Muslim Gaddi

The Muslim Gaddi are a Muslim Rajput community found mainly in northern India. After the partition of India in 1947, many of the Gaddi in the states of Haryana and Delhi migrated to Pakistan and are now found in the provinces of Punjab and Sindh. In Pakistan and North India, community members are called Ghazi.

Muslim Gaddi

Atiq Ahmed and his brother Ashraf Ahmed
Regions with significant populations
Pakistan • India •
Languages
• Urdu • Khari Boli • Awadhi • Haryanvi •
Religion
Islam
Related ethnic groups
Gaddi

History and origin

The Muslim Gaddi of North India are found in the plains of North India, distributed in the states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. Prior to the partition of the subcontinent in 1947, Muslim Gaddi communities were also found in Haryana

The Muslim Gaddi were Rajputs in origin that converted to Islam.^[1]

There also exists an alpine hindu nomadic community sharing the same name of Gaddi but they are different and not to be confused as related to each other^[2]

Present circumstances

In India

In North India, the Gaddi are a community that has been associated with cattle farming. They are involved in the selling of milk, especially those settled in towns. Some owns the huge parts of Land that are earned by hard work of their ancestors. They have much in common with other pastoral communities, In addition, the western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana the Gaddi have always possessed agricultural land, and are a small and medium scale cultivators. However, in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the word Gaddi is almost become synonymous with milk selling.^{[3][page needed]}

The western Uttar Pradesh Gaddi, like other neighbouring peasant castes have benefited from the effects of the green revolution, and many have successfully begun mechanising their farming, such as buying tractors.^{[4][page needed]}

The Gaddi are Muslims of the Sunni sect, following various denominations such as Hanafi, Barelvi, Deobandi, and even local Folk Islam. They are an endogamous community, practising clan and village exogamy in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (i.e. not marrying within the clan). Among other Gaddi communities, marriages are preferred within the biradari, and with a marked preference for parallel cousin and cross cousin marriages. The Gaddi tend to reside in multi clan and multi religious villages, often occupying their own quarters. In western Uttar Pradesh, the Gaddi are what is often referred to as the dominant clan, usually making between half and two thirds of the population of the village, and their villages are referred to as Gaddi villages.^{[5][page needed]}

See also

• Gaddi
• Gaderia

References

1. the latest comprehensive post-colonial study done on Muslim Gaddis by the Dr. B. R. Ambedkar University of Social Sciences for the purpose of handing out accurate data to the government in 1995 concluded that the Muslim Gaddis were Rajputs in origin. 8. Dr. Baba Saheb Ambedkar National Institute of Social Sciences, Mahu, has conducted a research study on 'Gaddi' (Muslims) caste/community and submitted its report to Madhya Pradesh state Backward Classes commission in 1995. Basically Gaddi people were Rajputs
2. Hāṇḍā, Omacanda (2005). Gaddi Land in Chamba: Its History, Art & Culture : New Light on the Early Wooden Temples. Indus Publishing. pp. 28–32. ISBN 978-8-17387-174-0.
3. Social inequality among Indian Muslims Parvez A. Abbasi Published 1999 by A.C. Brothers in Udaipur .
4. Social inequality among Indian Muslims Parvez A. Abbasi Published 1999 by A.C. Brothers in Udaipur .
5. Social inequality among Indian Muslims Parvez A. Abbasi Published 1999 by A.C. Brothers in Udaipur .