fbpx
Wikipedia

Patidar

February 16, 2024

Patidar (Gujarati: Pāṭidār[1]), formerly known as Kanbi, is an Indian landlord and agrarian caste and community mostly found in Gujarat but also in at least 22 other states of India.[2] The community comprises at multiple subcastes, most prominently the Levas and Kadvas.[3][4] They form one of the dominant castes in Gujarat.[5] The title of Patidar originally conferred to the land owning aristocratic class of Gujarati Kanbis; however, it was later applied en masse to the entirety of the peasant population who lay claim to a land owning identity, partly as a result of land reforms during the British Raj.[6][note 1]

Patidar
Patidar reservation agitation
ReligionsHinduism
LanguagesGujarati
RegionPrincipally in Gujarat, but also some other states of India

History

The Patidars claimed to be descendants of the Hindu deity Rama.[7] Specifically, the Patidars claim that the Levas and Kadvas are the descendants of Lava and Kusha, respectively, the two sons of Rama. The Barots record that Lava and Kusha were cursed by their mother Sita to become cultivators, and after which the Patidars supposedly migrated from Ayodhya to Gujarat. Shah and Shroff consider this scenario to be unlikely, and believe it to be an example of Barots creating myths to legitimize caste claims to a particular varna (in this case, Kshatriya).[8]

 
A Lewa Kanbi from Baroda State

The Kanbi/Patidars were divided into several subcastes. The Levas were from central Gujarat and the Kadavas were from northern Gujarat. The Matis, who were a sub-subcaste of the Levas, lived in southern Gujarat. The Chullias lived in certain areas of Saurashtra. The Bhaktas form another subcaste.[7][4] The Anjana Kanbis are similar to Rajputs, and eat meat and drink alcohol. The Uda Kanbis are followers of Udabhagat, a neo-Vaishnav saint. The Matiyas, also known as Piranas are Kanbis who descend from converts to the Islamic sect of the Imam Shah in the 15th century. These Kanbis were ostracised and moved to Kutch district. Later some of these Kanbis were in turn converted to the Swaminarayan sect by Narayan Mistri.[9]

Since the 17th century, the Leva Kanbis controlled the majority of the land in the Kheda district through a coparcenary system of land tenure called narwadari in which Levas would share the payments of revenue owed to the government. They did this to protect their community against exploitations by the government.[10]

The Patidar were originally a title for the Kanbis who had become village tax collectors under the Mughal Empire, and later the Maratha Empire. These Kanbis also took the titles of Desai, Amin and Patel.[7][11][12][8] The Kanbis were a group of western Indian peasant farmers that had various subclans, for example in the central Deccan the Maratha Kanbis and in Gujarat the-then elite Patidar Kanbis.[13]

The rise to socio-economic prominence of the Kanbi community in Gujarat and its change of identity to that of Patidar can be attributed to the land reforms of the British Raj period.[a] The Raj administrators sought to assure revenue from the highly fertile lands of central Gujarat by instituting reforms that fundamentally changed the relationship between the two communities of the region, the peasant Kanbi and the warrior Kolis. The two had previously been of more or less equal socio-economic standing, but the land reforms better suited the agricultural peasantry than the warriors.[6]

Governments in India had always relied on revenue from land as their major source of income. With the decline of the Mughal Empire, the extant administrative systems fell apart and anarchy prevailed. The British colonisation of the country took place over a period of many years and had to adapt to the various local land tenure arrangements that had arisen as Mughal power waned. These systems of ownership could be broadly classified as landlord-based (zamindari, vanta or magulzari), village-based (mahalwari, narva) and individually based (ryotwari).[15]

 
A Kadwa Kanbi from Baroda State

In Gujarat, the British administrators found that all three systems existed. The Kanbis tended to adopt the village-based model and the Kolis the landlord-based variant.[16] The village-based system entailed that organisations jointly owned a village and shared responsibility in some fixed proportion for the land revenues. The division of responsibility might be arranged by the amount of land held by each member (the bhaiachara method) or by ancestry (the pattidari system).[15] Working with this village model enabled the British to impose a fixed revenue demand that was payable whether or not the land was cultivated and that gave landholders the right to sublet and otherwise manage their lands with minimal official interference. It simplified revenue collection and maximised income when compared to a system based on individual responsibility for revenue, in which allowances had to be made for land being out of cultivation. It also allowed a degree of communal self-determination that permitted the rise of economic elites with no reason to engage in political challenges, and hence the rise of the communities then known as Kanbis.[16] Some Kanbis became wealthy enough to enter the world of finance, providing lines of credit to others in their community.[17]

The situation experienced by the Gujarati Kolis, with their preferred landlord-based tenure system, was not so mutually beneficial. They were subject to interference from the British revenue collectors, who intervened to ensure that the stipulated revenue was remitted to the government before any surplus went to the landlord.[16] Being less inclined to take an active role in agriculture personally and thus maximise revenues from their landholdings, the Koli possessions were often left uncultivated or underused. These lands were gradually taken over by Kanbi cultivators, while the Kolis became classified as a criminal tribe due to their failure to meet the revenue demands and their tendency to raid Kanbi villages to survive. The Kanbi land takeovers also reduced the Kolis to being the tenants and agricultural labourers of Kanbis rather than landowners, thus increasing the economic inequality between the communities. The difference was further exacerbated by the Kanbis' providing better tenancy arrangements for members of their own community than for Kolis.[17]

In the 18th century, Kanbis were also mentioned as working as weavers at Surat. In the 1740s, some Kanbis were granted permission by the governor, Safdar Khan, to manufacture Saris, which traditionally was the domain of Khatris. The Kunbis had learned the art of weaving from the Khatris who had employed them. The Khatris were annoyed by this, and a rivalry developed between the castes, which disrupted the business of the East India Company. This led the Company to persuade the Nawab to revoke the Kunbi's license to weave saris in 1800, and guarantee to the Khatris the sole license to manufacture saris, on the condition that they would only work for the East India Company.[18]

 
An Anjana Kanbi from Baroda State

The Kanbis' economic well-being was enhanced further from the 1860s due to improvements in crop selection, farming methods and transportation. They began to diversify their business interests and some with higher status also replaced the field labour of their families – especially the women – with hired labour in an attempt to emulate the Bania communities, who had Vaishya status in the varna ranking system.[19] The Kanbis had been of the low caste Shudra rank.[20][b][21]

