UPPARAS OF THE SOUTH AND LONIYA’S OF THE NORTH
As is generally known, the last point of time when comprehensive, data on caste was collected was during 1931 census, almost 77 years from now.The data collected for all the caste-groups living in the country in the British districts as well 3S the princely states, adopting not a very satisfactory scheme of classification but nonetheless trying to capture the prevailing social reality of caste identify. Using the district-level data of 1931 census, one can broadly identify the geographic patterns in the distribution of different caste-groups. This will perhaps serve as a benchmark. Notable contributions on 'Uppara' or 'Loniya' caste are made by the following scholars. The chronological -list is given below:
Sl No
Name of the Author and title of the book
Year of publication
1
Shirring-Hindu Tribes and Castes as represented in Benaras
1872
2
W. Crooke - The Tribes & Castes of the North Western India
1896
3
E. Thurston -- Castes & Tribes of Southern India
1909
4
H.Y. Nanjundaiah - Ethnographical Survey of Mysore
1910
5
R.V.Russel & Hiralal- The Tribes & Castes of Central province of India
1916
6
Syed Siraj Ul-Hassan-Castes & Tribes of the Nizam’s Domminins
1920
7
R.E.Ethoven-The Tribes and Castes of Bombay
1922
1. In India, of the four language families, the Dravidian and Aryan languages branches are used in two parts of India. In the south, the Drividian languages are used, in the North, the Aryan languages are used. The Drividian languages are Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. In all these four languages, for salt the word 'Uppu', the basic word used. Therefore, the persons engaged in the manufacture of salt are called Uppura in Kannada, Uppar, Upparolu in Telugu, Uppaliya Uppaliyan and Upaliga in Tamil. In the northern part of the country, the Aryan languages like Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarathi etc are used, For English word salt, the Aryan languages meaning is 'Lon' or Non, ;n Sanskrit, for salt, the word 'Lavan' is used. In Hindi, 'Namak' is used. So the persons engaged in the manufacture of the salt were called Loniya, in M.P, Uttar Pradesh, Noniya in Bihar and Bengal and 'Lonari in Maharastra and northern part of India.
2. Though the Upparas of the South and the Loniyas of North are one and the same caste, but there is no connection between the people of these two castes groups even after fifty five years of independence. Now, the time has come to know understans and unite at the instance of Hon’ble Justice Sriramalu of Andra Pradesh. It is astonishing to note that at the age of 82, Hon’ble Justice Sriramulu struggling hard to provided the common platform for the members of these groups. He has a vision and dream to unite these divided groups and formed the National Forum, without his effort, the dream could not have ever become true today.
3. If we go through the following books written on castes, we come to the conclusion that the Upparas of South and the Loniya or Noniya of the north are salt manufacturers and masons. It can be seen below:
Sl.No
Name of the Author
Name of the Caste
Meaning & Occupation
State
1
H.V.Nanjundaiah
Uppara
Manufacturers of Salt , Masons, Bricklayers
Karnataka
2
E.Thurston
Uppara, Uppaliyu
Manufacturers of Salt Tank, Channel, Well Digging Bricklaying, House building, construction of forts & Earth works.
