Arora Explained

Caste Name:Arora
Languages:Punjabi (Lahnda − Saraiki, Thali, Riasti, Pahari-Pothwari, Hindko, Khetrani, Jatki),[1] [2] [3] Sindhi, Hindustani
Religions:Hinduism • Sikhism
Region:Contemporarily
Punjab, India • Haryana • Delhi • Rajasthan • Uttar Pradesh

Historically
Derajat (Punjab • Balochistan • Khyber Pakhtunkhwa), Sindh and Pothohar Plateau

Arora is a Punjabi caste,[4] comprising both Hindus and Sikhs. The name is derived from their ancestral place Aror, Sindh.[5] [6] In 712, the Arora people are said to have left Aror and started to settle in the cities of Punjab,[7] mainly in South Punjab. However, according to W. H. McLeod, many Aroras originally came from the Pothohar area in North Punjab.[8]

Historically, the Arora section of the Khatri community had been principally found in West Punjab, in the districts to the south and west of Lahore. Scott Cameron Levi, believes that they are a "sub-caste of the Khatris".

After Partition of India, Punjabis who migrated from erstwhile West Punjab were mostly Khatris and Aroras. Studies reveal that "Arora Khatri, Bedi, Ahluwalia etc. are some of the important castes among the Punjabis".[9]

Origin

See also: Battle of Aror and Umayyad conquest of Sindh.

Aror is the ancestral town of the Arora community.[10] [11] [12] [13] Little is known about the city's history prior to the Arab invasion in the 8th century CE.[14]

The Sauvira Kingdom was an ancient kingdom of the lower Indus Valley mentioned in Late Vedic literature.[15] Roruka (Aror), capital of the Sauvira Kingdom, is mentioned as an important trading center in early Buddhist literature. In the Chachnamah, members of the Brahman group were noted in the city of Aror.[16] Aror was the capital of the Arora dynasty,[17] which was followed by the Rai dynasty and then the Brahman dynasty.[18]

In 711, Aror was captured by the army of Umayyad general Muhammad ibn al-Qasim.[19]

Divisions in Sikh Traditions

As per Sikhism, the Arora are divided into four territorial groups. The Uttarādhīs from the North, the Ḍakhaṇās from the South, the Dāhrās from the West and the Sindhīs, from Sindh. The Dāhrās and Ḍakhaṇās are sometimes classed as one.[20]

Mughal decline and Afghan Revival

On 13 April 1752, Lahore and Multan of Punjab were ceded to Ahmad Shah Durrani after the fall of Kaura Mal in the battlefield and retreat of Adina Beg. Afghanistan was the conduit for the trade between Central Asia and India. Grain trade in Afghanistan was in the hands of the Hindu Punjabi Arora/Khatris. Reportedly, they gave loans to the Durrani rulers to carry out military expeditions in India. Moreover, the disappointed princes of India "encouraged Zaman Shah Durrani to invade the subcontinent and overthrow the British" in 1798.[21]

To restrict the Afghans in Punjab, Hindu Diwan Kaura Mal Arora "died while fighting against the army of Ahmed Shah Durrani on March 6, 1752". He was the Governor of Multan and had also served as the Minister of Lahore twice. Earlier, he led the Lahore Darbar and "made a joint-attack on Multan in 1749", along the Sikhs led by Jassa Singh. Post his victory over Multan, "Diwan Kaura Mall was given the title of Maharaja Bahadur" by the Mughals.[22] [23]

Prior to the British colonial rule, Aroras were one of the three main money-lending castes of Punjab. The Aroras were often subjected to oppression and humiliation by peasant communities in muslim-dominated areas of Punjab. Socially discriminatory laws were also passed against them.[24] According to Sugata Bose, it was only "'when British rule freed him from restraint and armed him with the power of the law ... [that] he became as oppressive as he had been submissive'".[25]

The Aroras were often good farmers, and also engaged in metalworking, goldsmithery, and weaving.[26]

British Colonial Era

Pettigrew notes that in the 19th century, the Aroras were working as shopkeepers and small traders within the Sikh community in Punjab.[27] During the British Raj, in some parts of Punjab their population was so high that they had to seek employment outside their traditional occupations shopkeeping, accountancy and money-lending[28] [29] For the Hindu merchant castes, Agarwal Banias, Khatris and Aroras, Timber trade was also one of the trades they followed before 1900. However, since 1900 the smallest merchant sect, the Suds, started this trade and later dominated it in eastern Punjab.[30]

