Ahir
Ahir/Aheer | |
---|---|
Religions | Yaduvanshi Aheer , Nandvanshi, and Gwalvanshi Ahir |
Ahir or Aheer are a community of traditionally non-elite pastoralists in India, most members of which identify as being of the Indian
The traditional occupations of Ahirs are cattle-herding and agriculture. Since late 19th century to early 20th century, Ahirs have adopted Yadav word for their community and have claimed descent from the mythological king
Ahirs in India are known by numerous other names, including Gauli
Ahirs are found throughout India but are particularly concentrated in the northern area. Apart from India, Ahirs have significant population in Nepal, Mauritius, Fiji, South Africa and the Caribbean especially Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname. In Mauritius and Caribbean they are mostly the descendants of settlers who arrived between the 19th and 20th centuries from the former pre-partitioned sub-continent of India during the time of the British Raj.[9]
Etymology
Gaṅga Ram Garg considers the Ahir to be a tribe descended from the ancient
Garg distinguishes a Brahmin community who use the Abhira name and are found in the present-day states of Maharashtra and Gujarat. That usage, he says, is because that division of Brahmins were priests to the ancient Abhira tribe.[10]
History
Early history
Theories regarding the origins of the ancient
Some, such as A. P. Karmakar, consider the Abhira to be a
Whether they were a race or a tribe, nomadic in tendency or displaced or part of a conquering wave, with origins in Indo-Scythia or Central Asia, Aryan or
Kingdoms
- Asirgarh fort of
- 13th or 14th century A.D. Bijagarh Fort of Bija, a Gauli Raja[24]
- Rao Tula Ram, king of Rewari[25]
- Veersen of Nasik[26]
- Ahir dynasty in pre-12th century areas in present-day Nepal[27]
- Ahir-Rajas of Sagar[28]
- Ahir Rajas of Gawror fort, Patna.[29]
Military involvements
The
Sanskritisation
Recreating the past for new identity
It was from the 1920s that some Ahirs began to adopt the name of Yadav and created the Yadav Mahasabha, founded by ideologues such as Rajit Singh. Several caste histories and periodicals to trace a Kshatriya origin were written at the time, notably by Mannanlal Abhimanyu. These were part of the jostling among various castes for socio-economic status and ritual under the Raj and they invoked support for a zealous, martial Hindu ethos.[44] Arya Samaj, a Hindu reformist organization also played an important role in ritual purification of Ahir/Yadavs and many low castes in order to incorporate them into Vedic Hinduism.[45] In U.P, it was through shastrarth debates and with the help of reform movements like Arya Samaj and Vaishnava Ramanandi order in public debates that the Ahirs defended their claims to a higher social status.[46] At the same time Ahir/Yadav intelligentsia also emphasized the socio-economic backwardness faced by their community and in 1927, a petition was sent to the Simon Commission describing how the Ahirs suffers from the same social disabilities and discrimination as the Chamars.[47] Despite explicitly expressing their commitment against untouchability, it has been observed that these movements by Yadav caste associations have not been egalitarian enough to include communities who are under Scheduled Castes and have claimed connection with Krishna.[48]
Participation in reactionary communal conflicts
The Ahirs in certain region of UP had been one of the more militant Hindu groups during pre-independent India. In one of the instances before independence, Hindu shudra caste groups such as the Ahirs actively participated in a counter-reactionary communal conflict orchestrated by Arya Samaj.[49] Some writers are also of the opinion that many low-castes (including Ahirs) took to cow protection for asserting higher status since cow already had symbolic importance in Hinduism. This view of cow protection was different from the UP's urban elites.[50]
Distribution
North India
They have a significant population in the region around Behror, Alwar, Rewari, Narnaul, Mahendragarh, Gurgaon[51] and Jhajjar[52][page needed][53] – the region is therefore known as Ahirwal or the abode of Ahirs.[54]
Maharashtra
Ahirs live in the
Culture
Diet
In 1992, Noor Mohammad noted that most Ahirs in Uttar Pradesh were vegetarian, with some exceptions who were engaged in fishing and raising poultry.[57]
Language and tradition
According to
The Ahirs have three major classifications Yaduvanshi, Nandavanshi and Goallavanshi. Yaduvanshi claim descent from Yadu, Nandavansh claim descent from Nanda, the foster father of Krishna and Goallavanshi claim descent from gopi and gopas of Krishna's childhood.[60][61]
Folklore
The oral epic of
See also
- Ahir clans
- Ahir Regiment agitation
References
- ISBN 978-1-138-65995-7.
