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===Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya's description===
===Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya's description===
[[Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya]], one of the first anthropologists from India, commented in 1896 on the customs of the Kurmis, primarily in Bihar, of that period. Some of the Kurmis ate fowls and field rats; but they did not eat pork or beef.<ref name="Bhattacharya1896">{{cite book|author=Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya|title=Hindu castes and sects: an exposition of the origin of the Hindu caste system and the bearing of the sects towards each other and towards other religious systems / Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=xlpLAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA272|accessdate=17 June 2011|year=1896|publisher=Thacker, Spink|pages=272-273 |authorlink=Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya}}</ref> Historically, the religion of the Kurmis in Bihar is the same as that of the other local Shudra castes. They offer worship to the gods of the Hindu pantheon, and also to such local deities as [[Sokha]], [[Sambhu Nath]], and [[Goriya]]. However, the majority of them mainly followed of Kabir and Ramanand. Some of the Kurmis also worship the five Muslim saints called ''[[Panch Piriya]]''.<ref name="Bhattacharya1896"/> In almost all the sub-castes of the Kurmis, excepting the Ayodhya Bansi, Ghamela and Kochaisa, a widow was allowed to re-marry. If she married a younger brother or cousin of her late husband, she would not forfeit her claim to a share of her husband's estate, or her right to the guardianship of her children. If she married an outsider, these rights were forfeited. Divorce was permitted among the Kurmis, and a divorced wife could marry again in the same manner as a widow. The Kurmis of Northern India usually employed a Brahman to officiate as priest at their marriages, while in Chota Nagpore and Orissa, the practice was different. There the work of the priest, on such occasions, was done by some elderly member of the house or by the Laya of the village.<ref name="Bhattacharya1896"/> The Kurmis [[Cremation#Indian_religions | cremate]] their dead, and perform ''[[shrad]]s'' in the same manner as other high caste Shudras. The period of observing mourning vary according to local practice, from ten days to thirty days.<ref name="Bhattacharya1896"/>
[[Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya]], one of the first anthropologists from India, commented in 1896 on the customs of the Kurmis, primarily in Bihar, of that period. Some of the Kurmis ate fowls and field rats; but they did not eat pork or beef.<ref name="Bhattacharya1896">{{cite book|author=Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya|title=Hindu castes and sects: an exposition of the origin of the Hindu caste system and the bearing of the sects towards each other and towards other religious systems / Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=xlpLAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA272|accessdate=17 June 2011|year=1896|publisher=Thacker, Spink|pages=272-273 |authorlink=Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya}}</ref> Historically, the religion of the Kurmis in Bihar is the same as that of the other local castes. They offer worship to the gods of the Hindu pantheon, and also to such local deities as [[Sokha]], [[Sambhu Nath]], and [[Goriya]]. However, the majority of them mainly followed of Kabir and Ramanand. Some of the Kurmis also worship the five Muslim saints called ''[[Panch Piriya]]''.<ref name="Bhattacharya1896"/> In almost all the sub-castes of the Kurmis, excepting the Ayodhya Bansi, Ghamela and Kochaisa, a widow was allowed to re-marry. If she married a younger brother or cousin of her late husband, she would not forfeit her claim to a share of her husband's estate, or her right to the guardianship of her children. If she married an outsider, these rights were forfeited. Divorce was permitted among the Kurmis, and a divorced wife could marry again in the same manner as a widow. The Kurmis of Northern India usually employed a Brahman to officiate as priest at their marriages, while in Chota Nagpore and Orissa, the practice was different. There the work of the priest, on such occasions, was done by some elderly member of the house or by the Laya of the village.<ref name="Bhattacharya1896"/> The Kurmis [[Cremation#Indian_religions | cremate]] their dead, and perform ''[[shrad]]s'' in the same manner as other high caste. The period of observing mourning vary according to local practice, from ten days to thirty days.<ref name="Bhattacharya1896"/>
===Blunt's descriptions===
===Blunt's descriptions===
Writing in 1931, after some 70 years of ethnographic studies under the [[British Raj]], E. A. H. Blunt, in his ''Caste System of Northern India'', contrasted the finely turned out Kurmi fields with the poorly turned out Brahman ones: <blockquote> The economic results of all these customs taken together is, ''firstly'', to increase the cost of cultivation, for since neither the high caste man himself nor his wife can take any active part in agriculture work, they are compelled to employ far more labour than lower castes: whilst ''secondly'', the high caste man is generally content to leave his cultivation to his servants and gives it little personal attention, with the result that it is rarely as skilful or productive as low caste cultivation; where the Kurmi produces wheat, the Brahman produces barley and only second-rate barley; whilst an expert eye could detect without difficulty which, of two neighbouring fields of wheat, belonged to the Kurmi and which to the Brahman.<ref name="BluntBlunt1931-p264-266">{{cite book|last=Blunt|first=Sir Edward Arthur Henry|title=The caste system of northern India: with special reference to the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=wb45AQAAIAAJ|accessdate=4 August 2011|year=1931|publisher=H. Milford, Oxford University Press|pages=264–266}}</ref></blockquote>
Writing in 1931, after some 70 years of ethnographic studies under the [[British Raj]], E. A. H. Blunt, in his ''Caste System of Northern India'', contrasted the finely turned out Kurmi fields with the poorly turned out Brahman ones: <blockquote> The economic results of all these customs taken together is, ''firstly'', to increase the cost of cultivation, for since neither the high caste man himself nor his wife can take any active part in agriculture work, they are compelled to employ far more labour than lower castes: whilst ''secondly'', the high caste man is generally content to leave his cultivation to his servants and gives it little personal attention, with the result that it is rarely as skilful or productive as low caste cultivation; where the Kurmi produces wheat, the Brahman produces barley and only second-rate barley; whilst an expert eye could detect without difficulty which, of two neighbouring fields of wheat, belonged to the Kurmi and which to the Brahman.<ref name="BluntBlunt1931-p264-266">{{cite book|last=Blunt|first=Sir Edward Arthur Henry|title=The caste system of northern India: with special reference to the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=wb45AQAAIAAJ|accessdate=4 August 2011|year=1931|publisher=H. Milford, Oxford University Press|pages=264–266}}</ref></blockquote>
Line 61: Line 61:


