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Caste system among South Asian Muslims

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Syedism, Ashrafism, Biradarism, Zatism, Sharifism, Arab Supremacy, and Divisions

Zat is sometimes considered a broader category than Biradari. In Pakistani Punjab, being relatives is the main criterion to comprise a Biradari. The highest to lowest ranking of Ashraf castes is the following: Syed, Gaur Muslims, and Mughals.

See also: List of Muslim Other Backward Classes communities in India

Ghaus Ansari (1960) named the following four broad categories of Muslim social divisions in India:

There is a hierarchy among Ashrafs that is determined by the degree of nearness to Muhammad and which country they originate from; accordingly, the Syeds (who trace descent from Fatima, Muhammad's daughter) have the highest status.

The non-Ashrafs are categorized as Ajlaf. The untouchable Hindu converts are also categorized as Arzal ("degraded"). They are relegated to menial professions such as scavenging and carrying night soil.

B.R. Ambedkar, citing the Superintendent of the Census for 1901 for the Province of Bengal, mentions that the Ajlaf primarily include:

  • Cultivating Sheikhs and others who were originally Hindus but who do not belong to any functional group and have not gained admittance to the Ashraf Community, e.g. Pirali and Thakrai.
  • Darzi, Jolaha, Fakir, and Rangrez.
  • Barhi, Bhalhiara, Chik, Churihar, Dai, Dhawa, Dhunia, Gaddi, Kalal, Kasai, Kula Kunjara, Laheri, Mahifarosh, Mallah, Naliya, Nikari.
  • Abdal, Bako, Bediya, Bhal, Chamba, Dafali, Dhobi, Hajjam, Mucho, Nagarchi, Nal, Panwaria, Madaria, Tunlia.

For the Arzal, the following cases are mentioned by the Superintendent of the Census: Bhanar, Halalkhor, Hijra, Kasbi, Lalbegi, Maugta, Mehtar.

In Pakistan, various social groups (called quoms) display a social stratification comparable to the Indian caste system. The various quoms differ widely in power, privilege, and wealth. Both ethnic affiliation (e.g. Pathan, Sindhi, Baloch, Punjabi, etc.) and membership of specific biraderis or zaat/quoms are additional integral components of social identity. Within the bounds of endogamy defined by the above parameters, close consanguineous unions are preferred due to a unity of key features of group- and individual-level background factors as well as affinities. McKim Marriott adds that a social stratification that is hierarchical, closed, endogamous, and hereditary is widely prevalent, particularly in western parts of Pakistan. The numerically and socially influential tribes in Pakistani Punjab includes the agricultural tribes of Awan, Jat Muslim and Gujjar as well as Rajput.

In Nepal, the castes of Muslims rank differs according to the criteria applied.

In India, the Ajlaf comprise Qureshis, Ansaris, Saifis, and other groups of lower occupation.

Most ulemas (theologians/doctors of the law) are part of the Syed, and many Ashrafs are businessmen, landowners, and traders.

A "marriage circle" can be formed over an area, where a zat panchayat (caste council) can have the authority and where marriage alliances occur.

A Syed's status is sometimes based more on male descendants and hypergamous marriage than bloodline purity.

The early Turks had subdivisions.

In the Rasum-i Hind, a textbook that was compiled by Master Pyare Lal in 1862, the four firqa (or subdivisions of the Ashraf) are explained, and nasl (lineage/pedigree) is elaborated:

  • The ancestors of the Mughal caste are said to be descended from the Biblical Noah.
  • The ancestors of the Pathans are said to be Israelites from when Solomon was alive.

In the ruling class of the Mughal Empire, Muslims were classified as native Hindustani, Afghan, Turani, and Irani.

Pakistani Punjab

Zamindars, Kammis, and the Seyp System

Zamindars, a landowning class, and Kammis, service-providing castes, are caste-based status groups and are found in a hierarchical system in Pakistani Punjabi villages. Kammi Quoms and Zamindar Quoms are rigid birth-based groups based on parentage occupations. In the Seyp System, contractual labour, the Kammis provide work and services and receive favours, food, money, crops, and grains. Zamindars are considered a dominant caste, and leaders in the village and people who dominate the town's affairs tend to be Zamindars. Social, political, and economic affairs of the city are dominated by Zamindar Quoms in Pakistan, and land is controlled by Zamindar Quoms, while Kammi Quoms are socially marginalized and discriminated. Inter-Quom endogamy is found between Kammi Quoms and Zamindar Quoms. Ancestral land ownership and a parentage job being cultivation are what Punjabi Pakistanis ascribe to the Zamindar status.