The Amritsar Gazetteer says:

The Hoshiarpur Gazetteer says:

Uttaradhi (north), Dakhanadhi (south) and Dahre (west) are three major sub-groups of the Arora people based on territorial differentiations.[31] Before the independence of India, Arora used to marry in their own sub-group i.e. Uttradhi, Dakkhna or Dahra but after the independence, spheres of permissible arranged matrimonial alliances were widened to include other sub-groups of Arora.[32]

British ethnographer Denzil Ibbetson observed that Arora-Khatris were centered in Multan and Derajat (region consisting of Dera Ismail Khan and Dera Ghazi Khan) which are now part of Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa regions of modern-day Pakistan. They conducted business throughout Afghanistan and Central Asia.[33]

Post-Independence

In the census of 1951, Aroras that were settled in Punjab returned their caste names as Khatris, Arora Khatris, Arorae, Rore, Aror, Rora Khatris, Arore, Aror Khatris etc. Some of the Aroras simply returned their caste names with Arora sub-caste names such as Arya, Ahuja, Batheja, Bathla,Kukreja, Chawla, Chhabra, Dang, Juneja,Taneja, Upneja, Wadhwa etc.[34]

According to the Commission Reports by Justice Gurnam Singh (1990) and Justice K.C. Gupta (2012), Arora is a forward caste socially, educationally and economically. It was reported that "despite of being uprooted from their homeland", Arora community has high literacy rate. An economic survey conducted by Maharishi Dayanand University states that Arora/Khatri people have good representation both in government as well as private sector. They are both in business, services and other fields. They are "economically well-off and not dependent on money-lending or shopkeeping". They are engaged as "doctors, engineers, administrators and are represented in white-collar jobs". The Arora were divided in two main sub groups, namely Hindu Arora and Sikh Arora depending upon the religion pursued.[35]

Punita Arora became the first lady Lieutenant General of the Indian Army in 2004.[36] [37]

As of 2009, many Aroras were prominent shopkeepers in several cities of Punjab including Amritsar.[8] McLeod adds that they played prominent role in the Singh Sabha movement. Aroras such as Vir Singh and Mehtab Singh were influential within the Sikh community.[8]

In the 2022 Punjab Legislative Assembly election, 11 legislatures in the majority government, come from Arora community.[38]

Culture

McLeod notes that marriages between Aroras and the Khatris are common.[8]

According to the University of Utah sociologist, Bam Dev Sharda, in the "status allocation in village India", the Aroras are considered a mercantile caste belonging to the Vaishya varna - like the Khatris, Agarwal, Bania and Ahluwalia, and they claim "twice-born" status.[39] So does historian Kenneth Jones by citing Denzil Ibbetson's study.[40]

According to the University of Toronto anthropologist, Nicola Mooney, the Aroras are of Kshatriya varna, along with the Khatris.[41] Similarly, Grant Evans describes Arora as a "sub-group of the Khatri jati of the Kshatriya Varna".[42]

According to one legend, the Aroras are of Kshatriya stock, but dissociated themselves from the other Kshatriyas and escaped prosecution by Parashurama, calling themselves aur (someone else).[6] [43]

In the opinion of a "Ford-Maxwell Professor of South Asian Studies" at Syracuse University, the merchant-type castes such as the Rajasthani Baniyas, Agarwals, Guptas, Mittals, Goels are twice born castes. However in Punjab, there is a large number of merchant type jatis, "Arora" being their generic name, both Hindu and Sikh, and they are not twice-born. Yet they share about the same status in the wide regional ranking". He calls this "deferred caste denial" which he explains as the rule that "hierarchy persists in the Hindu mind even where caste is denied in any of the senses and by any of the strategies adumbrated".[44]

In the opinion of a Professor of Sociology at Lucknow University (India), "every Hindu is supposed to have a caste" and Aroras (including its sub-castes) are identified as a sub-division of the Khatris. It is noted that "whether Khattris belong to Kshatriya varna or Vaishya varna is a point of controversy".[45] According to Ethne K. Marenco, the Jat Sikhs were placed at the top in the Sikh caste hierarchy, above the Khatri and Arora Sikhs. In contrast, per the Hindu traditions, "the Khatris and Aroras were accorded Kshatriya status", while "the status of the Jat Sikhs was equated with that of Shudras".[46]

