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Khatri

August 29, 2023

Not to be confused with Chhetri.
For other uses, see Khatri (surname).

Khatri is a caste/clan of the Indian subcontinent that is predominantly found in India, but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the subcontinent, they were mostly engaged in mercantilistic professions such as banking and trade.[13][14][15] They were the dominant commercial and financial administration class of Late-Medieval India,[15] some in Punjab often belonged to hereditary agriculturalist land-holding lineages,[16][17] while others were engaged in artisanal occupations such as silk production and weaving[18][19][20][21] and some were scribes learned in Sanskrit or Persian.[22]

During the British colonial era, they also served as lawyers and engaged in administrative jobs in the colonial bureaucracy.[23][24] Some of them served in the British Indian army after being raised as Sikhs.[16] The Sikh religion was founded by Guru Nanak, a Bedi Khatri. Subsequently, all the Sikh religious leaders or Gurus were Khatris.[25] During the Sikh Empire, many Khatris formed the military vanguard of the Khalsa Army and its administrative class as Dewans of all the provinces. Hari Singh Nalwa, the commander-in-chief of the Sikh Khalsa Army, was an Uppal Khatri and responsible for most of the Sikh conquests up until the Khyber pass.[26][27] Others such as Mokham Chand commanded the Sikh Army against the Durrani Empire at Attock while those such as Sawan Mal Chopra ruled Multan after wrestling it from the Afghans.[28]

Khatris have played an active role in the Indian Armed Forces since 1947, with many heading it as the Chief of Army or Admiral of the Navy. Some such as Vikram Batra and Arun Khetarpal have won India's highest wartime gallantry award, the Param Vir Chakra.[29][30]

During the Partition of British India in 1947, many Khatris migrated to India from the regions that comprise modern-day Pakistan.[31][32] Hindu Afghans and Sikh Afghans are predominantly of Khatri and Arora origin.[33]

Etymology

The word Khatri in the Hindi Language comes from the Sanskrit word "Kshatriya" according to the Śabdasāgara Lexicon by Shyamasundara Dasa[34] According to B. N. Puri, philologists agree that the terms "Khatri" and "Kshatriya" are synonymous. The Sanskrit conjunct Ksha (क्ष) turns into the Prakrit Kha (ख) as per the grammarian Vararuchi.[35] This change is not only accepted in Prakrit but in all Indian vernaculars derived by it such as Gujarati, Urdu, Gurumukhi as well as Persian. For example, Sanskrit words kshetra, kshama, laksha, iksha turns into kheta, khama, lakha and ikha respectively. The substituition of Ri (ऋ) from Riya is also witnessed in case of Hindi. Hence, the change from Kshatriya to Khatri is in consonance with the Prakrit rule and Hindi usage. The same is also testified by scholars R. G. Bhandarkar and Shapurji Edulji.[35]

As per historian W. H. McLeod and Louis Fenech, Khatri is a Punjabi form of the word Kshatriya.[36] 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".[37][38] Dr. Dharamvir Bharati comments that in Punjabi language, Kshatriya is pronounced as Khatri.[39] As per Dr. GS Mansukhani and RC Dogra, "Khatri appears to be unquestionably a Prakritised form of Sanskrit word Kshatriya."[40] According to philologist Ralph Lilley Turner, the Punjabi word "khattrī", meaning "warrior", derives from Sanskrit "kṣatriya", whereas the Gujarati word "khātrī", meaning "a caste of Hindu weavers", derives from Sanskrit "kṣattr̥", meaning "carver, distributor".[41]

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".[42] Purnima Dhavan sees the claim as originating from a conflation of the phonetically similar words khatri and kshatriya, but refers to Khatris as a "trading caste" of the Sikh Gurus.[43]

See also: Khatri § Varna Status

Early history

Ancient Greek accounts from historians[44][45][46] 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.[47] Ptolemy writing in the 2nd century AD refers again to another tribe called 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.[48] 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".[49] Michael Witzel, writing in his paper "Sanskritization of the Kuru State" states the Kathaiois were Kaṭha Brahmins.[50]

Trans-regional trading history

The Khatris played an important role in India's trans-regional trade during the period,[51] being described by Levi as among the "most important merchant communities of early modern India."[52] Levi writes: "Stephen Dale locates Khatris in Astrakhan, Russia during the late 17th century and, in the 1830s, Elphinstone, was informed that Khatris were still highly involved in northwest India's trade and that they maintained communities throughout Afghanistan and as far away as Astrakhan"".[53] According to Kiran Datar, they often married Tatar local women in Astrakhan and the children from these marriages were known as Agrijan.[54] As per Stephen Dale, the children born out of Indo-Turkic alliance was sufficient to form an Agrizhan suburb in the city.[55]

Historian Stephen Dale states that most of the 10,000 (as estimated by Jean Chardin) Indian merchants and money-lenders in Isfahan (Iran) in 1670, belonged to the Khatri caste of Punjab and north-west India. In Iran's Bazaar's, Khatris sold cloth and various items and also practised money-lending. Dale believes that Khatris had possibly been travelling from Punjab via caravans since the era of Ziauddin Barani (around 1300 AD). Chardin specifically stereotyped and expressed disapproval of the money-lending techniques of the Khatri community. According to Dale, this racist criticism was ironic given Chardin's non-English background but adds that it was Chardin's way of giving an "ethnic explanation" to the economic disparity between Iran and India at that time.[56]

Theology

 
1849 photograph of Bikram Singh Bedi, a direct descendant of Guru Nanak.

According to Bichitra Natak, traditionally said to be the autobiography of the last Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, but possibly not so,[57] 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.[58][better source needed]

In Guru Granth Sahib, the primary scripture of Sikhism, Khatri is mentioned as one among the four varnas.[59]

ਖਤ੍ਰੀ ਬ੍ਰਾਹਮਣ ਸੂਦ ਵੈਸ ਉਪਦੇਸੁ ਚਹੁ ਵਰਨਾ ਕਉ ਸਾਝਾ ॥ (SGGS, ang 747)

Khatri brahman sud vais updesu cahu varna ku sanjha

Kshatriyas, Brahmins, Shudras and Vaishyas all have the same mandate

 
Photograph of a Hindu Khatri man of Hazara c. 1868-1872

Guru Gobind Singh, said the following in a swayya:

Chattri ko poot ho, Baman ko naheen kayee tap aavat ha jo karon; Ar aur janjaar jito greh ko tohe tyaag, kahan chit taan mai dharon, Ab reejh ke deh vahey humko jo-oo, hau binti kar jor karoon ; Jab aao ki audh nidaan bane, att hi ran main tab jujh maroon.

I am son of a Chhatri (Khatri), not of a Brahmin and I will live according to my Dharma. All other complications of life are meaningless for me, and I set my heart on the path of righteousness. I humbly beseech thee God Almighty that when the time comes for me to fulfill my Dharma, may I die with honour in the field of battle.[60]

— Translated by Vanit Nalwa

Demographics

Before partition

French traveller Thevenot visited India during the 1600s where he commented "At Multan, there is another sort of gentiles whom they call Catry, the town is properly their country and from thence they spread all over the Indies." According to Dr. Madhu Tyagi, Thevenot is referring to Hindu Khatri caste here.[61]

The last caste-based census was conducted by the British in 1931 which regarded Khatri and Arora as a different caste. During 1931, Khatris were prominent in the West Punjab and North-Western Frontier Province (NWFP), which is now known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK).[62] The Khatris spoke Hindko and Potohari language.[1][63] Highest percentage concentration of Khatris (excluding Aroras) were in Potohar regions of Jhelum and Rawalpindi[62] In NWFP, the Khatris were found mainly in Peshawer and Hazara.[64]

Arora-Khatris were centered in Multan and Derajat regions of Punjab and NWFP.[65] In the NWFP, the Aroras which are considered a sub-caste of Khatris by some scholars were concentrated in the districts of Bannu, Kohat and Dera Ismail Khan.[64][2] The Aroras spoke Jatki language which is the 9th century version of Saraiki (Multani) according to Ibbetson.[66]

They were also found in Afghanistan at a population of 300,000 in 1880. According to an 1800s colonial source referred by Shah Hanifi, "Hindki is the name given to Hindus who live in Afghanistan. They are Hindus of Khatri class and are found all over Afghanistan even amongst the wildest tribes. They are wholly occupied in trade and form numerous portion of the population of all the cities and towns, and are also to be found in the majority of large villages."[67]

 
Photograph of a Hindu Khatri man of Lahore c. 1859-1869
 
Sikh of Sodhi clan, Lahore.
 
Map depicting the most numerous community by district according to Census of India 1931.[68][69][70][71][72]
Population Concentration of Khatris & Aroras by region (Note: The numbers are expected to be more since many Hindus boycotted the Census)[62]
Region State Total % pop. Khatri Arora Year Ref
Amritsar district Punjab (East) 05.47% 03.30% 02.17% 1901 [73]
Attock dist. Punjab (West) 09.90% 07.32% 02.58% 1901 [74]
Bahawalpur dist. Punjab (West) 07.36% 00.50% 06.86% 1931 [75]
Balochistan Balochistan 01.93% 00.03% 01.90% 1931 [76]
Bannu dist. KPK 07.83% 00.50% 07.30% 1921 [77]
DG Khan dist. Punjab (West) 10.01% 00.79% 09.22% 1891 [78]
DI Khan dist. KPK 09.86% 00.72% 09.14% 1901 [73]
Dir, Chitral & Swat KPK 20.33% 16.32% 04.01% 1901 [73]
Ferozpur dist. Punjab (East) 03.57% 01.11% 02.46% 1901 [73]
Gujranwala dist. Punjab (West) 10.01% 04.46% 05.55% 1931 [75]
Gujrat district Punjab (West) 06.30% 02.46% 03.84% 1901 [73]
Gurdaspur dist. Punjab (East & West) 01.98% 01.83% 00.15% 1901 [73]
Hazara district KPK 02.97% 02.29% 00.68% 1901 [79]
Jammu Province Jammu-Kashmir 03.01% 03.01% 00.00% 1901 [80]
Kangra district Himachal Pradesh 00.87% 00.85% 00.02% 1931 [75]
Kohat district KPK 05.07% 01.50% 03.57% 1921 [77]
Jalandhar dist. Punjab (East) 02.88% 02.78% 00.10% 1901 [73]
Jhang district Punjab (West) 15.06% 04.34% 10.72% 1931 [75]
Jhelum district Punjab (West) 09.77% 07.27% 02.50% 1881 [81]
Lahore district Punjab (West) 08.01% 05.10% 02.91% 1931 [75]
Lyallpur district Punjab (West) 07.50% 01.82% 05.68% 1931 [75]
Mianwali district Punjab (West) 13.20% 02.24% 10.96% 1931 [75]
Montgomery dist Punjab (West) 11.91% 01.09% 10.82% 1901 [73]
Multan district Punjab (West) 14.05% 01.53% 12.52% 1901 [73]
Muzzafargarh dist Punjab (West) 09.67% 00.45% 09.22% 1931 [75]
Patiala district Punjab (East) 01.29% 01.14% 00.15% 1901 [73]
Peshawar dist. KPK 04.34% 02.26% 02.08% 1921 [77]
Rawalpindi dist. Punjab (West) 10.01% 07.71% 02.30% 1891 [82]
Shahpur district Punjab (West) 11.08% 03.02% 08.06% 1901 [73]
Sheikhupura dist Punjab (West) 05.50% 02.18% 03.32% 1931 [75]
Sialkot district Punjab (West) 04.01% 02.01% 02.00% 1921 [83]

After partition

Apart from Punjab, Khatris arrived in Delhi and Haryana among other regions after the partition where they make up 9% and 8.0% of the population respectively.[32][84][85]

Clan organisation

Historically, Khatris were divided into various hierarchal endogamous sections. This includes urhai/dhai ghar, char ghar, barah ghar/bahri and bunjayee or bavanjah ghar which translated to House of 2.5, 4, 12 and 52 respectively. They formed the majority of Khatris and were deemed superior. This was followed by Sareen Khatris who formed a minority. Another sub-group of Khatris include Khukhrain which had split up from the bunjayees.[16]

