Talk:Shaikhs in North India

Orphaned references in Shaikhs in South Asia

I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of Shaikhs in South Asia's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "People of India":

• From Kakori Shaikh: People of India: Uttar Pradesh, Volume XLII, edited by A. Hasan & J. C. Das, p. 1301.
• From Pathans of Rajasthan: People of India Rajasthan Volume XXXVIII Part Two edited by B.K Lavania, D. K Samanta, S K Mandal & N.N Vyas pages 747 to 749 Popular Prakashan

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT⚡ 10:22, 20 July 2022 (UTC)

Quotes from sources claimed to be "misrepresented"

"Some castes, which are converts from Hinduism, have claimed foreign ancestry. The Julahas (weaver caste) in eastern Uttar Pradesh call themselves Ansari Shaikhs and claim to be descendants of Abu Ansar, a companion of the Prophet Muhammad. The butchers similarly call themselves Quraishi Shaikhs (Imtiaz Ahmad 1976: 329). The convert Kayastha caste has transformed itself into Shaikh Siddiques, claiming descent from Abu Bakr Siddique, a close companion and father-in-law of Muhammad (Imtiaz Ahmad 1973: 157-94"

"He [Imtiaz Ahmad] found during his study that the Shaikh Siddiques of Allahabad claimed to be the descendents [sic] of Abu Baqar Siddiq, but the author on the basis of the study established that the Shaikh Siddiques of Allahabad converted from the Kayastha caste of Hindus... The Momin Muslims are the descendents [sic] of weaver (Julaha) caste of Muslims of Uttar Pradesh.

"At the middle level, Ajlafs (low-born) represent the masses, whose status is defined by both their profession (pesha) – unlike the Ashrafs – and their identity as descendents of converts to Islam. Many castes of intermediate status fall into this category, such as farmers, traders and weavers (Ansari and Julaha) ...
"“The first year, I was a weaver (julaha), The following year, I was a Shaikh, This year, if prices rise, I will be a Sayyid”
...the process of “Ashrafization” saw individuals or whole groups adopting new social and ritual practices, taking on names and titles from high castes, sometimes rewriting the group’s history and giving themselves a new community genealogy as a way of symbolically improving their social status, here defined by their affiliation with a caste...Others played on the proximity of the names Ansars (descendents of Medina, ashrafs) and Ansaris (caste of weavers, ajlafs)...With the exception of this last example, and other isolated cases of social success, the attempts at upward social mobility described above have not necessarily resulted in a higher standard of living or social recognition at local level. Whether descendants of converts who have added the title of Shaikh to their name, or Muslim outcasts or “Untouchables” practising so-called impure trades, it still seems difficult to be free of one’s socioprofessional identity linked to one’s group of origin, particularly in rural areas. For example, many Shaikh communities have seen their status relegated to the rank of service castes when they had previously enjoyed a far higher status among ashrafs. Since many Hindus who converted to Islam took on the name Shaikh when they were required to register with colonial census officials, the entire community was dragged further down the social ladder, which shows the disjunction that sometimes exists between a group’s theoretical level in the caste hierarchy and its social status.

"When a Hindu of one of the higher castes converted to Islam, he often claimed the position corresponding to his Hindu caste; a Brahman, therefore, claimed the status of a Syed, a Kshatriya that of a sheikh ... Because it is socially desirable to claim foreign origin, the ranks of the sharif have tended to grow over the years, and many of these claims have little basis in fact. A common proverb states, "Last year I was a Julaha (weaver); this year I am a sheikh; next year, if the crops are good, I shall be a Syed." In the frontier regions and the Punjab, the title sheikh is not given to those of foreign descent but to recent converts as a polite euphemism." Chariotrider555 (talk) 17:19, 9 April 2023 (UTC) Chariotrider555 (talk) 17:19, 9 April 2023 (UTC)

References