The freedom struggle brought the Indian handloom sector back to the fore, with Mahatma Gandhi spearheading the Swadeshi cause. Gujarat- A state in India. 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. Many second-order divisions were further divided into two or three status categories. 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. 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. History. Asking different questions and using different methods are necessary. Weavers became beggars, manufacturing collapsed and the last 2000 years of Indian textile industry was knocked down. The complex was provided a certain coherence and integrityin the pre- industrial time of slow communicationby a number of oral and literate traditions cultivated by cultural specialists such as priests, bards, genealogists and mythographers (see in this connection Shah and Shroff 1958). 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. Vankar is described as a caste as well as a community. 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 Vanias provide an example of such castes. 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. 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. 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. 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. 92. 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. From the 15th century onwards we find historical references to political activities of Koli chieftains. . Plagiarism Prevention 4. I have discussed above caste divisions in Gujarat mainly in the past, roughly in the middle of the 19th century. Gujarati migrations to the nearby metropolis of Bombay the first new centre of administration, industry, commerce, education, and western culture, followed the same links. The Rajput links entailed the spread of Rajput culture in each Koli division and provided a certain cultural homogeneity to all the divisions. Among the Kanbis, while there was hypergamy within the Leva division and possibly, similar hypergamy within the Kadva division, there was no hierarchy or hypergamy between the two second-order divisions. 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; There was another kind of ambiguity about the Brahman status or two other divisionsKayatia and Tapodhan. The unit might possess some other corporate characteristics also. This account of the divisions is based on various sources, but mainly on Bombay Gazetteer (1901). They were thus not of the same status as most other second-order divisions among Brahmans. Privacy Policy 8. These and many other artisans, craftsmen and servants reflected the special life-style of the town. There are thus a few excellent studies of castes as horizontal units. They took away offerings made to Shiva, which was considered extremely degrading. No one knows when and how they came into existence and what they meant socially. 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. 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. They adopted Rajput customs and traditions, claimed Rajput status, and gave daughters in marriage to Rajputs in the lower rungs of Rajput hierarchy. The understanding of changes in caste is not likely to be advanced by clubbing such diverse groups together under the rubric of ethnic group. Real Estate Software Dubai > blog > manvar surname caste in gujarat. The Kolis in such an area may not even be concerned about a second-order divisional name and may be known simply as Kolis. This stratum among the Kanbis coped with the problem mainly by practising remarriage of widows and divorced women. However, it is well known that there were subtle arguments regarding the status of certain royal families being Rajput. 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. I do not, however, have sufficient knowledge of the latter and shall, therefore, confine myself mainly to Rajputs in Gujarat. One important first-order division, namely, Rajput, does not seem to have had any second-order division at all. Even the archaeological surveys and studies have indicated that the people of Dholavira, Surkotada. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Briefly, while the Varna model was significant in the total dynamics of the caste system to fit the numerous first-order divisions into the four-fold Varna model in any part of India is impossible, and, therefore, to consider varnas as caste divisions as such is meaningless. 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. Use census records and voter lists to . Another major factor in the growth of urban centres in Gujarat was political. Before publishing your articles on this site, please read the following pages: 1. Homo Hierarchicus. In the plains, therefore, every village had one or more towns in its vicinity. The ekdas have not yet lost their identities. ), as contrasted with the horizontal unity of the caste. 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. The Hindu and Muslim kingdoms in Gujarat during the medieval period had, of course, their capital towns, at first Patan and then Ahmedabad. Almost all the myths about the latter are enshrined in the puranas (for an analysis of a few of them, see Das 1968 and 1977). Koli Patels are recognised as a Other Backward Class caste by Government of Gujarat. Systematic study of small caste divisions in villages as well as in towns still awaits the attention of sociologists and anthropologists. Content Filtrations 6. Significantly, a large number of social thinkers and workers who propagated against the hierarchical features of caste came from urban centres. Among the first-order divisions with subdivisions going down to the fourth order, there are associations for divisions of all the orders. Together they provide a slice of Gujarati society from the sea- coast to the bordering highlands. 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. Reference to weaving and spinning materials is found in the Vedic Literature. Although caste was found in both village and town, did it possess any special characteristics in the latter? This reflects the high degree of divisiveness in castes in Gujarat. This does not, however, help describe caste divisions adequately. 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). Similarly, in Saurashtra, the Talapadas were distinguished from the Chumvalias, immigrants from the Chumval tract in north Gujarat. 