Gujarat protests: Who are the Patidars, and why are they angry? Which caste is Vaya surname? : r/gujarat - reddit.com Indian textiles especially of Gujarat have been praised in several accounts by explorers and historians, from Megasthenes to Herodotus. The migrants, many of whom came from heterogeneous urban centres of Gujarat, became part of an even more heterogeneous environment in Bombay. 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. 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. <>/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>> Tapodhans were priests in Shiva temples. 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. 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). Many of them claimed that they were Brahmans but this claim was not accepted by most established Brahmans. If the first-order divisions are called jatis and castes, the second-order divisions would be called sub-jatis or sub-castes. One important first-order division, namely, Rajput, does not seem to have had any second-order division at all. They were thus not of the same status as most other second-order divisions among Brahmans. They then spread to towns in the homeland and among all castes. Whatever the internal organization of a second-order division, the relationship between most of the Brahman second-order divisions was marked by great emphasis on being different and separate than on being higher and lower. I hope to show that the integration of the study of caste in urban areas with that of rural areas is essential to a comprehensive understanding of caste and its implications for Indian society and culture. They were found in almost every village in plains Gujarat and in many villages in Saurashtra and Kachchh. 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. However, it is well known that there were subtle arguments regarding the status of certain royal families being Rajput. Since after expansion of British textile markets and decline of Indian textile industry Vankars suffered a lot. However, on the basis of the meagre information I have, I am able to make a few points. This stratum among the Kanbis coped with the problem mainly by practising remarriage of widows and divorced women. Similarly, in Saurashtra, the Talapadas were distinguished from the Chumvalias, immigrants from the Chumval tract in north Gujarat. For the sake of bravity and simplicity of presentation, I have not provided detailed documentation. Besides the myths, the members of a second-order division, belonging to all ekdas, shared certain customs and institutions, including worship of a tutelary deity. 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. The handloom weavers of Gujarat, Maharastra and Bengal produced and exported some of the world's most desirable fabrics. 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. 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. Weavers became beggars, manufacturing collapsed and the last 2000 years of Indian textile industry was knocked down. 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 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. 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. The guiding ideas were samaj sudharo (social reform) and samaj seva (social service). The highest stratum among the Leva Kanbi tried to maintain its position by practising polygyny and female infanticide, among other customs and institutions, as did the highest stratum among the Rajput. Census officials-turned-scholars, from Risley to Hutton, wrote many of the earlier general works on caste. 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. The lowest stratum in all the three divisions had to face the problem of scarcity of brides. 2 0 obj Caste Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster 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. 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. 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. The ekdas have not yet lost their identities. The highland Bhils seem to have provided brides to lower Rajputs on the other side of the highlands also, i.e., to those in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh (see, for example, Doshi, 1971: 7f., 13-15; Aurora 1972: 16, 32f.). The boundaries of caste division were fairly clear in the village community. ), as contrasted with the horizontal unity of the caste. As soon as there is any change in . Category:Social groups of Gujarat - Wikipedia ADVERTISEMENTS: Division and Hierarchy: An Overview of Caste in Gujarat! For example, there was considerable ambiguity about the status of Anavils. The Mehta family name was found in the USA, and the UK between 1891 and 1920. 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. Even the archaeological surveys and studies have indicated that the people of Dholavira, Surkotada. 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. The decline was further accelerated by the industrial revolution. 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. 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 two areas merge gradually, and my field work covered most of the spectrum. 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. The degree of contravention involved in an inter-divisional marriage, however, depends upon the order (i.e., first-order, second-order, etc.) 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. 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. And how flexibility was normal at the lowest level has just been shown. I have bits and pieces of information about relations between a considerable numbers of other lower-order divisions in their respective higher-order divisions. 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. 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 humble Charkha (spinning wheel) and khadi became a dominant symbol of self-reliance, self-determination and nationalist pride. 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. 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. Vankar is described as a caste as well as a community. Today, there are two kinds of Koli areas. 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. The Hindu population of Gujarat was divided first of all into what I have called caste divisions of the first order. 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. 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. I am dealing here only with certain typical situations. 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. What I am trying to point out, however, is that greater emphasis on division (Pococks difference, Dumonts separation. They have been grouped in Vaishya category of Varna system. The incidence of exchange marriages and of bachelors in the lowest stratum among the Anavils also was high. The arrival of the East India Company, however sounded the death knell for the Indian textile industry. For example, there were Khedawal Brahmans but not Khedawal Vanias, and Lad Vanias but no Lad Brahmans. 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. It reflects, on the one hand, the political aspirations of Kolis guided by the importance of their numerical strength in electoral politics and on the other hand, the Rajputs attempt to regain power after the loss of their princely states and estates. In all there were thirty to forty such divisions. Roughly, while in the plains area villages are nucleated settlements, populated by numerous castes, in the highland area villages are dispersed settlements, populated by tribes and castes of tribal origin. The most important of them was the Koli division, which was, the largest division and mainly included small landholders, tenants and labourers. All this trade encouraged development of trading and commercial towns in the rest of Gujarat, even in the highland area. How many sub-divisions existed in the various divisions of the various orders is a matter of empirical investigation. This last name is predominantly found in Asia, where 93 percent of Limbachiya reside; 92 percent reside in South Asia and 92 percent reside in Indo-South Asia. 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. He stated: hereditary specialization together with hierarchical organization sinks into the background in East Africa (293). Simultaneously, there is gradual decline in the strength of the principle of hierarchy, particularly of ritual hierarchy expressed in purity and pollution. 