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Khatri

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Not to be confused with Chhetri.
For other uses, see Khatri (surname).

Khatri
A Khattri nobleman, in 'Kitab-i tasrih al-aqvam' by Col. James Skinner, aka Sikandar (1778-1841).jpg
A Khatri nobleman, in Kitab-i tasrih al-aqvam by Col. James Skinner (1778–1841)
ReligionsHinduism, Sikhism and Islam
LanguagesPunjabi, Hindi, Pahari-Pothwari, Hindko, Saraiki, Pashto, Dogri, Urdu,[1] Kutchi, Gujarati, Sindhi[2]
CountryIndia, Pakistan and Afghanistan
RegionPunjab, Sindh, Delhi,[3] Haryana,[4] Gujarat[5]

Khatri is a caste, originally found in South Asia. Apart from India , they are also found in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Afghan Hindus and Sikhs are predominantly of Khatri and Arora origin.[6]

From the medieval times till the end of British Raj, Khatris were mostly employed as businessmen[7],shopkeepers[8][9],governors,[10][11] bankers,[12]lawyers,[13] civil administrators,[14]merchants,[7] teachers,[8] scribes,[15] silk weavers[16] and cloth printers.[17] Khatris have provided many significant religious figures and teachers, such as all the Sikh Gurus.[18] They have also provided notable martial and administrative figures such as Hari Singh Nalwa, the Commander-in-Chief of the Khalsa Army.[19] During the Partition of India, many Khatris migrated from modern-day regions of Pakistan and Afghanistan.[20][21]

Etymology

The word Khatri in the Hindi Language comes from the Sanskrit word "Kshatriya" according to the Śabdasāgara Lexicon by Shyamasundara Dasa[22] Purnima Dhavan sees the claim as originating from a conflation of the words khatri and kshatriya, which are phonetically similar but refers to Khatris as a "trading caste" of the Sikh Gurus.[23]Veena Talwar Oldenburg states that Khatri is a miniature form of Kshatriya, but notes that they were "arbitrarily lumped together with the 'trading castes' by the British".[24] As per historian W.H McLeod and Louis Fenech, Khatri is a Punjabi form of the word Kshatriya.[25]Peter Hardy and A.R Desai also agree that Khatri is derived from Kshatriya. Despite the etymology, Hardy says that Khatri is "a mercantile class" and Desai says the Khatris were "traditionally tradesmen and government officials".[26][27]Dr. Dharamvir Bharati comments that in Punjabi language, Kshatriya is pronounced as Khatri.[28] As per Dr. GS Mansukhani and RC Dogra, "Khatri appears to be unquestionably a Prakritised form of Sanskrit word Kshatriya."[29]

Many Khatris use this etymology to claim that they are Kshatriyas. However, most scholars dispute these claims.[8] 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".[30]

See also: Khatri § Origins and Ritual Status

Theology

According to Bichitra Natak, traditionally said to be the autobiography of the last Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, but possibly not so,[31] 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.[32][better source needed]

In Guru Granth Sahib, the primary scripture of Sikhism, Khatri is mentioned as one among the four varnas.

ਖਤ੍ਰੀ ਬ੍ਰਾਹਮਣ ਸੂਦ ਵੈਸ ਉਪਦੇਸੁ ਚਹੁ ਵਰਨਾ ਕਉ ਸਾਝਾ ॥

Transliteration : "Khatri brahman sud vais updesu cahu varna ku sanjha"

(SGGS, ang 747)

The above mentioned line means that Kshatriyas, Brahmins, Shudras and Vaishyas all have the same mandate.[33]

Literature

Khatris are mentioned in a popular Punjabi literature "Heer Ranjha" written by Waris Shah. Some historians claim that the story was an authentic work of Shah, written after he had fallen in love with a girl named Bhag Bhari. Others say that Heer and Ranjha were real personalities who lived under the Lodi dynasty in India of the 15th and 16th century and that Waris Shah was inspired from these personalities and hence wrote the novel in 1766.[34][35]

"Heer's beauty slays rich Khojas and Khatris in the bazaar, like a murderous Kizilbash trooper riding out of the royal camp armed with a sword"

- Waris Shah (Translated by Charles Frederick Usborne)[36][37]

Demographics

Before Partition

French traveler Thevenot visited India during 1600s where he commented "At Multan, there is another sort of gentiles whom they call Ca-try. That 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.[38]

The last caste-based census was conducted by the British in 1931. Khatris and Aroras were considered a different caste by British during that time.

During 1931, they were prominent in the West Punjab and North-Western Frontier Province regions. The highest concentration of Khatris in terms of percentage were in Jhelum and Rawalpindi regions. The percentage concentration reduces eastwards as moving from Rawalpindi in the districts of Shahpur, Gujrat, Jhang, Gujranwala, Lahore and Amritsar. North Western Frontier Province accounted for 34,000 Khatris and Jammu & Kashmir accounted for 48,000 Khatris. The numbers are expected to be more than that because many Hindus boycotted the Census due to the Civil Disobedience Movement.[39]

The Khatris spoke Hindko language while as per Ibbetson, the Aroras which is considered a sub-caste of Khatris by some scholars were "Jatki speaking".[40][41][42] In 19th century, languages such as Saraiki(Multani) and Khetrani were referred as Jatki.[43]

After Partition

Khatris arrived in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab among other regions after the partition.[21] In 2012, the population of Punjabi community in Haryana, referring to Arora and Khatri as a unit is 6.50%. In the year 1990 Gurnam Singh Commission had estimated their population to be 8%. It is possible that their population in Haryana may have decreased as some of them may have shifted to other states to seek better opportunities.[44]

They were estimated to be 9% of the total population of Delhi in 2003.[45]

Trans-Regional Trade

The Khatris played an important role in India's trans-regional trade during the period,[46] being described by Levi as among the "most important merchant communities of early modern India."[47] Levi writes :"Stephen Dale locates Khatris in Astrakhan, Russia during the late seventeenth century and, in the 1830s, the British imperial proconsul and past governor of Bombay, Mountstuart Elphinstone, was informed that Khatris were still highly involved in northwest India's transregional commerce and that they maintained communities throughout Afghanistan and as far away as Astrakhan"".[48] According to Dr. Kiran Datar, they often married Tatar local women in Astrakhan and the children from these marriages were known as Agrijan.[49]

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 practiced money-lending. Dale believes that Khatris had possibly been travelling from Punjab via caravans since the era of Ziauddin Barani(around 1300 AD). An Englishman of the East India Company in Isfahan expressed disapproval of the marketing techniques of non-Muslim Indian merchants and Jean 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.[50]

Historian Rene J. Barendse locates Khatri merchants in Muscat and Persia[51]

Origins and Ritual Status

The Saraswat Brahmins of the North are the purohits of Punjabi Khatris and accepted gifts only from them.[52][53]

Cambridge historian Susan Bayly states that the north Indian Khatris had the tradition of making their living via the "pen and the ledger". Despite this fact, due to the fascination with the Kshatriya varna, the Khatri caste organizations in the British colonial era tried to disassociate themselves from Agarwals and other Vaishyas by portraying their caste as having the essence of "noble service of the Kshatriya". Similar caste glorifying ideas were written by the historian Baij Nath Puri, whom Bayly describes as a "a polemicist representing himself as an Oxford-trained Indian ‘socio-historian’" who wrote about the "supposed origins and heritage" of the Khatris from north India. She considers his views to represent those of "pre-Independence race theorists". Puri describes Khatris as "one of the most acute, energetic, and remarkable race [sic] in India", "pure descendants of the old Vedic Kshatriyas" and "true representatives of the Aryan nobility". Puri also tried to show the Khatris as higher than the Rajputs whose blood he considered "impure", mixed with ‘inferior’ Kolis or ‘aborigines’.[54]Bayly further describes the Khatris as a "caste title of north Indians with military and scribal traditions".[55]

