Arora

Last updated

Arora
Religions Hinduism • Sikhism
Languages Punjabi (Lahnda − Saraiki, Thali, Riasti, Pahari-Pothwari, Hindko, Khetrani, Jatki), [1] [2] [3] [4] Sindhi, Hindustani
RegionContemporarily
Punjab (India) • Sindh • Haryana • Delhi • Rajasthan • Uttar Pradesh

Historically
Derajat (Punjab • Balochistan • Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Sindh and Pothohar Plateau
Related groups Khatri • Bhatia • Sood

Arora is a community of Punjab and Sindh, [5] [6] [7] comprising both Hindus and Sikhs. The name is derived from their ancestral place Aror, Sindh. [8] [9] [a] In 712, the Arora people are said to have left Aror and started to settle in the cities of Punjab, [10] mainly in South Punjab. [7] However, according to W. H. McLeod, many Aroras originally came from the Pothohar area in North Punjab. [11]

Contents

Historically, the Arora section of the Khatri community had been principally found in West Punjab, in the districts to the south and west of Lahore. Scott Cameron Levi, believes that they are a "sub-caste of the Khatris". [3]

After Partition of India, Punjabis who migrated from erstwhile West Punjab were mostly Khatris and Aroras. Studies reveal that "Arora Khatri, Bedi, Ahluwalia etc. are some of the important castes among the Punjabis". [12]

The town of Rohri in Sukkur District of Sindh, sketched in 1842. The town of Roree and the fortress of Bukker, on the Indus.jpg
The town of Rohri in Sukkur District of Sindh, sketched in 1842.

Divisions in Sikh traditions

Per Sikhism, the Arora are divided into four territorial groups: the Uttarādhīs from the north, the Ḍakhaṇās from the south, the Dāhrās from the West and the Sindhīs, from Sindh. The Dāhrās and Ḍakhaṇās are sometimes classed as one groups. [7]

History

Origin

Aror is the ancestral town of the Arora community. [13] [14] [10] [15] [16] Little is known about the city's history prior to the Arab invasion in the 8th century CE. [17]

The Sauvira Kingdom was an ancient kingdom of the lower Indus Valley mentioned in Late Vedic literature. [18] Roruka (Aror), capital of the Sauvira Kingdom, is mentioned as an important trading center in early Buddhist literature. In the Chachnamah, members of the Brahman group were noted in the city of Aror. [19] Aror was the capital of the Arora dynasty, [20] which was followed by the Rai dynasty and then the Brahman dynasty. [21]

In 711, Aror was captured by the army of Umayyad general Muhammad ibn al-Qasim. [22]

Mughal decline and Afghan revival

On 13 April 1752, Lahore and Multan in Punjab were ceded to Ahmad Shah Durrani after the fall of Kaura Mal in the battlefield and retreat of Adina Beg. Afghanistan was the conduit for the trade between Central Asia and India. Grain trade in Afghanistan was in the hands of the Hindu Punjabi Arora/Khatris. Reportedly, they gave loans to the Durrani rulers to carry out military expeditions in India. Moreover, the disappointed princes of India "encouraged Zaman Shah Durrani to invade the subcontinent and overthrow the British" in 1798. [23]

To restrict the Afghans in Punjab, Hindu Diwan Kaura Mal Arora "died while fighting against the army of Ahmed Shah Durrani on March 6, 1752". He was the Governor of Multan and had also served as the Minister of Lahore twice. Earlier, he led the Lahore Darbar and "made a joint-attack on Multan in 1749", along the Sikhs led by Jassa Singh. Post his victory over Multan, "Diwan Kaura Mall was given the title of Maharaja Bahadur" by the Mughals. [24] [25]

Prior to the British colonial rule, Aroras were one of the three main money-lending castes of Punjab. The Aroras were often subjected to oppression and humiliation by peasant communities in muslim-dominated areas of Punjab. Socially discriminatory laws were also passed against them. [26] According to Sugata Bose, it was only "'when British rule freed him from restraint and armed him with the power of the law ... [that] he became as oppressive as he had been submissive'". [27]