The Kanbis also claimed equal status with the Rajputs, who had formerly been the dominant caste in the region.[11] The Rajputs, who claimed to be Kshatriyas, lost their landownership to the Kanbis, and were forced to become their tenants. The Kanbis also claimed Kshatriya status, mirroring the Rajputs.[7] The Kanbis/Patidars mirrored the Rajputs in that they both claimed to be of Kshatriya status, hired genealogists to fabricate genealogies, and hired bards to concoct warrior legends about their pasts.[22] Traditionally the bards and brahmins had maintained that the Kanbis had always been farmers, but in 1912 the Kanbis published Origin and History of Kanbi Kshatriya in Gujarati, attempting to link the Kanbis with the Ikshvaku clan of Kshatriyas. According to Jyotindra Jain, the Kanbis have never ruled any territory except the estates of Patadi, Dhasa, Rai, and Sankali.[23]

The Patidars began trading indigo in the 19th century.[7]

The Patidars heavily benefited from the British Raj, and were able to use their land drainage systems, better agriculture, and the growth of a money economy to prosper. The growth of Ahmedabad during the British Raj gave the Patidars a market to sell goods.[11]

In the 19th century due to the declining profitability of agriculture, many Kanbis took advantage of new opportunities afforded by British rule, with many migrating to towns like Ahmedabad and Cambay where they became weavers, traders, and moneylenders.[24]

In 1891, around ten percent of Leva and Kadva Kanbis were literate.[25]

The Kadvas used to have a unique marriage custom in which marriages were only conducted once every ten years. This marriage custom was noted to be in decline by 1911. In 1922, the Kadva Seva Mandal organized a caste conference which abolished the deccenial marriage custom.[26]

Reinventing identity

The parcels of land held under the village tenureship system are known as patis and a patidar is the holder of one of those allotments. During the 19th century, the Kanbis generally adopted the Patidar term to describe themselves and thus emphasise the high status associated with their ownership.[17] The community also adopted the surname Patel, which was traditionally applied to village headmen.[27]

During this time, the Kanbis and Patidars were socially stratified. The "authentic" Patidars were those who were the dominant landowners. They owned large estates and supervised cultivation, or leased out land to tenants. The "lesser" Patidars were those who owned less land and cultivated part of their lands themselves. The Kanbis retained their lower status as those who did not own land. The British favoured the "authentic" Patidars over the Rajputs and Kolis, and gave them positions as revenue collectors. The favoured treatment and increased wealth and dominance led the "authentic" Patidars, "lesser" Patidars, and Kanbis to closely associate with each other.[28] Additionally, the development of tobacco as a cash crop and African trade benefited both Patidars and Kanbis and reinforced their unity and prevent them from splitting.[11]

The community also began to redefine itself in the context of the Hindu religion. As well as aspiring to Kshatriya status, they adopted ritually pure practices such as vegetarianism, worship of Krishna rather than mother goddesses (who were given animal sacrifices), prohibiting widow remarriage,[11] giving dowries rather than using the then-prevalent bride price system, and discontinuing patronage of low-caste priests.[27][29] They also retained some of their local customs, such as a preference for singing vernacular bhakti devotional songs rather than the more Brahmanic Sanskrit variants.[27] However, upper castes never recognised any claim of status above Shudra for the Patidars. The Patidars did not allow Brahmins to exploit them or allow Brahmins to control their lives; in fact, in the Kheda district the Patidars wielded more power than the Brahmins did.[11] However, with many Patidars now being merchants, they later began claiming Vaishya status en masse, to be par with the authentic-Vaishya Banias.[7] They found that claiming the mercantile Vaishya status was much easier and more accessible than claiming the obsolete Kshatriya status. Both Banias and Patidars were able to successfully adapt to modern conditions, whereas castes who traditionally claimed Kshatriya status have not been able to shift as well to modern society.[22]

The Patidars practised female infanticide until it was outlawed by the British in 1870.[30]

The Patidar practice of hypergamous marriage was also distinct from that of the Kolis, with the former marrying relatively locally and across boundaries within their own community[27][31] while the latter dispersed over a wide area to marry with Rajputs.[32] The Patidar system caused the creation of endogamous marriage circles based around groups of equal-status villages known as gols, thus strengthening ties. Simultaneously, the system allowed someone from a relatively poor circle to marry hypergamously into one of the fewer, wealthier Patidar families, whose socio-economic status would be diluted unless they adopted such practices because there were insufficient eligible brides.[33] The marriage situation in Gujarat has become so severe in recent years, with such a significant skew of gender, that in the 2010s the Patidar community organisations elsewhere in India have been encouraging some of their number to contract marriages with Gujarati Patidars, and also encouraging some Kurmi-Patidar marriages. The latter they hold to be acceptable because of a belief that, centuries ago, the two castes had a common origin. The numbers involved are at present reported to be very few but it is seen as a significant break with tradition to marry outside the caste and/or outside their home state. They claim that such marriages also develop new business ties.[34][2]

In 1894, another farmer caste, the Kurmis, formed their own caste association. The Kurmis were a farming caste in the eastern Gangetic plain who, like the Kanbis, were of Shudra status. In an organisation in Awadh, the Kurmis sought to draw the Patidars, Marathas, Kapus, Reddys, and Naidus under the Kurmi umbrella. They then campaigned to have Kurmis recognised as Kshatriyas in the 1901 census.[35]

The Raj administration first recognised the separate caste status of Patidars in the 1931 census of India.[6] In the census, all instances of Kanbi in Gujarat were replaced with Patidar.[28]

The Patidars are estimated to comprise 12–14% of Gujarat's population.[36]

Until the 1950s, Patidar and Brahmin children did not dine with each other or drink from the same glasses in Primary schools in Old Ahmedabad.[37]

In the 1960s, an alliance of Patidars, Brahmins, and Banias controlled Gujarati politics.[38]

In the post-independence era, Patidars along with Brahmins, Rajputs, and Banias formed the upper castes of Ahmedabad.[39]

