manvar surname caste in gujarat

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. Image Guidelines 5. This was dramatized in many towns at the mahajan (guild) feasts when all the members of the guild of traders would eat together. Systematic because castes exist and are like each other in being different (298). Among the first-order divisions with subdivisions going down to the fourth order, there are associations for divisions of all the orders. It is easy to understand that the pattern of change would be different in those first-order divisions (such as Rajput) or second-order divisions (such as Leva Kanbi) which did not have within them subdivisions of lower orders and which practised hypergamy extensively. Although the name of a Brahman or Vania division might be based on a place name, the division was not territorial in nature. 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. The Rajput links entailed the spread of Rajput culture in each Koli division and provided a certain cultural homogeneity to all the divisions. 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. I am dealing here only with certain typical situations. 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. The existence of flexibility at both the levels was made possible by the flexibility of the category Rajput. We shall return to the Rajput-Koli relationship when we consider the Kolis in detail. 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. 3.8K subscribers in the gujarat community. professor melissa murray. 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. 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). ), as contrasted with the horizontal unity of the caste. 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. 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. 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. 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). In any case, the population of any large caste was found in many kingdoms. Gujarat did not have anything like the non-Brahmin movement of South India and Maharashtra before 1947. It used to have a panch (council of leaders) and sometimes also a headman (patel). Sometimes a division could even be a self-contained endogamous unit. 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. 92. He does not give importance to this possibility probably because, as he goes on to state, what is sought here is a universal formula, a rule without exceptions (ibid.). A recent tendency in sociological literature is to consider jatis as castes. 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. 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. 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). Usually, a single Koli division had different local names in different parts of Gujarat, but more about this later. This stratum among the Kanbis coped with the problem mainly by practising remarriage of widows and divorced women. Frequently, social divisions were neatly expressed in street names. It seems the highland Bhils (and possibly also other tribes) provided brides to lower Rajputs in Gujarat. 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. 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. That Rajputs were one of the divisions, if not the only division of the first-order, not having further divisions, has already been mentioned. Many of them claimed that they were Brahmans but this claim was not accepted by most established Brahmans. Usually, it was a small population. For example, the Patanwadia population was spread continuously from the Patan area to central Gujarat, and the Talapada population from central Gujarat to Pal. 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. Although my knowledge is fragmentary, I thought it was worthwhile to put together the bits and pieces for the region as a whole. Copyright 10. 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. Use census records and voter lists to . Once the claim was accepted at either level, hypergamous marriage was possible. I have discussed above caste divisions in Gujarat mainly in the past, roughly in the middle of the 19th century. so roamed around clueless. Gujarat- A state in India. But many Rajput men of Radhvanaj got wives from people in distant villages who were recognized there as Kolisthose Kolis who had more land and power than the generality of Kolis had tried to acquire some of the traditional Rajput symbols in dress manners and customs and had been claiming to be Rajputs. % The arrival of the East India Company, however sounded the death knell for the Indian textile industry. 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 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. We shall return to this issue later. For example, all Vania divisions were divided into a number of ekdas or gols. But the hypergamous tendency was so powerful that each such endogamous unit could not be perfectly endogamous even at the height of its integration. However, on the basis of the meagre information I have, I am able to make a few points. It was also an extreme example of a division having a highly differentiated internal hierarchy and practising hypergamy as an accepted norm. This does not, however, help describe caste divisions adequately. Sindhollu, Chindollu. 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. Hence started farming and small scale business in the British Raj to thrive better conditions ahead to maintain their livelihood. 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. 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. But this is not enough. 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. Early industrial labour was also drawn mainly from the urban artisan and servant castes. r/ahmedabad From Mumbai. 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). The census reports provide such figures until 1931, but it is well known that these pose many problems for sociological analysis, most of which arise out of the nature of castes as horizontal units. 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. We need to formulate some idea of the nature of the Indian urban society and its relation with the rural society in the past, at least at the beginning of the 19th century. The ekdas have not yet lost their identities. 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. A block printed and resist-dyed fabric, whose origin is from Gujarat was found in the tombs of Fostat, Egypt. 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. If the Varna divisions are taken into account, then this would add one more order to the four orders of caste divisions considered above. When divisions are found within a jati, the word sub-jati or sub-caste is used. This was unlike the situation among the Rajputs who did not make any attempt to form small endogamous 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 the plains, therefore, every village had one or more towns in its vicinity. * List of Scheduled Tribes in Gujarat; A. . Real Estate Software Dubai > blog > manvar surname caste in gujarat. The Rajputs, in association with Kolis, Bhils, and such other castes and tribes, provide an extreme example of such castes. //]]>. 