| Group: | Muslim Gaddi |
| Popplace: | Pakistan • India • |
| Langs: | • Urdu • Khari Boli • Awadhi • Haryanvi • |
| Rels: | Islam |
| Related: | Gaddi |
The Muslim Gaddi are a Muslim community found mainly in northern India. After the independence in 1947, the Gaddi of the states of Haryana and Delhi migrated to Pakistan and are now found in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh. In Pakistan and North India, Community members are referred to as Ghazi . The community is an offshoot of the Hindu Ahirs.[1]
There a number of theories as to the origin of the Muslim Gaddi community. In South Asia, there are two distinct groups who go by the name Gaddi. In the foothills of the Himalaya, in what are now the state of Himachal Pradesh and the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir resides a Hindu nomadic community known as the Gaddi.[2] The Muslim Gaddi of North India is not an alpine community, but are found in the plains of North India, distributed in the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, and have never been nomadic. Prior to the independence in 1947, Muslim Gaddi communities were also found in Haryana. In fact, it is unclear whether there is any connection between the two groups other than the sharing of a common name.[2]
Like many other Muslim groups in North India, the Gaddi community is further divided into clans, known as biradaris, which are said to be descended from a common ancestor.
In North India, the Gaddi are a community that has been associated with cattle farming. They are involved in the selling of milk, especially those settled in towns. Some owns the huge parts of Land that are earned by hard work of their ancestors. They have much in common with other pastoral communities, In addition, the western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana the Gaddi have always possessed agricultural land, and are a small and medium scale cultivators. However, in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the word Gaddi is almost become synonymous with milk selling.[3]
The western Uttar Pradesh Gaddi, like other neighbouring peasant castes have benefited from the effects of the green revolution, and many have successfully begun mechanising their farming, such as buying tractors.[4]
The Gaddi are Muslims of the Sunni sect, following various denominations such as Hanafi, Deobandi, and even local Folk Islam. They are an endogamous community, practising clan and village exogamy in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (i.e. not marrying within the clan). Among other Gaddi communities, marriages are preferred within the biradari, and with a marked preference for parallel cousin and cross cousin marriages. The Gaddi tend to reside in multi clan and multi religious villages, often occupying their own quarters. In western Uttar Pradesh, the Gaddi are what is often referred to as the dominant clan, usually making between half and two thirds of the population of the village, and their villages are referred to as Gaddi villages.[5]