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The Maratha caste is composed of 96 clans, originally formed in the earlier centuries from the amalgamation of families from the peasant (Kunbi), shepherd (Dhangar), blacksmith (Lohar), carpenter (Sutar), Bhandari, Thakar and Koli castes in Maharashtra. Many of them took to military service in the 16th century for the Deccan sultanates or the Mughals. Later in the 17th and 18th centuries, they served in the armies of the Maratha Empire, founded by Shivaji, a Maratha Kunbi by caste. Many Marathas were granted hereditary fiefs by the Sultanates, and Mughals for their service.
Patel is an Indian surname or title, predominantly found in the state of Gujarat, representing the community of land-owning farmers and later businessmen, agriculturalists and merchants. Traditionally the title is a status name referring to the village chieftains during medieval times, and was later retained as successive generations stemmed out into communities of landowners. There are roughly 500,000 Patels outside India, including about 150,000 in the United Kingdom and about 150,000 in the United States. Nearly 1 in 10 people of Indian origin in the US is a Patel.
Kayastha denotes a cluster of disparate Indian communities broadly categorised by the regions of the Indian subcontinent in which they were traditionally located—the Chitraguptavanshi Kayasthas of North India, the Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhus of Maharashtra, the Bengali Kayasthas of Bengal and Karanas of Odisha. All of them were traditionally considered "writing castes", who had historically served the ruling powers as administrators, ministers and record-keepers.
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Patidar, formerly known as Kanbi, is an Indian landlord and agrarian caste and community mostly found in Gujarat but also in at least 22 other states of India. The community comprises at multiple subcastes, most prominently the Levas and Kadvas. They form one of the dominant castes in Gujarat. The title of Patidar originally conferred to the land owning aristocratic class of Gujarati Kanbis; however, it was later applied en masses to the entirety of the peasant population who lay claim to a land owning identity, partly as a result of land reforms during the British Raj.
Ahir or Aheer are a community of traditionally non-elite pastoralists in India, most members of which identify as being of the Indian Yadav community because they consider the two terms to be synonymous. The Ahirs are variously described as a caste, a clan, a community, a race and a tribe.
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Twashta Kasar is a Hindu artisan caste of coppersmiths, predominantly residing in the Indian state of Maharashtra. In Goa, they call themselves Twashta Kasar Brahmin. According to Herbert Hope Risley, they are a branch of the Suvarna Banik, who became degraded because they took to working in metal.
Bengali Kayastha is a Bengali Hindu caste, and is one of the main subgroups of the Kayastha community. The historical caste occupation of Kayasthas throughout India has been that of scribes, administrators, ministers and record-keepers; the Kayasthas in Bengal, along with Brahmins and Baidyas, are regarded among the three traditional higher castes that comprise the "upper layer of Hindu society." During the British Raj, the Bhadraloks of Bengal were drawn primarily, but not exclusively, from these three castes, who continue to maintain a collective hegemony in West Bengal.
The Gurav are an occupational community comprising several castes. They are among the traditional service providers found in villages, for whom they act in a priest role, and are found in several states of India.
Hardik Patel is an Indian politician and social activist. He rose to prominence in July 2015, where he led the Patidar reservation agitation that sought Economic Backward Class (EBC) status for the Patidar caste.
References
- ↑ Murali, Kanta (2017). Caste, Class, and Capital: The Social and Political Origins of Economic Policy in India. Cambridge University Press. p. 109.
- ↑ Soniya Agrawal (15 September 2021). "Who are Patels and how they have become a driving force behind govts in Gujarat".
- ↑ Clark-Deces 2011, p. 290
- ↑ Gadgil & Guha 2012 , p. 84 Quote: "For instance, in western Maharashtra the Rigvedic Deshastha Brahmans are genetically closer to the local Shudra Kunbi castes than to the Chitpavan Konkanastha Brahmans (Karve and Malhotra 1968)."
- 1 2 Trivedi, Jayprakash M. (1 January 1992). The Social structure of Patidar caste in India. Kanishka Pub. House. pp. 20, 32. ISBN 9788185475196.
- ↑ David Francis Pocock 1972, p. 66.
- ↑ Dutta, Prabhash K. (7 December 2017). "Patels and Patidars of Gujarat: Descendants of Ram and worshippers of Krishna". India Today.
- ↑ Sadasivan, S. N. (2000). A social history of India. APH Publishing Corporation. p. 257.
Bibliography
- David Francis Pocock (1972). Kunbi and Patidar: a study of the Patidar community of Gujarat. Clarendon Press. ISBN 9780198231752.
- Clark-Deces, Isabelle (2011), A Companion to the Anthropology of India, John Wiley and Sons, ISBN 978-1-4051-9892-9
- Gadgil, Madhav; Guha, Ramachandra (2012). "Chapter 2 Forest and Fire". This Fissured Land. Oxford India Perennials Series. Delhi: Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198077442.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-807744-2.
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