Rajput converts were generally identified as Khanzada, Ghauri Pathan, Kayamkhani, Ranghar, etc. Right from the beginning Singh's belong to Rajputs. As a Vaishya, Sikh is meant to engage in commerce with honesty and work for the prosperity of the society. "Mulayam Singh Yadav"), the Bhumihars, the non-Sikh Punjabis, the Gujjars (e.g. Chhimbas are tailors (darzi) and printers (chhipa) who had assumed the title of Tonk Kshatriyas in the colonial era. He is an Indian Boxer & Film Actor. But Guru Nanak rejected his tutoring and became a man of spirit. Following Sikh castes are essentially agricultural and landowning castes : Jat, Kamboh, Mahton and Saini . The government of India's draft defines them as a nomadic tribe in Tripura. We have a lot of "White Sihkhs" here, in the US. The order of castes given below should not be mistaken for a hierarchy as they have been randomly mentioned one before the other. All Sikh men use Singh and Sikh women use Kaur with their names. Any layperson or author giving a clearly ordered Sikh caste hierarchy is himself mistaken or is purposefully misleading others. The Lodhi are categorised as an Other Backward Class but claim Rajput ties and prefer to be known as "Lodhi-Rajput", although they have no account of their Rajput origin or prevailing Rajput traditions. Jat Sikhs are known for their lively spirit and easy-going nature. The status of Jat outside Punjab is somewhat low and some scholars say that they were actually considered Shudra caste until very recently. The issue of caste in Sikhism is quite complex, always inviting a diversity of impassioned opinions.... "The Word is the Yoga, the Word is the spiritual wisdom; the Word is the Vedas for the Brahmin. For this reason , Mazhbi Sikh brethren are extended reservation as scheduled caste . The Khalsa Sikh was take over the traditional role of the Kshatriya in the Hindu society. They used to be expert shoe-makers. All castes sub castes are primarily divided into 4 categories: 1.Brahmins – … In the estimation of British only these Sikh castes were tempramentally and physically suited for active military service and warfare like the hardy Scotish Highlanders back home who also made excellent soldiers. Over the following years, in the times of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and the Sikh Missls that reclaimed land back from the Moghuls, those leading the Missls eventually settled in those areas taking up farming. whites should f off we hate you and do not like you exploiting our people.take a hike and get a life losers! Let the Guru guide you! Fighting for both one's life and faith was the greatest need in era of Gurus Therefore, the Kshatriya part of Sikh's identity got more highlighted in Sikh society but it does not mean that the Shudra, Vaishya and Brahmin aspects of his personality were to be devalued. Their exceptional skill in these trades have earned them a good reputation as machinists. The Chooras, or the caste of sweepers, are mostly Christian in Pakistan, and they face the same discrimination as … In addition, Mazhbi Sikhs were also recruited in good numbers but were generally denied roles in cavalry because of caste discrimination practiced and promoted by British. Take a personal virtual-hukam from the Siri Guru Granth Sahib. In the ancient India such mixed castes such as Khatris were regarded as "'varnasankara" and were denied the respectability extended to the well-born and ritually pure Kshatriyas and Brahmins. The 1901 census of British India actually records a third even lower class of Muslims called Azrals who belonged to the scavenger castes such as Halalkhor, Lalbegi, Abdal , Bediya , etc. Generally, this debate has been shaped by two broad lines of argument. Bhagat Ravidas belonged to Chamar caste but is accorded highest respect in Sikhism with his poetry being included in Sri Guru Granth Sahib. English ethnographer Sir Herbert Hope Risley also denied the possibility of the link of Khatris with Kshatriyas. Some Lesser Known Facts About O. P. Singh. Each caste has its sphere of influence and specialization. This is a caste of vagabonds and gypsies. Indian subcontinent. Islamic Caste System in Indian Sub Continent. Check this page to read his biography - age, wife, caste, family & much more! Many last names in India indicate the place the person originally belongs to. According to McLeod, the present day Ramgarhias are a caste formed by merging of Nais (barbers), Raj (blacksmiths) and Tarkhans (carpenters). Similarly, Kalals - who could be called both an artisan and a commercial caste- are a caste of distillers or liquor sellers and are also called Ahluwalia, an adoptive name derived from Sikh leader Jassa Singh Kalal's village which was called Ahlo. and who is looking for a answer because I can tell you right now if you are Sikh or hindu you wouldn't be asking because you would know! ... Patanga belongs to which caste and category ? It has been adopted as a title by some warriors, and mandated in the 18th century by Sri Guru Gobind Singh Ji for all male