The number of tads in an ekda or go I might be two or more, and each of them might be an endogamous units. Hindu society is usually described as divided into a number of castes the boundaries of which are maintained by the rule of caste endogamy. Britain's response was to cut off the thumbs of weavers, break their looms and impose duties on tariffs on Indian cloth, while flooding India and the world with cheaper fabric from the new steam mills of Britain. A first-order division could be further divided into two or more second-order divisions. But the hypergamous tendency was so powerful that each such endogamous unit could not be perfectly endogamous even at the height of its integration. Moreover, the king himself belonged to some caste (not just to the Kshatriya Varna) and frequently a number of kings belonged to the same caste (e.g., Rajput). Similarly, in Saurashtra, the Talapadas were distinguished from the Chumvalias, immigrants from the Chumval tract in north Gujarat. Today majority of these community members are not engaged in their ancestral weaving occupation still some population of these community contribute themselves in traditional handloom weaving of famous Patola of Patan, Kachchh shawl of Bhujodi in Kutch, Gharchola and Crotchet of Jamnagar, Zari of Surat, Mashroo of Patan and Mandvi in Kutch, Bandhani of Jamnagar, Anjar and Bhuj, Motif, Leheria, Dhamakda and Ajrak, Nagri sari, Tangaliya Shawl, Dhurrie, Kediyu, Heer Bharat, Abhala, Phento and art of Gudri. 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. He stated: hereditary specialization together with hierarchical organization sinks into the background in East Africa (293). In central Gujarat, for example, one and the same division, freely arranging marriages within it, was known by several names such as Baraiya, Dharala, Khant, Kotwal, Pagi, Patelia, Talapada, Thakarada, and Thakor. For example, there were Khedawal Brahmans but not Khedawal Vanias, and Lad Vanias but no Lad Brahmans. Our analysis of the internal organization of caste divisions has shown considerable variation in the relative role of the principles of division and hierarchy. <>/Metadata 3086 0 R/ViewerPreferences 3087 0 R>> Typically, a village consists of the sections of various castes, ranging from those with just one household to those with over u hundred. The main reason was that Anavils did not practise priesthood as a traditional occupation, nor were they involved in traditional Sanskrit learning. manvar surname caste in gujarat. Privacy Policy 8. ADVERTISEMENTS: Division and Hierarchy: An Overview of Caste in Gujarat! 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). 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. The degree of contravention involved in an inter-divisional marriage, however, depends upon the order (i.e., first-order, second-order, etc.) Simultaneously, there is gradual decline in the strength of the principle of hierarchy, particularly of ritual hierarchy expressed in purity and pollution. If the Varna divisions are taken into account, then this would add one more order to the four orders of caste divisions considered above. In all there were about eighty such divisions. 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. 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). 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. 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. The lowest stratum in all the three divisions had to face the problem of scarcity of brides. 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. To obtain a clear understanding of the second-order divisions with the Koli division, it is necessary first of all to find a way through the maze of their divisional names. While fission did occur, fusion could also occur. rogers outage brampton today; levelland, tx obituaries. The two considered themselves different and separateof course, within the Kanbi foldwhere they happened to live together in the villages in the merger zone between north and central Gujarat and in towns. As weaving is an art and forms one of the most important artisan community of India. 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. Gujarat did not have anything like the non-Brahmin movement of South India and Maharashtra before 1947. The Kanbis (now called Patidars) had five divisions: Leva, Kadya, Anjana, Bhakta, and Matia. The Kolis in such an area may not even be concerned about a second-order divisional name and may be known simply as Kolis. 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. 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. 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. 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. Tirgaar, Tirbanda. For example, the Patanwadia population was spread continuously from the Patan area to central Gujarat, and the Talapada population from central Gujarat to Pal. Koli Patels are recognised as a Other Backward Class caste by Government of Gujarat. 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. From the 15th century onwards we find historical references to political activities of Koli chieftains. There were also a number of first-order divisions, mainly of artisans, craftsmen and specialized servants, with small populations. The most Mehta families were found in USA in 1920. Many of them became the norm-setting elite for Gujaratis in the homeland. 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. They were thus not of the same status as most other second-order divisions among Brahmans. They have been grouped in Vaishya category of Varna system. Their origin myth enshrined in their caste purana also showed them to be originally non-Brahman. In no other nation has something as basic as one's clothing or an act as simple as spinning cotton become so intertwined with a national movement. 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. <> 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. Within each of these divisions, small endogamous units (ekdas, gols, bandhos) were organized from time to time to get relief from the difficulties inherent in hypergamy. Content Filtrations 6. 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. 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. These and many other artisans, craftsmen and servants reflected the special life-style of the town. 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. Our analysis of caste in towns has shown how it differed significantly from that in villages. Fortunately, they have now started writing about it (see Rao 1974). It used to have a panch (council of leaders) and sometimes also a headman (patel). 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. The two categories of castes have been deeply conscious of these differences between them and have been talking freely about them. They adopted Rajput customs and traditions, claimed Rajput status, and gave daughters in marriage to Rajputs in the lower rungs of Rajput hierarchy. They took away offerings made to Shiva, which was considered extremely degrading. 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. This list may not reflect recent changes. This was about 22% of all the recorded Mehta's in USA. But this is not enough. 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. Nor were ekdas and tads entirely an urban phenomenon. Before publishing your articles on this site, please read the following pages: 1. 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. Usually, it was a small population. 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. 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. He stresses repeatedly the primacy of the principle of hierarchy-epitomized in the title of his book. 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. Plagiarism Prevention 4. Early industrial labour was also drawn mainly from the urban artisan and servant castes. 