Majority of the male members of the Arya Samaj in the late 19th century Punjab came from the Arora and Khatri merchant castes. In Punjab, the Kshatriya castes who were hierarchically higher than the Aroras and Khatris had been disempowered and thus the Brahmins who had lost their patrons had to turn to these merchant castes. Christophe Jaffrelot explains the attraction of these trading castes to the Arya Samaj as a means of social mobility associated with their prosperity during the British rule. He cites N.G.Barrier to show that the philosophy of the Arya Samaj founder, Dayananda Saraswati, was responsible for the aspirations of these Vaishya castes from Punjab to higher status:[47]

In a study of cultural geography and pilgrimage in India, it was recorded that "Khatri-Aroras are surely among the most numerous Hindu caste groups" in the areas of Punjab and Delhi. Khatri-Arora along with Brahmans and Mercantile castes "dominated the total mass of pilgrims" at Badrinath Dham. Similarly, the total number of pilgrims at Haridwar and Jwalaji were also predominated by the Khatri-Arora. At Chintapurni pilgrim, the Arora was found to be numerically dominant pilgrim group particularly during the Shravan Ashtmi fair.[48]

See also

References

Citations Bibliography

Notes and References

  1. Book: Oonk, Gijsbert. Global Indian Diasporas: Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory. 2007. Amsterdam University Press. 978-90-5356-035-8. 43–45. en.
  2. Book: Singer, André. Guardians of the North-West Frontier: The Pathans. 1982. Time-Life Books. 978-0-7054-0702-1. en.
  3. Web site: 25 September 2016. Blame caste for Pakistan's violent streak, not faith. 17 September 2021. Times of India Blog. en-US.
  4. Book: Bhardwaj, Surinder M. . Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India: A Study in Cultural Geography . 8 July 1983 . University of California Press . 978-0-520-04951-2 . 231 . en.
  5. Book: Experts, Disha . Errorless 16 Year-wise MPPSC General Studies Prelims Solved Paper 1 (2003 - 21) 2nd Edition . 2021-09-01 . Disha Publications . 978-93-91551-70-4 . Aror is the ancestral town of the Arora Community . In 711, Aror was captured by the army of Muslim general Muhammad bin Qasim ..
  6. Book: Hanks, Patrick. Dictionary of American Family Names. 8 May 2003. Oxford University Press. 978-0-19-977169-1. 58.
  7. Book: Malhotra, Anshu. Gender, Caste, and Religious Identities: Restructuring Class in Colonial Punjab. 8 October 2014. 2002. Oxford University Press. 9780195656480. The Aroras were also said to be the Khatris of Arorkot, or Aror, the ancient capital of Sindh..
  8. Book: McLeod, W. H.. The A to Z of Sikhism. 24 July 2009. Scarecrow Press. 978-0-8108-6344-6. 21, 213, 128.
  9. Web site: Government of Haryana. Department of Welfare. Report of Backward Classes Commission. bot: unknown. https://web.archive.org/web/20210515063352/http://haryanascbc.gov.in/report-of-haryana-backward-classes-commission-2012. 15 May 2021. 15 May 2021. Welfare of Scheduled Caste & Backward Classes Department. 05,135.
  10. Book: Hanks, Patrick . Dictionary of American Family Names . 8 May 2003 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-977169-1 . 58 . en.
  11. Book: Garg, Gaṅgā Rām . Encyclopaedia of the Hindu World . 1992 . Concept Publishing Company . 978-81-7022-373-3 . en . When Muhammad-bin-Qāsim plundered the place Arora in 712 and defeated Rājā Dāhar, who belonged to the Arorā dynasty, the Arorā people left Sind and settled in the Punjāb cities, situated on the banks of the rivers Sind, Jhelum, Cenāb and Rāvī..
  12. Book: Thakur, U. T. . Sindhi Culture . 1959 . University of Bombay . 58 . en . This Arorkot is Arore or Alore and the Aroras are called after the name of the ancient capital Arore..
  13. Book: Dogra . R. C. . Encyclopaedia of Sikh Religion and Culture . Mansukhani . Gobind Singh . 1995 . Vikas Publishing House . 978-0-7069-8368-5 . 40 . en.
  14. Book: Hughes . Albert William . A Gazetteer of the Province of Sind . 1876 . G. Bell and Sons . 677 . aror . . 19 December 2017.
  15. Michael Witzel (1987), "On the localisation of Vedic texts and schools (Materials on Vedic Śākhās, 7)" in G. Pollet (ed.), India and the Ancient world. History, Trade and Culture before A.D. 650