Tamil nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka
3
Buchanan
Uppara
Building of mud walls & forts, manufacture of saltpeter
4
Syed Siraj Ul Hassan
Uppara, Sagar
Salt manufacturer, Mason, House building, sinking wells and Tanks
Andhra Pradesh
5
Enthoven R.E
Upparas
Salt manufacturer, Mason, Stone cutters making shell lime
Maharastra
6
Enthoven R.E
Lonari
Manufacturers of Salt
Maharastra
7
Sheering
Loniya Luniya Nuniya Noniya
Manufacturing Salt, Digging of water courses, ponds, wells and tanks, Bricklaying
Uttar Pradesh, Madya Pradesh
8
V.Crooke
Loniya Luniya Nuniya Noniya
Salt and Saltpeter makers, earthwork
North Western India
9
R.V.Russell & Hiralal
Niniya
Salt makers, earthworks, masons, House building, digging tanks and wells saltpeter
West Bengal, Bihar
4. Upparas are called themselves as sagaravamsadavaru i.e. descendants of Sagar, a mythological person, found in Vishnu Purana. According to a Purana Story Sagara or the sea was dug out by the children of Emperor Sagara, thus connecting the name again with salt. Thus the caste Uppara has two occupations, i.e. digging the earth and earth work, manufacturer of salt and saltpeter. Uppara have some fantastic stories concerning their origin. One is that Parvathi, wife of Shiva, finding food tasteless complained to her lord, who created a man from a drop of his sweat, and commissioned him to manufacture salt out of earth and as he pleased his divine patrons, he was blessed with a large progeny, who were directed to have salt making as their profession. The other story is that they are the descendants of the sixty thousand sons of Emperor Sagara. The slender basis on which both these stories rest, seems to be the salt found both in the sweat of the body and in the water of the sea which was believed to be dug by Sagara’s sons. The salt and saltpeter manufacturers worship Vishnu.
5. Thurston states that, the British Government established salt monopoly in 1805. As early as 1806, it was proposed to prohibit manufacture of salt. The chief arguments against any such step were that it would inflict hardship upon the Upparas who consumed it, and, for the next three quarters of a century, a wearisome correspondence dragged on regarding the course which would be proper to pursue. In 1873 Mr.G.Thornhill, Member of the Board of Revenue visited the Caded Districts, to see how matters stood. He reported that it was not possible to checks the competition of the earth-salt with the government marine salt by imposing an excise duty, as the modes were numerous and scattered. For similar reasons and also because all the same time he calculated that the loss to Government due to the system was from eight to ten lakhs annually, he recommended that the industry should be gradually suppressed. Government agreed and ordered that the opening of new modes should be prohibited, and that those in existence should be licensed, with reference to their productive capacity at rates to increase by annual increments until 1879, when the full duty livable on sea-salt should be imposed on their entire produce. These measures, though they checked the manufacture, failed to entirely protect the revenue, and in 1876, the Madras Salt Commission and Board of Revenue Concurred in recommending that the manufacture of earth-salt should be at once and entirely suppressed. The Government of India agreed in 1880 orders were given that the modes should all be destroyed. The manufacture of earth salt was absolutely prohibited in 1880. As a consequence, the Upparas have lost their age-old profession and had depended on agriculture and labour activities.
6. Dr. Ramamanohar Lohia, a socialist leader under took research work and authored a doctorial thesis book named, ‘Salt Satyagraha’.
7. Thursten way back in 1909 quotes a Telugu proverb to the effect that one is ruined both ways like an Uppara, in reference to the fact that he neither follows his ancestral occupation, nor is tolerated in his new callings. Of late the construction industry is gaining importance in India. The Upparas have lost their monopoly on that industry also. The men of other castes have entered into mason industry and earning a livelihood, but the upparas have lost their original profession when it has gained importance. The uppara sanghas and leaders have to think over this matter urgently and have to take immediate steps. Numbers of training centres have to be opened under the guidance of the master craftsman. A large number of masons have to be produced.
8. Compared to the Upparas of the South India, the Loniyas (Noniyas) of the North India are dynamic and vibrant group. The caste mobility movement which appears in the nineteenth century and whose persistence today is at least partially successful, is that undertaken by the Noniyas, a Shudra caste found in Madya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar. They claim the status of a well known warrior clan, the Chauahan Rajputs. William.L.Row has written a book, “The New Chauhan”. A Caste Mobility Movement of North India, after two years study of the caste. According to him, the caste name Noniya, is derived from Hindi word for salt, non. An alternate form of the caste name is Loniya from the word Ion, which also means salt. The caste is known in North India as Nniya, Nuniya, Loniya or Luniya. During the last of the nineteenth century an increasing number of Noniyas acquired considerable wealth through contracting for earth work, brick-making, and other traditional caste work for the British Government. These Noniya contractors found a profitable business in road and bridge building and in general expansion of public works during the period after the 1857 movement and before World War-I, the changing opportunity structure in colonial society with the emergence of a new prosperous group within the caste and the resulting incongruence of their ritual and economic ranks led to the founding and financing a self conscious caste mobility organization.
