Lodhi (caste) explained

The Lodhi (or Lodha, Lodh) is a community of agriculturalists, found in India. There are many in Madhya Pradesh, to where they had emigrated from Uttar Pradesh.^[1] The Lodhi are categorised as an Other Backward Class, but claim Rajput ties and prefer to be known as "Lodhi-Rajput",^[2] although they have no account of their Rajput origin or prevailing Rajput traditions.^[3]

Etymology

Robert Vane Russell, an administrator of the British Raj, described several possible etymologies for Lodhi, including derivation from lod ("clod"), or lodh, a tree whose bark the Lodhi of Northern India gather to make dye. Russell also stated that Lodha was the original term, later corrupted to Lodhi in the Central Provinces.^[4] Another theory derives the name from the district of Ludhiana, supposing it the Lodhi homeland.^[5]

History

A historical mention of a Lodhi village chief (nagar chaudhari) occurs in Navalshah Chanderia's Vardhamana Purana, written in Samvat 1825. It mentions a Gajrath pratishtha function organized by Bhisham Sahu, an ancestor of the author in Samvat 1651 (1594 AD) when a temple at Bhelsi was consecrated.^[6] The temple built during the rule of the Bundela ruler Jujhar Singh, still exists.^[7]

British sources described the Lodhi as "immigrants from the United Provinces", who spread from that area, and in doing so were able to raise their social status, becoming landholders and local rulers ranking only below the Brahmin, Rajput, and Bania. Some of these large landholders gained the title of thakur, and some Lodhi families in Damoh and Sagar were labeled as rajas, diwans and lambardars by the Raja of Panna. These now-powerful Lodhi played a significant role in the 1842 Bundela rising.^[8]

20th-century caste politics

Members of the community developed a myth of origin, claiming that they are originally from Kazakhstan and that they were the only surviving kshatriyas following Parashurama's cleansing of the earth, thus enabling them to become kings.^[9]

Following the 1911 census of India, the Lodhi began to further organise politically, and prior to the 1921 census claimed the name Lodhi-Rajput at a conference in Fatehgarh.^[10] At the 1929 conference, the Akhil Bharatiya Lodhi-Kshatriya (Rajput) Mahasabha was drafted.^[11] The first part of the century also saw the publication of various books outlining Lodhi claims to the status of Rajput and Kshatriya, including the 1912 Maha Lodhi Vivechana and 1936 Lodhi Rajput Itihas.^[12]

Notables

• Avanti Bai, a Lodhi queen of Ramgarh, now in Madhya Pradesh, who opposed the British in 1857 and is now a Dalit political icon^[13]
• Kalyan Singh, Indian politician and a member of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) who served twice as the Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and as a Member of Parliament.^[14]
• Rammurti Singh Verma, former Member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.^[15]
• Uma Bharti, former Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh^[16]

Notes and References

1. Book: Sharma, Jagdish Saran . Encyclopaedia Indica . 2 . 737 . 1981.
2. Book: Burger, Angela Sutherland . Opposition in a Dominant-Party System. registration. 1969. University of California Press. 27.
3. Book: The Castes and Tribes of H.E.H. the Nizam's Dominions, Volume 1 . Asian Educational Services . Syed Siraj ul Hassan . 1920 . 400 . 978-8-12060-488-9.
4. Book: Robert Vane . Russell . Rai Bahadur Hira . Lal. The tribes and castes of the central provinces of India. 1916. 1993. Asian Educational Services. 978-8-12060-833-7. 114. 1.
5. Book: Mishra, J. P. . https://books.google.com/books?id=jUwFL3IipK0C&pg=PA71 . 71 . Dimensions of Human Cultures in Central India . A. A. . Abbasi . Shiv Kumar . Tiwari . A Demographic Study of Jabalpur . Sarup & Sons . 2001 . 978-817625-186-0.
6. Shilalekhin me Golapurvanvaya, Parmananda Jain Shastri, Anekanta, V. 24, No. 3, July 1971, p. 102-109
7. https://www.naidunia.com/madhya-pradesh/tikamgarh-tikamgadh-news-4006104 भेलसी में शांतिनाथ प्राचीन दक्षिणमुखी जैन मंदिर श्रद्घालुओं की आस्था का केंद्र, nai Dunia, 04 Dec 2019
8. Book: Mishra, Jai Prakash . The Bundela Rebellion . Sundeep . 1982 . 8.
9. Book: Jaffrelot, Christophe . India's Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India . Christophe Jaffrelot . C. Hurst & Co. . 2003 . 978-1-85065-670-8 . 486 .
10. Book: Chauhan, Brij Raj . Extending frontiers of sociological learning . Meerut University. Institute of Advanced Studies . Dept. of Sociology, Institute of Advanced Studies, Meerut University . 1980 . 63 . The claim of a new caste name 'Lodhi-Rajput' was made at an All India conference, held at Fathegarh before 1921. The history of Lodhi organization is about 57 years old..
11. Book: Chauhan, Brij Raj . Extending frontiers of sociological learning . Meerut University. Institute of Advanced Studies . Dept. of Sociology, Institute of Advanced Studies, Meerut University . 1980 . 55.
12. Book: Narayan, Badri . Fascinating Hindutva: Saffron Politics and Dalit Mobilisation . SAGE Publications . 2009 . 978-8-17829-906-8 . 25.
13. Dalit 'Viranganas' and Reinvention of 1857 . Charu . Gupta . Economic and Political Weekly . 42 . 19 . 18 May 2007 . 1742 . 4419579.
14. Book: Srinivas, MN. 2000. Caste: Its 20Th Century Avatar. Penguin Books Limited. 17.
15. Web site: Rammurti Singh Verma. Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. 25 July 2023. 25 July 2023. https://web.archive.org/web/20230725180849/https://upvidhansabhaproceedings.gov.in/member?memberId=19359. live.
16. News: Uma Bharti in Aap Ki Adalat (Part 1) . 10 August 2023 . India TV News . See from 10:12 to !0:16, "I belong to Lodhi caste".