Group Clan names[86][87][88][89][90][35][91]
House of 2.5 Kapoor, Khanna and Mehra/ Malhotra
House of 4 Including the above 3, Seth (also known as Kakar)[92] is also added which forms this unit
House of 12 Including the above 4, Chopra, Dhawan, Mahindra, Mehrotra, Sehgal, Talwar, Tandon, Vohra and Wadhawan is added[92]
House of 52

(Bunjahis)

Abhi, Bagga, Bahl, Bakshi, Bassi, Beri, Bhambri, Bhandari, Chandok, Chhachhi, Chaudhary, Dheer, Dhoopar, Duggal, Ghai, Handa, Jalota, Jhanjhi, Johar, Kandhari, Katyal, Khullar, Kochhar, Lamba, Mal, Madhok, Mago, Maini, Makkar, Mangal, Nanda, Puri, Rana, Rekhi, Sachar, Sial, Sibal, Soi, Soni, Tangri, Thapar, Tuli, Uppal, Vij, Vinaik and Wahi
Khukrains Anand, Bhasin, Chadha, Kohli, Ghai, Sabharwal, Sahni (Sawhney), Sethi and Suri.[93]
Aroras[2] Ahuja, Allawadi, Aneja, Babbar, Bajaj, Batra, Baweja, Bhutani, Chhabra, Channa, Chandna, Chawla, Chugh, Dawar, Dhingra, Dhuria, Dua, Dudeja, Gambhir, Gaba, Gandhi, Gera, Grover, Gulati, Gumber, Hans, Huria, Kalra, Kamra, Kaura, Khattar, Khetarpal, Khurana, Luthra, Madaan, Manchanda, Mehndiratta, Mehta, Midha, Miglani, Munjal, Nagpal, Narang, Narula, Pasricha, Pruthi, Rajpal, Raval, Sachdeva, Saini, Saluja, Sardana, Sethi, Suneja, Taneja, Tuteja, Wadhwa and Walia
Others (including Sareens) Abrol, Arya, Ajimal, Alagh, Badhwar, Baijal, Bawa, Bedi, Bhagat, Bhalla, Bhatia, Bindra, Chatrath, Chhatwal, Chhura, Dang, Dhariwal, Diwan, Goindi, Gujral, Jaggi, Jolly, Julka, Kanwar, Kashyap, Kaushal, Keer, Khalsa , Kharbanda, Khosla, Lal, Majithia, Malik, Marwah Nagrath, Nayyar, Nijhawan, Oberoi, Ohri, Pahwa, Passi, Popat, Qanungo, Ratra, Rekhi, Saggar , Sarna, Saund, Shroff, Sobti, Sodhi, Sood, Takiar, Thakkar, Trehan, Varma and Vig.

Medieval history

Emperor Jahangir in his autobiography Jahangirnama while talking about the castes, he observed "The second highest caste (after Brahmins in the caste system) is the Chhatri which is also known as Khattri. The Chhatri caste's purpose is to protect the oppressed from the aggression of the oppressors".[94][95]

Benares

According to scholars, the Khatri Hindus dominated the weaving industry in Benaras. When the first caravan of Muslim weavers arrived in Benaras, the Khatri, who were considered low-caste Hindus at the time, helped them. The Muslims had to depend on the Khatri weavers because the Muslims found it difficult to interact with the high-caste Hindus directly at the time. Since these new immigrant Muslims were cheap labour, the Khatris took over marketing and thus transited from weavers to traders over time. The Muslims, who learned the technique of weaving from them, soon came to be known as Chira-i-Baaf or 'fine cloth weavers'.[96][97]

Bengal

 
Mehtab Chand of Burdwan, c. 1860-65

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.[98][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.[99]

Punjab

Historian Muzaffar Alam describes the Khatris of Punjab as a "scribe and trading caste". They occupied positions in revenue collection and record keeping and learnt Persian during Mughal era. However, this profession often created conflicts with the Brahmin scribes who discontinued the use of Persian and started using Marathi in the Deccan.[100][101][22][102][103] According to McLane, them being a trading group, had spread into many parts of India, possibly long before the 1700s and to Bengal, possibly even before the Mughals arrived.[104]

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

The most prominent Mughal Khatri noble was Raja Todar Mal, who was the Finance Minister of the Empire. He introduced an entirely new system of revenue and taxation known as zabt and dahshala respectively.[105] According to a 17th century legend, they continued their military service until the time of Aurangzeb, when their mass death during the emperor's Deccan Campaign caused him to order their widows to be remarried. The order 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.[106] This legend is probably fanciful: McLane notes that a more likely explanation for their revised position was that a Sikh rebellion against the Mughals in the early 1700s severely compromised the Khatri's ability to trade and forced them to take sides. Those who were primarily dependent on the Mughals went to significant lengths to assert that allegiance in the face of accusations that they were in fact favouring "Jat Sikh followers of the rebel leader, Banda". The outcome of their assertions - which included providing financial support to the Mughals and shaving their beards - was that the Khatris became still more important to the Mughal rulers as administrators at various levels, in particular because of their skills in financial management and their connections with bankers.[106]

Khatri standards of literacy and caste status were such during the early years of Sikhism that, according to W. H. McLeod, they dominated it.[107]

 
A Gujarati Khatri weaver

Gujarat

Historian Douglas E. Hanes states that the Khatri weavers in Gujarat trace their ancestry to either Champaner (Panch Mahals District) or Hinglaj (Sindh) and the community genealogists believe that the migration happened during the late sixteenth' century.[108]

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 Khatris taught weaving to Kunbis due to receiving excessive orders who soon became strong competitors to the Khatris much to their chagrin. In the mid-1770s, the Mughal governor granted the Kunbi rivals rights to manufacture saris. This licence was later revoked in 1800 due to pressure from 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.[109][110][111]

The Gujarat Sultanate (1407-1523) was a medieval Muslim dynasty founded by Zafar Khan Muzaffar, a member of the Tank caste originally from South Punjab.[112][113][114][115][116] The Tanks have been stated to be Khatris by some scholars, although others have stated the Tanks were Rajputs.,[117][118][119][120][121][122][123][124][125][126][127] or even a Jat[128] 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.[129][130]

Afghanistan

According to historians Roger Ballard and Harjot Oberoi, Afghan Hindus and Sikhs descend from the members of the country's indigenous Khatri population who resisted the conversion from Buddhism to Islam between 9th and 13th centuries. Later, they aligned themselves to the teachings of Guru Nanak, himself a Khatri and converted to Sikhism. Hence, Khatris of Afghanistan are in no way of "Indian origin" but are components of the original population of the region. George Campbell says "I do not know the exact limits of Khatri occupation to the West, but certainly in all Eastern Afghanistan they seem to be just as much part of the community as they are in the Punjab. They find their way into Central Asia."[65]

 
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 led by two horsemen carrying battle standards

Sikh Empire

The Khatris took on a prominent role in the emerging Sikh milieu of post-Mughal Punjab. According to the Khalsa Durbar Records, Maharaja Ranjit Singh's army was composed of majorly Jats followed by Khatris.[131] 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.[132][page needed][133][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.[134][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.[135][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[136] Other Khatris like Diwan Sawan Mal Chopra served as governors of Lahore and Multan, after helping conquer the region[107] 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.[137][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.[138]

In the 1830s, Khatris were working as governors in the districts like Bardhaman, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and Hazara, but independent from the Mughal rule.[139][30][page needed][140]

British Colonial Era

 
Maharaja Kishen Pershad, c. 1915

Punjab

In Punjab, they were moneylenders, shopkeepers and grain-dealers among other professions.[14]

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 individuals of the family include Maharaja Kishen Prasad, GCIE who would serve as Prime Minister of the State twice.[141][142][143] In Hyderabad, around the mid-20th century, Khatris and Padmasalis were the leading "Hindu weaving castes" who owned 43% of the looms. The Khatris specialised in silk, while the Padmasalis in cotton weaving.[144]

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 colours. These products were often exported to east Africa.[145][146][147] In Dhamadka, Kutch, "block printing cloth" was the traditional occupation of the Khatri men since the seventeenth century.[148][149]

Rajasthan

In the early 19th century, the Khatris, Bhatias and Lohanas were the main trading castes in Rajasthan, Delhi, Agra, Sind and Punjab.[150] Banking, trading and business were considered "traditional occupations of the Khatri in Rajasthan".[151]

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.[152][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.[153]

Post-Independence

Harish Damodaran says the rise of Khatri industrialists in post-1947 India was a consequence initially of the cataclysmic Partition, which pushed them in droves towards Delhi and its neighbourhoods. This exodus opened new opportunities for them. A combination of enterprise, articulation, and strategic closeness to the national capital— which, in itself, was becoming a major growth hub - created conditions for Khatri capital to flourish in the post-Partition period.[154]

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.[155] They have also co-founded companies like Snapdeal, Hotmail, YesBank, IndiaToday, AajTak, IndiGo Airlines, Sun Microsystems, Max Group etc.[156][155]

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.[157][158]

Delhi NCR

Delhi's population increased by 1.1 million in the period 1941–1951. 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.[32]

Haryana

During 1947, Punjabis who migrated to Haryana during Partition were mostly Khatris or Aroras. As per a survey conducted by Maharishi Dayanand University, the migrant 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 to as ‘refugee’ and ‘sharnarthi’ (शरणार्थी) in a derogatory manner by some locals. A Punjabi organisation had approached the Haryana government with a demand to ban both words and to enact a law on the lines of the SC/ST 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.[84][159]

Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh

Khatris of Kashmir, also known as "Bohras" were traders and had the second largest Hindu population after the Pandits.[160][161] Many of these Khatris had to face the brunt of 1990 Kashmiri Hindu Exodus.[162] Khatris of Himachal Pradesh are numerically most important commercial classes are mostly concentrated in Mandi, Kangra and Chamba.[163]

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. during independence. She states that their traditional professions were silk weaving and working as merchants although they had entered other professions later.[164][12] Khatris in modern Maharashtra are divided into endogamous subgroups, such as the Brahmo Khatris and Kapur Khatris.[165]

Varna status

Khatris claim that they are Kshatriyas. While some historians agree with the claim of Khatris to be of Kshatriya varna,[166][167][168][169][170][171][172][173][174] many others don't.[13][175][176][177][178][179] According to some historians, even though they participated in mercantile or other occupationally diverse professions such as Agriculture, they were originally Kshatriyas.[53][180][181][182][16] In Indian historian Satish Chandra's opinion, certain castes like Khatris and Kayasthas "do not quite fit" in the Hindu Varna system. According to him, Khatris are neither Vaishyas nor Kshatriyas but are "par excellence traders".[183] Some scholars 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.[184]The Saraswat Brahmins are the purohits of Khatris and accept gifts only from them.[185]

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.[175] 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".[176] Mark Juergensmyer suggests that many Khatris claim their caste is the warrior caste, as the name and etymology itself suggest but that some scholars dispute these claims and regard Khatris as merchant castes who claim higher status as befit of their economic success and educational achievements. [13]

Susan Bayly states that the Khatris had scribal traditions and despite that Khatri caste organisations in the British Raj era tried to portray their caste as Kshatriyas. Similar caste glorifying ideas were written by the historian Puri who 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’.[177] She considers his views to represent those of "pre-Independence race theorists". Bayly further describes the Khatris as a "caste title of north Indians with military and scribal traditions".[186] 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.[107] M. N. Srinivas states that Khatri made different Varna claims at different times in the Census of India before Independence. In 1911, they did not make any Varna claim, while in 1921 and 1931 they claimed a Kshatriya and Vaishya status respectively.[187]

Punjab

Historian Kenneth W. Jones states that the Khatris of Punjab had some justification in claiming Kshatriya status from the British government. However, the fact that this claim was not granted at the time showing 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 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[178] McLane also describes them as a "mercantile caste who claimed to be Kshatriyas". In the 19th-century, British failed to agree whether their claim of Kshatriya status should be accepted. Nesfield and Campbell were leaning towards accepting this claim but Risley and Ibbetson cast doubts on it. McLane opines that the confusion was caused since Khatris pursued mercantile occupations and not 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.[179]