Many historians such as J. Gordon Melton, Peter B. Clarke, Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh, John Renard, Rajesh Rai and Kamala Elizabeth Nayar describes Khatris as a "warrior caste".[56][57][58][59][60][61] Christian Missiologist Charles E. Farhadian mentions that the Khatri Jāti was originally the Kshatriya caste of Punjab but he calls it a "mercantile caste".[62] Historian Robin Jeffrey adds that Khatris were theoretically a warrior caste but were settled into commercial and clerical professions for many generations in Punjab.[63]Nicola Mooney mentions that Khatris are of Kshatriya varna.[64]Furthermore, Pashaura Singh comments that Khatris were originally the kshatriyas and states that the Khatri Sikh Gurus placed the Khatris above the Brahmins and the Shudras above the Vaishyas. He also calls the Khatris a "top ranking mercantile caste" followed by the Aroras, who were also merchants and Ahluvalias who were Brewers.[65]Historian David Lorenzen and David Westerlund mentions Khatris as a "Kshatriya caste".[66][67]Rishi Singh describes Khatris as "a caste group mainly involved in military and some in trade"[68][clarification needed]

Hardip Singh Syan says Khatris considered themselves to be of pure Vedic descent and thus superior to the Rajputs, who like them claim the Kshatriya status of the Hindu varna system.[69] According to Scott Cameron Levi, Khatris were considered to be Kshatriyas, the second-highest varna in the Indian social hierarchy, below only the Brahmans despite their participation in occupations similar to those of the Bania communities.[48]Veena Talwar Oldenburg states that the Khatris were acknowledged[by whom?] as Kshatriyas, but "had always been much more occupationally diverse than their origins as a warrior caste suggested."[24]

However, most scholars do not agree with the claims. They consider castes in north India, like Khatri and Kayastha to be merchant castes who claim higher status to befit the educational and economic progress they made in the past.[8] According to Anand Yang, the Khatris in the Saran district of Bihar, were included in the list of "Bania" along with Agarwals and Rastogis of the Vaishya Varna .[70] Jacob Copeman also agrees and writes "Agarwal, Khatri, and Bania usually denote people of merchant-trader background of middling clean-caste status, often of Vaishya varna".[71]

In Indian historian Satish Chandra's opinion, certain castes like the North-Indian Khatris and North-Indian Kayasthas "do not quite fit" in the Hindu Varna system. According to him, Khatris are neither Vaishyas nor Kshatriyas but are "par excellence traders".[72]

The historian S.C.Misra, writing in his book The Rise of Muslim Power in Gujarat, says the Khatris were an agrarian people belonging mainly to South Punjab who claimed descent from the Kshatriyas of the old. He says it is for this reason the Persian historian gave the Khatri Sultan Muzaffar Shah a genealogy that said he was a descendant of the Hindu God Rama, hence a Suryavanshi. Mishra says like most genalogies fabricated to glorify royalty, it was obviously dubiously concocted.[73]

Khatri standards of literacy and caste status were such during the early years of Sikhism that, according to W. H. McLeod, they dominated it.[69]

Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas states that Khatri is one of the communities that made different Varna claims at different times in the Census of India before Independence. In 1911, they did not make any Varna claim, in 1921 they claimed a Kshatriya status but in 1931 they claimed a Vaishya status.[74]

Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh

Khatris of Kashmir, also known as "Bohras," formed the biggest minority of the Kashmiri Hindus. They were the most numerous in number after Kashmiri Pandits. They were mostly involved in the profession of trading and were cut off from the communion with the Punjabi Khatris.[75][76] Many of these Khatris had to face the brunt of 1990 Kashmiri Hindu Exodus and have been living in camps.[77]Khatris of Himachal Pradesh are numerically most important commercial classes are mostly concentrated in Mandi, Kangra and Chamba.[78]

Punjab

Historian Kenneth W. Jones states that the Khatris of Punjab had some justification in claiming and increasingly insisting the Kshatriya status from the British government. However, the fact that this claim was not granted at the time serves as an illustration of their ambiguous position in the varna system. Although Jones also classifies Khatris as one of the Vaishya caste of Punjabi Hindus, he shows that their social status was higher than the Arora, Suds and Baniyas in the 19th century Punjab. He quotes Ibbetson who considered Arora as Khatris[verification needed] but states that the Punjabi Khatris who held prominent military and civil posts were traditionally different from the Aroras, Suds or Baniyas who were rural, of low status and mostly commercial. Punjabi Khatris, on the other hand, were urban, usually prosperous and literate. Thus, the Khatris led the vaishyas in seeking a higher social position in the flexible Varna hierarchy based on their superior achievements. Similar social mobility efforts were followed by other Hindus in Punjab.[79]

McLane also describes Punjabi Khatris as a "mercantile caste who claimed to be Kshatriyas" and says that they had migrated to several parts of India, possibly long before the 18th century, and to Bengal even before the arrival of the Mughals. In the 19th-century, British administrators failed to agree whether the Khatri claim of Kshatriya status should be accepted. John Nesfield and George Campbell were leaning towards accepting this claim but Herbert Hope Risley and Denzil Ibbetson cast doubts on this claim. John McLane opines that the dilemma was because most of the Khatris pursued Vaishya (mercantile) occupation and not Kshatriya (military) ones. However, he adds that this Vaishya occupation fact was balanced by their origin myths, the "possible" derivation of the word Khatri from Kshatriya, their large physical stature, the superior status accorded to them by other Punjabis as well as the willingness of the Saraswat Brahmins, their chaplains, to accept cooked food from them.[80]

In the case of Sikh Khatris, their Kshatriya claim reflects a contradictory attitude towards the traditional Hindu caste system. It is evident in Sikh texts such as the Guru Granth Sahib, which on the one hand rises above the Hindu caste paradigm and on the other hand seeks to portray the Khatri gurus as a group of warrior-defenders of their faith, just as with the Kshatriya varna.[23]

Uttar Pradesh

The Khatri of Uttar Pradesh are in business and government service and are also self-employed as Advocates and Doctors. The "All-India Khatri Mahasabha" functions for the general welfare of the community. The Khatri are Hindu and their sacred specialists are Kanyakubja Brahmins.[81]

Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra

Dasharatha Sharma described Khatris of Rajasthan as a mixed pratiloma caste of low ritual status but they could be a mixed caste born of Kshatriya fathers and Brahmin mothers.[82]

Banking, trading and business are traditional occupations of the Khatris in Rajasthan. Besides, they are also engaged in Agriculture and Service. The Khatri are Hindu by faith. Their caste council consists of some elderly people who resolve their problems. In the field of business, they interact with all other communities. The literacy rate is appreciably high among them.[83]

Ashok Malik, former press secretary to the President of India, says that there were two groups of Khatris in Gujarat, one that arrived right after the Mughal invasion and another that came during the reign of Akbar. The latter considered themselves superior to the former and they called themselves "Brahmakshatriyas" after arriving in Gujarat. When the older Khatri community of Gujarat started prospering, they also started calling themselves "Brahmakshatriya", causing the new Khatri community to panic and adopt the name "Nayar Brahmakshatriyas" for themselves. In addition, another community - the Gujarati Telis, considered an Other Backward Class (OBC) in India began to call themselves Khatris. Malik calls this as Sanskritization.[84]

