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The '''Maratha caste'''{{refn|group=note|"Maratha", in a wider sense may be extended to include all who inhabit [[Maharashtra]], and speak [[Marathi language|Marathi]] as their mother tongue.}} is composed of [[Maratha clan system|96 clans]], <ref name="Gordon1993">{{cite book|author=Stewart Gordon|title=The Marathas 1600–1818|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iHK-BhVXOU4C&pg=PA15|date=16 September 1993|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-26883-7|pages=15–18|quote=Looking backward from ample material on the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, we know that Maratha as a category of caste represents the amalgamation of families from several castes - Kunbi, Lohar, Sutar, Bhandari, Thakar, and even Dhangars (shepherds) – which existed in the seventeenth century and, indeed, exist as castes in Maharashtra today. What differentiated, for example, "Maratha" from "Kunbi"? It was precisely the martial tradition, of which they were proud, and the rights (watans and inams) they gained from military service. It was these rights which differentiated them from the ordinary cultivator, ironworkers and tailors, especially at the local level|access-date=13 November 2019|archive-date=14 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414083928/https://books.google.com/books?id=iHK-BhVXOU4C&pg=PA15|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Eraly2000">{{cite book|author=Abraham Eraly|title=Emperors of the Peacock Throne: The Saga of the Great Mughals|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=04ellRQx4nMC&pg=PA435|year=2000|publisher=Penguin Books India|isbn=978-0-14-100143-2|pages=435|quote=The early history of the marathas is obscure, but they were predominantly of the sudra(peasant) class, though later, after they gained a political role in the Deccan, they claimed to be Kshatriyas(warriors) and dressed themselves up with pedigrees of appopriate grandeur, with the Bhosles specifically claiming descent from the Sidodia's of Mewar. The fact however is that the marathas were not even a distinct caste, but essentially a status group, made up of individual families from different Maharashtrian castes..|access-date=14 August 2020|archive-date=14 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414083857/https://books.google.com/books?id=04ellRQx4nMC&pg=PA435|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="ReferenceA">"The name of the 'caste-cluster of agriculturalists-turned-warriors' inhabiting the north-west Dakhan, Mahārās̲h̲tra 'the great country', a term which is extended to all Marāt́hī speakers": {{EI2|author=P. Hardy|title=Marāt́hās|volume=6}}</ref><ref name="Hansen2018">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Bf5ZDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA31|title=Wages of Violence: Naming and Identity in Postcolonial Bombay|author=Thomas Blom Hansen|date=5 June 2018|publisher=Princeton University Press|isbn=978-0-691-18862-1|pages=31–|quote=Historically the term Maratha emerged in the seventeenth century from being an imprecise designation for speakers of Marathi to become a title of Martial honor and entitlements earned by Deccan peasants serving as cavalrymen in the armies of Muslim rulers and later in Chhatrapati Shivaji's armies.|access-date=13 November 2019|archive-date=14 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414083858/https://books.google.com/books?id=Bf5ZDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA31|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Black2005">{{cite book|author=Jeremy Black|title=Why Wars Happen|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ywx5Xr9QT4EC&pg=PT115|date=1 March 2005|publisher=Reaktion Books|isbn=978-1-86189-415-1|pages=115–|quote=In seventeenth and eighteenth century India, military service was the most viable form of entrepreneurship for the peasants, shepherds, ironworkers and others who coalesced into the Maratha caste|access-date=13 November 2019|archive-date=14 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414083858/https://books.google.com/books?id=Ywx5Xr9QT4EC&pg=PT115|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|first=Christophe|last=Jaffrelot|author-link1=Christophe Jaffrelot|title=India's Silent Revolution: The Rise of the Lower Castes in North India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qJZp5tDuY-gC|year=2003|publisher=C. Hurst & Co. Publishers|page=163|isbn=978-1-85065-670-8|access-date=21 May 2021|archive-date=14 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414083859/https://books.google.com/books?id=qJZp5tDuY-gC|url-status=live}}</ref>
According to the Maharashtrian historian B. R. Sunthankar, and scholars such as Rajendra Vora, the "Marathas" are a "middle-peasantry" caste which formed the bulk of the Maharashtrian society together with the other [[Kunbi]] peasant caste. Vora adds that the Marathas account for around 30 per cent of the total population of the state and dominate the power structure in Maharashtra because of their numerical strength, especially in the rural society.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=07qGAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA161|title=Grass-Roots Democracy in India and China: The Right To Participate|editor=Manoranjan Mohanty|editor2=George Mathew|editor3=Richard Baum|editor4=Rong Ma|author=Rajendra Vora|publisher=Sage Publications|year=2007|quote=The Marathas, a middle-peasantry caste accounting for around 30 percent of the total population of the state, dominate the power structure in Maharashtra. In no other state of India we find a caste as large as the Marathas. In the past years, scholars have turned their attention to the rural society of Maharashtra in which they thought the roots of this domination lay.|isbn=9788132101130|access-date=16 September 2018|archive-date=14 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414083858/https://books.google.com/books?id=07qGAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA161|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Sunthankar |first1=B. R. |title=Nineteenth Century History of Maharashtra: 1818-1857 |date=1988 |publisher=Shubhada-Saraswat Prakashan |isbn=978-81-85239-50-7 |page=122 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SoNuAAAAMAAJ&q=kunbi+peasant |access-date=16 January 2020 |language=en |quote=The peasant castes of Marathas and kunbis formed the bulk of the Maharashtrian society and, owing to their numerical strength, held a dominating position in the old village organisation. |archive-date=14 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414083900/https://books.google.com/books?id=SoNuAAAAMAAJ&q=kunbi+peasant |url-status=live}}</ref>
