Similarly, in Saurashtra, the Talapadas were distinguished from the Chumvalias, immigrants from the Chumval tract in north Gujarat. Use census records and voter lists to . (Frequently, such models are constructed a priori rather than based on historical evidence, but that is another story). They wrote about the traditional Indian village, but not about the traditional Indian town. The number of tads in an ekda or go I might be two or more, and each of them might be an endogamous units. If the first-order divisions are called jatis and castes, the second-order divisions would be called sub-jatis or sub-castes. Frequently, The ekdas or gols were each divided into groups called tads (split). Caste associations in Gujarat were formed mainly among upper castes to provide welfare (including recreation), to promote modern education, and to bring about reforms in caste customs. First, since the tads were formed relatively recently, it is easier to get information about their formation than about the formation of ekdas. In all there were thirty to forty such divisions. The existence of flexibility at both the levels was made possible by the flexibility of the category Rajput. I am dealing here only with certain typical situations. 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. However, it is well known that there were subtle arguments regarding the status of certain royal families being Rajput. In some other cases, mainly of urban artisans, craftsmen and specialized servants, such as Kansaras (copper and bronze smiths), Salvis (silk weavers), Kharadis (skilled carpenters and wood carvers), Chudgars (bangle-makers) and Vahivanchas genealogists and mythographers), the small populations were so small and confined to so few towns that they had few subdivisions and the boundaries of their horizontal units were fairly easy to define. window.__mirage2 = {petok:"uGhRfiuY26l2oZgRlfZRFSp4BWPIIt7Gh61sQC1XrRU-3600-0"}; To take one sensitive area of purity/pollution behaviour, the concern for observance of rules of commensality has greatly declined not only in urban but also in rural areas. 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. Content Guidelines 2. 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. 1 0 obj
The same problems would arise in the reverse direction if, as many scholars have done, the term caste cluster, caste complex or caste category is used for divisions of a higher order and the term caste or jati is used for divisions of a lower order. 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. Pages in category "Social groups of Gujarat" The following 157 pages are in this category, out of 157 total. Once the claim was accepted at either level, hypergamous marriage was possible. 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 following 157 pages are in this category, out of 157 total.
Category:Social groups of Gujarat - Wikipedia 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. Reference to weaving and spinning materials is found in the Vedic Literature. Advances in manufacturing technologies flooded markets in India and abroad with cheap, mass-produced fabrics that Indian handlooms could no longer compete with. 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. This bulk also was characterized by hierarchy, with the relatively advanced population living in the plains at one end and the backward population living along with the tribal population in the highlands at the other end. How many sub-divisions existed in the various divisions of the various orders is a matter of empirical investigation. %
Our analysis of the internal organization of caste divisions has shown considerable variation in the relative role of the principles of division and hierarchy. In 1920 there were 2 Mehta families living in New Jersey. The Kayatias main occupation was to perform a ritual on the eleventh day after death, during which they took away offerings made to ghosts: this was the main cause of their extremely low status among Brahmans. 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 Rajputs relationship with the Kolis penetrated every second-order division among them, i.e., Talapada, Pardeshi, Chumvalia, Palia, and so on. That the role of the two principles could vary at different levels within a first-order division has also been seen. But the hypergamous tendency was so powerful that each such endogamous unit could not be perfectly endogamous even at the height of its integration. 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).
Mehta Name Meaning & Mehta Family History at Ancestry.com Let us now return to a consideration of the first-order divisions with subdivisions going down to the third or the fourth order. Castes having continuous internal hierarchy and lacking effective small endogamous units, such as Rajputs, Leva Kanbis, Anavils and Khedawals, do not have active associations for lower-order divisions. 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. No one knows when and how they came into existence and what they meant socially. There is enormous literature on these caste divisions from about the middle of the 19th century which includes census reports, gazetteers, [] 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 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. While the Rajputs, Leva Patidars, Anavils and Khedawals have been notorious for high dowries, and the Kolis have been looked down upon for their practice of bride price, the Vanias have been paying neither. 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. A comment on the sociology of urban India would, therefore, be in order before we go ahead with the discussion of caste divisions. 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 four major woven fabrics produced by these communities are cotton, silk, khadi and linen. 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. In many villages in Gujarat, particularly in larger villages, one or two first-order divisions would be represented by more than one second-order division. In recent years, however, there has been a tendency to emphasize hierarchy as the primary principle encompassing the principle of division. They adopted Rajput customs and traditions, claimed Rajput status, and gave daughters in marriage to Rajputs in the lower rungs of Rajput hierarchy. So instead of a great exporter of finished products, India became an importer of British, while its share of world export fell from 27% to two percent. 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. 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.
