# Castes and Tribes of Southern India/Katike

​Katike.— The Katike or Katikilu are butchers in the Telugu country, concerning whom it is noted, in the ​Kurnool Manual, that "some are called Sultāni butchers, or Hindus forcibly circumcised by the late Nabob of Kurnool. They observe both Mussalman and Hindu customs." A correspondent in the Kurnool district informs me that the butchers of Kurnool belong to three classes, one selling beef, and the others mutton. Of these, the first are Muhammadans, and are called Gāyi Khasayi, as they deal in beef. The other two are called respectively Sultānis and Surasus, i.e., the circumcised and uncircumcised. Both claim to be the descendants of two brothers, and have the following tradition concerning their origin. Tīpu Sultan is said not to have relished the idea of taking mutton at the hands of Hindus, as they would not perform Bismallah at the time of slaughtering the sheep. He accordingly ordered both the brothers to appear before him. Being the manager of the family, the elder went, and was forcibly circumcised. On hearing the news, the younger brother absconded. The descendants of the former are Muhammadans, and of the latter Hindus. As he was made a Muhammadan by force, the elder brother and his descendants did not adopt all the Muhammadan manners and customs. Till recently they did not even allow their beards to grow. At the present day, they go to mosques, dress like Muhammadans, shave their heads, and grow beards, but do not intermarry with the true Muhammadans. The descendants of the younger brother still call themselves Āri-katikelu, or Marātha butchers, profess the Hindu religion, and follow Hindu manners and customs. Though they do not eat with Muhammadans or Sultānis, their Hindu brethren shun them because of their profession, and their intimacy with Sultānis. I am informed that, at Nandyal in the Kurnool district, some Marātha butchers, who observe ​purely Hindu customs, are called by Muhammadan names. The Tahsildar of the Sirvel tāluk in the same district states that, prior to the reign of the father of Ghulam Rasul Khān, the dethroned Nawāb of Kurnool, the butcher's profession was solely in the hands of the Marāthas, some of whom were, as stated in the Manual, forcibly circumcised, and became a separate butcher caste, called Sultāni. There are two sections among these Sultāni butchers, viz., Bakra (mutton) and Gai Kasai (beef butcher). Similar stories of forcible conversion to the Muhammadan religion are prevalent in the Bellary district, where the Kasāyis are mostly converted Hindus, who dress in the Hindu style, but possess Muhammadan names with Hindu terminations, e.g., Hussainappa.
In connection with butchers, I may quote the following extract from a petition to the Governor of Madras on the subject of a strike among the Madras butchers in 1907. " We, the residents of Madras, beg respectfully to bring to your Excellency's notice the inconvenience and hardship we are suffering owing to the strike of the butchers in the city. The total failure of the supply of mutton, which is an important item in the diet of non-Brāhmin Hindus, Muhammadans, Indian Christians, Parsis, Eurasians and Europeans, causes a deprivation not merely of something to which people have become accustomed, but of an article of food by which the health of many is sustained, and the want of which is calculated to impair their health, and expose them to diseases, against which they have hitherto successfully contended."