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Khatri
Khatri nobleman in Kitab-i Tasrih al-Aqvam by James Skinner (1778–1841)
Religions	Hinduism (majority), Sikhism
Languages	Major: Lahnda variety of Punjabi (Potohari, Hindko, Multani/Saraiki) Minor: Hindi, Gujarati, Dogri, Kangri, Sindhi, Pashto, Urdu, Kutchi
Country	India, Pakistan and Afghanistan
Region	Punjab, Sindh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh

Khatri is a caste originating from the Malwa and Majha areas of Punjab region of South Asia that is predominantly found in India, but also in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Khatris claim they are warriors who took to trade. In the Indian subcontinent, they were mostly engaged in mercantile professions such as banking and trade. They were the dominant commercial and financial administration class of late-medieval India. Some in Punjab often belonged to hereditary agriculturalist land-holding lineages, while others were engaged in artisanal occupations such as silk production and weaving.

Khatris of Punjab, specifically, were scribes and traders during the medieval period, with the Gurumukhi script used in writing the Punjabi language deriving from a standardised form of the Lāṇḍa script used by Khatri traders; the invention of the script is traditionally ascribed to Guru Angad. During the medieval period, with the rise of Persian as an elite vernacular due to Islamic rule, some of the traditional high status upper-caste literate elite such as the Khatris, Kashmiri Brahmins and Kayasthas took readily to learning Persian from the times of Sikandar Lodi onwards and found ready employment in the Imperial Services, specifically in the departments of accountancy (siyaq), draftsmanship (insha) and offices of the revenue minister (diwan).

In the 15th century, the Sikh religion was founded by Guru Nanak, a Bedi Khatri. The second guru, Guru Angad was a Trehan Khatri. The third guru, Guru Amar Das was a Bhalla Khatri. The fourth through tenth gurus were all Sodhi Khatris. 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. 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.

During the British colonial era, they also served as lawyers and engaged in administrative jobs in the colonial bureaucracy. Some of them served in the British Indian army after being raised as Sikhs.

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

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.

Etymology

The word khatri, in the Hindi Language, comes from the Sanskrit "kshatriya", according to the Śabdasāgara Lexicon by Shyamasundara Dasa. 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. This change is not only accepted in Prakrit, but in all Indian vernaculars derived by it, such as Gujarati, Urdu, Gurumukhi as well as Farsi or Persian. Certain Sanskrit words have very close counterparts, such as: kshetra (kheta), kshama (khama), laksha (lakha), and iksha (ikha). The substituition of ri (ऋ) from riya is also seen, in the context 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 Edalji.

As per historian W. H. McLeod and Louis Fenech, Khatri is a Punjabi form of the word Kshatriya. 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". Dr. Dharamvir Bharati comments that in Punjabi language, Kshatriya is pronounced as Khatri. As per Dr. GS Mansukhani and RC Dogra, "Khatri appears to be unquestionably a Prakritised form of Sanskrit word Kshatriya." 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".

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". 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.

Early history

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

Trans-regional trading history

The Khatris played an important role in India's trans-regional trade during the period, being described by Levi as among the "most important merchant communities of early modern India." 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". According to Kiran Datar, they often married Tatar local women in Astrakhan and the children from these marriages were known as Agrijan. As per Stephen Dale, the children born out of Indo-Turkic alliance were in sufficient number to form an Agrizhan suburb in the city.

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.

Sikh theology

According to Bichitra Natak, traditionally said to be the autobiography of the last Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh, but possibly not so, 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.

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

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

Khatri brahman sud vais updesu cahu varna ku sanjha

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

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 the 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.

— 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.

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). The Khatris spoke Hindko and Potohari language. Highest percentage concentration of Khatris (excluding Aroras) were in Potohar regions of Jhelum and Rawalpindi. In NWFP, the Khatris were found mainly in Peshawer and Hazara.