==Varna status debate==
==Varna status debate==
Some Kurmi have claimed membership in the [[Kshatriya]] (warrior) class of the Hindu ritual varna system; however, many scholars regard them as being historically a [[Shudra]] (agricultural) class.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=T6gnJmoLRZQC |page=52 |title=Daughters of the earth: women and land in Uttar Pradesh |first=Smita Tewari |last=Jassal |publisher=Technical Publications |year=2001 |isbn=9788173043758 |accessdate=2011-08-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=yRrbSzEvNCMC |title=The politics of the urban poor in early twentieth-century India |volume=8 |series=Cambridge studies in Indian history and society |first=Nandini |last=Gooptu |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2001 |page=203 |isbn=9780521443661 |accessdate=2011-08-04}}</ref> The government of India deprecates use of the word "shudra" and classifies them as an [[Other backward caste|Other Backward Class]].<ref name=TheHindu/>
Some Kurmi have claimed membership in the [[Kshatriya]] (warrior) class of the Hindu ritual varna system; however, many scholars regard them as being historically a [[]] (agricultural) class.<ref>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=T6gnJmoLRZQC |page=52 |title=Daughters of the earth: women and land in Uttar Pradesh |first=Smita Tewari |last=Jassal |publisher=Technical Publications |year=2001 |isbn=9788173043758 |accessdate=2011-08-04}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |url=http://books.google.com/books?id=yRrbSzEvNCMC |title=The politics of the urban poor in early twentieth-century India |volume=8 |series=Cambridge studies in Indian history and society |first=Nandini |last=Gooptu |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2001 |page=203 |isbn=9780521443661 |accessdate=2011-08-04}}</ref> The government of India deprecates use of the word "" and classifies them as an [[Other backward caste|Other Backward Class]].<ref name=TheHindu/>