Sikhs. Singh caste name could indicate the type of work people belonging to the Singh caste do or did in earlier times. Some of these include the Yadavs (e.g. This page was last edited on 10 December 2020, at 14:40. Khatri Sikhs were sometimes recruited when they happened to have taken up farming and sometimes because of their knowledge of Pashto, which came in handy to British to deal with the unruly Pathans. Ranveer Singh is an Indian Bollywood film actor who predominantly acted in Hindi movies and known for his high energy antics in Public. All of the Sikh Gurus were born in Khatri caste. Some poor men and women of this caste also work as laborers in the farms of traditional landowning castes like Jat, Mahton, Saini, etc. It is not a Sikh caste with significant numbers but they have produced one of the greatest Sikh personalities, i.e Maharaja Ranjit Singh. S.N. In August 1990, V.P. Rose, Ibbetson , Maclagan, Asian Educational Services, 1996, Of clowns and gods, Brahmans, and babus: humour in South Asian literature, p 179 , Christina Oesterheld, Claus Peter Zoller, Manohar Publishers & Distributors, 1999, Incredible story of social justice in India, p 47, L. M. Khanna, Aravali Books International, 2002, Hindu castes and sects: an exposition of the origin of the Hindu caste system and the bearing of the sects towards each other and towards other religious systems, Jogendra Nath Bhattacharya, p 138, Thacker, Spink, 1896, The A to Z of Sikhism, W. H. McLeod, p 36, Scarecrow Press, Jul 24, 2009, The imperial gazetteer of India , W.W. Hunter , Vol. A small section of this caste got settled in agriculture near Raja Sansi in Amritsar district and among them was born the great Maharaja. It has also … Caste-based discrimation has been outlawed in Nepal since 1962, yet remnants of its prejudice endure, and because of this, many Dalits are now converting to Christianity from Hinduism, in search of a new way of life. "Maharaja Bhim Singh Rana"). The current population of those named Singh would not fit within the Indian Caste system. It is today the basis of affirmative action programmes in India. In the earlier Hindu society , the titles of Singh and Kaur or Kanwar were only meant to be used by Rajputs or Kshatriyas. "He did not take my accounts into account; such is His forgiving nature. There has existed a vibrant debate within the Sikh Panth on the issue of the caste since late 19th century. Brahman , the highest caste among Hindus, does not have the same rank in Punjab, especially among Sikhs. The roots of Islamic caste system in India can be traced to the 14th century decree called "Fatwa-i-Jahandari" of Ziauddin Barani who was the official cleric of the Tughlaqs. Historically, within Christianity the theological basis of the hereditary enslavement of Blacks can be traced to the two Papal Bulls of 1452 and 1455 which sanctioned Christian Europeans to enslave "Saracens, pagans and any non-believers". Apart from the Sikhs and the Rajputs, several other groups in India have also adopted Singh as either a middle name or a surname. As a Shudra, a Sikh is to believe in the dignity of labour. How far in the past has your family traced your genealogy? This view was very actively propagated by Singh Sabha, a reformist Sikh movement which was born in the later half of 19th century in response to Christian attempts to proselytize Sikhs. It is no surprise they are enlisted among Other Backward Castes (OBC) in many other states like Gujrat, Tamil Nadu, etc. The Caste System, in its present form, is further based solely upon birth. In India, Sinha is used as a surname by the Bengali Kayasthas (also spelt Singha) and the Kayasthas of Bihar. Corp., 1985, Glossary of the Tribes and Castes of the Punjab and North West Frontier Province, p 90, 91, A. This is hardly different from separate White and Black Churches in many parts of USA , although no Church openly admits to discrimination. What caste do Hindus with the surname Singh tend to fall into? A large number of them are now great entrepreneurs and are quite prosperous. It could be that Arora caste which came under patronage of Pathans and Khokhars in NWFP and upper western Punjab as their accountants came to be called "Khatri" because of maintaining "Khatas" or accounting books of their patrons. Singh means lion while Kaur is a short form of Kanwar or princess. How do you find out about a grandparent without opening up old wounds? Intermarriage between Bhatias and Aroras is not uncommon . This sentiment is altogether against the spirit of Sikhism but unfortunately does exist. While many well meaning Rajput Rajas, like the 52 princelings who befriended the sixth Guru in Gawalior prison, gave support to Sikh Gurus, most disappointed them. Within this socio-ethnic caste system, the Tamang people sit above the Dalits, who are considered to be in the lowest category of ‘untouchables’. In simple words it also means that singh is a universal title (excusive to india ,of course! Punjab’s agricultural policies are remnants of a feudal system requiring