The Hindu population of Gujarat was divided first of all into what I have called caste divisions of the first order. These and many other artisans, craftsmen and servants reflected the special life-style of the town. 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. In the second kind of area, indigenous Kolis live side-by-side with immigrant Kolis from an adjoining area. 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. 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. That the role of the two principles could vary at different levels within a first-order division has also been seen. For example, all Vania divisions were divided into a number of ekdas or gols. There was apparently a close relation between a castes internal organization and the size and spatial distribution of its population. In the plains, therefore, every village had one or more towns in its vicinity. 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. As soon as there is any change in . History. 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. The number of tads in an ekda or go I might be two or more, and each of them might be an endogamous units. The migrants, many of whom came from heterogeneous urban centres of Gujarat, became part of an even more heterogeneous environment in Bombay. 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. 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. <>/Metadata 3086 0 R/ViewerPreferences 3087 0 R>> In central Gujarat, at least from about the middle of the 18th century, the population of the wealthy and powerful Patidar section of the Kanbis also lived in townsan extremely interesting development of rich villages into towns, which I will not describe here. The small endogamous units, on the other hand, did not practise either. We shall return later to a consideration of this problem. 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. 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 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 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. 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. Patidars or Patels claim themselves to be descendants of Lord Ram. Created Date: There were about three hundred divisions of this order in the region as a whole. They have been grouped in Vaishya category of Varna system. However, it is well known that there were subtle arguments regarding the status of certain royal families being Rajput. 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. 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. In all there were thirty to forty such divisions. 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). There are other sub-castes like Satpanthis, who are mainly centered in Kutch district and have some social customs akin to Muslims . 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. 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. Frequently, a division among Vanias corresponded to a division among Brahmans. 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. 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 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. Let me illustrate briefly. With the exclusion of caste (except scheduled caste) from the census since 1951 (practically since 1941, because the census of that year did not result in much reporting), writings on castes as horizontal units greatly declined. Castes pervaded by divisive tendencies had small populations confined to small areas separated from each other by considerable gaps. 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. 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. professor melissa murray. Today, there are two kinds of Koli areas. Till the establishment of democratic polity in 1947, hardly any caste association in Gujarat had manifest political functions. Such a description not only overlooks the diversity and complexity of caste divisions and the rural-urban Link- ages in them but also leads to placing them in the same category as Muslims, Christians, Parsis, Jains, Buddhists, and so on. Marco Polo a Venetian merchant on his visit to India in 13th century Gujarat observed that "brocading art of Gujarat weavers is par excellent". 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. 100 Most Popular Indian Last Names Or SurnamesWhy Don't Tamil People Have Last Names?-----A . This list may not reflect recent changes. The handloom weavers of Gujarat, Maharastra and Bengal produced and exported some of the world's most desirable fabrics. The main occupation of Vankars was the weaving of cloth. A block printed and resist-dyed fabric, whose origin is from Gujarat was found in the tombs of Fostat, Egypt. More common was an ekda or tad having its population residing either in a few neighbouring villages, or in a few neighbouring towns, or in both. Until recently, sociologists and anthropologists described Indian society as though it had no urban component in the past. 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. 2 0 obj We have analyzed the internal structure of two first-order divisions, Rajput and Anavil, which did not have any second-order divisions, and of several second-order divisionsTalapada and Pardeshi Koli, Khedawal Brahman, and Leva Kanbiwhich did not have any third-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. He stresses repeatedly the primacy of the principle of hierarchy-epitomized in the title of his book. 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). Content Filtrations 6. 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. Leva Kanbis, numbering 400,000 to 500,000 m 1931, were the traditional agricultural caste of central Gujarat. From the 15th century onwards we find historical references to political activities of Koli chieftains. Hypergamy tended to be associated with this hierarchy. They also continued to have marital relations with their own folk. 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. 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. The understanding of changes in caste is not likely to be advanced by clubbing such diverse groups together under the rubric of ethnic group. 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. 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. 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. 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. //Limbachiya Surname Origin, Meaning & Last Name History - Forebears Moreover, some leading Anavils did not wish to be bothered about Brahman status, saying that they were just Anavil. They were thus not of the same status as most other second-order divisions among Brahmans. Firstly, there were divisions whose population was found almost entirely in towns. Srinivas has called the unity of the village manifested in these interrelations the vertical unity of the village (1952: 31f. Once the claim was accepted at either level, hypergamous marriage was possible. How many sub-divisions existed in the various divisions of the various orders is a matter of empirical investigation. Hence started farming and small scale business in the British Raj to thrive better conditions ahead to maintain their livelihood. The humble Charkha (spinning wheel) and khadi became a dominant symbol of self-reliance, self-determination and nationalist pride. Frequently, each such unit had a patron deity, housed in a large shrine, with elaborate arrangements for its ownership. Thus, the result was the spread of the population of a caste division towards its fringes. window.__mirage2 = {petok:"uGhRfiuY26l2oZgRlfZRFSp4BWPIIt7Gh61sQC1XrRU-3600-0"}; 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 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. If the Varna divisions are taken into account, then this would add one more order to the four orders of caste divisions considered above. 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. 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. 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. Patel is a surname of the Koli caste of Gujarat in India which have most importance in the politics of Gujarat and Koli Patels of Saurashtra was most benefited under the rule of Indian National Congress party. 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. 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. Indian textiles especially of Gujarat have been praised in several accounts by explorers and historians, from Megasthenes to Herodotus. The Rajputs relationship with the Kolis penetrated every second-order division among them, i.e., Talapada, Pardeshi, Chumvalia, Palia, and so on. Sindhollu, Chindollu. Division and hierarchy have always been stressed as the two basic principles of the caste system. 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. 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. Copyright 10. The freedom struggle brought the Indian handloom sector back to the fore, with Mahatma Gandhi spearheading the Swadeshi cause. Each ekda or gol was composed of a definite number of families living in certain villages and/or towns. 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. 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. The population of certain first-order divisions lived mainly in villages. It seems the highland Bhils (and possibly also other tribes) provided brides to lower Rajputs in Gujarat. All associations originated in large towns, are more active in towns than in villages, and are led by prominent members in towns. 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 unit might possess some other corporate characteristics also. 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. 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. 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. In the past the dispersal over a wide area of population of an ekda or tad was uncommon; only modern communications have made residential dispersal as well as functional integration possible. There were similar problems about the status of a number of other 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. The same problems would arise in the reverse direction if, as many scholars have done, the term caste cluster, caste complex or caste category is used for divisions of a higher order and the term caste or jati is used for divisions of a lower order. While fission did occur, fusion could also occur. Our analysis of caste in towns has shown how it differed significantly from that in villages. Unfortunately, such figures are not available for the last fifty years or so. rogers outage brampton today; levelland, tx obituaries. We have seen how one second-order division among Brahmans, namely, Khedawal, was marked by continuous internal hierarchy and strong emphasis on hypergamy on the one hand and by absence of effective small endogamous units on the other. 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.