175-943: 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. Khatris of Punjab, specifically, were scribes and traders during
350-419: A Jandi Tree (Prosopis cineraria) in one blow using a sword. During the pregnancy period of a female, a baby shower ceremony called "reetan" or "goadbharai" is carried out amongst Khatris and Aroras. During the event, gifts are showered to the pregnant mother from family and friends among other traditions. Harish Damodaran says the rise of Khatri industrialists in post-1947 India was a consequence initially of
525-642: A dialect continuum ranging from Persianised to Sanskritised vocabulary, but now they are more and more different in words due to politics. Old Urdu dictionaries also contain most of the Sanskrit words now present in Hindi. Mutual intelligibility decreases in literary and specialised contexts that rely on academic or technical vocabulary. In a longer conversation, differences in formal vocabulary and pronunciation of some Urdu phonemes are noticeable, though many native Hindi speakers also pronounce these phonemes. At
700-434: A 1000 years earlier. In an early Upanishad, Shudra is referred to as Pūşan or nourisher, suggesting that Shudras were the tillers of the soil. But soon afterwards, Shudras are not counted among the tax-payers and they are said to be given away along with the land when it is gifted. The majority of the artisans were also reduced to the position of Shudras, but there is no contempt indicated for their work. The Brahmins and
875-570: A clear story": Approximately a third of groups in India experienced population bottlenecks as strong or stronger than the ones found to have occurred among similarly isolated groups in human history, such as the Ashkenazi Jews or the Finns , a phenomenon "exceedingly old" in most cases in India. The ostensibly undisputed overall conclusion from DNA research among castes is that, rather than being
1050-472: A colour-based system, through a character named Bhrigu, "Brahmins varna was white, Kshatriyas was red, Vaishyas was yellow, and the Shudras' black". This description is questioned by Bharadvaja who says that colors are seen among all the varnas , that desire, anger, fear, greed, grief, anxiety, hunger and toil prevails over all human beings, that bile and blood flow from all human bodies, so what distinguishes
1225-406: A core vocabulary of native Sanskrit and Prakrit derived words and a significant number of Arabic and Persian loanwords, with a consensus of linguists considering them to be two standardised forms of the same language and consider the differences to be sociolinguistic ; a few classify them separately. The two languages are often considered to be a single language (Hindustani or Hindi-Urdu) on
1400-616: A degree of differentiation that is at least three times greater than that among European groups separated by similar geographic distances. Lacking genetic grounds to attribute this to differences in Ancestral North Indians ' ancestry among groups, in the Indian region from which the population came, or in social status, they examined the evidence for "bottlenecks" in the history of Indian groups They found identical, long stretches of sequence between pairs of individuals within
1575-429: A fifth element, those deemed to be entirely outside its scope, such as tribal people and the untouchables (Dalits) . In ancient texts, Jati , meaning birth , is mentioned less often and clearly distinguished from varna . There are four varnas but thousands of jatis . The jatis are complex social groups that lack universally applicable definitions or characteristics and have been more flexible and diverse than
1750-466: A fixed hierarchy, caste functioned as one of several possible forms of social organization and identity. People could maintain multiple community affiliations, with caste sometimes taking precedence and other times being secondary to different social bonds. This flexibility allowed caste to serve as one way of creating social cohesion while leaving room for other types of community ties to flourish. Sociologist Anne Waldrop observes that while outsiders view
1925-707: A framework for grouping people into classes, first used in Vedic Indian society . It is referred to frequently in the ancient Indian texts. There are four classes: the Brahmins (priestly class), the Kshatriyas (rulers, administrators and warriors; also called Rajanyas), the Vaishyas (artisans, merchants, tradesmen and farmers), and the Shudras (labouring classes). The varna categorisation implicitly includes
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#17327913501522100-697: A group of martial caste members called Khati (Khatri) exist in North-India ". Michael Witzel , writing in his paper " Sanskritization of the Kuru State" states the Kathaiois were Kaṭha Brahmins . The Khatris played an important role in India's trans-regional trade during the period, being described by Levi as among the "most important merchant communities of early modern India." Levi writes: " Stephen Dale locates Khatris in Astrakhan , Russia during
2275-494: A heavy influence on both as a co-official language. According to Bruce (2021), Urdu has adapted English words since the eighteenth century. A movement towards the hyper-Persianisation of an Urdu emerged in Pakistan since its independence in 1947 which is "as artificial as" the hyper-Sanskritised Hindi that has emerged in India; hyper-Persianisation of Urdu was prompted in part by the increasing Sanskritisation of Hindi. However,
2450-518: A literary medium for Indian writers from the Bombay Presidency, Bengal, Orissa Province, and Tamil Nadu as well. As Urdu and Hindi became means of religious and social construction for Muslims and Hindus respectively, each register developed its own script. According to Islamic tradition, Arabic , the language of Muhammad and the Qur'an , holds spiritual significance and power. Because Urdu
2625-595: A notable novel being Umrao Jaan Ada . According to the Navadirul Alfaz by Khan-i Arzu, the "Zaban-e Urdu-e Shahi" [language of the Imperial Camp] had attained special importance in the time of Alamgir ". By the end of the reign of Aurangzeb in the early 1700s, the common language around Delhi began to be referred to as Zaban-e-Urdu , a name derived from the Turkic word ordu (army) or orda and
2800-530: A number of crafts. The chariot-maker ( rathakara ) and metal worker ( karmara ) enjoyed positions of importance and no stigma was attached to them. Similar observations hold for carpenters, tanners, weavers and others. Towards the end of the Atharvaveda period, new class distinctions emerged. The erstwhile dasas are renamed Shudras, probably to distinguish them from the new meaning of dasa as slave. The aryas are renamed vis or Vaishya (meaning
2975-702: A phonological level, speakers of both languages are frequently aware of the Perso-Arabic or Sanskrit origins of their word choice, which affects the pronunciation of those words. Urdu speakers will often insert vowels to break up consonant clusters found in words of Sanskritic origin, but will pronounce them correctly in Arabic and Persian loanwords. As a result of religious nationalism since the partition of British India and continued communal tensions, native speakers of both Hindi and Urdu frequently assert that they are distinct languages. The grammar of Hindi and Urdu
3150-589: A policy continued by the Mughal Empire , which extended over most of northern South Asia from the 16th to 18th centuries and cemented Persian influence on Hindustani. Urdu was patronised by the Nawab of Awadh and in Lucknow , the language was refined, being not only spoken in the court, but by the common people in the city—both Hindus and Muslims; the city of Lucknow gave birth to Urdu prose literature, with
3325-718: A professor of Sanskrit and Indian Religions and credited with modern translations of Vedic literature, Dharma-sutras and Dharma-sastras , states that ancient and medieval Indian texts do not support the ritual pollution, purity-impurity premise implicit in the Dumont theory. According to Olivelle, purity-impurity is discussed in the Dharma-sastra texts, but only in the context of the individual's moral, ritual and biological pollution (eating certain kinds of food such as meat, going to bathroom). Olivelle writes in his review of post-Vedic Sutra and Shastra texts, "we see no instance when
3500-814: A prominent role in the emerging Sikh milieu of post-Mughal Punjab. According to the Khalsa Durbar Records, Maharaja Ranjit Singh 's army was composed of majorly Jats followed by Khatris. Sardar Gulab Singh Khatri founded the Dallewallia Misl , an independent 18th century Sikh sovereign state in Ludhiana and Jalandhar district that would later on join Maharaja Ranjit Singh's kingdom. In the Sikh Empire, Hari Singh Nalwa (1791–1837) an Uppal Khatri from Gujranwala , became
3675-403: A real general definition of caste. It appears to me that any attempt at definition is bound to fail because of the complexity of the phenomenon. On the other hand, much literature on the subject is marred by lack of precision about the use of the term. Ghurye offered what he thought was a definition that could be applied across India, although he acknowledged that there were regional variations on
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#17327913501523850-507: A sectarian divide of "Urdu" for Muslims and "Hindi" for Hindus, a divide that was formalised with the partition of colonial India into the Dominion of India and the Dominion of Pakistan after independence (though there are Hindu poets who continue to write in Urdu, including Gopi Chand Narang and Gulzar ). Urdu had been used as a literary medium for British colonial Indian writers from