The Aroras were often good farmers, and also engaged in metalworking, goldsmithery, and weaving. [28]

British colonial era

Portrait of an unidentified Arora Storekeeper from Lahore with coins in hand and in front of him, ca.1862-72 Portrait of an unidentified Arora Storekeeper from Lahore with coins in hand and in front of him, ca.1862-72.png
Portrait of an unidentified Arora Storekeeper from Lahore with coins in hand and in front of him, ca.1862–72

Pettigrew notes that in the 19th century, the Aroras were working as shopkeepers and small traders within the Sikh community in Punjab. [29] During the British Raj, in some parts of Punjab their population was so high that they had to seek employment outside their traditional occupations shopkeeping, accountancy and money-lending [30] [31] For the Hindu merchant castes, Agarwal Banias, Khatris and Aroras, Timber trade was also one of the trades they followed before 1900. However, since 1900 the smallest merchant sect, the Suds, started this trade and later dominated it in eastern Punjab. [32]

The Amritsar Gazetteer says:

Aroras trace their origin from the Khatris. It is said that Khatris are Khatris of Lahore and Multan, whereas Aroras are Khatris of Aror, modern Rori and Sukkar (Sind) in Pakistan. There is a street in Amritsar named as ‘Arorianwali Gali’. The Aroras seem to have settled in Amritsar during the time of Maharaja Ranjit Singh or even earlier. It is presumed that they migrated to Amritsar from Lahore to which place they might have originally migrated from Sind or Multan. [33]

The Hoshiarpur Gazetteer says:

Before independence, the Aroras did not constitute a sizeable population in the district. With the migration of the non-Muslim population from Pakistan to India in 1947, they settled here, though in small numbers. The Aroras were generally settled in West Punjab (Pakistan) and in the Firozepur District. Their representation in the eastern districts of the Punjab was not notable. Whatever be their origin, the fact is that they resemble Khatris in certain traits. They are also divided into many groups and castes, Uchanda, Nichanda, etc., but in social life, these groups are of no importance. They intermarry in their groups like others. They also intermarry among Khatris. In the All-India meeting in 1936, held by the Khatris at Lahore (Pakistan), it was decided that the Aroras, Soods and Bhatias were Khatri for all intents and purposes. And, as such, they should be admitted to the Khatri stock. This interpretation did not find much favour then, but with the lapse of time, it has almost been accepted. [34]

Uttaradhi (north), Dakhanadhi (south) and Dahre (west) are three major sub-groups of the Arora people based on territorial differentiations. [35] Before the independence of India, Arora used to marry in their own sub-group i.e. Uttradhi, Dakkhna or Dahra but after the independence, spheres of permissible arranged matrimonial alliances were widened to include other sub-groups of Arora. [36]

British ethnographer Denzil Ibbetson observed that Arora-Khatris were centered in Multan and Derajat (region consisting of Dera Ismail Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan) which are now part of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regions of modern-day Pakistan. They conducted business throughout Afghanistan and Central Asia. [37]

Post-independence

In the census of 1951, Aroras that were settled in Punjab returned their caste names as Khatris, Arora Khatris, Arorae, Rore, Aror, Rora Khatris, Arore, Aror Khatris etc. Some of the Aroras simply returned their caste names with Arora sub-caste names such as Arya, Ahuja, Batheja, Bathla,Kukreja, Chawla, Chhabra, Dang, Juneja,Taneja, Upneja, Wadhwa etc. [38]

According to the Commission Reports by Justice Gurnam Singh (1990) and Justice K.C. Gupta (2012), Arora is a forward caste socially, educationally and economically. It was reported that "despite of being uprooted from their homeland", Arora community has high literacy rate. An economic survey conducted by Maharishi Dayanand University states that Arora/Khatri people have good representation both in government as well as private sector. They are both in business, services and other fields. They are "economically well-off and not dependent on money-lending or shopkeeping". They are engaged as "doctors, engineers, administrators and are represented in white-collar jobs". The Arora were divided in two main sub groups, namely Hindu Arora and Sikh Arora depending upon the religion pursued. [39]