Historian Vijaya Gupchup from the University of Mumbai states that in Maharashtra, Brahmins showed resentment in the attempt by the Marathi Khatris or Koshti to elevate themselves from ritually low status to Kshatriya by taking advantage of the British neutrality towards castes. She quotes a translation from a Marathi publication that gave a Brahminic opinion of this attempt:

Everyone does what he wants, Sonars have become Brahmins, Treemungalacharya was insulted by throwing cowdung at him in Pune, but he has no shame and still calls himself a Brahmin. Similarly a Khatri or Koshti who are included in Panchal at places other than Bombay, call themselves Kshatriya in Bombay and say their needles are the arrows and their thimbles are the sheaths. How surprising that those Sonars and Khatris at the hands of whom even Shudras will not take water have become Brahmins and Kshatriyas. In short day by day higher castes are disappearing and lower castes are prospering.[85]

Culture and lifestyle

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 a Jandi Tree (Prosopis cineraria) in one blow using a sword.[86][better source needed]

Whenever there is a death in the Khatri family, a family member goes to Haridwar to immerse the ashes of the departed. At Haridwar, Hindu Genealogy Registers that cover some important information including birth, death, migration among others are maintained.[87][better source needed]

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.[88]

Early history

Greek accounts from the historians[89] [90][91] that accompanied Alexander the Great to Punjab mention a tribe called the Kathaioi whose territory lay from east of the Hydraotes (Ravi) but between the Hydarpes (Jhelum) & Akesines (Chenab) and whose capital was Sagala (Sialkot). They were described as a powerful nation who resisted Alexander's advance. Arrian in the Anabasis (VI.15) mentions the Khathrois of Punjab (χάθροις - Khathrois), whose territory lay between the Indus & Chenab.[92] Ptolemy writing in the 2nd century AD refers again to the Khatriaoi to whom belong cities lying east & west of the Indus. 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.[93]

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, a group of martial caste members called Khati (Khatri) exist in North-India".[94]

Although, Michael Witzel, writing in his paper "Sanskritization of the Kuru State" states the Kathaiois were Kaṭha Brahmins.[95]

Medieval history

Emperor Jahangir in his autobiography Jahangirnama while talking about the castes, he observed "The second caste is the Chhatri which is also known as Khattri. The Chhatri caste's purpose is to protect the oppressed from the aggression of the oppressors".[96][97]

Punjab

Historian Muzaffar Alam describes the Khatris of Punjab as a "scribe and trading caste". Khatris (and Kayasthas) in north-India and Rajput ruled states were the main communities that worked as scribes and thus occupied positions in revenue collection and record keeping. The arrival of Mughals gave the scribes advantage due to their willingness to learn Persian. However, this profession often created conflicts with the Brahmin scribes. In Deccan, these north Indian scribes lost their advantage with the rise of the Brahmin Peshwas who discontinued the use of Persian and started using Marathi.[98][99][15][100][101] According to McLane, the Punjabi Khatris being the dominant trading group, had spread into many parts of India, possibly long before the 1700s and to Bengal, possibly even before the Mughals arrived.[80]

Raja Todar Mall, Finance Minister of Akbar 17th Century Painting Gouache on paper

Having gained the patronage of the Mughal nobles, the Khatris then adopted administrative and military roles outside the Punjab region[failed verification]. The most prominent Mughal Khatri noble was Raja Todar Mal[dubious – discuss], who was the Finance Minister of the Empire. He introduced an entirely new system of revenue known as zabt and a system of taxation called dahshala.[102] According to the legend, in the 17th 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.[103]

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 favoring "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.[103]

Gujarat

Historian Douglas E. Hanes states that the Khatri weavers in Gujarat trace their ancestry to either Champaner (Bihar) or Sindh (Pakistan) and the community genealogists believe that the migration happened during the late sixteenth' century.[104]

The Gujarat Sultanate (1407-1523) was a medieval Muslim dynasty founded by Zafar Khan Muzaffar, a member of the Tank caste. [105][106][107][108][109] The Tanks have been stated to be Khatris by some scholars, although others have stated the Tanks were Rajputs. [110][111][112][113][114][115][116][117][118][119][120] Although he was born in Delhi, his ancestry was originally from Southern Punjab. He started as a menial but rose to 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.[121][73]

The Muslim invasion affected the Khatri tradition of weaving. Suraiya Faroqhi, writes that, in 1742 Gujarat, the Khatris had protested the immigration of Muslim weavers by refusing to deliver cloth to the East India Company. In another case, the craft of weaving was taught by the Khatris to the Kunbis as a side effect of receiving more orders then they could handle. The Kunbis 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, a garment worn by women. This license was later revoked in 1800 due to pressure from 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.[122][123][124]

Benaras

Mehtab Chand of Burdwan, c. 1860-65

According to some scholars, when the Muslim community first arrived in Benaras, the Khatri Hindus dominated the weaving industry there. These Muslims learned the technique of weaving from the Khatris and soon came to be known as Chira-i-Baaf or 'fine cloth weavers'.[125][126]

Bengal

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.[127][page needed]

When guru Tegh Bahadur visited Bengal in 1666, he was welcomed by the local Khatris, thereby supporting earlier waves of migration of Khatris to Bengal as well.[128]

Sikh Empire

ca. 19th century, paint on paper A military procession of Hari Singh Nalwa (1791–1837), one of the greatest generals of the Sikh Empire. The military procession depicted is lead by two horsemen carrying battle standards

The Khatris took on a prominent militaristic role in the emerging Sikh milieu of post-Mughal Punjab. 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.[129][page needed][130][page needed] In the Sikh Empire, Hari Singh Nalwa (1791–1837) an Uppal Khatri from Gujranwala, became the Commander-in-chief of the Sikh Khalsa Army.[131][page needed] 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.[132][page needed]

Dewan Mokham Chand (1750-1814) became one of 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[133] Other Khatris like Diwan Sawan Mal Chopra served as governors of Lahore and Multan, after helping conquer the region [69] while his son Diwan Mulraj Chopra, (1814-1851) the last Punjabi ruler of Multan led a Sikh rebellion against British suzerainty over Multan after the fall of the Sikh Empire in the Anglo-Sikh Wars. He was arrested after the Siege of Multan and put to death.[134][page needed]

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.[135]

In the 1830s, Khatris were working as governors in the districts like Bardhaman, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and Hazara, but independent from the Mughal rule.[136][10][page needed][11]

British Colonial Era

Maharaja Kishen Pershad, circa 1915
Photograph of a Khatri man c. 1859-1869

Punjab

In Punjab, they were moneylenders, shopkeepers and grain-dealers among other professions.[9]

Hyderabad

A Peshkari Khatri family in Hyderabad State would become part of the Hyderabadi nobility and occupy the post of Prime Minister of Hyderabad. Notable inviduals of the family include Maharaja Kishen Prasad, GCIE who would serve as Prime Minister of the State twice.[137][138][139]

In Hyderabad, around the mid-20th century, Khatris and Padmasalis were the leading "Hindu weaving castes" who owned 43% of the looms. The Khatris specialized in silk, while the Padmasalis in cotton weaving.[140]

Gujarat

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 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 colors. These products were often exported to east Africa.[141][142][143] In Dhamadka, Kutch, "block printing cloth" was the traditional occupation of the Khatri men since the seventeenth century.[144][145]

Rajasthan

In the early 19th century, the Khatris, Bhatias and Lohanas were the main trading castes in Rajasthan, Delhi, Agra, Sind and Punjab.[146] Banking, trading and business were considered "traditional occupations of the Khatri in Rajasthan".[147]

Modern pictorial representation of a Khatri King.