4025-464: A secular social phenomenon driven by the necessities of economics, politics, and at times geography. Jeaneane Fowler says that although some people consider jati to be occupational segregation, in reality, the jati framework does not preclude or prevent a member of one caste from working in another occupation. A feature of jatis has been endogamy , in Susan Bayly 's words, that "both in
4200-537: A shift to endogamy took place during the first half of the first millennium CE, at least in northern India," due to the growing influence of Brahmanism. This shift is attested in the Manusmriti (1st to 3rd century CE), which "explicitly forbade intermarriage across castes." The Mahabharata , estimated to have been completed by the end of the fourth century CE, discusses the varna system in section 12.181, presenting two models. The first model describes varna as
4375-481: A significant role in the development of the Urdu register. Hindi became the distinct register spoken by those who sought to construct a Hindu identity in the face of colonial rule. As Hindi separated from Hindustani to create a distinct spiritual identity, Urdu was employed to create a definitive Islamic identity for the Muslim population in India. Urdu's use was not confined only to northern India – it had been used as
4550-622: A source of advantage in an era of pre-Independence poverty, lack of institutional human rights, volatile political environment, and economic insecurity. According to social anthropologist Dipankar Gupta, guilds developed during the Mauryan period and crystallised into jatis in post-Mauryan times with the emergence of feudalism in India, which finally crystallised during the 7th–12th centuries. However, other scholars dispute when and how jatis developed in Indian history. Barbara Metcalf and Thomas Metcalf, both professors of History, write, "One of
4725-572: A sub-caste of Khatris by some scholars were concentrated in the districts of Bannu , Kohat and Dera Ismail Khan . The Aroras spoke Jatki language which is the 9th century version of Saraiki (Multani) according to Ibbetson . They were also found in Afghanistan at a population of 300,000 in 1880. According to an 1800s colonial source referred by Shah Hanifi , " Hindki is the name given to Hindus who live in Afghanistan. They are Hindus of Khatri class and are found all over Afghanistan even amongst
4900-614: A symbol of their religious identity. Hindus in northwestern India, under the Arya Samaj agitated against the sole use of the Perso-Arabic script and argued that the language should be written in the native Devanagari script, which triggered a backlash against the use of Hindi written in Devanagari by the Anjuman-e-Islamia of Lahore. Hindi in the Devanagari script and Urdu written in the Perso-Arabic script established
5075-493: A term of pure/impure is used with reference to a group of individuals or a varna or caste". The only mention of impurity in the Shastra texts from the 1st millennium is about people who commit grievous sins and thereby fall out of their varna . These, writes Olivelle, are called "fallen people" and considered impure in the medieval Indian texts. The texts declare that these sinful, fallen people be ostracised. Olivelle adds that
5250-419: A uniting language. Urdu was chosen as a symbol of unity for the new Dominion of Pakistan in 1947, because it had already served as a lingua franca among Muslims in north and northwest of British Indian Empire . Urdu is also seen as a repertory for the cultural and social heritage of Pakistan. While Urdu and Islam together played important roles in developing the national identity of Pakistan, disputes in
5425-465: A vehicle of poetry, (especially under the Bahmanids ), and is known as Dakhini , which contains loanwords from Telugu and Marathi . From the 13th century until the end of the 18th century; the language now known as Urdu was called Hindi , Hindavi , Hindustani , Dehlavi , Dihlawi , Lahori , and Lashkari . The Delhi Sultanate established Persian as its official language in India,
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5600-464: A very significant number among the nearly 800 districts of India, there is a small Urdu-speaking minority at least. In Araria district , Bihar, there is a plurality of Urdu speakers and near-plurality in Hyderabad district, Telangana (43.35% Telugu speakers and 43.24% Urdu speakers). Some Indian Muslim schools ( Madrasa ) teach Urdu as a first language and have their own syllabi and exams. In fact,
5775-548: Is a protected language in the constitution. It is also spoken as a minority language in Afghanistan and Bangladesh , with no official status. Urdu and Hindi share a common Sanskrit - and Prakrit -derived vocabulary base, phonology , syntax , and grammar, making them mutually intelligible during colloquial communication . While formal Urdu draws literary, political, and technical vocabulary from Persian , formal Hindi draws these aspects from Sanskrit; consequently,
5950-468: Is also seen, in the context of Hindi. Hence the change from kshatriya to khatri is in consonance with the Prakrit rule and Hindi usage. The same is also testified by scholars R. G. Bhandarkar and Shapurji Edalji . As per historian W. H. McLeod and Louis Fenech, Khatri is a Punjabi form of the word Kshatriya. Peter Hardy and A. R. Desai also agree that Khatri is derived from Kshatriya. Despite
6125-613: Is another sort of gentiles whom they call Catry, the town is properly their country and from thence they spread all over the Indies." According to Dr. Madhu Tyagi, Thevenot is referring to Hindu Khatri caste here. The last caste-based census was conducted by the British in 1931 which regarded Khatri and Arora as a different caste. During 1931, Khatris were prominent in the West Punjab and North-Western Frontier Province (NWFP), which
6300-547: Is no clear linear order among them. The term caste is derived from the Portuguese word casta , meaning "race, lineage, breed" and, originally, "'pure or unmixed (stock or breed)". Originally not an Indian word, it is now widely used in English and in Indian languages , closely translated to varna and jati . The sociologist G. S. Ghurye wrote in 1932 that, despite much study by many people, we do not possess
6475-504: Is not an accurate representation of jati in English. Better terms would be ethnicity, ethnic identity and ethnic group. Research on caste systems across the Indian subcontinent during the latter 1900s revealed that caste was far more complex and dynamic than previously thought. While British colonial authorities had portrayed it as a uniform, rigid system fundamental to Indian society, studies showed that caste's significance and structure varied considerably between regions. Rather than being
6650-527: Is not officially recognised by the Government of Bangladesh . The Urdu spoken by Stranded Pakistanis in Bangladesh is different from this dialect. Many bilingual or multi-lingual Urdu speakers, being familiar with both Urdu and English, display code-switching (referred to as " Urdish ") in certain localities and between certain social groups. On 14 August 2015, the Government of Pakistan launched
6825-729: Is now known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK). The Khatris spoke Hindko and Potohari language. Highest percentage concentration of Khatris (excluding Aroras) were in Potohar regions of Jhelum and Rawalpindi . In NWFP, the Khatris were found mainly in Peshawer and Hazara . Arora-Khatris were centered in Multan and Derajat regions of Punjab and NWFP . In the NWFP, the Aroras which are considered
7000-488: Is one variety, is spoken much more widely, forming the third most commonly spoken language in the world, after Mandarin and English . The syntax (grammar), morphology , and the core vocabulary of Urdu and Hindi are essentially identical – thus linguists usually count them as one single language, while some contend that they are considered as two different languages for socio-political reasons. Owing to interaction with other languages, Urdu has become localised wherever it
7175-593: Is read and written as in other parts of India. A number of daily newspapers and several monthly magazines in Urdu are published in these states. Dhakaiya Urdu is a dialect native to the city of Old Dhaka in Bangladesh , dating back to the Mughal era . However, its popularity, even among native speakers, has been gradually declining since the Bengali Language Movement in the 20th century. It
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7350-552: Is said to have arisen as the "language of the camp", or " Zaban-i-Ordu " means " Language of High camps " or natively " Lashkari Zaban " means " Language of Army " even though term Urdu held different meanings at that time. It is recorded that Aurangzeb spoke in Hindvi, which was most likely Persianized, as there are substantial evidence that Hindvi was written in the Persian script in this period. During this time period Urdu
7525-729: Is spoken by large numbers of migrant South Asian workers in the major urban centres of the Persian Gulf countries. Urdu is also spoken by large numbers of immigrants and their children in the major urban centres of the United Kingdom , the United States, Canada, Germany, New Zealand, Norway, and Australia. Along with Arabic , Urdu is among the immigrant languages with the most speakers in Catalonia . Religious and social atmospheres in early nineteenth century India played
7700-492: Is spoken, including in Pakistan. Urdu in Pakistan has undergone changes and has incorporated and borrowed many words from regional languages, thus allowing speakers of the language in Pakistan to distinguish themselves more easily and giving the language a decidedly Pakistani flavor. Similarly, the Urdu spoken in India can also be distinguished into many dialects such as the Standard Urdu of Lucknow and Delhi , as well as
7875-527: Is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan , where it is also an official language alongside English . In India , Urdu is an Eighth Schedule language , the status and cultural heritage of which are recognised by the Constitution of India ; and it also has an official status in several Indian states. In Nepal , Urdu is a registered regional dialect and in South Africa , it
