The Raji people are a community found in

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand (, ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; List of renamed places in India, the official name until 2007), is a States and union territories of India, state in North India, northern India. The state is bordered by Himachal Pradesh to the n ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

and some parts of western

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

. , the Raji people are classified as a Scheduled Tribe under the Indian government's reservation program of

positive discrimination Affirmative action (also sometimes called reservations, alternative access, positive discrimination or positive action in various countries' laws and policies) refers to a set of policies and practices within a government or organization seeking ...

. They call themselves Bot Tho while others also call them Forest Raji (Ban Raji), and Forest Rawat ( Ban Rawat). They traditionally hunt for a living, especially porcupine and bats, and dig wild yams (Dioscorea spp) and other forest foods. Some families have a trade agreement with local traders ( Bhotiya) to sell their handmade wooden bowls while others have branched out into carpentry, selling other woodenwares such as plowshares and house building planks. Raji women have also been employed as rock crushers for construction projects. Households who were forcibly settled by the Government of India in the last generation mostly have subsistence-size garden plots and a few cattle as well.

Language

Raji speak a Tibeto-Burman language which they call Bat-Kha among communities in the

Pithoragarh Pithoragarh ( Kumaoni: ''Pithor'garh'') is a Himalayan town with a Municipal corporation in Pithoragarh district in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the largest hill town in Uttarakhand. Etymology "The district is named after its hea ...

region and Bot-Kha in the Champawat region of Uttarakhand. It is classified by linguists as Rawat (ISO 639-3 jnl; Glottocode Rawa1264). It is in the same language sub-group with the languages named Raji spoken in Nepal (ISO 639-3 rji; Glottocode Raji1240) and Raute (ISO 639-3 rau; Glottocode Raut1239) which is also spoken in Nepal. The three languages are currently classified in their own Sino-Tibetan language sub-group called Raji-Raute. This language sub-group shows some affinity to areal Mahakiranti group Himalayish languages such as

Kham Magar The Kham Magars (खाम मगर), also known in scholarship as the Northern Magars, are a (Tibeto-Burman languages, Tibeto-Burman language) Magar Kham language or Kham Kura speaking indigenous ethnic tribal community native to Nepal. In g ...

and Dhut Magar.

Raji people in Nepal

The Central Bureau of Statistics of Nepal classifies the Raji as a subgroup within the broader social group of Mountain/Hill Janajati. At the time of the

2011 Nepal census Nepal conducted a widespread national census in 2011 by the Nepal Central Bureau of Statistics. Working in cooperation with the 58 municipalities and the 3,915 Village Development Committees at a district level, they recorded data from all the m ...

, 4,235 people (0.0% of the population of Nepal) were Raji. The frequency of Raji people by province was as follows: * Karnali Province (0.1%) *

Sudurpashchim Province Sudurpashchim Province () is one of the seven Provinces of Nepal, provinces established by the Constitution of Nepal, new constitution of Nepal which was adopted on 20 September 2015. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China to the north, ...

(0.1%) *

Bagmati Province Bagmati Province (, ''Bāgmatī pradēśa'') is one of the seven Provinces of Nepal, provinces of Nepal established by the constitution of Nepal. Bagmati is Nepal's second-most populous province and fifth largest province by area. It is bordered ...

(0.0%) *

Lumbini Province Lumbini Province () is a Provinces of Nepal, province in western Nepal. The country's Provinces of Nepal, third largest province in terms of area as well as List of Nepalese provinces by population, population, Lumbini is home to the World Herita ...

(0.0%) *

Gandaki Province Gandaki Province ( ) ), is one of the seven federal provinces established by the current constitution of Nepal which was promulgated on 20 September 2015. Pokhara is the province's capital city. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region in Southw ...

(0.0%) *

Koshi Province Koshi Province () is an autonomous Provinces of Nepal, province of Nepal adopted by the Constitution of Nepal on 20 September 2015. It covers an area of , about 17.5% of the country's total area. With the industrial city of Biratnagar as its cap ...

(0.0%) *

Madhesh Province Madhesh Province () is a Provinces of Nepal, province of Nepal in the Terai region with an area of covering about 6.5% of the country's total area. It has a population of 6,126,288 as per the 2021 Nepal census, making it Nepal's most densely po ...

(0.0%) The frequency of Raji people was higher than national average (0.0%) in the following districts:2011 Nepal Census, District Level Detail Report
/ref> * Kailali (0.3%) * Surkhet (0.3%) * Bardiya (0.2%) * Jajarkot (0.1%)

References

Scheduled Tribes of Uttarakhand {{india-ethno-stub