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. Whatever the internal organization of a second-order division, the relationship between most of the Brahman second-order divisions was marked by great emphasis on being different and separate than on being higher and lower. The existence of flexibility at both the levels was made possible by the flexibility of the category Rajput. 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. Gujarat protests: Who are the Patidars, and why are they angry? Our analysis of caste in towns has shown how it differed significantly from that in villages. In India Limbachiya is most frequent in: Maharashtra, where 70 percent reside, Gujarat . 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). Hindu society is usually described as divided into a number of castes the boundaries of which are maintained by the rule of caste endogamy. The hypergamous tendency was never as sharp, pervasive and regular among the Vania divisions as among the Rajputs, Leva Kanbis, Anavils and Khedawals. To have a meaningful understanding of the system of caste divisions, there is no alternative but to understand the significance of each order of division and particularly the nature of their boundaries and maintenance mechanisms. There were about three hundred divisions of this order in the region as a whole. Real Estate Software Dubai > blog > manvar surname caste in gujarat. Caste associations have been formed on the lines of caste divisions. 100 Most Popular Indian Last Names Or SurnamesWhy Don't Tamil People Have Last Names?-----A . The arrival of the East India Company, however sounded the death knell for the Indian textile industry. 91. This list may not reflect recent changes. There was also a tendency among bachelors past marriageable age to establish liaisons with lower-caste women, which usually led the couple to flee and settle down in a distant village. For example, there were Khedawal Brahmans but not Khedawal Vanias, and Lad Vanias but no Lad Brahmans. 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. 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. 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. 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. Many second-order divisions were further divided into two or three status categories. 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; Division and Hierarchy: An Overview of Caste in Gujarat! There are other sub-castes like Satpanthis, who are mainly centered in Kutch district and have some social customs akin to Muslims . There were also a number of first-order divisions, mainly of artisans, craftsmen and specialized servants, with small populations. In each of these three divisions the top stratum was clear. 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. Vankar - Wikipedia And how flexibility was normal at the lowest level has just been shown. window.__mirage2 = {petok:"uGhRfiuY26l2oZgRlfZRFSp4BWPIIt7Gh61sQC1XrRU-3600-0"}; What I am trying to point out, however, is that greater emphasis on division (Pococks difference, Dumonts separation. Since after expansion of British textile markets and decline of Indian textile industry Vankars suffered a lot. The hierarchy, however, was very gradual and lacked sharpness. In 1920 there were 2 Mehta families living in New Jersey. Privacy Policy 8. Gujarati migrations to the nearby metropolis of Bombay the first new centre of administration, industry, commerce, education, and western culture, followed the same links. I have not yet come across an area where Kolis from three or more different areas live together, excepting modern, large towns and cities. When divisions are found within a jati, the word sub-jati or sub-caste is used. Division and hierarchy have always been stressed as the two basic principles of the caste system. I describe here three prominent units of the latter type, namely, Anavil, Leva Kanbi, and Khedawal Brahman. To illustrate, among the Khadayata or Modh Vanias, an increasing number of marriages take place between two or more tads within an ekda. Many primarily rural castes, such as Kolisthe largest castehave remained predominantly rural even today. They wrote about the traditional Indian village, but not about the traditional Indian town. Simultaneously, there is gradual decline in the strength of the principle of hierarchy, particularly of ritual hierarchy expressed in purity and pollution. 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. The unit might possess some other corporate characteristics also. 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. Each ekda or gol was composed of a definite number of families living in certain villages and/or towns. 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. Most inter-divisional marriages take place between boys and girls belonging to the lowest order in the structure of divisions. So far we have considered first-order divisions with large and widely spread populations. Use census records and voter lists to . 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). 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. 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). r/ahmedabad From Mumbai. 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. Tirgaar, Tirbanda. The humble Charkha (spinning wheel) and khadi became a dominant symbol of self-reliance, self-determination and nationalist pride. 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.). Both were recognized as Brahman but as degraded ones. But this is not enough. Early industrial labour was also drawn mainly from the urban artisan and servant castes. 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. For example, if they belonged to two different second-order divisions, such as Shrimali and Modh, the punishment would be greater than if they belonged to two different ekdas within the Shrimali or the Modh division. 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. On the other hand, there was an almost simultaneous spurt in village studies. Although my knowledge is fragmentary, I thought it was worthwhile to put together the bits and pieces for the region as a whole. All associations originated in large towns, are more active in towns than in villages, and are led by prominent members in towns. Inclusion of a lower-order division in a higher-order one and distinction between various divisions in a certain order was not as unambiguous. 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. Among the first-order divisions with subdivisions going down to the fourth order, there are associations for divisions of all the orders. 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. That the role of the two principles could vary at different levels within a first-order division has also been seen. While fission did occur, fusion could also occur. <> 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. All this trade encouraged development of trading and commercial towns in the rest of Gujarat, even in the highland area. 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. After the commercial revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, Gujarat had a large number of tradition towns on its long sea-coast. 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. For example, a good number of villages in central Gujarat used to have both Talapada and Pardeshi Kolis and Brahmans belonging to two or three of their many second-order divisions. 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. 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. rogers outage brampton today; levelland, tx obituaries. The idea of inter-caste marriage is, moreover, linked with the idea of creating such a society involves a compromise with, if not subtle negation of, the ideal. Sometimes a division corresponding to a division among Brahmans and Vanias was found in a third first-order division also. 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. 