In the case of Sikh Khatris, their Kshatriya claim reflects a contradictory attitude towards the traditional Hindu caste system. It is evident in 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.[43]

Majority of the male members of the Arya Samaj in the late 19th century Punjab came from the Arora and Khatri merchant castes. In Punjab, the Kshatriya castes who were ritually higher than the Aroras and Khatris had been disempowered and thus the Brahmins who had lost their patrons had to turn to these non-Kshatriya castes. Christophe Jaffrelot explains the attraction of these trading castes to the Arya Samaj as a means of social mobility associated with their prosperity during the British rule. He cites N. G. Barrier to show that the philosophy of the Arya Samaj founder, Dayananda Saraswati, was responsible for the aspirations of these Vaishya castes from Punjab to higher status:[188]

Dayananda's claim that caste should be determined primarily by merit not birth, opened new paths of social mobility to educated Vaishyas who were trying to achieve social status commensurate with their improving economic status[188]

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.[189] Banking, trading, agriculture and service are traditional occupations of the Khatris in Rajasthan. The literacy rate is appreciably high among them.[190]

Ashok Malik, former press secretary to the President of India, says that there were two groups of Khatris in Gujarat, that arrived right after the Mughal invasion and during the reign of Akbar respectively. 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.[191]

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.[192]

Religious groups

Hindu Khatris

The vast majority of Khatris are Hindu.[36] 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.[193] Hindu-Sikh intermarriages among Khatris and Aroras were common in the cities of Peshawar and Rawalpindi.[194] They worship Hinglaj Mata, Chandi Mata, Shiva, Hanuman and Vishnu's avatars. Worship of totemistic symbols such as snakes and trees used to be common among them. Meditation upon the flame while reciting Vidhyavasini's hymns was a common practice and reverence was paid to the dead ancestors.[195][196] They are both vegetarian and non-vegetarian depending on their affiliations with the sects of Vaishnavism and Shaktism respectively.[197] Sects of Arya Samaj, Nirankari and Radhasoami are also followed.[196]

Sikh Khatris

All the ten Sikh Gurus were from various Khatri clans:[198] The early followers of Guru Nanak were Khatris but later a large number of Jats joined the faith.[199] Khatris and Brahmins opposed "the demand that the Sikhs set aside the distinctive customs of their castes and families, including the older rituals."[200]

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"[63][201][202] According to Birinder Pal Singh, Jat Sikhs consider only themselves as Sikhs and consider Khatris as "bhapas".[203] In Nicola Mooney's opinion, Jat Sikhs consider Arora Sikhs as "Hindu Punjabis" which reserves Sikhism for the Jats alone, denying even the fully baptised Arora as Sikhs.[168]

Muslim Khatris

According to Historian B. N. Puri, Muslim Khatris are commonly known as Khojas in Punjab.[204] Khattak tribe of Pashtuns is credited with origin from the Khatris but was divided in belief to its descent according to the 1883 book "Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North-West Frontier Province".[205]

Literature and in popular culture

Khatris are mentioned in a popular Punjabi literature "Heer Ranjha" written by Waris Shah.

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)[206][207]

Related communities

Arora

The Arora is a community that Levi describes as a sub-caste of Khatris.[2] They originate in Punjab and Sindh region. The name is derived from their native place Aror and the community comprises both Hindus and Sikhs.[208] 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."[209]

Lohana, Bhatia and Bhanushali

According to Claude Markovits, castes such as Bhatia and Lohana were close to the Khatris and intermarried with them.[210] Jürgen Schaflechner mentions that many Khatris and Bhatias were absorbed into Lohanas when they arrived in Sindh during the 18th century from cities in Punjab such as Multan.[211] He further adds 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 found among Khatris and Lohanas. 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.[211]

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.[212]

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.[213] Most Gaddis of Himachal Pradesh call themselves Khatris.[163] 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 inhabited. Some Khatris clans are known to have settled there during Aurangzeb's reign.[214]

See also

References

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  1. ^ a b Dīwānā, Mohana Siṅgha Ubarāi; Uberoi, Mohan Singh (1971). A History of Panjabi Literature (1100-1932): A Brief Study of Reactions Between Panjabi Life and Letters Based Largely on Important MSS & Rare and Select Representative Published Works, with a New Supplement. Sadasiva Prakashan; selling agents, Bharat Prakashan.
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  10. ^ Kiran Prem (1970). Haryana District Gazetteers: Ambala. Haryana Gazetteers Organization. p. 42.
  11. ^ Misra, Satish Chandra (1964). Muslim communities in Gujarat: preliminary studies their history and social organization. Asia Pub. House. p. 97.
  12. ^ a b 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.....
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  85. ^ Kumar, Sanjay. "A tale of three cities".
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  88. ^ 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.
  89. ^ Hanks, Patrick (8 May 2003). Dictionary of American Family Names: 3-Volume Set. Oxford University Press, USA. pp. Volume 1: (26, 86, 496, 122, 124, 162, 316, 325, 454, 477 491, 2340), Volume 2: (1, 11, 32, 100, 127, 269, 288, 299, 567, 600), Volume 3: (168, 271, 277, 572). ISBN 978-0-19-508137-4.
  90. ^ Hanks, Patrick; Coates, Richard; McClure, Peter (17 November 2016). The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland. Oxford University Press. pp. 111, 501. ISBN 978-0-19-252747-9.
  91. ^ McLeod, W. H. (24 July 2009). The A to Z of Sikhism. Scarecrow Press. pp. 21, 115. ISBN 978-0-8108-6344-6.
  92. ^ a b Hanks, Patrick (8 May 2003). Dictionary of American Family Names: 3-Volume Set. Oxford University Press, USA. pp. 84, 266. ISBN 978-0-19-508137-4.
  93. ^ Gupta, Shilpy (2009). Human Rights Among Indian Populations: Knowledge, Awareness and Practice. Gyan Publishing House. p. 121. ISBN 978-81-212-1015-7.
  94. ^ 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.
  95. ^ 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.
  96. ^ Parvez Alam (July 2017). "Trade, Textile and other Industrial Activities: A Study of Banaras region in Medieval India" (PDF). Journal of Indian Studies. 3 (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.
  97. ^ 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
  98. ^ 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.
  99. ^ John R. McLane (1993). Land and Local Kingship in Eighteenth-Century Bengal. Cambridge University Press. p. 132.
  100. ^ Rosalind O'Hanlon (2014). "Scribal migrations in early modern India". In Joya Chatterji; David Washbrook (eds.). Routledge Handbook of the South Asian Diaspora. Routledge. 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)
  101. ^ 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.
  102. ^ 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
  103. ^ 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.
  104. ^ 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 Afghanistan, 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.
  105. ^ Das, Kumudranjan. Raja Todar Mal. pp. 138–150.
  106. ^ 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.
  107. ^ a b c 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.
  108. ^ 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 Hinglaj 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.
  109. ^ 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.
  110. ^ 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
  111. ^ 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.
  112. ^ 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.
  113. ^ 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.
  114. ^ 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.
  115. ^ 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.
  116. ^ 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.
  117. ^ Abbas, Syed Anwer (2021). Confluence of Cultures: Hindu, Muslim, Buddhists & Jain mosque and Mausoleum. Notion Press. ISBN 9781639046041.
  118. ^ Chandra, Satish (2004). Medieval India (From Sultanat to the Mughals), PART ONE Delhi Sultanat (1206-1526). Har-Anand Publications. p. 218. ISBN 9788124110645.
  119. ^ Muzaffar Husain Syed, Syed Saud Akhtar, BD Usmani (2011). Concise History of Islam. p. 271.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  120. ^ Kapadia, Aparna (2018). Gujarat: The Long Fifteenth Century and the Making of a Region. Cambridge University Press. p. 8. ISBN 9781107153318.
  121. ^ 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.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  122. ^ Chaube, J. (1975). History of Gujarat Kingdom, 1458-1537. Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers. p. 4. ISBN 9780883865736.
  123. ^ Mahajan, VD (2007). History of Medieval India. S. Chand. p. 245. ISBN 9788121903646.
  124. ^ 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.
  125. ^ Jutta, Jain-Neubauer (1981). The Stepwells of Gujarat: In Art- Historical perspective. p. 62.
  126. ^ Saran, Kishori Lal (1992). The legacy of Muslim Rule in India. Aditya Prakashan. p. 233. ISBN 9788185689036.
  127. ^ Lane-Pool, Stanley (2014). Mohammadan Dyn: Orientalism V 2 - volume 2, page -312, writer. p. 312. ISBN 9781317853947.
  128. ^ Indian History. 1988. ISBN 9788184245684.
  129. ^ 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 household. As the governor of Gujarat he became independent from Delhi after Timur devastated the city an immense number of people fled to Gujarat..
