Ravived is a caste that is mainly found among Hindus in Mauritius. The origin of this caste lay in an Indian caste named
Chamar
Chamar is a Dalit community classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's system of affirmative action. Historically subject to untouchability, they were traditionally outside the Hindu ritual ranking system of castes known as varna. ...
This same caste is referred to as
Ravidassia
Ravidassia or the Ravidas Panth is an Indian religion based on the teachings of Ravidass, who is revered as a satguru.
Historically, Ravidassia represented a range of beliefs in the Indian subcontinent, with some devotees of Ravidass counting the ...
outside Mauritius, and this terminology is very seldom used in Mauritius.
In the ship records on which Indian laborers migrated to
Mauritius
Mauritius ( ; french: Maurice, link=no ; mfe, label=Mauritian Creole, Moris ), officially the Republic of Mauritius, is an island nation in the Indian Ocean about off the southeast coast of the African continent, east of Madagascar. It incl ...
, around ten percent of the boarded people mentioned their caste as Chamar. After the establishment of caste hierarchies in Mauritius, the Chamar community families turned to the religious songs of
Kabir
Kabir Das (1398–1518) was a 15th-century Indian mystic poet and saint. His writings influenced Hinduism's Bhakti movement, and his verses are found in Sikhism's scripture Guru Granth Sahib, the Satguru Granth Sahib of Saint Garib Das, ...
and
Ravidass for their own religious outlet. Slowly, they started adopting religious-sounding names from these devotional songs.
Arya Ravived Pracharni Sabha
During the initial stage of migration in Mauritius, significant numbers of Chamar people joined the
Arya Samaj
Arya Samaj ( hi, आर्य समाज, lit=Noble Society, ) is a monotheistic Indian Hindu reform movement that promotes values and practices based on the belief in the infallible authority of the Vedas. The samaj was founded by the san ...
in the hope that it would help them to be free from the curse of casteism, as it was claimed by the leaders of the Arya Samaj. But later, Upper Caste Arya Samajis started building separate halls for themselves and chamars for prayer within the same shrine to avoid Arya Samaj being labelled as a Chamar religion, which led to the establishment of Arya Ravived Pracharini Sabha in 1935.
See also
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Chamar
Chamar is a Dalit community classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's system of affirmative action. Historically subject to untouchability, they were traditionally outside the Hindu ritual ranking system of castes known as varna. ...
*
Jatav
Jatav, also known as Jatava/ Jatan/ Jatua/ Jatia, is an Indian social group that are considered to be a part of the Chamar caste, (now often termed Dalit), who are classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's system of positive discr ...
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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'' (teacher) in the modern regions of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Pun ...
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Ravidassia
Ravidassia or the Ravidas Panth is an Indian religion based on the teachings of Ravidass, who is revered as a satguru.
Historically, Ravidassia represented a range of beliefs in the Indian subcontinent, with some devotees of Ravidass counting the ...
*
Ramdasia
The Ramdasia were historically a Sikh Hindu sub-group that originated from the caste of leather tanners and shoemakers known as Chamar
Terminology
Ramdasia is a term used in general for Sikhs whose ancestors belonged to Chamar caste. Origin ...
References
Dalit
Leatherworking castes
Ravidassia
Indian diaspora
Mauritian
Mauritians (singular Mauritian; french: Mauricien; Creole: ''Morisien'') are nationals or natives of the Republic of Mauritius and their descendants. Mauritius is a multi-ethnic society, with notable groups of people of South Asian (notably ...
Mauritian people of Indian descent
Indian diaspora in Mauritius
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