View source for Bohra (Hindu): Kangra and 'Dehli' division

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This article is an extract from <br/>

PANJAB CASTES <br/>

SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. <br/>

Being a reprint of the chapter on <br/>
The Races, Castes and Tribes of <br/>
the People in the Report on the <br/>
Census of the Panjab published <br/>
in '''1883''' by the late Sir Denzil <br/>
Ibbetson, KCSI <br/>

Lahore: <br/>

Printed  by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, <br/>

1916. <br/>
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[[Category:India|B]]
[[Category:Communities|B]]

=The Bohra =

Caste No. 124   
Tne figures under the heading of 
Bohra include two very distinct chisses of men. Of the 3,665 Bohras shown 
in our tables560 are found in the Dehli division, and 3,105 in the Hill States 
of Kungra. The first are Brahman money-lenders from Marwar, who have of 
late years begun to settle in the districts on the Jamna, and have already 
acquired a most uneviable notoriety for unscrupulous rapacity. There is a 
rustic proverb : 'A Bohra's 'good morning V is like a message from the angel 
of death ; and another : A Jat to guard crops, a Brahman as a money
lender, and a Banya as a ruler :— God's curse be on you .'■'■' 

In the hills any money-lender or shop-keeper is apparently called a Bohra 
(from the same root as beohar or '^ trade, -''^) and the word is used in the same 
general sense in the south of Rajputana and in Bombay, taking the place of 
the Banya of Hindustan, though in Gujrat it is specially applied to a 
class of Shiah traders who were converted to Islam some 600 years ago. 
In the Panjab all the Bohras are Hindus. It will be noticed that in those 
Hill States in which Bohras are numerous, Banyas are hardly represented 
in the returns, and vice versa j and there can be little doubt that both the 
Banyas and the Bohras shown for the Hill States are the same as the Pahari 
Mahajans next to be discussed. The Hill Bohras are said to be exceedingly 
strict Hindus, and to be admitted to intermarriage with the lower classes of 
Rajputs, such as Rathis and Rawats. In Gurdaspur I am told that there 
is a Small class of traders called Bohras who claim Jat origin, and who are 
notorious for making money by marrying their daughters, securing the dower, 
and then running away with both, to begin again da capo.