Asian Journal of Multidimensional Research (AJMR)

The institution of caste may be mentioned as an important element in shaping the structure of the society. Each caste is a social unit in itself. India has been hospitable to numerous groups of immigrants from different parts of other countries. The stratification of rural society further strengthened due to the weakening of central government's control. The culture of each group has undergone a change over the centuries to become an integral part of Indian mosaic. The Muslim caste differs in some respects from the Hindu caste system. There are no ethico-religious ideas justifying the hierarchy or regulating inter-caste relations through ideas of purity and pollution and there are no Varna categories. Though Islam proclaims the idea of equality of all those who profess the faith but in India the Hindu caste system is entirely incompatible with the tenants of Islam. The main casts of the Delhi province were Rajput, Gujar, Jat, Ahir, Bhatti, Taga, Brahmin Afghans, Saiyyids etc. under the Mughals. The prestige of the Brahmin caste was the corner stone of the whole organization. The Sayyids and the Sheikhs belonged to the nobility of Islam which were traditionally occupying religious offices. On the other hand the Mughals and the Pathans had by tradition been warriors, feudal aristocrats and rulers. From a social structural view-point, by the time the Islamic expansion in India started, its tribal egalitarian character had changed. They were merely the names given to groups of tribes which were supposed to be of similar blood. This pattern of occupational differentiation had often significant exceptions, yet the fact remained that these four upper groups, which later evolved a caste like structure, together had been the bearers of the great tradition of Islam in India. The population of the Delhi province was composed of people of various casts and occupations. The caste composition of Delhi province particularly those who were dominating and controlling the land were very important. Different casts were mentioned in the different parganas but not as the sole zamindar, however, in some parganas they emerged as the dominant castes but in a few parganas they had only acquired zamindari rights. In Indian context, the hereditary association of a caste with an occupation has been so striking that caste is nothing more than the systematization of occupational differentiation. Thus, to associate a caste invariably with a single occupation is an over, simplification. The custom by which it lived generally was different from other castes. An individual in a caste society lived in a hierarchical world. Elaborate rules governed the acceptance of cooked food and water from another caste. The hierarchical nature of the Indian social structure was a prime factor in the slow change in the country, whether social or economic. Thus, the chief land owing caste in the Delhi province was that of the Jats followed by the Gujars, the Brahmans, the Rajputs and the Afghans. But the position of the Rajputs deteriorated while the Gujars became far more important in this region. A large number of Afghan people settled in the area of Rohilkhand during the mughal period.