Rajputisation

Modern historians agree that Rajputs consisted of a mix of various different social groups and different varnas including Shudras and tribals. Rajputisation (or Rajputization) explains the process by which such diverse communities coalesced into the Rajput community.

Formation

According to modern scholars, almost all Rajputs clans originated from peasant or pastoral communities. Rajputisation is the study of formation of the community over the centuries.

Sivaji Koyal suggests that Rajputisation boosted Brahmanism^:538 and defines it as follows,

It is the means whereby a tribal chief establishes the pretensions to being a kshatriya, and surrounds himself with the paraphernalia of Brahmanism for the purpose of securing prestige.^:537

Sociologists like Sarah Farris and Reinhard Bendix state that the original Kshatriyas in the northwest who existed until Mauryan times in tiny kingdoms were an extremely cultured, educated and intellectual group who were a challenge to monopoly of the Brahmins. According to Max Weber, ancient texts show they were not subordinate to the Brahmins in religious matters. These old Kshatriyas were undermined not only by the Brahmin priests of the time but were replaced by the rise of the new community of illiterate mercenaries in the north-west – the Rajputs. Since the Rajputs were generally illiterate unlike the Kshatriyas, their rise did not present a challenge to monopoly of the Brahmins.

Anyone from the “village landlord” to the “newly wealthy lower caste Shudra” could employ Brahmins to retrospectively fabricate a genealogy and within a couple of generations they would gain acceptance as Hindu Rajputs. This process would get mirrored by communities in north India. Scholars refer to this as “Rajputisation” and consider it similar to Sanskritisation. This process of generation of the Rajput community resulted in hypergamy as well as female infanticide that was common in Hindu Rajput clans. German historian Hermann Kulke has coined the term “Secondary Rajputisation” for describing the process of members of a tribe trying to re-associate themselves with their former tribal chiefs who had already transformed themselves into Rajputs via Rajputisation and thus claim to be Rajputs themselves.

Stewart N. Gordon states that during the era of the Mughal empire, “Hypergamous marriage” with the combination of service in the state army was another way a tribal family could convert to Rajput. This process required a change in tradition, dressing, ending widow remarriage, etc. Such marriage of a tribal family with an acknowledged but possibly poor Rajput family would ultimately enable the non-Rajput family to become Rajput. This marriage pattern also supports the fact that Rajput was an “open caste category” available to those who served in the state army and could translate this service into grants and power at the local level.

Scholars also give some examples of entire communities of Shudra origin “becoming” Rajput even as late as the 20th century. William Rowe, in his “The new Chauhans : A caste mobility movement in North India”, discusses an example of a large section of a Shudra caste – the Noniyas – from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar that had “become” Chauhan Rajputs over three generations in the Raj era. The more wealthy or advanced Noniyas started by forming the Sri Rajput Pacharni Sabha (Rajput Advancement Society) in 1898 and emulating the Rajput lifestyle. They also started wearing of Sacred thread. Rowe states that at a historic meeting of the caste in 1936, every child this Noniya section knew about their Rajput heritage.

A caste of shepherds who were formerly Shudras successfully changed their status to Rajput in the Raj era and started wearing the Saced thread. They are now known as Sagar Rajputs.(not to be confused with Sagar Rajputs of Bundelkhand which was a subclan of Bundela Rajputs and are considered to be the highest among all central India Rajputs).

Researchers give examples of the Rajputs of both division of present day Uttarakhand–Garhwal and Kumaon and show how they were formally Shudra but had successfully converted to Rajput at different times. These Rajputs of Kumaon had successfully attained Rajput identity during the reign of Chand Rajas, which ended in 1790. Similarly, these Rajputs of Garhwal were shown by Berreman to have a ritually low status until as late as the 20th century.

The terminology “Rajput” as of now doesn’t represent a hereditary status but it is a term commonly applied to all those people who fought on the horseback and were associated with paid military service. The Rajputs of Rajasthan have often refused to acknowledge the warriors from the eastern part of the country as the Rajputs. These western Rajputs restricted their social contact with the people of variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, who claimed Rajput status by following intermarriages between themselves and preserving their “purity of blood”.Hence many Rajputs of Rajasthan are nostalgic about their past and keenly conscious of their genealogy, emphasising a Rajput ethos that is martial in spirit, with a fierce pride in lineage and tradition.

