Khatris

Khatri
Religions	Hinduism, Islam and Sikhism
Languages	Punjabi (Pothohari),Hindi,Urdu,Kutchi, Gujarati,Sindhi
Country	Primarily India and Pakistan
Region	Punjab, Sindh, Delhi,Haryana,Gujarat
Status	Forward caste

Khatri is a caste from the northern Indian subcontinent. Khatris in India and Pakistan are mostly from the Punjab region.

Khatris played an important role in India's trans regional trade during the Mughal Empire. They adopted administrative and military roles outside the Punjab region as well. Scott Cameron Levi describes Khatris among the "most important merchant communities of early modern India."

All the Sikh Gurus were Khatris.

As per Government of India records, "Khatri is a popular variant of the Sanskrit word Kshatriya, which was used to describe the warrior caste among the Hindu according to the Varanashram propounded by the Shastras". Khatris consider themselves to be of pure Vedic descent and thus superior to the Rajputs, who also claim Kshatriya status. Their standards of literacy and caste status were such during the early years of the Sikh community that, according to W. H. McLeod, they dominated it. Nath called Khatris a warlike race, a claim further supported by their employment as soldiers by Mughal emperors. However, by the time of British arrival in India, the Khatris were mostly involved in merchant and scribe occupation. Khatris sources explain this transition as follows: the Mughal emperors terminated the services of Khatris chieftains for moving against the imperial order of widow remarriage. Kenneth W Jones quoted that "the Khatris claimed with some justice and increasing insistence, the status of Rajputs, or Kshatriyas, a claim not granted by those above but illustrative of their ambiguous position on the great varna scale of class divisions" Khatris claim that they were warriors who took to trade. The 19th-century Indians and the British administrators failed to agree whether the Khatri claim of Kshatriya status should be accepted, since the overwhelming majority of them were engaged in Vaishya (mercantile) occupations. There are Khatris that are found in other states of India and they follow different professions in each region. The Khatris of Gujarat and Rajasthan are said to have tailoring skills like "Darji" (tailor) caste. Dasrath Sharma described Khatris as a mixed pratiloma caste of low ritual status but suggested that Khatris could be a mixed caste born of Kshatriya fathers and Brahmin mothers.

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