Wagher, Vagher or Waghir (

Gujarati Gujarati may refer to: * something of, from, or related to Gujarat, a state of India * Gujarati people, the major ethnic group of Gujarat * Gujarati language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by them * Gujarati languages, the Western Indo-Aryan sub- ...

ISO 15919 ISO 15919 (Transliteration of Devanagari and related Indic scripts into Latin characters) is one of a series of international standards for romanization by the International Organization for Standardization. It was published in 2001 and uses dia ...

: ''Vāghēr or Vāghir'') is a

jāti ''Jāti'' is the term traditionally used to describe a cohesive group of people in the Indian subcontinent, like a tribe, community, clan, sub-clan, or a religious sect. Each Jāti typically has an association with an occupation, geography or t ...

from the Saurashtra and Kutch regions 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 ...

in India. Some Waghers are

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

and others are

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

. They speak Kutchi as a mother tongue.

History

Rebellion against the British East India Company

After the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and Southea ...

bombarded the temple of Krishna in

Bet Dwarka Bet Dwarka (also spelled Beyt Dwarka) or Shankhodhar is an inhabited island at the mouth of the Gulf of Kutch, situated off the coast of the town of Okha, Gujarat, India, and north of the city of Dwarka. Northeast to southwest, the island measur ...

and sacked the town in the 1800s, the Hindu Waghers of Okha rose up against the company. On the seas they took to piracy and targeted British ships. Attempts at peace were thwarted after the British set a trap for Mulu Manek, one of the Wagher leaders, with the pretext of negotiating disarmament. Also, during the course of the war the Wagher leader Jodha Manek and his soldiers seized

Kodinar Kodinar is a town and municipality in Gir Somnath district, in the Indian state of Gujarat, west of Una. Kodinar is close to the Gir Forest National Park. The main transport connections for Kodinar are Diu Airport, Veraval Junction railway sta ...

. The Waghers made their final stand at the Aabhparo peak in the Barda Hills, during the course of which the British poisoned natural water reservoirs in order to draw the Waghers out. In the aftermath of this war the British occupied of the region of Okha and transferred it to

Baroda State Baroda State was a state in present-day Gujarat, ruled by the Gaekwad dynasty of the Maratha Confederacy from its formation in 1721 until its accession to the newly formed Dominion of India in 1949. With the city of Baroda (Vadodara) as its c ...

. British colonial authorities held racist views towards the Waghers, with Kincaid describing them as a 'tribe born of thieves'. Colonial theories attempted to discredit the Hindu identity of martial jātis including the Waghers and attempted to find or concoct theories suggestive of a foreign origin based on scant evidence.

Present circumstances

The community still speaks Kutchi, and are

endogamous Endogamy is the practice of marrying within a specific social group, religious denomination, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting those from others as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships. Endogamy is common in many cultu ...

. They have several

clan A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, clans may claim descent from founding member or apical ancestor. Clans, in indigenous societies, tend to be endogamous, meaning ...

s, the main ones being the Vagha, Kara, Manek, Ker, Sumaniya, Gad, Giggla, Mapani, Jam, Tilayat and Bhagad. The community maintain the practice of clan exogamy. They are a major landowning community in the

Dwarka Dwarka () is a city and a municipality of Devbhumi Dwarka district in the state of Gujarat in Western India. It is located on the western shore of the Okhamandal Peninsula on the right bank of the Gomti river at the mouth of the Gulf of Kut ...

sub-division of

Jamnagar Jamnagar () is a city located on the western coast of India in the state of Gujarat of Saurashtra (region), Saurashtra region. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jamnagar district and the fifth largest city in Gujarat. The city lies ...

District. The community are still mainly farmers, but like other Gujarat castes, they have migrated to other parts of India and overseas in search of work. Many Muslim Waghers from Kutch are employed in fishing. In 1993 the

Mandal Commission The ''Mandal Commission'' or the Socially and Educationally Backward Classes Commission (SEBC), was established in India in 1979 by the Janata Party government under Prime Minister Morarji Desai with a mandate to "identify the socially or educa ...

classified the Waghers as an

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 ...

Notable people

Ram Singh Malam Ram Singh Malam was a navigator, architect and craftsman from 18th century Kutch region (now Kutch district, Gujarat) of India. When his ship got wrecked on a voyage, he was rescued by a Dutch ship which brought him to Holland. He learned sever ...

- 18th Century navigator, architect and craftsman from Kutch

References

{{Social groups of Gujarat Social groups of Gujarat Tribes of Kutch Maldhari communities Tribal communities of Gujarat

History

Rebellion against the British East India Company

Present circumstances

Notable people

See also

References