Kolff thus describes the Rajputs of Bihar, Awadh and Varanasi with the terminology “Pseudo Rajput“.These Pseudo Rajputs or the eastern Rajput often accompanied the Rajput of Rajasthan in their battles with the hordes of their supporters.They led the band of warriors called Purbiyas in order to assist their western counterparts but were notorious for frequently changing their allegiance as Silhadi did in the Battle against Babur, when he deserted Rana Sanga in the Battle of Khanwa leading to defeat of Rajput contingents and consolidation of Mughal empire in India.

Steps in Rajputisation process

In general, the process of Rajputisation was done not just by a tribal chief but by “castes all over north India ranging from peasants and lower-caste Sudras”, as well as warriors and even the “local raja who had recently converted to Islam”.

Sivaji Koyal has explained the Rajputisation of a tribal chief by dividing it in 7 successional steps.

Rajputisation used to begin with an invitation by a “budding tribal Raja” to the Brahmins in order to seek their assistance in the establishment of a court for him, for which the Brahmins would receive “land and gifts”. Later, the Brahmins would “somehow” discover that the tribal head is a Rajput and “his lineage was traced back to some important kshatriya dynasty of the past”. After his proclamation as a Rajput, he would distance himself from the members of his tribe as they were supposedly of different bloodlines. Following that, he would raise his stature by hiring Brahmins as priests who used to appeal for the construction of temples in the honor of their gods.

In the next step, after amassing political and economic power, the Raja would establish “marriage alliances” with other Rajputs to infuse “Rajput blood into his family”. This was followed by the springing up of sub–chiefs who used to follow suit of the “behavioral pattern of their king–master”. The final step involved the inter–marriage between the nobles and the “lesser sons and daughters” of the Raja.^:538

Sivaji Koyal is of the opinion that by the process of Rajputisation, the Huns were the first to receive proclamation as kshatriyas in India who were later on followed by Rajputana’s Scythians, Gurjaras, and Maitrakas.^:537 Rajputisation of ruling group of a tribe who had formerly disassociated with the tribe and become Rajput was followed by a process called “Secondary Rajputisation” where the former members of the tribe would try to re-associate with their former chief and this claim to be Rajputs themselves. Rajputisation is said to have no parallel in traditional Indian society for “inventiveness in ideologies of legitimation”.

Differences between Sanskritisation and Rajputisation

Differences between Sanskritisation and Rajputisation

Criteria	Sanskritisation	Rajputisation
End result on success	Become Upper caste(twice-born)	Become Rajput
Religious code	Belief in Karma, Dharma, rebirth, moksha	Worship of Shiva and Shakti Priestly supervision of rites of passage
Diet	Prohibition of beef and Teetotalism	Meat eating Imbibing alcohol and opium
Dressing code	–	Wearing of sword for men Wearing of purdah (or veil) for women
Social interaction	Claiming cultural vocation Patronisation from dominant political power Prohibition of widow remarriage	Right to all political occupations Aggrandize lands Adoption of code of violence Compilation of clan genealogies

Rajputisation of Adivasi people

Bhangya Bhukya notes that during the final years of the British Raj, while education introduced Westernisation in the hilly areas of central India, the regions also parallelly underwent the Hinduisation and Rajputisation processes. The Gond people and their chiefs started doing the “caste–Hindu practices” and frequently claimed the “Rajput, and thus kshatriya status”. The British empire used to support these claims as they viewed the adivasisociety to be less civilized than the caste society and believed that adivasi peoples’ association with the castes would make the adivasis “more civilized and sober” and “easier for the colonial state to control”. Bhukya also points out that central India’s “Raj Gond families” had already adopted the religious and social traditions of the Rajputs before the British Raj in India, and there were “matrimonial relations” between a number of Gond and Rajput Rajas. However, the British empire’s policies of offering “zamindari rights, village headships and patelships” fueled the process.

According to Patit Paban Mishra, “the ‘ksatriyaisation’ of tribal rulers and their surroundings, resulted in the Hinduisation of tribal areas”.

Rajputisation of Bundelas

The Bundela is a Rajput clan of central India which ruled several small states in the Bundelkhand region from the 16th century. The Rajputs of Rajasthan eventually refused to acknowledge the Rajput identity claimed by their eastern counterparts, such as the Bundelas.

Rajputisation of Darogas

The Darogas formed a community and started calling themselves Ravana Rajputs in order to Rajputize. They are a group within the Rajput caste who are believed to be the progeny of Rajput kings with their concubines and were most often called as Daroga. Lindsey Harlan gives an example of how children born from Rajput men and Gujjar women would not become Rajputs and would become Darogas.

