Ashraf caste. Ashraf (cited in Karim, 1956: 129 .

Ashraf caste. Later, after Independence, the first backward commission Kaka Kalelkar Commission followed the census of 1901 and accepted the first two caste groups among Muslims Ashraf and Ajlaf. The panel, on Caste and ‘The Muslim Question’ with sociologist Khalid Anis Ansari, demographer Srinivas Goli, activist and former MP Ali Anwar Ansari and historian Faisal Devji was moderated by researcher Shireen Azam. Ajlaf : meaning base or vile, mostly local or indigenous converts, highest in numbers. The ashrāf group is further divided into four subgroups: (1) Sayyids, originally a designation of descendants of Muhammad through his daughter Oct 11, 2024 · Casteism in Indian Muslim Society: A hidden reality exploited by politics For decades, the Congress ecosystem has discredited the caste system in Hinduism, labelling it as the root of social inequality, yet failed to address the caste issues plaguing Indian Muslims. This relative- ly simple caste hierarchy may be due to the influence of Sikh religion, which has no caste-like stratifications and is dominant in the region. 20 Thus the state of Bihar, being a social laboratory, became the frontrunner for lower caste Muslim movements and 'Pasmanda Muslims' against the ashraf of the community. K. According to these studies, Muslim society is divided into three sections: Ashraf, Ajlaf and Arzal. Ashraf and those elevated to Ashraf. In general, Ashraf Muslims evade ‘Caste debate within Muslim community’, for Caste has no theological recognition in Islam. The Ashraf are self-proclaimed descendants of Muslim immigrants who emigrated to the Indian subcontinent from the Middle East and Central Asia; the group includes Sayyids, Shaikhs, Mughals, and Pathans, who all have different hierarchical positions within the The Asharaf, also spelled Ashraf (from the Arabic: أشراف, romanized: ashrāf, lit. [2][3] It developed as a result of relations among foreign conquerors, local upper-caste Hindus convert to Islam (ashraf, also known as tabqa-i ashrafiyya[4]) and local lower-caste converts (ajlaf), as well as the Oct 20, 2020 · The caste system of social hierarchy is a phenomenon not unique to just the Hindus of South East Asia, but is seen in many other religions and communities in the continent. ’ Because after this there was no caste census done. As per one analysis, 7,500 elected representatives from the first to the fourteenth Lok Sabha, 400 were Muslims — of which 340 were from Ashraf (upper caste) community. Q. The sociological study finds that Muslim society of India is divided into three major social groups, Ashraf, Ajlaf, and Arzal. May 18, 2025 · Most prominently, it may augment the process of politicisation of caste within the Muslim community who are divided along the categories of Ashraf (Upper Caste Muslims of noble ancestry), Ajlaf Apr 25, 2019 · The caste system constitutes the reality of Indian Muslims, as it does of Hindus. Only 60 Muslims from the Pasmanda background have been elected in fourteen Lok Sabhas. However, in 1990 after the implementation of the Mandal Commission, the three caste groups among ‘the caste system’ and ‘caste labels’ since similar broad division exists in the form of varna categories in ‘the caste system’. M. Feb 9, 2024 · Muslim caste identity is divided into three categories: Ashraf, Ajlaf, and Arzal. See also [2] [3] It developed as a result of relations among foreign conquerors, local upper-caste Hindus convert to Islam (ashraf, also known as tabqa-i ashrafiyya [4]) and local lower-caste converts (ajlaf), as well as the continuation of the Indian caste system by converts. The caste system among Muslim society has long been an ignorant point of debate in academia. Nonetheless, the Ashraf having prefix’s like Syed, Khan, Pasha, Mirza, Sheikh, Siddiqui, Farooqui, in their name, argues for the idea of equality in Islam, and blame two, viz. Abstract – Though the philosophy of caste hierarchy is quite contradictory to the basic beliefs of Islam which explicitly emphasizes equality and universal brotherhood, caste hierarchy exists among Muslims in India that can be divided into three broad category; the Ashraf (upper class), the Ajlaf (clean occupational caste), and the Arzal (unclean occupational caste or untouchable). , upper caste in Hinduism, and this Ajlaf is like the Vaishya and Arjal caste groups; they come in the Sudra category, but those who have to say whether there is any caste in Islam or not are their own thing. Ansari used the three broad categories of ashraf, ajlaf and arzal in the collective sense but clearly recognised that they were divided into smaller named groups that were distinguished , ‘ The Ashraf-Ajlaf Dichotomy in Muslim Social Structure in India ’, Indian Economic and Social History Review 3, 3 (1966), pp. But in recent times it emerged as a thoughtful discourse. Also, the early Muslim conquerors, invaders and saints passed through the region but did not May 18, 2022 · An interesting discussion at a recent conference on the caste census showed that casteism is shared by Hindus and Muslims in India. The Muslims are broadly divided into the elite upper castes, or the Ashrafs, and the subaltern lower castes, or the Pasmandas. Alam Citation 2009; I. Feb 28, 2024 · Muslims are also categorized, which is called Ashraf, Ajlaf, and Arjal, and these who belong to the Ashraf category Yes, they are like the Brahmin Chhhatriya, i. Jun 6, 2022 · The word ‘Caste’ is very common and vital force of South Asian society and almost all countries of the region -India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Maldives and Bhutan have adopted this traditionally in a similar way. But the real units of social stratification are the caste-analo- gues, and the day-today relation- ships between different individuals in any local community are deter- mined by their membership of the May 13, 2019 · The philosophy of social inequality within Muslims is termed Syedism, and movements against the Ashraf dominance have been led by the ‘lower’ ones — Ajlaf (backward Muslims) and Arzal (Dalit Muslims)—at least since the beginning of the 20th century. Ahmad Citation 2007; Sikand Citation 2001). Feb 12, 2025 · Abstract The caste structure among Muslim society has been an ignored topic of discussion. ' nobles ' ), is a Somali clan. Other articles where ashrāf is discussed: Islamic caste: …distinction is made between the ashrāf (Arabic, plural of shārīf, “nobleman”), who are supposedly descendants of Muslim Arab immigrants, and the non-ashrāf, who are Hindu converts. e. ), Caste and Social Stratification Among Muslims in India (Delhi, 1973)Google Scholar; Lindholm, C. Ashraf: meaning noble & highborn, claims to be foreign descendants, also includes converts from high caste Hindus. The book deep dives into the songs and the play performed at the Elgar Parishad, controversially critiquing Brahminism and Prime Minister Narendra Modi; furnishes . [6] Jul 27, 2023 · First, the emergence of a critique internal to Muslim politics, carried by activists from marginalized caste groups calling themselves Pasmanda and challenging the leadership of the dominant groups, collectively designated by the term Ashraf (A. Ashraf (cited in Karim, 1956: 129 Several Commission recommend that Pasmanda Muslims are political backward. Muslim communities in South Asia have a system of social stratification [1] arising from concepts other than "pure" and "impure", which are integral to the caste system in India. Historians and Urdu writers (including Masood Alam Falahi) have explained how discrimination of Ashraf Muslims towards lower caste Muslims and Dalit Muslims was often disguised under claims of class and "khandaani" (family line) values among Uttar Pradesh Muslims. belonged to the upper castes (ashraf). Jun 10, 2019 · Abid Faheem . 19 There have been of course, a few exceptions like A. As I described in the introduction, the term Pasmanda had been coined in opposition to the upper-caste Muslim, or the Ashraf. Asharaf or Ashraf, Somali clan claiming descent from Muhammad through Fatima; List of Ashrāf tribes in Libya; Sharif of Mecca; Sharifate of Mecca; Sharifian (disambiguation) Sharifism, term used for the rising prominence of the shurafāʾ in early modern Morocco; Sherif, a proper name derived from sharīf, including a list of people named that way CASTE / A Global Journal on Social Exclusion. Pasmanda then is defined as a negative term – those who are not the Ashraf. The coming together of castes which face untouchability and castes which enforce it is not easy. The differences between these two broad categories of castes come to the fore before every election. Most of the South Asian Muslims were recruited from the Hindu population; despite the egalitarian tenets of Islam, the Muslim converts persisted in their Hindu social habits. , ‘ Caste in Islam and the problem of deviant system: A Islamic caste, any of the units of social stratification that developed among Muslims in India and Pakistan as a result of the proximity of Hindu culture. According to Asghar Ali Engineer, on the question of caste as anti/un-Islamic, they are Challenging Caste reads the violence at Bhima Koregaon as a clash between two worldviews — one striving to flatten the social hierarchy, the other justifying and perpetuating it. Because after this there was no caste census done. (ed. Ansari, leader of the Momin Conference. Feb 5, 2019 · Thus, Ashraf always see caste question as a threat to community’s harmony, and an attempt to defame Islam. Jul 21, 2023 · (ii) Graded hierarchy among lower caste Muslims. However, in 1990 after the implementation of the Mandal Commission, the three caste groups among Feb 6, 2019 · This opinion emerged out of my discussions on Caste among Muslims, with my ‘Ashraf’friends. [5] Non-ashrafs are backward-caste converts. Similarly, Ashraf—who sees Islam as a religion of ‘equality and fraternity’ and that it opened doors to low-caste Hindus for rising higher in society—found, based on mostly Islamic sources, that ‘With his conversion to Islam, the average Muslim did not change his old environment, which was deeply influenced by caste distinction and general social exclusiveness. Their name is the plural of sharīf , an originally Arabic term designating those who claim descent from the family of the Islamic prophet Muhammad . The All India Backward Muslims Morcha Caste among the Indian Muslims Under the Muslim rule a new type of social stratification was created by the Muslims. Often ignored by the media and Muslim leaders, there is wide scale discrimination present in Muslim society between two factions- Ashraf and Ajlaf. Congress never targeted the Ashraf hegemony within the Muslim community, ensuring that the Muslim vote bank remained under the The 'ashraf'-'ajlaf' di- chotomy presents a convenient scale of values to people, and people try to fit themselves into this general frame. 268 – 278 CrossRef Google Scholar; Ahmad, I. However, many sociological writings have continuously attempted to reveal various aspects of the caste system in Muslim society of India. bgx widu ktcet xkjfc evxf zpsm nmydpc qwjal rttvp keqhpfnx