Miscellaneous Artisans (Punjab)
This article is an extract from PANJAB CASTES SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. Being a reprint of the chapter on Lahore: Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1916. Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees |
Miscellaneous artisans
A group of miscellaneous artisans com pletes the artisan and menial class. It includes the Penja or cotton scutcher the Teli or oil-presser, the Qassab or butcher, and the Kalal or spirit-distiller.
The figures are given in Abstract No. 105 on the next page.* The first three form a fairly coherent groub, inasmuch as they very often belong to one caste. The last is quite distinct. The distribution of each caste will be noticed under its separate head.
The Penja, Teli, and Qassab
(Castes Nos. 83, 23 and 38)
The Penja, as often called Pumba or Dhunia, and in the cities Naddaf, is the cotton scutcher who, striking a bow with a heavy wooden plectmm, uses the vibrations of the bow-string to separate the fibres of the cotton, to arrange them side by side, and to part them from dirt and other impurities. The Teli is the oil-presser ; and the Qassab the butcher who slaughters after the Mahomedan fashion, dresses the carease, and sells the meat. But while the Teli appears to be a true caste, the Qassab and Penja are only names of occu pations which are almost invariably followed by Telis. In Multain and the Derajat the Teli is commonly called Chaki or Chakani, and a quaint story con cerning him\ is related by Mr. O^Brien at page 93 of his Multani Glossary. The
Teli; including the Penja and Qassab, is very uniformly distributed over the Province save in the hills proper, where oil and cotton are imported and the Hindu population need no butchers. He is naturally most numerous in great cities, while on the frontier he is, like most occupational castes, less common. In the Derajat, however^ many of the Qassabs would appear to have been re turned as Jats (see Abstract No. 72, page 224t
The numbers returned for Gurgaon under the head Qassab seem extra ordinarily large ; but I can detect no error in the tables.' The Teli is almost exclusively a Musalman ; and the Hindu Penja of the eastern districts is said to be known by the name of Kandera, a word, however, which appears to be applied to Musalman Penjas also in Rajputana.
The Teli is of low social standing, perhaps about the same as that of the Julaha with whom he is often associated, and he is hardly less turbulent and lis it possible that a large portion of tho Gurgaon Julahas have returned themselves as Telis? The Julahas are not nearly as mnierous in Gurgaon as one wonld expect. Mr. Wilson suggests that the very numierous caltlo-dcahTs or Ecoparis who are found ahout firozpur Jhirka in the south of the district, and who are pcrhaps Moos by caste, may very probably laave returned Themselves qassabs. He points out that ho nnich of the weaving in Gurgaon is done by Chamars that Juluhas would naturally not be very numerous. troublesome than the latter. Mr. Fanshawe notes that in Rohtak the butcher class is the very worst in the district, and is noted for its callousness in taking human life, and general turbulence in all matters ; and there is a proverb, '^ He who has not seen a tiger has still seen a eat, and he who has
- ' not seen a Thug has still seen a Qassabs In Karnal the Qassabs are said
often to practise market-gardening.
The Kalal
(Caste No. 56)
The Kalal, or Kalwar as he is called in the west of the Paujub, is the distiller and seller of spirituous liquors. The word, however, seems to mean a potter in Peshawar. He is commonly known as Neb in Nabha and Patiala, and when a Mahomedan often calls himself Kakkezai and when a Sikh Ahluwalia, the origin of which names will pre sently be explained. I have said that the Kalal is a distiller ; and that is his hereditary occupation. But since the manufacture of and traffic in spirits have been subjected to Government regulation a large portion of the caste, and more especially of its Sikh and Musalman sections, have abandoned their proper calling and taken to other pursuits, very often to commerce, and especi ally to traffic in boots and shoes, bread, vegetables, and other commodities in which men of good caste object to deal. They are notorious for enterprise, energy, and obstinacy. Death may budge ; but a Kalal won't.^' They are, owing to curcumstances presently to be mentioned, most numerous in the Sikh portions of the Panjab, and especially in Kapurthala. In the western districts they seem to be almost unknown. Rather more than half of them are still Hindu, about a quarter Sikh, and the other quarter Musalman. The original social position of the caste is exceedingly low, though in the Panjab, it has been raised by special cu'cumstances.
The reigning family of Kapurthala is descended from Sada Singh Kalal who founded the village of Ahlu near Lahore. The family gradually rose in the social scale, and Badar Singh, the great-grandson of Sada Singh, married the daughter of a petty Sardar of the district. Erom this union sprang Jassa Singh, who became the most powerful and influential Chief that the Sikhs ever possessed till the rise of Ranjit Singh. He adopted the title of Ahlu walia from his ancestral village Ahlu, the title is still borne by the Kapurthala royal family, and a Sikh Kalal will commonly give his caste as Ahluwalia, The caste was thus raised in importance, many of its members abandoned their hereditary occupation, and its Musalman section also grew ashamed of the social stigma conveyed by the confession of Kulal origin. It accordingly fabricated a story of Pathtin origin, and, adding to the lirst letter of the caste name the Pathan tribal termination, called itself Kakkezai. The name was at first only used by the more wealthy members of the caste ; but its use is spreading, and the cultivating owners of a village in Gujrat entered them selves as Kalal in the Ih'st and as Kakkezai in the second settlement. The well known Shekhs of Hoshyarpui- are Kalals who, while claiming Pathan origin, call themselves Shekhs and forbid widow-marriage. Some of the Musalman Kalals claim Rajput or Khatri origin, and it is probable that many of the caste have returned themselves as Shekhs. The commercial Kalals are said not to intermarry with those who still practise distillation.
