Gadaria

Gadaria or Gadariya (also known as, Dhangar, Kuruba, Pal,[1][2]Gayri,[2] or Gaari[3]) are a community of traditionally non-elite pastoralists in India, most members of which identify as being of the Indian Dhangar community because they consider the two terms to be synonymous. They were traditionally involved professionally in livestock breeding, especially sheep.[4] They are primarily found in Uttar Pradesh,[5] Karnataka,[6] Goa,[7] Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh,[8] Telanga[9] and in some parts of Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.[10] In Gujarat, they are called Bharwad.[11], In Karnataka, they are called Kuruba. [12]

Etymology and names

The word Gadaria is derived from the old Hindi word Gadar, which means sheep.[13]

Alternative names for the caste include Gadariya and Gari; in Uttar Pradesh, they are also known as Gareria.[14]

History

Origin

Gadaria was not a caste, it used to be a profession, but in ancient times caste originated from profession itself. That's how Sheepherder and Goatherd became Gadarias.

The word Gadaria is derived from Gadar which is derived from Gandhara because sheep were first brought from Gandhara.

Oral traditions of the Gadarias indicate their descent from Neolithic farming villages in North India which also kept cattle. Oral traditions indicate some of these original cattle-keeping agriculturalists branched off into new habitats and quickly came to rely on sheep pastoralism, absorbing Mesolithic hunter-gatherers. Rituals associated with hunting presumably came from the integration of these hunter-gatherers into the Neolithic pastoralists. These pastoralists later became almost totally separated from their villager antecedents and interacted with them only based on initial conflict and acculturation. For pastoralists such as the Gadarias, the sheep became an important pack animal after the Iron Age.


  • The map of the prevailing "races" of India (now discredited) based on the 1901 Census of British India. The Gadaria are shown both in the United Provinces (UP) and the Central Provinces.
    The map of the prevailing "races" of India (now discredited) based on the 1901 Census of British India. The Gadaria are shown both in the United Provinces (UP) and the Central Provinces.
  • Gadarias travelling in Chambal, India
    Gadarias travelling in Chambal, India
  • Rajwada is landmark of Indore, India
    Rajwada is landmark of Indore, India
  • Fort Ahilya in Maheshwar
    Fort Ahilya in Maheshwar

Surname Usage

In North India, Gadarias use Pal surname, The word Pal comes from the Sanskrit word pala which means 'keeper'. The people who kept sheep and goats in North India were called Pals, But the Pal surname was first used by the Kayastha kings of the post-Gupta period in Bengal and the area near Bengal in present-day Bangladesh, where the Pal surname still used by the Kayasthas.

In Uttar Pradesh and the surrounding area, the Gadarias use surname Baghel, which is taken because of a river which flows on the border of the Baghel Empire.

Kingdoms

All India Pal Kshatriya Mahasabha

In the early 1910s, an educated class of Gadarias formed All India Pal Kshatriya Mahasabha. There were debates within the community whether to add Kshatriya suffix to the community name. In the 1930s, they started referring to themselves as "Pali Rajput", a synonym of Pal kshatriya.[15] They started caste magazines like "Pal kshatriya Samachar" and "Shepherd Times". Later the community went through the process of de-sanskritization and dropped the suffix Kshatriya. Among the reasons cited for de-sanskritization were losing autonomy of their caste identity and avoiding being submerged into the identity of high castes.[16]

Sub-castes and clans

There are two major subdivisions amongst Gadarias, namely Dhangar and Nikhar. They share the same gotras. Bais(Baniya), Bhindwar, Pindwar, Hindwar, Chauhan, Tawar Parihar, Sisodiya, Sikarwar, Chandel, Riyar, Rotella, Mohania, Maurya etc. are some of the gotras amongst them.[17]

Classification

In Punjab, Bihar,[18] Uttar Pradesh,[5] Uttarakhand,[19] Maharashtra,[20] Madhya Pradesh,[21] Chhattisgarh,[22] Rajasthan[23] and Delhi[24] they are classified as Other backward class, and in Haryana[25] they are classified as Scheduled caste in the Indian System of Reservation.