creative destruction. Eminent Sikh writer Khushwant Singh also holds this view but in Sikhism they have made rapid upward strides on the social scale and are now considered one of the premier Sikh castes. Out of these Jats were the largest in numbers which only reflected their numerical majority in Sikh society. I learned of my mother family heritage how would I learn about my dad who family from the Ukraine? Deepening Your Personal Relationship with the Guru, Essays in Sikh history, tradition and society, p 185, W. H. McLeod, Oxford University Press, 2007, Dereserve these myths, Tanweer Fazal , Thu Sep 07 2006, The Indian Express, Sexuality, obscenity, community: women, Muslims, and the Hindu public in colonial India, p 24, Charu Gupta, Macmillan, 2002, A Social History of India, p 248, S. N. Sadasivan, APH Publishing, 2000, The Sikhs, an Ethnology, p 63-74, A. E. Barstow, B.R. Singh is also used by some non-Sikh women, because 'Singh' can be a surname in several other cultural communities. Some say that Guru Gobind Singh did not abolish caste system within Sikhs but merely implied equality of all castes. Zail Singh,Manmohan Singh,etc are Sikhs, while Mulayam Singh,Arjun Singh , etc, come from different caste backgrounds. In many other Indian regions like Mysore and Gujrat the term Khatri is synonymous with the caste of weavers or Julahas and sometimes also with the caste of tailors or Darjis. October 12, 2017 at 4:10 pm. In the earlier era of Sikh history, it was not uncommon to come across the term Brahman Sikh. Pathans, according to Barstow, could treat Khatris like personal property , much like the medieval lords in Europe who treated their Jews like chattels. If that were the case , they point out, even Mazhbi Sikh castes could claim superiority over others because many of the Bhagats like Ravidas, Namdev, Kabir, etc were from service and artisan castes. Files are available under licenses specified on their description page. The word Khatri accordingly may have originated from "Kshaatri" instead of "Kshatriya". [8], The Sikhs adopted Singh as a surname in 1699, as per the wish of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru. Sikha Caste Systems - different caste and subastes system in sikh. Does O. P. Singh smoke? Famous Indian freedom fighter and martyr Sardar Udham Singh was a Kamboh. In their opinion Sikh Gurus were above caste and cannot be thus claimed by any particular group. Please note there are also Agarwal Baniyas in Punjab too but they are almost 100% Hindu. About 66% of all Sikhs are said to belong to this caste. Jats are the biggest group in terms of numbers among Sikh castes. It is also found in use among West Indians of Indian origin namely in places of Guyana, Trinidad and Surinam, as well as people of Indian origin found in Mauritius and Fiji Island. They are primarily expert carpenters and blacksmiths. How to I identify my great great grandparents? The mercantile element of this community, which almost entirely constitutes its core identity, was denied access to army. Being connected with commerce and trading, their literacy rate is among the highest in Punjab and they were also the earliest beneficiaries of colonial education system being located in urban areas. Rajputs in north India have traditionally used Singh as the second part of their name.Following Guru Gobind Singh, Sikh men ( irrespective of the caste) have done so.May be at one time Singh was a rough caste indicator but it was never a caste name. Akshay says. you white people are the devils. Ashrafs were the light-skinned Muslims who had come from Central Asia while the term Ajlaf was used for native converts who were generally darker skinned, and proselytized by means both fair and foul mostly from the lower Hindu castes. Some speculate that the word Khatri is derived from the word "Khata" . Some prominent castes among Sikhs are Arora, Khatri, Ramgarhia, Jat, Saini, Kamboh, Mahton, Chhimba, Mohyal , Chamar, etc. kurmi or kunbi also use singh surname in mirzapur dist in up state who belong s in obc. Lewis Rice offered a similar view about the Khatri caste in various regions of India. Aggarwal Baniyas, a reputable vaishya caste of Hindus, also deny any link with them. In West Punjab , Pakistani society also has a number of castes. Bind are under the SC category of the central list. o the view popularized in colonial era , and a view espoused by the Marxist historians who seized the historical narrative since then, that conversions to Islam, and later to Christianity, happened because of the desire of the low caste Indian natives to escape discrimination is inter alia not fully informed by actual sociological evidence on the ground. Their houses are generally located on the outskirts of the villages. Bhatias claim origin from Bhati Rajputs who had taken to shopkeeping. In both India and Pakistan upper caste converts to Christianity generally preserve their caste names and identity. Jheer is essentially a service caste and not an atrisan caste like the others in the foregoing list . In certain cases they have separate pews in churches and different burial grounds then those of lower caste Christians. Join Yahoo Answers and get 100 points today. For some reason British army recruiters considered all of these mercantile castes unfit for military service. These decrees were Catholic in their origin but they also influenced Protestant churches many of which also actively supported enslavement of the darker races. Ramgarhia is also a prominent Sikh caste. The use of Singh in Hindus as a middle name or last name denotes automatically that they are from the Kshatriya varna and are of the Rajput sub-caste or are descended from them where intermarriages have happened with Jats and Gujjars etc..