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The Garha, Gaur, Gaud or Gour, Gauri are a Muslim community or
caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...
found in the Indian states of Delhi NCR, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana,Manohar, K S Singh, ed. (2005) ''People of India Uttar Pradesh''. Vol. XXIII. p. 407 Punjab and Uttarakhand.


History and origin

The Garha have 51 sub-divisions,Manohar, K S Singh, ed. (2005) ''People of India Uttar Pradesh''. Vol. XLII Part 2. p. 509 known as biradari. Some of these are based on territorial groupings and some on the sects and castes they belonged prior to their conversion to Islam. Their main biradari is the Gaur Brahmin. Some Garha sub-groups descent from the Gaur (Clan) of Rajput. But most of Gada groups are descent from the Gaur Brahmin community, and claim ''Gada'' is the khadi boli transformation of the original ''Gauda''. Some Garha Biradari sub-groups also descent from the tribe of Muhammad Ghouri or Muhammad of Ghor. They merged with the Gaur Muslims through marriage and political alliance and use surname Ghouri or Gouri and Ghazi. Thus it can be concluded that Gaur Muslims are a mixed community of Gaur Brahmin (major and the main part), Rajput and Gauri Afghan. The Garha have a caste association, called the Anjuman Garha (Garha association), whose primary purpose is to look after their socio-economic welfare. The association runs schools imparting education and making arrangements of boarding house for poors. They live in multi-caste villages, occupying their own quarters and they are landlords and well educated as well as powerful. They are upper caste and Swarn or Ashraaf.Manohar, K S Singh, ed. (2005) ''People of India Uttar Pradesh''. Vol. XLII Part 2. p. 511 The community comprises mostly peasants called Nambardaar, Gour, Padhaan, Zamindaar, Jagirdar, Chaudhary, Gauri and Ghazi concentrated in the Doab region of Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring Haridwar District of Uttarakhand and Yamuna Nagar district of Haryana. Each of their settlements contains a village-based caste council, known as a ''biradari panchayat'', which acts as an instrument of social control and resolves intra-community disputes. In terms of religion, they are fairly orthodox
Sunni Sunni Islam () is the largest branch of Islam, followed by 85–90% of the world's Muslims. Its name comes from the word '' Sunnah'', referring to the tradition of Muhammad. The differences between Sunni and Shia Muslims arose from a disagr ...
Muslims, and have customs similar to other neighbouring Muslim peasant castes such as Muslim Jaat, Ranghad,
Rohilla Rohillas are a community of Pashtun ancestry, historically found in Rohilkhand, a region in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It forms the largest Pashtun diaspora community in India, and has given its name to the Rohilkhand region. The Ro ...
and Musalman Taga. The Garha speak Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi and the local Khari boli dialect.


See also

* Gauḍa Brahmins *
Gaur Rajput Gaur is a Hindu Rajput clan of India. They have ancient ancestry and find mention by James Tod as one of 36 royal races in his book Annals and Antiquities of Rajasthan The Gaur Rajputs once held a prominent position in Ajmer till the time of Prith ...
* Mughal Empire * Maratha Empire *
Rajputana Rājputana, meaning "Land of the Rajputs", was a region in the Indian subcontinent that included mainly the present-day Indian state of Rajasthan, as well as parts of Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat, and some adjoining areas of Sindh in modern-day ...
* Gaur Kingdom


References

{{Indian Muslim Muslim communities of Uttar Pradesh Social groups of Haryana