Meo (ethnic group)

Meo (ethnic group)
Meo (pronounced: mev or may-o), is an ethnic group of the Mewat region from north-western India, particularly from the Nuh district (previously Mewat district) in Haryana and parts of adjacent Alwar and Bharatpur districts in Rajasthan. The term Mewati, although less common, is also used to refer to the ethnic group in modern discourse. They speak Mewati, a language of the Indo-Aryan language family, although in some areas the language dominance of Urdu and Hindi has seen Meos adopt these languages instead.
Origins and history
Meos are native inhabitants of Mewat, a region that consists of the former Mewat district of Haryana and some parts of adjoining Alwar and Bharatpur districts of Rajasthan and Western Uttar Pradesh, where the Meos have lived for a millennium. According to one theory, they were Hindu Rajputs and Kshatriya who converted to Islam between the 12th and 17th century, 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.
A speculative British Raj-era theory that was first briefly suggested by the colonial ethnographer and political agent for Alwar State, Major P. W. Powlett, has it that the Meo are related to the Meenas (Minas). In Powlett's 1878 Gazetteer of Ulwur (later spelt Alwar), he comments: "The similarity between the words Meo and Mina suggests that the former may be a contraction of the latter". There is no linguistic evidence produced in support of this purported verbal relationship by Powlett and historians such as Shail Mayaram have noted that Mewatees was the usual term for Meos until the nineteenth century. He continues by pointing out that several clans in both communities (Singal, Náí, Dúlot, Pimdalot, Dingal, Bálot) have identical names. These are some of the thirteen of Meo, each a group of (rather than single) gotras or "clans". The traditionally encompass a geographical area and may include non-Muslim allies of any caste within that territory. Powlett mentions the Meo's traditional narrative ballad— understood by Meos as a cultural story, rather than as oral history —of Dariyā Khān ("Daria Meo") and the story of his betrothal to Sisbadani, a Mina woman, their separation and reunion, as possibly suggestive of historical intermarriage between the groups.
According to Shail Mayaram, author, and professor of Subaltern Studies at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, this view was likely constructed from political motives by those with colonial authority. In her view, following the 1857 insurrection in which the Meo joined action against the Company Raj, it was helpful to the British if they could conflate the still-resistant Meos with another nearby group whom they had already classified as "criminal", the Minas. While there had been some instances of Minas prosecuted for theft, dacoity, and similar, in the aftermath of the mutiny, there had been almost no Meo involvement in such cases. Mayaram traces the theory of a Meo–Mina intermixing from its relatively tentative genesis with Powlett, through repetitions of varying strength in colonial reports, to its emergence as a fully-fledged "common origin" in Alexander Cunningham's Eastern Rajputana report. Even the traditional epic of Dariyā Khān and Sisbadani was transmuted from the "story" in Powlett to an acknowledged "historical" event in the later text.
Mewati make up majority of Muslims in Nawabo ka Nimbahera. Historically, the Gorwal Khanzadas of Mewat, Chauhan, Rathore, and Tomar clans of the Meo Rajputs ruled various states of India.
Cultural connections
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. Apparently, Meos come from many Hindu clans who converted to Islam and amalgamated as the Meo community.
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. The neighbouring Hindu Jats, Minas, Ahirs and Rajputs share the same mores. According to some sources, the Meo community may have a common origin with the Meena community. Such views were especially prominent in colonial-era ethnographies.
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. Meos believe that they are direct descendants of Krishna and Rama even as they claim to be among the unnamed prophets of God referred to in the Quran.
Gotras
Meos claim high-caste Hindu Rajput descent. This may be true for some of them. However, some of them may be descendants of other castes who might have laid claim to Rajput ancestry after converting to Islam to enhance their social standing (Harris 1901:23; Channing 1882:28). 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. It thus seems possible that the Meos belonged to many different castes and not just to the Rajputs; this phenomena is also seen in other Rajput communities and is not limited to the Meos.
Rajput Meos were divided into thirteen and fifty-two gotras by Rana Kaku Balot Meo in the 13th century.
List of pals
Agnivanshi pals:
Ratwat
Dedwal
Chandravanshi pals:
Lundawat
Balot
Nai
Poonglot
Dulot
Chhirkalot
Demrot
Surajvanshi pals:
Kalisa
Sengal
Dhengal
List of gotras
Agnivanshi include the Chauhan group with ten gotras, and the Pawar with three.
Chauhan:
Chaurasia
Jamaliya
Jonwal
Chauhan
Kalasia
Kanwaliya
Mark (Mandar)
Pahat
Sapolia
Saugun
Pawar:
Khokkar
Malik
Pawar (Mewal)
Chandravanshi consists of Tomar with eighteen gotras and Jado with sixteen.
Tomar (Tanwar):
Kangar (Kanga)
Tanwar (Mangaria-Surohiya)
Bilyana
Ratawat
Sukeda
Gehlot
Karkatiya
Lamkhara
Nanglot
Matyavat
Sagadawat
Jatlawat
Balot (Bugla)
Kataria
Bodhiyan
Ludawat or Baghodia
Majilawat-Jhelawat-Kadawat, Dhatawat-Lalawat
Jado
Nai (Bhamdawat)
Chhokar
Bhati
Veer
Bhabla
Jhangala
Silania
Kholdar (Untwaal)
Sodola
Dulot
Chhirkalot
Bhegot
Naharwad
Demrot (Boridha)
Poonglot (Sekhawat)
Gorwal (Khanzada)
Surajvanshi
Dehangal
Sengal (Badgujar)
Kalisa (Pahat)
Godh
Gomal
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 brother or a cousin marry the widow of the deceased by a simple Nikah ceremony.
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. During 1947, Meo were displaced from Alwar and Bharatpur districts and there was significant loss of life in intercommunal violence. The population of Meos drastically decreased in Alwarand and Bharatpur. 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 "" or 'the backbone of the country', India. Due to this, the people of Ghasera still celebrate Mewat Day.
Although on the whole the community did not migrate, there were a number of gotras of the Rajput 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.
References
Sources
Chapters:
Chapter 1: "State Formation in Mewat: Relationship of the Khanzadas with the Delhi Sultanate, the Mughal State, and Other Regional Potentates. pp.11–37.
Chapter 3: "Social Formation of Meos: From Tribe to Caste". pp. 93–132
Further reading
Mewat
Social groups of Haryana
Muslim communities of Uttar Pradesh
Muslim communities of Rajasthan
Social groups of Rajasthan