  130. ^ 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. pp. 137–138. [137]Khatris were an agrarian people belonging mainly to south Punjab; claiming descent from Kshatriyas of old. It is for this reason that Sikander gives a long genealogy that would link the Sultans of Gujarat with Ramachandra, in other words, with the Suryavanshis. Like most genealogies fabricated to glorify royalty, it is obviously a fake.
  131. ^ Singh, Rishi (23 April 2015). State Formation and the Establishment of Non-Muslim Hegemony: Post-Mughal 19th-century Punjab. SAGE Publications India. p. 199. ISBN 978-93-5150-504-4.
  132. ^ 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.
  133. ^ 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.
  134. ^ Naīara, Gurabacana Siṅgha (1995). The Campaigns of General Hari Singh Nalwa. Punjabi University. ISBN 978-81-7380-141-9.
  135. ^ Kapūra, Prithīpāla Siṅgha (1993). Perspectives on Hari Singh Nalwa. ABS Publications. ISBN 978-81-7072-056-0.
  136. ^ 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
  137. ^ Hernon, Ian (2002). Britain's Forgotten Wars. Sutton Publishing
  138. ^ 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.
  139. ^ Nirad Baran, Sarkar (1999). Bardhaman Raj. Sujata Sarkar. p. 210.
  140. ^ Hans, Herrli (2004). The Coins of the Sikhs. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal. pp. 122–123. ISBN 8121511321.
  141. ^ Patel, Alka; Leonard, Karen (7 December 2011). Indo-Muslim Cultures in Transition. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-21887-1.
  142. ^ Leonard, Karen Isaksen (1994). Social History of an Indian Caste: The Kayasths of Hyderabad. Orient BlackSwan. ISBN 978-81-250-0032-7.
  143. ^ Bawa, Basant K. (1992). The Last Nizam: The Life and Times of Mir Osman Ali Khan. Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-83997-1.
  144. ^ 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)
  145. ^ 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)
  146. ^ 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.
  147. ^ 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'
  148. ^ 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.
  149. ^ 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
  150. ^ Tirthankar Roy (10 September 2020). The Economic History of India, 1857–2010. Oxford University Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-19-099203-3.
  151. ^ Singh, Kumar Suresh, ed. (1998). India's Communities. Vol. 2 H–M. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press. pp. 1722, 1728–1729. ISBN 978-0-19-563354-2.
  152. ^ Tandon, Prakash (1968). Punjabi Century, 1857-1947. University of California Press. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-520-01253-0.
  153. ^ 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.
  154. ^ 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.
  155. ^ 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.
  156. ^ 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.
  157. ^ 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
  158. ^ 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, with a 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.
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  161. ^ Sheikh, Tariq (January 2019). "Cradle of Castes in Kashmir (From Medieval Period to Present Day)". ResearchGate. Retrieved 24 August 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  162. ^ Gigoo, Siddhartha; Sharma, Varad (18 October 2016). A Long Dream of Home: The persecution, exile and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-93-86250-25-4.
  163. ^ a b Minhas, Poonam (1998). Traditional Trade & Trading Centres in Himachal Pradesh: With Trade-routes and Trading Communities. Indus Publishing. p. 64. ISBN 978-81-7387-080-4.
  164. ^ 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) ...
  165. ^ 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.
  166. ^ Westerlund, David (1996). Questioning the Secular State: The Worldwide Resurgence of Religion in Politics. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 261. ISBN 978-1-85065-241-0.
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  168. ^ a b Mooney, Nicola (17 September 2011). Rural Nostalgias and Transnational Dreams: Identity and Modernity Among Jat Sikhs. University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-6268-1.
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  170. ^ Melton, J. Gordon; Baumann, Martin (21 September 2010). Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, 2nd Edition [6 volumes]. ABC-CLIO. p. 2013. ISBN 978-1-59884-204-3.
  171. ^ Kamala Elizabeth Nayar; Harold Coward (13 June 2012). Kelli I. Stajduhar (ed.). Religious Understandings of a Good Death in Hospice Palliative Care. SUNY Press. p. 214. ISBN 978-1-4384-4275-4.
  172. ^ Rai, Rajesh; Sankaran, Chitra (5 July 2017). Religion and Identity in the South Asian Diaspora. Routledge. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-351-55159-5.
  173. ^ Renard, John (31 December 2012). Fighting Words: Religion, Violence, and the Interpretation of Sacred Texts. University of California Press. p. 18. ISBN 978-0-520-95408-3.
  174. ^ Singh, Nikky-Guninder Kaur (2004). Sikhism. Infobase Publishing. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-4381-1779-9.
  175. ^ a b Anand A. Yang (1989). The Limited Raj: Agrarian Relations in Colonial India, Saran District, 1793-1920. University of California Press. ISBN 0520057112. Retrieved 22 September 2020.
  176. ^ a b Jacob Copeman (2009). Veins of Devotion: Blood Donation and Religious Experience in North India. Rutgers University Press. p. 203. ISBN 978-0-8135-4449-6. Agarwal, khatri, and bania usually denote people of merchant-trader background of middling clean-caste status, often of vaishya varna
  177. ^ a b 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
  178. ^ a b 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
  179. ^ 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 Afghanistan, 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.
  180. ^ Farhadian, Charles E. (9 June 2015). Introducing World Religions: A Christian Engagement. Baker Academic. ISBN 978-1-4412-4650-9.
  181. ^ Jeffrey, Robin (27 July 2016). What's Happening to India?: Punjab, Ethnic Conflict, and the Test for Federalism. Springer. p. 52. ISBN 978-1-349-23410-3.
  182. ^ Pechilis, Karen; Singh, Pashaura; Raj, Selva J. (2013). South Asian Religions: Tradition and Today. Routledge. p. 239. ISBN 978-0-415-44851-2.
  183. ^ 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.
  184. ^ Mark Juergensmayer (1 January 1995). "The social significance of Radhasoami". In David N. Lorenzen (ed.). Bhakti Religion in North India: Community Identity and Political Action. SUNY Press. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-7914-2025-6. In the past members of such castes such as Khatris served as shopkeepers, moneylenders, traders and teachers. Their reputation for mastering knowledge sometimes extended to the spiritual realm:Guru Nanak and the other nine founding gurus of the sikh tradition were Khatris, member of the Bedi subcaste.
  185. ^ Nalwa, Vanit (13 January 2009). Hari Singh Nalwa, "champion of the Khalsaji" (1791-1837). Manohar, New Delhi. p. 97. ISBN 978-81-7304-785-5.
  186. ^ Bayly, Susan (22 February 2001). Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age. Cambridge University Press. p. 385. ISBN 978-0-521-79842-6.
  187. ^ Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas (1967). Social Change in Modern India. University of California Press-Berkeley and Los Angeles. p. 97.
  188. ^ a b Christophe Jaffrelot (2010). Religion, Caste, and Politics in India. Primus Books. pp. 98–. ISBN 9789380607047. In 1891, more than half the 9,105 male members of the movement belonged to the Khatri and Arora merchant castes. This sociological composition reflected the same socio-cultural logic as in Gujarat where Dayananda had set up the Arya samaj with the support of traders seeking a better status more in keeping with their new prosperity (Jordens 1978) linked with the economic advance of British India; in the Punjab, his movement developed along the same lines among the merchant castes which felt that they could aspire all the more legitimately to the leadership of their community as the Brahmins and Kshatriyas, who had been hierarchically superior to them had been marginalized. Barrier hence explains the attraction that the Arya Samaj exercised over the merchant castes by the fact that: Dayananda's claim that caste should be determined primarily by merit not birth, opened new paths of social mobility to educated Vaishyas who were trying to achieve social status commensurate with their improving economic status.
  189. ^ 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.
  190. ^ Singh, K.S (1998). India's Communities A-G. OUP India. p. 1728. ISBN 978-0195633542.
  191. ^ Malik, Ashok (2010). "Caste Census". India International Centre Quarterly. 37 (1): 142–147. ISSN 0376-9771. JSTOR 23006464.
  192. ^ 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.
  193. ^ Singh, Manpreet J. (31 August 2020). The Sikh Next Door: An Identity in Transition. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-93-89165-58-6.
  194. ^ 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.
  195. ^ Hertel, Bradley R.; Humes, Cynthia Ann (1 January 1993). Living Banaras: Hindu Religion in Cultural Context. SUNY Press. ISBN 978-0-7914-1331-9.
  196. ^ a b Puri, Baij Nath (1988). The Khatris, a Socio-cultural Study. M.N. Publishers and Distributors. pp. 67–72, 149–150.
  197. ^ Nayar, V. G.; Nayar, M. G. (2001). Sociology of Religion in India. Cosmo Publications. p. 124. ISBN 978-81-7755-151-8.
  198. ^ Singha, H. S. (2000). The Encyclopedia of Sikhism. Hemkunt Press. p. 125. ISBN 978-81-7010-301-1.
  199. ^ 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.
  200. ^ 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.
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  202. ^ Kumar, Dharminder (3 January 2016). "The Sardar Joke Is On You". Mumbai Mirror. Retrieved 25 August 2021.
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  205. ^ Nalwa, Vanit (13 January 2009). Hari Singh Nalwa, "champion of the Khalsaji" (1791-1837). Manohar, New Delhi. p. 98. ISBN 978-81-7304-785-5.
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  209. ^ McLeod, W. H. (24 July 2009). The A to Z of Sikhism. Scarecrow Press. p. 21. ISBN 978-0-8108-6344-6.
  210. ^ 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.
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  214. ^ 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.