8050-684: Is the paradigmatic ethnographic instance of social classification based on castes . It has its origins in ancient India , and was transformed by various ruling elites in medieval , early-modern, and modern India, especially in the aftermath of the collapse of the Mughal Empire and the establishment of the British Raj . It is today the basis of affirmative action programmes in India as enforced through its constitution . The caste system consists of two different concepts, varna and jati , which may be regarded as different levels of analysis of this system. The caste system as it exists today
8225-608: Is thought to be the result of developments during the collapse of the Mughal era and the rise of the British colonial government in India. The British Raj furthered this development, making rigid caste organisation a central mechanism of administration. Between 1860 and 1920, the British incorporated the Indian caste system into their system of governance, granting administrative jobs and senior appointments only to Christians and people belonging to certain castes. Social unrest during
8400-711: Is to protect the oppressed from the aggression of the oppressors". According to scholars, the Khatri Hindus dominated the weaving industry in Benaras. When the first caravan of Muslim weavers arrived in Benaras , the Khatri, who were considered low-caste Hindus at the time, helped them. The Muslims had to depend on the Khatri weavers because the Muslims found it difficult to interact with the high-caste Hindus directly at
8575-481: Is used in education , literature , office and court business, although in practice, English is used instead of Urdu in the higher echelons of government. Article 251(1) of the Pakistani Constitution mandates that Urdu be implemented as the sole language of government, though English continues to be the most widely used language at the higher echelons of Pakistani government. Urdu is also one of
8750-575: The Bombay , Bengal , Orissa , and Hyderabad State as well. Before independence, Muslim League leader Muhammad Ali Jinnah advocated the use of Urdu, which he used as a symbol of national cohesion in Pakistan. After the Bengali language movement and the separation of former East Pakistan , Urdu was recognised as the sole national language of Pakistan in 1973, although English and regional languages were also granted official recognition. Following
8925-671: The Central Hindi Directorate was established earlier in 1960, and the promotion of Hindi is better funded and more advanced, while the status of Urdu has been undermined by the promotion of Hindi. Private Indian organisations such as the Anjuman-e-Tariqqi Urdu, Deeni Talimi Council and Urdu Mushafiz Dasta promote the use and preservation of Urdu, with the Anjuman successfully launching a campaign that reintroduced Urdu as an official language of Bihar in
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#17327913501529100-687: The Dakhni ( Deccan ) of South India. Because of Urdu's similarity to Hindi , speakers of the two languages can easily understand one another if both sides refrain from using literary vocabulary. Although Urdu is widely spoken and understood throughout all of Pakistan, only 9% of Pakistan's population spoke Urdu according to the 2023 Pakistani census . Most of the nearly three million Afghan refugees of different ethnic origins (such as Pashtun , Tajik , Uzbek , Hazarvi , and Turkmen ) who stayed in Pakistan for over twenty-five years have also become fluent in Urdu. Muhajirs since 1947 have historically formed
9275-527: The Devanagari and Latin script ( Roman Urdu ) to allow its survival, or whether this will only hasten its demise and that the language can only be preserved if expressed in the Perso-Arabic script. For Pakistan, Willoughby & Aftab (2020) argued that Urdu originally had the image of a refined elite language of the Enlightenment, progress and emancipation, which contributed to the success of
9450-527: The Ilm Pakistan movement, with a uniform curriculum in Urdish. Ahsan Iqbal , Federal Minister of Pakistan, said "Now the government is working on a new curriculum to provide a new medium to the students which will be the combination of both Urdu and English and will name it Urdish." Standard Urdu is often compared with Standard Hindi . Both Urdu and Hindi, which are considered standard registers of
9625-411: The Indologist , agrees that there has been no universally accepted definition of "caste". For example, for some early European documenters it was thought to correspond with the endogamous varnas referred to in ancient Indian scripts, and its meaning corresponds in the sense of estates . To later Europeans of the Raj era it was endogamous jatis , rather than varnas , that represented caste , such as
9800-450: The Khariboli dialect of the Delhi region). Dakhni (also known as Dakani, Deccani, Desia, Mirgan) is spoken in Deccan region of southern India . It is distinct by its mixture of vocabulary from Marathi and Konkani , as well as some vocabulary from Arabic, Persian and Chagatai that are not found in the standard dialect of Urdu. Dakhini is widely spoken in all parts of Maharashtra , Telangana , Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka . Urdu
9975-419: The Khyber pass . Others such as Mokham Chand commanded the Sikh Army against the Durrani Empire at Attock while those such as Sawan Mal Chopra ruled Multan after wrestling it from the Afghans. During the British colonial era, they also served as lawyers and engaged in administrative jobs in the colonial bureaucracy. Some of them served in the British Indian army after being raised as Sikhs. During
10150-719: The Param Vir Chakra . The word khatri , in the Hindi Language , comes from the Sanskrit " kshatriya ", according to the Śabdasāgara Lexicon by Shyamasundara Dasa. According to B. N. Puri , philologists agree that the terms "khatri" and "kshatriya" are synonymous. The Sanskrit conjunct ksha (क्ष) turns into the Prakrit kha (ख), as per the grammarian Vararuchi . This change is not only accepted in Prakrit, but in all Indian vernaculars derived by it, such as Gujarati , Urdu , Gurumukhi as well as Farsi or Persian . Certain Sanskrit words have very close counterparts, such as: kshetra (kheta), kshama (khama), laksha (lakha), and iksha (ikha). The substituition of ri (ऋ) from riya
10325-457: The Partition of British India in 1947, Khatris migrated enmasse to India from the regions that comprise modern-day Pakistan. Hindu Afghans and Sikh Afghans are predominantly of Khatri and Arora origin. Khatris have played an active role in the Indian Armed Forces since 1947, with many heading it as the Chief of Army or Admiral of the Navy . Some such as Vikram Batra and Arun Khetarpal have won India's highest wartime gallantry award,
10500-428: The Punjabi elite of Pakistan, have adopted Urdu as a mother tongue and identify with both an Urdu speaker as well as Punjabi identity. Urdu was chosen as a symbol of unity for the new state of Pakistan in 1947, because it had already served as a lingua franca among Muslims in north and northwest British India . It is written, spoken and used in all provinces/territories of Pakistan , and together with English as
10675-399: The Rigveda and, both then and later, a social ideal rather than a social reality". In contrast to the lack of details about varna system in the Rigveda , the Manusmriti includes an extensive and highly schematic commentary on the varna system, but it too provides "models rather than descriptions". Susan Bayly summarises that Manusmriti and other scriptures helped elevate Brahmins in
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#173279135015210850-525: The Rigveda was composed (1500-1200 BC), there were only two varnas in the Vedic society: arya varna and dasa varna . The distinction originally arose from tribal divisions. The Vedic people were Indo-European-speaking tribes who migrated over a period of several centuries into northern South Asia from the Bactria-Margiana , and mixed with the "indigenous Dravidic-speaking populations," but regarded themselves as superior. The Vedic tribes regarded themselves as arya (the noble ones) and
11025-399: The de jure legal status and de facto political status of Urdu, how much Urdu is used as language of instruction and chosen by students in higher education, and how the maintenance and development of Urdu is financially and institutionally supported by governments and NGOs. In India, although Urdu is not and never was used exclusively by Muslims (and Hindi never exclusively by Hindus),
11200-476: The varna verse in the Rigveda , noting that the varna therein is mentioned only once. The Purusha Sukta verse is now generally considered to have been inserted at a later date into the Rigveda , probably as a charter myth . Stephanie Jamison and Joel Brereton, professors of Sanskrit and Religious studies, state, "there is no evidence in the Rigveda for an elaborate, much-subdivided and overarching caste system", and "the varna system seems to be embryonic in
11375-401: The varnas , he asks. The Mahabharata then declares, "There is no distinction of varnas . This whole universe is Brahman . It was created formerly by Brahma , came to be classified by acts." The epic then recites a behavioural model for varna , that those who were inclined to anger, pleasures and boldness attained the Kshatriya varna ; those who were inclined to cattle rearing and living off
11550-410: The varnas . He concludes that "If caste is defined as a system of group within the class, which are normally endogamous, commensal and craft-exclusive, we have no real evidence of its existence until comparatively late times." The Vedic texts neither mention the concept of untouchable people nor any practice of untouchability. The rituals in the Vedas ask the noble or king to eat with the commoner from
