Mistri, or Mistry, is a term for a master-craftsman, foreman or supervisor of manual workers in India. Mistri is being replaced with terms "supervisor" and master craftsman with "Senior Technician" by the Indian Railway who replaced the designation of Mistris and Master Craftsman with terms "supervisor" and "senior technician" in year 2005 making the term Mistri redundant. The word ''Mistri'', or ''Mistry'', is adopted into the

Gujarati language Gujarati ( ; , ) is an Indo-Aryan language native to the Indian state of Gujarat and spoken predominantly by the Gujarati people. Gujarati is descended from Old Western Rājasthāni, Old Gujarati (). In India, it is one of the 22 Languages with ...

from the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

word ''Mestre'' meaning ''Master'' or ''Teacher''. The Portuguese were present in Gujarat since 1500 in Diu. The

Mistris of Kutch Kutch Gurjar Kshatriya (also known as Mistri or Mestri) are a minority Hindu community of Gujarat in India, who claim to be Kshatriya. They are an artisan community related with masonry, artistic carvings, sculpting and building and construction ...

and

Kadia Kshatriya Gurjar Kshatriya Kadia, also known as Gurjar Kadia/ Gujjar Kadia, and Kadia Kshatriya are a Hindu community mostly in Gujarat and Maharashtra. They are artisan community, occupation is masonry work and are related to larger artisan group of Kadias ...

communities worked on building Diu Fort and the Portuguese called them ''Mestre'' due to their skills at fort building. Mistri besides carpenter for (

Kumawat Kumawat is a caste clan of India. Most of them are concentrated in Marwar region. They are also known by the names Maru Kumawat, Mewari Kumawat, and Chejara Kumawat. The National Commission for Backward Classes has kept both the Kumhar and Kumawat ...

Suthar Suthar is a community within the Vishwakarma community found primarily in India and Pakistan. Its traditional occupation is mostly carpentry. Suthar community predominantly found in Gujarat and Rajasthan is a mixture of various castes. Curren ...

community) also meant Contractor
American anthropology, 1971-1995: papers from the American anthropologist edited by Regna Darnell page 768 (mainly for

- majority of whom worked as Railway, PWD & Forest Contractors during British India ). Many

Parsi The Parsis or Parsees () are a Zoroastrian ethnic group in the Indian subcontinent. They are descended from Persian refugees who migrated to the Indian subcontinent during and after the Arab-Islamic conquest of Iran in the 7th century, w ...

family working as Contractor, therefore, also adopted surname Mistry, as their occupational surname. One such famous Parsi businessman is

Pallonji Mistry Pallonji Shapoorji Mistry (1 June 1929 – 28 June 2022) was an Irish billionaire businessman of Indian descent. He was chairman of the Shapoorji Pallonji Group and a major shareholder of India's largest private conglomerate, Tata Group. Earl ...

. The word Mistri or Mistry in Gujarat is today identified with people, who are expert in building construction.

References

{{reflist Indian words and phrases Gujarati language Linguistic history of India Indian architectural history

See also

References