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August 29, 2023
khatri, confused, with, chhetri, other, uses, surname, neutrality, this, article, disputed, relevant, discussion, found, talk, please, remove, this, message, until, conditions, august, 2021, learn, when, remove, this, template, message, caste, clan, indian, su. Not to be confused with Chhetri For other uses see Khatri surname The neutrality of this article is disputed Relevant discussion may be found on Talk Khatri Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met August 2021 Learn how and when to remove this template message Khatri is a caste clan of the Indian subcontinent that is predominantly found in India but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan In the subcontinent they were mostly engaged in mercantilistic professions such as banking and trade 13 14 15 They were the dominant commercial and financial administration class of Late Medieval India 15 some in Punjab often belonged to hereditary agriculturalist land holding lineages 16 17 while others were engaged in artisanal occupations such as silk production and weaving 18 19 20 21 and some were scribes learned in Sanskrit or Persian 22 KhatriKhatri nobleman in Kitab i Tasrih al Aqvam by Col James Skinner 1778 1841 ReligionsHinduism Sikhism and IslamLanguagesMajor Lahnda variety of Punjabi Potohari Hindko Multani Saraiki 1 2 3 4 5 Minor Hindi Gujarati Dogri Kangri Sindhi 6 Pashto Urdu 7 KutchiCountryIndia Pakistan and AfghanistanRegionPunjab Sindh Delhi Jammu and Kashmir 8 Himachal Pradesh 9 Haryana 10 Gujarat 11 Maharashtra 12 Uttar PradeshDuring the British colonial era they also served as lawyers and engaged in administrative jobs in the colonial bureaucracy 23 24 Some of them served in the British Indian army after being raised as Sikhs 16 The Sikh religion was founded by Guru Nanak a Bedi Khatri Subsequently all the Sikh religious leaders or Gurus were Khatris 25 During the Sikh Empire many Khatris formed the military vanguard of the Khalsa Army and its administrative class as Dewans of all the provinces Hari Singh Nalwa the commander in chief of the Sikh Khalsa Army was an Uppal Khatri and responsible for most of the Sikh conquests up until the Khyber pass 26 27 Others such as Mokham Chand commanded the Sikh Army against the Durrani Empire at Attock while those such as Sawan Mal Chopra ruled Multan after wrestling it from the Afghans 28 Khatris have played an active role in the Indian Armed Forces since 1947 with many heading it as the Chief of Army or Admiral of the Navy Some such as Vikram Batra and Arun Khetarpal have won India s highest wartime gallantry award the Param Vir Chakra 29 30 During the Partition of British India in 1947 many Khatris migrated to India from the regions that comprise modern day Pakistan 31 32 Hindu Afghans and Sikh Afghans are predominantly of Khatri and Arora origin 33 Contents 1 Etymology 2 Early history 3 Trans regional trading history 4 Theology 5 Demographics 5 1 Before partition 5 2 After partition 6 Clan organisation 7 Medieval history 7 1 Benares 7 2 Bengal 7 3 Punjab 7 4 Gujarat 7 5 Afghanistan 8 Sikh Empire 9 British Colonial Era 9 1 Punjab 9 2 Hyderabad 9 3 Gujarat 9 4 Rajasthan 10 Culture and lifestyle 11 Post Independence 11 1 Delhi NCR 11 2 Haryana 11 3 Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh 11 4 Maharashtra 12 Varna status 12 1 Punjab 12 2 Rajasthan Gujarat and Maharashtra 13 Religious groups 13 1 Hindu Khatris 13 2 Sikh Khatris 13 3 Muslim Khatris 14 Literature and in popular culture 15 Related communities 15 1 Arora 15 2 Lohana Bhatia and Bhanushali 15 3 Gaddi 16 See also 17 References 18 External linksEtymologyThe word Khatri in the Hindi Language comes from the Sanskrit word Kshatriya according to the Sabdasagara Lexicon by Shyamasundara Dasa 34 According to B N Puri philologists agree that the terms Khatri and Kshatriya are synonymous The Sanskrit conjunct Ksha क ष turns into the Prakrit Kha ख as per the grammarian Vararuchi 35 This change is not only accepted in Prakrit but in all Indian vernaculars derived by it such as Gujarati Urdu Gurumukhi as well as Persian For example Sanskrit words kshetra kshama laksha iksha turns into kheta khama lakha and ikha respectively The substituition of Ri ऋ from Riya is also witnessed in case of Hindi Hence the change from Kshatriya to Khatri is in consonance with the Prakrit rule and Hindi usage The same is also testified by scholars R G Bhandarkar and Shapurji Edulji 35 As per historian W H McLeod and Louis Fenech Khatri is a Punjabi form of the word Kshatriya 36 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 37 38 Dr Dharamvir Bharati comments that in Punjabi language Kshatriya is pronounced as Khatri 39 As per Dr GS Mansukhani and RC Dogra Khatri appears to be unquestionably a Prakritised form of Sanskrit word Kshatriya 40 According to philologist Ralph Lilley Turner the Punjabi word khattri meaning warrior derives from Sanskrit kṣatriya whereas the Gujarati word khatri meaning a caste of Hindu weavers derives from Sanskrit kṣattr meaning carver distributor 41 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 42 Purnima Dhavan sees the claim as originating from a conflation of the phonetically similar words khatri and kshatriya but refers to Khatris as a trading caste of the Sikh Gurus 43 See also Khatri Varna StatusEarly historyAncient Greek accounts from historians 44 45 46 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 amp 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 xa8rois Khathrois whose territory lay between the Indus amp Chenab 47 Ptolemy writing in the 2nd century AD refers again to another tribe called the Khatriaoi to whom belong cities lying east amp west of the Indus Baij Nath Puri mentions that the modern descendants of these Kathaiois Khathrois amp Khatriaoi tribes mentioned by the Greeks in West Punjab are the Khatris of India 48 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 49 Michael Witzel writing in his paper Sanskritization of the Kuru State states the Kathaiois were Kaṭha Brahmins 50 Trans regional trading historyThe Khatris played an important role in India s trans regional trade during the period 51 being described by Levi as among the most important merchant communities of early modern India 52 Levi writes Stephen Dale locates Khatris in Astrakhan Russia during the late 17th century and in the 1830s Elphinstone was informed that Khatris were still highly involved in northwest India s trade and that they maintained communities throughout Afghanistan and as far away as Astrakhan 53 According to Kiran Datar they often married Tatar local women in Astrakhan and the children from these marriages were known as Agrijan 54 As per Stephen Dale the children born out of Indo Turkic alliance was sufficient to form an Agrizhan suburb in the city 55 Historian Stephen Dale states that most of the 10 000 as estimated by Jean Chardin Indian merchants and money lenders in Isfahan Iran in 1670 belonged to the Khatri caste of Punjab and north west India In Iran s Bazaar s Khatris sold cloth and various items and also practised money lending Dale believes that Khatris had possibly been travelling from Punjab via caravans since the era of Ziauddin Barani around 1300 AD Chardin specifically stereotyped and expressed disapproval of the money lending techniques of the Khatri community According to Dale this racist criticism was ironic given Chardin s non English background but adds that it was Chardin s way of giving an ethnic explanation to the economic disparity between Iran and India at that time 56 Theology 1849 photograph of Bikram Singh Bedi a direct descendant of Guru Nanak According to Bichitra Natak traditionally said to be the autobiography of the last Sikh Guru Gobind Singh but possibly not so 57 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 58 better source needed In Guru Granth Sahib the primary scripture of Sikhism Khatri is mentioned as one among the four varnas 59 ਖਤ ਰ ਬ ਰ ਹਮਣ ਸ ਦ ਵ ਸ ਉਪਦ ਸ ਚਹ ਵਰਨ ਕਉ ਸ ਝ SGGS ang 747 Khatri brahman sud vais updesu cahu varna ku sanjha Kshatriyas Brahmins Shudras and Vaishyas all have the same mandate Photograph of a Hindu Khatri man of Hazara c 1868 1872Guru Gobind Singh said the following in a swayya Chattri ko poot ho Baman ko naheen kayee tap aavat ha jo karon Ar aur janjaar jito greh ko tohe tyaag kahan chit taan mai dharon Ab reejh ke deh vahey humko jo oo hau binti kar jor karoon Jab aao ki audh nidaan bane att hi ran main tab jujh maroon I am son of a Chhatri Khatri not of a Brahmin and I will live according to my Dharma All other complications of life are meaningless for me and I set my heart on the path of righteousness I humbly beseech thee God Almighty that when the time comes for me to fulfill my Dharma may I die with honour in the field of battle 60 Translated by Vanit NalwaDemographicsBefore partition French traveller Thevenot visited India during the 1600s where he commented At Multan there is another sort of gentiles whom they call Catry the town is properly their country and from thence they spread all over the Indies According to Dr Madhu Tyagi Thevenot is referring to Hindu Khatri caste here 61 The last caste based census was conducted by the British in 1931 which regarded Khatri and Arora as a different caste During 1931 Khatris were prominent in the West Punjab and North Western Frontier Province NWFP which is now known as Khyber Pakhtunkhwa KPK 62 The Khatris spoke Hindko and Potohari language 1 63 Highest percentage concentration of Khatris excluding Aroras were in Potohar regions of Jhelum and Rawalpindi 62 In NWFP the Khatris were found mainly in Peshawer and Hazara 64 Arora Khatris were centered in Multan and Derajat regions of Punjab and NWFP 65 In the NWFP the Aroras which are considered a sub caste of Khatris by some scholars were concentrated in the districts of Bannu Kohat and Dera Ismail Khan 64 2 The Aroras spoke Jatki language which is the 9th century version of Saraiki Multani according to Ibbetson 66 They were also found in Afghanistan at a population of 300 000 in 1880 According to an 1800s colonial source referred by Shah Hanifi Hindki is the name given to Hindus who live in Afghanistan They are Hindus of Khatri class and are found all over Afghanistan even amongst the wildest tribes They are wholly occupied in trade and form numerous portion of the population of all the cities and towns and are also to be found in the majority of large villages 67 Photograph of a Hindu Khatri man of Lahore c 1859 1869 Sikh of Sodhi clan Lahore Map depicting the most numerous community by district according to Census of India 1931 68 69 70 71 72 Population Concentration of Khatris amp Aroras by region Note The numbers are expected to be more since many Hindus boycotted the Census 62 Region State Total pop Khatri Arora Year RefAmritsar district Punjab East 05 47 03 30 02 17 1901 73 Attock dist Punjab West 09 90 07 32 02 58 1901 74 Bahawalpur dist Punjab West 07 36 00 50 06 86 1931 75 Balochistan Balochistan 01 93 00 03 01 90 1931 76 Bannu dist KPK 07 83 00 50 07 30 1921 77 DG Khan dist Punjab West 10 01 00 79 09 22 1891 78 DI Khan dist KPK 09 86 00 72 09 14 1901 73 Dir Chitral amp Swat KPK 20 33 16 32 04 01 1901 73 Ferozpur dist Punjab East 03 57 01 11 02 46 1901 73 Gujranwala dist Punjab West 10 01 04 46 05 55 1931 75 Gujrat district Punjab West 06 30 02 46 03 84 1901 73 Gurdaspur dist Punjab East amp West 01 98 01 83 00 15 1901 73 Hazara district KPK 02 97 02 29 00 68 1901 79 Jammu Province Jammu Kashmir 03 01 03 01 00 00 1901 80 Kangra district Himachal Pradesh 00 87 00 85 00 02 1931 75 Kohat district KPK 05 07 01 50 03 57 1921 77 Jalandhar dist Punjab East 02 88 02 78 00 10 1901 73 Jhang district Punjab West 15 06 04 34 10 72 1931 75 Jhelum district Punjab West 09 77 07 27 02 50 1881 81 Lahore district Punjab West 08 01 05 10 02 91 1931 75 Lyallpur district Punjab West 07 50 01 82 05 68 1931 75 Mianwali district Punjab West 13 20 02 24 10 96 1931 75 Montgomery dist Punjab West 11 91 01 09 10 82 1901 73 Multan district Punjab West 14 05 01 53 12 52 1901 73 Muzzafargarh dist Punjab West 09 67 00 45 09 22 1931 75 Patiala district Punjab East 01 29 01 14 00 15 1901 73 Peshawar dist KPK 04 34 02 26 02 08 1921 77 Rawalpindi dist Punjab West 10 01 07 71 02 30 1891 82 Shahpur district Punjab West 11 08 03 02 08 06 1901 73 Sheikhupura dist Punjab West 05 50 02 18 03 32 1931 75 Sialkot district Punjab West 04 01 02 01 02 00 1921 83 After partition Apart from Punjab Khatris arrived in Delhi and Haryana among other regions after the partition where they make up 9 and 8 0 of the population respectively 32 84 85 Clan organisationHistorically Khatris were divided into various hierarchal endogamous sections This includes urhai dhai ghar char ghar barah ghar bahri and bunjayee or bavanjah ghar which translated to House of 2 5 4 12 and 52 respectively They formed the majority of Khatris and were deemed superior This was followed by Sareen Khatris who formed a minority Another sub group of Khatris include Khukhrain which had split up from the bunjayees 16 Group Clan names 86 87 88 89 90 35 91 House of 2 5 Kapoor Khanna and Mehra MalhotraHouse of 4 Including the above 3 Seth also known as Kakar 92 is also added which forms this unitHouse of 12 Including the above 4 Chopra Dhawan Mahindra Mehrotra Sehgal Talwar Tandon Vohra and Wadhawan is added 92 House of 52 Bunjahis Abhi Bagga Bahl Bakshi Bassi Beri Bhambri Bhandari Chandok Chhachhi Chaudhary Dheer Dhoopar Duggal Ghai Handa Jalota Jhanjhi Johar Kandhari Katyal Khullar Kochhar Lamba Mal Madhok Mago Maini Makkar Mangal Nanda Puri Rana Rekhi Sachar Sial Sibal Soi Soni Tangri Thapar Tuli Uppal Vij Vinaik and WahiKhukrains Anand Bhasin Chadha Kohli Ghai Sabharwal Sahni Sawhney Sethi and Suri 93 Aroras 2 Ahuja Allawadi Aneja Babbar Bajaj Batra Baweja Bhutani Chhabra Channa Chandna Chawla Chugh Dawar Dhingra Dhuria Dua Dudeja Gambhir Gaba Gandhi Gera Grover Gulati Gumber Hans Huria Kalra Kamra Kaura Khattar Khetarpal Khurana Luthra Madaan Manchanda Mehndiratta Mehta Midha Miglani Munjal Nagpal Narang Narula Pasricha Pruthi Rajpal Raval Sachdeva Saini Saluja Sardana Sethi Suneja Taneja Tuteja Wadhwa and WaliaOthers including Sareens Abrol Arya Ajimal Alagh Badhwar Baijal Bawa Bedi Bhagat Bhalla Bhatia Bindra Chatrath Chhatwal Chhura Dang Dhariwal Diwan Goindi Gujral Jaggi Jolly Julka Kanwar Kashyap Kaushal Keer Khalsa Kharbanda Khosla Lal Majithia Malik Marwah Nagrath Nayyar Nijhawan Oberoi Ohri Pahwa Passi Popat Qanungo Ratra Rekhi Saggar Sarna Saund Shroff Sobti Sodhi Sood Takiar Thakkar Trehan Varma and Vig Medieval historyEmperor Jahangir in his autobiography Jahangirnama while talking about the castes he observed The second highest caste