Marginalised groups, often considered as Shudras, like the Ahirs (Yadavs), Kurmis and the Gujars, began to redefine their emerging political and economic role in society by fighting on the same 'religious' grounds. In so doing, they refashioned their status as warriors and kings who had played a special role in history as guardians of Hinduism (Gooptu 2001 : 195; see also Pinch 1996 : 118–38). Gyanendra Pandey (1990: 66–108) describes how, since the end of the 19th century, such processes of Sanskritisation (adoption of 'higher' forms of Hinduism) among lower castes have joined up with Hindu nationalist movements, such as the cow protection movement, and how these interrelations have been central to the formation of a Hindu and a Muslim community in northern India.
- ISBN 978-1-85065-670-8. Retrieved 16 August 2011.
Ahirs willingly subjected themselves to Sanskritisation because of their special relation to sacred cow but alas because the Arya Samaj exerted significant Sanskritising influence over the Yadav movement. As early as 1895, the ruler of Rewari, Rao Yudhishter Singh ( the father of Rao Bahadur Balbir Singh), invited Swami Dayananda to his state. Branches of the Arya Samaj flourished soon after and Rewari provided a base from which Arya Samaj updeshaks (itinerant preachers) operated in neighbouring areas.
- ^ Mehta, B. H. (1994). Gonds of the Central Indian Highlands. Vol. II. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company. pp. 568–569.
- ^ Michelutti, Lucia (2002). "Sons of Krishna: the politics of Yadav community formation in a North Indian town" (PDF). PhD Thesis Social Anthropology. London School of Economics and Political Science. pp. 94–95.
- ISBN 978-81-7304-069-6.
- Sharma, Shish Ram (2002). Protective Discrimination: Other Backward Classes in India. Raj Publications, 2002. pp. 153, 312, 410. ISBN 978-81-86208-23-6.
- Sharma, Shish Ram (2002). Protective Discrimination: Other Backward Classes in India. Raj Publications, 2002. pp. 153, 312, 410.
- ISBN 978-8-12502-194-0.
- ISBN 978-8-17533-029-0.
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- Moore, Brian L. (1977). "The Retention of Caste Notions among the Indian Immigrants in British Guiana during the Nineteenth Century". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 19 (1): 96–107. S2CID 143278239.
- Jha, J. C. (1973). "Indian Heritage in Trinidad, West Indies". Caribbean Quarterly. 19 (2): 28–50. JSTOR 23050197.
- Pradhan, Rajendra; Shrestha, Ava (June 2005). "Ethnic and Caste Diversity: Implications for Development" (PDF). Think Asia. hdl:11540/3290. NRM Working Paper No. 4.
- "Indian Labour in British Guiana | History Today".
- "The legacy of Indian migration to European colonies". The Economist. 2 September 2017.
- Moore, Brian L. (1977). "The Retention of Caste Notions among the Indian Immigrants in British Guiana during the Nineteenth Century". Comparative Studies in Society and History. 19 (1): 96–107.
- ^ ISBN 978-81-7022-374-0.
- ^ Yadav, Kripal Chandra (1965). Rao Tula Ram, a Hero of 1857. Rao Tula Ram Smarak Samiti.
- ^ ISBN 978-81-7533-001-6.
- ISBN 978-0-521-02870-7.
- ^ Rao, M. S. A. (1978). Social Movements in India. Vol. 1. Manohar. pp. 124, 197, 210.
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- ^ Wendy Doniger (2017), "Another Great Story"", review of Asko Parpola's The Roots of Hinduism; in: Inference, International Review of Science, Volume 3, Issue 2
- ^ Girish Shahane (September 14, 2019), Why Hindutva supporters love to hate the discredited Aryan Invasion Theory, Scroll.in
- ^ Koenraad Elst (May 10, 2016), Koenraad Elst: "I am not aware of any governmental interest in correcting distorted history", Swarajya Magazine
- ^ Out of India aka Indigenous Aryans has no support:
- Romila Thapar (2006): "there is no scholar at this time seriously arguing for the indigenous origin of Aryans".[16]
- Wendy Doniger (2017): "The opposing argument, that speakers of Indo-European languages were indigenous to the Indian subcontinent, is not supported by any reliable scholarship. It is now championed primarily by Hindu nationalists, whose religious sentiments have led them to regard the theory of Aryan migration with some asperity."[17]
- Girish Shahane (September 14, 2019), in response to Narasimhan et al. (2019): "Hindutva activists, however, have kept the Aryan Invasion Theory alive, because it offers them the perfect strawman, 'an intentionally misrepresented proposition that is set up because it is easier to defeat than an opponent's real argument' ... The Out of India hypothesis is a desperate attempt to reconcile linguistic, archaeological and genetic evidence with Hindutva sentiment and nationalistic pride, but it cannot reverse time's arrow ... The evidence keeps crushing Hindutva ideas of history."[18]
- Koenraad Elst (May 10, 2016): "Of course it is a fringe theory, at least internationally, where the Aryan Invasion Theory (AIT) is still the official paradigm. In India, though, it has the support of most archaeologists, who fail to find a trace of this Aryan influx and instead find cultural continuity."[19]
- ISBN 978-90-04-09318-8.
