Kachhi (caste)

The Kachhi are a Hindu caste of vegetable growers found in the regions of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh in India.

Myths of origin

The Kachhi caste form a part of a wider community that claims a common descent. This community, known as the Kushwaha. nowadays generally claim descent from Kusha, a son of the mythological Rama, who is considered to be an avatar of Vishnu. This enables their claim to be of the Suryavansh - or Solar - dynasty but it is a myth of origin developed in the twentieth century. Prior to that time, the various branches that form the Kushwaha community - the Mauryas, Kachhis, Kachwahas and Koeris - favoured a connection with Shiva and Shakta.[1] Ganga Prasad Gupta claimed in the 1920s that Kushwaha families worshiped Hanuman - described by Pinch as "the embodiment of true devotion to Ram and Sita" - during Kartika, a month in the Hindu lunar calendar.[2]

Present circumstances

In Uttar Pradesh, the vegetable-grower Kachhis traditionally cultivate on their comparatively smaller landholdings without aid of the animals.[3]

In 1991, they were designated an Other Backward Class in the Indian system of positive discrimination. This applied to the populations in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.[4]

References

  1. ↑ Pinch, William R. (1996). Peasants and monks in British India. University of California Press. pp. 12, 91–92. ISBN 978-0-520-20061-6. Retrieved 2012-02-22.
  2. ↑ Pinch, William R. (1996). Peasants and monks in British India. University of California Press. p. 98. ISBN 978-0-520-20061-6. Retrieved 2012-02-22.
  3. ↑ Singh, Charan (1964). India's Poverty and Its Solution. Asia Publishing House. p. 88. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
  4. ↑ Agrawal, S. P.; Aggarwal, J. C. (1991). Educational and Social Uplift of Backward Classes: At what Cost and How. Concept Publishing. ISBN 9788170223399. Retrieved 2014-03-07.

Further reading

  • Chaudhuri, B. B. (2008). Peasant History of Late Pre-colonial and Colonial India. Pearson Education India. pp. 467–468. ISBN 978-8-13171-688-5.
  • Richards, J. F. (1981). "The Indian Empire and Peasant Production of Opium in the Nineteenth Century". Modern Asian Studies. 15 (1): 59–82. doi:10.1017/s0026749x00006788. JSTOR 312105. (Subscription required (help)).
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