after Brahmins in the caste system is the Chhatri which is also known as Khattri The Chhatri caste s purpose is to protect the oppressed from the aggression of the oppressors 94 95 Benares According to scholars the Khatri Hindus dominated the weaving industry in Benaras When the first caravan of Muslim weavers arrived in Benaras the Khatri who were considered low caste Hindus at the time helped them The Muslims had to depend on the Khatri weavers because the Muslims found it difficult to interact with the high caste Hindus directly at the time Since these new immigrant Muslims were cheap labour the Khatris took over marketing and thus transited from weavers to traders over time The Muslims who learned the technique of weaving from them soon came to be known as Chira i Baaf or fine cloth weavers 96 97 Bengal Mehtab Chand of Burdwan c 1860 65In 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 98 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 99 Punjab Historian Muzaffar Alam describes the Khatris of Punjab as a scribe and trading caste They occupied positions in revenue collection and record keeping and learnt Persian during Mughal era However this profession often created conflicts with the Brahmin scribes who discontinued the use of Persian and started using Marathi in the Deccan 100 101 22 102 103 According to McLane them being a trading group had spread into many parts of India possibly long before the 1700s and to Bengal possibly even before the Mughals arrived 104 Raja Todar Mall Finance Minister of Akbar 17th Century Painting Gouache on paperThe most prominent Mughal Khatri noble was Raja Todar Mal who was the Finance Minister of the Empire He introduced an entirely new system of revenue and taxation known as zabt and dahshala respectively 105 According to a 17th century legend they continued their military service until the time of Aurangzeb when their mass death during the emperor s Deccan Campaign caused him to order their widows to be remarried The order 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 106 This legend is probably fanciful McLane notes that a more likely explanation for their revised position was that a Sikh rebellion against the Mughals in the early 1700s severely compromised the Khatri s ability to trade and forced them to take sides Those who were primarily dependent on the Mughals went to significant lengths to assert that allegiance in the face of accusations that they were in fact favouring Jat Sikh followers of the rebel leader Banda The outcome of their assertions which included providing financial support to the Mughals and shaving their beards was that the Khatris became still more important to the Mughal rulers as administrators at various levels in particular because of their skills in financial management and their connections with bankers 106 Khatri standards of literacy and caste status were such during the early years of Sikhism that according to W H McLeod they dominated it 107 A Gujarati Khatri weaverGujarat Historian Douglas E Hanes states that the Khatri weavers in Gujarat trace their ancestry to either Champaner Panch Mahals District or Hinglaj Sindh and the community genealogists believe that the migration happened during the late sixteenth century 108 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 Khatris taught weaving to Kunbis due to receiving excessive orders who soon became strong competitors to the Khatris much to their chagrin In the mid 1770s the Mughal governor granted the Kunbi rivals rights to manufacture saris This licence was later revoked in 1800 due to pressure from 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 109 110 111 The Gujarat Sultanate 1407 1523 was a medieval Muslim dynasty founded by Zafar Khan Muzaffar a member of the Tank caste originally from South Punjab 112 113 114 115 116 The Tanks have been stated to be Khatris by some scholars although others have stated the Tanks were Rajputs 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 or even a Jat 128 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 129 130 AfghanistanAccording to historians Roger Ballard and Harjot Oberoi Afghan Hindus and Sikhs descend from the members of the country s indigenous Khatri population who resisted the conversion from Buddhism to Islam between 9th and 13th centuries Later they aligned themselves to the teachings of Guru Nanak himself a Khatri and converted to Sikhism Hence Khatris of Afghanistan are in no way of Indian origin but are components of the original population of the region George Campbell says I do not know the exact limits of Khatri occupation to the West but certainly in all Eastern Afghanistan they seem to be just as much part of the community as they are in the Punjab They find their way into Central Asia 65 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 led by two horsemen carrying battle standardsSikh EmpireThe Khatris took on a prominent role in the emerging Sikh milieu of post Mughal Punjab According to the Khalsa Durbar Records Maharaja Ranjit Singh s army was composed of majorly Jats followed by Khatris 131 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 132 page needed 133 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 134 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 135 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 136 Other Khatris like Diwan Sawan Mal Chopra served as governors of Lahore and Multan after helping conquer the region 107 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 137 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 138 In the 1830s Khatris were working as governors in the districts like Bardhaman Lahore Multan Peshawar and Hazara but independent from the Mughal rule 139 30 page needed 140 British Colonial Era Maharaja Kishen Pershad c 1915Punjab In Punjab they were moneylenders shopkeepers and grain dealers among other professions 14 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 individuals of the family include Maharaja Kishen Prasad GCIE who would serve as Prime Minister of the State twice 141 142 143 In Hyderabad around the mid 20th century Khatris and Padmasalis were the leading Hindu weaving castes who owned 43 of the looms The Khatris specialised in silk while the Padmasalis in cotton weaving 144 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 colours These products were often exported to east Africa 145 146 147 In Dhamadka Kutch block printing cloth was the traditional occupation of the Khatri men since the seventeenth century 148 149 Rajasthan In the early 19th century the Khatris Bhatias and Lohanas were the main trading castes in Rajasthan Delhi Agra Sind and Punjab 150 Banking trading and business were considered traditional occupations of the Khatri in Rajasthan 151 Culture and lifestyleAccording 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 152 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 153 Post IndependenceHarish Damodaran says the rise of Khatri industrialists in post 1947 India was a consequence initially of the cataclysmic Partition which pushed them in droves towards Delhi and its neighbourhoods This exodus opened new opportunities for them A combination of enterprise articulation and strategic closeness to the national capital which in itself was becoming a major growth hub created conditions for Khatri capital to flourish in the post Partition period 154 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 155 They have also co founded companies like Snapdeal Hotmail YesBank IndiaToday AajTak IndiGo Airlines Sun Microsystems Max Group etc 156 155 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 157 158 Delhi NCR Delhi s population increased by 1 1 million in the period 1941 1951 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 32 Haryana During 1947 Punjabis who migrated to Haryana during Partition were mostly Khatris or Aroras As per a survey conducted by Maharishi Dayanand University the migrant 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 to as refugee and sharnarthi शरण र थ in a derogatory manner by some locals A Punjabi organisation had approached the Haryana government with a demand to ban both words and to enact a law on the lines of the SC ST 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 84 159 Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh Khatris of Kashmir also known as Bohras were traders and had the second largest Hindu population after the Pandits 160 161 Many of these Khatris had to face the brunt of 1990 Kashmiri Hindu Exodus 162 Khatris of Himachal Pradesh are numerically most important commercial classes are mostly concentrated in Mandi Kangra and Chamba 163 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 during independence She states that their traditional professions were silk weaving and working as merchants although they had entered other professions later 164 12 Khatris in modern Maharashtra are divided into endogamous subgroups such as the Brahmo Khatris and Kapur Khatris 165 Varna statusThis section s factual accuracy is disputed Relevant discussion may be found on Talk Khatri Please help to ensure that disputed statements are reliably sourced May 2022 Learn how and when to remove this template message Khatris claim that they are Kshatriyas While some historians agree with the claim of Khatris to be of Kshatriya varna 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 many others don t 13 175 176 177 178 179 According to some historians even though they participated in mercantile or other occupationally diverse professions such as Agriculture they were originally Kshatriyas 53 180 181 182 16 In Indian historian Satish Chandra s opinion certain castes like Khatris and Kayasthas do not quite fit in the Hindu Varna system According to him Khatris are neither Vaishyas nor Kshatriyas but are par excellence traders 183 Some scholars 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 184 The Saraswat Brahmins are the purohits of Khatris and accept gifts only from them 185 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 175 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 176 Mark Juergensmyer suggests that many Khatris claim their caste is the warrior caste as the name and etymology itself suggest but that some scholars dispute these claims and regard Khatris as merchant castes who claim higher status as befit of their economic success and educational achievements 13 Susan Bayly states that the Khatris had scribal traditions and despite that Khatri caste organisations in the British Raj era tried to portray their caste as Kshatriyas Similar caste glorifying ideas were written by the historian Puri who 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 177 She considers his views to represent those of pre Independence race theorists Bayly further describes the Khatris as a caste title of north Indians with military and scribal traditions 186 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 107 M N Srinivas states that Khatri made different Varna claims at different times in the Census of India before Independence In 1911 they did not make any Varna claim while in 1921 and 1931 they claimed a Kshatriya and Vaishya status respectively 187 Punjab Historian Kenneth W Jones states that the Khatris of Punjab had some justification in claiming Kshatriya status from the British government However the fact that this claim was not granted at the time showing 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 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 178 McLane also describes them as a mercantile caste who claimed to be Kshatriyas In the 19th century British failed to agree whether their claim of Kshatriya status should be accepted Nesfield and Campbell were leaning towards accepting this claim but Risley and Ibbetson cast doubts on it McLane opines that the confusion was caused since Khatris pursued mercantile occupations and not 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 179 In the case of Sikh Khatris their Kshatriya claim reflects a contradictory attitude towards the traditional Hindu caste system It is evident in 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 43 Majority of the male members of the Arya Samaj in the late 19th century Punjab came from the Arora and Khatri merchant castes In Punjab the Kshatriya castes who were ritually higher than the Aroras and Khatris had been disempowered and thus the Brahmins who had lost their patrons had to turn to these non Kshatriya castes Christophe Jaffrelot explains the attraction of these trading castes to the Arya Samaj as a means of social mobility associated with their prosperity during the British rule He cites N G Barrier to show that the philosophy of the Arya Samaj founder Dayananda Saraswati was responsible for the aspirations of these Vaishya castes from Punjab to higher status 188 Dayananda s claim that caste should be determined primarily by merit not birth opened new paths of social mobility to educated Vaishyas who were trying to achieve social status commensurate with their improving economic status 188 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 189 Banking trading agriculture and service are traditional occupations of the Khatris in Rajasthan The literacy rate is appreciably high among them 190 Ashok Malik former press secretary to the President of India says that there were two groups of Khatris in Gujarat that arrived right after the Mughal invasion and during the reign of Akbar respectively 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 191 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 192 Religious groupsHindu Khatris The vast majority of Khatris are Hindu 36 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 193 Hindu Sikh intermarriages among Khatris and Aroras were common in the cities of Peshawar and Rawalpindi 194 They worship Hinglaj Mata Chandi Mata Shiva Hanuman and Vishnu s avatars Worship of totemistic symbols such as snakes and trees used to be common among them Meditation upon the flame while reciting Vidhyavasini s hymns was a common practice and reverence was paid to the dead ancestors 195 196 They are both vegetarian and non vegetarian depending on their affiliations with the sects of Vaishnavism and Shaktism respectively 197 Sects of Arya Samaj Nirankari and Radhasoami are also followed 196 Sikh Khatris All the ten Sikh Gurus were from various Khatri clans 198 The early followers of Guru Nanak were Khatris but later a large number of Jats joined the faith 199 Khatris and Brahmins opposed the demand that the Sikhs set aside the distinctive customs of their castes and families including the older rituals 200 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 63 201 202 According to Birinder