Kachhi (caste)
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2018}}
{{Use Indian English|date=September 2018}}
The Kachhi are a Hindu caste of vegetable cultivators 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 Mauraos, Kachhis and Koeris - favoured a connection with Shiva and Shakta.{{cite book |title=Peasants and monks in British India |first=William R. |last=Pinch |publisher=University of California Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-520-20061-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uEP-ceGYsnYC |pages=12, 91–92 |accessdate=2012-02-22}} 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.{{cite book |title=Peasants and monks in British India |first=William R. |last=Pinch |publisher=University of California Press |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-520-20061-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uEP-ceGYsnYC |page=98 |accessdate=2012-02-22}}
Present circumstances
In Uttar Pradesh, the vegetable-cultivators Kachhis traditionally cultivate on their comparatively smaller landholdings without aid of the animals.{{cite book|last1=Singh|first1=Charan|title=India's Poverty and Its Solution|date=1964|publisher=Asia Publishing House|page=88|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MUw-AAAAIAAJ&q=Kachhi+caste|accessdate=30 March 2017|language=en}}
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.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=COcwoYRCYhcC&pg=PA177 |title=Educational and Social Uplift of Backward Classes: At what Cost and How |first1=S. P. |last1=Agrawal |first2=J. C. |last2=Aggarwal |publisher=Concept Publishing |year=1991 |isbn=9788170223399 |accessdate=2014-03-07}}
References
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Further reading
- {{cite book |title=Peasant History of Late Pre-colonial and Colonial India |first=B. B. |last=Chaudhuri |publisher=Pearson Education India |year=2008 |isbn=978-8-13171-688-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ljmIJySEm4UC&pg=PA468 |pages=467–468}}
- {{cite journal |title=The Indian Empire and Peasant Production of Opium in the Nineteenth Century |first=J. F. |last=Richards |journal=Modern Asian Studies |volume=15 |issue=1 |year=1981 |pages=59–82 |jstor=312105 |doi=10.1017/s0026749x00006788}}
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Category:Social groups of Uttar Pradesh
Category:Social groups of Rajasthan