manvar surname caste in gujarat - Be Falcon The hierarchy, however, was very gradual and lacked sharpness. It is a coalescence of Kolis and Rajputs on the modern political plane based on the foundation of the traditional social and cultural symbiosis under the rubric of Kshatriya. Ideally, castes as horizontal units should he discussed with the help of population figures. 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. For example, all Vania divisions were divided into a number of ekdas or gols. But there were also others who did not wield any power. While almost all the social structures and institutions which existed in villagesreligion, caste, family, and so onalso existed in towns, we should not assume that their character was the same. What I am trying to point out, however, is that greater emphasis on division (Pococks difference, Dumonts separation. 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. There was also another kind of feast, called bhandaro, where Brahmans belonging to a lesser number of divisions (say, all the few in a small town) were invited. Both were recognized as Brahman but as degraded ones. What may be called the census approach influenced a great deal of scholarly work. 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. <>/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>>
The small town sections therefore separated themselves from the respective large town sections and formed a new ekda. 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. We shall return later to a consideration of this problem. endobj
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). Vankar is described as a caste as well as a community. 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. 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. There was a continuous process of formation and disintegration of such units. Fortunately, they have now started writing about it (see Rao 1974). Most associations continue to retain their non-political character. Vankar is described as a caste as well as a community. 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. This reflects the high degree of divisiveness in castes in Gujarat. The chiefly families constituted a tiny proportion of the total population of any second-order division among the Kolis. But this is not enough. 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). To illustrate, among the Khadayata or Modh Vanias, an increasing number of marriages take place between two or more tads within an ekda. <>/Metadata 3086 0 R/ViewerPreferences 3087 0 R>>
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. Moreover, some leading Anavils did not wish to be bothered about Brahman status, saying that they were just Anavil. ), as contrasted with the horizontal unity of the caste. 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. Although it has been experiencing stresses and strains and has had ups and downs on account of the enormous diversity between the royal and the tribal ends, it has shown remarkable solidarity in recent years. There was not only no pyramid type of arrangement among the many ekdas in a second-order Vania divisionthe type of arrangement found in the Rajput, Leva Kanbi, Anavil and Khedawal divisions-but frequently there was no significant sign of hierarchical relation, except boastful talk, between two neighbouring ekdas. 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. All Brahman divisions did not, however, have a corresponding Vania division. 92. 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. I do not, however, have sufficient knowledge of the latter and shall, therefore, confine myself mainly to Rajputs in Gujarat. Broach, Cambay and Surat were the largest, but there were also a number of smaller ones. 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. These and many other artisans, craftsmen and servants reflected the special life-style of the town. 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. The most important of them was the Koli division, which was, the largest division and mainly included small landholders, tenants and labourers. 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. 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. The members of a kings caste were thus found not only in his own kingdom but in other kingdoms as well. After the commercial revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, Gujarat had a large number of tradition towns on its long sea-coast. No analytical gains are therefore likely to occur by calling them by any other name. They are described by the ruling elite as robbers, dacoits, marauders, predators and the like. 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. There was also a third category called Pancha, derived from the word punch (meaning 5) and denoting extremely low Vania. All associations originated in large towns, are more active in towns than in villages, and are led by prominent members in towns. 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. Frequently, the urban population of such a division performed more specialized functions than did the rural one.
Division and Hierarchy: An Overview of Caste in Gujarat 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. One of the clearly visible changes in caste in Gujarat is the increasing number of inter-divisional or so-called inter-caste marriages, particularly in urban areas, in contravention of the rule of caste endogamy. to which the divisions of the marrying couple belong. 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. 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. Also, the horizontal spread of a caste rarely coincided with the territorial boundaries of a political authority. 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. But there was also another process. Usually, it was a small population. 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. Hence started farming and small scale business in the British Raj to thrive better conditions ahead to maintain their livelihood. Homo Hierarchicus. Leva Sheri and Kadva Sheri, named after the two major second-order divisions among the Kanbis. The three trading castes of Vania, Lohana and Bhatia were mainly urban. Patidars or Patels claim themselves to be descendants of Lord Ram. For example, the Khadayata Brahmans worked as priests at important rituals among Khadayata Vanias. 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. 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. Thus, while each second-order Koli division maintained its boundaries vis-a-vis other such divisions, each was linked with the Rajputs. For example, if they belonged to two different second-order divisions, such as Shrimali and Modh, the punishment would be greater than if they belonged to two different ekdas within the Shrimali or the Modh division. 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. Plagiarism Prevention 4. Among the first-order divisions with subdivisions going down to the fourth order, there are associations for divisions of all the orders.