has already been mentioned. A comment on the sociology of urban India would, therefore, be in order before we go ahead with the discussion of caste divisions. The small town sections therefore separated themselves from the respective large town sections and formed a new ekda. This list may not reflect recent changes. For example, just as there were Modh Vanias, there were Modh Brahmans, and similarly Khadayata Vanias and Khadayata Brahmans, Shrimali Vanias and Shrimali Brahmans, Nagar Vanias and Nagar Brahmans, and so on. I hope to show in this paper how the principle of division is also a primary principle competing with the principle of hierarchy and having important implications for Indian society and culture. 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. Hence as we go down the hierarchy we encounter more and more debates regarding the claims of particular lineages to being Rajput so much so that we lose sight of any boundary and the Rajput division merges imperceptibly into some other division. In any case, the population of any large caste was found in many kingdoms. 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. 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 was dramatized at huge feasts called chorasi (literally, eighty-four) when Brahmans belonging to all the traditional 84 second-order divisions sat together to eat food cooked at the same kitchen. For example, there was considerable ambiguity about the status of Anavils. I should hasten to add, however, that the open-minded scholar that he is, he does not rule out completely the possibility of separation existing as independent principle. 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. If the first-order divisions are called jatis and castes, the second-order divisions would be called sub-jatis or sub-castes. 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. If the marriage took place within the Vania fold but outside the tad or ekda, as the case may be, the punishment varied according to the social distance between the tads or ekdas of the bride and the groom. Caste divisions of the first-order can be classified broadly into three categories. This was about 22% of all the recorded Mehta's in USA. 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. 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. : 11-15, 57-75). The Rajput links entailed the spread of Rajput culture in each Koli division and provided a certain cultural homogeneity to all the divisions. There is a patterned widening of the connubial field along an area chalked out historically. Many of these names were also based on place names. Hence started farming and small scale business in the British Raj to thrive better conditions ahead to maintain their livelihood. 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. % Till the establishment of democratic polity in 1947, hardly any caste association in Gujarat had manifest political functions. In the plains, therefore, every village had one or more towns in its vicinity. Literally, ekda meant unit, and gol circle, and both signified an endogamous unit. When divisions are found within a jati, the word sub-jati or sub-caste is used. Systematic study of small caste divisions in villages as well as in towns still awaits the attention of sociologists and anthropologists. He stated: hereditary specialization together with hierarchical organization sinks into the background in East Africa (293). There were Brahman and Vania divisions of the same name, the myths about both of them were covered by a single text. 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. Indeed, a major achievement of Indian sociology during the last thirty years or so has been deeper understanding of caste in the village context in particular and of its hierarchical dimension in general. ), as contrasted with the horizontal unity of the caste. In some parts of Gujarat they formed 30 to 35 per cent of the population. The population of certain first-order divisions lived mainly in villages. The tribal groups in the highland area, such as the Bhils and Naikdas, also did not have any urban component. Frequently, marriages were arranged in contravention of a particular rule after obtaining the permission of the council of leaders and paying a penalty in advance. Their origin myth enshrined in their caste purana also showed them to be originally non-Brahman. 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. endobj Leva Sheri and Kadva Sheri, named after the two major second-order divisions among the Kanbis. The most Mehta families were found in USA in 1920. 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). Although the number of inter-ekda marriages has been increasing, even now the majority of marriages take place within an ekda. Any one small caste may look insignificant in itself but all small castes put together become a large social block and a significant social phenomenon. However, on the basis of the meagre information I have, I am able to make a few points. 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. 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. Usually, the latter were distinguished from one another by prohibition. The degree of contravention involved in an inter-divisional marriage, however, depends upon the order (i.e., first-order, second-order, 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. Usually, a single Koli division had different local names in different parts of Gujarat, but more about this later. 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. so roamed around clueless. The tad thus represented the fourth and last order of caste divisions. No one knows when and how they came into existence and what they meant socially. More common was an ekda or tad having its population residing either in a few neighbouring villages, or in a few neighbouring towns, or in both. 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, among almost every Vania division there was a dual division into Visa and Dasa: Visa Nagar and Dasa Nagar, Visa Lad and Dasa Lad, Visa Modh and Dasa Modh, Visa Khadayata and Dasa Khadayata, and so on. manvar surname caste in gujaratbest imperial trooper team swgoh piett. I have bits and pieces of information about relations between a considerable numbers of other lower-order divisions in their respective higher-order divisions. 