9. In 1898, Lalla Mathura Prasad Singh, a Noniya of Pratapgarh District, who had recently acquired wealth through his career as a contractor for construction and public works founded an organization with the purpose of encouraging members of the Noniya or Loniya caste to claim their rightful status as Chauhan Rajputs. After having made his fortune in Patiala, the princely state, he returned to his home in Pratapaghrh where settled into the life of a newly rich Zamindar joining with others of the newly created economic elite of the Noniya caste professionals such as school teachers, postmasters as well as contractors he founded the Chuhan organization, the Sri Rajput Pracarmi Sabha (Rajaput Advancement Society). Although formed at the turn of the century the organization did not appreciably grow until after World War I. The Chauhan organization moved castward into the districts of Allahbad, Banaras, Mirzapur, Jaunpur, and Azamgarh making gains wherever a group of Noniyas existed whose wealth enabled them to attempt social emulation of the Rajput style of life.
10. In Jaunpur, a relatively backward and underdeveloped district, the spread of the Cauhan movement has taken several decades and it still remain most effective only in the western portion of the district. In 1924 a meeting was called at Sanghipur in Jaunpur District at which leaders of Noniya Communities ritually donned the sacred thread. More than any other symbol, the assumption of the sacred thread is the ‘symbol justification’ par excellence in caste mobility movements. The choice of meeting place provided another kind of symbol. Sanghaipur was chosen because it had been the scene of a historic fight between the British and a group of Noniya during the 1857 movement.
During the 1920s and 30s, the expanding sabha provided still another visible symbol for the New-Chauhans-a body of literature which functionally served as a social charter to authenticate the claims of Noniya to Rajput status. By 1935 the organization had been able to found an all India Sabha which exists in much the same form today with its headquarters located in Katni, Madhya Pradesh. An active branch exists in unpur City composed of Lawyers, teachers and petty officials who meet informally as the New Chauhans.
As is generally known, the last point of time when comprehensive, data on caste was collected was during 1931 census, almost 77 years from now.The data collected for all the caste-groups living in the country in the British districts as well 3S the princely states, adopting not a very satisfactory scheme of classification but nonetheless trying to capture the prevailing social reality of caste identify. Using the district-level data of 1931 census, one can broadly identify the geographic patterns in the distribution of different caste-groups. This will perhaps serve as a benchmark. Notable contributions on 'Uppara' or 'Loniya' caste are made by the following scholars. The chronological -list is given below:
Sl No
Name of the Author and title of the book
Year of publication
1
Shirring-Hindu Tribes and Castes as represented in Benaras
1872
2
W. Crooke - The Tribes & Castes of the North Western India
1896
3
E. Thurston -- Castes & Tribes of Southern India
1909
4
H.Y. Nanjundaiah - Ethnographical Survey of Mysore
1910
5
R.V.Russel & Hiralal- The Tribes & Castes of Central province of India
1916
6
Syed Siraj Ul-Hassan-Castes & Tribes of the Nizam’s Domminins
1920
7
R.E.Ethoven-The Tribes and Castes of Bombay
1922
1. In India, of the four language families, the Dravidian and Aryan languages branches are used in two parts of India. In the south, the Drividian languages are used, in the North, the Aryan languages are used. The Drividian languages are Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam. In all these four languages, for salt the word 'Uppu', the basic word used. Therefore, the persons engaged in the manufacture of salt are called Uppura in Kannada, Uppar, Upparolu in Telugu, Uppaliya Uppaliyan and Upaliga in Tamil. In the northern part of the country, the Aryan languages like Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, Gujarathi etc are used, For English word salt, the Aryan languages meaning is 'Lon' or Non, ;n Sanskrit, for salt, the word 'Lavan' is used. In Hindi, 'Namak' is used. So the persons engaged in the manufacture of the salt were called Loniya, in M.P, Uttar Pradesh, Noniya in Bihar and Bengal and 'Lonari in Maharastra and northern part of India.
