The Amazing Khatris of Punjab

Dost-Mittar December 11, 2005 A Social Study http://www.chowk.com/show_article.cgi?aid=00006053&channel=civic Nearly two years ago, I was talking to an old man in Pakistan who was reminiscing about the life in the Potohar region before the partition. The talk turned to the relationship between the Muslims and Hindus and Sikhs of the area. The man kept referring to Khatris whenever I mentioned Hindus and Sikhs, which indicated two facts of life of that era: one, that the marker of identity at that time was not one`s religion but caste; and two, that Khatris were perhaps the most numerous Hindus and Sikhs in that region. When asked about their socio-economic status, he said that "Au tay baadsha aaee!", indicating that they were the dominant group. I decided at that time to sometimes do a bit more research on this community. This social survey is the result of my research conducted to find some historical information about the Khatris of Punjab. Khatris of Punjab are a small but one of the most successful communities in contemporary India. They are prominent in all fields of activity -politics, arts, entertainment, industry, trade, hotels, army and bureaucracy. And yet, less is written about them in Indian sociology than about other successful communities, such as Bengali, Marathi and Tamil Brahmins or Parsees. Origin The caste origins of Khatris are somewhat obscure. The caste system in Punjab does not follow the rigid 4-varna system of the Hindu hierarchy. Khatris consider themselves to be Kshatriyas. The word "Khatri" sounds similar to Kshatri and the Sanskrit "Ksh" sound frequently mutates into "Kh" in Panjabi; for example, shiksha becomes "sikhya" and raksha becomes "rakhya". On the other hand, Khatris of Punjab did not follow warrior occupations characteristic of the Kshatriya Caste and worked mostly as shopkeepers, petty traders and "shah-gumashtas" (moneylenders) - occupations more characteristic of the Vaisya or Baniya castes. It is probable that Khatris were indeed soldiers who, after the Muslim conquest of Punjab, turned to lower caste occupations as the traditional soldiering profession was no longer open to Kshatriyas; later on, as conditions relaxed during the Mughal rule, Rajputs of Rajasthan were allowed to keep their arms and ride horses. The Khatri Hierarchy Khatris are divided into several subcastes. The 1891 Punjab census listed 3086 subcastes of Khatris and the 1911 census listed 1559. Even the 1911 number seems too large and shows the unreliability of Census figures in these matters. One possible reason for the discrepancy could be the different treatment of the Arora subcastes in the two censuses. While Aroras consider themselves to be Khatris, Khatris consider them to be lower in the caste hierarchy. Within Khatris, too, there was a distinct hierarchy. On the top of the pyramid sat dhai-gharais (two and a half houses), consisting of three subcastes - Kapoor, Malhotra and Khanna. The reference to two and a half is because of the Khatri

