Also, the horizontal spread of a caste rarely coincided with the territorial boundaries of a political authority. * List of Scheduled Tribes in Gujarat; A. . After the commercial revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, Gujarat had a large number of tradition towns on its long sea-coast. The handloom weavers of Gujarat, Maharastra and Bengal produced and exported some of the world's most desirable fabrics. Kolis were the largest first-order division in Gujarat. This meant that he could marry a girl of any subdivision within the Vania division. 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. The Levas, Anavils and Khedawals provide examples of castes whose internal organization had a strong emphasis on the principle of hierarchy and a weak emphasis on that of division. 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. Privacy Policy 8. If the first-order divisions are called jatis and castes, the second-order divisions would be called sub-jatis or sub-castes. What I am trying to point out, however, is that greater emphasis on division (Pococks difference, Dumonts separation. The two areas merge gradually, and my field work covered most of the spectrum. 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. That the role of the two principles could vary at different levels within a first-order division has also been seen. 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. Usually, it was a small population. 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. Castes pervaded by divisive tendencies had small populations confined to small areas separated from each other by considerable gaps. 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. 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. The Chumvalias and Patanwadias migrated possibly from the same tract and continued to belong to the same horizontal unit after migration. 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. Moreover, some leading Anavils did not wish to be bothered about Brahman status, saying that they were just Anavil. 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). The Rajputs, in association with the Kolis, were probably the only horizontal unit which had continuous internal hierarchy, i.e., hypergamy unbroken by any endogamous subdivisions, and which did not have discernible boundaries at the lowest level. The main thrust of Pococks paper is that greater emphasis on difference rather than on hierarchy is a feature of caste among overseas Indians and in modern urban India. Weavers became beggars, manufacturing collapsed and the last 2000 years of Indian textile industry was knocked down. This tendency reaches its culmination in the world of Dumont. 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 Brahmans were divided into such divisions as Audich, Bhargav, Disawal, Khadayata, Khedawal, Mewada, Modh, Nagar, Shrigaud, Shrimali, Valam, Vayada, and Zarola. Hence started farming and small scale business in the British Raj to thrive better conditions ahead to maintain their livelihood. 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. 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. This list may not reflect recent changes. I have discussed above caste divisions in Gujarat mainly in the past, roughly in the middle of the 19th century. 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. How many sub-divisions existed in the various divisions of the various orders is a matter of empirical investigation. 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. Nor do I claim to know the whole of Gujarat. The Mehta family name was found in the USA, and the UK between 1891 and 1920. The main occupation of Vankars was the weaving of cloth. window.__mirage2 = {petok:"uGhRfiuY26l2oZgRlfZRFSp4BWPIIt7Gh61sQC1XrRU-3600-0"}; (Frequently, such models are constructed a priori rather than based on historical evidence, but that is another story). 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. Although the ekda or tad was the most effective unit for endogamy, each unit of the higher order was also significant for endogamy. Leva Kanbis, numbering 400,000 to 500,000 m 1931, were the traditional agricultural caste of central Gujarat. The Rajputs relationship with the Kolis penetrated every second-order division among them, i.e., Talapada, Pardeshi, Chumvalia, Palia, and so on. This surname is most commonly held in India, where it is held by 2,496 people, or 1 in 307,318. Even if we assume, for a moment, that the basic nature of a structure or institution was the same, we need to know its urban form or variant. 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. They then spread to towns in the homeland and among all castes. The boundaries of caste division were fairly clear in the village community. One may say that there are now more hypogamous marriages, although another and perhaps a more realistic way of looking at the change would be that a new hierarchy is replacing the traditional one. rogers outage brampton today; levelland, tx obituaries. [1], People of India Gujarat Volume XXI Part Three edited by R.B Lal, P.B.S.V Padmanabham, G Krishnan & M Azeez Mohideen pages 1126-1129, Last edited on 14 November 2022, at 23:04, Learn how and when to remove this template message, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vankar&oldid=1121933086, This page was last edited on 14 November 2022, at 23:04. Traditionally, the Brahman division was supposed to provide the priests for the corresponding divisions. 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. 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. Each ekda or gol was composed of a definite number of families living in certain villages and/or towns. Similarly, the Khedawal Brahmans were divided into Baj and Bhitra, the Nagar Brahmans into Grihastha and Bhikshuk, the Anavils into Desai and Bhathela, and the Kanbis into Kanbi and Patidar. Gujarat did not have anything like the non-Brahmin movement of South India and Maharashtra before 1947. However, it is well known that there were subtle arguments regarding the status of certain royal families being Rajput. 