- ^ B H Mehta. Gonds of the Central Indian Highlands Vol II. Concept. p. 569.
- ^ Numismatic Digest. Numismatic Society of Bombay, Original from the University of Michigan. 2003. p. 141.
- ^ Krishnan, V. S. (1970). Madhya Pradesh: West Nimar [5] West Nimar. Supplement. Government Central Press, 1970. p. 47.
- ^ Michelutti, Lucia (2002). "Sons of Krishna: the politics of Yadav community formation in a North Indian town" (PDF). PhD Thesis Social Anthropology. London School of Economics and Political Science. p. 83.
- ^ Jalgaon district. "JALGAON HISTORY". Jalgaon District Administration Official Website. Jalgaon district Administration. Retrieved 7 February 2015.
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- ^ Historical Researches Series. 1963.
- ^ "Indian officers and non-commissioned officers from 'B' Company (Ahir), 1st Battalion, The 5th Light Infantry, Quetta, 1918 | Online Collection | National Army Museum, London". collection.nam.ac.uk. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
- ^ "Online Collection | National Army Museum, London". collection.nam.ac.uk. Retrieved 3 November 2023.
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Apart from their physique , the martial races were regarded as politically subservient or docile to authority
- ISBN 978-0-415-94447-2.
The Saturday review had made much the same argument a few years earlier in relation to the armies raised by Indian rulers in princely states. They lacked competent leadership and were uneven in quality. Commander in chief Roberts, one of the most enthusiastic proponents of the martial race theory, though poorly of the native troops as a body. Many regarded such troops as childish and simple. The British, claims, David Omissi, believe martial Indians to be stupid. Certainly, the policy of recruiting among those without access to much education gave the British more semblance of control over their recruits.
- ISBN 978-81-7648-166-3.
Dr . Jeffrey Greenhunt has observed that " The Martial Race Theory had an elegant symmetry. Indians who were intelligent and educated were defined as cowards, while those defined as brave were uneducated and backward. Besides their mercenary spirit was primarily due to their lack of nationalism.
- ISBN 978-0-520-20061-6.
- ISBN 978-0-333-90255-4.
- ^ Press Information Bureau, Government of India (7 January 2007). "Remembering Rezang La heroes". Sainik samachar.
- ^ Col Dilbag Dabas (Retd) (15 December 2018). "Heroes of Rezang La 1962". The Tribune.
- ^ Guruswamy, Mohan (20 November 2012). "Don't forget the heroes of Rezang La". The Hindu. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
- ISBN 978-1-935501-18-3.
- ISBN 978-0-521-44366-1.
One of the most politically active and vocal among the shudra castes was the ahirs or yadavs. In 1922, an ahir conference was held in Lucknow, followed by another ahir mahotsav (festival) in Allahabad in 1923, where a provincial Mahasabha was inaugurated, with the new name of Yadav Mahasabha. The term yadav, to denote the ahirs, gained currency from this period. Rajit Singh, a yadav born in the Deoria district in 1897, and educated at Gorakhpur and Shikohabad, was instrumental in the formation of the Yadav Mahasabha. He had briefly worked in the Excise Department in Kanpur, but had resigned from his job to devote himself to organising yadav associations from 1921. In 1925, Rajit Singh settled in Benares and inaugurated the Benares Yadav Mahasabha, which soon emerged as the centre of the yadav caste movement in UP. From Benares, Rajit Singh edited the journal Yadav, and also published a history of the yadav castes, entitled Yaduvamsa Prakash. Several other yadav histories were published in rapid succession in the 1920s, written by another younger yadav leader of Benares, Mannalal Abhimanyu, a lawyer who was the son of a school teacher. He wrote Ahir Vamsa Pradip (1925) and Yadukul Sarvasya (1928), in which he attempted to demonstrate the kshatriya origin of the yadavs, with extensive references from both religious texts and British ethnographic tracts.
