Ahluwalia (caste)
It is derived from the words "Ahlu" (a place name) and "walia" (a Punjabi-language adjectival suffix).[1] It was first adopted by the Sikh chief Jassa Singh, the leader of the Ahluwalia misl. The surname was later adopted by many others, including the members of the other caste who were not his descendants like rajputs, jats, khatris
Ahluwalia Misal was one of the Sikh Misals in Punjab. The leader of this Misal was Sardar Sadhu Singh Aujla a Jat. But the true founder was Jassa Singh Ahluwalia so this Misal was named after him as Ahluwalian Misal. the surname "Ahluwalia" after the name of his ancestral village. His descendants became the ruling dynasty of the Kapurthala State. In the late 19th century, other Kalals also adopted the Ahluwalia identity, as part of a Sanskritisation process to improve their social status, resulting in the formation of the Ahluwalia caste.[1] They gave up their traditional occupations, as they gained political power and as the colonial British administration started regulating distribution and sale of liquor.[2] This attempt was successful, and the Ahluwalias came to be considered equal to the high-ranked Khatris in the caste hierarchy.[1] The Kalals took up new occupations, and in particular, a large number of Ahluwalias served in the army.[2]
Some of the Ahluwalias further tried to enhance their social status by claiming Khatri or Rajput descent.[2] For example, a legendary account traces the ancestry of the Kapurthala royal family to the Bhatti Rajput royal family of Jaisalmer (and ultimately to Krishna through Salibahan). According to this narrative, a group of Bhattis migrated to Punjab, where they came to be known as Jats, and became Sikhs. The account states that Sadho Singh and his four sons married into Kalal families, because of which the family came to be known as Ahluwalia.[3] Lepel Griffin (1873), a British administrator who wrote on the history of Punjab's rulers, dismissed this account connecting the Ahluwalias to the Jaisalmer royal family as spurious.[3] The Sikh author Gian Singh, in his Twarikh Raj Khalsa (1894), noted that the Ahluwalia family had adopted the Kalal caste identity much before Sadho Singh.[4]
Most of the Ahluwalias follow either Sikhism or Hinduism.[1][5]
References[edit]
- ^ a b c W. H. McLeod (2009). The A to Z of Sikhism. Scarecrow Press. p. 6. ISBN 978-0-8108-6344-6.
- ^ a b c Donald Anthony Low (1968). Soundings in Modern South Asian History. University of California Press. pp. 70–71. OCLC 612533097.
- ^ a b Ganda Singh (1990). Sardar Jassa Singh Ahluwalia. Punjabi University. pp. 1–4.
- ^ M. L. Ahluwalia (1996). Land marks in Sikh history. Ashoka International. p. 37.
- ^ Jogindra Singh Gandhi (1982). Lawyers and Touts: A Study in the Sociology of Legal Profession. Hindustan. p. 64.
Ahluwalia are bi-religious, having both Hindu and Sikh members