Punita Arora became the first lady Lieutenant General of the Indian Army in 2004. [40] [41]

As of 2009, many Aroras were prominent shopkeepers in several cities of Punjab including Amritsar. [11] McLeod adds that they played prominent role in the Singh Sabha movement. Aroras such as Vir Singh and Mehtab Singh [b] were influential within the Sikh community. [11]

In the 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election, 11 legislatures in the majority government, come from Arora community. [42]

Culture

McLeod notes that marriages between Aroras and the Khatris are common. [11]

According to the University of Utah sociologist, Bam Dev Sharda, in the "status allocation in village India", the Aroras are considered a mercantile caste belonging to the Vaishya varna - like the Khatris, Agarwal, Bania and Ahluwalia, and they claim "twice-born" status. [43] So does historian Kenneth Jones by citing Denzil Ibbetson's study. [44]

According to the University of Toronto anthropologist, Nicola Mooney, the Aroras are of Kshatriya varna, along with the Khatris. [45] Similarly, Grant Evans describes Arora as a "sub-group of the Khatri jati of the Kshatriya Varna". [46] [ clarification needed ]

According to one legend, the Aroras are of Kshatriya stock, but dissociated themselves from the other Kshatriyas and escaped prosecution by Parashurama, calling themselves aur (someone else). [9] [47]

In the opinion of a "Ford-Maxwell Professor of South Asian Studies" at Syracuse University, the merchant-type castes such as the Rajasthani Baniyas, Agarwals, Guptas, Mittals, Goels are twice born castes. However in Punjab, there is a large number of merchant type jatis, "Arora" being their generic name, both Hindu and Sikh, and they are not twice-born. Yet they share about the same status in the wide regional ranking". He calls this "deferred caste denial" which he explains as the rule that "hierarchy persists in the Hindu mind even where caste is denied in any of the senses and by any of the strategies adumbrated". [48]

In the opinion of a Professor of Sociology at Lucknow University (India), "every Hindu is supposed to have a caste" and Aroras (including its sub-castes) are identified as a sub-division of the Khatris. It is noted that "whether Khattris belong to Kshatriya varna or Vaishya varna is a point of controversy". [49] According to Ethne K. Marenco, the Jat Sikhs were placed at the top in the Sikh caste hierarchy, above the Khatri and Arora Sikhs. In contrast, per the Hindu traditions, "the Khatris and Aroras were accorded Kshatriya status", while "the status of the Jat Sikhs was equated with that of Shudras". [50]

Majority of the male members of the Arya Samaj in the late 19th century Punjab came from the Arora and Khatri merchant castes. In Punjab, the Kshatriya castes who were hierarchically higher than the Aroras and Khatris had been disempowered and thus the Brahmins who had lost their patrons had to turn to these merchant castes. Christophe Jaffrelot explains the attraction of these trading castes to the Arya Samaj as a means of social mobility associated with their prosperity during the British rule. He cites N.G.Barrier to show that the philosophy of the Arya Samaj founder, Dayananda Saraswati, was responsible for the aspirations of these Vaishya castes from Punjab to higher status: [51]

Dayananda's claim that caste should be determined primarily by merit not birth, opened new paths of social mobility to educated Vaishyas who were trying to achieve social status commensurate with their improving economic status [51]

In a study of cultural geography and pilgrimage in India, it was recorded that "Khatri-Aroras are surely among the most numerous Hindu caste groups" in the areas of Punjab and Delhi. Khatri-Arora along with Brahmans and Mercantile castes "dominated the total mass of pilgrims" at Badrinath Dham. Similarly, the total number of pilgrims at Haridwar and Jwalaji were also predominated by the Khatri-Arora. At Chintapurni pilgrim, the Arora was found to be numerically dominant pilgrim group particularly during the Shravan Ashtmi fair. [52]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sikhs</span> Ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism

Sikhs are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term Sikh has its origin in the Sanskrit word śiṣya, meaning 'seeker', 'disciple' or 'student'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kshatriya</span> Ruling and warrior class of the Hindu varna system

Kshatriya is one of the four varnas of Hindu society and is associated with the warrior aristocracy. The Sanskrit term kṣatriyaḥ is used in the context of later Vedic society wherein members were organised into four classes: brahmin, kshatriya, vaishya, and shudra.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bahawalpur (princely state)</span> Princely state

Bahawalpur was a princely state in subsidiary alliance with British Raj and later Dominion of Pakistan, that was a part of the Punjab States Agency. The state covered an area of 45,911 km2 (17,726 sq mi) and had a population of 1,341,209 in 1941. The capital of the state was the town of Bahawalpur.

Shudra or Shoodra is one of the four varnas of the Hindu caste and social system in ancient India. Some sources translate it into English as a caste, or as a social class. Theoretically, Shudras constituted a class like workers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ranjit Singh</span> Maharaja of the Sikh Empire from 1801 to 1839

Ranjit Singh was the founder and first maharaja of the Sikh Empire, ruling from 1801 until his death in 1839. He ruled the northwest Indian subcontinent in the early half of the 19th century. He survived smallpox in infancy but lost sight in his left eye. He fought his first battle alongside his father at age 10.

'Varṇa', in the context of Hinduism, refers to a social class within a hierarchical traditional Hindu society. The ideology is epitomized in texts like Manusmriti, which describes and ranks four varnas, and prescribes their occupations, requirements and duties, or Dharma.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Khatri</span> Caste in South Asia

Khatri is a caste originating from the Malwa and Majha areas of Punjab region of South Asia that is predominantly found in India, but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Khatris claim they are warriors who took to trade. In the Indian subcontinent, they were mostly engaged in mercantile professions such as banking and trade. They were the dominant commercial and financial administration class of late-medieval India. Some in Punjab often belonged to hereditary agriculturalist land-holding lineages, while others were engaged in artisanal occupations such as silk production and weaving.

Bhatia is a group of people and a caste found in Punjab, Sindh and Gujarat. Traditionally, they have been a trading and merchant community. The Bhatias primarily live in Northwestern India and Pakistan. The Bhatias, Lohanas and Khatris were similar communities and were known to intermarry. The Bhatias recruit Saraswat Brahmins as priests.

Lohana are a trading or mercantile jāti mostly in India and also in Pakistan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ramgarhia</span> Sikh community in Punjab, India

The Ramgarhia are a community of Sikhs from the Punjab region of northwestern India, encompassing members of the Lohar (blacksmiths) and Tarkhan (carpenters) subgroups.

The Sial or Siyal is a Punjabi clan found in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, split between India and Pakistan.

Luthra is a surname originating with the Khatri Arora Hindu and Sikh communities of the Punjab. It is part of the broad Kshatriya caste. The Kshatriyas in Hinduism are one of the four varnas. They are traditionally members of the military or ran in an administrative capacity. The Kshatriya were assigned to protecting the Hindu dharma. They are from the Aryan race and have been ruling in the past through their kingdoms.