11725-409: The 1840s. In Mandvi , the silk products were highly valued and the Khatri dyers would work in the pits on the bank of the river Rukmavati because the water was supposed to have special properties to give steadfast colours. These products were often exported to east Africa. In Dhamadka, Kutch , "block printing cloth" was the traditional occupation of the Khatri men since the seventeenth century. In
11900-439: The 18th century and two similar standard forms came into existence in Delhi and Lucknow . Since the partition of India in 1947, a third standard has arisen in the Pakistani city of Karachi . Deccani , an older form used in southern India , became a court language of the Deccan sultanates by the 16th century. Urdu has a few recognised dialects, including Dakhni , Dhakaiya , Rekhta , and Modern Vernacular Urdu (based on
12075-416: The 1920s led to a change in this policy. Caste was no longer used by the colonial authority to functionally organize civil society. This reflected changes in administrative practices, understandings of expertise, and the rise of new European scholarly institutions. After the 1920s, the colonial administration began a policy of positive discrimination by reserving a certain percentage of government jobs for
12250-421: The 1950s (particularly those in East Pakistan , where Bengali was the dominant language), challenged the idea of Urdu as a national symbol and its practicality as the lingua franca . The significance of Urdu as a national symbol was downplayed by these disputes when English and Bengali were also accepted as official languages in the former East Pakistan (now Bangladesh ). Urdu is the sole national, and one of
12425-479: The 1960s, the Urdu lobby and eventually the Urdu language in Pakistan has been associated with religious Islamism and political national conservatism (and eventually the lower and lower-middle classes, alongside regional languages such as Punjabi, Sindhi, and Balochi), while English has been associated with the internationally oriented secular and progressive left (and eventually the upper and upper-middle classes). Despite governmental attempts at Urduisation of Pakistan,
12600-663: The 1970s. In the former Jammu and Kashmir state , section 145 of the Kashmir Constitution stated: "The official language of the State shall be Urdu but the English language shall unless the Legislature by law otherwise provides, continue to be used for all the official purposes of the State for which it was being used immediately before the commencement of the Constitution." Urdu became a literary language in
12775-637: The 1979 Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan and subsequent arrival of millions of Afghan refugees who have lived in Pakistan for many decades, many Afghans, including those who moved back to Afghanistan, have also become fluent in Hindi-Urdu, an occurrence aided by exposure to the Indian media, chiefly Hindi-Urdu Bollywood films and songs. There have been attempts to purge Urdu of native Prakrit and Sanskrit words, and Hindi of Persian loanwords – new vocabulary draws primarily from Persian and Arabic for Urdu and from Sanskrit for Hindi. English has exerted
12950-411: The 2,378 jatis that colonial administrators classified by occupation in the early 20th century. Arvind Sharma , a professor of comparative religion , notes that caste has been used synonymously to refer to both varna and jati but that "serious Indologists now observe considerable caution in this respect" because, while related, the concepts are considered to be distinct. In this he agrees with
13125-695: The 20th century and hence were not comparable to merchant groups like Banias in terms of scale and spread of operation. Before independence they were only regional players and their rise in phenomenal proportions was a post-independence feature. Since then, they have produced leading entities in fields of pharmaceuticals, two-wheelers, tractors, paper, tyre-making and hotels with the groups of Ranbaxy , Hero , Mahindra , Ballarpur Industries , Apollo Tyres and Oberoi respectively. They have also co-founded companies like Snapdeal , Hotmail , YesBank , IndiaToday , AajTak , IndiGo Airlines , Sun Microsystems , Max Group etc. Punjabi Khatris and others, together with
13300-531: The 3,000 or more castes of modern India had evolved from the four primitive classes, and the term 'caste' was applied indiscriminately to both varna or class, and jati or caste proper. This is a false terminology; castes rise and fall in the social scale, and old castes die out and new ones are formed, but the four great classes are stable. There are never more or less than four and for over 2,000 years their order of precedence has not altered." The sociologist André Beteille notes that, while varna mainly played
13475-543: The Brahmin took food from anyone, suggesting that strictures of commensality were as yet unknown. The Nikaya texts also imply that endogamy was not mandated. The contestations of the period are also evident from the texts describing dialogues of Buddha with the Brahmins. The Brahmins maintain their divinely ordained superiority and assert their right to draw service from the lower orders. Buddha responds by pointing out
13650-586: The British, after a deal was struck between the Khatris and the East India Company , in which the Khatris would weave only for the EIC until certain quotas were met. The Gujarat Sultanate (1407–1523) was a medieval Muslim dynasty founded by Zafar Khan Muzaffar , a member of the Tank caste of Punjabi Khatris according to the contemporary historian Shiekh Sikander or Rajputs. He started as a menial but rose to
13825-594: The Capital was relocated to Delhi and named Shahjahanabad and the Bazar of the town was named Urdu e Muallah. In the Akbar era the word Rekhta was used to describe Urdu for the first time. It was originally a Persian word that meant "to create a mixture". Amir Khusrau was the first person to use the same word for Poetry. Before the standardisation of Urdu into colonial administration, British officers often referred to
14000-708: The Commander-in-chief of the Sikh Khalsa Army . He led the Sikh conquests of Kasur , Sialkot , Attock , Multan , Kashmir , Peshawar and Jamrud . He was responsible for expanding the frontier of Sikh Empire to beyond the Indus River , up to the mouth of the Khyber Pass . At the time of his death, the western boundary of the empire was Jamrud. Dewan Mokham Chand (1750-1814) became one of
14175-648: The Delhi region of India the native language was Khariboli , whose earliest form is known as Old Hindi (or Hindavi). It belongs to the Western Hindi group of the Central Indo-Aryan languages. The contact of Hindu and Muslim cultures during the period of Islamic conquests in the Indian subcontinent (12th to 16th centuries) led to the development of Hindustani as a product of a composite Ganga-Jamuni tehzeeb . In cities such as Delhi,
14350-426: The English liked to use the name "Moors" for Urdu: I have a deep knowledge [ je possède à fond ] of the common tongue of India, called Moors by the English, and Ourdouzebain by the natives of the land. Several works of Sufi writers like Ashraf Jahangir Semnani used similar names for the Urdu language. Shah Abdul Qadir Raipuri was the first person who translated The Quran into Urdu. During Shahjahan's time,
14525-636: The Heathens, or from the Persians, or other Nations. In 1715, a complete literary Diwan in Rekhta was written by Nawab Sadruddin Khan . An Urdu-Persian dictionary was written by Khan-i Arzu in 1751 in the reign of Ahmad Shah Bahadur . The name Urdu was first introduced by the poet Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi around 1780. As a literary language, Urdu took shape in courtly, elite settings. While Urdu retained
14700-462: The Indian government do not actively support the preservation of Urdu in professional and official spaces. Because the Pakistani government proclaimed Urdu the national language at Partition, the Indian state and some religious nationalists began in part to regard Urdu as a 'foreign' language, to be viewed with suspicion. Urdu advocates in India disagree whether it should be allowed to write Urdu in
14875-550: The Indologist Arthur Basham , who noted that the Portuguese colonists of India used casta to describe ... tribes, clans or families. The name stuck and became the usual word for the Hindu social group. In attempting to account for the remarkable proliferation of castes in 18th- and 19th-century India, authorities credulously accepted the traditional view that by a process of intermarriage and subdivision
15050-533: The Khatris, Kashmiri Brahmins and Kayasthas took readily to learning Persian from the times of Sikandar Lodi onwards and found ready employment in the Imperial Services, specifically in the departments of accountancy (siyaq), draftsmanship (insha) and offices of the revenue minister (diwan). In the 15th century, the Sikh religion was founded by Guru Nanak , a Bedi Khatri. The second guru, Guru Angad
15225-705: The Kshatriyas are given a special position in the rituals, distinguishing them from both the Vaishyas and the Shudras. The Vaishya is said to be "oppressed at will" and the Shudra "beaten at will." Knowledge of this period is supplemented by Pali Buddhist texts. Whereas the Brahmanical texts speak of the four-fold varna system, the Buddhist texts present an alternative picture of the society, stratified along
15400-622: The Mughals went to significant lengths to assert that allegiance in the face of accusations that they were in fact favouring " Jat Sikh followers of the rebel leader, Banda ". The outcome of their assertions - which included providing financial support to the Mughals and shaving their beards - was that the Khatris became still more important to the Mughal rulers as administrators at various levels, in particular because of their skills in financial management and their connections with bankers. Khatri standards of literacy and caste status were such during