In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Kurmis, along with other castes such as the [[Yadav]], began to assert the claim that they had previously been Kshatriya and had been "reduced" to peasant status by circumstance.<ref>{{cite book|title=Journal of social and economic studies, Volume 11|url=http://books.google.com/books?ei=WknMTbXeG-3ciAL-ptSHBQ&ct=result&id=c6XrAAAAMAAJ&dq=kurmi+kshatriya&q=kurmis
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Kurmis, along with other castes such as the [[Yadav]], began to assert the claim that they had previously been Kshatriya and had been "reduced" to peasant status by circumstance.<ref>{{cite book|title=Journal of social and economic studies, Volume 11|url=http://books.google.com/books?ei=WknMTbXeG-3ciAL-ptSHBQ&ct=result&id=c6XrAAAAMAAJ&dq=kurmi+kshatriya&q=kurmis

Revision as of 12:08, 5 August 2011

Kurmi

कुर्मी
ReligionsHinduism
LanguagesKurmali, Hindi, Chhattisgarhi, Marathi, Konkani, Gujarati, Oriya, Telugu, South Indian languages and dialects
Populated statesNorthern India, Western India, Central India, South India[dubious – discuss]
SubdivisionsKurmi, Singraur, Umrao, Awadhiya, Kochyasa, Gangwar, Kanbi, Kapu, Katiyar, Kulambi, Jaiswar, Kulwadi, Kutumbi, Patel, Singhror, Choduary, Sachan, Verma, Artarvavanshi,(Niranjan)

The Kurmi (Hindi: कुर्मी) are a Hindu agricutural Jāti (community) in India.

The group has been associated with the Kunbi, though scholars differ as to whether the terms are synonymous.[1][2] In 2006, the Indian government announced that Kurmi was considered synonymous with the Kunbi and Yellam castes in Maharashtra.[3] The group's Varna classification is a subject of dispute.

Etymology

There are several theories regarding the etymology of the term Kurmi. It may be derived from an Indian tribal language, or may be a Sanskrit compound term krishi karmi, "agriculturalist." [2] Other theories include its being a derivative of kṛṣmi, "ploughman",[4] or Kurma a tortoise avatar of the god Vishnu.[5]

Legendary origins

As described in the Ruling Races of Prehistoric times In India, South-Western Asia and Southern Europe by J.F Hewitt :-

Vyarisa is said in one hymn to be the father of Indra, whose mother was like the Egyptian cow-goddess Isis, the cow-inother Aditi, the mother of life. This demon of drought, the broadshouldered cloud which seems at first to keep back the rain, the alligator or crocodile, father of the Indian Maghadas, and the Egyptian worshippers of Set, called Maga, Mug-ral and Mug-gur by the Hindus, and Maga Sebek, or Maga, the uniter, by the Egyptians, is, as we are told in the Rigveda and Satapatha Brfihmana, the god, otherwise called Danu, the judge of the Akkadians born from the Soma or lifegiving waber, the divine Su, or begetter, and Agni the god of fire, the lightning flash. This same myth is repeated in that of Tishtrya of the Zend Avesta, the rain-star who fights under the guises of a young man fifteen years old, a golden-horned bull, and a white horse with the black horse Ap-aosha, the burner (aosha) of the waters (ap),1 the black cloud of the Indian summer season, whence the burning west wind which keeps back the rain issues. It is the spear or meridian pole of the rain-god, which pierces the cloud and makes it give the rain, and this rain-cloud, depicted as a crocodile in the Egyptian statue, is the Mug-ral or alligator of the Gond song of Lingal, who attempts to drown the Gonds in the flood brought from the south-west by the Bindo storm-bird. This alligator is conquered by Lingal, the father-god of the Gond races, the counterpart of Indra, Horus, and Dumu-zi, who has been borne across the waters of the flood by Puse, the tortoise. It is this same god Horus and Dumu-zi the son of Istar-Hathor (the mother mountain of the land of the tortoise Kush), who is the raingod of the Akkadian Flood legend called Nin-igi-a-zag, or the first born (zag) of the lady (nin) of the spirits (igi) of water (a), who sends on earth the rains which cause the flood. These appear in the Indian Flood story, as the baptismal waters consecrating a new earth, the new-born mother Ida, the mother mountain, wherein dwelleth righteousness. She arose from the heavenly seed of milk, curds, and whey, sown in the waters by Manu, meaning the thinker, to be the cowmother of the cultivating race, the holy race of which Manu was the father. This was the race called in the Mahabharata, the Iravata, who settled on the rivers which watered the tortoise earth, the lands of India, the great irrigating race who are still in India called the Kurmi or sons of Kur, the tortoise.