superstition of the number three. Below them were bara-gharais (twelve houses) including such castes as Gujral, Marwaha, Tandon, Chopra and Wahi. Further lower in the order were bawinja-gharais (fiftytwo houses). Distinct from these "ghars" were the "Khukhrain biradri" consisting of eight subcastes - Kohli, Sethi, Anand, Bhasin, Sahni, Suri, Sabharwal and Chadha. Khukhrains are very proud of their biradari, some claim that Porus was a khukhrain and that Sahni is a mutation of the hindi word, Sainani, which means a soldier. These subcastes were exogamous within the same subcaste but endogamous with respect to the same group. In other words, a Kohli could not marry another Kohli but could only marry within the eight subcastes included in the khukhrain biradri. These rules got relaxed over time with gradual broadbanding to make all Khatris endogamous and then extending the circle of eligible matrimony to include Aroras as well. In modern India, these taboos have further broken down and Khatris now frequently marry Non-Khatris and even Non-Punjabis, but one still frequently finds matrimonial advertisements specifying advertiser`s khukhrain or Khatri affiliation. Khatris and Sikhism The most influential Khatris in the history of Punjab were the Sikh Gurus, all ten of whom belonged to Khatri families. Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of the Sikh religion was a Bedi while the last Sikh Guru, Gobind Singh who created the distinct Khalsa, was a Sodhi. The message of Guru Nanak, which consisted of discarding meaningless rituals in favour of bhakti/devotion and maintaining a balance between devotion to God and grahstha (family responsibilities), appealed to Khatris who followed the Sikh gurus in large numbers. When the tenth guru created the distinct Khalsa Panth, he asked his followers with more than one sons to donate one to his Khalsa army as that son would have a high probability of getting killed in action; thus started the tradition among Khatris of making one of their sons a Sikh, a tradition which continued until recently. Khatris and Arya Samaj Nearly two centuries after Guru Gobind Singh formed the Khalsa Panth, two religious reform movements from outside Punjab had an influence on Punjabi Hindus. These were Brahmo Samaj and Arya Samaj. Brahmo Samaj was founded by Raja Ram Mohan Roy in Bengal. He was influenced both by Islam - he was educated in a Madrassa - and Christianity and wanted to reform Hinduism of its casteism and polytheism. A prominent Brahmo Samaji, Surendra Nath Bannerjee, visited Amritsar to spread the message, which attracted both Hindu and Sikh intellectuals. The most prominent Brahmo Samaji in Punjab was the well-known educationist, Sardar Dayal Singh, who founded the college in Lahore named after him. Before the Brahmo Samaj movement could take hold in Punjab, another reformist movement, Arya Samaj, made its way to the province. The founder of the movement, Swami Dayanand, a gujarati, perfected his message in Lahore. His message against casteism, rituals, idol worship and of strict monotheism, which he claimed was the essential message of the Vedas, found a fertile soil among Punjabi Hindus, especially Khatris who were attracted to a similar message by the Sikh Gurus earlier. However, Arya Samaj represented an aggressive strain of Hinduism, which called for reconversion of Muslims and mocked at the Sikh Gurus and their holy scripture, Guru

Granth Saheb. This laid the foundation of a rift between Arya Samajis and Sikhs, which later reached its peak during the movement for Punjabi Suba in India when Arya Samajis asked Hindus to declare their mother tongue to be Hindi instead of Punjabi. The rift between Arya Samajis and Sikhs was particularly painful for those Khatris whose relatives included Sikhs or Arya Samajis. The poignancy of this situation is well portrayed in Shana Singh Baldwin`s novel What the Body Remembers where a Hindu father converts one of his sons to Sikhism and the other becomes a staunch Arya Samaji. When the movement for a Punjabi Suba started, it was no wonder that the leadership of both the proponents and opponents of the Suba was in Khatri hands. Arya Samaj`s aggressive social agenda did have significant positive effects on Punjabi Hindus, including Khatris, especially in relation to education and the status of women. Arya Samaj pushed for the education of girls and for widow remarriage. The impact of Arya Samaj on education is felt to this day. Like his contemporaries Raja Ram Mohan Roy and Sir Syed Ahmad, Dayanand advocated modern education. Arya Samajis have opened several schools and colleges, frequently under D.A.V (1) name, throughout Punjab and Delhi. Khatri Dispersal Many of the Khatris lived in the Potohar region, which did not offer a lot of economic opportunities. They also did not own any land holdings during the Muslim rule although some of them obtained lands during the Sikh and British rules. This absence of the land anchor, combined with the lack of other economic opportunities, made Khatris a mobile people. Being traders, they also had a rudimentary knowledge of mathematics and language skills (2), which made them useful for clerical jobs. Many of them migrated to Peshawar and Afghanistan, first during the Sikh rule and later as low level administrators under the British rule, as the Raj expanded its railway network all the way to Khyber Pass. Remnants of these Khatris are still living in the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan and in the cities of Kabul and Kandhar in Afghanistan. A significant movement of Khatris took place to Sindh where their names frequently got changed. For example, the ancestor of Advanis is said to be a Punjabi from Multan, Dewan Adoomal, who was a commander with Miyan Noor Mohammad Khalori, and who moved to Sindh along with Miyan Noor (3). A large number of Khatris moved to North India a few centuries ago. A prominent Khatri among these was Todar Mal, a Tandon Khatri, who was the Revenue Minister at Akbar`s court and devised the revenue system, which reached all the way to the village level, and was adopted almost completely by the British. There is a significant number of Khatris in major cities of U.P who are generally traders or in professional occupations. Vikram Seth`s epic novel, A Suitable Boy, revolves mainly around Khatri characters located in U.P. But, by far, the most convulsive migration of Khatris took place during the division of India when they had to leave their homes and hearths for a new country. The migration this time was almost complete, except for those who converted to Islam. New Delhi was the largest recipient of these