"Zamindars", in modern-day Pakistani Punjabi villages, typically refers to a Quom that owns the land and has an occupation of agriculture - Zamindari. Some castes are higher than the service-providing castes and below the landowning castes.

Caste endogamy is found in Pakistan, with members of a Quom tending to marry within the Quom. In the rural parts of Pakistani Punjab, the lack of marriages between Kammi and Zamindar Quoms is vital to the caste system. Kammis include artisan, labourer, and service providing Quoms (such as barbers, cobblers, and carpenters).

A Kammi woman remarked how:

Even if a Kammi acquires 100 acres of land, he remains Kammi, and Zamindars will always consider him lower. A Zamindar who owns one acre of land would think, "If a Kammi has bought 2 acres, so what? After all, he remains a Kammi". They do not accept us as equals.

Quoms are highly influential in marriage practices. However, different Zamindar Quoms sometimes intermarry, which may constitute a Biradari. A large majority of Kammis perform daily wage labour or low-ranking tasks.

A study in a Pakistani Punjabi village found that in the Seyp (contractual relationships) between a Zamindar (landholding) family and Kammi (artisan castes) families, Kammi families give goods and perform services to the Zamindars, which provide the Kammis with grain; the Kammi families also serve some customary and ritual tasks: for example, the barber cooks in the Zamindar's house on special events and performs circumcisions.

Elections

People also exhibit loyalty to their Quoms in elections. In Pakistani Punjab, Biradaris are the sole criteria in local bodies' elections. There are more Zamindars than Kammis in Pakistani Punjab. Including because of the high financial costs of running in an election, Kammis do not generally run in elections.

Bengal

Although class distinctions based on wealth and occupation exist, hereditary castes don't exist in mainstream Bangladeshis/Bengali Muslims, unlike Bangladeshi Hindus. There might be around 35 Muslim castes in West Bengal. Muslim society might have been historically divided into three large groupings in Bengal, with the Sharif/Ashraf at the top, followed by the Atraf (low-born), and with the Arzal or Ajlaf at the bottom.

Other Muslim castes historically did not associate with Arzal castes. Lower castes historically are not allowed to enter mosques or be buried in the public burial ground.

Sharifism

Sharifism refers to the special status given to claimants of prophetic nasab (also qarabah), which means "closeness", or being descended from Muhammad, Muhammad's Quraysh tribe, or Muhammad's family.

Discrimination

Representation

In 20th century India, the upper-class (Ashraf) Muslims dominated the government jobs and parliamentary representation. As a result, there have been campaigns to include lower social classes among the groups eligible for affirmative action in India under SC and STs provision act.

Burial

In India's Bihar state, Forward caste Muslims have opposed backward caste Muslims being buried in the same graveyard.

Cooking

A study in a Pakistani village found that a caste-like hierarchy exists in the Muslim community of the village. The sweeper group is ranked the lowest. The other Muslim communities do not allow the sweepers to touch the cooking vessels of the upper ranking groups of Muslims.

Racial and historical

Barani also explained at one point how Turkish sultans discriminated against Muslims of local descent. He explains how Iltutmish discriminated against low-birth Muslims by letting go of 33 of them from the government. Additionally, Iltutmish appointed Jamal Marzuq to the post of Mutassarif of Kanauj; Aziz Bahruz disagreed due to low birth status, which resulted in Marzuq no longer being the Mutassarif. Low-born people were not allowed to be in the mudabbiri or khwajgi post and could not be eligible for an iqta recommendation.

Balban prevented low-birth people from being in important offices, and he also criticized how Kamal Mohiyar was selected for mutassarif of Amroaha. A letter by Sayyid Ashraf Jahangiri explains how Balban thoroughly researched the ancestry of every single one of his government servants and officers; he had genealogists met in Delhi to ascertain these ancestries.

Tughlaq had a policy of giving "preference to foreign-born Muslims in administration and government" and "systematically ignored the claims of Indian Muslims". Sayyid Ashraf Jahangiri explains how:

The Sultan went to the extent of offering the most responsible and distinguished offices of the kingdom — for instance, those of a Wazir, a Dabir, a military commander, a judge, a professor of theology, or a Shaikhul-Islam — to almost any foreigner of some learning. Foreigners coming to India were collectively known as 'the Honourables' (A'izza)

Historians and Urdu writers (including Masood Alam Falahi) have explained how discrimination of Ashraf Muslims towards lower caste Muslims and Dalit Muslims was often disguised under claims of class and "khandaani" (family line) values among Uttar Pradesh Muslims.