2. Though the Upparas of the South and the Loniyas of North are one and the same caste, but there is no connection between the people of these two castes groups even after fifty five years of independence. Now, the time has come to know understans and unite at the instance of Hon’ble Justice Sriramalu of Andra Pradesh. It is astonishing to note that at the age of 82, Hon’ble Justice Sriramulu struggling hard to provided the common platform for the members of these groups. He has a vision and dream to unite these divided groups and formed the National Forum, without his effort, the dream could not have ever become true today.
3. If we go through the following books written on castes, we come to the conclusion that the Upparas of South and the Loniya or Noniya of the north are salt manufacturers and masons. It can be seen below:
Sl.No
Name of the Author
Name of the Caste
Meaning & Occupation
State
1
H.V.Nanjundaiah
Uppara
Manufacturers of Salt , Masons, Bricklayers
Karnataka
2
E.Thurston
Uppara, Uppaliyu
Manufacturers of Salt Tank, Channel, Well Digging Bricklaying, House building, construction of forts & Earth works.
Tamil nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka
3
Buchanan
Uppara
Building of mud walls & forts, manufacture of saltpeter
4
Syed Siraj Ul Hassan
Uppara, Sagar
Salt manufacturer, Mason, House building, sinking wells and Tanks
Andhra Pradesh
5
Enthoven R.E
Upparas
Salt manufacturer, Mason, Stone cutters making shell lime
Maharastra
6
Enthoven R.E
Lonari
Manufacturers of Salt
Maharastra
7
Sheering
Loniya Luniya Nuniya Noniya
Manufacturing Salt, Digging of water courses, ponds, wells and tanks, Bricklaying
Uttar Pradesh, Madya Pradesh
8
V.Crooke
Loniya Luniya Nuniya Noniya
Salt and Saltpeter makers, earthwork
North Western India
9
R.V.Russell & Hiralal
Niniya
Salt makers, earthworks, masons, House building, digging tanks and wells saltpeter
West Bengal, Bihar
4. Upparas are called themselves as sagaravamsadavaru i.e. descendants of Sagar, a mythological person, found in Vishnu Purana. According to a Purana Story Sagara or the sea was dug out by the children of Emperor Sagara, thus connecting the name again with salt. Thus the caste Uppara has two occupations, i.e. digging the earth and earth work, manufacturer of salt and saltpeter. Uppara have some fantastic stories concerning their origin. One is that Parvathi, wife of Shiva, finding food tasteless complained to her lord, who created a man from a drop of his sweat, and commissioned him to manufacture salt out of earth and as he pleased his divine patrons, he was blessed with a large progeny, who were directed to have salt making as their profession. The other story is that they are the descendants of the sixty thousand sons of Emperor Sagara. The slender basis on which both these stories rest, seems to be the salt found both in the sweat of the body and in the water of the sea which was believed to be dug by Sagara’s sons. The salt and saltpeter manufacturers worship Vishnu.
5. Thurston states that, the British Government established salt monopoly in 1805. As early as 1806, it was proposed to prohibit manufacture of salt. The chief arguments against any such step were that it would inflict hardship upon the Upparas who consumed it, and, for the next three quarters of a century, a wearisome correspondence dragged on regarding the course which would be proper to pursue. In 1873 Mr.G.Thornhill, Member of the Board of Revenue visited the Caded Districts, to see how matters stood. He reported that it was not possible to checks the competition of the earth-salt with the government marine salt by imposing an excise duty, as the modes were numerous and scattered. For similar reasons and also because all the same time he calculated that the loss to Government due to the system was from eight to ten lakhs annually, he recommended that the industry should be gradually suppressed. Government agreed and ordered that the opening of new modes should be prohibited, and that those in existence should be licensed, with reference to their productive capacity at rates to increase by annual increments until 1879, when the full duty livable on sea-salt should be imposed on their entire produce. These measures, though they checked the manufacture, failed to entirely protect the revenue, and in 1876, the Madras Salt Commission and Board of Revenue Concurred in recommending that the manufacture of earth-salt should be at once and entirely suppressed. The Government of India agreed in 1880 orders were given that the modes should all be destroyed. The manufacture of earth salt was absolutely prohibited in 1880. As a consequence, the Upparas have lost their age-old profession and had depended on agriculture and labour activities.