Religion

They practice Hinduism, worship family deities and various other deities including Ram, Krishna, Shiva, Vishnu, Hanuman, Kali, Chandi and Lakshmi. Some of them wear sacred thread. Majority of them are vegetarians.[26]

References
  1. "Who are the Gadaria?". People Groups of India. Retrieved 8 February 2020.
  2. Census of India, 1921: Rajputana and Ajmer-Merwara, Part III Administrative Volume. 1921. p. Appendix L, pg xxi.
  3. Mehta, S. C.; Vij, P. K.; Nivsarkar, A. E.; Sahai, R. (1995). "Sheep husbandry practices in Sonadi and Malpura breeding tract". Indian Journal of Small Ruminants. 1: 1–7.
  4. Sharma, V.P.; Köhler-Rollefson, I (2003). Pastoralism in India: A scoping study. Ahmedabad: Centre for Management in Agriculture, IIM (Indian Institute of Management). S2CID 67805358.
  5. Central Commission for Backward Classes (20 October 2020). Central List of OBCs Uttar Pradesh (Report). Archived from the original on 20 October 2020.
  6. S, Shyam Prasad; Kaggere, Niranjan (25 October 2014). "Vokkaliga, Lingayat leaders oppose state's caste census". Bangalore Mirror. Retrieved 1 March 2022.
  7. http://library.isical.ac.in:8080/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10263/1447/HE-10-1-1982-P107-143.pdf
  8. Singh, K. S. (1996). Communities, Segments, Synonyms, Surnames and Titles. Anthropological Survey of India. ISBN 978-0-19-563357-3.
  9. Census of India, 1961. Manager of Publications. 1961.
  10. Shashi (2011), p. 29-30.
  11. Hebbar, Nistula (4 December 2017). "OBCs to play kingmaker in battle for Gujarat". Extrapolating on the 1931 Census, the OBCs, excluding Muslim OBCs, comprise 35.6% of the total population, with the Koli-Thakore block the largest, followed by artisan castes at at 2%; and other middle castes at 3.3%.
  12. "Who are the Kuruba?". Drishti IAS.
  13. Ghurye, G.S. (2008). Caste and race in India (5th ed.). Bombay: Popular Prakashan. p. 32. ISBN 9788171542055. Retrieved 7 August 2016.
  14. Dirk Bronger, ed. (2021). Das Kastenwesen - die Identität Indiens?. Asien - Wirtschaft und Entwicklung. LIT Verlag. p. 257. ISBN 9783643141026.
  15. Singh (2020), p. Caste organizations in the pre-Independence period/Sanskritization phase (Roughly the 1920s-1950s).
  16. Singh (2020), p. Phase II (1956 onwards): De-sanskritization towards an alternative culture.
  17. Shashi (2011), p. 29.
  18. "CENTRAL LIST OF OBCs FOR THE STATE OF BIHAR" (PDF). NCBC. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  19. Central Commission for Backward Classes (20 October 2020). Central List of OBCs Uttarakhand (Report). Archived from the original on 20 October 2020.
  20. "CENTRAL LIST OF OBCs FOR THE STATE OF MAHARASHTRA" (PDF). NCBc. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  21. Central Commission for Backward Classes (20 October 2020). Central List of OBCs Madhya Pradesh (Report). Archived from the original on 20 October 2020.
  22. Central Commission for Backward Classes (20 October 2020). Central List of OBCs Chattisgarh (Report). Archived from the original on 20 October 2020.
  23. "CENTRAL LIST OF OBCs FOR THE STATE OF RAJASTHAN" (PDF). NCBC. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  24. Central Commission for Backward Classes (20 October 2020). Central List of OBCs Delhi (Report). Archived from the original on 20 October 2020.
  25. Service, Tribune News. "Now, Gadaria in Scheduled Caste category". Tribuneindia News Service. Retrieved 31 May 2022.
  26. Shashi (2011), p. 32.

Bibliography
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