![Kathi man](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/Kathi_man.png)
The Kathi people is a small group of clans found in the peninsular
Kathiawar
Kathiawar () is a peninsula, near the far north of India's west coast, of about bordering the Arabian Sea. It is bounded by the Gulf of Kutch in the northwest and by the Gulf of Khambhat (Gulf of Cambay) in the east. In the northeast, it is ...
(now called
Saurashtra) region of
Gujarat
Gujarat (, ) is a state along the 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 fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...
, western India. It was from the Kathis that the
Maratha Empire
The Maratha Empire, also referred to as the Maratha Confederacy, was an early modern Indian confederation that came to dominate much of the Indian subcontinent in the 18th century. Maratha rule formally began in 1674 with the coronation of Shi ...
and later the
British Raj
The British Raj (; from Hindi ''rāj'': kingdom, realm, state, or empire) was the rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent;
*
* it is also called Crown rule in India,
*
*
*
*
or Direct rule in India,
* Quote: "Mill, who was himsel ...
named the
Saurashtra region
Saurashtra, also known as Sorath or Kathiawar, is a peninsular region of Gujarat, India, located on the Arabian Sea coast. It covers about a third of Gujarat state, notably 11 districts of Gujarat, including Rajkot District. It was formerly a ...
as Kathiawar until it was renamed Saurashtra, as the Kathis were prominent there during the 17th-18th centuries. The Kathis are a peasant caste,
and have historically married with
Rajputs
Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...
,
Ahirs
Ahir or Aheer are a community of traditionally non-elite pastoralists in India, most members of which identify as being of the Indian Yadav community because they consider the two terms to be synonymous. The Ahirs are variously described as a ...
, and
Barbarias.
The Kathis practiced the partition of territory upon a rulers death, in which his territory would be carved out among his sons. However, the British encourage the practice of
primogeniture
Primogeniture ( ) is the right, by law or custom, of the firstborn legitimate child to inherit the parent's entire or main estate in preference to shared inheritance among all or some children, any illegitimate child or any collateral relativ ...
, in which a ruler's territory would be completely inherited by his eldest son (or whomever was next in succession). The British favored this practice because it was easier to maintain control over a few large states rather than hundreds of small ones. However by the late 1920s, only a few Kathi rulers had adopted primogeniture.
[International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds Page 251-252] Government of India has added them in
Other Backward Class
The Other Backward Class is a collective term used by the Government of India to classify castes which are educationally or socially backward. It is one of several official classifications of the population of India, along with General castes, S ...
in the central list of Gujarat due to their educational backwardness.
Culture
Kathi people are horse lovers and keep
Kathiawari horses, which are known worldwide.
[International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds Page 251-252][, Bonnie Hendricks (1995)]
''International Encyclopedia of Horse Breeds''
Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. . Pages 251–252.
References
6. Books of Th
History of Kathiawad from the Earliest Times by Captain Wilberforce-Bell
Indian castes
{{India-ethno-stub