Jat Sikh or Jatt Sikh is an ethnoreligious group, a subgroup of the Jat people whose traditional religion is Sikhism, originating from the Indian subcontinent. They are one of the dominant communities in the Punjab, India, owing to their large land holdings. They form an estimated 20–25% of the population of the Indian state of Punjab. They form at least half of the Sikh population in Punjab, with some sources estimating them to be about 60–66% appx. two-third of the Sikh population.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mazhabi Sikh</span> Community from Northern India that follows Sikhism

Mazhabi Sikh is a community from Northern India, especially Punjab region, who follow Sikhism. Mazhabi are part of wider category of Sikhs, who convert from the valmiki (chuhra) community. The word Mazhabi is derived from the Arabic term mazhab, and can be translated as the faithful. They live mainly in Indian Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Aror</span> Historical capital of Sindh, Pakistan

Aror is the medieval name of the city of Rohri in Sindh, modern Pakistan. Aror once served as the capital of Sindh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bhangi Misl</span> Sovereign state of the Sikh Confederacy

The Bhangi Misl was a large and powerful Sikh Misl headquartered in Amritsar. It was founded in the early 18th century by Sardar Chhajja Singh Dhillon, who was baptised by Banda Singh Bahadur. The misl received its name "Bhangi" because Chhajja Singh and his soldiers frequently used the herbal intoxicant bhang. It was a first misl to established a Khalsa Raj and publish Khalsa currency coins. The Bhangi Kingdom/Misl was founded by Dhillon Jats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Singh Sabha Movement</span> 1870s Sikh movement in Punjab

The Singh Sabhā Movement, also known as the Singh Sabhā Lehar, was a Sikh movement that began in Punjab in the 1870s in reaction to the proselytising activities of Christians, Hindu reform movements and Muslims. The movement was founded in an era when the Sikh Empire had been dissolved and annexed by the British, the Khalsa had lost its prestige, and mainstream Sikhs were rapidly converting to other religions. The movement's aims were to "propagate the true Sikh religion and restore Sikhism to its pristine glory; to write and distribute historical and religious books of Sikhs; and to propagate Gurmukhi Punjabi through magazines and media." The movement sought to reform Sikhism and bring back into the Sikh fold the apostates who had converted to other religions; as well as to interest the influential British officials in furthering the Sikh community. At the time of its founding, the Singh Sabha policy was to avoid criticism of other religions and political matters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amritsar Singh Sabha</span> 1873 faction of the Singh Sabha movement

The Amritsar Singh Sabha was the first faction of reformers of the Singh Sabha movement, founded in 1873, and was one of the major groups who competed to reform and define the Sikh identity in the late 19th century. It was "essentially original and bourgeoisie," and "arose because of a perceived dissolution of the Sikh faith, i.e., Sikhs were believed to be falling into the folds of Hindu thought and practice."

The Jat people, also spelt Jaat and Jatt, are a traditionally agricultural community in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus river-valley of Sindh, many Jats migrated north into the Punjab region in late medieval times, and subsequently into the Delhi Territory, northeastern Rajputana, and the western Gangetic Plain in the 17th and 18th centuries. Of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh faiths, they are now found mostly in the Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and the Pakistani regions of Sindh, Punjab and AJK.

Ahluwalia is an Indian caste native to the Punjab region.

