Meo
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Meo (Hindi: मेव, Urdu: میو) is a prominent Muslim Rajput tribe from Northern India and Pakistan.
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[edit] Meo
Meos inhabit a territorial region that falls between the important urban centres of Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. Mewat, consisting of some adjoining parts of Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, where the Meos have lived for a millennium, was a terrain of peasant radicalism in the pre-independence period. It saw intensive work by the communist leaders such as the historian-activist Kunwar Mohammad Ashraf and others then working with the Indian National Congress. There was a close inter community relationship between the Meos and other peasant-pastoral castes such as the Jats, the Ahirs and the Gujars. In Haryana the Mewat region falls in the districts of Gurgaon and Faridabad.
Meo men are tall and dark, with ponderous turbans woven around their heads, dressed in long flowing robes. The Meos are about a million-strong tribe, a Muslim Rajput community living in southern Haryana and north eastern Rajasthan known for its admixture of Hindu and Islamic customs, practices and beliefs. Only one in ten Meos is able to properly read and write. The Meos have two identities, both of which they are equally proud of. On the one hand, they claim to be Muslims, tracing their conversion to various Sufi saints who began settling in their territory from the eleventh century onwards, and whose shrines or 'dargahs' today dot the entire Mewati countryside. On the other hand, they also claim to be Rajputs, and believe that they are direct descendants of Krishna and Rama. These Hindu deities are respectfully referred to by the Meos as 'dada' or grandfather'.
Almost every Meo village has a mosque, but in many places Meos also worship at Hindu temples. Many Rajasthani Meos still retain mixed Hindu-Muslim names. Names such as Ram Khan or Shankar Khan are not unusual in the Meo tracts in Alwar. The Muslim community of Meos is highly Hinduised. They celebrate Diwali and Holi as they celebrate Ids. They do not marry within ones Gotras like Hindus of the North though Islam permits marriage with cousins. Solemnization of marriage among Meos is not complete without both nikah as in Islam and circling of fire as among Hindus. 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 Holy Quran.
The Meo version of the Mahabharat called the Pandun Ka Kara, is performed by Mirasis or Jogis to an audience composed of Meo Muslims, as also non-Meos. The authors, performers and audience are, thus, all Muslim. The Meos regard the Mahabharata clans as the ancestors of their own lineage. The folk epic then is far more than mere "myth" and is central to the cultural identity of the Meo Muslims. It is important to understand what the great epic means to them, how they remake, modify and recreate it and also how in the process they both draw upon, modify and critique the so-called "great tradition" of Vedic and Puranic Hinduism.
Muslim musicians, called Mirasis, dressed in flowing white Kurtas and dhotis and bright crimson turbans. They play a musical rendering of the 'Pandun Ke Kara', the Meo Muslim version of the famous Hindu epic, the Mahabharat, after a brief ode in praise of the Prophet Muhammad and the Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti of Ajmer. The entire epic in its Meo form, rendered in the Mewati dialect, consists of some 800 verses or 'dohas', and takes more than three hours to recite. It relates the story of the five Pandava brothers, whom it describes as ancestors of the Meos. Finally, it ends with verses in praise of its composer, an early eighteenth century Meo Muslim called Sadullah Khan. 'Pandun Ke Kada' is the only Muslim form of the Mahabharat that exists. Sadullah Khan is regarded by the Meos as their 'national poet' ('qaumi shair'). Today, barring a few Mirasis, no one else can recite the Pandun Ke Kada.
[edit] Mewat, the homeland of the Meos
The place of origin of the Meos is Mewat. It is a region that comprises southern Haryana and north-eastern Rajasthan and is known for its mixture of Hindu and Islamic customs, practices and beliefs.
Mewat's boundaries are not precisely determined, but generally include Alwar, Bharatpur, and Dholpur districts of Rajasthan, and Gurgaon and Faridabad districts of Haryana. The region corresponds to the ancient kingdom of Matsya, founded in the 5th century BCE. Mewati is the chief language or dialect of the region. Mewat district was carved out from erstwhile Gurgaon and Faridabad districts, which came into existence on 4th April 2005 as the 20th district of Haryana. The newly constituted district comprises three sub-divisions namely Nuh, Firozpur Jhirka and Hathin. The district headquarter is located at Nuh. The district comprises six blocks namely Nuh, Tauru, Nagina, Firozpur Zhirka, Punhana and Hathin. There are 532 villages in the district.