According to [[Jeremy Black (historian)|Jeremy Black]], British historian at the [[University of Exeter]], "Maratha caste is a coalescence of peasants, shepherds, ironworkers, etc. as a result of serving in the military in the 17th and 18th century".<ref>{{cite book |title= Why Wars Happen |author= Jeremy Black |page= 111 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=mdlUhsjJPDoC&pg=PA111 |year= 2005 |publisher= Reaktion Books |isbn= 9781861890177 |access-date= 14 September 2018 |archive-date= 14 April 2023 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230414083900/https://books.google.com/books?id=mdlUhsjJPDoC&pg=PA111 |url-status= live }}</ref> They are the [[dominant caste]] in rural areas and mainly constitute the landed peasantry.<ref>{{cite book|title=Politics in Modern Maharashtra|quote=The second caste conflict which is of political significance is that of the Marathas and the Mahars. Marathas are dominant in rural areas and mainly constitute the landed peasantry.|author=V. M. Sirsikar|year=1995|page=64|publisher=Orient Longman}}</ref> As of 2018, 80% of the members of the Maratha caste were farmers.<ref>{{cite news |date= 9 September 2018 |title= Dowry, child marriage issues plague Maratha and Dhangar communities |url= https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/dowry-child-marriage-issues-plague-maratha-and-dhangar-communities-5346895/ |access-date= 12 September 2018 |archive-date= 12 September 2018 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20180912094916/https://indianexpress.com/article/cities/mumbai/dowry-child-marriage-issues-plague-maratha-and-dhangar-communities-5346895/ |url-status= live}}</ref>
Marathas are subdivided into 96 different clans, known as the ''[[Maratha clan system|96 Kuli Marathas]]'' or ''Shahānnau Kule.''<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c8PJFLeURhsC&pg=PA34 |title=The Culture of India |editor=Kathleen Kuiper |publisher=Rosen |year=2010 |isbn=978-1615301492 |page=34 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Louis Dumont|title=Homo hierarchicus: the caste system and its implications|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XsOtRGdvIigC&pg=PA121|access-date=13 May 2011|year=1980|publisher=University of Chicago Press|isbn=978-0226169637|page=121|archive-date=14 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230414083900/https://books.google.com/books?id=XsOtRGdvIigC&pg=PA121|url-status=live}}</ref> Three clan lists exist but the general body of lists are often at great variance with each other. These lists were compiled in the 19th century.<ref name="Gordon1993"/>{{sfn|O'Hanlon|2002|p=17}}
There is not much social distinction between the Marathas and [[Kunbis]] since the 1950s.<ref name="Catanach2021">{{cite book|author=I. J. Catanach|title=Rural Credit in Western India 1875–1930: Rural Credit and the Co-operative Movement in the Bombay Presidency|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N4ntDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA88|date=28 May 2021|publisher=Univ of California Press|isbn=978-0-520-36800-2|pages=87–88|quote=The Malis were gardeners by caste, of about the same status as the Marathas. They had a reputation as a progressive caste, apparently taking easily both to education and to new agricultural pursuits. In truth, their chief advantage in the Nira canal area seems to have been their previous experience with irrigated crops; the original inhabitants of the area, mainly Marathas by caste[note 135], frequently made exceedingly poor attempts at imitating the Mali's methods. They also did not have the Malis' capital resources.[note 135]:Maratha is used here to cover both the original maratha peasant-soldier group and the Kunbi group of generally poorer peasants. The social distinction between the two groups appears to have all but died out in the first half of twentieth century.|access-date=11 July 2021|archive-date=11 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711132326/https://books.google.com/books?id=N4ntDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA88|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|title=Chhatrapati Shahu, the Piller of Social Democracy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d9hHAAAAMAAJ|year=1994|page=70|publisher=Bombay : Education Dept., Govt. of Maharashtra for President, Mahatma Jotirao Phule Vishwabharati, Gargoti, Dist. Kolhapur|author1=P.B.Salunkhe|author2=M.G.Mali|quote=Today the majority of the Maratha - Kunbi caste - cluster identify themselves as Marathas . During the early decades of the 20th Century political considerations turned Kunbis into Marathas. Today many rich Kunbis have become Marathas.|access-date=11 July 2021|archive-date=11 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210711132327/https://books.google.com/books?id=d9hHAAAAMAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>
The Maratha king [[Chhatrapati Shivaji]] founded the Maratha empire that included warriors and other notables from Maratha and several other castes from Maharashtra.<ref name="kantak"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Constable |first1=Philip |access-date=28 November 2020 |title=The Marginalization of a Dalit Martial Race in Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Western India. |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |volume=60 |issue=2 |pages=439–478 |year=2001 |doi=10.2307/2659700 |jstor=2659700 |pmid=18268829 |s2cid=40219522 |quote=While the bulk of Chhatrapati Shivaji's men were naturally Marathas, they included not only the allied castes of Dhangars and Gowalas, shepherds and herdsmen, but many who had no claim to kinship. For example Chhatrapati Shivaji's famous infantry was composed largely of Bhandaris and Kolis. The Ramoshis... who afterwards formed the infantry of Haidar and Tipu in Mysore, were relied an for the capture of the hill forts, while the outcaste Mahars and Mangs served in his artillery, and in the garrisons of these forts – Patrick Cadell |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/2659700 |archive-date=28 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210128235515/https://www.jstor.org/stable/2659700 |url-status=live }}</ref> This empire was dominant in India for much of the 18th century.
==Origin==
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