Pal Singh Jat Sikhs consider only themselves as Sikhs and consider Khatris as bhapas 203 In Nicola Mooney s opinion Jat Sikhs consider Arora Sikhs as Hindu Punjabis which reserves Sikhism for the Jats alone denying even the fully baptised Arora as Sikhs 168 Muslim Khatris According to Historian B N Puri Muslim Khatris are commonly known as Khojas in Punjab 204 Khattak tribe of Pashtuns is credited with origin from the Khatris but was divided in belief to its descent according to the 1883 book Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North West Frontier Province 205 Literature and in popular cultureKhatris are mentioned in a popular Punjabi literature Heer Ranjha written by Waris Shah 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 206 207 Related communitiesArora The Arora is a community that Levi describes as a sub caste of Khatris 2 They originate in Punjab and Sindh region The name is derived from their native place Aror and the community comprises both Hindus and Sikhs 208 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 209 Lohana Bhatia and Bhanushali According to Claude Markovits castes such as Bhatia and Lohana were close to the Khatris and intermarried with them 210 Jurgen Schaflechner mentions that many Khatris and Bhatias were absorbed into Lohanas when they arrived in Sindh during the 18th century from cities in Punjab such as Multan 211 He further adds that the genealogy of communities such as Khatri Lohana and Arora is described in the composition of Hiṃgula Puraṇ that brings them all into one mytho historic narrative He also notes that common mythologies found among Khatris and Lohanas 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 211 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 212 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 213 Most Gaddis of Himachal Pradesh call themselves Khatris 163 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 inhabited Some Khatris clans are known to have settled there during Aurangzeb s reign 214 See alsoList of Khatris Roman Catholic Kshatriyas Caste systemReferences Khatris claimed to live near the Bombay island from at least the mid 1800s and would speak Marathi a b Diwana Mohana Siṅgha Ubarai Uberoi Mohan Singh 1971 A History of Panjabi Literature 1100 1932 A Brief Study of Reactions Between Panjabi Life and Letters Based Largely on Important MSS amp Rare and Select Representative Published Works with a New Supplement Sadasiva Prakashan selling agents Bharat Prakashan a b c d Levi Scott Cameron 2002 The Indian Diaspora in Central Asia and its Trade 1550 1900 Brill p 107 ISBN 978 90 04 12320 5 permanent dead link Blame caste for Pakistan s violent streak not faith Times of India 25 September 2016 Retrieved 17 September 2021 Wagha Ahsan 1990 The Siraiki Language Its Growth and Development Dderawar Publications pp 6 7 Fenech Louis E McLeod W H 11 June 2014 Historical Dictionary of Sikhism Rowman amp Littlefield ISBN 978 1 4422 3601 1 K S Singh 1998 People of India A G Vol 4 Oxford University Press p 3285 ISBN 978 0 19563 354 2 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 A H Advani 1995 The India Magazine of Her People and Culture Vol 16 the University of Michigan pp 56 58 Hesse Klaus May 1996 No reciprocation Wife givers and wife takers and the bartan of the samskara among the Khatris of Mandi Himachal Pradesh Contributions to Indian Sociology 30 1 109 140 doi 10 1177 006996679603000105 ISSN 0069 9667 S2CID 53703281 Kiran Prem 1970 Haryana District Gazetteers Ambala Haryana Gazetteers Organization p 42 Misra Satish Chandra 1964 Muslim communities in Gujarat preliminary studies their history and social organization Asia Pub House p 97 a b Irawati Karve Vishnu Mahadeo Dandekar 1951 Anthropometric Measurements of Maharaṣhṭra 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 a b c Mark Juergensmayer 1 January 1995 The social significance of Radhasoami In David N Lorenzen ed Bhakti Religion in North India Community Identity and Political Action SUNY Press p 86 ISBN 978 0 7914 2025 6 In the past members of such castes such as Khatris served as shopkeepers moneylenders traders and teachers Their reputation for mastering knowledge sometimes extended to the spiritual realm Guru Nanak and the other nine founding gurus of the sikh tradition were Khatris member of the Bedi subcaste a b Tom Brass 2016 Towards a Comparative Political Economy of Unfree Labour Case Studies and Debates Routledge p 96 ISBN 9781317827351 For the role of the khatri caste as village moneylender shopkeeper and grain dealer in pre Independence Punjab see a b Eaton Richard Maxwell 2019 India in the Persianate age 1000 1765 UK pp 349 347 381 ISBN 978 0 520 97423 4 OCLC 1088599361 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link a b c d Oldenburg Veena Talwar 2002 Dowry Murder The Imperial Origins of a Cultural Crime Oxford University Press pp 41 154 Dhawan Purnima 2020 Oxford Handbook of the Mughal World Oxford Library Press ISBN 9780190222659 K S Singh Anthropological Survey of India 1998 India s Communities Oxford University Press p 1730 ISBN 978 0 19 563354 2 The traditional and present day occupation of the Khatri is silk and cotton weaving colouring dyeing of threads and making jari and garlands Some of them are engaged in other occupations like business and government jobs John Gillow Nicholas Barnard 2008 Indian Textiles Thames amp Hudson p 222 ISBN 978 0 500 51432 0 KHATRI A caste of professional dyers Subramaniam Lakshmi 2009 The Political Economy of Textiles in Western India Weavers Merchants and the transition to a Colonial Economy PDF How India Clothed the World 253 280 doi 10 1163 ej 9789004176539 i 490 71 ISBN 9789004176539 R J Barendse 2009 Arabian Seas 1700 1763 M E Sharpe pp 164 ISBN 978 0 7656 3364 4 The silk trade between Bengal and Gujarat was a domain of Khatri merchants for example a b Muzzafar Alam 2003 The culture and politics of Persian in pre colonial Hindustan In Sheldon Pollock ed Literary Cultures in History Reconstructions from South Asia University of California Press p 163 ISBN 9780520228214 Hindus Kayasthas of the accountant and scribe caste and Khatris of the trading and scribe caste of the Panjab in particular joined madrasahs in large numbers to acquire training in Persian language and literature which now promised good careers in imperial service Jones Kenneth W Jones Kenneth W 1976 Arya Dharm Hindu Consciousness in 19th century Punjab University of California Press p 176 ISBN 978 0 520 02920 0 Raj Dhooleka Sarhadi 2003 Where are you from Middle class migrants in the modern world Berkeley University of California Press p 222 ISBN 978 0 520 92867 1 OCLC 56034872 W H McLeod 2009 The A to Z of Sikhism Scarecrow Press p 86 ISBN 978 0 8108 6828 1 e Book English General Hari Singh Nalwa by Autar Singh Sindhu Pure apnaorg com Retrieved 24 November 2022 Singh Gulcharan October 1976 General Hari Singh Nalwa The Sikh Review 24 274 36 54 Sheikh Mohamed 17 March 2017 Emperor of the Five Rivers The Life and Times of Maharajah Ranjit Singh Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN 978 1 78673 095 4 Nalwa Vanit 2009 Hari Singh Nalwa Champion of the Khalsaji 1791 1837 India ISBN 978 81 7304 785 5 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint location missing publisher link a b Bansal Bobby Singh 2015 Remnants of the Sikh Empire Historical Sikh Monuments in India amp Pakistan Hay House Inc Puri Baij Nath 1998 The Khatris a socio cultural study India M N Publishers and Distributors a b c Bessel Richard B Haake Claudia 2009 Removing Peoples Forced Removal in the Modern World Oxford University Press p 324 ISBN 978 0199561957 Singh Inderjeet 2019 Afghan Hindus and Sikhs India Readomania p 24 ISBN 978 93 858543 8 5 Dasa Syamasundara 1965 1975 Hindi sabdasagara dsal uchicago edu Retrieved 19 November 2020 a b c Puri Baij Nath 1988 The Khatris a Socio cultural Study M N Publishers and Distributors pp 7 8 a b Fenech Louis E McLeod W H 11 June 2014 Historical Dictionary of Sikhism Rowman amp Littlefield ISBN 978 1 4422 3601 1 Desai A R 1975 State and Society in India Popular Prakashan pp 539 540 ISBN 978 81 7154 013 6 Nanak was probably of a khatri jati traditionally tradesmen and government officials in the Punjab though the name Khatri is from the word Kshatriya The nine Sikh gurus who came after him were certainly Khatris Hardy Hardy Thomas 7 December 1972 The Muslims of British India CUP Archive p 279 ISBN 978 0 521 09783 3 Dalit Chintan ka Vikas Abhishapt Chintan se Itihas in Hindi Vani Prakashan p 243 Dogra R C Mansukhani Gobind Singh 1995 Encyclopaedia of Sikh Religion and Culture Vikas Publishing House p 264 ISBN 978 0 7069 8368 5 Turner Ralph Lilley 1985 A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo Aryan Languages School of Oriental and African Studies University of London p 189 John Stratton Hawley Gurinder Singh Mann 1993 Studying the Sikhs Issues for North America State University of New York Press p 179 ISBN 9780791414255 Khatri khatri merchant caste Although the name derives from Sanskrit kshatriya which designates the warrior or ruling castes khatri in Punjabi usage refers to a cluster of merchant castes including Bedis Bhallas and Sodhis a b 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 Vincent A Smith 2008 History of India in Nine Volumes Vol II New York Cosimo Publications Etienne Lamotte Sara Webb Boin amp Jean Dantinne 1988 History of Indian Buddhism From the Origins to the Saka Era Universite catholique de Louvain Institut orientaliste Sahay Uday 2021 Kayasth Encyclopedia Delhi SAUV communications ISBN 978 81 941122 3 5 Arrian Anabasis book 6 chapter 15 section 1 www perseus tufts edu Retrieved 10 August 2021 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 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 Witzel Michael 1995 Early Sanskritization Origins and Development of the Kuru State Electronic Journal of Vedic Studies 1 4 22 Note also the fierce Kathaioi tribe i e Kaṭha Brahmins who live in the same area as the Salva and Mahavr ṣa at the time of Alexander see Arrian Anabasis 5 22 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 permanent dead link a b Levi Scott Cameron 2002 The Indian Diaspora in Central Asia and Its Trade 1550 1900 Brill p 108 ISBN 978 90 04 12320 5 Datar Dr Kiran April 1986 Ganda Singh ed The Punjab Past and Present Volume 20 Part 1 p 85 Dale Stephen Frederic 15 August 2002 Indian Merchants and Eurasian Trade 1600 1750 Cambridge University Press ISBN 978 0 521 52597 8 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 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 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 Singh Nikky Guninder Kaur 22 February 2011 Sikhism An Introduction Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN 978 0 85773 549 2 Nalwa Vanit 13 January 2009 Hari Singh Nalwa champion of the Khalsaji 1791 1837 Manohar New Delhi p 329 ISBN 978 81 7304 785 5 Tyagi Dr Madhu 1 January 2017 THEORY OF INDIAN DIASPORA DYNAMICS OF GLOBAL MIGRATION Horizon Books A Division of Ignited Minds Edutech P Ltd p 18 ISBN 978 93 86369 37 6 a b c Puri Baij Nath 1988 The Khatris a Socio cultural Study M N Publishers and Distributors pp 19 20 a b Fenech Louis E McLeod W H 2014 Historical Dictionary of Sikhism Rowman amp Littlefield p 67 ISBN 978 1442236004 a b Singer Andre 1982 Guardians of the North West Frontier The Pathans Time Life Books ISBN 978 0 7054 0702 1 a b Oonk Gijsbert 2007 Global Indian Diasporas Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory Amsterdam University Press pp 43 45 ISBN 978 90 5356 035 8 Blame caste for Pakistan s violent streak not faith Times of India Blog 25 September 2016 Retrieved 17 September 2021 Hanifi Shah 11 February 2011 Connecting Histories in Afghanistan Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier Stanford University Press p 48 ISBN 978 0 8047 7411 6 Census of India 1931 Vol IV Baluchistan Parts I amp II Indian Culture Retrieved 7 November 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Report Part 1 Volume XVII Punjab PDF Census India a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Khan Ahmad Hassan 1933 Census of India Part 2 Volume XVII Punjab a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Census of India 1931 Vol VIII Part II Bombay Presidency Statistical Tables INDIAN CULTURE Retrieved 7 November 2021 Census of India 1931 Vol XV North West Frontier Province Part I Report Part II Tables INDIAN CULTURE Retrieved 7 November 2021 a b c d e f g h i j k Rose H A 1902 Census of India 1901 Imperial Tables Part I VIII X XV XVII and XVIII for Punjab and the North West Frontier Province Government of Punjab 1909 Punjab District Gazetteers Attock District Part A With Maps 1907 Lahore Civil and Military Gazetteers Press pp 96 97 a b c d e f g h i Khan Ahmad Hasan 1931 Census of India 1931 Vol XVII Punjab Part II Tables Government of Punjab pp 283 292 Census of India 1931 Gul Muhammad Khan 1934 Census of India 1931 Vol IV Baluchistan Part I Report and Part II Imperial and Provincial Tables p 164 a b c Lehna Singh R B Bhai 1922 Census of India 1921 Vol XIV North West frontier provinces Part I Reports and Part II Tables pp Part 2 Table XIII Diack A H Punjab Government 1893 1897 Gazetteers of Dera Ghazi Khan District Revised Edition 1893 97 Civil and Military Gazette Press Lahore pp x table IX Government of North West Frontier Province Hazara District Gazetteers 1907 p 70 Walter Lawrence J L Kaye 1909 Imperial Gazetteer of India Kashmir and Jammu Calcutta Superintendent of Government Printing p 32 Gazetteer of the Jhelam District 1883 84 The Calcutta Central Press Co Calcutta 1883 1884 pp vi Table IX Gazetteers of the Rawalpindi District 1893 94 Civil and Military Gazette Press Lahore 1893 1894 p 295 Government of Punjab 1936 Punjab District Gazetteers Volume XV Part B Sialkot District Statistical Tables 1936 pp 57 64 a b Report of Haryana Backward Classes Commission 2012 Welfare of Scheduled Caste amp Backward Classes Department Government of Haryana haryanascbc gov in Retrieved 29 August 2021 Kumar Sanjay A tale of three cities Hardip Singh Syan The Indian Economic and Social History Review The merchant gurus Sikhism and the development of the medieval Khatri merchant family Sage p 312 CiteSeerX 10 1 1 885 9901 Singh Pashaura 10 July 2006 Life and Work of Guru Arjan History Memory and Biography in the Sikh Tradition Oxford University Press ISBN 978 0 19 908780 8 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 Hanks Patrick 8 May 2003 Dictionary of American Family Names 3 Volume Set Oxford University Press USA pp Volume 1 26 86 496 122 124 162 316 325 454 477 491 2340 Volume 2 1 11 32 100 127 269 288 299 567 600 Volume 3 168 271 277 572 ISBN 978 0 19 508137 4 