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. Privacy Policy 8. 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 name, Talapada, meaning mdigenous, commonly used in the 19th century, is most clear, since it is clearly distinguished from the other division called Pardeshi, meaning foreign, who during the last one or two centuries immigrated here from the area around Patan in north Gujarat and were, therefore, also called Patan- wadias. 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. In the plains, therefore, every village had one or more towns in its vicinity. For example, there was considerable ambiguity about the status of Anavils. The Hindu and Muslim kingdoms in Gujarat during the medieval period had, of course, their capital towns, at first Patan and then Ahmedabad. 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. Both were recognized as Brahman but as degraded ones. Most of them were, true to their name, rulers at various levels of the political hierarchy from the kingly level to the level of dominant caste in many villages. A first-order division could be further divided into two or more second-order divisions. Most of the second-order divisions were further divided into third-order divisions. An important idea behind the activities of caste associations is: service to ones caste is service to the nation. The Kayasthas and Brahma-Kshatriyas, the so- called writer castes, employed mainly in the bureaucracy, and the Vahivancha Barots, genealogists and mythographers, were almost exclusively urban castes. All the small towns sections in each of the ekdas resented that, while the large town section accepted brides from small towns, they did not reciprocate. In each of these three divisions the top stratum was clear. There was apparently a close relation between a castes internal organization and the size and spatial distribution of its population. 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. This was unlike the situation among the Rajputs who did not make any attempt to form small endogamous units. Even the archaeological surveys and studies have indicated that the people of Dholavira, Surkotada. The number of tads in an ekda or go I might be two or more, and each of them might be an endogamous units. Although the number of inter-ekda marriages has been increasing, even now the majority of marriages take place within an ekda. The complex was provided a certain coherence and integrityin the pre- industrial time of slow communicationby a number of oral and literate traditions cultivated by cultural specialists such as priests, bards, genealogists and mythographers (see in this connection Shah and Shroff 1958). TOS 7. 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 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 very low Brahmans such as Kayatias and Tapodhans were invited but made to eat separately from the rest of the Brahmans. Although it has been experiencing stresses and strains and has had ups and downs on account of the enormous diversity between the royal and the tribal ends, it has shown remarkable solidarity in recent years. First, since the tads were formed relatively recently, it is easier to get information about their formation than about the formation of ekdas. Vankar is described as a caste as well as a community. 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. 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. Their origin myth enshrined in their caste purana also showed them to be originally non-Brahman. The Kolis in such an area may not even be concerned about a second-order divisional name and may be known simply as Kolis. There was a continuous process of formation and disintegration of such units. The unit might possess some other corporate characteristics also. 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. 3.8K subscribers in the gujarat community. The understanding of changes in caste is not likely to be advanced by clubbing such diverse groups together under the rubric of ethnic group. 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. Further, during this lengthy process of slow amalgamation those who will marry in defiance of the barriers of sub-caste, will still be imbued with caste mentality (1932: 184). Kuntasi, Lothal and Somnath of Gujarat regions in Harrapan civilization were familiar with weaving and the spinning of cotton for as long as four thousand years ago. We shall return later to a consideration of this problem. During Mughal Empire India was manufacturing 27% of world's textile and Gujarati weavers dominated along with Bengali weavers in Indian textile trade industry overseas. Weavers became beggars, manufacturing collapsed and the last 2000 years of Indian textile industry was knocked down. Many second-order divisions were further divided into two or three status categories. Almost every village in this area included at least some Leva population, and in many villages they formed a large, if not the largest, proportion of the population. %PDF-1.7 Although caste was found in both village and town, did it possess any special characteristics in the latter? Sindhollu, Chindollu. What is really required for a comprehensive understanding is a comparison of traditional with modern caste in both rural and urban areas (including, to be sure, the rural-urban linkages). And even when a Brahman name corresponded with a Vania name, the former did not necessarily work as priests of the latter.The total number of second-divisions in a first-order division differed from one first-order division to another. Sometimes a division could even be a self-contained endogamous unit. Frequently, the urban population of such a division performed more specialized functions than did the rural one. 