Purbia 'Menials' in Punjab, 1883

Select Language Afrikaans Albanian Arabic Armenian Azerbaijani Basque Belarusian Bulgarian Bengali Catalan Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) Croatian Czech Danish Dutch English Estonian Filipino Finnish French Galician Georgian German Greek Gujarati Haitian Creole Hebrew Hindi Hungarian Icelandic Indonesian Irish Italian Japanese Javanese Kannada Khmer Korean Latvian Lithuanian Macedonian Malay Maltese Marathi Nepali Norwegian Persian Polish Portuguese Punjabi Romanian Russian Serbian Slovak Slovenian Spanish Swahili Swedish Tamil Telugu Thai Turkish Ukrainian Urdu Vietnamese Welsh Yiddish

This article is an extract from PANJAB CASTES SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. Being a reprint of the chapter on The Races, Castes and Tribes of the People in the Report on the Census of the Panjab published in 1883 by the late Sir Denzil Ibbetson, KCSI Lahore: Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1916. Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this article. Secondly, this has been scanned from a book. You can help by sending the corrected version to the Facebook page, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be duly acknowledged.

The Purbia Menials

The group for which the figures are given in Abstract No. 107 on the opposite page have little in common in their place of origin, but much as they exist in the Panjab. They are all immigrants from the North- West Provinces, who have for the most part come into the Panjab with our troops. Some of them belong to castes which are properly agricul tural ; but these men have as a rule settled down to menial occupations or taken to service, and they are almost confined to the Panjab cantonments. They are almost all Hindus. They will not need any leng-thy description, for they are essentially foreigners in the Panjab.

The Kori

(Caste No. 99)

is a great tribe of Chamars whose head-quarters are in Oudh and the neighbouring country ; and it is probably identical with the Koli of the eastern districts of the plains who have already been described. The Kori Chauiar seldom works in leather, rather confining lumself to weaving and general labour. In the Panjab cantonments the latter is his occupation. lie is a coolie and grass-cutter, and not unrrequently takes service in the latter capacity or as a groom.

The Kurmi

(Caste No. 119)

or Kumbhi is a great caste of cultivators very widely distributed over the eastern parts of Hindustan and the Deccan. A good caste is the Kunbin.Wit h oe in hand she weeds the field together with her husband.But in the cantonments of the Panjab they are generally occupied, like other Purbis, in cutting* grass, weaving and serving as grooms ; and they are even said to keep pigs. They are of course a very low caste ; lower far in social standing than our indigenous agricultural castes.

The Jaiswara

(Caste No. 127)

Many of the north-western castes Include a tribe of this name ; more especially the menial and outcast classes, though there are also Jaiswura Rajputs and Ranyas. The name is supposed to be derived from Jais, a large manufacturing- town in Oudh. But the Jaiswaras of the Panjab cantonments probably lielong to the Chamar tribe of that name. They are generally found in attendance upon horses,, and a considerable pro portion of our grooms and grass-cutters are Jaiswaras. They also frequently take service as bearers.

The Pasi

(Caste No. 156)

This caste is closely allied with the Khatiks, who indeed are said by some to be nothing more than a Pasi tribe. They are said to be the professional watchman and thief of the North-West Pro vinces, which is not the only part of India where the two occupations go together. It is said that their name is derived from pasa, a noose ; and that their original occupation is that of climbing the toddy palm by means of a noose and making toddy. They are a very low caste, and great keepers of pigs ; and in the cantonments of the Province they are often employed in collecting and selling cowdung as fuel.

The Purbi

(Caste No. 146) This word means nothing more than an east country mans from pur ah, the east, and is used generically in the Panjab for all the menial immigrants from the North-West Provinces who compose the group now under discussion.