Meo (ethnic group)

Not to be confused with Miao people.
See also: Mewat (disambiguation)
Meo
Elderly Meo people smoking a hookah, a significant symbol of their culture.
Total population
270,000 ~ 600,000 (1984)[1]

India India[1]

Pakistan Pakistan[2]

Punjab:
Sindh:
Regions with significant populations
Haryana, Rajasthan
Languages
Mewati, Haryanvi, Kauravi, Rajasthani, Urdu
Religion
Islam

Meo (pronounced: mev or may-o) (also spelled Mayo or occasionally, Mewati) are a Muslim ethnic group originating from the Mewat region of north-western India.[3][4]

Origins and history

The term "Meo" semantically correlates with the historical region of Mewat, which consists of the Nuh district of Haryana and some parts of adjoining Alwar and Bharatpur districts of Rajasthan and parts of western Uttar Pradesh. The term Mewati, in terms of use for ethnic classification, is also interchangeable with Meo. Although, not every Mewati is necessarily an ethnic Meo as the term is a general demonym for someone from Mewat.

Meos consider themselves as a mainly Rajput caste. According to one theory of origin they were Hindu Rajputs who converted to Islam between the 12th and 17th century,[5][6][4] until as late as Aurangzeb's rule. Over the centuries, they have maintained their age-old distinctive cultural identity. According to S. L. Sharma and R. N. Srivastava, Mughal persecution had little effect on the strengthening of their Islamic identity, but it reinforced their resistance to Mughal rule.[7] Though the general claim of Kshatriya Rajput descent may be true, some of them may be descendants of other castes who might have laid claim to this ancestry after converting to Islam to enhance their social standing. The names of many gots (gotra) or exogamous lineages of Meos are common with other Hindu castes as Meena, Ahir and Gujjar who live in their vicinity. While the kinship structure is closer to Jat system prevalent in Punjab and Rajasthan. It thus seems possible that the Meos belonged to many different castes and not just to the Rajputs;[8][9][10] this phenomenon is also seen in other Rajput communities and is not limited to the Meos.[11][12]

Cultural connections

Meos speak Mewati, a language of the Indo-Aryan language family,[1] although in some areas the language dominance of Urdu and Hindi has seen Meos adopt these languages instead.[13]

Hindu inhabitants of Mewat, although belonging to the same Kshatriya castes to which the Meos belonged before conversion to Islam, are not called Meo. Thus the word Meo is both region-specific and religion-specific. According to many, Meos come from many Hindu clans who converted to Islam and amalgamated as the Meo community, however there is no solid basis for this claim.[9]

Meos profess Islam but the roots of their ethnic structure are in Hindu caste society. Meos share most of their culture with their Hindu counterparts from neighboring areas in Haryana and Rajasthan.

Like Hindus of the north, the Meo do not marry within their own gotras although Islam permits marriage with cousins. Solemnization of marriage among Meos was not complete without both nikah and saptapadi, although the latter has been mostly abandoned with the advent of Islam.[14] Some gotras of the Meos believe that they are direct descendants of Krishna and Rama.[4][15]

Gotras

Meos were divided into three vansh, thirteen pals and fifty-two gotras by Rana Kaku Balot Meo in the 13th century.[16][17] Meos have twelve pals including a thirteenth inferior pal.[18]

Pals and Gotras

List of Pals

  • Ratwat
  • Dedwal
  • Lundawat
  • Balot
  • Nai
  • Poonglot
  • Dulot
  • Chhirkalot
  • Demrot
  • Kalisa
  • Sengal
  • Dhengal
  • Pahat (thirteenth inferior pal)
Table of Gotras
Agnivanshi Chandravanshi Surajvanshi

(5 total)

Pawar (3 total) Chauhan (10 total) Tomar (18 total) Jado (16 total)
Khokkar Chaurasia Kangar (Kanga) Nai (Bhamdawat) Dehangal
Malik Jamaliya Tanwar (Mangaria-Surohiya) Chhokar Sengal (Badgujar)
Pawar (Mewal) Jonwal Bilyana Bhati Kalisa (Pahat)
Chauhan Ratawat Veer Godh
Kalsia Sukeda Bhabla Gomal
Kanwaliya (Kamaaliya) Gehlot Jhangala
Mark (Mandar) Karkatiya Silania
Pahat Lamkhara Kholdar (Untwaal)
Sapolia Nanglot Sodola
Saugun Matyavat Dulot
Sagadawat Chhirkalot
Jatlawat Bhegot
Balot (Bugla) Naharwad
Kataria Demrot (Boridha)
Bodhiyan Poonglot (Sekhawat)
Ludawat or Baghodia Gorwal (Khanzada)
Majilawat-Jhelawat-Kadawat, Dhatawat-Lalawat

Marriage and kinship customs

Meos generally do not follow the Muslim law of inheritance and so among them, like various other communities in the region, custom makes a younger cousin marry the widow of the deceased by a simple Nikah ceremony.[19]

Geography and demography

Post-independence change

Despite pressure to do so from the regional princely states of Alwar and Bharatpur, ruled by Gorwal Khanzadas, the Meo Rajput community decided not to migrate to Pakistan during the Partition of India.[16] During 1947, Meo were displaced from Alwar and Bharatpur districts and there was significant loss of life in intercommunal violence.[15]: 191  The population of Meos drastically decreased in Alwarand and Bharatpur.[15]: 191  However, many old mosques from pre-independence era are still present there.