[citation needed] Original occupation of Kshatriyas and Rajputs was of being warriors and rulers, many families under different circumstances over the centuries intermarried or changed their profession to being farmers, carpenters etc. [7] The Rajputs started using Singh in preference to the classical epithet of "Varman". He won a Filmfare award for his first movie in the “Best Male Debut” category for the movie Band Bajaa Baraat. THE QUESTION IS NOT JUST INTERESTING BUT INTELLIGENT TOO .The facts are plenty and data is enormous but let's stick to the thrust of the question.May i also add that my views are based on practical situations prevailing in the current social setup around me and entirely observation based. The Word of all the Words is but One Word for one who knows this secret. Awans, Dogars, Jats , and Arains are ranked in middle , with a number of artisan and menial castes ranked gradually lower. In rural areas most of them are ordinary farmers and generally not as prosperous as Jats, Mahtons and Sainis etc. Saracens were the Muslims of the time but these bulls were extended by interpretation to include all the Black people or people of colour who were , through theological insinuations, labelled as descendants of the Biblical Cain. It did not liberate the convert, as had been his real intention, from a pejorative and socially degrading label. These Bhagats hailing from lower castes are also honored by Sikhs and their writings are also included in the Sikh scripture like those of Sikh Gurus. According to English observers of 19th century Punjabi social order, "they stand distinctly below the Khatri and perhaps below Arora, and are for most part engaged in petty shop-keeping, though the Bhatias of Dera Ismail Khan are described as belonging to a "widely spread and enterprising mercantile community.". ", "Need some advice or direction today? It it offensive to be interested in genealogy? If some Sikh does not believe in the equality of all castes and treats one caste or occupation superior or inferior to the other , it is his personal failing not that of the Sikhism. English writer Dr. Buchanan wrote that ' in Behar one-half of the Khatris are goldsmiths.' Guru Nanak's father Mahta Kalu was also a shopkeeper and he tried his best to make his son follow his caste profession of shopkeeping. Shivraj Singh Chouhan is a prominent Indian politician of the BJP from Madhya Pradesh. This convention is an extension of the Hindu Rajput or Kshatriya tradition into Sikhism in addition to some other aspects of Rajput martial culture like "Jhatka" , "Shastar Tilak" , etc which are preserved in the traditions of Nihang and Hazoori Sikhs to this day. Get answers by asking now. | Daily Hukam | Apps | Get Involved. is Urkel a German surname or is it a made up surname for a TV show? This issue whether Sikhism abolished all forms of caste or merely the inequality inherent in its corrupted form has been debated extensively in the past and is unlikely to have a clear resolution in near future . I hope i have been judicious in my interpretation and addressed your doubt in a reasonably comprehensible format. One thing we can be certain about is that Guru Gobind Singh had abolished all caste inequality with the inception of Khalsa on 13 April, 1699 and with the institution of Khanday-Ki-Pahul or the Baptism of Sword. Today's Message: For the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, & the strength of the Wolf is the Pack. In fact, the term Indian Christian became a byword for a low caste convert and ended up as just another stratified caste category with a different name. but retained Singh in their name denoting their ancestry and original family genealogy and caste. [9] In the Spring of 1699, on the day of Baisakhi, Guru Gobind Singh (originally named Guru Gobind Rai), made it mandatory for all Sikh males to append the name suffix Singh after their name. Here we have the required details for you Table of Contents1 … In India too low caste converts to Christianity failed to integrate themselves with their European or even upper caste convert counterparts. The ramifications of these Papal Bulls were felt until 1960s when many of the Americans Churches were still not fully desegregated and actively practiced discrimination against Christians of darker colour. The Word is the heroic