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. The two former ekdas continued to exist with diminished strength. In India Limbachiya is most frequent in: Maharashtra, where 70 percent reside, Gujarat . 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 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. Although they claimed to be Brahman they were closely associated with agriculture. 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. 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. 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). For the sake of bravity and simplicity of presentation, I have not provided detailed documentation. The handloom weavers of Gujarat, Maharastra and Bengal produced and exported some of the world's most desirable fabrics. 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. They are described by the ruling elite as robbers, dacoits, marauders, predators and the like. 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. Our analysis of the internal organization of caste divisions has shown considerable variation in the relative role of the principles of division and hierarchy. 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. The small ekda or tad with its entire population residing in a single town was, of course, not a widespread phenomenon. 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. There is a patterned widening of the connubial field along an area chalked out historically. Jun 12, 2022. Let us now return to a consideration of the first-order divisions with subdivisions going down to the third or the fourth order. 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. 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 three trading castes of Vania, Lohana and Bhatia were mainly urban. Reference to weaving and spinning materials is found in the Vedic Literature. No analytical gains are therefore likely to occur by calling them by any other name. Firstly, there were divisions whose population was found almost entirely in towns. The significant point, however, is that there were small endogamous units which were not, like ekdas and tads, part of any higher-order division. While fission did occur, fusion could also occur. Caste divisions of the first-order can be classified broadly into three categories. This list may not reflect recent changes. Most of the second-order divisions were further divided into third-order divisions. There were similar problems about the status of a number of other divisions. : 11-15, 57-75). The population of certain first-order divisions lived mainly in villages. Both were recognized as Brahman but as degraded ones. 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. (surname) Me caste; Mer (community) Meta Qureshi; Mistri caste; Miyana (community) Modh; Motisar (caste) Multani Lohar; Muslim Wagher; Mutwa; N . Although caste was found in both village and town, did it possess any special characteristics in the latter? But there were also others who did not wield any power. 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 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). It has been pointed out earlier that an emphasis on the principle of division existed in the caste system in urban centres in traditional India. The degree of contravention is highest if the couple belong to two different first-order divisions. They also continued to have marital relations with their own folk. Castes pervaded by divisive tendencies had small populations confined to small areas separated from each other by considerable gaps. Privacy Policy 8. In 1931, their total population was more than 1,700,000, nearly one-fourth of the total population of Gujarat. 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 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 second kind of area, indigenous Kolis live side-by-side with immigrant Kolis from an adjoining area. This category has the following 18 subcategories, out of 18 total. Village studies, as far as caste is a part of them, have been, there fore, concerned with the interrelations between sections of various castes in the local context. There are other sub-castes like Satpanthis, who are mainly centered in Kutch district and have some social customs akin to Muslims . Frequently, each such unit had a patron deity, housed in a large shrine, with elaborate arrangements for its ownership. They were found in almost every village in plains Gujarat and in many villages in Saurashtra and Kachchh. In the village strict prohibition of inter-division marriage as well as the rules of purity and pollution and other mechanisms, of which the students of Indian village communities are well aware since the 1950s, maintained the boundaries of these divisions. 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. 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. Nowadays, in urban areas in particular, very few people think of making separate seating arrangements for members of different castes at wedding and such other feasts. Both Borradaile and Campbell were probably mixing up small endogamous units of various kinds. 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. 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. 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. 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. There are thus a few excellent studies of castes as horizontal units. Inclusion of a lower-order division in a higher-order one and distinction between various divisions in a certain order was not as unambiguous. 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. 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. The hypergamous tendency was never as sharp, pervasive and regular among the Vania divisions as among the Rajputs, Leva Kanbis, Anavils and Khedawals. Before publishing your articles on this site, please read the following pages: 1. Usually, the latter were distinguished from one another by prohibition. 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. A new view of the whole, comprising the rural and the urban and the various orders of caste divisions, should be evolved. All Brahman divisions did not, however, have a corresponding Vania division. 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. Hypergamy tended to be associated with this hierarchy. 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. There was apparently a close relation between a castes internal organization and the size and spatial distribution of its population. For example, there was considerable ambiguity about the status of Anavils. 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 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. A block printed and resist-dyed fabric, whose origin is from Gujarat was found in the tombs of Fostat, Egypt. Nor do I claim to know the whole of Gujarat. 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.

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