Arora-Khatris were centered in Multan and Derajat regions of Punjab and NWFP. 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. The Aroras spoke Jatki language which is the 9th century version of Saraiki (Multani) according to Ibbetson.

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."

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.

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.

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".

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'.

Bengal

In Bengal, Burdwan Raj (1657–1955) was a Khatri dynasty, which gained a high social position for Khatris in the region resulting in greater migration of Khatris from North to Bengal. 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.

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. 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.

According to a 17th-century legend, Khatris 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. 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.

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

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.

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.

The Gujarat Sultanate (1407–1523) was a medieval Muslim dynasty founded by Zafar Khan Muzaffar, a member of the Tank caste of Punjabi Khatris according to the contemporary historian Shiekh Sikander or Rajputs. 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.

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."

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. 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. In the Sikh Empire, Hari Singh Nalwa (1791–1837) an Uppal Khatri from Gujranwala, became the Commander-in-chief of the Sikh Khalsa Army. 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.

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 Other Khatris like Diwan Sawan Mal Chopra served as governors of Lahore and Multan, after helping conquer the region 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.

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.

In the 1830s, Khatris were working as governors in the districts like Bardhaman, Lahore, Multan, Peshawar and Hazara, but independent from the Mughal rule.

British Colonial Era

Punjab

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

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. 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.

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. In Dhamadka, Kutch, "block printing cloth" was the traditional occupation of the Khatri men since the seventeenth century.

Rajasthan

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

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. 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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh

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

Maharashtra

Anthropologist Karve, based on the post-Independence research of castes by a in Konkan, Maharashtra, classified Marathi Khatris 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. Khatris in modern Maharashtra are divided into endogamous subgroups, such as the Brahmo Khatris and Kapur Khatris.

Varna status

This section's factual accuracy is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help to ensure that disputed statements are reliably sourced. (May 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

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 they made a claimed a Kshatriya status but later in 1931 they claimed a Vaishya status.

However, most scholars do not agree with the Khatris' claims to Kshatriya varna. They consider castes in north India, like Khatri and Kayastha to be merchant castes who claim higher status based on the educational and economic progress they made in the past.

According to 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. According to Yang, their position in the Varna system should be "just below" the twice-born varnas. Jacob Copeman writes "Agarwal, Khatri, and Bania usually denote people of merchant-trader background of middling clean-caste status, often of Vaishya varna".

While some historians agree with the claim of Khatris to be of Kshatriya varna, many others do not. According to some historians, even though they participated in mercantile or other occupationally diverse professions such as Agriculture, they were originally Kshatriyas. 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".

The Saraswat Brahmins are the purohits of Khatris and accept gifts only from them. Jürgen Schaflechner cites the historian Rowe who states that such Saraswat Brahmins who were considered a low caste, formed a symbiotic relationship with Vaishya castes such as Khatris, Lohanas, etc. who were trying to raise their varna status - which in turn would benefit the Saraswats as well. For this purpose, certain religious texts were written during the British Raj era

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 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’. 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". 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.

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 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.

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.

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:

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

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

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.

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.

Religious groups

Hindu Khatris

The vast majority of Khatris are Hindu. 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. Hindu-Sikh intermarriages among Khatris and Aroras were common in the cities of Peshawar and Rawalpindi. 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. They are both vegetarian and non-vegetarian depending on their affiliations with the sects of Vaishnavism and Shaktism respectively. Sects of Arya Samaj, Nirankari and Radhasoami are also followed.

Sikh Khatris

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

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" According to Birinder Pal Singh, Jat Sikhs consider only themselves as Sikhs and consider Khatris as "bhapas". 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.

Muslim Khatris

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

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)

Related communities

Arora

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

Lohana, Bhatia, and Bhanushali

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

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.

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. Most Gaddis of Himachal Pradesh call themselves Khatris. 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.