In 1985, Patidars and Brahmins violently participated in the anti-reservation riots.[40]

Diaspora

Patidars starting migrating to the British-controlled East Africa more than century ago.[41] In South Africa during the famine of 1890, many Kanbis became prosperous as labourers and traders.[7] In the 1920s and 1930s, the British favoured Patidars in East Africa as civil servants in the construction of railways.[28]

In recent decades, many from the East African countries as well as from India have moved to countries such as USA, UK, and Canada.[42]

Significant immigration from India to the United States started after the landmark Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965,[43][44] Early immigrants after 1965 were highly educated professionals. Since US immigration laws allow sponsoring immigration of parents, children and particularly siblings on the basis of family reunion, the numbers rapidly swelled in a phenomenon known as "chain migration". Given the Patidar propensity for entrepreneurship and business enterprise, a number of them opened shops and motels. Now in the 21st century over 40% of the hospitality industry in the United States is controlled by Patidars and other Gujaratis.[45][46][47] The Patidar samaj, also dominate as franchisees of fast food restaurant chains such as Subway and Dunkin' Donuts, and retail franchises such as 7-Eleven.[48]

Notable people

References

Notes

  1. ^ The process leading to the reinvention of the caste identity is a paradigmatic example of the invention of tradition by social groups in India.[6]
  1. ^ Crispin Bates has stated a date of 1815 for the beginning of British land revenue reforms in Kheda district, which places the changes in the pre-Raj period when the East India Company administered the area.[14]
  2. ^ The varna system comprises Brahmins, Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras, with those unclassified being untouchables. Broadly speaking, Vaishyas were business people involved in moneylending, trading and similar activities, while Shudras were manual workers.

Citations

  1. ^ Shah, A. M.; Shroff, R. G. (1958). "The Vahīvancā Bāroṭs of Gujarat: A Caste of Genealogists and Mythographers". The Journal of American Folklore. 71 (281): 247. doi:10.2307/538561. JSTOR 538561. from the original on 3 August 2021. Retrieved 3 August 2021 – via JSTOR.
  2. ^ a b Saiyed, Kamal (11 October 2015). "In Surat, 42 women from Odisha set to tie the knot with Patidars". The Indian Express. from the original on 18 December 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  3. ^ Somjee 1989, p. 46
  4. ^ a b Shah, A. M. (1982). "Division and Hierarchy: an overview of caste in Gujarat". Contributions to Indian Sociology. 16 (1): 5, 7. doi:10.1177/006996678201600101. S2CID 143970195 – via SAGE Journals.
  5. ^ Sharma, Rajendra K. (2004). Indian Society, Institutions and Change. Atlantic. p. 340.
  6. ^ a b c d Basu 2009, p. 51
  7. ^ a b c d e f g Bal, Gurpreet (2006). "Entrepreneurship among Diasporic Communities: A Comparative Examination of Patidars of Gujarat and Jats of Punjab". Journal of Entrepreneurship. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.970.9295. doi:10.1177/097135570601500205. S2CID 146239982.
  8. ^ a b Shah & Shroff 1958, p. 268.
  9. ^ Jain 1980, p. 113.
  10. ^ Chaturvedi, Vinayak (2007). Peasant Pasts: History and Memory in Western India. University of California Press. p. 35. ISBN 9780520250789.
  11. ^ a b c d e f Brown, Judith M. (1974). Gandhi's Rise to Power: Indian Politics 1915–1922. Cambridge University Press. pp. 88–89. ISBN 0-521-08353-2.
  12. ^ Parkin, Robert (2020). South Asia in Transition: An Introduction to the Social Anthropology of a Subcontinent. Lexington Books. p. 41. ISBN 9781793611796.
  13. ^ Charlesworth, Neil (1985). Peasants and Imperial Rule: Agriculture and Agrarian Society in the Bombay Presidency, 1850-1935. Cambridge University Press. p. 11.
  14. ^ Bates 1981, pp. 773–774
  15. ^ a b Banerjee & Iyer 2005
  16. ^ a b c Basu 2009, p. 52
  17. ^ a b c Basu 2009, p. 53
  18. ^ 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.
  19. ^ Basu 2009, pp. 56–57
  20. ^ Clark-Deces 2011, p. 290
  21. ^ Clark-Decés, Isabelle (2011). A Companion to the Anthropology of India. Wiley-Blackwell. p. 2005.
  22. ^ a b Desai, Akshay Ramanlal; Mandelbaum, David (1975). State and Society in India: Essays in Dissent. University of California Press, Popular Prakashan. pp. 460–461. ISBN 978-81-7154-013-6.
  23. ^ Jain, Jyotindra (1980). Folk Art and Culture of Gujarat: Guide to the Collection of the SHREYAS Folk Museum of Gujarat. Shreyas Prakashan. p. 111.
  24. ^ Mehta, Makrand (1991). Indian Merchants and Entrepreneurs in Historical Perspective. with Special Reference to the Schroffs of Gujarat: 17th to 19th centuries. Academic Foundation. p. 186.
  25. ^ Seal, Anil (1971). The Emergence of Indian Nationalism: Competition and Collaboration in the Later Nineteenth Century. Cambridge University Press. p. 88.
  26. ^ Catanach, I. J. (2021). Rural Credit in Western India 1875–1930: Rural Credit and the Co-operative Movement in the Bombay Presidency. University of California Press. pp. 167–168.
  27. ^ a b c d Basu 2009, p. 54
  28. ^ a b c Rutten, Mario; Koskimaki, Leah (2018). Provincial Globalization in India: Transregional Mobilities and Development Politics. Taylor and Francis.
  29. ^ Berger, Peter; Heidemann, Frank (2013). The Modern Anthropology of India. Routledge. ISBN 978-1134061181. from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 19 March 2023.
  30. ^ Srinivas, Mysore Narasimhachar (1989). The Cohesive Role of Sanskritization and Other Essays. Oxford University Press. p. 105.
  31. ^ Ghurye 2008, pp. 226–228, 451
  32. ^ Jaffrelot 2003, pp. 180–182
  33. ^ Basu 2009, pp. 54–55
  34. ^ Saiyed, Kamal (22 August 2017). "With business and marital ties Patidars look to unite nationally". The Indian Express. from the original on 18 December 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  35. ^ Jaffrelot 2003, pp. 197
  36. ^ Shani, Ornit (2007). Communalism, Caste and Hindu Nationalism: The Violence in Gujarat. Cambridge University Press. p. 27.
  37. ^ Decés 2011, p. 2006.
  38. ^ Kohli, Atul; Yashar, Deborah J.; Centeno, Miguel A. (2017). States in the Developing World. Cambridge University Press. p. 267.
  39. ^ Decés 2011, p. 2005.
  40. ^ Decés 2011, p. 2007.
  41. ^ Rutten, Mario; Patel, Pravin J. (2011). "Mirror Image of Family Relations: Social Links between Patel Migrants in Britain and India". In Johnson, Christopher H.; Teuscher, Simon; Sabean, David Warren (eds.). Transregional and Transnational Families in Europe and Beyond: Experiences Since the Middle Ages. Berghahn Books. pp. 295–11. ISBN 978-0-85745-183-5. from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 11 September 2020.
  42. ^ Yagnik, Bharat (13 October 2018). "This Navratri, Kadva Patidars' kuldevi goes places in US, Canada". The Times of India. from the original on 5 January 2019. Retrieved 18 December 2018.
  43. ^ Keely, Charles B. (May 1971). "Effects of the immigration act of 1965 on selected population characteristics of immigrants to the United States". Demography. 8 (2): 157–169. doi:10.2307/2060606. JSTOR 2060606. PMID 5163987. S2CID 36538373.
  44. ^ Khandelwal, MS (1995). The politics of space in South asian Diaspora , Chapter 7 Indian immigrants in Queens, New York City: patterns of spatial concentration and distribution, 1965–1990 - Nation and migration: - books.google.com. Philadelphia, USA: University of Pennsylvania. p. 179. ISBN 0-8122-3259-3. from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 20 June 2015.
  45. ^ Kalnins, Arthur; Chung, Wilbur (2001). Greve, Henrich R.; Baum, Joel A.C. (eds.). Multiunit organization and multimarket strategy (1 ed.). New York: JAI. pp. 33–48. ISBN 0-7623-0721-8. from the original on 26 March 2023. Retrieved 21 February 2022.
  46. ^ Staff, W. S. J. (11 June 2012). "Why Indian Americans Dominate the U.S. Motel Industry". Blogs.wsj.com. from the original on 25 July 2018. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
  47. ^ HIRAL DHOLAKIA-DAVE (18 October 2006). "42% of US hotel business is Gujarati". The Times of India. from the original on 16 June 2014. Retrieved 5 February 2015. Gujaratis, mainly Patels, now own 21,000 of the 53,000 hotels and motels in the US. It makes for a staggering 42% of the US hospitality market, with a combined worth of $40 billion.
  48. ^ Rangaswami, Padma (2000). Namaste America: Indian Immigrants in an American Metropolis. University park, PA, USA: Pennsylvania State University press. p. 285. ISBN 0271--01980-8.
  49. ^ Desai, Neera (1978). Social Change in Gujarat: A Study of Nineteenth Century Gujarati Society. Vora & Co. p. 440.
  50. ^ Murali, Kanta (2017). Caste, Class, and Capital: The Social and Political Origins of Economic Policy in India. Cambridge University Press. p. 109.
  51. ^ a b c d Dave, Nayan (9 August 2016). "A sorry tale of Patidar CMs in Gujarat". The Pioneer. from the original on 27 April 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  52. ^ Sharma, Vikram (2 December 2017). "Gujarat polls: In epicentre of Patidar protest, anger at BJP but not Modi". The New Indian Express. from the original on 27 April 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  53. ^ Kateshiya, Gopal (27 August 2015). "Gujarat protests: Who are the Patidars, and why are they angry?". The Indian Express. from the original on 27 April 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  54. ^ Das, Sohini (5 September 2015). "Wealthy, yet 'backward' in Gujarat". Business Standard. from the original on 27 April 2021. Retrieved 27 April 2021.
  55. ^ Sharon, Meghdoot (2015). "Meet 22-year-old Hardik Patel, the face of Patel agitation in Gujarat". New18 India. from the original on 27 September 2021. Retrieved 20 December 2020.

