Jatav, also known as Jatava/Jatan/ Jatua/Jhusia /Jatia/Jatiya, is an Indian

Dalit Dalit ( from meaning "broken/scattered") is a term used for untouchables and outcasts, who represented the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. They are also called Harijans. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold var ...

community that are considered to be a subcaste of the

Chamar Chamar (or Jatav) is a community classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's Reservation in India, system of affirmative action that originated from the group of trade persons who were involved in leather tanning and shoemaking. They a ...

caste, who are classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's system of positive discrimination. According to the 2011 Census of India, the Jatav community of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh ( ; UP) is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. With over 241 million inhabitants, it is the List of states and union territories of India by population, most populated state in In ...

comprised 54% of that state's total 22,496,047 Scheduled Caste population.

History

Some Jatav authors have disputed being Scheduled. In the 1920s, Jatavs claimed to be survivors of the ancient war between

Parashuram Parashurama (), also referred to as Rama Jamadagnya, Rama Bhargava and Virarama, is the sixth avatar among the Dashavatara of the preserver god Vishnu in Hinduism. Hindu tradition holds him to be the destroyer of the evil on Earth. According t ...

, the legend of the

Brahmin Brahmin (; ) is a ''Varna (Hinduism), varna'' (theoretical social classes) within Hindu society. The other three varnas are the ''Kshatriya'' (rulers and warriors), ''Vaishya'' (traders, merchants, and farmers), and ''Shudra'' (labourers). Th ...

s, and

Kshatriya Kshatriya () (from Sanskrit ''kṣatra'', "rule, authority"; also called Rajanya) is one of the four varnas (social orders) of Hindu society and is associated with the warrior aristocracy. The Sanskrit term ''kṣatriyaḥ'' is used in the con ...

s, forced into hiding. Their proof of ancestry is a series of correspondences or status similarities between Jatav and other Kshatriya clans. According to Owen Lynch, "These included identical

gotra In Hindu culture, the term gotra (Sanskrit: गोत्र) is considered to be equivalent to lineage. It broadly refers to people who are descendants in an unbroken male line from a common male ancestor or patriline. Generally, the gotr ...

s, and such Kshatriya-like ceremonies as shooting a cannon at weddings and the use of the bow and arrow at the birth

saṃskāra Samskara (Sanskrit: संस्कार, IAST: , sometimes spelled ''samskara'') are sacraments in Hinduism and other Indian religions, described in ancient Sanskrit texts, as well as a concept in the karma theory of Indian philosophies. The ...

".. According to M. P. S. Chandel In the early part of the 20th century, the Jatavs attempted the process of

sanskritisation Sanskritisation (or Sanskritization) is a term in sociology which refers to the process by which castes or tribes placed lower in the caste hierarchy seek upward mobility by emulating the rituals and practices of the dominant castes or upper c ...

, claiming themselves to be historical of the Kshatriya varna. They gained political expertise by forming associations and by developing a literate cadre of leaders, and they tried to change their position in the caste system through the emulation of upper-caste behavior. As a part of this process, they also claimed not to be Chamars and petitioned the government of the

British Raj The British Raj ( ; from Hindustani language, Hindustani , 'reign', 'rule' or 'government') was the colonial rule of the British The Crown, Crown on the Indian subcontinent, * * lasting from 1858 to 1947. * * It is also called Crown rule ...

to be officially classified differently: disassociating themselves from the Chamar community would they felt, enhance their acceptance as Kshatriya. These claims were not accepted by other castes and, although the government was amenable, no official reclassification as a separate community occurred due to the onset of World War II. An organisation of young Jatavs, called the Jatav Vir, was formed in

Agra Agra ( ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is the ...

in 1917, and a Jatav Pracharak Sangh was organised in 1924. They joined with local

Banias Banias (; ; Judeo-Aramaic, Medieval Hebrew: , etc.; ), also spelled Banyas, is a site in the Golan Heights near a natural spring, once associated with the Greek god Pan. It had been inhabited for 2,000 years, until its Syrian population fle ...

to establish a front and thus one of them won the seat of the mayor in Agra, and another became a member of the

Legislative Council A legislative council is the legislature, or one of the legislative chambers, of a nation, colony, or subnational division such as a province or state. It was commonly used to label unicameral or upper house legislative bodies in the Brit ...