See also

• List of Khatris
• Roman Catholic Kshatriyas
• Caste system

References

1. Khatris claimed to live near the Bombay island from at least the mid-1800s and would speak Marathi.

1. ^ 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.
2. ^ Levi, Scott Cameron (2002). The Indian Diaspora in Central Asia and its Trade 1550-1900. Brill. p. 107. ISBN 978-90-04-12320-5.
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5. Fenech, Louis E.; McLeod, W. H. (11 June 2014). Historical Dictionary of Sikhism. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-3601-1.
6. K.S. Singh (1998). People of India: A–G. Vol. 4. Oxford University. Press. p. 3285. ISBN 978-0-19563-354-2.
7. 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.
8. A. H. Advani (1995). The India Magazine of Her People and Culture. Vol. 16. the University of Michigan. pp. 56–58.
9. 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.
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. ^ 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.....
13. Sarkar, Natasha (19 April 2024), "Glossary", The Last Great Plague of Colonial India (1 ed.), Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 219–222, doi:10.1093/9780191986406.003.0012, ISBN 978-0-19-198640-6, Khatri: A predominantly merchant and trading community that originated from the Malwa and Majha areas in the Punjab
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15. ^ 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.
16. ^ 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 ...
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20. 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
21. John Gillow; Nicholas Barnard (2008). Indian Textiles. Thames & Hudson. p. 222. ISBN 978-0-500-51432-0. KHATRI A caste of professional dyers
22. 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.
23. 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.
24. McLeod, W. H. (24 July 2009). The A to Z of Sikhism. Scarecrow Press. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-8108-6344-6.
25. King, Christopher Rolland (1999). One Language, Two Scripts: The Hindi Movement in Nineteenth Century North India. Oxford University Press. p. 10. ISBN 978-0-19-565112-6. Three Hindu communities had particularly strong ties with Persian and Urdu, namely the Kayasths, Kashmiri Brahmins and Khatris. Two of the three - Kayasths and Khatris could claim a high status among their fellow Hindus, while the third, Kashmiri Brahmins - ranked among the highest of the Brahmin castes.
26. ^ 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.
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31. 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.
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33. ^ Bessel, Richard; B. Haake, Claudia (2009). Removing Peoples: Forced Removal in the Modern World. Oxford University Press. p. 324. ISBN 978-0199561957.
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36. ^ Bansal, Bobby Singh (2015). Remnants of the Sikh Empire: Historical Sikh Monuments in India & Pakistan. Hay House, Inc.
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39. ^ Fenech, Louis E.; McLeod, W. H. (11 June 2014). Historical Dictionary of Sikhism. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-3601-1.
40. 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
41. Hardy; Hardy, Thomas (7 December 1972). The Muslims of British India. CUP Archive. p. 279. ISBN 978-0-521-09783-3.
42. Dalit Chintan ka Vikas Abhishapt Chintan se Itihas (in Hindi). Vani Prakashan. p. 243.
43. Dogra, R. C.; Mansukhani, Gobind Singh (1995). Encyclopaedia of Sikh Religion and Culture. Vikas Publishing House. p. 264. ISBN 978-0-7069-8368-5.
44. Turner, Ralph Lilley (1985). A Comparative Dictionary of the Indo-Aryan Languages. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. p. 189.
45. 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
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47. 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."
48. 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.
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50. Oonk, Gijsbert (2007). Global Indian diasporas. Amsterdam University Press. p. 43. ISBN 978-90-5356-035-8.
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55. 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: The bannians, the cheif 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 the Bazar. Later in the century Chardin criticized Indians for their moneylending and wrote stereotyped characterization of the Khatris that reminds readers of European Christian portrayals of Jews, ironic considering Chardin was a Huguenot who had taken refuge in England. He pictured the Khatris as a nefarious class of usurious moneylenders who drained Iran of its precious metals by repatriating their ill-gotten gains to India. His was an ethnic explanation for a fundamental economic imbalance between the two regions.