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. professor melissa murray. 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. They are described by the ruling elite as robbers, dacoits, marauders, predators and the like. Census officials-turned-scholars, from Risley to Hutton, wrote many of the earlier general works on caste. 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. Pocock goes on to observe that diminution of emphasis upon hierarchy and increasing emphasis upon difference are features of caste in modern, particularly urban, India: there is a shift from the caste system to individual castes and this reflects the change that is taking place in India today (290). 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. 1 0 obj 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). <>/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>> Usually, the affairs of the caste were discussed in large congregations of some fifty to hundred or even more villages from time to time. <> Kolis were the largest first-order division in Gujarat. Radhvanaj Rajputs were clearly distinguished from, and ranked much above local Kolis. The Rajputs relationship with the Kolis penetrated every second-order division among them, i.e., Talapada, Pardeshi, Chumvalia, Palia, and so on. Vankar - Wikipedia 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. This was about 22% of all the recorded Mehta's in USA. 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. The advance made in recent years is limited and much more needs to be done. It seems the highland Bhils (and possibly also other tribes) provided brides to lower Rajputs in Gujarat. Usually, the latter were distinguished from one another by prohibition. The degree of contravention is highest if the couple belong to two different first-order divisions. 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. Most of the second-order divisions were further divided into third-order divisions. Vankar is described as a caste as well as a community. 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. The sub- the manner in which the ideas of free marriages and castles society are used by both the old and the young in modern India and how a number of new customs and institutions have evolved to cope with these new ideas is a fascinating subject of study. In addition, they carried on overland trade with many towns in central and north India. 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. 3 0 obj Fortunately, they have now started writing about it (see Rao 1974). The hypergamous tendency was never as sharp, pervasive and regular among the Vania divisions as among the Rajputs, Leva Kanbis, Anavils and Khedawals. There was a continuous process of formation and disintegration of such units. We shall return to the Rajput-Koli relationship when we consider the Kolis in detail. After the commercial revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, Gujarat had a large number of tradition towns on its long sea-coast. 4 GUJARAT 4273 SHODA . 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. Most associations continue to retain their non-political character. Hence as we go down the hierarchy we encounter more and more debates regarding the claims of particular lineages to being Rajput so much so that we lose sight of any boundary and the Rajput division merges imperceptibly into some other division. State Id State Name Castecode Caste Subcaste 4 GUJARAT 4001 AHIR SORATHA 4 GUJARAT 4002 AHIR 4 GUJARAT 4003 ANSARI 4 GUJARAT 4004 ANVIL BRAHMIN 4 GUJARAT 4005 ATIT BAYAJI BAKSHI PANCH 4 GUJARAT 4006 BAJANIYA 4 GUJARAT 4007 BAJIR . In particular, the implications of the co-existence of lower-order divisions within a higher- order division in the same town or city should be worked out. As weaving is an art and forms one of the most important artisan community of India. 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. 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. Although my knowledge is fragmentary, I thought it was worthwhile to put together the bits and pieces for the region as a whole. The most Mehta families were found in USA in 1920. A large number of priestly, artisan and service castes also lived in both villages and towns: Bramhans, barbers, carpenters, blacksmiths, shoemakers, leather-workers, scavenges, water-carriers, palanquin-bearers, and so on. For the sake of bravity and simplicity of presentation, I have not provided detailed documentation. Frequently, The ekdas or gols were each divided into groups called tads (split). The lowest stratum among the Khedawals tried to cope with the problem of scarcity of brides mainly by practising ignominious exchange marriage and by restricting marriage of sons in a family to the younger sons, if not to only the youngest. The urban centres in both the areas, it is hardly necessary to mention, are nucleated settlements populated by numerous caste and religious groups. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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). But the hypergamous tendency was so powerful that each such endogamous unit could not be perfectly endogamous even at the height of its integration. Most inter-divisional marriages take place between boys and girls belonging to the lowest order in the structure of divisions. Frequently, a division among Vanias corresponded to a division among Brahmans. The village was a small community divided into a relatively small number of castes; the population of each caste was also small, sometimes only one or two households, with little possibility of existence of subdivisions; and there were intensive relationships of various kinds between the castes. They have been grouped in Vaishya category of Varna system. The larger castes and even larger subdivisions among them used to have their houses segregated on their own streets (called pol, sheri, khadki, vad, khancho). Marco Polo a Venetian merchant on his visit to India in 13th century Gujarat observed that "brocading art of Gujarat weavers is par excellent". Since after expansion of British textile markets and decline of Indian textile industry Vankars suffered a lot. 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. 