  16. Derryl N. MacLean (1989), Religion and Society in Arab Sind, p.51,136
  17. Book: Garg, Gaṅgā Rām . Encyclopaedia of the Hindu World . 1992 . Concept Publishing Company . 978-81-7022-373-3 . 624 . en . When Muhammad-bin-Qāsim plundered the place Arora in 712 and defeated Rājā Dāhar, who belonged to the Arorā dynasty, the Arorā people left Sind and settled in the Punjāb cities, situated on the banks of the rivers Sind, Jhelum, Cenāb and Rāvī..
  18. Book: MacLean, Derryl N.. Religion and Society in Arab Sind. BRILL. 1989. 9004085513.
  19. History of the Punjab, Volume 1 by Fauja Singh, Published by the Department of Punjab Historical Studies, Punjabi University, 1977
  20. H. Syan Singh . Khatrīs and Aroṛās . Encyclopedia of Sikhism Online . 2017 . 10.1163/2589-2118_beso_com_031682 . Brill . en.
  21. Book: Roy. https://books.google.com/books?id=ps5JDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT64. War and Society in Afghanistan From the Mughals to the Americans, 1500–2013. Oxford University Press India. 2015. 978-0-19-908944-4. 64. Mughal Decline and Afghan Revival :1707-1810.
  22. Book: Dilagīra, Harajindara Siṅgha. The Sikh reference book. 1997. Edmonton, Alb., Canada : Sikh Educational Trust for Sikh University Centre, Denmark ; Amritsar : Available from Singh Bros.. Internet Archive. 978-0-9695964-2-4. 480.
  23. Book: Ahluwalia, M. L.. Life and Times of Jassa Singh Ahluwalia. 1989. Publication Bureau, Punjabi University. 43. en.
  24. Book: Peasant History of Late Pre-colonial and Colonial India-Volume 8. B.B.Chaudhari. D.P.Chattopadhayaya. Pearson Longman. 2008. 137–138. 9788131716885.
  25. Book: Credit, Markets, and the Agrarian Economy of Colonial India. Introduction . Sugata Bose. Oxford University Press. 1994 . 7 . 978-0195633085 .
  26. Book: Malcolm Lyall Darling. The Punjab Peasant In Prosperity And Debt. 1928. Oxford University Press. 212. en. Often a good farmer, even when he does not actually drive the plough, he looks after his land with care, and any improvement to be found in his neighbourhood is generally due to his capital, industry and thrift. He will turn his hand to anything that promises gain, and may be found weaving baskets and mats, beating out vessels of copper and of brass, working as a goldsmith, or even plying the tailor's needle and thread..
  27. Book: Robber Noblemen: A Study of the Political System of the Sikh Jats. Joyce Pettigrew. Routledge & Kegan Paul. 1975. 41. The Aroras, who formed 9 per cent of the Sikh population and who generally supplied most of Punjab's petty traders and small shopkeepers....
  28. Book: Post-green revolution rural Punjab: A profile of economic and socio-cultural change, 1965-1995. 36. B. L. Abbi. Kesar Singh . 1997 . Of the clean caste households in the village, Arora, a traditional shopkeeping and petty - business caste, is lacking in the Jat's prestige and power in this village.
  29. Book: Imperial Rule in Punjab: The Conquest and Administration of Multan 1818-1881. J. Royal Roseberry. 1987 . 4. The Aroras were so numerous that many had to find employ outside the traditional caste occupations of shopkeeper, moneylender and village accountant..
  30. Book: A Forest History of India. Richard P. Tucker. Others represented several Hindu merchant castes, who invested in timber as only one of several lines of trade. They included Agarwal Banias, Khatris, and Aroras. From about 1900 the smallest Hindu merchant sect, the Suds, began moving toward their later dominance in the timber trade of eastern Punjab.. SAGE. 2011. 79. 9788132119524.
  31. Book: Singh, Surely Kumar. People of India: India's communities. Anthropological Survey of India. 1997. Kolkata. 126.
  32. Web site: Religions And Castes . District Gazetteer - Amritsar . 1976 . Department of Revenue, Rehabilitation and Disaster Management, Government of Punjab . 23 October 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070926235916/http://punjabrevenue.nic.in/gaz_asr9.htm . 26 September 2007 . dead .
  33. Book: Oonk, Gijsbert. Global Indian Diasporas: Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory. 2007. Amsterdam University Press. 978-90-5356-035-8. 43. en.
