Khatri
| Khatri | |
|---|---|
 A Khattri nobleman, in Kitab-i tasrih al-aqvam by Col. James Skinner, aka Sikandar (1778–1841) | |
| Religions | Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism |
| Languages | Punjabi, Hindi,[citation needed]Urdu,[1]Kutchi, Gujarati,[citation needed]Sindhi[2] |
| Country | Primarily India and Pakistan |
| Region | Punjab, Sindh, Delhi,[3]Haryana,[4]Gujarat[5] |
Khatri is a predominantly Hindu caste of northern India and Pakistan, mostly from the Punjab region, that provided many significant figures in Sikhism, including all of the Sikh Gurus.
Khatri played an important role in India's trans-regional trade during the Mughal era, when they also adopted administrative and military roles outside the Punjab region. According to a legend recounted by them from the 19th century, their military role was later lost when their community leaders refused to obey an order from Aurangzeb, a Mughal emperor; however, at least one modern academic regards this as fanciful.
Contents
1 History
2 Origin
3 Religion
3.1 Hindu Khatris
3.2 Sikh Khatris
3.3 Muslim Khatris
4 See also
5 References
History
According to Bichitra Natak, said to be the autobiography of the last Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, but whose authenticity is a matter of ongoing dispute,[6][7][8] the Bedi sub-caste of the Khatris derives its lineage from Kush, the son of Rama in the Hindu mythology. The descendants of Kush, according to the disputed Bachitar Natak legend, learned the Vedas at Benares, and were thus called Bedis (Vedis).[9] Similarly, according to the same legend, the Sodhi sub-caste claims descent from Lav, the other son of Rama.[10]
Having gained the patronage of Mughal nobles, the Khatris then adopted administrative and military roles outside the Punjab region. According to a Khatri legend of the 19th century, they continued their military service until the time of the Mughal emperor Aurangzeb, when the death of many of their number during the emperor's Deccan Campaign caused him to order their widows to be remarried. The order 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: John 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 the Mughals went to significant lengths to assert that allegiance in the face of accusations that they were in fact favouring the rebel Jat Sikhs, led by 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 historic connections with bankers.[11]
Author Suresh Kumar described Khatris as silk weavers.[12] Author 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.[13] The khatris played an important role in India's trans-regional trade during the period,[14] being described by Scott Cameron Levi as among the "most important merchant communities of early modern India."[15]
Origin
Author Hardip Singh described Khatris to be of pure Vedic descent and thus superior to the Rajputs who, like them, claim the Kshatriya status of the Hindu varna system.[16] The Khatri's standards of literacy and caste status were such during the early years of Sikhism that, according to W. H. McLeod, they dominated it.[16] Author McLeod mentions the employment of khatris as soldiers by Mughal emperors but notes by the time of British arrival in India they were mostly merchants and scribes[17] Kenneth W. Jones says "the Khatris claimed with some justice and increasing insistence, the status of Rajputs, or Kshatriyas, a claim not granted by those above but illustrative of their ambiguous position on the great varna scale of class divisions".[18] Purnima Dhavan sees the claim as originating from a conflation of the words khatri and kshatriya, which are phonetically similar.[19] In 19th-century British administrators failed to agree whether the Khatri claim of Kshatriya status should be accepted, since the overwhelming majority of them were engaged in Vaishya (mercantile) occupation rather than in Kshatriya (military) pursuits.[20]Dasharatha Sharma described Khatris as a mixed pratiloma caste of low ritual status but suggested that they could be a mixed caste born of Kshatriya fathers and Brahmin mothers.[21]
There are Khatris that are found in other states of India and they follow different professions in each region.[citation needed] The Khatris of Gujarat and Rajasthan are said to have tailoring skills like "Darji" (tailor) caste.[22] In the case of those Khatris who avow Sikism, their Kshatriya claim reflects the confusing, even seemingly contradictory, attitude towards the traditional Hindu caste system that is evident in Sikh texts such as the Guru Granth Sahib, which on the one hand renounces the Hindu caste paradigm and on the other seeks to portray the gurus as a group of warrior-defenders of their faith, just as with the Kshatriya varna.[19]
Religion
Hindu Khatris
The vast majority of Khatris are Hindu.[23] Most Hindu Khatris migrated to India after partition and settled in urban areas across India.[citation needed] They were estimated to constitute 9% of the total population of Delhi in 2003.[24]
Sikh Khatris
All the ten Sikh Gurus were Khatris:[25]Guru Nanak was a Bedi, Guru Angad was a Trehan, Guru Amar Das was a Bhalla, and the remainder were Sodhis.[26] During the lifetime of the Gurus, most of their major supporters were Khatris. A list of these is provided by a contemporary of the Sikh Gurus, Bhai Gurdas, in his Varan Bhai Gurdas.[27][need quotation to verify] However, many of the more successful Khatri traders opposed the strictures of the Khalsa movement, introduced by Guru Gobind Singh to end the concept of caste in Sikhism by removing traditional rituals and identities.[28]
Aside from the gurus, other Khatris influential in the history of Sikhism include:
Bhai Daya Singh, the first of the Panj Pyare (the initial members of the Khalsa), belonged to the Sobti clan of the Khatris.[29]
Hari Singh Nalwa (1791–1837), the Commander-in-chief of the Khalsa army of the Sikh Empire.
Muslim Khatris
The Muslim Khatris are originally from Hindu Khatri community who had converted to Islam. In western districts of the Punjab (Sargodha, Mianwali, Multan, Jhang, Chakwal, Rawalpindi and Faislabad), converted Khatri traders called themselves Khawaja. Some times they are called Khawaja Sheikh.
