The Balai, Bhalse, Balahi or Bhalay are found in the states of

Madhya Pradesh Madhya Pradesh (, ; meaning 'central province') is a state in central India. Its capital is Bhopal, and the largest city is Indore, with Jabalpur, Ujjain, Gwalior, Sagar, and Rewa being the other major cities. Madhya Pradesh is the seco ...

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

and

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

in India. Balai means weaver. The bhalse are the upper group from the caste of balai some of the bhalse's are still doing the work of weaving The Bhalse's are bunkars and belong to the vaishya (Bania) caste they are usually found in madhyapradesh, rajasthan they make and sell clothes and are attached with the work of weaving. Acharya Shri Nanesh, the eighth Acharya of Sadhumargi Jain Shravak Sangha had preached among the Balai community in 1963 near Ratlam. His followers are called Dharmapal. Alot of them are follower of Lalgir, the venerable founder saint of a religious sect, call themselves 'Alakhgirs' and shrine of Sitala mata (smallpox goddess) can be found in their settlement and they observe nine day festival in her honour. They also pay tribute to Baba Ramdeo Ji. According to

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

, Uttar Pradesh showed the Balai population as 1200, whilst that in

, there are 306,034 Balais constituting 9.11 per cent of its total Scheduled Caste population and form the third largest group of the Dalits in state. In all of the states they are listed as

Scheduled Caste The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

. Despite occasional errors in the literature, they do not speak a distinct language. They speak the Nimadi language. There is no distinct Balai language, despite one being assigned an

ISO ISO is the most common abbreviation for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO or Iso may also refer to: Business and finance * Iso (supermarket), a chain of Danish supermarkets incorporated into the SuperBest chain in 2007 * Iso ...

hxHammarström (2015
Ethnologue
16/17/18th editions: a comprehensive review: online appendices

References

{{India-ethno-stub Weaving communities of South Asia Scheduled Castes of Uttar Pradesh Scheduled Castes of Rajasthan Scheduled Castes of Madhya Pradesh Scheduled Castes of Chhattisgarh Scheduled Castes of Maharashtra