In 1947, Mahatma Gandhi visited Ghasera, a village in present-day Nuh district to urge the Muslims living there not to leave, calling the Meos "Iss desh ki reed ki haddi" or 'the backbone of the country', India. Due to this, the people of Ghasera still celebrate Mewat Day.[20][21]

Although on the whole the community did not migrate, there were a number of gotras of the Meos who, on an individual basis, did decide to relocate to Pakistan during partition. They were mostly settled in Pakistani districts of Sialkot, Lahore, Karachi, Narowal, Dera Ghazi Khan, Sheikhupura, Gujranwala, Multan, Haiderabad and Kasur, among others.[16]

According to the 2023 Pakistani census, there are around 1.1 million Mewati speakers in Pakistan, virtually all of them in Punjab.[22] While the estimated population of Meos is over 2 million.[23]

Legacy

Resisting Regimes is the first political anthropological and social-historical study detailing the Meos.[24]

References

  1. ^ a b c Kukreja, Reena (2020), "Meo Muslim, Mev, Mewati Muslim", Database of Religious History, University of British Columbia, doi:10.14288/1.0394975, S2CID 238914736
  2. ^ Meo, Shahabuddin Khan (2011). History of Mewat–An Outline. Khan Foundation for Education and Research. Journal of the Research Society of Pakistan. Vol. 48, no. 1. Department of History, Quaik-e Azam University, Islamabad, Pakistan. ISSN 0034-5431. PDF file
  3. ^ Naqvi, Saba (30 March 2016). "Meet the Muslims who consider themselves descendants of Arjuna". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 10 April 2023.
  4. ^ a b c Ghosh, Paramita (16 September 2016). "What you should know about the Meo Muslims of Mewat". Hindustan Times. Archived from the original on 7 April 2023.
  5. ^ Mathur, Malati (2006). "The Mewati Mahabharata: Pandun Ka Kaba". In Trikha, Pradeep (ed.). Textuality and inter-textuality in the Mahabharata: Myth, meaning and metamorphosis. Sarup & Sons. p. 84. ISBN 9788176256919.
  6. ^ Chauhan, Abha (2004). "Custom, Religion and Social Change Among the Meos of Mewat". In Gupta, Surendra K. (ed.). Emerging Social Science Concerns: Festschrift in Honour of Professor Yogesh Atal. Concept Publishing. p. 365. ISBN 9788180690983.
  7. ^ Eaton, Richard M. (1993). The Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204-1760. Berkeley, California, USA: University of California Press. p. 55. ISBN 9780520205079. Retrieved 20 December 2016.
  8. ^ Aggarwal, Partap C. (1978). "Caste hierarchy in a Meo village of Rajasthan". In Imtiaz Ahmad (ed.). Caste and social stratification among Muslims in India (2nd revised and enlarged ed.). New Delhi: South Asia Books. pp. 141–158. ISBN 9780836400502.
  9. ^ a b Prasad, Jitendra (2003). "Plural ethnic group characteristics: The nature of identity formation in Haryana". Guru Nanak Journal of Sociology. 24 (2): 1–21. ISSN 0970-0242. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
  10. ^ Mayaram, Shail (2003). "Antistate: The Pāl Polity". Against History, Against State: Counterperspectives from the Margins. Columbia University Press. pp. 49–73. ISBN 978-0-231-12730-1. p. 57: The Meo kinship structure is closer to the Jat system prevalent in Punjab and Rajasthan where the subcaste comprises segmented exogamous intermarrying gots rather than to the Muslim system in which women are retained within the descent group.
  11. ^ Parry, Jonathan P. (1978). Caste and Kinship in Kangra (First ed.). Routledge. p. 133. ISBN 978-1138862036.
  12. ^ Mayer, Adrian C. (1998). Caste and Kinship in Central India. Psychology Press. pp. 161–163. ISBN 978-0-415-17567-8.
  13. ^ Ahmad, Aijaz (July 2021). History of Mewat. p. 23. ISBN 978-81-933914-2-6.
  14. ^ Chauhan, Abha (2003). "Kinship Principles and the Pattern of Marriage Alliance: The Meos of Mewat". Sociological Bulletin. 52 (1): 71–90. doi:10.1177/0038022920030104. ISSN 0038-0229. JSTOR 23620302.
  15. ^ a b c Mayaram, Shail (1997). Resisting regimes: Myth, memory, and the shaping of a Muslim identity. Delhi Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0195639551.
  16. ^ a b c Sardar Azeemullah Khan Meo. Meo Rajput. Retrieved 23 February 2023.
  17. ^ Ahmad, Aijaz (April 2001). "Origin of the Meos: An assessment". The Punjab Past and Present. 32 (1): 39–44. ISBN 81-7380-878-3. Serial No. 63.
  18. ^ "How Meos Shape Their Identity". 4 March 2016. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  19. ^ Hashim Amir Ali; Mohammad Rafiq Khan; Om Prakash Kumar (1970). The Meos of Mewat: Old neighbours of New Delhi. Oxford & IBH Pub. Co. Retrieved 13 May 2011.
  20. ^ "Photos: 71 years after independence, Gandhi Gram Ghasera battles neglect". Hindustan Times. 1 October 2018. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  21. ^ Bordia, Radhika (30 January 2019). "Why the Meo Muslims in Mewat remember Mahatma Gandhi in December every year". Scroll.in. Retrieved 20 August 2020.
  22. ^ "POPULATION BY MOTHER TONGUE, SEX AND RURAL/ URBAN" (PDF). www.pbs.gov.pk. Pakistan Bureau of Statistics.
  23. ^ Guru Nanak Journal of Sociology. Sociology Department, Guru Nanak Dev University. 2003.
  24. ^ Robinson, Rowena (1999). "Book reviews and notices : SHAIL MAYARAM, Resisting regimes: Myth, memory and the shaping of a Muslim identity". Contributions to Indian Sociology. 33 (1–2): 463. doi:10.1177/006996679903300141. ISSN 0069-9667.

Sources

Further reading