Rajputisation of Jadejas

According to the sociologist Lyla Mehta, the Jadeja were Hindu descendents of a Muslim tribe that had migrated from Sindh to Kutch. They originated from pastoral communities and laid a claim on the Rajput identity after marriages with Sodha Rajput women.

Gujarat’s Jadeja Rajputs were called “half-Muslim” and they employed Muslim African Siddi slaves for cooking.

Rajputisation of Jats

The Sikh adoption of the Rajput surnames Singh and Kanwar/Kaur was an attempt by the Sikhs to Rajputise their identity, this form of Rajputisation was more specifically done for the Jat Sikhs who were considered to be of low origin amongst the Sikhs. The Phulkian Jats, who originally gained power by helping the Mughal Emperor Babur enter India, continued to Rajputise their identity till the 20th century by remotely claiming descent from the Bhati Rajputs of Jaisalmer. Similarly the Jats of Bharatpur and Dholpur also tried to Rajputise their origin. Bharatpur reportedly lost its Rajput status when their ancestor Balchand was unable to have children with his Rajput wife and had sons with a Jat woman.

Rajputisation of Shivaji and Marathas

At the time of coronation of Shivaji, Bhonsles claimed their origin from Suryavanshi Sisodia Rajput. Allison Busch, Professor at the Columbia University states that Shivaji was not a Kshatriya as required and hence had to postpone the coronation until 1674 and hired Gaga Bhatt to trace his ancestry back to the Sisodias. While the preparations for the coronations were in process, Bhushan, a poet, wrote a poem about this genealogy claimed by Bhatt in “Shivrajbhushan”. Using this example, Busch shows how even poetry was an “important instrument of statecraft” at the time.

Scholars suggest that Pandit Gaga Bhatt was secured in charge of authoritatively declaring him a Kshatriya as Bhonsales being Marathas did not belong to Kshatriya nor any other upper caste but were mere tillers of soil as Shivaji’s great-grandfather was remembered to have been. Bhatt was made compliant, and he accepted the Bhonsle pedigree as fabricated by the clever secretary Balaji Avji, and declared that Rajah was a Kshatriya, descended from the Maharanas of Udaipur. Bhatt was rewarded for the bogus genealogy with a huge fee.

Research by modern anthropologists and historians has shown that the Maratha caste originated from the amalgamation of families from the peasant communities that belonged to the Shudra Varna. However, after gaining political prominence with Shivaji’s rise to power, this caste started claiming Kshatriya descent and genealogies were fabricated including those for Shivaji. Thus, the “96 clans”(Kuls)(96 Kuli Marathasor Shahānnau Kule) genealogies were concocted most likely after Shivaji came to power. Gordon explains that there are three such lists for the 96 clans compiled in the 19th century and they are “impossible to reconcile” due to this nature of origin of the caste. Jaffrelot writes that this process where Shudras pretend to be Kshatriyas and follow their customs is called “Kshatriyatization” and is a variation of Sanskritization.

Modern scholars such as M. S. A. Rao and Francine Frankel also agree that the Varna of Marathas remained Shudra, an indication being: “the maratha practice of hypergamy which permitted inter-marriage with rising peasant kunbi lineages, and created a hierarchy of maratha kuls, whose boundaries were flexible enough to incorporate, by the twentieth century, most of the kunbi population”.

Modern research has revealed that the Marathas and Kunbi have the same origin. Most recently, the Kunbi origin of the Maratha has been explained in detail by historians Richard Eaton and Stewart Gordon. Marathas (“Assal” or true i.e. belonging to 96 clans), who were distinguished from the Kunbi, in the past claimed genealogical connections with Rajputs of northern India. However, modern researchers demonstrate, giving examples, that these claims are not factual. Modern scholars agree that Marathas and Kunbi are the same. Anthropologist J. V. Ferreira writes: “The Maratha claim to belong to the ancient 96 Kshatriya families has no foundation in fact and may have been adopted after the Marathas became with Shivaji a power to be reckoned with”. Gordon writes how the Maratha caste was generated from the Kunbis who served the Muslim rulers, prospered, and over time adopted different customs like different dressing styles, employed genealogists, started identifying as Maratha, and caste boundaries solidified between them. In the nineteenth century, economic prosperity rather than martial service to the Muslims replaced the mobility into Maratha identity. Eaton gives an example of the Holkar family that originally belonged to the Dhangar (shepherd) caste but was given a Maratha or even an “arch-Maratha” identity. The other example, given by Susan Bayly, is of the Bhonsles who originated among Maratha and Kunbi populations of the Deccani tiller-plainsmen. Similarly, scholars write that the Shinde (also known as Scindia) Maratha clan originated from the Kunbi caste and the Scindia’s founder was a servant of the Peshwa who would carry his slippers.Dhanmanjiri Sathe states that “The line between Marathas and Kunbis is thin and sometimes difficult to ascertain”. Iravati Karve, an anthropologist, showed how the Maratha caste was generated from Kunbis who simply started calling themselves “Maratha”. She states that Maratha, Kunbi and Mali are the three main farming communities of Maharashtra – the difference being that the Marathas and Kunbis were “dry farmers” whereas the Mali farmed throughout the year. Cynthia Talbot quotes a saying in Maharashtra, “when a Kunbi prospers he becomes Maratha”. The Kunbi origin has been one of the factors on the basis of which the head of Maharashtra State Backward Class Commission (MSBCC), a Judge, M.G. Gaikwad, and some others in 2018, stated that Maratha associations have submitted historical proofs and petitions to be included in the Other Backward Class. The decision for giving reservation in jobs and education for Marathas based on the petitions that Marathas and Kunbis are one and the same caste was upheld by the Mumbai court in 2019.