References

Citations

  1. ↑ Now known as Rohri, a city near Sukkur in present-day Sindh, Pakistan.
  2. ↑ Mehtab Singh, a Sikh Arora, was an eminent political leader in the early 20th century. [11]
  1. ↑ Oonk, Gijsbert (2007). Global Indian Diasporas: Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory. Amsterdam University Press. pp. 43–45. ISBN   978-90-5356-035-8.
  2. ↑ Singer, André (1982). Guardians of the North-West Frontier: The Pathans. Time-Life Books. ISBN   978-0-7054-0702-1.
  3. 1 2 Levi (2002), p. 107.
  4. ↑ "Blame caste for Pakistan's violent streak, not faith". Times of India Blog. 25 September 2016. Retrieved 17 September 2021.
  5. ↑ Boivin, Michel (2020). "The Transmission of Colonial Knowledge". The Sufi Paradigm and the Makings of a Vernacular Knowledge in Colonial India: The Case of Sindh (1851–1929). Springer International Publishing: 74. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-41991-2_3.
  6. ↑ Bhardwaj, Surinder M. (8 July 1983). Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India: A Study in Cultural Geography. University of California Press. p. 231. ISBN   978-0-520-04951-2.
  7. 1 2 3 H. Syan Singh (2017). "Khatrīs and Aroṛās". Encyclopedia of Sikhism Online. Brill. doi:10.1163/2589-2118_beso_com_031682.
  8. ↑ Experts, Disha (1 September 2021). Errorless 16 Year-wise MPPSC General Studies Prelims Solved Paper 1 (2003 - 21) 2nd Edition. Disha Publications. ISBN   978-93-91551-70-4. Aror is the ancestral town of the Arora Community . In 711 , Aror was captured by the army of Muslim general Muhammad bin Qasim .
  9. 1 2 Hanks, Patrick (8 May 2003). Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press. p. 58. ISBN   978-0-19-977169-1.
  10. 1 2 Malhotra, Anshu (2002). Gender, Caste, and Religious Identities: Restructuring Class in Colonial Punjab. Oxford University Press. ISBN   9780195656480 . Retrieved 8 October 2014. The Aroras were also said to be the Khatris of Arorkot, or Aror, the ancient capital of Sindh.
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 McLeod, W. H. (24 July 2009). The A to Z of Sikhism. Scarecrow Press. pp. 21, 213, 128. ISBN   978-0-8108-6344-6.
  12. ↑ Government of Haryana, Department of Welfare. "Report of Backward Classes Commission". Welfare of Scheduled Caste & Backward Classes Department. pp. 05, 135. Archived from the original on 15 May 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  13. ↑ Hanks, Patrick (8 May 2003). Dictionary of American Family Names. Oxford University Press. p. 58. ISBN   978-0-19-977169-1.
  14. ↑ Garg, Gaṅgā Rām (1992). Encyclopaedia of the Hindu World. Concept Publishing Company. ISBN   978-81-7022-373-3. When Muhammad-bin-Qāsim plundered the place Arora in 712 and defeated Rājā Dāhar, who belonged to the Arorā dynasty, the Arorā people left Sind and settled in the Punjāb cities, situated on the banks of the rivers Sind, Jhelum, Cenāb and Rāvī.
  15. ↑ Thakur, U. T. (1959). Sindhi Culture. University of Bombay. p. 58. This Arorkot is Arore or Alore and the Aroras are called after the name of the ancient capital Arore.
  16. ↑ Dogra, R. C.; Mansukhani, Gobind Singh (1995). Encyclopaedia of Sikh Religion and Culture. Vikas Publishing House. p. 40. ISBN   978-0-7069-8368-5.
  17. ↑ Hughes, Albert William (1876). A Gazetteer of the Province of Sind. G. Bell and Sons. p.  677 . Retrieved 19 December 2017. aror.
  18. ↑ Michael Witzel (1987), "On the localisation of Vedic texts and schools (Materials on Vedic Śākhās, 7)" in G. Pollet (ed.), India and the Ancient world. History, Trade and Culture before A.D. 650
  19. ↑ Derryl N. MacLean (1989), Religion and Society in Arab Sind, p.51,136
  20. ↑ Garg, Gaṅgā Rām (1992). Encyclopaedia of the Hindu World. Concept Publishing Company. p. 624. ISBN   978-81-7022-373-3. When Muhammad-bin-Qāsim plundered the place Arora in 712 and defeated Rājā Dāhar, who belonged to the Arorā dynasty, the Arorā people left Sind and settled in the Punjāb cities, situated on the banks of the rivers Sind, Jhelum, Cenāb and Rāvī.