. Under the leadership of

Jatav Mahasabha Akhil Bharatiya Jatav Mahasabha was founded in 1917 under the leadership of Manik Chand Jatav and Swami Achootanand. But in 24 January 2025 redeveloped by Shree khushilal ji the new founder of Akhil Bharatiya Jatav Mahasabha and Sunil Siroh ...

in the 1931 census, he took an aggressive stand for his demand to include Jatavs in the Kshatriya class and to rename them as 'Jatav' from Chanwar Chamar. They were successful and in the new census of India the Tanners were called 'Jatav'. Earlier pressing for the Kshatriya status, the new issues emerged among Jatavs in 1944–45. The Jatavs formed the

Scheduled Caste Federation The Republican Party of India (RPI, often called the Republican Party or simply Republican) was a political party in India. It had its roots in the All-India Scheduled Castes Federation led by N. Sivaraj and B. R. Ambedkar. The Party was est ...

of Agra having ties with the

Ambedkar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (Bhīmrāo Rāmjī Āmbēḍkar; 14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who chaired the committee that drafted the Constitution of India based on t ...

-led All India Scheduled Caste Federation. They started recognizing themselves as Scheduled Caste and hence "Dalit". This acceptance is attributed to the protections available to the scheduled castes. According to

Owen Lynch Owen M. Lynch (January 4, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American anthropologist who specialised in the people of India, with particular interest in those now referred to as Dalits, who were previously known as untouchables. Life Owen Lynch was ...

Religion

Most of the Jatavs belongs to the

Hindu Hindus (; ; also known as Sanātanīs) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism, also known by its endonym Sanātana Dharma. Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pp. 35–37 Historically, the term has also be ...

Religion. Some Jatavs also became

Buddhists Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or 5th century BCE. It is the world's fourth ...

in 1956, after

B. R. Ambedkar Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar (Bhīmrāo Rāmjī Āmbēḍkar; 14 April 1891 – 6 December 1956) was an Indian jurist, economist, social reformer and political leader who chaired the committee that drafted the Constitution of India based on t ...

converted him to Buddhism. On September 5, 1990, around a thousand members of the Jatav community from village Jaunpur near Agra converted to

Sikhism Sikhism is an Indian religion and Indian philosophy, philosophy that originated in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent around the end of the 15th century CE. It is one of the most recently founded major religious groups, major religio ...

in a protest against the upper caste people who halted the marriage procession taken out by Jatav Chamar Community. Along with the mainstream religious identity, the Jatav community follows

Guru Ravidas Ravidas or Raidas was an Indian mystic poet-saint of the Bhakti movement during the 15th to 16th century CE. Venerated as a ''guru'' (spiritual teacher) in the modern regions of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya P ...

as well and gathered in tens of thousands as protestors in Delhi against the demolition of Ravidas Temple.

Demographics

Jatavs are often combined with

Ahirwar The Ahirwar, or Aharwar are Dalit members of a north Indian caste categorised among the Scheduled Castes of Chamar. Predominantly are members of the Scheduled Castes with a higher population in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh. They are present ...

Ravidassia Ravidassia or the Ravidas Panth is a religion based on the teachings of Ravidas, Guru Ravidas. It was considered a sect within Sikhism until 2009. However, some Ravidassias continue to maintain Sikh religious practices, including the reverence of ...

and other subcastes and are given Scheduled Caste in major

North India North India is a geographical region, loosely defined as a cultural region comprising the northern part of India (or historically, the Indian subcontinent) wherein Indo-Aryans (speaking Indo-Aryan languages) form the prominent majority populati ...

n states under India's positive reservation system. As of the 2011 Census, there were 22,496,047 Jatav/Chamars in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, of whom 22,371,352 declared themselves as Hindu, 113,765 declared themselves as Buddhist, and 10,930 declared themselves as Sikh. According to this census, Jatavs make 11.25% of the State's population.

Notable Jatavs

Chetram Jatav Chetram Jatav (19 July 182726 May 1857) was an Indian revolutionary who participated in Indian Rebellion of 1857. He and his compatriot Ballu Mehtar were executed by being tied to a tree and then shot at. Early life Chetram Jatav was born on 1 ...

-was a freedom fighter who participated in the

Indian Rebellion of 1857 The Indian Rebellion of 1857 was a major uprising in India in 1857–58 against Company rule in India, the rule of the East India Company, British East India Company, which functioned as a sovereign power on behalf of the The Crown, British ...

References

Sources