6. Dr. Ramamanohar Lohia, a socialist leader under took research work and authored a doctorial thesis book named, ‘Salt Satyagraha’.
7. Thursten way back in 1909 quotes a Telugu proverb to the effect that one is ruined both ways like an Uppara, in reference to the fact that he neither follows his ancestral occupation, nor is tolerated in his new callings. Of late the construction industry is gaining importance in India. The Upparas have lost their monopoly on that industry also. The men of other castes have entered into mason industry and earning a livelihood, but the upparas have lost their original profession when it has gained importance. The uppara sanghas and leaders have to think over this matter urgently and have to take immediate steps. Numbers of training centres have to be opened under the guidance of the master craftsman. A large number of masons have to be produced.
8. Compared to the Upparas of the South India, the Loniyas (Noniyas) of the North India are dynamic and vibrant group. The caste mobility movement which appears in the nineteenth century and whose persistence today is at least partially successful, is that undertaken by the Noniyas, a Shudra caste found in Madya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar. They claim the status of a well known warrior clan, the Chauahan Rajputs. William.L.Row has written a book, “The New Chauhan”. A Caste Mobility Movement of North India, after two years study of the caste. According to him, the caste name Noniya, is derived from Hindi word for salt, non. An alternate form of the caste name is Loniya from the word Ion, which also means salt. The caste is known in North India as Nniya, Nuniya, Loniya or Luniya. During the last of the nineteenth century an increasing number of Noniyas acquired considerable wealth through contracting for earth work, brick-making, and other traditional caste work for the British Government. These Noniya contractors found a profitable business in road and bridge building and in general expansion of public works during the period after the 1857 movement and before World War-I, the changing opportunity structure in colonial society with the emergence of a new prosperous group within the caste and the resulting incongruence of their ritual and economic ranks led to the founding and financing a self conscious caste mobility organization.
9. In 1898, Lalla Mathura Prasad Singh, a Noniya of Pratapgarh District, who had recently acquired wealth through his career as a contractor for construction and public works founded an organization with the purpose of encouraging members of the Noniya or Loniya caste to claim their rightful status as Chauhan Rajputs. After having made his fortune in Patiala, the princely state, he returned to his home in Pratapaghrh where settled into the life of a newly rich Zamindar joining with others of the newly created economic elite of the Noniya caste professionals such as school teachers, postmasters as well as contractors he founded the Chuhan organization, the Sri Rajput Pracarmi Sabha (Rajaput Advancement Society). Although formed at the turn of the century the organization did not appreciably grow until after World War I. The Chauhan organization moved castward into the districts of Allahbad, Banaras, Mirzapur, Jaunpur, and Azamgarh making gains wherever a group of Noniyas existed whose wealth enabled them to attempt social emulation of the Rajput style of life.
10. In Jaunpur, a relatively backward and underdeveloped district, the spread of the Cauhan movement has taken several decades and it still remain most effective only in the western portion of the district. In 1924 a meeting was called at Sanghipur in Jaunpur District at which leaders of Noniya Communities ritually donned the sacred thread. More than any other symbol, the assumption of the sacred thread is the ‘symbol justification’ par excellence in caste mobility movements. The choice of meeting place provided another kind of symbol. Sanghaipur was chosen because it had been the scene of a historic fight between the British and a group of Noniya during the 1857 movement.
