Wagher, Vagher or Waghir (

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

ISO 15919 ISO 15919 is an international standard for the romanization of Indic scripts. Published in 2001, it is part of a series of romanization standards by the International Organization for Standardization. Overview Relation to other systems ...

: ''Vāghēr or '') is a

jāti ''Jāti'' is the term traditionally used to describe a cohesive group of people in the Indian subcontinent, like a caste, sub-caste, clan, tribe, or a religious sect. Each Jāti typically has an association with an occupation, geography or trib ...

from the

Saurashtra Saurashtra, Sourashtra, or variants may refer to: ** Kathiawar, also called Saurashtra Peninsula, a peninsula in western India ** Saurashtra (state), alias United State of Kathiawar, a former Indian state, merged into Bombay State and since its d ...

and Kutch regions of

Gujarat Gujarat () is a States of India, state along the Western India, western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the List of states and union territories ...

in India. Some Waghers are

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 ...

and others are

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

. They speak Kutchi as a mother tongue.

History

Rebellion against the British East India Company

After the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...

bombarded the temple of Krishna in

Bet Dwarka Bet Dwarka (also spelled Beyt Dwarka) or Shankhodhar is an inhabited island at the mouth of the Gulf of Kutch, situated off the coast of the town of Okha, Gujarat, India, and north of the city of Dwarka. Northeast to southwest, the island meas ...

and sacked the town in the 1800s, the Hindu Waghers of Okha rose up against the company. On the seas they took to piracy and targeted British ships. Attempts at peace were thwarted after the British set a trap for Mulu Manek, one of the Wagher leaders, with the pretext of negotiating disarmament. Also, during the course of the war the Wagher leader Jodha Manek and his soldiers seized

Kodinar Kodinar is a town and municipality in Gir Somnath district, in the Indian States and territories of India, state of Gujarat, west of Una, Gujarat, Una. Kodinar is close to the Gir Forest National Park. The main transport connections for Kodina ...

. The Waghers made their final stand at the Aabhparo peak in the Barda Hills, during the course of which the British poisoned natural water reservoirs in order to draw the Waghers out. In the aftermath of this war the British occupied of the region of Okha and transferred it to

Baroda State Baroda State was a kingdom within the Maratha Confederacy and later a princely state in present-day Gujarat. It was ruled by the Gaekwad dynasty from its formation in 1721 until its accession to the newly formed Dominion of India. With th ...

. British colonial authorities held racist views towards the Waghers, with Kincaid describing them as a 'tribe born of thieves'. Colonial theories attempted to discredit the Hindu identity of martial jātis including the Waghers and attempted to find or concoct theories suggestive of a foreign origin based on scant evidence.

Present circumstances

The community still speaks Kutchi, and are

endogamous Endogamy is the cultural practice of marrying within a specific social group, religious denomination, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting any from outside of the group or belief structure as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relatio ...

. They have several

clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...

s, the main ones being the Vagha, Kara, Manek, Ker, Sumaniya, Gad, Giggla, Mapani, Jam, Tilayat and Bhagad. The community maintain the practice of clan exogamy. They are a major landowning community in the

Dwarka Dwarka () is a town and municipality of Devbhumi Dwarka district in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Gujarat. It is located on the western shore of the Okhamandal Peninsula on the right bank of the Gomti river at ...

sub-division of

Jamnagar Jamnagar () is a city and the headquarters of Jamnagar district in the Indian state of Gujarat. The city lies just to the south of the Gulf of Kutch, some west of the state capital, Gandhinagar. The city was the capital of Nawanagar State, Na ...

District. The community are still mainly farmers, but like other Gujarat castes, they have migrated to other parts of India and overseas in search of work. Many Muslim Waghers from Kutch are employed in fishing. In 1993 the

Mandal Commission The Mandal Commission or the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission (SEBC), was established in India in 1979 by the Janata Party government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai with a mandate to "identify the socially or educatio ...

classified the Waghers as an Other Backward Class.

Notable people

Ram Singh Malam Ram Singh Malam was a navigator, architect and craftsman from 18th century Kutch region (now Kutch district, Gujarat) of India. When his ship got wrecked on a voyage, he was rescued by a Dutch ship which brought him to Holland. He learned severa ...

– 18th Century navigator, architect and craftsman from Kutch

References

{{Social groups of Gujarat Social groups of Gujarat Tribes of Kutch Maldhari communities Tribal communities of Gujarat

History

Rebellion against the British East India Company

Present circumstances

Notable people

See also

References