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 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. 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. The members of a kings caste were thus found not only in his own kingdom but in other kingdoms as well. 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 small town sections therefore separated themselves from the respective large town sections and formed a new ekda. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. The bulk of the population was spread all over the villages as small landholders, tenants and labourers. Another major factor in the growth of urban centres in Gujarat was political. This was because political authorities were hierarchized from little kingdom to empire and the boundaries of political authorities kept changing. The institutions of both bride and bridegroom price (the latter also called dowry) were rampant in castes with continuous internal hierarchydowry mainly at the upper levels, bride price mainly at the lower levels, and both dowry and bride price among status-seeking middle level families. Koli Patels are recognised as a Other Backward Class caste by Government of Gujarat. Srinivas has called the unity of the village manifested in these interrelations the vertical unity of the village (1952: 31f. I am not suggesting that the principle of hierarchy was insignificant in the inter- or intra-caste relations in urban centres. For example, just as there was a Shrimali division among Sonis (goldsmiths). It reflects, on the one hand, the political aspirations of Kolis guided by the importance of their numerical strength in electoral politics and on the other hand, the Rajputs attempt to regain power after the loss of their princely states and estates. Content Filtrations 6. Fortunately, they have now started writing about it (see Rao 1974). As weaving is an art and forms one of the most important artisan community of India. The Chumvalias and Patanwadias migrated possibly from the same tract and continued to belong to the same horizontal unit after migration. Tirgaar, Tirbanda. Here, usually, what mattered was the first-order division, as for example Brahman, Vania, Rajput, Kanbi, carpenter, barber, leather-worker, and so on. Content Guidelines 2. These linkages played an important role in the traditional social structure as well as in the processes of change in modern India. manvar surname caste in gujaratbest imperial trooper team swgoh piett. Similarly, in Saurashtra, the Talapadas were distinguished from the Chumvalias, immigrants from the Chumval tract in north Gujarat. Moreover, some leading Anavils did not wish to be bothered about Brahman status, saying that they were just Anavil. The emphasis on being different and separate rather than on being higher and lower was even more marked in the relationship among the forty or so second-order divisions. There were similar problems about the status of a number of other divisions. 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. 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. 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. There is enormous literature on these caste divisions from about the middle of the 19th century which includes census reports, gazetteers, [] But this is not enough. 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. The significant point, however, is that there were small endogamous units which were not, like ekdas and tads, part of any higher-order division. 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. Broach, Cambay and Surat were the largest, but there were also a number of smaller ones. 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. 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. I have, therefore, considered them a first-order division and not a second-order one among Brahmans (for a fuller discussion of the status of Anavils, see Joshi, 1966; Van der Veen 1972; Shah, 1979). For example, just as there were Modh Vanias, there were Modh Brahmans, and similarly Khadayata Vanias and Khadayata Brahmans, Shrimali Vanias and Shrimali Brahmans, Nagar Vanias and Nagar Brahmans, and so on. I describe here three prominent units of the latter type, namely, Anavil, Leva Kanbi, and Khedawal Brahman. ADVERTISEMENTS: Division and Hierarchy: An Overview of Caste in Gujarat! When divisions are found within a jati, the word sub-jati or sub-caste is used. In the case of some of them the small population was so dispersed that a division such as that of barbers, blacksmiths, or carpenters, would be represented by only one or two households in each village and by a significant number of households in towns. [CDATA[ 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. 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. <>/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>> 4 0 obj Sometimes a division could even be a self-contained endogamous unit. Thus, while each second-order Koli division maintained its boundaries vis-a-vis other such divisions, each was linked with the Rajputs. 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. 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. Unfortunately, such figures are not available for the last fifty years or so. The purpose is not to condemn village studies, as is caste in a better perspective after deriving insights from village studies. 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. The degree of contravention involved in an inter-divisional marriage, however, depends upon the order (i.e., first-order, second-order, etc.) 100 Most Popular Indian Last Names Or SurnamesWhy Don't Tamil People Have Last Names?-----A . The advance made in recent years is limited and much more needs to be done. Weavers became beggars, manufacturing collapsed and the last 2000 years of Indian textile industry was knocked down. It was also an extreme example of a division having a highly differentiated internal hierarchy and practising hypergamy as an accepted norm. For example, there was considerable ambiguity about the status of Anavils. The following 157 pages are in this category, out of 157 total. . 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 incidence of exchange marriages and of bachelors in the lowest stratum among the Anavils also was high. I have not yet come across an area where Kolis from three or more different areas live together, excepting modern, large towns and cities. Division and hierarchy have always been stressed as the two basic principles of the caste system. Usually, a single Koli division had different local names in different parts of Gujarat, but more about this later. But the hypergamous tendency was so powerful that each such endogamous unit could not be perfectly endogamous even at the height of its integration. Similarly, the Khedawal Brahmans were divided into Baj and Bhitra, the Nagar Brahmans into Grihastha and Bhikshuk, the Anavils into Desai and Bhathela, and the Kanbis into Kanbi and Patidar. 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. Among the Kanbis, while there was hypergamy within the Leva division and possibly, similar hypergamy within the Kadva division, there was no hierarchy or hypergamy between the two second-order divisions. 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. I do not, however, have sufficient knowledge of the latter and shall, therefore, confine myself mainly to Rajputs in Gujarat. 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. The lowest stratum in all the three divisions had to face the problem of scarcity of brides. After the commercial revolution of the 16th and 17th centuries, Gujarat had a large number of tradition towns on its long sea-coast. www.opendialoguemediations.com. Till the establishment of democratic polity in 1947, hardly any caste association in Gujarat had manifest political functions. 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. 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. The hierarchy, however, was very gradual and lacked sharpness. Both Borradaile and Campbell were probably mixing up small endogamous units of various kinds. He stated: hereditary specialization together with hierarchical organization sinks into the background in East Africa (293). 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. TOS 7. so roamed around clueless. It owned corporate property, usually in the form of vadis (large buildings used for holding feasts and festivals, accommodating wedding guests, and holding meetings), huge utensils for cooking feasts, and money received as fees and fines. Prohibited Content 3. The decline was further accelerated by the industrial revolution. 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. Thus, the result was the spread of the population of a caste division towards its fringes. It is important to note that the more literate and learned Brahmans lived in towns, more particularly in capital and pilgrim towns, which were, indeed, the centres of higher Hindu culture and civilization. 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.