15575-567: The Punjabi word " khattrī ", meaning "warrior", derives from Sanskrit " kṣatriya ", whereas the Gujarati word " khātrī ", meaning "a caste of Hindu weavers", derives from Sanskrit " kṣattr̥ ", meaning "carver, distributor". John Stratton Hawley and Mann clarify that although the word "Khatri" derives from the word "Kshatriya", in Punjab's context Khatri refers to a "cluster of merchant castes including Bedis, Bhallas and Sodhis". Purnima Dhavan sees
15750-579: The South Indian Tamil literature from the Sangam period (3rd BCE-3rd c.CE). This theory discards the Indo-Aryan varna model as the basis of caste, and is centred on the ritual power of the king, who was "supported by a group of ritual and magical specialists of low social status," with their ritual occupations being considered 'polluted'. According to Hart, it may be this model that provided
15925-463: The State twice. In Hyderabad , around the mid-20th century, Khatris and Padmasalis were the leading "Hindu weaving castes" who owned 43% of the looms . The Khatris specialised in silk, while the Padmasalis in cotton weaving. In Gujarat , during the colonial rule, Khatris contributed greatly to the weaving industry there. They as well as the Muslim and Kunbi weavers purchased imported yarn in
16100-445: The absorption of vocabulary from various regional Pakistani languages, while some Urdu vocabularies has also been assimilated by Pakistan's regional languages. Some who are from a non-Urdu background now can read and write only Urdu. With such a large number of people(s) speaking Urdu, the language has acquired a peculiar Pakistani flavor further distinguishing it from the Urdu spoken by native speakers, resulting in more diversity within
16275-538: The addition of the Shudras is probably a Brahmanical invention from northern India. The varna system is propounded in revered Hindu religious texts, and understood as idealised human callings. The Purusha Sukta of the Rigveda and Manusmriti ' s comment on it, being the oft-cited texts. Counter to these textual classifications, many revered Hindu texts and doctrines question and disagree with this system of social classification. Scholars have questioned
16450-459: The ancient language Old Hindi began to acquire many Persian loanwords and continued to be called "Hindi" and later, also "Hindustani". An early literary tradition of Hindavi was founded by Amir Khusrau in the late 13th century. After the conquest of the Deccan , and a subsequent immigration of noble Muslim families into the south, a form of the language flourished in medieval India as
16625-512: The autobiography of the last Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh , but possibly not so, the Bedi sub-caste of the Khatris derives its lineage from Kush , the son of Rama (according to Hindu epic Ramayana ). Similarly, according to the same legend, the Sodhi sub-caste claims descent from Lav , the other son of Rama. In Guru Granth Sahib , the primary scripture of Sikhism , Khatri is mentioned as one among
16800-464: The basic facts of biological birth common to all men and asserts that the ability to draw service is obtained economically, not by divine right. Using the example of the northwest of the subcontinent, Buddha points out that aryas could become dasas and vice versa. This form of social mobility was endorsed by Buddha. According to Moorjani et al. (2013), endogamy set in after 100 CE. According to Basu et al. (2016), admixture between populations
16975-465: The caste system is also practiced in Bali . After achieving independence in 1947, India enacted many affirmative action policies for the upliftment of historically marginalized groups as enforced through its constitution. These policies included reserving a quota of places for these groups in higher education and government employment. Varna , meaning type, order, colour, or class are
17150-482: The cataclysmic Partition , which pushed them in droves towards Delhi and its neighbourhoods. This exodus opened new opportunities for them. A combination of enterprise, articulation, and strategic closeness to the national capital— which, in itself, was becoming a major growth hub - created conditions for Khatri capital to flourish in the post-Partition period. Damodaran adds that the land Khatris originally belonged to had very little industry and rail infrastructure until
17325-461: The city. Historian Stephen Dale states that most of the 10,000 (as estimated by Jean Chardin ) Indian merchants and money-lenders in Isfahan (Iran) in 1670, belonged to the Khatri caste of Punjab and north-west India. In Iran's Bazaar 's, Khatris sold cloth and various items and also practised money-lending. Dale believes that Khatris had possibly been travelling from Punjab via caravans since
17500-716: The claim as originating from a conflation of the phonetically similar words khatri and kshatriya, but refers to Khatris as a "trading caste" of the Sikh Gurus. Baij Nath Puri mentions that the modern descendants of these Kathaiois, Khathrois & Khatriaoi tribes mentioned by the Greeks in West Punjab are the Khatris of India. According to S. Sasikanta Sastri , Greek historians have mentioned that Alexander faced stiffed resistance from Indian army of "Kathiyo" warriors. Sastri further adds that "even in present day modern-India,
17675-418: The colonial construction of caste led to the livening up, divisions and lobbying to the British officials for favourable caste classification in India for economic opportunities, and this had added new complexities to the concept of caste. Graham Chapman and others have reiterated the complexity, and they note that there are differences between theoretical constructs and the practical reality. Ronald Inden ,
17850-476: The concerns with "pollution" of the members of low status groups. The Hart model for caste origin, writes Samuel, envisions "the ancient Indian society consisting of a majority without internal caste divisions and a minority consisting of a number of small occupationally polluted groups". The varnas originated in late Vedic society (c. 1000–500 BCE). The first three groups, Brahmins, Kshatriyas and Vaishya, have parallels with other Indo-European societies, while
18025-599: The court language of various Indo-Islamic empires . Religious, social, and political factors arose during the European colonial period that advocated a distinction between Urdu and Hindi, leading to the Hindi–Urdu controversy . According to 2022 estimates by Ethnologue and The World Factbook , produced by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), Urdu is the 10th-most widely spoken language in
18200-586: The districts like Bardhaman , Lahore , Multan , Peshawar and Hazara , but independent from the Mughal rule. In Punjab, they were moneylenders, shopkeepers and grain-dealers among other professions. A Peshkari Khatri family in Hyderabad State would become part of the Hyderabadi nobility and occupy the post of Prime Minister of Hyderabad. Notable individuals of the family include Maharaja Kishen Prasad , GCIE who would serve as Prime Minister of
18375-533: The early 19th century, the Khatris, Bhatias and Lohanas were the main trading castes in Rajasthan , Delhi , Agra , Sind and Punjab . Banking, trading and business were considered "traditional occupations of the Khatri in Rajasthan". According to Prakash Tandon , during Khatri weddings, a ritual is carried out to test the Khatri groom's strength. The groom is supposed to slice the thick branch or stem of
18550-415: The early 21st century an increasing percentage of Indian Muslims began switching to Hindi due to socio-economic factors, such as Urdu being abandoned as the language of instruction in much of India, and having limited employment opportunities compared to Hindi, English and regional languages. The number of Urdu speakers in India fell 1.5% between 2001 and 2011 (then 5.08 million Urdu speakers), especially in
18725-476: The early years of Sikhism that, according to W. H. McLeod , they dominated it. Historian Douglas E. Hanes states that the Khatri weavers in Gujarat trace their ancestry to either Champaner ( Panch Mahals District ) or Hinglaj (Sindh) and the community genealogists believe that the migration happened during the late sixteenth' century. Suraiya Faroqhi , writes that, in 1742 Gujarat, the Khatris had protested
18900-502: The era of Ziauddin Barani (around 1300 AD). Chardin specifically stereotyped and expressed disapproval of the money-lending techniques of the Khatri community. According to Dale, this racist criticism was ironic given Chardin's non-English background but adds that it was Chardin's way of giving an "ethnic explanation" to the economic disparity between Iran and India at that time. According to Bichitra Natak , traditionally said to be
19075-411: The etymology, Hardy says that Khatri is "a mercantile class" and Desai says the Khatris were "traditionally tradesmen and government officials". Dr. Dharamvir Bharati comments that in Punjabi language, Kshatriya is pronounced as Khatri. As per Dr. GS Mansukhani and RC Dogra, "Khatri appears to be unquestionably a Prakritised form of Sanskrit word Kshatriya." According to philologist Ralph Lilley Turner ,
19250-414: The exalted camp . Earlier it was known as Hindvi, Hindi and Hindustani . Urdu, like Hindi , is a form of Hindustani language . Some linguists have suggested that the earliest forms of Urdu evolved from the medieval (6th to 13th century) Apabhraṃśa register of the preceding Shauraseni language , a Middle Indo-Aryan language that is also the ancestor of other modern Indo-Aryan languages. In