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. In an area of the first kind there are no immigrant Kolis from elsewhere, and therefore, there is no question of their having second-order divisions. The degree of contravention is highest if the couple belong to two different first-order divisions. 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. Kayatias and Tapodhans were considered such low Brahmans that even some non-Brahman castes did not accept food and water from them. 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. This was about 22% of all the recorded Mehta's in USA. Systematic because castes exist and are like each other in being different (298). The Hindu population of Gujarat was divided first of all into what I have called caste divisions of the first order. Their origin myth enshrined in their caste purana also showed them to be originally non-Brahman. In central Gujarat, for example, one and the same division, freely arranging marriages within it, was known by several names such as Baraiya, Dharala, Khant, Kotwal, Pagi, Patelia, Talapada, Thakarada, and Thakor. They were thus not of the same status as most other second-order divisions among Brahmans. caste: [noun] one of the hereditary social classes in Hinduism that restrict the occupation of their members and their association with the members of other castes. Unfortunately, such figures are not available for the last fifty years or so. The migrants, many of whom came from heterogeneous urban centres of Gujarat, became part of an even more heterogeneous environment in Bombay. 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. I hope to show in this paper how the principle of division is also a primary principle competing with the principle of hierarchy and having important implications for Indian society and culture. 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. These and many other artisans, craftsmen and servants reflected the special life-style of the town. The degree of contravention is less if the couple belong, let us say, to two different fourth-order divisions within a third-order division than if they belong to two different third-order divisions within a second-order division, and so on. An important idea behind the activities of caste associations is: service to ones caste is service to the nation. It seems the highland Bhils (and possibly also other tribes) provided brides to lower Rajputs in Gujarat. This tendency reaches its culmination in the world of Dumont. They took away offerings made to Shiva, which was considered extremely degrading. Similarly, the Vanias were divided into such divisions as Disawal, Kapol, Khadayata, Lad, Modh, Nagar, Nima, Porwad, Shirmali, Vayada, and Zarola. 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. The prohibition of inter-division marriage was much more important than the rules of purity and pollution in the maintenance of boundaries between the lower-order divisions. A comment on the sociology of urban India would, therefore, be in order before we go ahead with the discussion of caste divisions. The Mehta family name was found in the USA, and the UK between 1891 and 1920. All Brahman divisions did not, however, have a corresponding Vania division. 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. 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. 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. 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. The urban centres in both the areas, it is hardly necessary to mention, are nucleated settlements populated by numerous caste and religious groups. 2 0 obj Marco Polo a Venetian merchant on his visit to India in 13th century Gujarat observed that "brocading art of Gujarat weavers is par excellent". 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. If the first-order divisions are called jatis and castes, the second-order divisions would be called sub-jatis or sub-castes. Content Filtrations 6. 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. For example, just as there was a Shrimali division among Sonis (goldsmiths). There is a patterned widening of the connubial field along an area chalked out historically. 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. Gujarat did not have anything like the non-Brahmin movement of South India and Maharashtra before 1947. 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. Vankar is described as a caste as well as a community. The castes of the three categoriesprimarily urban, primarily rural, and rural-cum-urbanformed an intricate network spread over the rural and urban communities in the region. 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. Caste divisions of the first-order can be classified broadly into three categories. 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. The Kayatias main occupation was to perform a ritual on the eleventh day after death, during which they took away offerings made to ghosts: this was the main cause of their extremely low status among Brahmans. 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). And even when a Brahman name corresponded with a Vania name, the former did not necessarily work as priests of the latter.The total number of second-divisions in a first-order division differed from one first-order division to another. As soon as there is any change in . The Rajputs, in association with Kolis, Bhils, and such other castes and tribes, provide an extreme example of such castes. I have discussed above caste divisions in Gujarat mainly in the past, roughly in the middle of the 19th century. 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. 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. Since Vankars were involved in production and business they were known as Nana Mahajans or small merchants. Sometimes castes are described as becoming ethnic groups in modern India, particularly in urban India. 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. No analytical gains are therefore likely to occur by calling them by any other name. 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. 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. Hypergamy tended to be associated with this hierarchy. % The tad thus represented the fourth and last order of caste divisions. Thus, the result was the spread of the population of a caste division towards its fringes. Many of these names were also based on place names. As could be expected, there were marriages between fairly close kin, resulting in many overlapping relationships, in such an endogamous unit. 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. 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. endobj They also continued to have marital relations with their own folk. It used to have a panch (council of leaders) and sometimes also a headman (patel). He stated: hereditary specialization together with hierarchical organization sinks into the background in East Africa (293). <>/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>> Frequently, The ekdas or gols were each divided into groups called tads (split). This surname is most commonly held in India, where it is held by 2,496 people, or 1 in 307,318. Together they provide a slice of Gujarati society from the sea- coast to the bordering highlands. This list may not reflect recent changes. There was apparently a close relation between a castes internal organization and the size and spatial distribution of its population. No sooner had the village studies begun that their limitations and the need for studying caste in its horizontal dimension were realized. 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. Division and Hierarchy: An Overview of Caste in Gujarat 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. Weaving and cloth trading communities of Western India particularly of Gujarat are called Vankar/Wankar/Vaniya. 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. To obtain a clear understanding of the second-order divisions with the Koli division, it is necessary first of all to find a way through the maze of their divisional names. 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.