Khuri
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Khuri or Khudi (खूड़ी) is a village in Sikar district in Rajasthan. Khuri came in the news in 1935 for struggle by jats against Jagirdari system in Sikar. The village is inhabited by mainly Jats. Major Jat gotras in the village are Mahla, Thalod.
[edit] Khuri in Princely states report
The main agricultural caste in Rajasthan is the Jats: they comprise the largest single caste in the state (9 per cent), and were, in the 1930's and even earlier, the most self-conscious and prosperous among the peasant castes. In 1935 their claims to certain privileges led to a series of clashes between them and the Rajputs, who resisted their attempts to revise accepted signs of status. The clash of 1935 is reminiscent of similar ones in other areas between lower castes on the rise and higher established castes. [1]
The Jat demonstrations broke out in Sikar, the largest thikana in Jaipur State, and involved both economic and social issues. The Jats in the area had formed two associations, the Sikarwati Jat Panchayat and the Jat Kisan Sabha, and had received some help and encouragement from the British Indian province of Uttar Pradesh. Some of these "outsiders" were organizers for the socialist-oriented Kisan Sabha which attempted to mobilize the peasantry in the 1930's in response to radical pressures in the Congress. [2]
The initial demonstration in Khuri village on March 27, 1935, was occasioned by a social issue, whether a Jat bridegroom should be allowed to ride to his bride's house on a horse, a ceremonial act asserting higher station than Rajputs were prepared to concede. 20 March 1935 was a day of marriage in a Jat family in Khuri. The barat had come and they were preparing for the toran ceremony with bridegroom riding a horse. The Rajputs objected, the Jats insisted, fighting broke out, and an old Jat Ratan Singh Bajiya was killed. Jats and Rajputs gathered in large number. Jats sat on dharna and refused to return the barat. The incident led to further clashes, and the thikana police, the Sikar Lancers, under command of the English chief of the Sikar police Captain veb reached Khuri on 27 March 1935, warned the crowd to disperse. The Rajputs dispersed but Jats did not move. Captain Veb charged the Jat crowds with lathis (quarter-staffs), killed four Jats and injured about 100 Jats. [3] The incidence of Khuri was condemned all the news papers and by Mahatma Gandhi wrote a strong note in Harijan news paper about this incidence. [4]
This incident was followed by others as Jats in the area protested against the revenue collections and resisted and attacked Sikar revenue officials on April 22 1935 at Bhainrupura and at Kudan village on April 25 1935. The Sikar police killed four Jats while putting down this last demonstration and arrested 104 persons. The anti-rent agitation eventually involved some twenty-one villages, and local headmen were as active as any outsiders. A school where, according to the Jaipur durbar, unlawful doctrines were being preached by a Jat teacher from outside the state, was knocked down. The agitation had some effects. The Rao Raja of Sikar remitted all arrears of revenue previous to 1934 and promised to open schools, provide loans where needed, and embark on a permanent land settlement that would introduce some certainty into the vagaries of the thikana's revenue demand. [5] [6]
[edit] References
- ^ Princely States Report
- ^ Princely States Report
- ^ The Statesman, 31 March 1935
- ^ Sahiram: Ek adhūrī krānti, Shekhawati kā kisān āndolan (1922-1952), page-208
- ^ Amrit Bazar Patrika, April 4, 1935; Statesmen, April 4 and 18, Mayj2 and 16, June 6, 1935; Times (London), April 30 and July 5, 1935. Barnett R. Rubin, Feudal Revolt
- ^ Princely States Report