By the late 19th century, some Brahmins made public proclamations of their Shudra status but some moderate Brahmins were keen to ally with the influential Marathas of Bombay in the interests of Indian independence from Britain. These Brahmins, motivated by such political reasons, supported the Maratha claim to Kshatriya status, but the success in this political alliance was sporadic and fell apart entirely following independence in 1947.

As late as the turn of 20th century, the Brahmin priests of Shahu, the Maratha ruler of Kolhapur refused to use Vedic mantras and would not take a bath before chanting, on the grounds that even the leading Marathas such as Shahu and his family belonged to the Shudra varna. This opinion about the Shudra varna was supported by Brahmin Councils in Maharashtra and they stuck to their opinion even when they (the Brahmins) were threatened with the loss of land and property. This led to Shahu supporting Arya Samaj and Satyashodhak Samaj as well as campaigning for the rights of the Maratha community. He soon became the leader of the non-Brahmin movement and united the Marathas under his banner.

Gaikwad, the leader of Sambhaji Brigade, a prominent Maratha caste organisation, stated in an interview, that before Indian Independence, “Backward Class federation had raised the concerns of the Shudra communities including the Marathas”.

In the 21st century, the Government of Maharashtra cited historical incidents for the claim of Shudra status of prominent Maratha families to form a case for reservation for the Marathas in the state. Additionally, a report by an independent commission in November 2018 concluded that the Maratha caste is educationally, socially and economically a backward community.

Rajputisation of Yadavs

Many groups adopted the Yadav surname for upliftment, these groups were mainly cowherders and were low in the caste order but were considered higher than the untouchables. In 1931 several communities like Ahir, Goala, Gopa, etc. Started calling themselves Yadavs and made extremely doubtful claims about having Rajput origin and thus tried to Rajputise.

According to R. C. Dhere, Shivaji’s clan of Bhonsles are descendants of Hoysalas and Seuna Yadavas, who were cow-herding pastoralists. As per Dhere, first cousin (on mother’s side) of Seuna Yadava king Singhana I moved to Satara from north Karnataka in the first half of the 13th century. This cousin was “Baliyeppā Gopati Śirsāṭ”, also known as Balip, who was a Hoysala. Dhere claims that Shivaji is a descendent of Balip. His middle name Gopati means “Lord of the Cows” and he moved north with a considerable herd of cattle. He was born in Soratpur in 1190, a place where both Seunas and Hoysalas fought a decisive battle. He belonged to the Gavli community and worshipped deity Shambhu Mahadev, a local form of Shiva who is the Kuladevata of Bhonsle family. He settled down in Shinganapur where he established a shrine for his deity, dated by scholars between 1250 and 1350, which coincides with the reign of Singhana I. However, the earliest known Bhonsle Kheloji, great-grandfather of Maloji, does not have genealogical records that connect him to Balip, a 250 years of missing link. But, there is a branch of Bhonsle clan extant in Maharashtra that goes by the name “Śirsāṭ Bhosale”. Dhere argues that the name Bhosale is linguistically descended from Hoysala. Shambhu Mahadev is a god of Dhangars and Gavlis. Shivaji’s first official expedition after his consecration was to a number of religious sites including Shambhu Mahadev temple at Shinganapur. The resting places of Shahaji, Shivaji and Sambhaji are right next to this temple. Many communities in India went through the process of occupational change from pastoralism to settled agriculture in the transition from medieval time to modernity. This is also seen in the Rajputization process of tribal communities.