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. manvar surname caste in gujarat. They are described by the ruling elite as robbers, dacoits, marauders, predators and the like. 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. Although the people of one tad would talk about their superiority over those of another tad in an ekda, and the people of one ekda over those of another in a higher-order division, particularly in large towns where two or more tads and ekdas would be found living together, there was no articulate ranking and hypergamy among them. Fortunately, they have now started writing about it (see Rao 1974). Kolis were the largest first-order division in Gujarat. 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. 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. 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. 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. The Kayasthas and Brahma-Kshatriyas, the so- called writer castes, employed mainly in the bureaucracy, and the Vahivancha Barots, genealogists and mythographers, were almost exclusively urban castes. 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. To illustrate, among the Khadayata or Modh Vanias, an increasing number of marriages take place between two or more tads within an ekda. 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. Hypergamy tended to be associated with this hierarchy. No sooner had the village studies begun that their limitations and the need for studying caste in its horizontal dimension were realized. 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. It is argued that the various welfare programmes of each caste association, such as provision of medical facilities, scholarships and jobs for caste members contribute, in however small a way, to the solution of the nations problems. stream Today, there are two kinds of Koli areas. This account of the divisions is based on various sources, but mainly on Bombay Gazetteer (1901). 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. The understanding of changes in caste is not likely to be advanced by clubbing such diverse groups together under the rubric of ethnic group. The two former ekdas continued to exist with diminished strength. One important first-order division, namely, Rajput, does not seem to have had any second-order division at all. Gujarat (along with Bombay) has perhaps the largest number of caste associations and they are also more active and wealthy compared to those in other regions. 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. The bulk of the population was spread all over the villages as small landholders, tenants and labourers. The error is further compounded whenalthough this is less commonthe partial, rural model of traditional caste is compared with the present urban situation, and conclusions are drawn about overall change. 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. Weavers became beggars, manufacturing collapsed and the last 2000 years of Indian textile industry was knocked down. The most important of them was the Koli division, which was, the largest division and mainly included small landholders, tenants and labourers. Similarly, in Saurashtra, the Talapadas were distinguished from the Chumvalias, immigrants from the Chumval tract in north Gujarat. 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. The lowest stratum in all the three divisions had to face the problem of scarcity of brides. The change from emphasis on hierarchy to emphasis on division is becoming increasingly significant in view of the growth of urban population both in absolute number and in relation to the total population. Usually it consisted of wealthy and powerful lineages, distinguishing themselves by some appellation, such as Patidar among the Leva Kanbi, Desai among the Anavil, and Baj among the Khedawal. 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. They wrote about the traditional Indian village, but not about the traditional Indian town. 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. A block printed and resist-dyed fabric, whose origin is from Gujarat was found in the tombs of Fostat, Egypt. In recent years, however, there has been a tendency to emphasize hierarchy as the primary principle encompassing the principle of division. 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. In an area of the first kind there are no immigrant Kolis from elsewhere, and therefore, there is no question of their having second-order divisions. The latter continued to be the provincial capital during Mughal rule. 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. Radhvanaj Rajputs were clearly distinguished from, and ranked much above local Kolis. Together they provide a slice of Gujarati society from the sea- coast to the bordering highlands. The number of tads in an ekda or go I might be two or more, and each of them might be an endogamous units. What is really required for a comprehensive understanding is a comparison of traditional with modern caste in both rural and urban areas (including, to be sure, the rural-urban linkages). 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 unit might possess some other corporate characteristics also. 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. 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. Typically, a village consists of the sections of various castes, ranging from those with just one household to those with over u hundred. Koli Patels are recognised as a Other Backward Class caste by Government of Gujarat. 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 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. For example, among the Vanias the most general rule was that a marriage of a boy could be arranged with any girl who was bhane khapati, i.e., with whom he was permitted to have commensal relations (roti vyavahar). We shall return later to a consideration of this problem. 91. (surname) Me caste; Mer (community) Meta Qureshi; Mistri caste; Miyana (community) Modh; Motisar (caste) Multani Lohar; Muslim Wagher; Mutwa; N . The existence of flexibility at both the levels was made possible by the flexibility of the category Rajput. 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.
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