manvar surname caste in gujarat23 Apr manvar surname caste in gujarat
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. The population of certain first-order divisions lived mainly in villages. The number of tads in an ekda or go I might be two or more, and each of them might be an endogamous units. 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. Frequently, a division among Vanias corresponded to a division among Brahmans. The advance made in recent years is limited and much more needs to be done. When Mr. H. Borradaile in A.D. 1827 collected information regarding the customs of Hindus, no less than 207 castes which did not intermarry, were found in the city of Surat alone. The following 157 pages are in this category, out of 157 total. There are other sub-castes like Satpanthis, who are mainly centered in Kutch district and have some social customs akin to Muslims . But there was also another process. Another clearly visible change in caste in Gujarat is the emergence of caste associations. 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. stream 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. Nor do I claim to know the whole of Gujarat. <> Gujarat did not have anything like the non-Brahmin movement of South India and Maharashtra before 1947. Traditionally, the Brahman division was supposed to provide the priests for the corresponding divisions. After the commercial revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, Gujarat had a large number of tradition towns on its long sea-coast. The purpose is not to condemn village studies, as is caste in a better perspective after deriving insights from village studies. There is a patterned widening of the connubial field along an area chalked out historically. 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. Although my knowledge is fragmentary, I thought it was worthwhile to put together the bits and pieces for the region as a whole. TOS 7. A great deal of discussion of the role of the king in the caste system, based mainly on Indological literature, does not take these facts into account and therefore tends to be unrealistic. Literally, ekda meant unit, and gol circle, and both signified an endogamous unit. %PDF-1.7 Systematic because castes exist and are like each other in being different (298). The main reason was that Anavils did not practise priesthood as a traditional occupation, nor were they involved in traditional Sanskrit learning. 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 co-residence of people belonging to two or more divisions of the lower orders within a division of a higher order has been a prominent feature of caste in towns and cities. Homo Hierarchicus. Advances in manufacturing technologies flooded markets in India and abroad with cheap, mass-produced fabrics that Indian handlooms could no longer compete with. 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. The three trading castes of Vania, Lohana and Bhatia were mainly urban. Usually, the affairs of the caste were discussed in large congregations of some fifty to hundred or even more villages from time to time. However, on the basis of the meagre information I have, I am able to make a few points. 2 0 obj He stresses repeatedly the primacy of the principle of hierarchy-epitomized in the title of his book. The Khadayatas were divided into about 30 ekdas. Thus, while each second-order Koli division maintained its boundaries vis-a-vis other such divisions, each was linked with the Rajputs. There was another kind of ambiguity about the Brahman status or two other divisionsKayatia and Tapodhan. Since after expansion of British textile markets and decline of Indian textile industry Vankars suffered a lot. The boundaries of caste division were fairly clear in the village community. 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. The understanding of changes in caste is not likely to be advanced by clubbing such diverse groups together under the rubric of ethnic group. 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. While some of the divisions of a lower order might be the result of fission, some others might be a result of fusion. 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. The ekdas have not yet lost their identities. The very low Brahmans such as Kayatias and Tapodhans were invited but made to eat separately from the rest of the Brahmans. 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). No analytical gains are therefore likely to occur by calling them by any other name. Most inter-divisional marriages take place between boys and girls belonging to the lowest order in the structure of divisions. The significant point, however, is that there were small endogamous units which were not, like ekdas and tads, part of any higher-order division. 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. Our analysis of caste in towns has shown how it differed significantly from that in villages. The Rajputs, in association with Kolis, Bhils, and such other castes and tribes, provide an extreme example of such castes. If the first-order divisions are called jatis and castes, the second-order divisions would be called sub-jatis or sub-castes. For the sake of bravity and simplicity of presentation, I have not provided detailed documentation. The urban centres in both the areas, it is hardly necessary to mention, are nucleated settlements populated by numerous caste and religious groups. 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). Both were recognized as Brahman but as degraded ones. Castes pervaded by divisive tendencies had small populations confined to small areas separated from each other by considerable gaps. This does not solve the problem if there are four orders of divisions of the kind found in Gujarat. 