Bibliography

  • Banerjee, Abhijit; Iyer, Lakshmi (September 2005), "History, Institutions, and Economic Performance: The Legacy of Colonial Land Tenure Systems in India", The American Economic Review, 95 (4): 1190–1213, CiteSeerX 10.1.1.507.9480, doi:10.1257/0002828054825574, JSTOR 4132711 (subscription required)
  • Basu, Pratyusha (2009), Villages, Women, and the Success of Dairy Cooperatives in India: Making Place for Rural Development, Cambria Press, ISBN 9781604976250
  • Bates, Crispin N. (1981), "The Nature of Social Change in Rural Gujarat: The Kheda District, 1818–1918" (PDF), Modern Asian Studies, 15 (4): 771–821, doi:10.1017/s0026749x00008763, hdl:20.500.11820/df2d88ef-9bf2-449f-b797-32f24d3bc73f, JSTOR 312172, S2CID 146793414 (subscription required)
  • Clark-Deces, Isabelle (2011), A Companion to the Anthropology of India, John Wiley and Sons, ISBN 978-1-4051-9892-9
  • Ghurye, G. S. (2008) [1932], Caste and race in India (Fifth ed.), Popular Prakashan, ISBN 978-81-7154-205-5
  • Heredia, Ruth (1997), The Amul India Story, Tata McGraw-Hill Education, ISBN 978-0-07463-160-7
  • Jaffrelot, Christophe (2003), India's Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India (Reprinted ed.), C. Hurst & Co., ISBN 9781850653981
  • Somjee, Geeta (1989), Narrowing the Gender Gap, Springer, p. 46, ISBN 978-1-34919-644-9

Further reading

  • Gidwani, Vinay K. (2008). Capital, Interrupted: Agrarian Development and the Politics of Work in India. University of Minnesota Press. ISBN 9780816649587.
  • Hardiman, David (1981). Peasant Nationalists of Gujarat: Kheda District 1917–1934. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
  • Pocock, David (May 1955). "The Movement of Castes". Man. 55: 71–72. doi:10.2307/2794840. JSTOR 2794840. (subscription required)
  • Pocock, David (1972). Kanbi and Patidar: a study of the Patidar community of Gujarat. Clarendon Press.
  • Rutten, Mario (1995). Farms and factories: social profile of large farmers and rural industrialists in West India. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780195632996.
  • Trivedi, Jayprakash M. (1992). The Social structure of Patidar caste in India. Kanishka Publishing House. ISBN 978-8-18547-519-6.