— James Francis Katherinus Hewitt's Ruling Races of Prehistoric times In India, South-Western Asia and Southern Europe - pg 11[6]

History

Kurmis have historically been mostly landowners and cultivators.[5]

Government classification

British India

In the 1901 Census of India, H. H. Risley, who was influential in breathing new life into the varna category in the system of official classification,[7][nb 1] included the Kurmi in the United Provinces (UP) under "Class VIII: Castes from whom some of the twice-born would take water and pakki (food cooked with ghee),[9] without question," and their population in UP was 1,963,757. In Bihar, the Kurmi were listed under: "Class III, Clean Sudra, Subclass (a)" with a population of 780,818[10][nb 2]

Independent India

In 2006, the Indian government notified Kurmis as a Other Backward Class.[3]

Colonial descriptions

Many British administrators and ethnologists in India wrote about the Kurmi.

Crooke's descriptions

Writing about the Kurmi of the North-Western Provinces in 1897, William Crooke noted their numbers and relative size (based on the Census of 1891). He refers to them as the "great Kurmi race". Their importance is next only to Bhûmihârs, Tagas, Jats and Rajputs. Kurmis include various endogamous groups, such as the Kachhis, Koeris, Kisans and Malis. Next to Kurmis were Ahirs, Ghosis and Gujars and the Gadariyas.[15]

Elsewhere, he described their work ethic:

They are about the most industrious and hard-working agricultural tribe in the Province. The industry of his wife has passed into a proverb

Bhali jât Kurmin, khurpi hât,
Khet nirâwê apan pî kê sâth.

"A good lot is the Kurmi woman; she takes her spud and weeds the field with her lord."[16]

Recording their observances of ritual pollution, Crooke says that Kurmis were a respected caste which accepted neither kachchi (food cooked in water), nor pakki (food cooked in ghee) even when cooked by a Brahman. However, they accepted food cooked by a Brahman if he happened to be their guru. Brahmans treated them in the same way as Kshatriyas. People of other castes generally had no hesitation about food cooked by Kurmis.[16]

Describing their religious practives, Crooke says that their rules were similar to those of other respectable Hindu castes. They worshipped deities like Mahâbîr, Thâkurji and Sîtala. Their religious ceremonies were presided over by Sarwariya and Kanaujiya Brahmans. In keeping with common practices, Mahâbîr was worshipped on Tuesdays, and was appeased with sweetmeats (laddu), sweet bread (rot), gram (ghughuri), a Brahmanical cord (Janeu), and a piece of cloth dyed with turmeric during the months of Baisâkh and Sâwan. All houses had an oratory (deoghar) and the second half of Kârttik was particularly sacred for the worship of Thâkurji. Sîtala was worshipped on the seventh day of Asârh with an offering of cakes (puri) and the halwa sweetmeat. In some areas, they also accepted initiation by performing the Guru mantra ceremony. In Gorakhpur area, Surdhir was the popular deity. Women used to worship Surdhir in the month of Sâwan with the sacrifice of a young pig and rice boiled in milk (khir. In Basti Mahâbir and Bâbi Pîr were more popular. The offerings to Mahâbir were received by Brahmans, Gusains, and Malis and those of Bâbi Pîr by Muhammadan faqirs. Devi was more popular in Cawnpur.[16]

Sherring's description

According to Matthew Atmore Sherring: "The Kurmi has a strong, bony hand, natural to a man of his employment. He is frequently a tall and powerful man, outspoken and independent in manner, and is altogether free from cringing obsequiousness."[17]

Dalton's description

Colonel Edward Tuite Dalton regards them as the descendants of some of the earliest Aryan colonists:

a brown, tawny-coloured people, of average height, well-proportioned, rather lightly framed, and with a fair amount of good looks. They show well-shaped heads and high features, less refined than Brahmans, less martial than Rajputs, of humbler mien even than the Goalas; but, except when they have obviously intermixed with aborigines, they are unquestionably Aryan in looks. Grey eyes and brownish hair are sometimes met with amongst them. The women have usually small and well-formed hands and feet