19425-544: The existence and nature of varna and jati in documents and inscriptions of medieval India. Supporting evidence has been elusive, and contradictory evidence has emerged. Urdu Urdu ( / ˈ ʊər d uː / ; اُردُو , pronounced [ʊɾduː] , ALA-LC : Urdū ) is a Persianised register of the Hindustani language , an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia . It
19600-592: The fall of the Sikh Empire in the Anglo-Sikh Wars . He was arrested after the Siege of Multan and put to death. Purnima Dhawan described that together with Jat community, the Khatris gained considerably from the expansion of the Mughal empire, although both groups supported Guru Hargobind in his campaign for Sikh self-government in the Punjab plains. In the 1830s, Khatris were working as governors in
19775-548: The four varnas . ਖਤ੍ਰੀ ਬ੍ਰਾਹਮਣ ਸੂਦ ਵੈਸ ਉਪਦੇਸੁ ਚਹੁ ਵਰਨਾ ਕਉ ਸਾਝਾ ॥ (SGGS, ang 747) Khatri brahman sud vais updesu cahu varna ku sanjha Kshatriyas , Brahmins , Shudras and Vaishyas all have the same mandate Guru Gobind Singh , said the following in a swayya : Chattri ko poot ho, Baman ko naheen kayee tap aavat ha jo karon; Ar aur janjaar jito greh ko tohe tyaag, kahan chit taan mai dharon, Ab reejh ke deh vahey humko jo-oo, hau binti kar jor karoon ; Jab aao ki audh nidaan bane, att hi ran main tab jujh maroon. I am
19950-424: The general theme. His model definition for caste included the following six characteristics: The above Ghurye's model of caste thereafter attracted scholarly criticism for relying on the census reports produced by the colonial government, the "superior, inferior" racist theories of H. H. Risley , and for fitting his definition to then prevalent orientalist perspectives on caste. Ghurye added, in 1932, that
20125-529: The grammar and core Indo-Aryan vocabulary of the local Indian dialect Khariboli, it adopted the Nastaleeq writing system – which was developed as a style of Persian calligraphy. Throughout the history of the language, Urdu has been referred to by several other names: Hindi, Hindavi, Rekhta, Urdu-e-Muallah, Dakhini , Moors and Dehlavi . In 1773, the Swiss French soldier Antoine Polier notes that
20300-408: The historical circumstances. The latter has criticised the former for its caste origin theory, claiming that it has dehistoricized and decontextualised Indian society. According to Samuel, referencing George L. Hart , central aspects of the later Indian caste system may originate from the ritual kingship system prior to the arrival of Brahmanism, Buddhism and Jainism in India. The system is seen in
20475-522: The immigration of Muslim weavers by refusing to deliver cloth to the East India Company. In another case Khatris taught weaving to Kunbis due to receiving excessive orders who soon became strong competitors to the Khatris much to their chagrin. In the mid-1770s, the Mughal governor granted the Kunbi rivals rights to manufacture saris . This licence was later revoked in 1800 due to pressure from
20650-480: The independence movement. But after the 1947 Partition , when it was chosen as the national language of Pakistan to unite all inhabitants with one linguistic identity, it faced serious competition primarily from Bengali (spoken by 56% of the total population, mostly in East Pakistan until that attained independence in 1971 as Bangladesh ), and after 1971 from English. Both pro-independence elites that formed
20825-514: The invention of colonialism , "as Dirks [and others] suggested," long-term endogamy , as embodied in modern Indian society in the institution of caste, has been "overwhelmingly important for millennia." A 2016 study based on the DNA analysis of unrelated Indians determined that endogamous jatis originated during the Gupta Empire . During the early Vedic period in northern India, when
21000-576: The land. The gahapatis were the primary taxpayers of the state. This class was apparently not defined by birth, but by individual economic growth. While there was an alignment between kulas and occupations at least at the high and low ends, there was no strict linkage between class/caste and occupation, especially among those in the middle range. Many occupations listed such as accounting and writing were not linked to jatis . Peter Masefield, in his review of caste in India, states that anyone could in principle perform any profession. The texts state that
21175-554: The language as " Moors " or "Moorish jargon". John Gilchrist was the first in British India to begin a systematic study on Urdu and began to use the term "Hindustani" what the majority of Europeans called "Moors", authoring the book The Strangers's East Indian Guide to the Hindoostanee or Grand Popular Language of India (improperly Called Moors) . Urdu was then promoted in colonial India by British policies to counter
21350-458: The language in the Perso-Arabic script in courts and government offices, though Hindus continued to employ the Devanagari script in certain literary and religious contexts. Through the late 19th century, people did not view Urdu and Hindi as being two distinct languages, though in urban areas, the standardised Hindustani language was increasingly being referred to as Urdu and written in the Perso-Arabic script. Urdu and English replaced Persian as
21525-575: The language of Bollywood films tend to contain a large number of Persian and Arabic words and thus considered to be "Urdu" in a sense, especially in songs. India has more than 3,000 Urdu publications, including 405 daily Urdu newspapers. Newspapers such as Neshat News Urdu , Sahara Urdu , Daily Salar , Hindustan Express , Daily Pasban , Siasat Daily , The Munsif Daily and Inqilab are published and distributed in Bangalore, Malegaon, Mysore, Hyderabad, and Mumbai . Outside South Asia, it
21700-883: The language. In India, Urdu is spoken in places where there are large Muslim minorities or cities that were bases for Muslim empires in the past. These include parts of Uttar Pradesh , Madhya Pradesh , Bihar , Telangana , Andhra Pradesh , Maharashtra ( Marathwada and Konkanis), Karnataka and cities such as Hyderabad , Lucknow , Delhi , Malerkotla , Bareilly , Meerut , Saharanpur , Muzaffarnagar , Roorkee , Deoband , Moradabad , Azamgarh , Bijnor , Najibabad , Rampur , Aligarh , Allahabad , Gorakhpur , Agra , Firozabad , Kanpur , Badaun , Bhopal , Hyderabad , Aurangabad , Bangalore , Kolkata , Mysore , Patna , Darbhanga , Gaya , Madhubani , Samastipur , Siwan , Saharsa , Supaul , Muzaffarpur , Nalanda , Munger , Bhagalpur , Araria , Gulbarga , Parbhani , Nanded , Malegaon , Bidar , Ajmer , and Ahmedabad . In
21875-553: The late 17th century and, in the 1830s, Elphinstone , was informed that Khatris were still highly involved in northwest India's trade and that they maintained communities throughout Afghanistan and as far away as Astrakhan ". According to Kiran Datar, they often married Tatar local women in Astrakhan and the children from these marriages were known as Agrijan . As per Stephen Dale, the children born out of Indo-Turkic alliance were in sufficient number to form an Agrizhan suburb in
22050-704: The leadership of the Muslim League in Pakistan and the Hindu-dominated Congress Party in India had been educated in English during the British colonial period, and continued to operate in English and send their children to English-medium schools as they continued dominate both countries' post-Partition politics. Although the Anglicized elite in Pakistan has made attempts at Urduisation of education with varying degrees of success, no successful attempts were ever made to Urduise politics,
22225-466: The legal system, the army, or the economy, all of which remained solidly Anglophone. Even the regime of general Zia-ul-Haq (1977–1988), who came from a middle-class Punjabi family and initially fervently supported a rapid and complete Urduisation of Pakistani society (earning him the honorary title of the 'Patron of Urdu' in 1981), failed to make significant achievements, and by 1987 had abandoned most of his efforts in favour of pro-English policies. Since
22400-559: The level of a noble in the Delhi Sultan's family and became the Governor of Gujrat. After Timur attacked the city, people fled to Gujarat and it became independent. According to historians Roger Ballard and Harjot Oberoi , Afghan Hindus and Sikhs descend from the members of the country's indigenous Khatri population who resisted the conversion from Buddhism to Islam between 9th and 13th centuries. Later, they aligned themselves to
22575-473: The lines of jati , kula and occupation. It is likely that the varna system, while being a part of the Brahmanical ideology, was not practically operative in the society. In the Buddhist texts, Brahmin and Kshatriya are described as jatis rather than varnas . They were in fact the jatis of high rank. The jatis of low rank were mentioned as chandala and occupational classes like bamboo weavers, hunters, chariot-makers and sweepers. The concept of kulas
22750-454: The lower castes are more similar to Asians. There is no evidence of restrictions regarding food and marriage during the Vedic period. According to Moorjani et al. (2013), co-authored by Reich, extensive admixture took place between 2200 BCE and 100 CE (4200 to 1900 before present), whereafter India shifted to "a region in which mixture was rare." In southern India, endogamy may have set in
22925-641: The lower castes. In 1948, negative discrimination on the basis of caste was banned by law and further enshrined in the Indian constitution in 1950; however, the system continues to be practiced in parts of India. There are 3,000 castes and 25,000 sub-castes in India, each related to a specific occupation. Caste-based differences have also been practised in other regions and religions in the Indian subcontinent , like Nepalese Buddhism, Christianity , Islam , Judaism and Sikhism . It has been challenged by many reformist Hindu movements, Sikhism, Christianity, and present-day Neo Buddhism . With Indian influences,