Post-Independence

In the 2018 Forbes List of billionaires, 12 out of 119 (10.08%) Indian billionaires belonged to Khatri/Arora castes.[148]

Harish Damodaran says the rise of Khatri industrialists in post-Independence India was a consequence initially of the cataclysmic Partition, which pushed them in droves towards Delhi and its neighborhoods. This exodus opened new avenues for a middle class of educated traders. 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.[149]

Damodaran adds that the land Khatris originally belonged to had very little industry and rail infrastructure until 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[150] They have also co-founded companies like Snapdeal, Hotmail, YesBank, IndiaToday, AajTak, IndiGo Airlines, Sun Microsystems, Max Group etc.[151][150]

Punjabi Khatris and others, together with 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.[152][153]

Delhi NCR

Delhi's population increased by 1.1 million in the period 1941-51. This growth of 106% largely resulted from the influx of Partition migrants among other reasons. These were members of the Hindu and Sikh Khatri/Arora castes of the West Punjab. Many moved to the city for better economic opportunities.[21]

Haryana

During 1947, Punjabis who migrated to Haryana due to the Partition were mostly Khatris or Aroras. As per a survey conducted by Maharishi Dayanand University, the migrated population were forced to live in camps under open sky. Only a meager 5% "received grossly undervalued claims against their properties in shape of very poorly cultivable land, while remaining 95% though entitled for compensation could not get any thing to sustain". This migrant population is also referred as ‘refugee’ and ‘sharnarthi’ (शरणार्थी) in a derogatory manner by some locals. A Punjabi organization had approached the Haryana government with a demand to ban both words and to enact a law on the lines of the Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act with similar penalties. The community has a high literacy rate and are not dependent on money-lending and shopkeeping. They are engaged as doctors, engineers, administrators etc.[44][154]

Maharashtra

Anthropologist Karve, based on the post-Independence research of castes by a in Konkan, Maharashtra, classified Marathi Khatris[a] as one of the "professional/advanced castes" as they were doctors, engineers, clerks, lawyers, teachers, etc. at the time of independence. She states that their traditional professions were silk weaving and working as merchants although they had entered other professions later.[155][156] Khatris in modern Maharashtra are divided into endogamous subgroups, such as the Brahmo Khatris and Kapur Khatris.[157]

Religious groups

Hindu Khatris

The vast majority of Khatris are Hindu.[25] They were estimated to constitute 9% of the total population of Delhi in 2003.[45]Many Hindu Khatris made their first newborn a Sikh. Daughters were married into both Hindu and Sikh families according to the Khatri sub-hierarchy rules.[158]Hindu-Sikh intermarriages among Khatris and Aroras were common in the cities of Peshawar and Rawalpindi.[159]

Sikh Khatris

All the ten Sikh Gurus were from various Khatri clans:[160] Guru Nanak was a Bedi, Guru Angad was a Trehan, Guru Amar Das was a Bhalla, and the remainder were Sodhis.[161]

The early followers of Guru Nanak were Khatris but later a large number of Jats joined the faith.[162] Khatris and Brahmins opposed "the demand that the Sikhs set aside the distinctive customs of their castes and families, including the older rituals."[163]

Bhapa (pronounced as Pahpa) is a term used in a derogatory sense to denote Sikhs who left Potohar Region of modern-day Pakistan during Partition , specifically of Khatri and Arora caste. Bhapa translates to elder brother in the Potohari dialect spoken around Rawalpindi region. McLeod, referring to the Khatris and Aroras says "The term is typically used dismissively by Jats to express opprobrium towards Sikhs of these castes. Until recently it was never used in polite company or print, but today the word is used quite openly" [164][165][166]

Muslim Khatris

According to Historian B.N Puri, Muslim Khatris are commonly known as Khojas in Punjab.[52]

Related Groups

Arora

The Arora is a community originating from the Punjab and Sindh region of India and Pakistan. The name is derived from their native place Aror and the community comprises both Hindus and Sikhs.[167] However, Sir D. Ibbetson believed that "the Aroras were the Khatris of Aror, the ancient capital of Scinde".[168][better source needed].Similarly, the Punjab District Gazetteers states that Aroras trace their origin from the Khatris and infact were the Khatris of Aror, modern day Rohri Shankar in Pakistan.[169]

Scott Cameron Levi, describes that they are a "sub-caste of the Khatris".[41]

As per W.H McLeod, a Historian of Sikhism "Traditionally the Aroras, though a relatively high caste were inferior to the Khatris, but the difference has now progressively narrowed. Khatri-Arora marriages are not unknown nowadays"[170]

Lohana, Bhatia and Bhanushali

According to Claude Markovits, castes such as Bhatia and Lohana were close to the Khatris and intermarried with them.[171]

Jürgen Schaflechner mentions that many Khatris and Bhatias were absorbed into Lohanas when they arrived in Sindh during 18th century from cities in Punjab such as Multan.[172]

Some members, around 10-15% of the Sindhi Lohanas began working for the local rulers and hence achieved a higher status than Khatris and Lohanas. These people came to known as "Amils" while the ones who continued with their merchant professions came to be known as "Bhaibands". The Amils then started to recruit members from the general Khatris and Lohanas.[172]

Upendra Thakur mentions that there is a strong connection between the Khatris, Aroras, Lohanas and the Bhanushalis who all recruit the Saraswat Brahmins as their priests.[173]

Schaflechner mentions that the genealogy of communities such as Khatri, Lohana and Arora is described in the composition of Hiṃgulā Purāṇ that brings them all into one mytho-historic narrative. He also notes that common mythologies among Khatri and Lohana are equally found which speaks of a strong connection among them.[172]

Gaddi

Gaddi is a nomadic shepherding tribe that resides in the mountainous terrains of the Himalayas. Gaddi is an amalgamation of various groups such as Khatris, Rajputs, Brahmins etc.[174].Most Gaddis of Himachal Pradesh call themselves Khatris.[78] There is a popular saying among them "Ujreya Lahore te baseya Bharmaur" meaning that when Lahore was deserted (possibly by the Muslim invasion), Bharmour was inhabitated. Some Khatris clans are known to have settled there during Aurangzeb's reign.[175] They are divided into four classes:

  1. Brahmins
  2. Khatris and Rajputs, who wear the sacred thread
  3. Thakurs and Rathis, who don't wear the sacred thread as a rule
  4. The menial castes: Kolis, Spis, Halis etc

Inter-marriages among the groups is common, except for the lower castes.[176]