— Dalton's Ethnology of Bengal - pg 320[18]

Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya's description

Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya, one of the first anthropologists from India, commented in 1896 on the customs of the Kurmis, primarily in Bihar, of that period. Some of the Kurmis ate fowls and field rats; but they did not eat pork or beef.[2] Historically, the religion of the Kurmis in Bihar is the same as that of the other local castes. They offer worship to the gods of the Hindu pantheon, and also to such local deities as Sokha, Sambhu Nath, and Goriya. However, the majority of them mainly followed of Kabir and Ramanand. Some of the Kurmis also worship the five Muslim saints called Panch Piriya.[2] In almost all the sub-castes of the Kurmis, excepting the Ayodhya Bansi, Ghamela and Kochaisa, a widow was allowed to re-marry. If she married a younger brother or cousin of her late husband, she would not forfeit her claim to a share of her husband's estate, or her right to the guardianship of her children. If she married an outsider, these rights were forfeited. Divorce was permitted among the Kurmis, and a divorced wife could marry again in the same manner as a widow. The Kurmis of Northern India usually employed a Brahman to officiate as priest at their marriages, while in Chota Nagpore and Orissa, the practice was different. There the work of the priest, on such occasions, was done by some elderly member of the house or by the Laya of the village.[2] The Kurmis cremate their dead, and perform shrads in the same manner as other high caste. The period of observing mourning vary according to local practice, from ten days to thirty days.[2]

Blunt's descriptions

Writing in 1931, after some 70 years of ethnographic studies under the British Raj, E. A. H. Blunt, in his Caste System of Northern India, contrasted the finely turned out Kurmi fields with the poorly turned out Brahman ones:

The economic results of all these customs taken together is, firstly, to increase the cost of cultivation, for since neither the high caste man himself nor his wife can take any active part in agriculture work, they are compelled to employ far more labour than lower castes: whilst secondly, the high caste man is generally content to leave his cultivation to his servants and gives it little personal attention, with the result that it is rarely as skilful or productive as low caste cultivation; where the Kurmi produces wheat, the Brahman produces barley and only second-rate barley; whilst an expert eye could detect without difficulty which, of two neighbouring fields of wheat, belonged to the Kurmi and which to the Brahman.[19]

Furthermore, Blunt considered the Kurmi to be shrewd in financial matters:

Most moneylenders amongst the tenantry are Kurmis. It is reported from one registration office in the Basti district where the Kurmis are particularly strong in number that of the total sum which passes from lender to borrower in a certain tahsil, the Kurmi contributes a full half. Generally, his own indebtedness is small, and he has money to put by at the end of the year. His ambition is always the acquisition of additional land. ... 'The Kurmi is always planting whether his crop lives or dies.'[19]

Of the Kurmis' claim to Kshatriya descent, Blunt had this to say:

Kurmis, Gadariyas, Karnwals, Mair and Tank Sonars, and Kayasthas all claim Kshatriya descent. None of these claims have so far been satisfactorily proved: but there is no prima facie improbability in the claims of the Kurmis, Sonars and Kayasthas. ... all ancient authorities are curiously silent about the agricultural castes: it is not possible to believe that there were no landowners amongst the old Kshatriya clans, and the Kurmi, which is an agricultural caste of high position and high antiquity, may very well represent, at all events in respect of some of his branches, the old Kshatriya landowners, or at least their vrisala[20] successors in interest.[21]

Varna status debate

Some Kurmi have claimed membership in the Kshatriya (warrior) class of the Hindu ritual varna system; however, many scholars regard them as being historically a [[]] (agricultural) class.[22][23] The government of India deprecates use of the word "" and classifies them as an Other Backward Class.[3]

In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the Kurmis, along with other castes such as the Yadav, began to assert the claim that they had previously been Kshatriya and had been "reduced" to peasant status by circumstance.[24] The Kurmi embarked on a program of publications, public mobilisation, and temple-building to establish their Vaishnava credentials and buttress their claims to Kshatriya status.[25] These claims have not been proven, though some scholars allow that such an argument can be made.[26] The Kurmis obtained some support for their claims from Brahmin scholars, who were eager to accommodate a caste group which had become politically powerful.[27] Satadal Dasgupta has noted that it is common for Indian lower castes to claim a higher varna, citing the Kurmi Kshatriya as an example.[28] A specific instance of this was the Ramanandi sect, which created such a history in the early part of the 20th century.[29]