February 16, 2024
patidar, gujarati, pāṭidār, formerly, known, kanbi, indian, landlord, agrarian, caste, community, mostly, found, gujarat, also, least, other, states, india, community, comprises, multiple, subcastes, most, prominently, levas, kadvas, they, form, dominant, cast. Patidar Gujarati Paṭidar 1 formerly known as Kanbi is an Indian landlord and agrarian caste and community mostly found in Gujarat but also in at least 22 other states of India 2 The community comprises at multiple subcastes most prominently the Levas and Kadvas 3 4 They form one of the dominant castes in Gujarat 5 The title of Patidar originally conferred to the land owning aristocratic class of Gujarati Kanbis however it was later applied en masse to the entirety of the peasant population who lay claim to a land owning identity partly as a result of land reforms during the British Raj 6 note 1 PatidarPatidar reservation agitationReligionsHinduismLanguagesGujaratiRegionPrincipally in Gujarat but also some other states of India Contents 1 History 2 Reinventing identity 3 Diaspora 4 Notable people 5 References 6 Further readingHistoryThe Patidars claimed to be descendants of the Hindu deity Rama 7 Specifically the Patidars claim that the Levas and Kadvas are the descendants of Lava and Kusha respectively the two sons of Rama The Barots record that Lava and Kusha were cursed by their mother Sita to become cultivators and after which the Patidars supposedly migrated from Ayodhya to Gujarat Shah and Shroff consider this scenario to be unlikely and believe it to be an example of Barots creating myths to legitimize caste claims to a particular varna in this case Kshatriya 8 nbsp A Lewa Kanbi from Baroda StateThe Kanbi Patidars were divided into several subcastes The Levas were from central Gujarat and the Kadavas were from northern Gujarat The Matis who were a sub subcaste of the Levas lived in southern Gujarat The Chullias lived in certain areas of Saurashtra The Bhaktas form another subcaste 7 4 The Anjana Kanbis are similar to Rajputs and eat meat and drink alcohol The Uda Kanbis are followers of Udabhagat a neo Vaishnav saint The Matiyas also known as Piranas are Kanbis who descend from converts to the Islamic sect of the Imam Shah in the 15th century These Kanbis were ostracised and moved to Kutch district Later some of these Kanbis were in turn converted to the Swaminarayan sect by Narayan Mistri 9 Since the 17th century the Leva Kanbis controlled the majority of the land in the Kheda district through a coparcenary system of land tenure called narwadari in which Levas would share the payments of revenue owed to the government They did this to protect their community against exploitations by the government 10 The Patidar were originally a title for the Kanbis who had become village tax collectors under the Mughal Empire and later the Maratha Empire These Kanbis also took the titles of Desai Amin and Patel 7 11 12 8 The Kanbis were a group of western Indian peasant farmers that had various subclans for example in the central Deccan the Maratha Kanbis and in Gujarat the then elite Patidar Kanbis 13 The rise to socio economic prominence of the Kanbi community in Gujarat and its change of identity to that of Patidar can be attributed to the land reforms of the British Raj period a The Raj administrators sought to assure revenue from the highly fertile lands of central Gujarat by instituting reforms that fundamentally changed the relationship between the two communities of the region the peasant Kanbi and the warrior Kolis The two had previously been of more or less equal socio economic standing but the land reforms better suited the agricultural peasantry than the warriors 6 Governments in India had always relied on revenue from land as their major source of income With the decline of the Mughal Empire the extant administrative systems fell apart and anarchy prevailed The British colonisation of the country took place over a period of many years and had to adapt to the various local land tenure arrangements that had arisen as Mughal power waned These systems of ownership could be broadly classified as landlord based zamindari vanta or magulzari village based mahalwari narva and individually based ryotwari 15 nbsp A Kadwa Kanbi from Baroda StateIn Gujarat the British administrators found that all three systems existed The Kanbis tended to adopt the village based model and the Kolis the landlord based variant 16 The village based system entailed that organisations jointly owned a village and shared responsibility in some fixed proportion for the land revenues The division of responsibility might be arranged by the amount of land held by each member the bhaiachara method or by ancestry the pattidari system 15 Working with this village model enabled the British to impose a fixed revenue demand that was payable whether or not the land was cultivated and that gave landholders the right to sublet and otherwise manage their lands with minimal official interference It simplified revenue collection and maximised income when compared to a system based on individual responsibility for revenue in which allowances had to be made for land being out of cultivation It also allowed a degree of communal self determination that permitted the rise of economic elites with no reason to engage in political challenges and hence the rise of the communities then known as Kanbis 16 Some Kanbis became wealthy enough to enter the world of finance providing lines of credit to others in their community 17 The situation experienced by the Gujarati Kolis with their preferred landlord based tenure system was not so mutually beneficial They were subject to interference from the British revenue collectors who intervened to ensure that the stipulated revenue was remitted to the government before any surplus went to the landlord 16 Being less inclined to take an active role in agriculture personally and thus maximise revenues from their landholdings the Koli possessions were often left uncultivated or underused These lands were gradually taken over by Kanbi cultivators while the Kolis became classified as a criminal tribe due to their failure to meet the revenue demands and their tendency to raid Kanbi villages to survive The Kanbi land takeovers also reduced the Kolis to being the tenants and agricultural labourers of Kanbis rather than landowners thus increasing the economic inequality between the communities The difference was further exacerbated by the Kanbis providing better tenancy arrangements