Kalwar (caste)

The Kalwar, (or Kalal, Kalar) are an Indian caste historically found in Rajasthan, Punjab and other parts of North and Central India. The caste is traditionally associated with the distillation of liquor, but around the start of the 20th century assorted Kalwar caste organisations sought to leave that trade and redefine their community.^[1]

The Kalwar community has included Hindu, Sikh, and Muslim sections, with the last two showing particular inclination to leave the liquor trade at the close of the 19th century.^[2] Muslim Kalwar are also known as Râankis.^[3]

Etymology

Writing in 1892, Sir Herbert Hope Risley noted:

Mr. Nesfield regards the name as "a variant of Khairwár or catechu-maker, a process which is very similar to that of drawing juice from the palm-tree and fermenting it into a spirit;" and adds that this etymology "implies that the caste has sprung out of such tribes as Chain, Khairwár, Musahar, etc., all of whom are skilled in making the intoxicating juice called catechu." It seems, however, more likely that Kalwár is a corruption of Kalwálá, a man who works a kal or machine; while there is no evidence whatever to connect the Kalwar with the jungle races who collect catechu, an astringent extract from the wood of several species of acacia, which, so far as I am aware, has no intoxicating properties.^[4]

Alternately, in 1896 William Crooke recorded:

In Bihar they are known as Kalal, which is merely a variant of Kalwar and the name by which tho tribe arc known in tho Eastern Punjab. The word Kalal is derived from the Sanskrit kalyapála, kalyápála, kalyapâlaka or kalyápálaka, meaning "a distiller."^[3]

References