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). In all there were thirty to forty such divisions. That Rajputs were one of the divisions, if not the only division of the first-order, not having further divisions, has already been mentioned. I do not, however, have sufficient knowledge of the latter and shall, therefore, confine myself mainly to Rajputs in Gujarat. 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. Briefly, while the Varna model was significant in the total dynamics of the caste system to fit the numerous first-order divisions into the four-fold Varna model in any part of India is impossible, and, therefore, to consider varnas as caste divisions as such is meaningless. Gujarat (along with Bombay) has perhaps the largest number of caste associations and they are also more active and wealthy compared to those in other regions. Another major factor in the growth of urban centres in Gujarat was political. [CDATA[ Besides the myths, the members of a second-order division, belonging to all ekdas, shared certain customs and institutions, including worship of a tutelary deity. 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. 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. In a paper on Caste among Gujaratis in East Africa, Pocock (1957b) raised pointedly the issue of the relative importance of the principles of division (he called it difference) and hierarchy. He stresses repeatedly the primacy of the principle of hierarchy-epitomized in the title of his book. 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. Third, although two or more new endogamous units came into existence and marriage between them was forbidden thereafter, a number of pre-existing kinship and affinal relationships continued to be operative between them. 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. For example, all Vania divisions were divided into a number of ekdas or gols. The four major woven fabrics produced by these communities are cotton, silk, khadi and linen. Many of them became the norm-setting elite for Gujaratis in the homeland. The social relations between and within a large number of such segregated castes should be seen in the context of the overall urban environment, characterized as it was by co-existence of local Hindu castes with immigrant Hindu castes and with the non-Hindu groups such as Jains, Muslims, Parsis and Christians, a higher degree of monetization, a higher degree of contractual and market relations (conversely, a lesser degree of jajmani-type relations), existence of trade guilds, and so on. 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. Homo Hierarchicus. 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. 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. As weaving is an art and forms one of the most important artisan community of India. There were similar problems about the status of a number of other divisions. I hope to show in this paper how the principle of division is also a primary principle competing with the principle of hierarchy and having important implications for Indian society and culture. To obtain a clear understanding of the second-order divisions with the Koli division, it is necessary first of all to find a way through the maze of their divisional names. This category has the following 18 subcategories, out of 18 total. The purpose is not to condemn village studies, as is caste in a better perspective after deriving insights from village studies. Plagiarism Prevention 4. Also, the horizontal spread of a caste rarely coincided with the territorial boundaries of a political authority. 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. All this trade encouraged development of trading and commercial towns in the rest of Gujarat, even in the highland area. The hierarchy, however, was very gradual and lacked sharpness. 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. Within each of these divisions, small endogamous units (ekdas, gols, bandhos) were organized from time to time to get relief from the difficulties inherent in hypergamy. This list may not reflect recent changes. While some of the divisions of a lower order might be the result of fission, some others might be a result of fusion. Today, there are two kinds of Koli areas. Until recently, sociologists and anthropologists described Indian society as though it had no urban component in the past. Frequently, The ekdas or gols were each divided into groups called tads (split). For example, just as there was a Shrimali division among Sonis (goldsmiths). 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. Census officials-turned-scholars, from Risley to Hutton, wrote many of the earlier general works on caste. manvar surname caste in gujarat. The primarily urban castes and the urban sections of the rural-cum- urban castes were the first to take advantage of the new opportunities that developed in industry, commerce, administration, the professions and education in urban centres. Leva Kanbis, numbering 400,000 to 500,000 m 1931, were the traditional agricultural caste of central Gujarat. It is not claimed that separation, or even repulsion, may not be present somewhere as an independent factor (1972: 346,n.55b). The Rajputs, in association with Kolis, Bhils, and such other castes and tribes, provide an extreme example of such castes. The handloom weavers of Gujarat, Maharastra and Bengal produced and exported some of the world's most desirable fabrics. Caste associations have been formed on the lines of caste divisions. In an area of the first kind there are no immigrant Kolis from elsewhere, and therefore, there is no question of their having second-order divisions. Sometimes a division corresponding to a division among Brahmans and Vanias was found in a third first-order division also. The small ekda or tad with its entire population residing in a single town was, of course, not a widespread phenomenon. 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. Marco Polo a Venetian merchant on his visit to India in 13th century Gujarat observed that "brocading art of Gujarat weavers is par excellent". //