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. Once the claim was accepted at either level, hypergamous marriage was possible. 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. Frequently, each such unit had a patron deity, housed in a large shrine, with elaborate arrangements for its ownership. This reflects the high degree of divisiveness in castes in Gujarat. 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. In addition, they carried on overland trade with many towns in central and north India. They then spread to towns in the homeland and among all castes. The advance made in recent years is limited and much more needs to be done. State Id State Name Castecode Caste Subcaste 4 GUJARAT 4001 AHIR SORATHA 4 GUJARAT 4002 AHIR 4 GUJARAT 4003 ANSARI 4 GUJARAT 4004 ANVIL BRAHMIN 4 GUJARAT 4005 ATIT BAYAJI BAKSHI PANCH 4 GUJARAT 4006 BAJANIYA 4 GUJARAT 4007 BAJIR . Disclaimer 9. <>
Content Filtrations 6. Sometimes a division could even be a self-contained endogamous unit. There is a patterned widening of the connubial field along an area chalked out historically. The castes pervaded by hierarchy and hypergamy had large populations spread evenly from village to village and frequently also from village to town over a large area. Vankar is described as a caste as well as a community. 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. 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. The four major woven fabrics produced by these communities are cotton, silk, khadi and linen. Roughly, while in the plains area villages are nucleated settlements, populated by numerous castes, in the highland area villages are dispersed settlements, populated by tribes and castes of tribal origin. 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. Gujarat- A state in India. Marriages were usually confined to neighbouring villages, so that marriage links were spread in a continuous manner from one end of the region to another. On the other hand, there was an almost simultaneous spurt in village studies. 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. The lowest stratum in all the three divisions had to face the problem of scarcity of brides. 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. Literally, ekda meant unit, and gol circle, and both signified an endogamous unit. r/ahmedabad From Mumbai. The two categories of castes have been deeply conscious of these differences between them and have been talking freely about them. Let us now return to a consideration of the first-order divisions with subdivisions going down to the third or the fourth order. 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. 4 0 obj
A large proportion, if not the whole, of the population of many of such divisions lived in towns. yorba linda football maxpreps; weiteste entfernung gerichtsbezirk; wyoming rockhounding locations google maps; TOS 7. 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. There was a continuous process of formation and disintegration of such units. The co-residence of people belonging to two or more divisions of a lower order within a division of a higher order has been a prominent feature of caste in towns and cities. 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. 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. It used to have a panch (council of leaders) and sometimes also a headman (patel). I would suggest that this feature of urban caste, along with the well known general tendency of urban culture to encourage innovation, provided the groundhowever diffuse that ground might have beenfor a favourable response to the anti-hierarchical ideas coming from the West. Ideally, castes as horizontal units should he discussed with the help of population figures. The following 157 pages are in this category, out of 157 total. 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. 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. Although I have not, during my limited field work, come across hypergamous marriages between Rajputs and Bhils, ethnographic reports and other literature frequently refer to such marriages (see, for example, Naik 1956: 18f; Nath I960. 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. Although the people of one tad would talk about their superiority over those of another tad in an ekda, and the people of one ekda over those of another in a higher-order division, particularly in large towns where two or more tads and ekdas would be found living together, there was no articulate ranking and hypergamy among them. 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. // z. Frequently, social divisions were neatly expressed in street names. 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. There is enormous literature on these caste divisions from about the middle of the 19th century which includes census reports, gazetteers, [] New Jersey had the highest population of Mehta families in 1920. Hindu society is usually described as divided into a number of castes the boundaries of which are maintained by the rule of caste endogamy. www.opendialoguemediations.com. All associations originated in large towns, are more active in towns than in villages, and are led by prominent members in towns. Another clearly visible change in caste in Gujarat is the emergence of caste associations. Let me illustrate briefly. Many of these names were also based on place names. Advances in manufacturing technologies flooded markets in India and abroad with cheap, mass-produced fabrics that Indian handlooms could no longer compete with. 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. These linkages played an important role in the traditional social structure as well as in the processes of change in modern India. Systematic because castes exist and are like each other in being different (298). For example, all Vania divisions were divided into a number of ekdas or gols. These and many other artisans, craftsmen and servants reflected the special life-style of the town. For example, there were Khedawal Brahmans but not Khedawal Vanias, and Lad Vanias but no Lad Brahmans. It is not claimed that separation, or even repulsion, may not be present somewhere as an independent factor (1972: 346,n.55b). [CDATA[ As Ghurye pointed out long ago, slow consolidation of the smaller castes into larger ones would lead to three or four large groups being solidly organized for pushing the interests of each even at the cost of the others. Among the first-order divisions with subdivisions going down to the fourth order, there are associations for divisions of all the orders. 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. This list may not reflect recent changes. 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. 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. 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. There was also another important correlation. To illustrate, among the Khadayata or Modh Vanias, an increasing number of marriages take place between two or more tads within an ekda. They adopted Rajput customs and traditions, claimed Rajput status, and gave daughters in marriage to Rajputs in the lower rungs of Rajput hierarchy. 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). 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. The migrants, many of whom came from heterogeneous urban centres of Gujarat, became part of an even more heterogeneous environment in Bombay. 2 0 obj
The indigenous Kolis in the highland area of Pal in eastern Gujarat were called Palia, but there was another smaller population of KoUs, who were locally called Baria but were actually Talapada immigrants from central Gujarat. Asking different questions and using different methods are necessary. 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. 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. 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 point is that there was nothing like the endogamous unit but there were only several units of various orders with defined roles in endogamy.