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. The humble Charkha (spinning wheel) and khadi became a dominant symbol of self-reliance, self-determination and nationalist pride. The two together formed a single complex of continental dimension. This was dramatized in many towns at the mahajan (guild) feasts when all the members of the guild of traders would eat together. 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). Our analysis of the internal organization of caste divisions has shown considerable variation in the relative role of the principles of division and hierarchy. The following 157 pages are in this category, out of 157 total. But there were also others who did not wield any power. It is not claimed that separation, or even repulsion, may not be present somewhere as an independent factor (1972: 346,n.55b). The Hindu population of Gujarat was divided first of all into what I have called caste divisions of the first order. 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. Which caste is koli patel? Explained by Sharing Culture The primarily rural and lower castes were the last to form associations and that too mainly after independence (1947). 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 roamed around clueless. The population of certain first-order divisions lived mainly in villages. They are divided into two main sub-castes: Leuva Patels and Kadva Patels, who claim to be descendants of Ram's twins Luv and Kush respectively. The small town sections therefore separated themselves from the respective large town sections and formed a new ekda. The incidence of exchange marriages and of bachelors in the lowest stratum among the Anavils also was high. Usually, a single Koli division had different local names in different parts of Gujarat, but more about this later. Marriages were usually confined to neighbouring villages, so that marriage links were spread in a continuous manner from one end of the region to another. 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). manvar surname caste in gujarat - Be Falcon Similarly, the Vanias were divided into such divisions as Disawal, Kapol, Khadayata, Lad, Modh, Nagar, Nima, Porwad, Shirmali, Vayada, and Zarola. There were also a number of first-order divisions, mainly of artisans, craftsmen and specialized servants, with small populations. 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. 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. There was apparently a close relation between a castes internal organization and the size and spatial distribution of its population. 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. 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. This was because political authorities were hierarchized from little kingdom to empire and the boundaries of political authorities kept changing. Limbachiya Surname Origin, Meaning & Last Name History - Forebears 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. Kayatias and Tapodhans were considered such low Brahmans that even some non-Brahman castes did not accept food and water from them. To whichever of the four orders a caste division belonged, its horizontal spread rarely, if ever, coincided with that of another. % manvar surname caste in gujarat. The main reason was that Anavils did not practise priesthood as a traditional occupation, nor were they involved in traditional Sanskrit learning. Sometimes a division could even be a self-contained endogamous unit. Many primarily rural castes, such as Kolisthe largest castehave remained predominantly rural even today. 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. 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. Copyright 10. 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. 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. A block printed and resist-dyed fabric, whose origin is from Gujarat was found in the tombs of Fostat, Egypt. The two areas merge gradually, and my field work covered most of the spectrum. Their origin myth enshrined in their caste purana also showed them to be originally non-Brahman. The main occupation of Vankars was the weaving of cloth. I am not suggesting that the principle of hierarchy was insignificant in the inter- or intra-caste relations in urban centres. Sometimes a division corresponding to a division among Brahmans and Vanias was found in a third first-order division also. 91. 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. 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. * List of Scheduled Tribes in Gujarat; A. . 100 Most Popular Indian Last Names Or SurnamesWhy Don't Tamil People Have Last Names?-----A . The Mehta family name was found in the USA, and the UK between 1891 and 1920. Many of them became the norm-setting elite for Gujaratis in the homeland. Tapodhans were priests in Shiva temples. 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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. He stresses repeatedly the primacy of the principle of hierarchy-epitomized in the title of his book. But this is not enough. According to the Rajputs I know in central Gujarat, the highest stratum among them consisted of the royal families of large and powerful kingdoms in Gujarat and neighbouring Rajasthan, such as those of Bhavnagar, Jamnagar, Kachchh, Porbandar, Bikaner, Idar, Jaipur, Jaisalmer, Jodhpur, Udaipur, and so on. window.__mirage2 = {petok:"uGhRfiuY26l2oZgRlfZRFSp4BWPIIt7Gh61sQC1XrRU-3600-0"}; The bulk of the population was spread all over the villages as small landholders, tenants and labourers. 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. In all there were thirty to forty such divisions. : 11-15, 57-75). Simultaneously, there is gradual decline in the strength of the principle of hierarchy, particularly of ritual hierarchy expressed in purity and pollution. For example, there was considerable ambiguity about the status of Anavils. 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. 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 tribal groups in the highland area, such as the Bhils and Naikdas, also did not have any urban component. 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. 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. There is a patterned widening of the connubial field along an area chalked out historically.

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