Geographically, Mewat district is situated between 26-degree and 30-degree North latitude and 76-degree and 78-degree East longitude. Gurgaon district bounds it on its North, while Rewari district lies to its West and Faridabad district to its East. On South, the district shares its boundary with Rajasthan. Mewat district is largely composed of plains. Inconsistency in Mewat topography is evident from its patches of land with hills and hillock of the Aravali Mountain on the one hand and plains on the other.
Mewat, land of the Meos, has its genesis in its tribal inhabitants, the Meo tribals, who are agriculturalists. The area is a distinct ethnic and socio-cultural tract. The Meos, who trace their roots to the early Aryans of North India, call themselves Kshatriyas and have preserved their social and cultural traits to a surprisingly large extent, unlike the other tribes of nearby areas. During the regime of the Tughlak dynasty in the 14th century A.D., these people embraced Islam but till today, they have maintained their age-old distinctive ethno-cultural identity.
The main occupation of the people of Mewat district is agriculture and allied and agro-based activities. The Meos are the predominant population group and are completely agriculturists.
[edit] Cultural aspects
The Meos are have two strong identities, both of which they are equally proud of:
- Their Muslim identity, going back to their conversion to Islam by various Sufi saints who began settling in their territory from the eleventh century onwards, and whose shrines/mausoleums or dargahs/mazars today dot the entire countryside in Mewat.
- Their Rajput heritage and lineage, which they are very proud of. Despite their conversion to Islam, they still follow some Hindu practices to this day as inherited customs.
- A penetrating sense of superiority of their Rajastani culture with the bravery of their warlords Hasan Khan Meo, a representative of Meo Rajputs in the War of ??? and Deo Khan Meo, are the sources of proud for Meo.
- Without reservation, Gias-u-Din Balban and Mughal kings faced perennial defeats by the Meo warrior tribe around Delhi and in the interiors of Rajastan.
[edit] Meos today
Today, Meos mostly inhabit the Punjab and Sindh provinces of Pakistan and the states of Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and Delhi in India. Many Meos migrated to Pakistan after its formation in 1947. In India, they are a million-strong.
[edit] Raymond Jamous' work on Meo
[edit] Oxford University Press book on Meo culture
Kinship and Rituals Among the Meo of Northern India : Locating Sibling Relationship/Raymond Jamous. Translated from the French by Nora Scott. New Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2003, xiv, 200 p., ills., tables, $31. ISBN 019566459-0.
Contents: Introduction. 1. The Meo: a caste and a faith. 2. Meo kinship vocabulary. 3. Kinship and territory. 4. The marriage alliance. 5. Marriage ceremonies: ritual prestations. 6. The Meo kinship system: a comparative view. Bibliography. Glossary. Index.
"In the study of family and kinship, social anthropologists have often focused on unilineal descent groups or on marriage, but rarely on the specific nature of the brother-sister relationship. Until now this relation has been reduced either to one of siblingship, more often, consanguinity, or to a form of incest prohibition that leads to matrimonial exchange. This book presents the kinship system of the Meo, a Muslim community of ‘Rajput’ caste of north India, where the brother-sister relationship transcends the distinctions between consanguines and affines to pervade relations both before and after marriage.
"The author develops the notion of ‘metasiblingship’ to convey the specific nature of this relationship. In the vocabulary of kinship studies, metasiblingship is defined as the chain of two brother-sister pairs linked by a marriage. It is enacted in life-cycle rites in the complementarity between the father’s (married) sister, who leads these ceremonies, and the mother’s brother, who is responsible for the principal prestations.
"In terms of family and kinship, and associated ceremonies, myths and legends, the Meo have long been regarded as unusual among Indian Muslims. They forbid what is regarded as a diacritical Muslim kinship practice—patrilineal parallel-cousin marriage—as well as cross-cousin marriage, and follow north Indian, Hindu kinship rules. Following the example of Louis Dumont, Raymond Jamous engages with the Meo kinship terminology, the relation of kinship and territory, marriage alliance, and marriage rituals and prestations—all of which are ‘classical’ kinship themes. What emerges is a completely new perspective on the structure of north Indian kinship, transcending and encompassing the opposition of the ‘alliance’ and ‘descent’ approaches.