See also

  • List of Khatris

References

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  50. ^ Stephen F. Dale (2009). The Muslim Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, and Mughals. Cambridge University Press. pp. 190–191. ISBN 9781316184394. Some of them, known in sources as banians, sold goods and lent money in the Persian gulf port of Bandar 'Abbas. However, most of the 10,000 Indians whom Chardin estimated resided in Isfahan in 1670 belonged to the prominent Khatri caste group, whose members were native to the Punjab and northwestern India. Khatris had probably been travelling from the Punjab since the days of Saltanate curmudgeon Zia al-Din Barani, whose denunciation of the Hindu dominance of the Indo-Muslim economy would have been appropriate for the Mughal period as well. Khatris would have found it easy to join caravans that has traversed the Khyber and other Indo Afgan passes since ancient times.[...]In Iran, Khatris both sold cloth and various other Indian goods in bazaars, such as Isfahan's Maidain-i Shah, and lent money to merchants in the cash starved Iranian economy. In the early eighteenth century, the Englishman Edward Pettus, who served the East India company in Isfahan, complained about Indian aggressive marketing techniques. Using Banian as a general term for all non-Muslim Indians he wrote:[beginquote] The bannians, the cheif[sic] Marchantes who vende Linene of India, of all sorts and prices, which this Countrye cannot bee without, except the people should goe naked...they vende most of the linene they bring to Spahan after a most base peddlinge , and unmarchante like manner...carying it up and down on their shoulders [in] the Bazar[endquote]. Later in the century Chardin criticized Indians for their moneylending and wrote stereotyped characterization of the Khatris that reminds readers of European Christian portrayals of Jews, ironic considering Chardin was a Huguenot who had taken refuge in England. He pictured the Khatris as a nefarious class of usurious moneylenders who drained Iran of its precious metals by repatriating their ill-gotten gains to India. His was an ethnic explanation for a fundamental economic imbalance between the two regions.
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  54. ^ Susan Bayly (2001). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age. Cambridge University Press. pp. 328–329. ISBN 9780521798426. Examples of continuing fascination with the Kshatriya ideal abound, as can be seen in the many post-Independence publications which exalt the doings of individual named jatis. The production of these ‘community’ histories has been as active an industry in the late twentieth century as it was in the pre-Independence period. As recently as 1988, a polemicist representing himself as an Oxford-trained Indian ‘socio-historian’ published an account of the supposed origins and heritage of north India’s Khatris. Today, as in the past, those who call themselves Khatri favour the livelihoods of the pen and the ledger. In the colonial period, however, Khatri caste associations extolled the heritage of their ‘community’ as one of prowess and noble service (seva), claiming that their dharmic essence was that of the arms-bearing Kshatriya and therefore quite unlike that of the commercial Agarwals and other pacific Vaishyas. These same themes were recapitulated by the author of the 1988 text: the Khatris, ‘one of the most acute, energetic, and remarkable race [sic] in India’, are heirs to a glorious martial past, ‘pure descendants of the old Vedic Kshatriyas’. The writer even tries to exalt Khatris above Rajputs, whose blood he considers ‘impure’, being supposedly mixed with that of ‘inferior’ Kols or ‘aborigines’: in his view only Khatris are ‘true representatives of the Aryan nobility’.<39>Footnote: 39 Puri 1988: 3, 78, 163, 166. The writer appeals to the Khatri ‘race’ to ‘wake up’ and cherish their heritage as ‘followers of the Hindu Dharma Sastras’ (5). Above all they should guard against ‘hybridising’, i.e. marrying non-Khatris (166). These views closely resemble those of pre-Independence race theorists (see Chapters 3-4). Compare Seth 1904
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  72. ^ Satish Chandra (2008). Social Change and Development in Medieval Indian History. Har-Anand Publications. p. 43. ISBN 978-81-241-1386-8. In fact, there are some castes which do not quite fit into any of the four varnas. I do not know enough about the situation in south India. But in Northern India, castes such as Khatris and Kayasths are difficult to fit into the varna system. The Khatris are par excellence traders, but they are not classified amongst vaishyas. Nor are they part of the Kshatriyas.
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  79. ^ Kenneth W. Jones; Kenneth W.Jones (1976). Arya Dharm: Hindu Consciousness in 19th-century Punjab. University of California Press. pp. 4–5. ISBN 978-0-520-02920-0. Among Punjabi Hindus the Vaishyas would lead; among Vaishyas, the Khatri and his associates, the Saraswat Brahmins. The Khatris claimed with some justice and increasing insistence, the status of Rajputs, or Kshatriyas, a claim not granted by British but illustrative of their ambiguous position on the great varna scale of class divisions and their importance within the Hindu community. Processed of questionable and flexible status in the traditional hierarchy, literate, urban and often wealthy, in search of recognition for their achievements and pretentions, the Khatris acted as traditional innovators, leaders into new worlds
  80. ^ Jump up to: a b 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...By the eighteenth century, and probably long before, they were a dominant group in the trade of the Punjab and Afganistan, and they had penetrated into Turkistan and also east and south into many parts of India. ...This raises the possibility that Khatris were resident in Bengal in pre-Mughal times.
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  82. ^ 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.
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  84. ^ Malik, Ashok (2010). "Caste Census". India International Centre Quarterly. 37 (1): 142–147. ISSN 0376-9771. JSTOR 23006464.
  85. ^ Vijaya V. Gupchup (1993). Bombay: Social Change, 1813-1857. Popular Book Depot. p. 191. The cynical remarks of the Brahmin point out that there was a general tendency of the castes to elevate themselves in the social strata, no doubt taking advantage of the British policy of neutrality towards castes. Thus he says: Everyone does what he wants, Sonars have become Brahmins , Treemungalacharya was insulted by throwing cowdung at him in Pune, but he has no shame and still calls himself a Brahmin. Similarly a (Marathi) Khatri or Koshti (weavers) who are included in Panchal at places other than Bombay, call themselves Kshatriya in Bombay and say their needles are the arrows and their thimbles are the sheaths. How surprising that those Sonars and Khatris at the hands of whom even Sudras will not take water have become Brahmins and Kshatriyas. He continues, in short day by day higher castes are disappearing and lower castes are prospering.
  86. ^ Tandon, Prakash (1968). Punjabi Century, 1857-1947. University of California Press. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-520-01253-0.
  87. ^ Tandon, Prakash (1968). Punjabi Century, 1857-1947. University of California Press. p. 9. ISBN 978-0-520-01253-0.
  88. ^ Rait, S. K. (2005). Sikh Women in England: Their Religious and Cultural Beliefs and Social Practices. Trentham Books. p. 71. ISBN 978-1-85856-353-4.
  89. ^ Vincent A. Smith (2008). History of India, in Nine Volumes: Vol. II. New York: Cosimo Publications.
  90. ^ Etienne Lamotte, Sara Webb-Boin & Jean Dantinne (1988). History of Indian Buddhism: From the Origins to the Saka Era. Université catholique de Louvain, Institut orientaliste.