refugees but they spread to several major cities of India, going as far as Bombay and Calcutta. Wherever they went, they have made a distinct mark. Economic Progress Most Khatris have moved away from their early occupations as petty moneylenders and shopkeepers. When the sixth Sikh Guru, Guru Har Gobind, took up arms against the Mughal rulers after the brutal killing of the fifth Sikh Guru, he introduced/revived the warrior tradition among his Khatri followers. The tradition reached its peak when the tenth guru, Guru Gobind Singh, created The Khalsa. He asked his followers to give their sons to him to carry his fight for dharma (righteousness) and against zulm (tyranny). Many Khatri Sikhs excelled themselves as soldiers, including Ranjit Singh`s famous general, Hari Singh Nalwa - an Uppal Khatri who took his victorious army into Afghanistan, and his famous Governor of Multan, Dewan Mool Chand. When the British found the barren salt range of Jhelum and Chakwal to be a fertile ground for recruiting Indian soldiers, Khatris took full advantage of the opportunities offered. Being more educated than others, they were often recruited as Junior Commissioned Officers. Many of them became the first recipients of Murabbas (free land) offered by the British after the first world war. This military tradition has continued to flourish; the current chief of the army staff, J.J. Singh is a Khatri as were two of his predecessors, Ved Malik and N.C. Vij. The Indian General who accepted the surrender of Pakistani army in Bangladesh was also an Arora/Khatri. The relative educational advantage served Khatris well in getting positions as patwaris during the Mughal revenue administration, set up by a fellow Khatri. Patwaris, though at the lowest rung in the administrative totem pole, nevertheless enjoyed immense power over their jurisdiction. The economic status of Khatris improved further when the Mughal rule in Punjab was replaced by the Sikh rule. When the British took over from the Sikhs, the Khatris quickly took advantage of the public education system launched by the British and bolstered by the efforts of the Arya Samaj and Singh Sabhas. The British rule opened up opportunities in civil administration as well as in legal, medical and educational professions. Khatris were the first to take advantage of these new opportunities. College faculties of Lahore before the partition were dominated by Khatri names as did the honour rolls of matriculation graduates of the Punjab University. Many Khatris from very poor families used educational facilities to rise the occupational ladder to become barristers, doctors, professors, writers, journalists, teachers, scientists and army officers. Crucial to their success was the position of Lahore as a centre of excellence in education known throughout India. Khatris went to Lahore to take advantage of its higher educational facilities and settled down there. One of them, Gobind Khurana, later went on to win a Nobel Prize in science. They soon came to dominate the socio-economic life in Lahore and the rest of Punjab. In an essay in the publication "Five Punjabi Centuries", Ravinder Kumar writes about Lahore in 1919 (4): "The Brahmins did not dominate Hindu society in Punjab as much as in the other parts of the country. The middle classes of the Punjab were drawn predominantly from other

