Bohra (Hindu): Kangra and 'Dehli' division

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This article is an extract from PANJAB CASTES SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. Being a reprint of the chapter on The Races, Castes and Tribes of the People in the Report on the Census of the Panjab published in 1883 by the late Sir Denzil Ibbetson, KCSI Lahore: Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1916. Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this article. Secondly, this has been scanned from a book. You can help by sending the corrected version to the Facebook page, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be duly acknowledged.

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.