  21. ↑ MacLean, Derryl N. (1989). Religion and Society in Arab Sind. BRILL. ISBN   9004085513.
  22. ↑ History of the Punjab, Volume 1 by Fauja Singh, Published by the Department of Punjab Historical Studies, Punjabi University, 1977
  23. ↑ Roy, Kaushik (2015). "Mughal Decline and Afghan Revival :1707-1810". War and Society in Afghanistan From the Mughals to the Americans, 1500–2013. Oxford University Press India. p. 64. ISBN   978-0-19-908944-4.
  24. ↑ Dilagīra, Harajindara Siṅgha (1997). The Sikh reference book. Internet Archive. Edmonton, Alb., Canada : Sikh Educational Trust for Sikh University Centre, Denmark ; Amritsar : Available from Singh Bros. p. 480. ISBN   978-0-9695964-2-4.
  25. ↑ Ahluwalia, M. L. (1989). Life and Times of Jassa Singh Ahluwalia. Publication Bureau, Punjabi University. p. 43.
  26. ↑ B.B.Chaudhari (2008). D.P.Chattopadhayaya (ed.). Peasant History of Late Pre-colonial and Colonial India-Volume 8. Pearson Longman. pp. 137–138. ISBN   9788131716885.
  27. ↑ Sugata Bose (1994). "Introduction". Credit, Markets, and the Agrarian Economy of Colonial India. Oxford University Press. p. 7. ISBN   978-0195633085.
  28. ↑ Malcolm Lyall Darling (1928). The Punjab Peasant In Prosperity And Debt. Oxford University Press. p. 212. Often a good farmer, even when he does not actually drive the plough, he looks after his land with care, and any improvement to be found in his neighbourhood is generally due to his capital, industry and thrift. He will turn his hand to anything that promises gain, and may be found weaving baskets and mats, beating out vessels of copper and of brass, working as a goldsmith, or even plying the tailor's needle and thread.
  29. ↑ Joyce Pettigrew (1975). Robber Noblemen: A Study of the Political System of the Sikh Jats. Routledge & Kegan Paul. p. 41. The Aroras, who formed 9 per cent of the Sikh population and who generally supplied most of Punjab's petty traders and small shopkeepers...
  30. ↑ Kesar Singh (1997). B. L. Abbi (ed.). Post-green revolution rural Punjab: A profile of economic and socio-cultural change, 1965-1995. p. 36. Of the clean caste households in the village , Arora , a traditional shopkeeping and petty - business caste , is lacking in the Jat's prestige and power in this village
  31. ↑ J. Royal Roseberry (1987). Imperial Rule in Punjab: The Conquest and Administration of Multan 1818-1881. p. 4. The Aroras were so numerous that many had to find employ outside the traditional caste occupations of shopkeeper, moneylender and village accountant.
  32. ↑ Richard P. Tucker (2011). A Forest History of India. SAGE. p. 79. ISBN   9788132119524. Others represented several Hindu merchant castes, who invested in timber as only one of several lines of trade. They included Agarwal Banias, Khatris, and Aroras. From about 1900 the smallest Hindu merchant sect, the Suds, began moving toward their later dominance in the timber trade of eastern Punjab.
  33. ↑ Gazetteers of India, Barkat Rai Chopra (1976). Amritsar. Chandigarh: Government of Punjab. p. 88.
  34. ↑ "Chapter Iii". Archived from the original on 24 October 2010. Retrieved 21 November 2010.
  35. ↑ Singh, Surely Kumar (1997). People of India: India's communities. Kolkata: Anthropological Survey of India. p. 126.
  36. ↑ "Religions And Castes". District Gazetteer - Amritsar. Department of Revenue, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management, Government of Punjab. 1976. Archived from the original on 26 September 2007. Retrieved 23 October 2011.
  37. ↑ Oonk, Gijsbert (2007). Global Indian Diasporas: Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory. Amsterdam University Press. p. 43. ISBN   978-90-5356-035-8.