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94. 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.
95. 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
96. 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.
97. John R. McLane (1993). Land and Local Kingship in Eighteenth-Century Bengal. Cambridge University Press. p. 132.
98. 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)
99. Burjor Avari (2013). Islamic Civilization in South Asia:A History of Muslim Power and Presence in the Indian Subcontinent. Routledge. p. 142. ISBN 9780415580618. Anyone who wished to enter the large Mughal bureaucracy as an accountant or a scribe had to be well qualified in Persian, since all papers and imperial orders (firmans) were written in that language. The elders of the Hindu castes such as Kayasths and Khatris, who were professional scribes, encouraged their children to learn Persian; and Hindu writers in Persian increased greatly in numbers through the eighteenth century.
100. Hendrik Spruyt (2020). The World Imagined: Collective Beliefs and Political Order in the Sinocentric, Islamic and Southeast Asian International Societies. Cambridge University Press. p. 200. ISBN 978-1108811743. Kayastha and Khatri caste members acted as scribes (monshi) throughout the Mughal dynasty, and in so doing occupied positions in revenue collection, and record keeping
101. Prashant Keshavmurthy (2020). "The limits of Islamic civility in India". In Milad Milani; Vassilios Adrahtas (eds.). Islam, Civility and Political Culture. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 121. ISBN 9783030567613. Writing in the 1760s in the Deccan districts of the Mughal empire, he was witness to the rise there of the Brahmin Peshwas who took over the Mughal Bureaucracy and promoted Marathi in place of Persian, displacing the North Indian Persian-literate Hindu scribes of the Kāyastha and Khatri castes.
102. 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.
103. ^ McLane, John R. (2002). Land and Local Kingship in Eighteenth-Century Bengal. Cambridge University Press. pp. 132–133. ISBN 978-0-521-52654-8.
104. ^ 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.
105. 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.
106. 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.
107. 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
108. 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.
109. Subrahmanyam, Sanjay (2024). Across the Green Sea: Histories from the Western Indian Ocean, 1440-1640. University of Texas Press. p. 60. ISBN 978-1-4773-2879-8. The latter sultanate was founded by a former Tughluq governor, perhaps from a family of Punjabi Khatri converts, who took the title Muzaffar Shah in the early fifteenth century but reigned for only a short time.
     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.
     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. the Gujarati historian Sikandar does narrate the story of their ancestors having once been Hindu 'Tanks', a branch of Khatris.
110. Kapadia, Aparna (2018). In Praise of Kings Rajputs, Sultans and Poets in Fifteenth-century Gujarat. Cambridge University Press. p. 8. ISBN 9781107153318. These men, a certain Saharan and his brother Sadhu, were, mostly likely peasants or pastoralists, non-Muslim Tank Rajputs from Thanesar in northwestern India (modern-day Haryana).
     Mahajan, VD (2007). History of Medieval India. S. Chand. p. 245. ISBN 9788121903646. Zafar Khan, a son of Rajput convert to Islam was appointed as governor of Gujarat in 1391AD.
111. 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..
112. 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. 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.
113. 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.
114. 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.
115. 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.
116. Naīara, Gurabacana Siṅgha (1995). The Campaigns of General Hari Singh Nalwa. Punjabi University. ISBN 978-81-7380-141-9.
117. Kapūra, Prithīpāla Siṅgha (1993). Perspectives on Hari Singh Nalwa. ABS Publications. ISBN 978-81-7072-056-0.
118. 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
119. Hernon, Ian (2002). Britain's Forgotten Wars. Sutton Publishing
120. 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.
121. Nirad Baran, Sarkar (1999). Bardhaman Raj. Sujata Sarkar. p. 210.
122. Hans, Herrli (2004). The Coins of the Sikhs. Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal. pp. 122–123. ISBN 8121511321.
123. Patel, Alka; Leonard, Karen (7 December 2011). Indo-Muslim Cultures in Transition. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-21887-1.
124. Leonard, Karen Isaksen (1994). Social History of an Indian Caste: The Kayasths of Hyderabad. Orient BlackSwan. ISBN 978-81-250-0032-7.
125. Bawa, Basant K. (1992). The Last Nizam: The Life and Times of Mir Osman Ali Khan. Viking. ISBN 978-0-670-83997-1.
