THE CASTE CAULDRON

In India, Gurjjars are mainly concentrated in the north, across the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh,Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

In India, Gurjjars are mainly concentrated in the north, across the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh,Uttarakhand, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat and Maharashtra. They form around 10 per cent of India’s population.

who are gurjjars?
There are different versions relating to the origins of Gurjjars. According to Vincent A. Smith’s The Early History of India,

Gurjjars are possibly a branch of the Huns who came to the Indian subcontinent.
Majid Hussain’s Geography of Jammu and Kashmir State argues that the Gurjjars used to be inhabitants of Georgia, who crossed Central Asia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and the Khyber Pass to reach Gujarat probably in the 5th and 6th centuries. Another theory is that Gurjjars are related to the Rajputs who converted to Islam after losing wars to Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb.

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IN THE 1857
first War of Independence, the Gurjjars fought against the British with the Lodhs, Banjaras and Gonds. It is said that the Gurjjars stopped the British soldiers from cutting off the march of the Meerut revolutionaries. According to the Imperial Gazetteer of India, throughout the “Indian Rebellion of 1857, the Gurjjars and Musalman Rajputs proved the most irreconcilable enemies of the British.”

The obc route
During the Mughal era, Gurjjars guarded the trade routes of North India. But after 1857, the British classified the Gurjjars and 150 other Indian communities as ‘criminal tribes’ through the Criminal Tribes Act,1871.
But after Independence, the Government of India repealed the British Act and listed the Gurjjars separately as De-Notified Tribes. In the 1970s, Gurjjars were granted OBC status, something they shared with Yadavs, Kurmis, Jats, Kunbis, Lingayats and Vokalligas.

ELSEWHERE
Pakistan and Afghanistan have significant Gurjjar populations.

In Pakistan, Gurjjars form about 20 per cent of the population.
Apart from Hindus, Gurjjars are also Muslim, Sikh and Christian

GURJJARS AND QUOT
The Gurjjars, currently classified as OBCs, are entitled to quotas in state-run education centres and in government jobs. But the community wants to be listed in the ST category. In J&K and Himachal Pradesh, Gurjjars are STs. But in western UP, Haryana, Rajasthan, and Gujarat, they are OBCs.
In 1999, the BJP government included the Jats in its OBC list. The Jats, a relatively prosperous community in Rajasthan, form nearly 15 per cent of the population.
Once that happened, the Gurjjars who were already in the OBC category felt threatened.
The demand by the Gurjjars is also fuelled by the success of the Meenas, a large community in the state who were granted ST status in 1954. The community had benefited immensely in the last 50 years under the reservation policy and the Gurjjars now want the same.

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MORE DEMANDS
After the Gurjjar agitation in Rajasthan last year, Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje’s office was flooded with demands for reservations from communities like Nayaks, Nais, Malis, Raibaris and Rawats—several of whom share OBC status with the Gurjjars. Similarly, the Yadhavs, Raibaris and Rawats have been demanding a sub-category within the OBC quota.
Similarly, the Kurubas of Karnataka, Dhangars and the Ramoshi-Berads of West India, too, have been demanding ST status.