  38. ↑ Government of India, Deputy Registrar General (23 August 1956). "GLOSSARY OR CASTE NAMES RETURNED AT THE CENSUS OF 1951 IN THE DISTRICTS OF PEPSU" (PDF). Linguistic Survey of India. Archived from the original on 4 May 2021. Retrieved 4 May 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  39. ↑ Government of Haryana, Department of Welfare. "Report of Backward Classes Commission". Welfare of Scheduled Caste & Backward Classes Department. pp. 135–136. Archived from the original on 15 May 2021. Retrieved 15 May 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  40. ↑ "First Lady Lt Gen of Indian Army". archive.pib.gov.in. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
  41. ↑ "rediff.com: The General in a Sari - A Slide Show". specials.rediff.com. Retrieved 22 August 2022.
  42. ↑ Punjab Election (20 March 2022). "Arora community seeks representation in ministry". The Tribune (Chandigarh) . Retrieved 20 April 2023.
  43. ↑ Bam Dev Sharda (2005). David Bills (ed.). The Shape of Social Inequality: Stratification and Ethnicity in Comparative perspective. Elsevier. p. 253. ISBN   9780080459356.
  44. ↑ Kenneth W. Jones; Kenneth W.Jones (1976). Arya Dharm: Hindu Consciousness in 19th-century Punjab. University of California Press. pp. 4–5. ISBN   978-0-520-02920-0.
  45. ↑ Mooney, Nicola (17 September 2011). Rural Nostalgias and Transnational Dreams: Identity and Modernity Among Jat Sikhs. University of Toronto Press. p. 152. ISBN   978-1-4426-6268-1. Aroras, however, are significantly higher than Jats in the caste hierarchy: along with Khatris, they are of the warrior varna, Kshatriya, the second of the four varna
  46. ↑ Evans, Grant (1993). Asia's Cultural Mosaic: An Anthropological Introduction. Prentice Hall. p. 299. ISBN   978-0-13-052812-4. An example of a jati might be to be the member of a Lahore Arora , a regional sub - group within the Khatri jati of the Kshatriya varna.
  47. ↑ Dogra, R. C.; Mansukhani, Gobind Singh (1995). Encyclopaedia of Sikh Religion and Culture. Vikas Publishing House. p. 40. ISBN   978-0-7069-8368-5.
  48. ↑ Paul Hockings, ed. (1987). "The Denial of Caste in modern Urban Parlance". Dimensions of Social Life: Essays in Honor of David G. Mandelbaum. Walter de Gruyter. p. 518. ISBN   9783110846850. ..hindi speaking Aggrawals, Guptas Mittals, Goels,i.e. all of them are mostly twice born, most vegetarians. In Punjab, there is a large number of merchant type jatis, "Arora" being their generic name, both Hindu and Sikh, and they are not twice-born and in an all Hindu ranking would classify as clean shudras. Yet they share about the same status in the wide regional ranking.
  49. ↑ Madan, Gurmukh Ram (2004). India And The West: A Cultural Contrast. Mittal Publications. p. 5. ISBN   978-81-7099-862-4.
  50. ↑ Marenco, Ethne K. (1974). The Transformation of Sikh Society. HaPi Press. pp. 167–168, 296.
  51. 1 2 Christophe Jaffrelot (2010). Religion, Caste, and Politics in India. Primus Books. pp. 98–. ISBN   9789380607047. In 1891, more than half the 9,105 male members of the movement belonged to the Khatri and Arora merchant castes. This sociological composition reflected the same socio-cultural logic as in Gujarat where Dayananda had set up the Arya samaj with the support of traders seeking a better status more in keeping with their new prosperity (Jordens 1978) linked with the economic advance of British India; in the Punjab, his movement developed along the same lines among the merchant castes which felt that they could aspire all the more legitimately to the leadership of their community as the Brahmins and Kshatriyas, who had been hierarchically superior to them had been marginalized. Barrier hence explains the attraction that the Arya Samaj exercised over the merchant castes by the fact that: Dayananda's claim that caste should be determined primarily by merit not birth, opened new paths of social mobility to educated Vaishyas who were trying to achieve social status commensurate with their improving economic status.
  52. ↑ Bhardwaj, Surinder M. (8 July 1983). Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India: A Study in Cultural Geography. University of California Press. pp. 176–179. ISBN   978-0-520-04951-2.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.