Politics

The Sardar Kurmi Kshatryia Sabha was organised in 1894 in Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh (some sources say 1884[30]) to protest a government decision barring Kurmi recruitment into the police force. However, the influence of this organisation diminished at the end of the 19th century.[31] A similar Sabha was formed in Awadh, which sought to unite as "Kurmi" other castes such at the Patidar, Kapu, Vokkaliga, Reddy, Naidu, and Maratha.[32]

In its fifth conference in 1909, the Sabha[which?] changed its name to All India Kurmi Kshatriya Association,[citation needed] and the All India Kurmi Kshatriya Mahasabha (Association) was first registered at Patna in 1910. [31] This organisation promoted both secular and religious interests, supporting Sanskritisation and canvassing for the right to wear the sacred thread, but also pushing for preferential quotas as a backward class.[32]

In the early 1930s, the Kurmis joined with the Yadav and Koeri agriculturalists to enter elections, and in 1934 formed the Triveni Sangh political party, which had a million dues-paying members by 1936. However, the organisation was hobbled by competition from the Congress-backed Backward Class Federation and cooption of its leaders by the Congress party. The organisation also suffered due to the Yadav's "superiority complex" which limited their cooperation with the Kurmi. Similarly, a planned caste union with the Koeris, to be called Raghav Samaj, failed due to caste rivalries.[32]

Again in the 1970s, the India Kurmi Kshatriya Sabha attempted to bring the Koeris under their wing, but again a disunity troubled this alliance. Kurmi politician Nitish Kumar fomed the Samata Party in 1994, forming a backward-upper caste alliance with the conservative Bharatiya Janata Party, which achieved only initial success. In 1998, politician Laloo Prasad Yadav took advantage of this lack of unity in the IKKS, portraying Koeri Shakuni Chaudhry as an incarnation of Kush. Under Yadav, the IKSS became less and less advantageous to the Kurmi, favouring instead the priorities of the Yadav caste, and this combined with the competition of the Kurmi-based Samata led to a divide between these intermittently allied castes.[29]

Language

The Kurmi of Jharkhand, Orissa, West Bengal and Assam use to speak Kurmali language. Kurmi of other state speak their native and regional languages. In Bihar, Kurmi people speak the Magahi and Angika, while in Uttar Pradesh the Kurmi speak Hindi.[citation needed]

