Ahir/Aheer | |
---|---|
Religions | Hinduism |
Languages | Varies depending on region |
Populated states | India and Nepal |
Subdivisions | Yaduvanshi Aheer, Nandvanshi, and Gwalvanshi Ahir |
Ahir or Aheer (Sanskrit: Abhira)[1] are a community of traditionally non-elite pastoralists in India, most members of which identify as being of the Indian Yadav community because they consider the two terms to be synonymous. The Ahirs are variously described as a caste, a clan, a community, a race and a tribe.
The traditional occupations of Ahirs are cattle-herding and agriculture. Since late 19th century to early 20th century, Ahirs have adopted Yadav word for their community and have claimed descent from the mythological king Yadu as a part of a movement of social and political resurgence[2] through Sanskritisation process[3] under the influence of Arya Samaj.[4]
Ahirs in India are known by numerous other names, including Gauli[5] and Ghosi or Gop in North India.[6] In Gujarat and South India as Ayar, Golla and Konar.[7] Some in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh are known as Dauwa.[8] The Ahirs have more than 20 sub-castes.[9][better source needed]
Ahirs are found throughout India but are particularly concentrated in the northern area. Apart from India, Ahirs have significant population in Nepal, Mauritius, Fiji, South Africa and the Caribbean especially Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, and Suriname. In Mauritius and Caribbean they are mostly the descendants of settlers who arrived between the 19th and 20th centuries from the former pre-partitioned sub-continent of India during the time of the British Raj.[10]
Marginalised groups, often considered as Shudras, like the Ahirs (Yadavs), Kurmis and the Gujars, began to redefine their emerging political and economic role in society by fighting on the same 'religious' grounds. In so doing, they refashioned their status as warriors and kings who had played a special role in history as guardians of Hinduism (Gooptu 2001 : 195; see also Pinch 1996 : 118–38). Gyanendra Pandey (1990: 66–108) describes how, since the end of the 19th century, such processes of Sanskritisation (adoption of 'higher' forms of Hinduism) among lower castes have joined up with Hindu nationalist movements, such as the cow protection movement, and how these interrelations have been central to the formation of a Hindu and a Muslim community in northern India.
Ahirs willingly subjected themselves to Sanskritisation because of their special relation to sacred cow but alas because the Arya Samaj exerted significant Sanskritising influence over the Yadav movement. As early as 1895, the ruler of Rewari, Rao Yudhishter Singh ( the father of Rao Bahadur Balbir Singh), invited Swami Dayananda to his state. Branches of the Arya Samaj flourished soon after and Rewari provided a base from which Arya Samaj updeshaks (itinerant preachers) operated in neighbouring areas.
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