  91. ^ Sahay, Uday (2021). Kayasth Encyclopedia. Delhi: SAUV communications. ISBN 978-81-941122-3-5.
  92. ^ "Arrian, Anabasis, book 6, chapter 15, section 1". www.perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 10 August 2021.
  93. ^ Puri, Baij Nath (1988). The Khatris, a socio-cultural study. New Delhi: M.N. Publishers and Distributors. pp. 9–11. OCLC 61616699. It is reasonable to presume at the moment on the basis of the cumulative evidence adduced above that the Kathioi, Khatriaioi and the Khatriyas appear to be synonymous- all representing the Kshatriyas-Khatriyas-Khatris.”
  94. ^ Dr S. Srikanta Sastri, English Translation by S. Naganath (28 July 2021). Indian Culture: A Compendium of Indian History, Culture and Heritage. Notion Press. ISBN 978-1-63806-511-1.
  95. ^ Witzel, Michael (1995). "Early Sanskritization Origins and Development of the Kuru State". Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies. 1 (4): 22.
  96. ^ Nalwa, Vanit (13 January 2009). Hari Singh Nalwa, "champion of the Khalsaji" (1791-1837). Manohar, New Delhi. p. 21. ISBN 978-81-7304-785-5.
  97. ^ Jahangir, Emperor of Hindustan; Hindustan), Jahangir (Emperor of (1999). The Jahangirnama: Memoirs of Jahangir, Emperor of India. Freer Gallery of Art, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. ISBN 978-0-19-512718-8.
  98. ^ Rosalind O'Hanlon (2014). "Scribal migrations in early modern India". In Joya Chatterji; David Washbrook (eds.). Routledge Handbook of the South Asian Diaspora. pp. 97–98. ISBN 9781136018329. In northern India and Rajput states , Persian assimilated Kayasths and the khatris were the leading scribal people. These communities were not Brahmans, but had early in the second millennium developed as specialised scribes and clerks. Popular literatures reviled them for the influence they were able to command as royal scribes, but they also appear in inscriptional literature represented as pious donors and great men in their own right. Originally serving medieval Hindu kings, the coming of the Muslim empires opened up new opportunities for them. In these new courtly contexts, their willingness to assimilate themselves to the Persianate language and the culture of Muslim courts gave them a sharp advantage - although often, in the process, attracting sharp hostility from Brahman scribal rivals(O'Hanlon 2010b:563-95)
  99. ^ Burjor Avari (2013). Islamic Civilization in South Asia:A History of Muslim Power and Presence in the Indian Subcontinent. Routledge. p. 142. ISBN 9780415580618. Anyone who wished to enter the large Mughal bureaucracy as an accountant or a scribe had to be well qualified in Persian, since all papers and imperial orders (firmans) were written in that language. The elders of the Hindu castes such as Kayasths and Khatris, who were professional scribes, encouraged their children to learn Persian; and Hindu writers in Persian increased greatly in numbers through the eighteenth century.
  100. ^ Hendrik Spruyt (2020). The World Imagined: Collective Beliefs and Political Order in the Sinocentric, Islamic and Southeast Asian International Societies. Cambridge University Press. p. 200. ISBN 978-1108811743. Kayastha and Khatri caste members acted as scribes (monshi) throughout the Mughal dynasty, and in so doing occupied positions in revenue collection, and record keeping
  101. ^ Prashant Keshavmurthy (2020). "The limits of Islamic civility in India". In Milad Milani; Vassilios Adrahtas (eds.). Islam, Civility and Political Culture. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 121. ISBN 9783030567613. Writing in the 1760s in the Deccan districts of the Mughal empire, he was witness to the rise there of the Brahmin Peshwas who took over the Mughal Bureaucracy and promoted Marathi in place of Persian, displacing the North Indian Persian-literate Hindu scribes of the Kāyastha and Khatri castes.
  102. ^ Das, Kumudranjan. Raja Todar Mal. pp. 138–150.
  103. ^ Jump up to: a b McLane, John R. (2002). Land and Local Kingship in Eighteenth-Century Bengal. Cambridge University Press. pp. 132–133. ISBN 978-0-521-52654-8.
  104. ^ Small Town Capitalism in Western India:Artisans, Merchants and the making of the Informal Economy. Cambridge University Press. 2012. p. 31. ISBN 9780521193337. Weavers and other artisans frequently moved to places where the prospects for international trade or state patronage were great. Khatri weavers living in Gujarat largely trace their ancestry to Champaner in the current Panch Mahals district or to Hinglag in Sind. Community genealogists today preserve the memory of how Khatri families fanned out through towns in central and southern Gujarat during the late sixteenth century, a period of rapid expansion in the region's foreign trade.
  105. ^ Kapadia, Aparna (16 May 2018). Gujarat: The Long Fifteenth Century and the Making of a Region. Cambridge University Press. p. 120. ISBN 978-1-107-15331-8.
  106. ^ Wink, André (2003). Indo-Islamic society: 14th - 15th centuries. BRILL. p. 143. ISBN 978-90-04-13561-1. Similarly, Zaffar Khan Muzaffar, the first independent ruler of Gujarat was not a foreign muslim but a Khatri convert, of low subdivision called Tank.
  107. ^ Khan, Iqtidar Alam (25 April 2008). Historical Dictionary of Medieval India. Scarecrow Press. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-8108-5503-8. The founder of the Gujarat Sultanate he was a convert from a sect of Hindu Khatris known as Tanks.
  108. ^ Misra, S. C. (Satish Chandra) (1963). The rise of Muslim power in Gujarat; a history of Gujarat from 1298 to 1442. Internet Archive. New York, Asia Pub. House. p. 137. Zafar Khan was not a foreign muslim. He was a convert to Islam from a sect of the Khatris known as Tank.
  109. ^ Khan, Iqtidar Alam (2004). Gunpowder and Firearms: Warfare in Medieval India. Oxford University Press. p. 57. ISBN 978-0-19-566526-0. Zafar Khan (entitled Muzaffar Shah) himself was a convert to Islam from a sub-caste of the Khatris known as Tank.
  110. ^ Abbas, Syed Anwer (2021). Confluence of Cultures: Hindu, Muslim, Buddhists & Jain mosque and Mausoleum. Notion Press. ISBN 9781639046041.
  111. ^ Chandra, Satish (2004). Medieval India ( From Sultanat to the Mughals), PART ONE Delhi Sultanat ( 1206-1526). Har-Anand Publications. p. 218. ISBN 9788124110645.
  112. ^ Muzaffar Husain Syed, Syed Saud Akhtar, BD Usmani (2011). Concise History of Islam. p. 271.
  113. ^ Kapadia, Aparna (2018). Gujarat: The Long Fifteenth Century and the Making of a Region. Cambridge University Press. p. 8. ISBN 9781107153318.
  114. ^ Edward James Rapson, Sir Wolseley Haig, Sir Richard Burn (1965). The Cambridge History of India: Turks and Afghans, edited by W Haig, 1965. Cambridge. p. 294.
  115. ^ Chaube, J. (1975). History of Gujarat Kingdom, 1458-1537. Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers. p. 4. ISBN 9780883865736.
  116. ^ Mahajan, VD (2007). History of Medieval India. S. Chand. p. 245. ISBN 9788121903646.
  117. ^ Jenkins, Everett (2010). The Muslim Diaspora - A comprehensive reference to the spread of Islam in Asia, Africa, Europe and the America, 570 - 1799. McFarland & Company Inc. p. 275. ISBN 9780786447138.
  118. ^ Jutta, Jain-Neubauer (1981). The Stepwells of Gujarat: In Art- Historical perspective. p. 62.
  119. ^ Saran, Kishori Lal (1992). The legacy of Muslim Rule in India. Aditya Prakashan. p. 233. ISBN 9788185689036.
  120. ^ Lane-Pool, Stanley (2014). Mohammadan Dyn: Orientalism V 2 - volume 2, page -312 , writer. p. 312. ISBN 9781317853947.
  121. ^ Wink, André (1990). Indo-Islamic society: 14th - 15th centuries. BRILL. p. 143. ISBN 978-90-04-13561-1. Similarly, Zafar Khan Muzaffar, the first independent ruler of Gujarat, was not a foreign muslim but a Khatri convert, of a low subdivision called Talk, originally from southern Punjab, but born in Delhi, where he rose from menial to noble status in the Delhi sultan's houshold. As the governor of Gujarat he became independent from Delhi after Timur devastated the city an immense number of people fled to Gujarat..