"This book is of interest and importance both as an ethnography of the Meo and as a contribution to kinship theory. It will be useful to scholars of sociology, anthropology, and religion." (jacket)
[edit] Resisting Regimes: Myth, Memory and the Shaping of a Muslim Identity
To the Mughals, the Mewatis were "rebels". To British ethnographers, they were "criminal tribes". To two modernizing princely rulers of eastern Rajasthan in the first half of the twentieth century, embracing Hindu nationalism, they were "Muslim". Finally, to the Islamicizing, pietist movement, Tablighi Jama'at, which has flourished in Mewat since partition, the Mewatis were the jahiliyya of pre-Islamic Arabia, in urgent need of reform. In this important and welcome contribution, Shail Mayaram tells the story of the princely and Tabligh regimes as well as the story of Mewati resistance she finds throughout. She makes a valuable contribution to understanding how a particular group comes to be identified by others, and to identify itself, as "Muslim"—an identity contingently produced and profoundly modern, the product, not the opposite, of nationalism .Alwar and Bharatpur were home to about two-thirds of the Meo, who comprised in 1941 some sixty percent of the population's 330,620 Muslims. At partition, Mayaram discovered, contrary to her expectations, there was an explicit state policy of "cleansing," characterized by forced conversion, capture of women (who "do not have any religion" [p. 191]), and genocide of Muslims with an estimated 82,000 killed. After partition, Meos lost land to Hindu and Sikh refugees. An informant told Mayaram his own story: he fled; returned because of Congress promises that he would retain his property; discovered his houses burnt and animals gone; and received back only sixty of his original 600 bighas of land. "Tabligh came to our village after this," he concluded (pp. 205–06).
[edit] Ja Dimaago's views: Meena, Mina, Meo
ETHNONYMS: Mewāti, Mina, Meena Meo
Representing the largest part of the Muslim population in Rajasthan, the Meos number approximately 600,000 (according to 1984 data). They are crowded into the Alwar and Bharatpur districts in the northeastern part of the state, as well as in the Gurgaon District of the adjacent state of Haryana. The areas of the three districts where they live are collectively called Mewat, a reference to their supremacy in the area. Meos speak Rajasthani, a language of the Indo-Iranian part of the Indo-European Family. The Meos pursue many different service occupations and are known as bangle sellers, dyers, butchers, water carriers, and musicians, among others.
Like most Indian Muslims, the Meos were originally Hindu; when and how their conversion to Islam came about is unclear. It seems probable they were converted in stages: first by Salar Masud in the eleventh century, by Balban in the thirteenth century, and then during Aurangzeb's rule in the seventeenth century. The Meos insist on Rajput descent for the entire community. For years the Meos blended both Hindu and Muslim customs in their culture. For example, the popular names for both males and females were Hindu, but Muslim names were given as well, and the Muslim title Khan was added to a Hindu name. Two major Islamic rituals observed by the Meos were male circumcision and burial of the dead. Most of the Hindu festivals and ceremonies were maintained. The Muslim festivals, such as the two Ids, Shab-e-barat, and Muharram, were practiced. Reading the Quran was less well liked than the Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, and Hindu shrines outnumbered the mosques in Mewat. Few Meos prayed in the Muslim manner but most worshiped at the shrines of the Hindu gods and goddesses. Since 1947, however, with the partition of India, a revival of Islamic tradition has forced many Meos to conform to Islamic norms. In addition, many Meos have emigrated to Pakistan.
Although the Meos today follow most Muslim customs, they still follow traditional Hindu marriage rituals and kinship patterns. Cousin marriage is still taboo among this group. Attempts to break this tradition have met strong opposition. In addition, Meos do not observe the Muslim tradition of secluding their women. Meo society is divided into at least 800 exogamous clans. Some of the clan organizations resemble those of the Rajputs, but others seem to have connections with Hindu castes such as Brahmans, Meena, Jats, and Bhatiaras. Apparently the Meos come from many Hindu castes and not just the Rajputs.
[edit] See also
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