for members of their own community than for Kolis 17 In the 18th century Kanbis were also mentioned as working as weavers at Surat In the 1740s some Kanbis were granted permission by the governor Safdar Khan to manufacture Saris which traditionally was the domain of Khatris The Kunbis had learned the art of weaving from the Khatris who had employed them The Khatris were annoyed by this and a rivalry developed between the castes which disrupted the business of the East India Company This led the Company to persuade the Nawab to revoke the Kunbi s license to weave saris in 1800 and guarantee to the Khatris the sole license to manufacture saris on the condition that they would only work for the East India Company 18 nbsp An Anjana Kanbi from Baroda StateThe Kanbis economic well being was enhanced further from the 1860s due to improvements in crop selection farming methods and transportation They began to diversify their business interests and some with higher status also replaced the field labour of their families especially the women with hired labour in an attempt to emulate the Bania communities who had Vaishya status in the varna ranking system 19 The Kanbis had been of the low caste Shudra rank 20 b 21 The Kanbis also claimed equal status with the Rajputs who had formerly been the dominant caste in the region 11 The Rajputs who claimed to be Kshatriyas lost their landownership to the Kanbis and were forced to become their tenants The Kanbis also claimed Kshatriya status mirroring the Rajputs 7 The Kanbis Patidars mirrored the Rajputs in that they both claimed to be of Kshatriya status hired genealogists to fabricate genealogies and hired bards to concoct warrior legends about their pasts 22 Traditionally the bards and brahmins had maintained that the Kanbis had always been farmers but in 1912 the Kanbis published Origin and History of Kanbi Kshatriya in Gujarati attempting to link the Kanbis with the Ikshvaku clan of Kshatriyas According to Jyotindra Jain the Kanbis have never ruled any territory except the estates of Patadi Dhasa Rai and Sankali 23 The Patidars began trading indigo in the 19th century 7 The Patidars heavily benefited from the British Raj and were able to use their land drainage systems better agriculture and the growth of a money economy to prosper The growth of Ahmedabad during the British Raj gave the Patidars a market to sell goods 11 In the 19th century due to the declining profitability of agriculture many Kanbis took advantage of new opportunities afforded by British rule with many migrating to towns like Ahmedabad and Cambay where they became weavers traders and moneylenders 24 In 1891 around ten percent of Leva and Kadva Kanbis were literate 25 The Kadvas used to have a unique marriage custom in which marriages were only conducted once every ten years This marriage custom was noted to be in decline by 1911 In 1922 the Kadva Seva Mandal organized a caste conference which abolished the deccenial marriage custom 26 Reinventing identityThe parcels of land held under the village tenureship system are known as patis and a patidar is the holder of one of those allotments During the 19th century the Kanbis generally adopted the Patidar term to describe themselves and thus emphasise the high status associated with their ownership 17 The community also adopted the surname Patel which was traditionally applied to village headmen 27 During this time the Kanbis and Patidars were socially stratified The authentic Patidars were those who were the dominant landowners They owned large estates and supervised cultivation or leased out land to tenants The lesser Patidars were those who owned less land and cultivated part of their lands themselves The Kanbis retained their lower status as those who did not own land The British favoured the authentic Patidars over the Rajputs and Kolis and gave them positions as revenue collectors The favoured treatment and increased wealth and dominance led the authentic Patidars lesser Patidars and Kanbis to closely associate with each other 28 Additionally the development of tobacco as a cash crop and African trade benefited both Patidars and Kanbis and reinforced their unity and prevent them from splitting 11 The community also began to redefine itself in the context of the Hindu religion As well as aspiring to Kshatriya status they adopted ritually pure practices such as vegetarianism worship of Krishna rather than mother goddesses who were given animal sacrifices prohibiting widow remarriage 11 giving dowries rather than using the then prevalent bride price system and discontinuing patronage of low caste priests 27 29 They also retained some of their local customs such as a preference for singing vernacular bhakti devotional songs rather than the more Brahmanic Sanskrit variants 27 However upper castes never recognised any claim of status above Shudra for the Patidars The Patidars did not allow Brahmins to exploit them or allow Brahmins to control their lives in fact in the Kheda district the Patidars wielded more power than the Brahmins did 11 However with many Patidars now being merchants they later began claiming Vaishya status en masse to be par with the authentic Vaishya Banias 7 They found that claiming the mercantile Vaishya status was much easier and more accessible than claiming the obsolete Kshatriya status Both Banias and Patidars were able to successfully adapt to modern conditions whereas castes who traditionally claimed Kshatriya status have not been able to shift as well to modern society 22 The Patidars practised female infanticide until it was outlawed by the British in 1870 30 The Patidar practice of hypergamous marriage was also distinct from that of the Kolis with the former marrying relatively locally and across boundaries within their own community 27 31 while the latter dispersed over a wide area to marry with Rajputs 32 The Patidar system caused the creation of endogamous marriage circles based around groups of equal status villages known as gols thus strengthening ties Simultaneously the system allowed someone from a relatively poor circle to marry hypergamously into one of the fewer wealthier Patidar families whose socio economic status would be diluted unless they adopted such practices because there were insufficient eligible brides 33 The marriage situation in Gujarat has become so severe in recent years with such a significant skew of gender that in the 2010s the Patidar community organisations elsewhere in India have been encouraging some of their number