See also

References

Notes
  1. ^ Although influential, Risley's attempt did not achieve the end which he sought: people were unable to determine in which group they should classify themselves, the localised system he adopted could not be transposed onto the national stage, and some groups took advantage of the situation deliberately to seek reclassification and therefore satisfy their aspirations. L. I. and S. H. Rudolph have commented that "Risley's work, as a scientific effort, seemed based on mistaken premises. Varna was not a behavioral concept."[8]
  2. ^ Indian censuses of the British Raj period are not usually considered to be particularly reliable except for overall population figures. Those for some areas of the country could be more reliable than others.[11][12][13][14]
Citations
  1. ^ Various census of India. 1867. pp. 36–. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya (1896). Hindu castes and sects: an exposition of the origin of the Hindu caste system and the bearing of the sects towards each other and towards other religious systems / Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya. Thacker, Spink. pp. 270–. Retrieved 13 May 2011. Cite error: The named reference "Bhattacharya1896" was defined multiple times with different content (see the help page).
  3. ^ a b c Central nod for OBC list modification. The Hindu, January 07, 2006 Union Cabinet approved inclusion and modification of certain castes and communities in the Central list of Other Backward Classes (OBCs)
  4. ^ Gustav Salomon Oppert (February 1978). On the original inhabitants of Bharatavarṣa or India. Arno Press. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
  5. ^ a b Russell, R. V.; Lai, R. B. H. (1916). The tribes and castes of the central provinces of India. Macmillan. p. 56. Retrieved 23 July 2011.
  6. ^ James Francis Katherinus Hewitt (1894). the Ruling Races of Prehistoric times In India, South-Western Asia and Southern Europe: Ethnographic glossary. A. Constable and co. pp. 10–. Retrieved 26 May 2006.
  7. ^ Rudolph, Lloyd I.; Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber (1984). The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India. University of Chicago Press. p. 116. ISBN 9780226731377. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  8. ^ Rudolph, Lloyd I.; Rudolph, Susanne Hoeber (1984). The Modernity of Tradition: Political Development in India. University of Chicago Press. p. 117. ISBN 9780226731377. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  9. ^ Quote: "The Hindu draws a distinction between kachcha food, which is cooked in water, and pakka food, which is cooked in ghi (clarified butter). This distinction depends on the principle that ghi, like all products of the sacred cow protects from impurity ... and enables the Hindu to be less particular in the case of pakka than of kachcha food, and allows him to relax his restrictions accordingly." In Blunt, Sir Edward Arthur Henry (1931). The caste system of northern India: with special reference to the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. H. Milford, Oxford University Press. p. 89. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  10. ^ India. Census Commissioner; Risley, Sir Herbert Hope (1903). Census of India, 1901: Volume I. India. Ethnographic appendices, being the data upon which the caste chapter of the Report is based. Calcutta: Office of the Supt. of Govt. Printing, India. pp. 56–57. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  11. ^ Anstey, Vera Powell (1977) [1931]. The economic development of India (Reprinted ed.). Ayer Publishing. p. 60. ISBN 9780405097751. Retrieved 4 August 2011. ... a vast army of enumerators are utilized, many of whom have a very limited understanding of what is required. Hence the Indian census provides at times more food for merriment than is usually connected with statistical compilations. Maheshwari, Shriram (1996). The census administration under the raj and after. Concept Publishing Company. pp. 104–116. ISBN 9788170225850. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  12. ^ Atal, Yogesh (2003). Social Sciences: The Indian Scene. Abhinav Publications. p. 124. ISBN 9788170170426. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  13. ^ Caplan, Lionel (2003). Children of Colonialism: Anglo-Indians in a Postcolonial World. Berg. pp. 66–67. ISBN 9781859736326. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  14. ^ Sinha, E. Zacharia. Elements Of Demography. Allied Publishers. p. 290. ISBN 9788177640441.
  15. ^ Crooke, William (1897). The North-Western Provinces of India: their history, ethnology, and administration. Methuen. pp. 204–205. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
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  17. ^ Matthew Atmore Sherring (1974). Hindu tribes and castes as represented in Benares. Cosmo Publications. p. 258. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
  18. ^ Sir Herbert Hope Risley (1892). The tribes and castes of Bengal: Ethnographic glossary. Printed at the Bengal secretariat press. pp. 529–. Retrieved 26 April 2011.
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  20. ^ Quote: "The vratya and vrisala castes, who are described as descendants of the three principal or 'twice born' varnas, who have omitted to perform the prescribed rites, and failed to reverence Brahmans; the vrisala are distinguished from the vratya as being ex-Kshatriyas." In Blunt, Sir Edward Arthur Henry (1931). The caste system of northern India: with special reference to the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. H. Milford, Oxford University Press. p. 21. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  21. ^ Blunt, Sir Edward Arthur Henry (1931). The caste system of northern India: with special reference to the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh. H. Milford, Oxford University Press. p. 211. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  22. ^ Jassal, Smita Tewari (2001). Daughters of the earth: women and land in Uttar Pradesh. Technical Publications. p. 52. ISBN 9788173043758. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  23. ^ Gooptu, Nandini (2001). The politics of the urban poor in early twentieth-century India. Cambridge studies in Indian history and society. Vol. 8. Cambridge University Press. p. 203. ISBN 9780521443661. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
  24. ^ Journal of social and economic studies, Volume 11. A.N.S. Institute of Social Studies. 1994. p. 146. ISBN 9788124100677. Retrieved 12 May 2011.
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  32. ^ a b c Christophe Jaffrelot (2003). India's silent revolution: the rise of the lower castes in North India. Columbia University Press. pp. 197–. ISBN 9780231127868. Retrieved 10 May 2011.
Bibliography

Further Reading

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