See also

References

Citations

  1. Imtiaz Ahmed 1967, p. 887.
  2. Ambedkar, Bhimrao. Pakistan or the Partition of India. Thackers Publishers.
  3. Web resource for Pakistan or the Partition of India
  4. "Dereserve these myths - Indian Express". archive.indianexpress.com. Retrieved 2017-09-30.
  5. Falahi, Masood. "Caste and caste-based discrimination s Among Indian Muslims'" (PDF). SAS. Retrieved 5 January 2015.
  6. "410".
  7. Barth, Fredrik (1962). E. R. Leach (ed.). The System Of Social Stratification In Swat, North Pakistan (Aspects of Caste in South India, Ceylon, and North-West Pakistan). Cambridge University Press. p. 113. Archived from the original on 2012-04-06. Retrieved 2017-08-25.
  8. Fredrick Barth (December 1956). "Ecologic Relationships of Ethnic Groups in Swat, North Pakistan". American Anthropologist. 58 (6): 1079–1089. doi:10.1525/aa.1956.58.6.02a00080.
  9. Zeyauddin Ahmad 2011.
  10. McKim Marriott (1960). Caste ranking and community structure in five regions of India and Pakistan. Deccan College Postgraduate and Research Institute. OCLC 186146571.
  11. Mughees Ahmed (2009), "Local-bodies or local "biradari" system: An analysis of the role of burglaries in the local bodies system of Punjab" (PDF), Pakistan Journal of History and Culture, 30 (1): 81–92
  12. "Punjab Province, Pakistan". Encyclopædia Britannica. 483579. Retrieved 22 March 2022.h
  13. Nagendra Kr Singh, Abdul Mabud Khan (2001). Encyclopaedia of the World Muslims: Tribes, Castes and Communities, Volume 1. Global Vision Pub House. p. 1124. ISBN 9788187746072.
  14. Marmaduke William Pickthall, Muhammad Asad (1978). Islamic Culture - Volume 52. p. 207.
  15. ^ Remy Delage 2014.
  16. ^ Imtiaz Ahmed 1967, p. 889.
  17. ^ David Lelyveld 2005.
  18. ^ Ahmed Usman 2011, p. ii.
  19. ^ Ahmed Usman 2011, p. 5.
  20. Ahmed Usman 2011, p. 8.
  21. Ahmed Usman 2011, p. 4.
  22. Ahmed Usman 2011, p. 10.
  23. Ahmed Usman 2011, p. 6.
  24. Ahmed Usman 2011, p. 74.
  25. ^ Ahmed Usman 2011, p. 17.
  26. ^ Ahmed Usman 2011, p. 18.
  27. Ahmed Usman 2011, p. 136.
  28. ^ Ahmed Usman 2011, p. 139.
  29. Ahmed Usman 2011, p. 140.
  30. Julien Levesque 2020, p. 10.
  31. Ahmed Usman 2011, p. 160.
  32. Ahmed Usman 2011, p. 161.
  33. BANGLADESH SOCIETY: CLASSES, CASTES, NEIGHBORHOODS, MIDDLE CLASS AND BEGGARS
  34. ^ Chowdhury 2009, p. 8.
  35. ^ Chowdhury 2009, p. 10.
  36. Islamic and Comparative Religious Studies: Selected Writings. Ashgate Publisher, Ltd. 2010. p. 30.
  37. Asghar Ali Engineer. "On reservation for Muslims". The Milli Gazette. Pharos. Retrieved 2004-09-01.
  38. Anand Mohan Sahay. "Backward Muslims protest denial of burial". Rediff.com. Retrieved 2003-03-06.
  39. Ahmad, I., 2010. "Can There Be a Category Called Dalit Muslims?". Studies in Inequality and Social Justice, p.79
  40. Hastings Donnan (1988). Marriage Among Muslims: Preference and Choice in Northern Pakistan. BRILL. pp. 51–56. ISBN 978-90-04-08416-2.
  41. Umar, Sanober (14 February 2020). "The Identity of Language and the Language of Erasure: Urdu and the Racialized-Decastification of the "Backward Musalmaan" in India". Caste: A Global Journal on Social Exclusion. 1 (1). Brandeis University: 187. doi:10.26812/caste.v1i1.29.

Bibliography

Notes

A. This source gets the quotation from the following source: E A Gait, 'Census of India' 1901: Bengal Report 6 (1), Bengal Secretariat Press. 1902, p 439; the description in 'Imperial Gazetteer of India', v. 2, pp 329

Further reading

Segregation in countries by type (in some countries, categories overlap)
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Ethnic and racial
Gender
Dynamics
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Discrimination
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