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. Moreover, a single division belonging to any one of the orders may have more than one association, and an association may be uni-purpose or multi-purpose. In any case, castes are not likely to cease to be castes in the consciousness of people in the foreseeable future. The incidence of exchange marriages and of bachelors in the lowest stratum among the Anavils also was high. The humble Charkha (spinning wheel) and khadi became a dominant symbol of self-reliance, self-determination and nationalist pride. 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. This category has the following 18 subcategories, out of 18 total. 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. Simultaneously, there is gradual decline in the strength of the principle of hierarchy, particularly of ritual hierarchy expressed in purity and pollution. 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. To illustrate, among the Khadayata or Modh Vanias, an increasing number of marriages take place between two or more tads within an ekda. It owned corporate property, usually in the form of vadis (large buildings used for holding feasts and festivals, accommodating wedding guests, and holding meetings), huge utensils for cooking feasts, and money received as fees and fines. Systematic study of small caste divisions in villages as well as in towns still awaits the attention of sociologists and anthropologists. 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. Tirgaar, Tirbanda. History. Our analysis of the internal organization of caste divisions has shown considerable variation in the relative role of the principles of division and hierarchy. At one end there were castes in which the principle of hierarchy had free play and the role of the principle of division was limited. Although caste was found in both village and town, did it possess any special characteristics in the latter? This account of the divisions is based on various sources, but mainly on Bombay Gazetteer (1901). 92. They also continued to have marital relations with their own folk. Pages in category "Social groups of Gujarat" The following 157 pages are in this category, out of 157 total. 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. Until recently, sociologists and anthropologists described Indian society as though it had no urban component in the past. 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. A block printed and resist-dyed fabric, whose origin is from Gujarat was found in the tombs of Fostat, Egypt. As soon as there is any change in . It will readily be agreed that the sociological study of Indian towns and cities has not made as much progress as has the study of Indian villages. Frequently, marriages were arranged in contravention of a particular rule after obtaining the permission of the council of leaders and paying a penalty in advance. There was another kind of ambiguity about the Brahman status or two other divisionsKayatia and Tapodhan. 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. The freedom struggle brought the Indian handloom sector back to the fore, with Mahatma Gandhi spearheading the Swadeshi cause. They wrote about the traditional Indian village, but not about the traditional Indian town. (surname) Me caste; Mer (community) Meta Qureshi; Mistri caste; Miyana (community) Modh; Motisar (caste) Multani Lohar; Muslim Wagher; Mutwa; N . 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. These and many other artisans, craftsmen and servants reflected the special life-style of the town. Vankar is described as a caste as well as a community. Use census records and voter lists to . I will not discuss the present situation in detail but indicate briefly how the above discussion could be useful for understanding a few important changes in modern times. 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. Literally, ekda meant unit, and gol circle, and both signified an endogamous unit. During Mughal Empire India was manufacturing 27% of world's textile and Gujarati weavers dominated along with Bengali weavers in Indian textile trade industry overseas. While fission did occur, fusion could also occur. 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. Unfortunately, such figures are not available for the last fifty years or so. ADVERTISEMENTS: Division and Hierarchy: An Overview of Caste in Gujarat! 3.8K subscribers in the gujarat community. The name, Talapada, meaning mdigenous, commonly used in the 19th century, is most clear, since it is clearly distinguished from the other division called Pardeshi, meaning foreign, who during the last one or two centuries immigrated here from the area around Patan in north Gujarat and were, therefore, also called Patan- wadias. No one knows when and how they came into existence and what they meant socially. Sometimes a division could even be a self-contained endogamous unit. 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. 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. 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. I am not suggesting that the principle of hierarchy was insignificant in the inter- or intra-caste relations in urban centres. If the Varna divisions are taken into account, then this would add one more order to the four orders of caste divisions considered above. I hope to show that the integration of the study of caste in urban areas with that of rural areas is essential to a comprehensive understanding of caste and its implications for Indian society and culture. 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. One important first-order division, namely, Rajput, does not seem to have had any second-order division at all. 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.
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