So far we have considered first-order divisions with large and widely spread populations. For example, among the Khadayata Vanias there are all-Khadayata associations as well as associations for the various ekdas and sometimes even for their tads (see Shah, Ragini 1978). 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. Most inter-divisional marriages take place between boys and girls belonging to the lowest order in the structure of divisions. 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. 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. Both Borradaile and Campbell were probably mixing up small endogamous units of various kinds. 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. The understanding of changes in caste is not likely to be advanced by clubbing such diverse groups together under the rubric of ethnic group. Early industrial labour was also drawn mainly from the urban artisan and servant castes. Similarly, the Vanias were divided into such divisions as Disawal, Kapol, Khadayata, Lad, Modh, Nagar, Nima, Porwad, Shirmali, Vayada, and Zarola. The two categories of castes have been deeply conscious of these differences between them and have been talking freely about them. 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. 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. There was a continuous process of formation and disintegration of such units. 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. 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). The lowest stratum in all the three divisions had to face the problem of scarcity of brides. There was considerable elaboration in urban areas of what Ghurye long ago called the community aspect of caste (1932: 179) and frequently, this led to juxtaposition rather than hierarchy between caste divisions of the same order. Thus, the result was the spread of the population of a caste division towards its fringes. We shall return to the Rajput-Koli relationship when we consider the Kolis in detail. Broach, Cambay and Surat were the largest, but there were also a number of smaller ones. 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. Our analysis of caste in towns has shown how it differed significantly from that in villages. Frequently, the urban population of such a division performed more specialized functions than did the rural one. 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. That there was room for flexibility and that the rule of caste endogamy could be violated at the highest level among the Rajputs was pointed out earlier. Let me illustrate briefly. Caste Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster There were Brahman and Vania divisions of the same name, the myths about both of them were covered by a single text. Vankar - Wikipedia A comment on the sociology of urban India would, therefore, be in order before we go ahead with the discussion of caste divisions. Both were recognized as Brahman but as degraded ones. The Vanias provide an example of such castes. 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. As for the size of other castes, I shall make mainly relative statements. 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. Significantly, a large number of social thinkers and workers who propagated against the hierarchical features of caste came from urban centres. The tad thus represented the fourth and last order of caste divisions. Their origin myth enshrined in their caste purana also showed them to be originally non-Brahman. I have discussed above caste divisions in Gujarat mainly in the past, roughly in the middle of the 19th century. <>/Metadata 3086 0 R/ViewerPreferences 3087 0 R>> 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. 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. If the Varna divisions are taken into account, then this would add one more order to the four orders of caste divisions considered above. 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. 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). I am dealing here only with certain typical situations. The very low Brahmans such as Kayatias and Tapodhans were invited but made to eat separately from the rest of the Brahmans. There was also another important correlation. Further, the castes there are unable to take cognizance of each other in terms of hierarchy or of occupation, and it is in this situation that they can be said to exist by virtue of their differences (296) it is the systematic recognition of difference which is most apparent. Today majority of these community members are not engaged in their ancestral weaving occupation still some population of these community contribute themselves in traditional handloom weaving of famous Patola of Patan, Kachchh shawl of Bhujodi in Kutch, Gharchola and Crotchet of Jamnagar, Zari of Surat, Mashroo of Patan and Mandvi in Kutch, Bandhani of Jamnagar, Anjar and Bhuj, Motif, Leheria, Dhamakda and Ajrak, Nagri sari, Tangaliya Shawl, Dhurrie, Kediyu, Heer Bharat, Abhala, Phento and art of Gudri. They adopted Rajput customs and traditions, claimed Rajput status, and gave daughters in marriage to Rajputs in the lower rungs of Rajput hierarchy. 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. 2 0 obj 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. Data need to be collected over large areas by methods other than those used in village studies, castes need to be compared in the regional setting, and a new general approach, analytical framework, and conceptual apparatus need to be developed. 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 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. Among the first-order divisions with subdivisions going down to the fourth order, there are associations for divisions of all the orders. 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. 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. Sometimes a division could even be a self-contained endogamous unit. 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. They took away offerings made to Shiva, which was considered extremely degrading. ), as contrasted with the horizontal unity of the caste. 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. I have done field work in two contiguous parts of Gujarat: central Gujarat (Kheda district and parts of Ahmedabad and Baroda districts) and eastern Gujarat (Panchmahals district). We shall return to this issue later. Before publishing your articles on this site, please read the following pages: 1. 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 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. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Many second-order divisions were further divided into two or three status categories. The most Mehta families were found in USA in 1920. 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. Indeed, a major achievement of Indian sociology during the last thirty years or so has been deeper understanding of caste in the village context in particular and of its hierarchical dimension in general. 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. While almost all the social structures and institutions which existed in villagesreligion, caste, family, and so onalso existed in towns, we should not assume that their character was the same. In 1931, their total population was more than 1,700,000, nearly one-fourth of the total population of Gujarat. There was also a third category called Pancha, derived from the word punch (meaning 5) and denoting extremely low Vania. 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. Each ekda or gol was composed of a definite number of families living in certain villages and/or towns. Visited Ahmedabad for the weekend to meet a friend but her family had a medical emergency. The most important of them was the Koli division, which was, the largest division and mainly included small landholders, tenants and labourers. 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. Hindu society is usually described as divided into a number of castes the boundaries of which are maintained by the rule of caste endogamy. However, on the basis of the meagre information I have, I am able to make a few points. Finally, while an increasing number of marriages are taking place even across the boundaries of first-order divisions, as for example, between Brahmans and Vanias, and between Vanias and Patidars, such marriages even now form an extremely small proportion of the total number of marriages. A recent tendency in sociological literature is to consider jatis as castes. Category:Social groups of Gujarat - Wikipedia Frequently, The ekdas or gols were each divided into groups called tads (split). In India Limbachiya is most frequent in: Maharashtra, where 70 percent reside, Gujarat . Gujarati migrations to the nearby metropolis of Bombay the first new centre of administration, industry, commerce, education, and western culture, followed the same links. 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 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. 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. Usually, the affairs of the caste were discussed in large congregations of some fifty to hundred or even more villages from time to time. 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. 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. What I am trying to point out, however, is that greater emphasis on division (Pococks difference, Dumonts separation. History. Patidars or Patels claim themselves to be descendants of Lord Ram. I should hasten to add, however, that the open-minded scholar that he is, he does not rule out completely the possibility of separation existing as independent principle. In fact, inter-tad marriages have increased so much that the tads have more or less lost their identity and such marriages are no longer considered as violating the rule of tad endogamy. Content Filtrations 6. 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. As weaving is an art and forms one of the most important artisan community of India. Frequently, a division among Vanias corresponded to a division among Brahmans. It is a coalescence of Kolis and Rajputs on the modern political plane based on the foundation of the traditional social and cultural symbiosis under the rubric of Kshatriya. 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. %PDF-1.7 The Khadayatas were divided into about 30 ekdas. The two together formed a single complex of continental dimension. Firstly, there were divisions whose population was found almost entirely in towns. They are described by the ruling elite as robbers, dacoits, marauders, predators and the like. The urban centres in both the areas, it is hardly necessary to mention, are nucleated settlements populated by numerous caste and religious groups. 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.