During the 1920s and 30s, the expanding sabha provided still another visible symbol for the New-Chauhans-a body of literature which functionally served as a social charter to authenticate the claims of Noniya to Rajput status. By 1935 the organization had been able to found an all India Sabha which exists in much the same form today with its headquarters located in Katni, Madhya Pradesh. An active branch exists in unpur City composed of Lawyers, teachers and petty officials who meet informally as the New Chauhans.
SYNONYMUS NAMES OF LONIYA OR UPPARA IN DIFFERENT STATES
Sl No
Name of the State
Synanymus names
1
Karnataka
Uppara, sagar, Goundi, Ager, Koosa, Uppaliga, Uppaligashetty, Beldar
2
Andra Pradesh
Uppara, Sagara, Memar, Matadi, Beldar
3
Tamil Nadu
Uppara, Uppaliyan, Uppaliya, Naicker, Alavan, Padit, Uppaliya, sagar
4
Kerala
Alvan, Koosa, Upparam
5
Maharastra
Lonari, Gavandi, Agri, Ager, Jire, Gavandis, Kamathi Gavandis, Kadiyas, Gavandis
6
Madya Pradesh
Loniya, Noniya, Agri
7
Uttara Pradesh
Loniya, Luniya, Noniya, Ninia, Paramr, Bind, Beldar
8
Bihar
Noniya, Nunia, Noniya, Chunar, Beldar
9
Gujarath
Kadiya, Ager, Agri, Chunar, Beldar
10
Rajasthan
Loniya, Silawat, Raj, Shoragar, Karawal
11
West Bengal
Noniya, Nuniya
12
Orissa
Uppara, Noliya
13
Punjab
Noonagar
14
Haryana
Noonagar
15
Delhi
Agri
11. To the Noniyas of village senepur the memory of their becoming Chauhans is a vivid part of local history. They relate that in 1936, a prosperous contractor of kerkat took the initiative in calling a meeting of the caste brotherhood. In a mango grove at the edge of the town the responsible leaders of Noniyas communities throughout several thesis listened to seeches be educated Chauhans and Aryasamaj leaders form Jaunpur City. New Chauhans were helped and assisted to sanskritize themselves by Arya samaj organization. The people, who are called Loniyas in West Marawar, are known also by the name khaural or kharwal.
12. Noniya communities adopted the chauhan movement as they become prosperous. Wealthy contractors seem to have been the first to adopt the Chauahan claim and their sons and grandsons are now successful lawyers, teachers and government officials. This small elite has promoted the spread of the movement through publication of various caste histories and the organization of such meetings as described above. Many of the younger generation of the elite are becoming involved and committed to the newer message of political egalitarianism for modern India. Member of the Jaunpur City Chauhan Sabha, are active in the Arya Samaj a socio-religious organization which opposes the ritual and caste orthodoxy which is so basic to the Chauhan movement. These same men have more recently became active in the congress party in the association of scheduled castes, organization stressing political equality, anti-casteisum, and special concessions for the under privileged castes. The young men of Loniyas will increasingly devote its energies to the ‘modern’ and directly political activity rather than to the caste mobility that was characteristic of the last generation.
13. The Luniyas of Rajasthan have embarrassed the Jain religion in the north India. So we can find Lunia caste group in Jain community. Lrge number of Luniya caste Jains are found throughout India. Some of Upparas in Karnataka joined the lingayat religion. They are called Lingayat Upparas.
CONCLUSON
The Uppara or Loniyas is a All India Caste. It is our bounden duty to bring them on a single platform to all round development of the community on the model of Narayanaguru of Kerala. His movement and reforms helped the Izhavas both to gain self-respect and to adopt a protest ideology to challenge the religious, economic educational and political supremacy of the Upper castes.
NOTE: Requested the interested leaders/organizations to contact the author through mobile or by mail.
Chetan Desai
Advocate
Email:chetandesai3@yahoo.com
.