commercial castes like the Khatris, the Aroras and the Banias. Of these three castes, the Khatris were outstanding: superior in intellectual and physical energy to the other commercial castes, they claimed a mythical descent from the Kashtariyas or the warrior castes of ancient India. Though the Khatris dabbled in business, they were completely free of the servility which characterized other trading castes in India: Trade is their main occupation, but in fact they have broader and more distinguishing characteristics. Besides monopolising trade... they are in the Punjab the chief civil administrators, and have all literary work on their hands... Thus they are in the Punjab, as far as a more energetic race will permit them, all that the Maratha Brahmins are in the Maratha Country, besides engrossing themselves in the trade which the Maratha Brahmins have not." Post-Partition The partition dealt a devastating blow to Khatris when they had to leave their stronghold of West Punjab, especially Lahore, a city to whose development they had made significant contribution. Many of them left their homes with only, to use an expression popular at that time, "clothes they were wearing". However, with their education, work ethic and enterprise, they were soon able to overcome the initial loss without any significant help from the government. Indeed, they had now before them the broader canvas of whole India to make an even greater use of their human capital. Within a decade of their migration to Delhi, they were dominating the trade and commerce of that city and were once again creating new educational institutions. They fondly named their small businesses after Lahore, Lyalpur, Rawalpindi and other cities that they had left behind. The early history of large business houses in India, such as Birlas, Tatas, Wadias, Godrej, Goenkas, Singhanias, Dalmias and DCM, shows that they were all founded by trading Hindu castes, mostly Marwaris, or Parsee traders. The only Punjabi among the early big industrialists was Karam Chand Thapar - an Arora-Khatri. After the partition, several Punjabis -Khatris as well as Banias - have made to the top of the business heap; some prominent Khatris in this list are Oberois of Intercontinental Hotels, Ranbaxi, Apollo Tyres, Thapars and Oswals. While the IT professions are dominated by South Indians, Khatris have done well in this new area as well; some prominent Khatris in the field are Vinod Dham who developed the Pentium chip, Sabir Bhatia who started the hot mail message service and Vinod Khosla, who was among the founders of Sun Microsystems and has helped many South Asians launch successful businesses. Arts and Entertainment Before the partition, Lahore was a major centre of Arts and Entertainment, and Khatris were the dominant players in them. Dilsukh Pancholi had a major film production studio in Lahore. Some of those interested in the film industry were attracted to the brighter lights of Bombay, both before and after the Partition. The doyen of the Punjabi film celebrities was undoubtedly Prithvi Raj Kapoor, the patriarch of the fabled Kapoors who can rightly claim to be the first family of Bollywood. Prithvi Raj, who was

originally from Peshawar, made an easy transition from his Prithvi Theatre to the film world. However, the most famous of the Kapoors was his son, the legendary Raj Kapoor, who charmed his way to the audience`s hearts as far away as Russia. He was followed by several well known Khatri artists like Chetan Anand, Dev Anand, Balraj Sahni, Sunil Dutt, Rajesh Khanna, Bharat Bhushan and Rajinder Kumar and Pran. The Khatri heroes have yielded the top spots now to the Khans, but Khatri names like Kapoor, Khanna, Chopra, Puri and Oberoi are still prominent in Bollywood. Khatris were at first reluctant to let their daughters go into the film world, an early exception being Kamini Kaushal. However, they have shed their earlier inhibitions and now, many Khatri girls like Karishma and Kareena Kapoor, Juhi Chawla, Priyanka Chopra, and Raveena Tandon are playing leading roles in films. Among writers, Mulk Raj Anand was a pioneer among the English authors in India. Kishen Chander and Rajinder Singh Bedi were among the famous writers of Urdu fiction. Satish Gujral, the brother of I.K. Gujral, is one of the top artists of India and K.L. Saigal was one of the all-time great singers. Administration At the time of the partition, very few Punjabis were in the Indian Civil Service, which was dominated by Bengalis, South Indians and Biharis. However, after the partition, they began to qualify for the Indian Administrative Services and have now risen to prominent positions in the civil service. Two of these civil servants, I.K. Gujral and Manmohan Singh have made an easy transition from civil service to politics and eventually became the Prime Ministers of India. Coincidentally, both of them were born in that barren salt range of Jhelum and Chakwal. The sons of petty traders have indeed come a long way. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------(1) D.A.V stands for Dayanand Anglo Vedic, although to the best of my knowledge, DAV institutions do not impart any formal education in the Vedas. 2)The language used by the Khatris, lahndas, later became the basis for the Gurmukhi script of Panjabi. (3)from the "History of Hindus in Sind, by Diwan Bherumal Mahirchand Advani. ( http://www.dalsabzi.com/Books/Sindhi_surnames/sindhis_and_sindhi. (4)Ravinder Kumar, "Urban Society and Urban Politics: Lahore in 1919", Five Punjabi Centuries, from Dawn, November 7, 2005.

Footnote: This survey does not include Muslim Khatris about whom not much is known except for the well-known Saigal group of Pakistan.