23100-404: The main languages of instruction, although the people from differing provinces may have different native languages. Urdu is taught as a compulsory subject up to higher secondary school in both English and Urdu medium school systems, which has produced millions of second-language Urdu speakers among people whose native language is one of the other languages of Pakistan – which in turn has led to
23275-505: The majority of Khatris and were deemed superior. This was followed by Sareen Khatris who formed a minority. Another sub-group of Khatris include Khukhrain which had split up from the bunjayees . (Bunjahis) Emperor Jahangir in his autobiography Jahangirnama while talking about the castes, he observed "The second highest caste (after Brahmins in the caste system) is the Chhatri which is also known as Khattri. The Chhatri caste's purpose
23450-457: The majority population in the city of Karachi , however. Many newspapers are published in Urdu in Pakistan, including the Daily Jang , Nawa-i-Waqt , and Millat . No region in Pakistan uses Urdu as its mother tongue, though it is spoken as the first language of Muslim migrants (known as Muhajirs ) in Pakistan who left India after independence in 1947. Other communities, most notably
23625-566: The medieval period, with the Gurumukhi script used in writing the Punjabi language deriving from a standardised form of the Lāṇḍa script used by Khatri traders; the invention of the script is traditionally ascribed to Guru Angad . During the medieval period, with the rise of Persian as an elite vernacular due to Islamic rule, some of the traditional high status upper-caste literate elite such as
23800-490: The members of the tribe) and the new elite classes of Brahmins (priests) and Kshatriyas (warriors) are designated as new varnas . The Shudras were not only the erstwhile dasas but also included the aboriginal tribes that were assimilated into the Aryan society as it expanded into Gangetic settlements. This class-distinction is still reflected in the fact that the upper castes have a higher genetic affinity to Europeans, while
23975-403: The most Urdu-speaking states of Uttar Pradesh (c. 8% to 5%) and Bihar (c. 11.5% to 8.5%), even though the number of Muslims in these two states grew in the same period. Although Urdu is still very prominent in early 21st-century Indian pop culture, ranging from Bollywood to social media, knowledge of the Urdu script and the publication of books in Urdu have steadily declined, while policies of
24150-564: The most alive language and moving ahead with times" in India. This phenomenon pertains to the decrease in relative and absolute numbers of native Urdu speakers as opposed to speakers of other languages; declining (advanced) knowledge of Urdu's Perso-Arabic script, Urdu vocabulary and grammar; the role of translation and transliteration of literature from and into Urdu; the shifting cultural image of Urdu and socio-economic status associated with Urdu speakers (which negatively impacts especially their employment opportunities in both countries),
24325-571: The most distinguished leaders of the Khalsa Army. He was the commander in chief of armies in Battle of Attock which defeated Durrani Empire Wazir Fateh Khan and Dost Mohammad Khan Other Khatris like Diwan Sawan Mal Chopra served as governors of Lahore and Multan , after helping conquer the region while his son Diwan Mulraj Chopra , (1814-1851) the last Punjabi ruler of Multan led a Sikh rebellion against British suzerainty over Multan after
24500-461: The official languages in northern parts of India in 1837. In colonial Indian Islamic schools, Muslims were taught Persian and Arabic as the languages of Indo-Islamic civilisation ; the British, in order to promote literacy among Indian Muslims and attract them to attend government schools, started to teach Urdu written in the Perso-Arabic script in these governmental educational institutions and after this time, Urdu began to be seen by Indian Muslims as
24675-475: The officially recognised languages in India and also has the status of "additional official language" in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh , Uttar Pradesh , Bihar , Jharkhand , West Bengal , Telangana and the national capital territory Delhi . Also as one of the five official languages of Jammu and Kashmir . India established the governmental Bureau for the Promotion of Urdu in 1969, although
24850-438: The ongoing Hindi–Urdu controversy and modern cultural association of each language with the two religions has led to fewer Hindus using Urdu. In the 20th century, Indian Muslims gradually began to collectively embrace Urdu (for example, 'post-independence Muslim politics of Bihar saw a mobilisation around the Urdu language as tool of empowerment for minorities especially coming from weaker socio-economic backgrounds' ), but in
25025-432: The overwhelming focus in matters relating to purity/impurity in the Dharma-sastra texts concerns "individuals irrespective of their varna affiliation" and all four varnas could attain purity or impurity by the content of their character, ethical intent, actions, innocence or ignorance (acts by children), stipulations, and ritualistic behaviours. Dumont, in his later publications, acknowledged that ancient varna hierarchy
25200-402: The past and for many though not all Indians in more modern times, those born into a given caste would normally expect to find marriage partner" within their jati . A 2016 study based on the DNA analysis of unrelated Indians determined that endogamous jatis originated during the Gupta Empire . Jatis have existed in India among Hindus, Muslims, Christians, and tribal people, and there
25375-630: The plough attained the Vaishya varna ; those who were fond of violence, covetousness and impurity attained the Shudra varna . The Brahmin class is modeled in the epic as the archetype default state of man dedicated to truth, austerity and pure conduct. In the Mahabharata and pre-medieval era Hindu texts, according to Hiltebeitel, "it is important to recognise, in theory, varna is nongenealogical. The four varnas are not lineages, but categories". Scholars have tried to locate historical evidence for
25550-518: The position and prestige of English only grew stronger in the meantime. There are over 100 million native speakers of Urdu in India and Pakistan together: there were 50.8 million Urdu speakers in India (4.34% of the total population) as per the 2011 census; and approximately 16 million in Pakistan in 2006. There are several hundred thousand in the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, United States, and Bangladesh . However, Hindustani, of which Urdu
25725-484: The previous emphasis on Persian. In colonial India, "ordinary Muslims and Hindus alike spoke the same language in the United Provinces in the nineteenth century, namely Hindustani, whether called by that name or whether called Hindi, Urdu, or one of the regional dialects such as Braj or Awadhi ." Elites from Muslim communities, as well as a minority of Hindu elites, such as Munshis of Hindu origin, wrote
25900-528: The question of rigidity in caste and believe that there is considerable flexibility and mobility in the caste hierarchies. There are at least two perspectives for the origins of the caste system in ancient and medieval India, which focus on either ideological factors or on socio-economic factors. The first school has focused on religious anthropology and disregarded other historical evidence as secondary or derivative of this tradition. The second school has focused on sociological evidence and sought to understand
26075-427: The rival tribes were called dasa , dasyu and pani . The dasas were frequent allies of the Aryan tribes, and they were probably assimilated into the Aryan society, giving rise to a class distinction. Many dasas were, however, in a servile position, giving rise to the eventual meaning of dasa as servant or slave. The Rigvedic society was not distinguished by occupations. Many husbandmen and artisans practised
26250-430: The role of caste in classical Hindu literature, it is jati that plays that role in present times. Varna represents a closed collection of social orders whereas jati is entirely open-ended, thought of as a "natural kind whose members share a common substance." Any number of new jatis can be added depending on need, such as tribes, sects, denominations, religious or linguistic minorities and nationalities. Thus, "Caste"
26425-466: The same group, the "only explanation" for which is the pairs of individuals descended from ancestors in the last few thousands of years who carried that DNA segment. Since the average size of the DNA segments reveals how long ago in the past the shared ancestors lived, the study of a data set of more than 250 jati groups, spread throughout India, provided results that, according to the researchers, "told
26600-646: The same language, Hindustani (or Hindi-Urdu), share a core vocabulary and grammar . Apart from religious associations, the differences are largely restricted to the standard forms : Standard Urdu is conventionally written in the Nastaliq style of the Persian alphabet and relies heavily on Persian and Arabic as a source for technical and literary vocabulary, whereas Standard Hindi is conventionally written in Devanāgarī and draws on Sanskrit . However, both share
26775-468: The same vessel. Later Vedic texts ridicule some professions, but the concept of untouchability is not found in them. The post-Vedic texts, particularly Manusmriti mentions outcastes and suggests that they be ostracised. Recent scholarship states that the discussion of outcastes in post-Vedic texts is different from the system widely discussed in colonial era Indian literature, and in Dumont's structural theory on caste system in India. Patrick Olivelle ,
26950-414: The social hierarchy and these were a factor in the making of the varna system, but the ancient texts did not in some way "create the phenomenon of caste" in India. Jeaneane Fowler, a professor of philosophy and religious studies, states that it is impossible to determine how and why the jatis came into existence. Susan Bayly, on the other hand, suggests that the jati system emerged because it offered
