Garha

Garha
Regions with significant populations
• India
Languages
• Khari Boli • Urdu • Punjabi
Religion
• Islam
Related ethnic groups
• Muley Jat • Muslim Rajput • Tyagi (Muslim)

The Garha or sometimes pronounced Gara and occasionally Gada are a Muslim community or caste found in the states of Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh, India.[1]

History and origin

The Garha have 51 sub-divisions, known as biradaris some based on territorial groupings, and some on the sects and castes they belonged to, prior to their conversion to Islam. Their main biradaris is Gaur Brahmin. Most Garha sub-groups claim descent from the Hindu Rajput community. Prior to their conversion to Islam, they were Chandravanshi Rajputs. Most Gada groups also claim descent from the Gaur Brahmin community, and claim Gada is simply a corruption of the original Gaur.[1]

They have a caste association, the Anjuman Garha (Garha association), whose primary purpose is look after the socio-economic welfare. The association runs schools imparting religious education, as well as a boarding house for poor boys. They live in multi caste villages, occupying their own quarters. Each of their settlements also contains an informal caste council called biradari panchayat, which acts as an instrument of social control and resolves intra-community dispute.[2]

The community is basically made up of landlords called Nambardaar, Padhaan, Zamindaar, Chaudhary, concentrated in the Doab region of Uttar Pradesh, and neighbouring Haridwar District of Uttarakhand and Yamuna Nagar district of Haryana. Each of their settlements contain a village based caste council, known as a biradari panchayat which exercise social control. In terms of religion, they are fairly orthodox Sunni Muslims, and have customs similar to other neighbouring Muslim zamindaar Landlord castes . They observe all the Muslim festivals, such Eid ul Fitr and eid ul adha. The Garha speak both Urdu and the local Khari boli dialect.[2]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 People of India Uttar Pradesh Volume XLII Part Two editor K S Singh Manohar 2005 page 509
  2. 1 2 People of India Uttar Pradesh Volume XLII Part Two editor K S Singh Manohar 2005 page 511
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