- ISBN 978-0-415-46732-2.
Hindu reformist organisations like the Arya Samaj which aimed to reform Hinduism and incorporate lower-caste groups within the fold of vedic Aryan Hinduism (see Rao 1979: 132-35), have a pivotal role in 'purifying' the customs of the Ahir/Yadavs and other lower castes through the adoption of Brahmanical Hindu practices. Brahmanical Hinduism emphasises vegetarianism, non-violence and ascetism (Fuller 1992: 88).
- ISBN 978-0-19-999543-1.
In U.P., the Ahir/Yadav castes, whom elites deemed Shudras, also used shastrarth debates to defend their claims to elevated, Kshatriya status from at least the 1890s. In the eastern districts of U.P., monks of the Vaishnava Ramanandi order defended the Ahirs' claims in public debate; in western U.P., their champions in debate were often members of the Arya Samaj.
- ISBN 978-0-415-46732-2.
This emphasis on number and on Yadavness versus 'status' is also evident in colonial petitions which portray the Ahirs as a 'backward/ depressed category' in an attempt to get benefits from the reservation provisions. It looks as if the Yadav intelligentsia not only learnt that Yadav social and economic progress or backwardness could be determined by measuring their share in the number of graduates, official appointments and parliamentary seats (Chakrabarty 1994: 150), but also that economic and social disabilities were not 'enough' and that 'ritual' disabilities had also to be proved. The political leaders invoked arguments about the historical deprivation of their communities' (see Gooptu 2001: 11). The following is an extract from a petition sent in 1927 to the Simon Commission, in which a member of the Ahir community illustrates how the community suffers from the same disabilities and discriminations as the Chamars (an untouchable caste).
- ISBN 978-0-415-46732-2.
Although Yadav caste associations organise Other Backward Classes meetings and explicitly express their commitment against untouchability, I never met an SC member attending or delivering a speech at such events. A recent controversy showed how, in practice, Yadav caste associations are not willing to encompass in their social category members of SC communities who claim to descend from Krishna. At the AIYM meeting held in Gurgaon in 1998, a member of the committee raised the issue that Jatavs in Agra and Rajasthan had begun to adopt the Yadav title. A member of the audience pointed out that he had already written to the Mahasabha secretary to inform him that in Bharatpur (Rajasthan) the local Jatavs were calling themselves Yadavs. Another pointed out that in Udaipur, Jatavs who worked as builders and did casual labour were also calling themselves Yadavs and had adopted the Kadamb Yadav clan.
- ISBN 978-0-521-44366-1.
The spread of the tanzeem movement in Benares further fuelled the religious expansion of Hindu organisations, and contributed to an escalation in local competition and communal conflict. Khalil Das' movement elicited a counter-reaction from the Arya Samaj and from such Hindu shudra caste groups as the ahirs, who were active participants in volunteer corps and akharas, and who, in Benares, were involved in an especially active yadav caste movement.... The Ahirs in particular who played an important role in militant Hinduism, retaliated strongly against the Tanzeem movement. In July,1930, about 200 Ahirs marched in procession to Trilochan, a sacred Hindu site and performed a religious ceremony in response to Tanzeem processions.
- ISBN 978-0-521-87949-1.
Gyan Pandey's detailed research on the cow protection riots in eastern UP and Bihar in 1893 and 1917 relates the conflict to specific registers of caste difference and status assertion, in a context where the popular view of cow protection from the point of view of low-caste Ahirs, Koeris and Kurmis was quite different to that of UP's urban elites. For both Freitag and Pandey, cow protection became a means for relatively low-status communities to assert higher status via association with something of symbolic importance to Hinduism as a whole: in this case, the cow.
- ^ Guru Nanak Dev University, Sociology Dept (2003). Guru Nanak Journal of Sociology. Sociology Department, Guru Nanak Dev University. pp. 5, 6.
- ^ Verma, Dip Chand (1975). Haryana. National Book Trust, India.
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- ^ Pathak, A. S. (2009). "Maharashtra: Land and its people" (PDF). Maharashtra State Gazetteer. Government of Maharashtra.
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- ^ Michelutti, Lucia (2002). Sons of Krishna: the politics of Yadav community formation in a North Indian town (PDF). p. 89.
- ^ "Spectrum". The Sunday Tribune. 1 August 2010. Retrieved 13 July 2014.
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