to contract marriages with Gujarati Patidars and also encouraging some Kurmi Patidar marriages The latter they hold to be acceptable because of a belief that centuries ago the two castes had a common origin The numbers involved are at present reported to be very few but it is seen as a significant break with tradition to marry outside the caste and or outside their home state They claim that such marriages also develop new business ties 34 2 In 1894 another farmer caste the Kurmis formed their own caste association The Kurmis were a farming caste in the eastern Gangetic plain who like the Kanbis were of Shudra status In an organisation in Awadh the Kurmis sought to draw the Patidars Marathas Kapus Reddys and Naidus under the Kurmi umbrella They then campaigned to have Kurmis recognised as Kshatriyas in the 1901 census 35 The Raj administration first recognised the separate caste status of Patidars in the 1931 census of India 6 In the census all instances of Kanbi in Gujarat were replaced with Patidar 28 The Patidars are estimated to comprise 12 14 of Gujarat s population 36 Until the 1950s Patidar and Brahmin children did not dine with each other or drink from the same glasses in Primary schools in Old Ahmedabad 37 In the 1960s an alliance of Patidars Brahmins and Banias controlled Gujarati politics 38 In the post independence era Patidars along with Brahmins Rajputs and Banias formed the upper castes of Ahmedabad 39 In 1985 Patidars and Brahmins violently participated in the anti reservation riots 40 DiasporaPatidars starting migrating to the British controlled East Africa more than century ago 41 In South Africa during the famine of 1890 many Kanbis became prosperous as labourers and traders 7 In the 1920s and 1930s the British favoured Patidars in East Africa as civil servants in the construction of railways 28 In recent decades many from the East African countries as well as from India have moved to countries such as USA UK and Canada 42 Significant immigration from India to the United States started after the landmark Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 43 44 Early immigrants after 1965 were highly educated professionals Since US immigration laws allow sponsoring immigration of parents children and particularly siblings on the basis of family reunion the numbers rapidly swelled in a phenomenon known as chain migration Given the Patidar propensity for entrepreneurship and business enterprise a number of them opened shops and motels Now in the 21st century over 40 of the hospitality industry in the United States is controlled by Patidars and other Gujaratis 45 46 47 The Patidar samaj also dominate as franchisees of fast food restaurant chains such as Subway and Dunkin Donuts and retail franchises such as 7 Eleven 48 Notable peopleHaridas Viharidas Desai Dewan of Junagadh state 49 Vallabhbhai Patel 1875 1950 Indian politician 50 Babubhai J Patel 1911 2002 former Gujarat Chief Minister 51 Keshubhai Patel 1928 2020 Indian politician 51 Chimanbhai Patel 1929 1994 former Gujarat Chief Minister 51 Anandiben Patel Indian politician 51 Karsanbhai Patel Indian industrialist 52 Pankaj Patel Indian industrialist 53 Savji Dholakia Indian diamond businessman 54 Hardik Patel Gujarati politician 55 ReferencesNotes The process leading to the reinvention of the caste identity is a paradigmatic example of the invention of tradition by social groups in India 6 Crispin Bates has stated a date of 1815 for the beginning of British land revenue reforms in Kheda district which places the changes in the pre Raj period when the East India Company administered the area 14 The varna system comprises Brahmins Kshatriyas Vaishyas and Shudras with those unclassified being untouchables Broadly speaking Vaishyas were business people involved in moneylending trading and similar activities while Shudras were manual workers Citations Shah A M Shroff R G 1958 The Vahivanca Baroṭs of Gujarat A Caste of Genealogists and Mythographers The Journal of American Folklore 71 281 247 doi 10 2307 538561 JSTOR 538561 Archived from the original on 3 August 2021 Retrieved 3 August 2021 via JSTOR a b Saiyed Kamal 11 October 2015 In Surat 42 women from Odisha set to tie the knot with Patidars The Indian Express Archived from the original on 18 December 2018 Retrieved 18 December 2018 Somjee 1989 p 46 a b Shah A M 1982 Division and Hierarchy an overview of caste in Gujarat Contributions to Indian Sociology 16 1 5 7 doi 10 1177 006996678201600101 S2CID 143970195 via SAGE Journals Sharma Rajendra K 2004 Indian Society Institutions and Change Atlantic p 340 a b c d Basu 2009 p 51 a b c d e f g Bal Gurpreet 2006 Entrepreneurship among Diasporic Communities A Comparative Examination of Patidars of Gujarat and Jats of Punjab Journal of Entrepreneurship CiteSeerX 10 1 1 970 9295 doi 10 1177 097135570601500205 S2CID 146239982 a b Shah amp Shroff 1958 p 268 Jain 1980 p 113 Chaturvedi Vinayak 2007 Peasant Pasts History and Memory in Western India University of California Press p 35 ISBN 9780520250789 a b c d e f Brown Judith M 1974 Gandhi s Rise to Power Indian Politics 1915 1922 Cambridge University Press pp 88 89 ISBN 0 521 08353 2 Parkin Robert 2020 South Asia in Transition An Introduction to the Social Anthropology of a Subcontinent Lexington Books p 41 ISBN 9781793611796 Charlesworth Neil 1985 Peasants and Imperial Rule Agriculture and Agrarian Society in the Bombay Presidency 1850 1935 Cambridge University Press p 11 Bates 1981 pp 773 774 a b Banerjee amp Iyer 2005 a b c Basu 2009 p 52 a b c Basu 2009 p 53 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 Basu 2009 pp 56 57 Clark Deces 2011 p 290 Clark Deces Isabelle 2011 A Companion to the Anthropology of India Wiley Blackwell p 2005 a b Desai Akshay Ramanlal Mandelbaum David 1975 State and Society in India Essays in Dissent University of California Press Popular Prakashan pp 460 461 ISBN 978 81 7154 013 6 Jain Jyotindra 1980 Folk Art and Culture of Gujarat Guide to the Collection of the SHREYAS Folk Museum of Gujarat Shreyas Prakashan p 111 Mehta Makrand 1991 Indian Merchants and Entrepreneurs in Historical Perspective with Special Reference to the Schroffs of Gujarat 17th to 19th centuries Academic Foundation p 186 Seal Anil 1971 The Emergence of Indian Nationalism Competition and Collaboration in the Later Nineteenth Century Cambridge University Press p 88 Catanach I J 2021 Rural Credit in Western India 1875 1930 Rural Credit and the Co operative Movement in the Bombay Presidency University of California Press