27125-431: The son of a Chhatri (Khatri), not of a Brahmin and I will live according to my Dharma . All other complications of life are meaningless for me, and I set my heart on the path of righteousness. I humbly beseech thee God Almighty that when the time comes for me to fulfill my Dharma, may I die with honour in the field of battle. French traveller Thevenot visited India during the 1600s where he commented "At Multan , there
27300-583: The style of Urdu spoken on a day-to-day basis in Pakistan is akin to neutral Hindustani that serves as the lingua franca of the northern Indian subcontinent. Since at least 1977, some commentators such as journalist Khushwant Singh have characterised Urdu as a "dying language", though others, such as Indian poet and writer Gulzar (who is popular in both countries and both language communities, but writes only in Urdu (script) and has difficulties reading Devanagari, so he lets others 'transcribe' his work) have disagreed with this assessment and state that Urdu "is
27475-421: The surprising arguments of fresh scholarship, based on inscriptional and other contemporaneous evidence, is that until relatively recent centuries, social organisation in much of the subcontinent was little touched by the four varnas . Nor were jati the building blocks of society." According to Basham, ancient Indian literature refers often to varnas , but hardly if ever to jatis as a system of groups within
27650-515: The teachings of Guru Nanak, himself a Khatri and converted to Sikhism. Hence, Khatris of Afghanistan are in no way of "Indian origin" but are components of the original population of the region. George Campbell says "I do not know the exact limits of Khatri occupation to the West, but certainly in all Eastern Afghanistan they seem to be just as much part of the community as they are in the Punjab. They find their way into Central Asia." The Khatris took on
27825-455: The term caste as a static phenomenon of stereotypical tradition-bound India, empirical facts suggest caste has been a radically changing feature. The term means different things to different Indians. In the context of politically active modern India, where job and school quotas are reserved for affirmative action based on castes, the term has become a sensitive and controversial subject. Sociologists such as M. N. Srinivas and Damle have debated
28000-515: The time. Since these new immigrant Muslims were cheap labour, the Khatris took over marketing and thus transited from weavers to traders over time. The Muslims, who learned the technique of weaving from them, soon came to be known as Chira-i-Baaf or 'fine cloth weavers'. In Bengal, Burdwan Raj (1657–1955) was a Khatri dynasty, which gained a high social position for Khatris in the region resulting in greater migration of Khatris from North to Bengal. When Guru Tegh Bahadur visited Bengal in 1666, he
28175-416: The traditionally "urban and professional" castes, formed a part of the elite middle class immediately after independence in 1947. According to P. K. Verma, "Education was a common thread that bound together this pan Indian elite" and almost all the members of these upper castes communities could read and write English and were educated beyond school. Caste system in India The caste system in India
28350-408: The two languages' mutual intelligibility effectively decreases as the factor of formality increases. Urdu originated in the area of the Ganges-Yamuna Doab , though significant development occurred in the Deccan Plateau . In 1837, Urdu became an official language of the British East India Company , replacing Persian across northern India during Company rule ; Persian had until this point served as
28525-425: The two official languages of Pakistan (along with English). It is spoken and understood throughout the country, whereas the state-by-state languages (languages spoken throughout various regions) are the provincial languages , although only 7.57% of Pakistanis speak Urdu as their first language. Its official status has meant that Urdu is understood and spoken widely throughout Pakistan as a second or third language. It
28700-464: The use of Persian and started using Marathi in the Deccan. According to McLane, them being a trading group, had spread into many parts of India, possibly long before the 1700s and to Bengal, possibly even before the Mughals arrived. According to a 17th-century legend, Khatris continued their military service until the time of Aurangzeb , when their mass death during the emperor's Deccan Campaign caused him to order their widows to be remarried . The order
28875-611: The wildest tribes. They are wholly occupied in trade and form numerous portion of the population of all the cities and towns, and are also to be found in the majority of large villages." Apart from Punjab , Khatris arrived in Delhi and Haryana among other regions after the partition where they make up 9% and 8.0% of the population respectively. Historically, Khatris were divided into various hierarchal endogamous sections. This includes u rhai/dhai ghar , char ghar , barah ghar/bahri and bunjayee or bavanjah ghar which translated to House of 2.5, 4, 12 and 52 respectively. They formed
29050-455: The world , with 230 million total speakers, including those who speak it as a second language . The name Urdu was first used by the poet Ghulam Hamadani Mushafi around 1780 for Hindustani language even though he himself also used Hindavi term in his poetry to define the language. Ordu means army in the Turkic languages . In late 18th century, it was known as Zaban-e-Urdu-e-Mualla زبانِ اُرْدُوئے مُعَلّٰی means language of
29225-457: Was "rapidly replaced by endogamy [...] among upper castes and Indo-European speakers predominantly[...] almost simultaneously, possibly by decree of the rulers, in upper-caste populations of all geographical regions, about 70 generations before present, probably during the reign (319–550 CE) of the ardent Hindu Gupta rulers." Johannes Bronkhorst , referring to Basu et al. (2016) and Moorjani et al. (2013) states that "it seems safe to conclude that
29400-426: Was a Trehan Khatri. The third guru, Guru Amar Das was a Bhalla Khatri. The fourth through tenth gurus were all Sodhi Khatris. During the Sikh Empire , many Khatris formed the military vanguard of the Khalsa Army and its administrative class as Dewans of all the provinces. Hari Singh Nalwa , the commander-in-chief of the Sikh Khalsa Army, was an Uppal Khatri and responsible for most of the Sikh conquests up until
29575-586: Was broadly similar. Along with Brahmins and Kshatriyas, a class called gahapatis (literally householders, but effectively propertied classes) was also included among high kulas . The people of high kulas were engaged in occupations of high rank, viz ., agriculture, trade, cattle-keeping, computing, accounting and writing, and those of low kulas were engaged in low-ranked occupations such as basket-weaving and sweeping. The gahapatis were an economic class of land-holding agriculturists, who employed dasa-kammakaras (slaves and hired labourers) to work on
29750-425: Was intentioned as means of unification for Muslims in Northern India and later Pakistan, it adopted a modified Perso-Arabic script. Urdu continued its role in developing a Pakistani identity as the Islamic Republic of Pakistan was established with the intent to construct a homeland for the Muslims of Colonial India. Several languages and dialects spoken throughout the regions of Pakistan produced an imminent need for
29925-487: Was made out of sympathy for the widows but when the Khatri community leaders refused to obey it, Aurangzeb terminated their military service and said that they should be shopkeepers and brokers. This legend is probably fanciful: McLane notes that a more likely explanation for their revised position was that a Sikh rebellion against the Mughals in the early 1700s severely compromised the Khatri's ability to trade and forced them to take sides. Those who were primarily dependent on
30100-399: Was not based on purity-impurity ranking principle, and that the Vedic literature is devoid of the untouchability concept. In the 21st century, advances genetics research enabled biologists and geneticists to study the antiquity of castes in India. In studying the degree of differentiation of each jati with all others on the basis of differences of mutation frequencies, they identified
30275-438: Was previously often assumed. Certain scholars of caste have considered jati to have its basis in religion, assuming that the sacred elements of life in India envelop the secular aspects; for example, the anthropologist Louis Dumont described the ritual rankings that exist within the jati system as being based on the concepts of religious purity and pollution. This view has been disputed by other scholars who believe it to be
30450-452: Was referred to as "Moors", which simply meant Muslim, by European writers. John Ovington wrote in 1689: The language of the Moors is different from that of the ancient original inhabitants of India but is obliged to these Gentiles for its characters. For though the Moors dialect is peculiar to themselves, yet it is destitute of Letters to express it; and therefore, in all their Writings in their Mother Tongue, they borrow their letters from
30625-399: Was welcomed by the local Khatris, thereby supporting earlier waves of migration of Khatris to Bengal as well. Historian Muzaffar Alam describes the Khatris of Punjab as a "scribe and trading caste". They occupied positions in revenue collection and record keeping and learnt Persian during Mughal era. However, this profession often created conflicts with the Brahmin scribes who discontinued
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