  122. ^ Suraiya Faroqh (2019). The Ottoman and Mughal Empires: Social History in the Early Modern World. Bloomsbury Publishing. p. 254. ISBN 9781788318730. In the study of the political economy of Gujarat in the second half of the eighteenth century, the author points out that castes and subcastes did not prevent inter-caste mobility. Thus, when the Khatri weavers found that they have more orders for high-quality cottons than they could fill on their own, they employed adjuncts from another caste known as Kunbis. The latter soon learnt the craft and turned into formidable competitors. Particularly, the Khatris resented that at some time in the mid-1770s, at the very end of the period studied here, the Mughal governor had granted their Kunbi rivals the right to manufacture saris, a popular female garment. In 1742, the Khatri weavers refused to deliver cloth to the EIC to protest against the immigration of Muslim weavers; it is difficult to say whether this strike was a purely economic matter or whether religion, status and caste were an issue as well.
  123. ^ Moin Qazi (2014). Woven Wonders of the Deccan. Notion Press. pp. 147–. ISBN 978-93-83808-62-5. With the Muslim invasion the hereditary art fell on bad times, as the khatri community of weavers scattered far and wide in search of work
  124. ^ Nadri, Ghulam A. (2009). Eighteenth Century Gujarat: The Dynamics of Its Political Economy, 1750-1800. Brill. pp. 26–28, 31. ISBN 978-90-04-17202-9.
  125. ^ Parvez Alam (July 2017). "Trade, Textile and other Industrial Activities: A Study of Banaras region in Medieval India" (PDF). Journal of Indian Studies Vol. 3, No. 1: 49–56. When the first caravan of Muslim weavers known as 'sat gharua' entered Banaras, there was monopoly of Khatri Hindus over the weaving industry in Banaras. The Khatri Hindus known as Pattikas or Pattakars assisted to these immigrant Muslim weavers in founding their craft both by cash and raw material. Since these Muslims were not allowed to have any direct connection with high caste Hindus, the finished products of Muslims were marketed by the Khatris. The Muslim weavers were good in weaving and their labour was cheap for they had to take whatever they were paid to establish themselves. Now the Khatris started focusing more on marketing. By this way, weaving from the Khatris passed into the hands of the Muslims. Gradually, the Khatris became traders.
  126. ^ Badri Prasad Pandey (1981). Banaras Brocades: Structure and Functioning. Gandhian Institute of Studies. p. 18. Muslim community learned the art of weaving from the Pattikas khatris - a low Hindu caste at that time. It was easier to mix with low Hindu castes than higher one for muslims. The muslims who installed their own looms and learnt weaving were known as 'chira-i- Baaf' meaning 'Fine cloth weavers'. By and by Pattikas khatris withdrew from the scene and it was replaced by muslim community" When muslim community came to Varanasi after conquering Varanasi they settled at Alaipura and other muslim localities
  127. ^ Baij Nath Puri (1988). The Khatris, a Socio-cultural Study. M.N. Publishers and Distributors. The history of Burdwan Raj seems to mark the beginning of Khatri migration or its efflorescence of the Khatris in Bengal.
  128. ^ John R. McLane (1993). Land and Local Kingship in Eighteenth-Century Bengal. Cambridge University Press. p. 132.
  129. ^ Mandair, Arvind-Pal S.; Shackle, Christopher; Singh, Gurharpal (16 December 2013). Sikh Religion, Culture and Ethnicity. Routledge. doi:10.4324/9781315028583. ISBN 978-1-136-84627-4.
  130. ^ Dhavan, Purnima (22 November 2011). When Sparrows Became Hawks. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199756551.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-975655-1.
  131. ^ Naīara, Gurabacana Siṅgha (1995). The Campaigns of General Hari Singh Nalwa. Punjabi University. ISBN 978-81-7380-141-9.
  132. ^ Kapūra, Prithīpāla Siṅgha (1993). Perspectives on Hari Singh Nalwa. ABS Publications. ISBN 978-81-7072-056-0.
  133. ^ Singh, Khushwant (18 November 2004), "Constitutional Reforms and the Sikhs", A History of the Sikhs, Oxford University Press, pp. 216–234, doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195673098.003.0014, ISBN 978-0-19-567309-8, retrieved 31 July 2021
  134. ^ Hernon, Ian (2002). Britain's Forgotten Wars. Sutton Publishing
  135. ^ 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.
  136. ^ Nirad Baran, Sarkar (1999). Bardhaman Raj. Sujata Sarkar. p. 210.
  137. ^ Patel, Alka; Leonard, Karen (7 December 2011). Indo-Muslim Cultures in Transition. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-21887-1.
  138. ^ Leonard, Karen Isaksen (1994). Social History of an Indian Caste: The Kayasths of Hyderabad. Orient BlackSwan. ISBN 978-81-250-0032-7.
  139. ^ Bawa, Basant K. (1992). The Last Nizam: The Life and Times of Mir Osman Ali Khan. Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-83997-1.
  140. ^ Tirthankar Roy; Roy (4 November 1999). Traditional Industry in the Economy of Colonial India. Cambridge University Press. pp. 93–. ISBN 978-0-521-65012-0. 43 percent of the looms were owned by the main Hindu weaving castes, Khatri(silk) and Salis/padmasalis(cotton)
  141. ^ A.M. Shah (6 December 2012). The Structure of Indian Society: Then and Now. Routledge. pp. 126–127. ISBN 978-1-136-19770-3. A large number of specialized artisan and craftsmen castes lived almost entirely in towns, as for example Soni(goldsmith), Kansara(brazier), chudgar(bangle-maker), chhipa(dyer, printer), bhavsar(weaver, dyer, printer), khatri(cotton weaver), salvi(silk weaver), kadiya(brick layer)..and Darji(tailor)
  142. ^ Makrand Mehta (1991). Indian Merchants and Entrepreneurs in Historical Perspective: With Special Reference to Shroffs of Gujarat, 17th to 19th Centuries. Academic Foundation. pp. 176–. ISBN 978-81-7188-017-1. In the 1840's a large number of weavers , mostly belonging to the kanbi and the Khatri castes and also the Muslim weavers , increasingly purchased machine made imported yarn to weave them into superior textila goods.
  143. ^ Edward A. Alpers; Chhaya Goswami (12 February 2019). Transregional Trade and Traders: Situating Gujarat in the Indian Ocean from Early Times to 1900. OUP India. pp. 176–. ISBN 978-0-19-909613-8. In the last place, 'silk weaving[was] carried on to a large extent.' the products 'much valued for the fastness of the dye', with Khatri dyers working at 'pits on the banks of the dry river Rukmavati where water is said to give specially clear and lasting colors'
  144. ^ Jennifer E. Duyne Barenstein; Esther Leemann (29 October 2012). Post-Disaster Reconstruction and Change: Communities' Perspectives. CRC Press. pp. 286–. ISBN 978-1-4398-8817-9. Block printing cloth, the traditional occupation of Khatri men, has been practiced in Dhamadka since the time of its foundation some 400 years ago.
  145. ^ Sheila Paine (2001). Embroidery from India and Pakistan. British Museum Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-7141-2744-6. Block printing is done with a resist substance by both Muslims and Hindus of the Khatri caste , and block printers can still be found in many villages. The background fabric for this work is normally red
  146. ^ Tirthankar Roy. The Economic History of India, 1857–2010. Oxford University Press. p. 44.
  147. ^ Singh, Kumar Suresh, ed. (1998). India's Communities. 2 H–M. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press. pp. 1722, 1728–1729. ISBN 978-0-19-563354-2.
  148. ^ Damodaran, Harish (25 November 2018). INDIA'S NEW CAPITALISTS: Caste, Business, and Industry in a Modern Nation. Hachette India. ISBN 978-93-5195-280-0.
  149. ^ Damodaran, Harish (25 November 2018). INDIA'S NEW CAPITALISTS: Caste, Business, and Industry in a Modern Nation. Hachette India. ISBN 978-93-5195-280-0.