pp 167 168 a b c d Basu 2009 p 54 a b c Rutten Mario Koskimaki Leah 2018 Provincial Globalization in India Transregional Mobilities and Development Politics Taylor and Francis Berger Peter Heidemann Frank 2013 The Modern Anthropology of India Routledge ISBN 978 1134061181 Archived from the original on 26 March 2023 Retrieved 19 March 2023 Srinivas Mysore Narasimhachar 1989 The Cohesive Role of Sanskritization and Other Essays Oxford University Press p 105 Ghurye 2008 pp 226 228 451 Jaffrelot 2003 pp 180 182 Basu 2009 pp 54 55 Saiyed Kamal 22 August 2017 With business and marital ties Patidars look to unite nationally The Indian Express Archived from the original on 18 December 2018 Retrieved 18 December 2018 Jaffrelot 2003 pp 197 Shani Ornit 2007 Communalism Caste and Hindu Nationalism The Violence in Gujarat Cambridge University Press p 27 Deces 2011 p 2006 sfn error no target CITEREFDeces2011 help Kohli Atul Yashar Deborah J Centeno Miguel A 2017 States in the Developing World Cambridge University Press p 267 Deces 2011 p 2005 sfn error no target CITEREFDeces2011 help Deces 2011 p 2007 sfn error no target CITEREFDeces2011 help Rutten Mario Patel Pravin J 2011 Mirror Image of Family Relations Social Links between Patel Migrants in Britain and India In Johnson Christopher H Teuscher Simon Sabean David Warren eds Transregional and Transnational Families in Europe and Beyond Experiences Since the Middle Ages Berghahn Books pp 295 11 ISBN 978 0 85745 183 5 Archived from the original on 26 March 2023 Retrieved 11 September 2020 Yagnik Bharat 13 October 2018 This Navratri Kadva Patidars kuldevi goes places in US Canada The Times of India Archived from the original on 5 January 2019 Retrieved 18 December 2018 Keely Charles B May 1971 Effects of the immigration act of 1965 on selected population characteristics of immigrants to the United States Demography 8 2 157 169 doi 10 2307 2060606 JSTOR 2060606 PMID 5163987 S2CID 36538373 Khandelwal MS 1995 The politics of space in South asian Diaspora Chapter 7 Indian immigrants in Queens New York City patterns of spatial concentration and distribution 1965 1990 Nation and migration books google com Philadelphia USA University of Pennsylvania p 179 ISBN 0 8122 3259 3 Archived from the original on 26 March 2023 Retrieved 20 June 2015 Kalnins Arthur Chung Wilbur 2001 Greve Henrich R Baum Joel A C eds Multiunit organization and multimarket strategy 1 ed New York JAI pp 33 48 ISBN 0 7623 0721 8 Archived from the original on 26 March 2023 Retrieved 21 February 2022 Staff W S J 11 June 2012 Why Indian Americans Dominate the U S Motel Industry Blogs wsj com Archived from the original on 25 July 2018 Retrieved 27 May 2018 HIRAL DHOLAKIA DAVE 18 October 2006 42 of US hotel business is Gujarati The Times of India Archived from the original on 16 June 2014 Retrieved 5 February 2015 Gujaratis mainly Patels now own 21 000 of the 53 000 hotels and motels in the US It makes for a staggering 42 of the US hospitality market with a combined worth of 40 billion Rangaswami Padma 2000 Namaste America Indian Immigrants in an American Metropolis University park PA USA Pennsylvania State University press p 285 ISBN 0271 01980 8 Desai Neera 1978 Social Change in Gujarat A Study of Nineteenth Century Gujarati Society Vora amp Co p 440 Murali Kanta 2017 Caste Class and Capital The Social and Political Origins of Economic Policy in India Cambridge University Press p 109 a b c d Dave Nayan 9 August 2016 A sorry tale of Patidar CMs in Gujarat The Pioneer Archived from the original on 27 April 2021 Retrieved 27 April 2021 Sharma Vikram 2 December 2017 Gujarat polls In epicentre of Patidar protest anger at BJP but not Modi The New Indian Express Archived from the original on 27 April 2021 Retrieved 27 April 2021 Kateshiya Gopal 27 August 2015 Gujarat protests Who are the Patidars and why are they angry The Indian Express Archived from the original on 27 April 2021 Retrieved 27 April 2021 Das Sohini 5 September 2015 Wealthy yet backward in Gujarat Business Standard Archived from the original on 27 April 2021 Retrieved 27 April 2021 Sharon Meghdoot 2015 Meet 22 year old Hardik Patel the face of Patel agitation in Gujarat New18 India Archived from the original on 27 September 2021 Retrieved 20 December 2020 Bibliography Banerjee Abhijit Iyer Lakshmi September 2005 History Institutions and Economic Performance The Legacy of Colonial Land Tenure Systems in India The American Economic Review 95 4 1190 1213 CiteSeerX 10 1 1 507 9480 doi 10 1257 0002828054825574 JSTOR 4132711 subscription required Basu Pratyusha 2009 Villages Women and the Success of Dairy Cooperatives in India Making Place for Rural Development Cambria Press ISBN 9781604976250 Bates Crispin N 1981 The Nature of Social Change in Rural Gujarat The Kheda District 1818 1918 PDF Modern Asian Studies 15 4 771 821 doi 10 1017 s0026749x00008763 hdl 20 500 11820 df2d88ef 9bf2 449f b797 32f24d3bc73f JSTOR 312172 S2CID 146793414 subscription required Clark Deces Isabelle 2011 A Companion to the Anthropology of India John Wiley and Sons ISBN 978 1 4051 9892 9 Ghurye G S 2008 1932 Caste and race in India Fifth ed Popular Prakashan ISBN 978 81 7154 205 5 Heredia Ruth 1997 The Amul India Story Tata McGraw Hill Education ISBN 978 0 07463 160 7 Jaffrelot Christophe 2003 India s Silent Revolution The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India Reprinted ed C Hurst amp Co ISBN 9781850653981 Somjee Geeta 1989 Narrowing the Gender Gap Springer p 46 ISBN 978 1 34919 644 9Further readingGidwani Vinay K 2008 Capital Interrupted Agrarian Development and the Politics of Work in India University of Minnesota Press ISBN 9780816649587 Hardiman David 1981 Peasant Nationalists of Gujarat Kheda District 1917 1934 Delhi Oxford University Press Pocock David May 1955 The Movement of Castes Man 55 71 72 doi 10 2307 2794840 JSTOR 2794840 subscription required Pocock David 1972 Kanbi and Patidar a study of the Patidar community of Gujarat Clarendon Press Rutten Mario 1995 Farms and factories social profile of large farmers and rural industrialists in West India Oxford University Press ISBN 9780195632996 Trivedi Jayprakash M 1992 The Social structure of Patidar caste in India Kanishka Publishing House ISBN 978 8 18547 519 6 Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Patidar amp oldid 1199397928, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

article

, read, download, free, free download, mp3, video, mp4, 3gp, jpg, jpeg, gif, png, picture, music, song, movie, book, game, games.