Revision as of 09:00, 1 May 2014

Minor Agricultural and Pastoral Tribes

The group of castes for which the figures are given in Abstract No. 85 on page 266t are not tP. 190 separated from the castes and tribes already discussed by any clearly defined • line. Indeed it is quite a matter of opinion whether some of these should not have been ranked with the major and some of those with the minor tribes. But the group now to be discussed very generally hold an inferior position among the agricultural community^ and seldom if ever occupy the position of the dominant tribe in any considerable tract of countrv. They may be divided into three classes, though here again the lines of the demareation are indistinct. The first consists of the market gardeners proper or growers of vegetables, and includes the Mali, Saini, Arain, and Baghban, all four of whom are probably closely connected, and some of them almost undistinguish able. The cultivation of vegetables is looked upon as degrading by the agri cultural classes, why I know not, unless it be that nightsoil is generally used for their fertilisation ; and a Rajput would say : What 1 Do you take me for an Arain ? if anything was proposed which he considered derogatory. The second class comprises the Kanet and Ghirath, the low-class cultivators of the hills, and the Kamboh, Ahir, Mahtam, and other cultivators of inferior status. Some of these are closely allied to the vegetable-growers ; others again to the Ghosi and Gaddi which constitute the third class, and are pastoral rather than agricultural. The class as a whole is to be found in largest number in the fertile districts of the eastern plains and sub montane tract, and in the hills where the proud Rajputs look upon labour at the plough as degrading. It is least numerous in the Derajat where the comprehensive name of Jat embraces all cultivators of this class.

See The Mali and Saini