Hanks Patrick Coates Richard McClure Peter 17 November 2016 The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland Oxford University Press pp 111 501 ISBN 978 0 19 252747 9 McLeod W H 24 July 2009 The A to Z of Sikhism Scarecrow Press pp 21 115 ISBN 978 0 8108 6344 6 a b Hanks Patrick 8 May 2003 Dictionary of American Family Names 3 Volume Set Oxford University Press USA pp 84 266 ISBN 978 0 19 508137 4 Gupta Shilpy 2009 Human Rights Among Indian Populations Knowledge Awareness and Practice Gyan Publishing House p 121 ISBN 978 81 212 1015 7 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 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 Parvez Alam July 2017 Trade Textile and other Industrial Activities A Study of Banaras region in Medieval India PDF Journal of Indian Studies 3 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 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 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 John R McLane 1993 Land and Local Kingship in Eighteenth Century Bengal Cambridge University Press p 132 Rosalind O Hanlon 2014 Scribal migrations in early modern India In Joya Chatterji David Washbrook eds Routledge Handbook of the South Asian Diaspora Routledge 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 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 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 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 Kayastha and Khatri castes 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 Afghanistan 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 Das Kumudranjan Raja Todar Mal pp 138 150 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 a b c 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 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 Hinglaj 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 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 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 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 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 Wink Andre 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 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 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 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 Abbas Syed Anwer 2021 Confluence of Cultures Hindu Muslim Buddhists amp Jain mosque and Mausoleum Notion Press ISBN 9781639046041 Chandra Satish 2004 Medieval India From Sultanat to the Mughals PART ONE Delhi Sultanat 1206 1526 Har Anand Publications p 218 ISBN 9788124110645 Muzaffar Husain Syed Syed Saud Akhtar BD Usmani 2011 Concise History of Islam p 271 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Kapadia Aparna 2018 Gujarat The Long Fifteenth Century and the Making of a Region Cambridge University Press p 8 ISBN 9781107153318 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 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint multiple names authors list link Chaube J 1975 History of Gujarat Kingdom 1458 1537 Munshiram Manoharlal Publishers p 4 ISBN 9780883865736 Mahajan VD 2007 History of Medieval India S Chand p 245 ISBN 9788121903646 Jenkins Everett 2010 The Muslim Diaspora A comprehensive reference to the spread of Islam in Asia Africa Europe and the America 570 1799 McFarland amp Company Inc p 275 ISBN 9780786447138 Jutta Jain Neubauer 1981 The Stepwells of Gujarat In Art Historical perspective p 62 Saran Kishori Lal 1992 The legacy of Muslim Rule in India Aditya Prakashan p 233 ISBN 9788185689036 Lane Pool Stanley 2014 Mohammadan Dyn Orientalism V 2 volume 2 page 312 writer p 312 ISBN 9781317853947 Indian History 1988 ISBN 9788184245684 Wink Andre 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 household As the governor of Gujarat he became independent from Delhi after Timur devastated the city an immense number of people fled to Gujarat 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 pp 137 138 137 Khatris were an agrarian people belonging mainly to south Punjab claiming descent from Kshatriyas of old It is for this reason that Sikander gives a long genealogy that would link the Sultans of Gujarat with Ramachandra in other words with the Suryavanshis Like most genealogies fabricated to glorify royalty it is obviously a fake Singh Rishi 23 April 2015 State Formation and the Establishment of Non Muslim Hegemony Post Mughal 19th century Punjab SAGE Publications India p 199 ISBN 978 93 5150 504 4 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 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 Naiara Gurabacana Siṅgha 1995 The Campaigns of General Hari Singh Nalwa Punjabi University ISBN 978 81 7380 141 9 Kapura Prithipala Siṅgha 1993 Perspectives on Hari Singh Nalwa ABS Publications ISBN 978 81 7072 056 0 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 Hernon Ian 2002 Britain s Forgotten Wars Sutton Publishing 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 Nirad Baran Sarkar 1999 Bardhaman Raj Sujata Sarkar p 210 Hans Herrli 2004 The Coins of the Sikhs Delhi Munshiram Manoharlal pp 122 123 ISBN 8121511321 Patel Alka Leonard Karen 7 December 2011 Indo Muslim Cultures in Transition BRILL ISBN 978 90 04 21887 1 Leonard Karen Isaksen 1994 Social History of an Indian Caste The Kayasths of Hyderabad Orient BlackSwan ISBN 978 81 250 0032 7 Bawa Basant K 1992 The Last Nizam The Life and Times of Mir Osman Ali Khan Viking ISBN 978 0 670 83997 1 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 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 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 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 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 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 Tirthankar Roy 10 September 2020 The Economic History of India 1857 2010 Oxford University Press p 44 ISBN 978 0 19 099203 3 Singh Kumar Suresh ed 1998 India s Communities Vol 2 H M New Delhi India Oxford University Press pp 1722 1728 1729 ISBN 978 0 19 563354 2 Tandon Prakash 1968 Punjabi Century 1857 1947 University of California Press p 136 ISBN 978 0 520 01253 0 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 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 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 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 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 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 with a 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 Manvir Saini 25 September 2018 Ban the word refugee in Haryana Punjabis urge Manohar Lal Khattar Gurgaon News The Times of India Retrieved 17 September 2021 Lawrence Sir Walter Roper 1895 The Valley of Kashmir PDF pp 296 302 Sheikh Tariq January 2019 Cradle of Castes in Kashmir From Medieval Period to Present Day ResearchGate Retrieved 24 August 2021 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint url status link Gigoo Siddhartha Sharma Varad 18 October 2016 A Long Dream of Home The persecution exile and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN 978 93 86250 25 4 a b Minhas Poonam 1998 Traditional Trade amp Trading Centres in Himachal Pradesh With Trade routes and Trading Communities Indus Publishing p 64 ISBN 978 81 7387 080 4 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 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 Westerlund David 1996 Questioning the Secular State The Worldwide Resurgence of Religion in Politics C Hurst amp Co Publishers p 261 ISBN 978 1 85065 241 0 Lorenzen David N 2005 Religious Movements in South Asia 600 1800 Oxford University Press p 321 ISBN 978 0 19 567876 5 a b Mooney Nicola 17 September 2011 Rural Nostalgias and Transnational Dreams Identity and Modernity Among Jat Sikhs University of Toronto Press ISBN 978 1 4426 6268 1 Clarke Peter B Beyer Peter 7 May 2009 The World s Religions Continuities and Transformations Routledge ISBN 978 1 135 21099 1 Melton J Gordon Baumann Martin 21 September 2010 Religions of the World A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices 2nd Edition 6 volumes ABC CLIO p 2013 ISBN 978 1 59884 204 3 Kamala Elizabeth Nayar Harold Coward 13 June 2012 Kelli I Stajduhar ed Religious Understandings of a Good Death in Hospice Palliative Care SUNY Press p 214 ISBN 978 1 4384 4275 4 Rai Rajesh Sankaran Chitra 5 July 2017 Religion and Identity in the South Asian Diaspora Routledge p 104 ISBN 978 1 351 55159 5 Renard John 31 December 2012 Fighting Words Religion Violence and the Interpretation of Sacred Texts University of California Press p 18 ISBN 978 0 520 95408 3 Singh Nikky Guninder Kaur 2004 Sikhism Infobase Publishing p 22 ISBN 978 1 4381 1779 9 a b Anand A Yang 1989 The Limited Raj Agrarian Relations in Colonial India Saran District 1793 1920 University of California Press ISBN 0520057112 Retrieved 22 September 2020 a b Jacob Copeman 2009 Veins of Devotion Blood Donation and Religious Experience in North India Rutgers University Press p 203 ISBN 978 0 8135 4449 6 Agarwal khatri and bania usually denote people of merchant trader background of middling clean caste status often of vaishya varna a b 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 lt 39 gt 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 a b 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 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 Afghanistan 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 Farhadian Charles E 9 June 2015 Introducing World Religions A Christian Engagement Baker Academic ISBN 978 1 4412 4650 9 Jeffrey Robin 27 July 2016 What s Happening to India Punjab Ethnic Conflict and the Test for Federalism Springer p 52 ISBN 978 1 349 23410 3 Pechilis Karen Singh Pashaura Raj Selva J 2013 South Asian Religions Tradition and Today Routledge p 239 ISBN 978 0 415 44851 2 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 Mark Juergensmayer 1 January 1995 The social significance of Radhasoami In David N Lorenzen ed Bhakti Religion in North India Community Identity and Political Action SUNY Press p 86 ISBN 978 0 7914 2025 6 In the past members of such castes such as Khatris served as shopkeepers moneylenders traders and teachers Their reputation for mastering knowledge sometimes extended to the spiritual realm Guru Nanak and the other nine founding gurus of the sikh tradition were Khatris member of the Bedi subcaste Nalwa Vanit 13 January 2009 Hari Singh Nalwa champion of the Khalsaji 1791 1837 Manohar New Delhi p 97 ISBN 978 81 7304 785 5 Bayly Susan 22 February 2001 Caste Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age Cambridge University Press p 385 ISBN 978 0 521 79842 6 Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas 1967 Social Change in Modern India University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles p 97 a b Christophe Jaffrelot 2010 Religion Caste and Politics in India Primus Books pp 98 ISBN 9789380607047 In 1891 more than half the 9 105 male members of the movement belonged to the Khatri and Arora merchant castes This sociological composition reflected the same socio cultural logic as in Gujarat where Dayananda had set up the Arya samaj with the support of traders seeking a better status more in keeping with their new prosperity Jordens 1978 linked with the economic advance of British India in the Punjab his movement developed along the same lines among the merchant castes which felt that they could aspire all the more legitimately to the leadership of their community as the Brahmins and Kshatriyas who had been hierarchically superior to them had been marginalized Barrier hence explains the attraction that the Arya Samaj exercised over the merchant castes by the fact that Dayananda s claim that caste should be determined primarily by merit not birth opened new paths of social mobility to educated Vaishyas who were trying to achieve social status commensurate with their improving economic status Sharma Dasharatha 1975 Early Chauhan dynasties a study of Chauhan political history Chauhan political institutions and life in the Chauhan dominions from 800 to 1316 A D Motilal Banarsidass p 279 Singh K S 1998 India s Communities A G OUP India p 1728 ISBN 978 0195633542 Malik Ashok 2010 Caste Census India International Centre Quarterly 37 1 142 147 ISSN 0376 9771 JSTOR 23006464 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 Singh Manpreet J 31 August 2020 The Sikh Next Door An Identity in Transition Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN 978 93 89165 58 6 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 Hertel Bradley R Humes Cynthia Ann 1 January 1993 Living Banaras Hindu Religion in Cultural Context SUNY Press ISBN 978 0 7914 1331 9 a b Puri Baij Nath 1988 The Khatris a Socio cultural Study M N Publishers and Distributors pp 67 72 149 150 Nayar V G Nayar M G 2001 Sociology of Religion in India Cosmo Publications p 124 ISBN 978 81 7755 151 8 Singha H S 2000 The Encyclopedia of Sikhism Hemkunt Press p 125 ISBN 978 81 7010 301 1 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 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 Singh Pukhraj 31 May 2014 Bluestar Baby Boomers Newslaundary Retrieved 25 August 2021 Kumar Dharminder 3 January 2016 The Sardar Joke Is On You Mumbai Mirror Retrieved 25 August 2021 Singh Birinder Pal 12 January 2018 Sikhs in the Deccan and North East India Taylor amp Francis ISBN 978 1 351 20105 6 Puri Baij Nath 1988 The Khatris a Socio cultural Study M N Publishers and Distributors pp 149 150 Nalwa Vanit 13 January 2009 Hari Singh Nalwa champion of the Khalsaji 1791 1837 Manohar New Delhi p 98 ISBN 978 81 7304 785 5 Shah Varis 1966 The Adventures of Hir amp Ranjha Lion Art Press p 41 Shah Waris 2003 The Adventure of Hir and Ranjha PDF Translated by Usborne Charles Frederick Rupa ISBN 978 8129103796 Hans Patrick 2016 The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names in Britain and Ireland Oxford University Press p 78 ISBN 9780192527479 McLeod W H 24 July 2009 The A to Z of Sikhism Scarecrow Press p 21 ISBN 978 0 8108 6344 6 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 a b Schaflechner Jurgen 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 Thakur Upendra 1997 Sindhi Culture Sindhi Academy p 61 ISBN 978 81 87096 02 3 Sharma Manorma 1998 Tribal Melodies of Himachal Pradesh Gaddi folk music APH Publishing p 9 ISBN 978 81 7024 912 2 Haṇḍa Omacanda 2005 Gaddi Land in Chamba Its History Art amp Culture New Light on the Early Wooden Temples Indus Publishing p 29 ISBN 978 81 7387 174 0 External links Media related to Khatri at Wikimedia Commons Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Khatri amp oldid 1168993478, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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