See also
- List of Khatris
References
^ Christine Everaert (1996). Tracing the Boundaries Between Hindi and Urdu: Lost and Added in Translation Between 20th Century Short Stories. BRILL. p. 259. ISBN 9789004177314..mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
^ K.S. Singh (1998). People of India: A - G., Volume 4. Oxford University. Press. p. 3285. ISBN 978-0-19563-354-2.
^ A. H. Advani (1995). The India Magazine of Her People and Culture, Volume 16. the University of Michigan. pp. 56–58.
^ Kiran Prem (1970). Haryana District Gazetteers: Ambala. Haryana Gazetteers Organization. p. 42.
^ Misra, Satish Chandra. Muslim communities in Gujarat: preliminary studies in their history and social organization. Asia Pub. House. p. 97.
^ Different approaches to Bachitar Natak, Journal of Sikh studies, Surjit Singh Hans, Volume 10, 66-78, Guru Nanak University.
^ The Sikh Struggle in the Eighteenth Century and Its Relevance for Today, W. H. McLeod, History of Religions, Vol. 31, No. 4, Sikh Studies (May, 1992), pp. 344-362, The University of Chicago Press/ quote: "Although Bachitar Natak is traditionally attributed to Guru Gobind Singh, there is a strong case to be made for regarding it as the work of one of his followers..."
^ Dasam Granth: A historical study, Sikh Review, 42(8), Aug 1994, 9-20
^ Major Nahar Singh Jawandha. Glimpses of Sikhism. Sanbun. p. 16. ISBN 978-93-8021-325-5.
^ The Cosmic Drama: Bichitra Natak, Author Gobind Singh, Publisher Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy of the U.S.A., 1989
ISBN 0-89389-116-9,
ISBN 978-0-89389-116-9
^ McLane, John R. (2002). Land and Local Kingship in Eighteenth-Century Bengal. Cambridge University Press. pp. 132–133. ISBN 978-0-521-52654-8.
^ Singh, Kumar Suresh, ed. (1998). India's Communities. 2 H–M. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press. pp. 1722, 1729. ISBN 978-0-19-563354-2.
^ Dhavan, Purnima (2011). When Sparrows Became Hawks: The Making of the Sikh Warrior Tradition, 1699-1799. Oxford University Press. pp. 3, 30–31. ISBN 978-0-19987-717-1.
^ Oonk, Gijsbert (2007). Global Indian diasporas. Amsterdam University Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-90-5356-035-8.
^ Levi, Scott Cameron (2002). The Indian Diaspora in Central Asia and Its Trade, 1550–1900. Leiden: BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-12320-5.
^ ab Syan, Hardip Singh (2013). Sikh Militancy in the Seventeenth Century: Religious Violence in Mughal and Early Modern India. I. B. Tauris. pp. 35, 39. ISBN 978-1-78076-250-0.
^ McLeod, W. H. (2009). The A to Z of Sikhism. Scarecrow Press. p. 115. ISBN 978-0-8108-6828-1.
^ Jones, Kenneth W. (1976). Arya dharm: Hindu consciousness in 19th-century Punjab. University of California Press. pp. 4–5. ISBN 978-0-520-02920-0.
^ ab Dhavan, Purnima (2011). When Sparrows Became Hawks: The Making of the Sikh Warrior Tradition, 1699-1799. Oxford University Press. pp. 36–37. ISBN 978-0-19987-717-1.
^ McLane, John R. (2002). Land and Local Kingship in Eighteenth-Century Bengal. Cambridge University Press. p. 131. ISBN 978-0-521-52654-8.The Khatris were a Punjabi mercantile caste who claimed to be Kshatriyas. Nineteenth-century Indians and British administrators failed to agree whether that claim should be accepted. The fact that overwhelming majority were engaged in Vaishya (mercantile), not Kshatriya (military), pursuits was balanced against the Khatri origin myths...
^ Sharma, Dasharatha (1975). Early Chauhān dynasties: a study of Chauhān political history, Chauhān political institutions, and life in the Chauhān dominions, from 800 to 1316 A.D. Motilal Banarsidass. p. 279.
^ Indian settlers: the story of a New Zealand South Asian community, p48, Jacqueline Leckie, Otago University Press, 2000/ quote :"Tailoring was a caste occupation that continued in New Zealand by those from Darji and Khatri castes who had been trained in appropriate skills. Bhukandas Masters, a Khatri, emigrated to New Zealand in 1919. He practised as tailor in central Auckland..."
^ Gopal Krishan. Demography of the Punjab (1849-1947) (PDF) (Report). UCSB. p. 83. Retrieved 2018-09-24.Conversion was negligible from the higher castes such as Brahmins, Aroras, Khatris and Aggarwals.
^ "534 Sanjay Kumar, A tale of three cities".
^ Singha, H. S. (2000). The Encyclopedia of Sikhism. Hemkunt Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-81-7010-301-1.
^ McLeod, W. H. (2009). The A to Z of Sikhism. Scarecrow Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-8108-6828-1.
^ Bhai Gurdas Ji, Varan Bhai Gurdas Ji, Vaar 8 – Pauri 10.
^ Dhavan, Purnima (2011). When Sparrows Became Hawks: The Making of the Sikh Warrior Tradition, 1699-1799. Oxford University Press. pp. 42, 47, 184. ISBN 978-0-19987-717-1.
^ Sangat Singh (2001). The Sikhs in history: a millenium study, with new afterwords. Uncommon Books. p. 71. ISBN 978-81-900650-2-3.
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