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. 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. 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. Pages in category "Social groups of Gujarat" The following 157 pages are in this category, out of 157 total. They were thus not of the same status as most other second-order divisions among Brahmans. Prohibited Content 3. It seems the highland Bhils (and possibly also other tribes) provided brides to lower Rajputs in Gujarat. Sometimes a division corresponding to a division among Brahmans and Vanias was found in a third first-order division also. 91. The Kayasthas and Brahma-Kshatriyas, the so- called writer castes, employed mainly in the bureaucracy, and the Vahivancha Barots, genealogists and mythographers, were almost exclusively urban castes. 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. Weaving and cloth trading communities of Western India particularly of Gujarat are called Vankar/Wankar/Vaniya. 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. Not only that, there were also third-order divisions (i.e., ekdas) in one or more second-order divisions, and finally one or more fourth-order divisions (i.e., tads) in one or more third-order divisions. //]]>. 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. Many primarily rural castes, such as Kolisthe largest castehave remained predominantly rural even today. 4 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. Each ekda or gol was composed of a definite number of families living in certain villages and/or towns. 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. The existence of ekdas or gols, however, does not mean that the divisiveness of caste ended there or that the ekdas and gols were always the definitive units of endogamy. There was apparently a close relation between a castes internal organization and the size and spatial distribution of its population. To whichever of the four orders a caste division belonged, its horizontal spread rarely, if ever, coincided with that of another. rogers outage brampton today; levelland, tx obituaries. In recent years, however, there has been a tendency to emphasize hierarchy as the primary principle encompassing the principle of division. 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. ), as contrasted with the horizontal unity of the caste. Tirgaar, Tirbanda. Almost every village in this area included at least some Leva population, and in many villages they formed a large, if not the largest, proportion of the population. The Vanias provide an example of such castes. 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. But this is not enough. They have been grouped in Vaishya category of Varna system. 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 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. hu)_EYUT?:fX:vOR,4g4ce{\(wcUO %OW-Knj|qV]_)1?@{^ $:0ZY\fpg7J~Q~pHaMVSP5bLC}6+zwgv;f f^v4[|vug+vO0h t7QNP}EYm+X[x~;O|z5tq ]-39aa{g-u5n:a56&`3y.f-a@a"0v-a@$%`Z]]Iqb56aR0g 30V9EM%K"#|6uN? =O|8alCcs):~AC<5 q|om57/|Sgc}2c#)U~WL}%T]s> z. The Mehta family name was found in the USA, and the UK between 1891 and 1920. No one knows when and how they came into existence and what they meant socially. I am dealing here only with certain typical situations. Also, the horizontal spread of a caste rarely coincided with the territorial boundaries of a political authority. 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. In many villages in Gujarat, particularly in larger villages, one or two first-order divisions would be represented by more than one second-order division. 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. Content Filtrations 6. If the marriage took place within the Vania fold but outside the tad or ekda, as the case may be, the punishment varied according to the social distance between the tads or ekdas of the bride and the groom. The handloom weavers of Gujarat, Maharastra and Bengal produced and exported some of the world's most desirable fabrics. This tendency reaches its culmination in the world of Dumont. 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. Their origin myth enshrined in their caste purana also showed them to be originally non-Brahman. Until recently, sociologists and anthropologists described Indian society as though it had no urban component in the past. 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. 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. 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. Similarly, the Vanias were divided into such divisions as Disawal, Kapol, Khadayata, Lad, Modh, Nagar, Nima, Porwad, Shirmali, Vayada, and Zarola. For example, among the Vanias the most general rule was that a marriage of a boy could be arranged with any girl who was bhane khapati, i.e., with whom he was permitted to have commensal relations (roti vyavahar). Hypergamy tended to be associated with this hierarchy. At the other end were castes in which the principle of division had free play and the role of the principle of hierarchy was limited. How many sub-divisions existed in the various divisions of the various orders is a matter of empirical investigation. 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. The Rajput links entailed the spread of Rajput culture in each Koli division and provided a certain cultural homogeneity to all the divisions. Till the establishment of democratic polity in 1947, hardly any caste association in Gujarat had manifest political functions. 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. For example, among Vanias in a large town like Ahmedabad many of the thirty or forty second-order divisions (such as Khadayata, Modh, Porwad, Shrimali, and so on) were represented. 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.
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