  34. Web site: Government of India. Deputy Registrar General. 23 August 1956. GLOSSARY OR CASTE NAMES RETURNED AT THE CENSUS OF 1951 IN THE DISTRICTS OF PEPSU. bot: unknown. https://web.archive.org/web/20210504060550/http://lsi.gov.in:8081/jspui/bitstream/123456789/7127/1/47712%20_1951_GLO.pdf. 4 May 2021. 4 May 2021. Linguistic Survey of India.
  35. Web site: Government of Haryana. Department of Welfare. Report of Backward Classes Commission. bot: unknown. https://web.archive.org/web/20210515063352/http://haryanascbc.gov.in/report-of-haryana-backward-classes-commission-2012. 15 May 2021. 15 May 2021. Welfare of Scheduled Caste & Backward Classes Department. 135–136.
  36. Web site: First Lady Lt Gen of Indian Army . 22 August 2022 . archive.pib.gov.in.
  37. Web site: rediff.com: The General in a Sari - A Slide Show . 22 August 2022 . specials.rediff.com.
  38. News: Punjab Election . 20 March 2022 . Arora community seeks representation in ministry . . 20 April 2023.
  39. Book: The Shape of Social Inequality: Stratification and Ethnicity in Comparative perspective . David Bills. 253. 2005. Bam Dev Sharda. Elsevier . 9780080459356.
  40. Book: Kenneth W. Jones. Arya Dharm: Hindu Consciousness in 19th-century Punjab. Kenneth W.Jones. University of California Press. 1976. 978-0-520-02920-0. 4–5.
  41. Book: Mooney, Nicola. Rural Nostalgias and Transnational Dreams: Identity and Modernity Among Jat Sikhs. 17 September 2011. University of Toronto Press. 978-1-4426-6268-1. 152. en. Aroras, however, are significantly higher than Jats in the caste hierarchy: along with Khatris, they are of the warrior varna, Kshatriya, the second of the four varna.
  42. Book: Evans, Grant. Asia's Cultural Mosaic: An Anthropological Introduction. 1993. Prentice Hall. 978-0-13-052812-4. 299. en. An example of a jati might be to be the member of a Lahore Arora, a regional sub - group within the Khatri jati of the Kshatriya varna..
  43. Book: Dogra . R. C. . Encyclopaedia of Sikh Religion and Culture . Mansukhani . Gobind Singh . 1995 . Vikas Publishing House . 978-0-7069-8368-5 . 40 . en.
  44. Book: Dimensions of Social Life: Essays in Honor of David G. Mandelbaum. Walter de Gruyter. 1987. 9783110846850. Paul Hockings. 518. The Denial of Caste in modern Urban Parlance. ..hindi speaking Aggrawals, Guptas Mittals, Goels,i.e. all of them are mostly twice born, most vegetarians. In Punjab, there is a large number of merchant type jatis, "Arora" being their generic name, both Hindu and Sikh, and they are not twice-born and in an all Hindu ranking would classify as clean shudras. Yet they share about the same status in the wide regional ranking.. https://books.google.com/books?id=ERQp5YCXiWsC&pg=PA518.
  45. Book: Madan, Gurmukh Ram. India And The West: A Cultural Contrast. 2004. Mittal Publications. 978-81-7099-862-4. 5. en.
  46. Book: Marenco, Ethne K.. The Transformation of Sikh Society. 1974. HaPi Press. 167–168, 296. en.
  47. Book: Christophe Jaffrelot . 2010 . Religion, Caste, and Politics in India . Primus Books . 98– . 9789380607047 . In 1891, more than half the 9,105 male members of the movement belonged to the Khatri and Arora merchant castes. This sociological composition reflected the same socio-cultural logic as in Gujarat where Dayananda had set up the Arya samaj with the support of traders seeking a better status more in keeping with their new prosperity (Jordens 1978) linked with the economic advance of British India; in the Punjab, his movement developed along the same lines among the merchant castes which felt that they could aspire all the more legitimately to the leadership of their community as the Brahmins and Kshatriyas, who had been hierarchically superior to them had been marginalized. Barrier hence explains the attraction that the Arya Samaj exercised over the merchant castes by the fact that: Dayananda's claim that caste should be determined primarily by merit not birth, opened new paths of social mobility to educated Vaishyas who were trying to achieve social status commensurate with their improving economic status..
  48. Book: Bhardwaj, Surinder M. . Hindu Places of Pilgrimage in India: A Study in Cultural Geography . 8 July 1983 . University of California Press . 978-0-520-04951-2 . 176–179 . en.

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