  150. ^ Jump up to: a b Damodaran, Harish (25 November 2018). INDIA'S NEW CAPITALISTS: Caste, Business, and Industry in a Modern Nation. Hachette India. ISBN 978-93-5195-280-0.
  151. ^ Damodaran, Harish (25 November 2018). INDIA'S NEW CAPITALISTS: Caste, Business, and Industry in a Modern Nation. Hachette India. ISBN 978-93-5195-280-0.
  152. ^ Pavan K. Varma (2007). The Great Indian Middle class. Penguin Books. p. 28. ISBN 9780143103257. ...its main adherents came from those in government service, qualified professionals such as doctors, engineers, and lawyers, business entrepreneurs, teachers in schools in the bigger cities and in the institutes of higher education, journalists[etc]...The upper castes dominated the Indian middle class. Prominent among its members were Punjabi Khatris, Kashmiri Pandits, and South Indian brahmins. Then there were the 'traditional urban-oriented professional castes such as the Nagars of Gujarat, the Chitpawans and the Ckps (Chandrasenya Kayastha Prabhus)s of Maharashtra and the Kayasthas of North India. Also included were the old elite groups that emerged during the colonial rule: the Probasi and the Bhadralok Bengalis, the Parsis, and the upper crusts of the Muslim and Christian communities. Education was a common thread that bound together with this pan Indian elite...But almost all its members spoke and wrote English and had had some education beyond school
  153. ^ D.L. Sheth (2018). Peter Ronald deSouza (ed.). At Home with Democracy: A Theory of Indian Politics. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 9789811064128. The old neocolonial upper-caste elite, with a long tradition of education in the language of the ruling elite, witha long tradition of education in the language of the ruling elite of the time -Sanskrit of Persian in the past or english today - still constitutes its core. However, the ranks of the 'national' elite have now expanded to include several new groups of castes, by and large of the dwija varna, which have acquired access to English education in the post Independence period[...]Sociologically viewed, the ranks of the pan-Indian elite are drawn from several groups ousted from the regions, such as Punjabi Hindus, Kashmiri Pundits and South-Indian Brahmins. Then there are the traditional urban-oriented professional castes such as the Nagars of Gujarat, the Chitpawans and the CKPs(Chandrasenya Kayastha Prabhus) of Maharashtra and the Kayasthas of North India whose members have joined the ranks, albeit more through responding to the pull factor than being subject to the push factor.Also included amound them are the old elite groups which emerged during the colonial rule: The Probasi and the Bhadralok Bengalis, the Parsis, and the upper crusts of the Muslim and Christian communities with a pronounced secular and nationalist persuation.
  154. ^ Sep 25, Manvir Saini / TNN /; 2018; Ist, 12:15. "Ban the word 'refugee' in Haryana: Punjabis urge Manohar Lal Khattar | Gurgaon News - Times of India". The Times of India. Retrieved 17 September 2021.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  155. ^ Gordon Townsend Bowles (1977). The People of Asia. Scribner. p. 173. ISBN 978-0-684-15625-5. Following Karve's classification in the Konkan , the Kayastha Prabhu , Pathare Prabhu , Pathare Kshatriya , Khatri and Vaisya Vani may be listed with the Brahmins as professional groups. The intermediate or artisan and service castes include the Sonar ( goldsmiths ) , Kasar ( coppersmiths ) , Shimpi ( tailors ) , Teli ( oil pressers ) , Khosti ( weavers ) , Bhajvsar ( dyers ) , Nhavi ( barbers ) , Parit ( washermen ) ...
  156. ^ Irawati Karve; Vishnu Mahadeo Dandekar (1951). Anthropometric Measurements of Mahārāṣhṭra. Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute, Pune. (Pg 16)Group I. Castes which follow various professions like teachers, doctors, clerks, pleaders, engineers etc:-All Brahmins,Non Brahmins: Kayastha Prabhu,Pathare Prabhu, Pathare Kshatriya, Khatri, Vaishya Vani (pg 29) Castes called Khatris are found in Gujarat Karnataka and Maharashtra. This sample represents the Marathi speaking khatris who claim to have living near the Bombay island for the last century at least. Khatris are found in other towns in the west maratha countries their hereditary profession is said to be that of silk weavers and merchants. Now they have entered into all services like clerks, teachers and higher administrative jobs and also follow professions like law and medicine.....
  157. ^ K. S. Singh; Anthropological Survey of India (1998). India's Communities. Oxford University Press. p. 1728. ISBN 978-0-19-563354-2. In Maharashtra , the Khatri have different subgroups , such as Brahmo Khatri , Gujarathi Khatri , Kapur Khatri , Sahashtrarjun Khatri , Surthi Khatri , Somvanshiya Khatri , and Maratha Khatri which are territorial and endogamous . They are weavers by profession.
  158. ^ Singh, Manpreet J. (31 August 2020). The Sikh Next Door: An Identity in Transition. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-93-89165-58-6.
  159. ^ Mooney, Nicola (1 January 2011). Rural Nostalgias and Transnational Dreams: Identity and Modernity Among Jat Sikhs. University of Toronto Press. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-8020-9257-1.
  160. ^ Singha, H. S. (2000). The Encyclopedia of Sikhism. Hemkunt Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-81-7010-301-1.
  161. ^ McLeod, W. H. (2009). The A to Z of Sikhism. Scarecrow Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-8108-6828-1.
  162. ^ Richard M. Eaton (2019). India in the Persianate Age: 1000-1765. Penguin. pp. 168–169. ISBN 9780141966557. The Sikh community grew rapidly in the sixteenth century. Nanak's earliest followers had been fellow Khatris engaged in petty trade, shopkeeping, or lower level civil service in the Lodi or Mughal bureaucracies. But as the movement grew, it experienced a significant influx of Jat cultivators.
  163. ^ 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.
  164. ^ Fenech, Louis E.; McLeod, W.H (2014). Historical Dictionary of Sikhism. Rowman & Littlefield. p. 67. ISBN 978-1442236004.
  165. ^ Singh, Pukhraj (31 May 2014). "Bluestar Baby Boomers". Newslaundary. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  166. ^ Kumar, Dharminder (3 January 2016). "The Sardar Joke Is On You". Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
  167. ^ Hans, Patrick (2016). The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland. p. 78. ISBN 9780192527479.
  168. ^ Russell, R.V (1916). "Part 1". The Tribes and Castes of the Central Provinces of India. 1. London: Macmillan and Co. p. 337.
  169. ^ India, Punjab (1976). Volume 9 of Punjab District Gazetteers. Controller of Print and Stationery. p. 87.
  170. ^ McLeod, W. H. (24 July 2009). The A to Z of Sikhism. Scarecrow Press. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-8108-6344-6.
  171. ^ Markovits, Claude (22 June 2000). The Global World of Indian Merchants, 1750–1947: Traders of Sind from Bukhara to Panama. Cambridge University Press. p. 47. ISBN 978-1-139-43127-9.
  172. ^ Jump up to: a b c Schaflechner, Jürgen (2018). Hinglaj Devi: Identity, Change, and Solidification at a Hindu Temple in Pakistan. Oxford University Press. pp. 73–74. ISBN 978-0-19-085052-4.
  173. ^ Thakur, Upendra (1997). Sindhi Culture. Sindhi Academy. p. 61. ISBN 978-81-87096-02-3.
  174. ^ Sharma, Manorma (1998). Tribal Melodies of Himachal Pradesh: Gaddi folk music. APH Publishing. p. 9. ISBN 978-81-7024-912-2.
  175. ^ Hāṇḍā, Omacanda (2005). Gaddi Land in Chamba: Its History, Art & Culture : New Light on the Early Wooden Temples. Indus Publishing. p. 29. ISBN 978-81-7387-174-0.
  176. ^ Bisht, Narendra S.; Bankoti, T. S. (2004). Encyclopaedic Ethnography of the Himalayan Tribes: A-D. Global Vision. p. 431. ISBN 978-81-87746-92-8.
  1. ^ Khatris claimed to live near the Bombay island from at least the mid-1800s and would speak Marathi
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