126. 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)
127. 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)
128. 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.
129. 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 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'
130. 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.
131. 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
132. Tirthankar Roy (10 September 2020). The Economic History of India, 1857–2010. Oxford University Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-0-19-099203-3.
133. 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.
134. Tandon, Prakash (1968). Punjabi Century, 1857-1947. University of California Press. p. 136. ISBN 978-0-520-01253-0.
135. 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.
136. 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.
137. ^ 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.
138. 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.
139. 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...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
140. 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 periodSociologically 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.
141. 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.
142. Lawrence, Sir Walter Roper (1895). The Valley of Kashmir (PDF). pp. 296–302.
143. Sheikh, Tariq (January 2019). "Cradle of Castes in Kashmir (From Medieval Period to Present Day)". ResearchGate. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
144. 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.
145. ^ 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.
146. 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) ...
147. 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.
148. Mysore Narasimhachar Srinivas (1967). Social Change in Modern India. University of California Press-Berkeley and Los Angeles. p. 97.
149. 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.
150. 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.
151. ^ 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
152. 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.
153. Lorenzen, David N. (2005). Religious Movements in South Asia 600-1800. Oxford University Press. p. 321. ISBN 978-0-19-567876-5.
154. ^ Mooney, Nicola (17 September 2011). Rural Nostalgias and Transnational Dreams: Identity and Modernity Among Jat Sikhs. University of Toronto Press. pp. 152–153. ISBN 978-1-4426-6268-1.
155. Clarke, Peter B.; Beyer, Peter (7 May 2009). The World's Religions: Continuities and Transformations. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-21099-1.
156. 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.
157. 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.
158. Rai, Rajesh; Sankaran, Chitra (5 July 2017). Religion and Identity in the South Asian Diaspora. Routledge. p. 104. ISBN 978-1-351-55159-5.
159. 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.
160. Singh, Nikky-Guninder Kaur (2004). Sikhism. Infobase Publishing. p. 22. ISBN 978-1-4381-1779-9.
161. 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.
162. ^ 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 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
163. ^ 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
164. ^ 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.
165. Farhadian, Charles E. (9 June 2015). Introducing World Religions: A Christian Engagement. Baker Academic. ISBN 978-1-4412-4650-9.
166. 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.
167. Pechilis, Karen; Singh, Pashaura; Raj, Selva J. (2013). South Asian Religions: Tradition and Today. Routledge. p. 239. ISBN 978-0-415-44851-2.
168. 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.
169. 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.
170. Jürgen Schaflechner (2018). Hinglaj Devi: Identity, Change, and Solidification at a Hindu Temple in Pakistan. Oxford University Press. pp. 59–60. ISBN 978-0-19-085052-4.
171. 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.
172. ^ 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.
173. 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.
174. Singh, K.S (1998). India's Communities A-G. OUP India. p. 1728. ISBN 978-0195633542.
175. Malik, Ashok (2010). "Caste Census". India International Centre Quarterly. 37 (1): 142–147. ISSN 0376-9771. JSTOR 23006464.
176. 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.
177. Singh, Manpreet J. (31 August 2020). The Sikh Next Door: An Identity in Transition. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-93-89165-58-6.
178. 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.
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External links

• Media related to Khatri at Wikimedia Commons

• Punjabi tribes
• Indian castes
• Merchant castes
• Sikh communities
• Social groups of Punjab, India
• Social groups of Punjab, Pakistan
• Social groups of Rajasthan
• Sindhi tribes