Rajbhar
The Rajbhar (also spelled Rajbhaar) are a community of the state of Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Delhi, Haryana, Punjab, Bihar, Mumbai, Nepal and other states India.
Regions with significant populations | |
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India | |
Languages | |
Hindi | |
Religion | |
Hinduism | |
Related ethnic groups | |
Bhar |
They are also known as Bhar. Influenced by the Arya Samaj movement, as were members of other highly castes, Baijnath Prasad Adhyapak published Rajbhar Jati ka Itihas in 1940. This book attempted to prove that the Rajbhar were formerly rulers who were related to the ancient Bhar tribe.[1]
There were proposals in 2013 that the community in the state should be reclassified as Scheduled Castes under India's system of positive discrimination; this would have involved declassifying them from the Other Backwards Class (OBC) category.[2] Whether or not this would happen was a significant issue in the campaign for the 2014 Indian general election.[3]
They are among 17 OBC communities that were again proposed for Scheduled Caste status by the Samajwadi Party-controlled Government of Uttar Pradesh. However, this proposal, which relates to votebank politics, has been stayed by the courts; the prior attempt had been rejected by the India.[4][5]
References
- Narayan, Badri (209). Fascinating Hindutva: Saffron Politics and Dalit Mobilisation. SAGE Publications. p. 25. ISBN 978-8-17829-906-8.
- Shah, Pankaj (6 April 2013). "Political parties eye Lok Sabha polls, bank on boatmen to claim pole position". The Times of India. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
- Srivastava, Piyush (25 February 2014). "BJP castes a wider UP net, uses Modi's background to attract OBC votes while seeking blessings by feeding Brahmins". India Today. Retrieved 14 April 2014.
- "Setback for Akhilesh government as High Court stays their order to include 17 sub-castes in the SC category". Financial Express. 24 January 2017. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
- "UP govt to include 17 other backward castes in SC list". Hindustan Times. PTI. 22 December 2016. Retrieved 4 February 2017.