100 Most Popular Indian Last Names Or SurnamesWhy Don't Tamil People Have Last Names?-----A . Although some of them set up shops in villages they rarely became full-fledged members of the village community. They were involved in agriculture in one way or another. Although the ekda or tad was the most effective unit for endogamy, each unit of the higher order was also significant for endogamy. The tad thus represented the fourth and last order of caste divisions. Similarly, the Vanias were divided into such divisions as Disawal, Kapol, Khadayata, Lad, Modh, Nagar, Nima, Porwad, Shirmali, Vayada, and Zarola. 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. The associations activities in the field of marriage, such as reform to customs, rituals and ceremonies, and encouragement of inter-divisional marriages, are also seen by the members as a service to the nationas the castes method of creating a casteless modern society. 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. 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. Limitations of the holistic view of caste, based as it is mainly on the study of the village, should be realized in the light of urban experience. So far we have considered first-order divisions with large and widely spread populations. In all there were about eighty such divisions. The two together formed a single complex of continental dimension. The members of a kings caste were thus found not only in his own kingdom but in other kingdoms as well. As for the size of other castes, I shall make mainly relative statements. On the other hand, there was an almost simultaneous spurt in village studies. 4 0 obj The chiefly families constituted a tiny proportion of the total population of any second-order division among the Kolis. Hindu society is usually described as divided into a number of castes the boundaries of which are maintained by the rule of caste endogamy. 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, 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. 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). Broach, Cambay and Surat were the largest, but there were also a number of smaller ones. yorba linda football maxpreps; weiteste entfernung gerichtsbezirk; wyoming rockhounding locations google maps; In some parts of Gujarat they formed 30 to 35 per cent of the population. 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. 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; manvar surname caste in gujarat - Be Falcon 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. 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. That there was room for flexibility and that the rule of caste endogamy could be violated at the highest level among the Rajputs was pointed out earlier. Many of them became the norm-setting elite for Gujaratis in the homeland. 1 0 obj 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. 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). * List of Scheduled Tribes in Gujarat; A. . The latter continued to be the provincial capital during Mughal rule. But there were also others who did not wield any power. The Vanias provide an example of such castes. The small ekda or tad with its entire population residing in a single town was, of course, not a widespread phenomenon. There are other sub-castes like Satpanthis, who are mainly centered in Kutch district and have some social customs akin to Muslims . There is enormous literature on these caste divisions from about the middle of the 19th century which includes census reports, gazetteers, [] Real Estate Software Dubai > blog > manvar surname caste in gujarat. 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. Patidars or Patels claim themselves to be descendants of Lord Ram. Each ekda or gol was composed of a definite number of families living in certain villages and/or towns. 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. 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. There was apparently a close relation between a castes internal organization and the size and spatial distribution of its population. This meant that he could marry a girl of any subdivision within the Vania division. 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. Homo Hierarchicus. 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. <> 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 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. This list may not reflect recent changes. Report a Violation, Caste Stratification: Changing Rural Caste Stratification, Caste in Rural India: Specificities of Caste in Rural Society. 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. Inclusion of a lower-order division in a higher-order one and distinction between various divisions in a certain order was not as unambiguous. 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. The Anavil, numbering 30,000 to 40,000 in 1931, were found mainly in south Gujarat. 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. 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). endobj 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. manvar surname caste in gujarat. From the 15th century onwards we find historical references to political activities of Koli chieftains. Gujarat- A state in India. Advances in manufacturing technologies flooded markets in India and abroad with cheap, mass-produced fabrics that Indian handlooms could no longer compete with. 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. Vankar is described as a caste as well as a community. [CDATA[ 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). 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. Use census records and voter lists to . The castes of the three categoriesprimarily urban, primarily rural, and rural-cum-urbanformed an intricate network spread over the rural and urban communities in the region. 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. Privacy Policy 8. There were Brahman and Vania divisions of the same name, the myths about both of them were covered by a single text. 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. In any case, castes are not likely to cease to be castes in the consciousness of people in the foreseeable future. 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. endobj Marco Polo a Venetian merchant on his visit to India in 13th century Gujarat observed that "brocading art of Gujarat weavers is par excellent". Created Date: This was because political authorities were hierarchized from little kingdom to empire and the boundaries of political authorities kept changing. 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. For example, just as there was a Shrimali division among Sonis (goldsmiths). That Rajputs were one of the divisions, if not the only division of the first-order, not having further divisions, has already been mentioned. The bulk of the population was spread all over the villages as small landholders, tenants and labourers. 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. This was dramatized in many towns at the mahajan (guild) feasts when all the members of the guild of traders would eat together. Castes which did not sit together at public feasts, let alone at meals in homes, only 15 or 20 years ago, now freely sit together even at meals in homes. But there was also another process. 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 co-residence of people belonging to two or more divisions of the lower orders within a division of a higher order has been a prominent feature of caste in towns and cities. 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. 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. Kuntasi, Lothal and Somnath of Gujarat regions in Harrapan civilization were familiar with weaving and the spinning of cotton for as long as four thousand years ago. 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. 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). 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. 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 most important example of primarily political caste association is the Gujarat Kshatriya Sabha. There was considerable elaboration in urban areas of what Ghurye long ago called the community aspect of caste (1932: 179) and frequently, this led to juxtaposition rather than hierarchy between caste divisions of the same order.
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