The Khojah and Paracha
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 |
The Khojah and Paracha
Castes Nos. 44 and 104
The word Khojah is really nothing more than our old friend the Khwajah of the Arabian Nights, and means simply a man of wealth and respectablity. In the Panjab it is used in three different senses : for a eunuch, for a scavenger converted to Islam, and for a Mahomedan trader. It is in the last sense that it is used in our tables. There does not appear to be any true caste of Khojahs, any Hindu trader converted to Mahomedanism being known Ity that name. Thus the Khojahs of Shahpur are almost entirely Khatris, and a Khatri now becom ing a Musalinnn in that district would be called a Khojah. The Khojahs of Jhang, on the oilier hand, are said to be converted Aroras ; while some at least of the Lahore Kliojahs claim Blnitia origin, and one section of the Ambala
The Khojahs of Bombay are well known for their wcalth and commercial enterprise. Khojahs are Knyaths. Now the Parachas also are Mahomedan tradcrs ; and there is at least a very definite section of them with head atTarters at Mukhad on the Indus in Rawalpindi who are a true caste, being converted khatris and marrying only among themselves. But unfortunately the word Par;bhais also used in the central districts for any petty Mahomedan trader. The fact seems to be that in the Rawalpindi and Peshawar divisions, where Para -has are a recognised and Avealthy caste, Khojah is used for miscellaneous Mahomedan traders, chiefly hawkers and pedlars, or at least petty traders ; while in the eastern districts and in the Derajat, where Khojahs are commercially import ant, Paracha is used for the Mahomedan pedlar. Thus in our tables the divisional offices have in many cases included Paracha under Khojah and Khojah under Paracha, and the figures cannot safely be taken separately.
These Mahomedan traders, whether called Khojah or Paracha, are found all along the northern portion of the Province under the hills from Amritsar to Peshawar, and have spread southwards into the central and eastern districts of the Western Plains, but have not entered the Derajat or Muzaffargarh in any numbers ; though to the figures of Abstract No. 91 must be added those of Abstract No. 72 (page 224*) for these last districts. Their eastern boundary is the Satluj valley, their western the Jahlam-Chanab, and they are found throughout the whole of the Salt-range Tract. Probably it is hardly correct to say of them that they have spread or entered ;for they apparently include many distinct classes who will have sprung from different centres of conversion. They appear to be most numerous in Lahore. A very interesting account of a recent development of trade by the Khojahs of Gujrat and Sialkot is given in Panjab Government Home Proceedings No. 10 of Mareh 1879. It appears that these men buy cotton piece-goods in Dehli and hawk them about the villages of their own districts, selling on credit till harvest time^ and the business has now assumed very large proportions. The Khojahs of the Jhang district are thus described by Mr. Monckton : They do not cultivate with their own hands, but own a great many wells and carry on trade to a considerable extent. They are supposed to have been converted from Hinduism. They do not practise cattle-stealing, but are a litigious race, and addicted to fraud and forgery in the prosecution of their claims.
The Parachas of the Salt-range Tract require a word of separate notice. Their head-quarters are at Mukhad in Pindi, and there are also large colonies at Attak and Peshawar, whence they carry on an extensive trade with the cities of Central Asia, chiefly in cloth, silk, indigo, and tea. They say that their place of origin is the village of Dangot in the Bannu district, and that they moved to Mukhad in Shahjfehan^s time ; but another account is that they were Khatris of Lahore, deported by Zaman Shah. They have seven clans and give their daughters only to Parachas, though they will occasionally take wives of foreign origin. They still retain the Hindu title of Raja. They will not marry with Khojahs and have dropped the Hindu ceremonial at their weddings, which they say the Khojahs of those parts still retain. They account for their name by deriving it from pdrcJia cloth one of the princi pal staples of their trade. Some of the Parachas of Ambala seem to have returned themselves as Paracha Khel, and to have been not unnaturally classed as Pathans by the tabulators. I cannot give separate figures for these.