bravery for the Kshatriya; the Word is the service to others for the Shudra. ||3||-Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Ang 1353. A clear sign of this state of affairs to have existed was the complete absence of historical Hindu temples in Punjab which were demolished during Mughal rule. In Sri Lanka, the term 'Sinha' (or Siha / Sinhe / Singhe / Singha / Singho) have commonly been used by the Sinhalese (or Sinhala ). Similarly, Kamboh lead in a number of villages near Sunam, Philaur , Kapurthala and Nakodar. In recent times Sardar Buta Singh has been a well-known Mazhbi Sikh politician. In fact the earliest Sikh soldiers were trained by Rajput military instructors only in the era of Guru Hargobind Rai, the Sixth Guru, as an act of gratitude for the latter having helped 52 Rajput princelings to secure their release from the prison of Gawalior where they were incarcerated with the Guru. These people cite the example from Gurus' own family as an example for this. Khatris and Aroras are equivalent of Baniyas found elsewhere in India. The glorious Sikh Regiment, the most decorated regiment of the Indian Army, consisted of these castes primarily, although Labanas and Kalals were also sometimes recruited. F or some academicians, Vishwanath Pratap Singh was a politician who ushered in India the silent revolution by empowering the underclass, especially the Other Backward Castes. Faithful Sikhs do not practice caste discrimination but this is not to say that all Sikhs necessarily act in accordance to their faith. Largely , this term was reserved for converts to Islam from occupational castes such as Darzi (tailors), Hajjam or Nai (barber), Julaha (Weaver) , etc although the upper caste Hindu converts were also subsumed in the same category. The Word is the heroic bravery for the Kshatriya; the Word is the service to others for the Shudra. Before the partition of Punjab, Khatris were largely concetrated in West Punjab where, according to English writer Barstow, they were employed in a rather humble way by Pathans as their accountants. For some inexplicable reason a low esteem continues to be attached to artisan trades requiring a high degree of skill and industry. Brahmin converts to Islam generally styled themselves as Shaikhs. Who Are The Sikhs? They say that since none of the Gurus or their family members married outside the Khatri, or the trading caste, it is a proof positive that the Gurus meant to abolish inequality inherent in caste system but not necessarily the caste itself. Assa singh talwandi president punjab all india vimukat jati sawak Sangh says. Still have questions? For others, this particular act of India’s 7 th prime minister was a “wretched display of cynicism” to provoke casteism.. Since all Sikh Gurus were from Khatri caste, some Khatris tend to claim superiority in Sikhdom on this basis but this perception of superiority is not acknowledged by Jat and other rural landowning castes like Mahton, Kamboh, etc who address Khatri as "Kirar" or "Bhapa", or sometimes even as a "Baniya", in rural areas where Khatri typically does not enjoy much influence beyond the portal of his grocery, cloth or trinket shop . ", Copyright © 2021 SikhNet, Inc., All Rights Reserved. Many of Gurus' close comrades like Chaupa Singh, Bhai Mati Das and Bhai Sati Das came from this caste. The Assam government and MP government categorise them as a schedule caste sub caste is jaliya. In simple words it also means that singh is a universal title (excusive to india ,of course! According to many Sikhs, each of these four entrances represents one of the four traditional varnas of Hindu society. [1] [2] [3] In the north, it may be also found in the Rajput caste. Sansis have been denotified since Indian independence and have been rehabilitated, at least in the government records. "Nirbhay Singh Gujjar"), and the non-Sikh Jats (e.g. It is impossible to ascertain which one or both of the views are actually true. Guru Gobind Singh ([gʊɾuː goːbɪn̯d̯ᵊ sɪ́ŋgᵊ]; 22 December 1666 – 7 October 1708), born Gobind Rai, was the tenth Sikh Guru, a spiritual master, warrior, poet and philosopher.When his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, was executed by Aurangzeb, Guru Gobind Singh was formally installed as the leader of the Sikhs at the age of nine, becoming the tenth and final human Sikh Guru. Khatris are a forward caste in Punjab but as we have seen that neither their social standing nor their occupations are uniform across the country. Singh is used as a middle name or as a surname (see naming patterns section) by approximately 10 million adherents of Sikhism.[10]. Consequently, the caste does exist in Sikhism , though in a diluted form than found in the rest of Indian society. I know that hindus with the last name singh were all eventually rajputs but i was just curious as to the caste that goes with the last name. But at the outset one thing can be confidently stated which is that there is no clearly defined caste hierarchy in Sikh society, leave alone a vertically ordered one.