3 0 obj 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. A fundamental difficulty with these paradigms of change, as indicated by the above analysis, is that they are based on a partial conception of the systematic or structural whole in the past partially because it does not cover the urban situation and the complexity of horizontal units. 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. In some parts of Gujarat they formed 30 to 35 per cent of the population. The four major woven fabrics produced by these communities are cotton, silk, khadi and linen. Broach, Cambay and Surat were the largest, but there were also a number of smaller ones. They are described by the ruling elite as robbers, dacoits, marauders, predators and the like. These coastal towns were involved in trade among themselves, with other towns on the rest of the Indian sea coast, and with many foreign lands. While we can find historical information about the formation of ekdas and tads there are only myths about the formation of the numerous second-order divisions. 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. 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. The weavers were forced into selling exclusively to the British at extremely low rates, pushing them into poverty. Hence started farming and small scale business in the British Raj to thrive better conditions ahead to maintain their livelihood. 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. There would be a wide measure of agreement with him on both these counts. %PDF-1.7 It was also an extreme example of a division having a highly differentiated internal hierarchy and practising hypergamy as an accepted norm. Pages in category "Social groups of Gujarat" The following 157 pages are in this category, out of 157 total. The social relations between and within a large number of such segregated castes should be seen in the context of the overall urban environment, characterized as it was by co-existence of local Hindu castes with immigrant Hindu castes and with the non-Hindu groups such as Jains, Muslims, Parsis and Christians, a higher degree of monetization, a higher degree of contractual and market relations (conversely, a lesser degree of jajmani-type relations), existence of trade guilds, and so on. To give just one example, one large street in Baroda, of immigrant Kanbis from the Ahmedabad area, named Ahmedabadi Pol, was divided into two small parallel streets. 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. These marriage links do not seem to have allowed, among the Kolis, formation of well organized, small, endogamous units (ekadas, gols) as were found among some other castes. All this trade encouraged development of trading and commercial towns in the rest of Gujarat, even in the highland area. Homo Hierarchicus. Leva Kanbis, numbering 400,000 to 500,000 m 1931, were the traditional agricultural caste of central Gujarat. This was unlike the situation among the Rajputs who did not make any attempt to form small endogamous units. 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. Sometimes castes are described as becoming ethnic groups in modern India, particularly in urban India. Most of them were, true to their name, rulers at various levels of the political hierarchy from the kingly level to the level of dominant caste in many villages. A new view of the whole, comprising the rural and the urban and the various orders of caste divisions, should be evolved. 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. The Hindu population of Gujarat was divided first of all into what I have called caste divisions of the first order. Since Vankars were involved in production and business they were known as Nana Mahajans or small merchants. The very low Brahmans such as Kayatias and Tapodhans were invited but made to eat separately from the rest of the Brahmans. There was another kind of ambiguity about the Brahman status or two other divisionsKayatia and Tapodhan. 4 0 obj 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. Similarly, the Vanias were divided into such divisions as Disawal, Kapol, Khadayata, Lad, Modh, Nagar, Nima, Porwad, Shirmali, Vayada, and Zarola. 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. I do not, however, have sufficient knowledge of the latter and shall, therefore, confine myself mainly to Rajputs in Gujarat. It is noteworthy that many of their names were based on names of places (region, town, or village): for example, Shrimali and Mewada on the Shrimal and Mewar regions in Rajasthan, Modh on Modhera town in north Gujarat, and Khedawal on Kheda town in central Gujarat. All Brahman divisions did not, however, have a corresponding Vania division. 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. The migrants, many of whom came from heterogeneous urban centres of Gujarat, became part of an even more heterogeneous environment in Bombay. 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. 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. Many primarily rural castes, such as Kolisthe largest castehave remained predominantly rural even today. The tribal groups in the highland area, such as the Bhils and Naikdas, also did not have any urban component. The hypergamous tendency was never as sharp, pervasive and regular among the Vania divisions as among the Rajputs, Leva Kanbis, Anavils and Khedawals. I have done field work in two contiguous parts of Gujarat: central Gujarat (Kheda district and parts of Ahmedabad and Baroda districts) and eastern Gujarat (Panchmahals district). If the first-order divisions are called jatis and castes, the second-order divisions would be called sub-jatis or sub-castes. Inclusion of a lower-order division in a higher-order one and distinction between various divisions in a certain order was not as unambiguous. In effect, the Vania population in a large town like Ahmedabad could have a considerable number of small endogamous units of the third or the fourth order, each with its entire population living and marrying within the town itself. 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. As Ghurye pointed out long ago, slow consolidation of the smaller castes into larger ones would lead to three or four large groups being solidly organized for pushing the interests of each even at the cost of the others. 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. Hypergamy tended to be associated with this hierarchy. This meant that he could marry a girl of any subdivision within the Vania division. % to which the divisions of the marrying couple belong. 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. In 1931, their total population was more than 1,700,000, nearly one-fourth of the total population of Gujarat. In the second-order divisions of the Leva Kanbis, the Anavils and the Khedawals, while the hypergamous tendency was strong, attempts were continually made to form small endogamous units: although the strength of the hypergamous tendency did not allow these units to function effectively, they nevertheless checked its free play to some extent. The three trading castes of Vania, Lohana and Bhatia were mainly urban. Unfortunately, such figures are not available for the last fifty years or so. As soon as there is any change in . A large proportion, if not the whole, of the population of many of such divisions lived in towns. The guiding ideas were samaj sudharo (social reform) and samaj seva (social service). (Frequently, such models are constructed a priori rather than based on historical evidence, but that is another story). A recent tendency in sociological literature is to consider jatis as castes. Once the claim was accepted at either level, hypergamous marriage was 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. <> 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). Most of the other eighty or so second-order divisions among Brahmans, however, seem to be subdivided the way the Vania second-order divisions were subdivided into third-order and fourth-order divisions. Today, there are two kinds of Koli 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. 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. 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).