Bhar

The Bhar are a caste in India, sometimes referred to as a subcaste of boatmen.^[1] They are also known as Rajbhar.

History and origin

Bhar is a word derived from tribal languages, which means warrior. The tribal society of central India used to have its own hierarchy, with clans ranging from priestly class, warriors to service or menial class. The tribal society had special respect for its warriors and martial clans. Bhar is one such clan, which in the medieval period had its own small principalities in various parts of North India. The Bhar formed small kingdoms in the Eastern Uttar Pradesh region, until they were disposed by invading Rajput and Muslim groups in the later Middle Ages. The last Bhar raja was killed by Ibrahim Shah Sharqi, the Sultan of Jaunpur.

Influenced by the Arya Samaj movement, as were members of other lowly castes, Baijnath Prasad Adhyapak published Rajbhar Jati ka Itihas in 1940. This book attempted to prove that the Rajbhar were formerly rulers who were related to the ancient Bhar tribe.^[2]

Present

The Bhar are primarily a community of small cultivators who supplement their income by wage labour. Landholdings are small, and many Bhar work on fields owned land. The Bhar are a Hindu community, and have customs similar to other Hindu communities of the Awadh region. They speak Awadhi and Bhojpuri. The community are found in the districts of Azamgarh, Jaunpur, Ghazipur, Gonda, Gorakhpur, Mau, Varanasi, Ambedkar Nagar and Faizabad.

Communities that are related to the Bhar by occupation in Uttar Pradesh include the Batham, Bind, Dhimar, Dhinwar, Dhewar, Gariya, Gaur, Godia, Gond, Guria, Jhimar, Jhir, Jhinwar, Jhiwar, Kahar, Kashyap, Keot, Kewat, Kharwar, Khairwar, Kumhar, Machua, Majhi, Majhwar, Mallah, Nishad, Prajapati, Rajbhar, Riakwar, Tura, Turah, Turaha, Tureha and Turaiha. There were proposals in 2013 that some or all of these communities in the state should be reclassified as Scheduled Castes under India's system of positive discrimination; this would have involved declassifying them from the Other Backwards Class (OBC) category.^[1] Whether or not this would happen was a significant issue in the campaign for the 2014 Indian general election.^[3]

They are among 17 OBC communities that were again proposed for Scheduled Caste status by the Samajwadi Party-controlled Government of Uttar Pradesh. However, this proposal, which relates to votebank politics, has been stayed by the courts; the prior attempt had been rejected by the Government of India.^[4][5]

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