Teli

For other uses, seeTeli (disambiguation).

Teli

Teli oil press (Russell, 1916)
Regions with significant populations
India,Nepal,Pakistan
Languages
Hindi•Bhojpuri•Odia
Religion
Hinduism,Islam,Judaism

Teliis acastetraditionally occupied in theoil pressing and tradein India, Nepal and Pakistan. Members may be either Hindu or Muslim;Muslim Teliare calledRoshandaaror Teli Malik.

History

In theEarly Medieval periodin some parts of south India, Teli community used to work on their own oil presses to produce oil to be supplied to the temples. The emergence of "Templetowns "in various parts of south India was instrumental in the improvement of social status of some of the communities who were associated with the supply of essential items for cultural activities. The communities likeMalakar(garland makers), andTelikars(oil pressers) thus became important for the functioning of such towns. Some of them even became prosperous enough to make donations to the temples.

In the first decade of the 20th century, upward mobilisation became the feature of Indian society when lower castes tried to move up in the socio-economic ladder by assuming the names and practices of "upper castes". ProfessorM.N. Srinivasnotes the attempts of Teli community to claim different surnames in different censuses in a bid to improve their position inVarnasystem andCastehierarchy. In 1911, the Teli community adopted thesurname,Rathore and started calling themselvesRathoreTeli;while in 1931 they claimed themselves to beRathore-Vaishya.According to Shankaragouda Hanamantagouda Patil, this was done in order to climb the social ladder. Such practices were common amongst the lower castes in India.TheArya Samajmovement also attempted to improve the status of lower castes. As in the case of Telis, Shri Satyavrat Sharma Dwivedi an Arya Samajist fromFarrukhabadpublished a magazine "Telivarna Prakash"to prove the Teli caste to be ofVaishyavarna.

Despite the later attempts to claim higher status Teli were initially considered asShudraand were thought to be lower in status. According toAnand Yang,the Telis worked withbeast of burdenin the oil pressers and for the purpose of obtaining the desired results from the animals, they were often blinded. This made them ritually impure but later many of them as Yang notes took up the occupation of trading and branched off asBaniain order to conceal their impure origin.

Subdivisions

The Telis of Bengal share their social position with communities likeSuvarna Banik,Gandhabanik,Saha.Further, the Ghanchi community ofGujarathave been described as a "counterpart" of the Telis.

Politics

Bihar

In the postMandalphase the growing differences between upper castes andOBCdue to tussle between the two groups over political power culminated into replacement of upper castes by the OBCs in the political circle. The Telis along withYadav,Kurmi,KoeriandBaniatook over the erstwhile political elites namelyBrahmin,Bhumihar,RajputandKayastha.The OBCs in Bihar are divided into upper and lower OBC on the basis of socio-economic mobility and political representation. The trio of Yadav, Kurmi and Koeri are considered as upper OBC; Teli along with Kanu,Dhanuk,Kahar,Kumharand others are classified as lower OBC. In the late 2000s, some among the Teli community ofBihar,organised by the Teli Sena, were engaging invote bankpolitics as they sought to achieve categorisation as a Most Backward Class in the state. Initially, they had failed to achieve this repositioning in India's officialpositive discriminationscheme,with opposition coming from other groups who considered the Teli to be too populous and socio-economically influential to justify the change.In April 2015, Bihar chief MinisterNitish Kumarannounced a decision to include the Teli caste in the list of Extremely Backward Class in Bihar.As per the report ofBihar caste-based survey 2022,the population of Teli in Bihar is 2.81%.

Jharkhand

In 2018 theBharatiya Janata Partyled government in Jharkhand tried to include castes like Teli andKurmiin the category ofScheduled Tribes,which was welcomed by protests from tribals of Jharkhand under the banner ofJai Adivasi Yuvashakti(JAY) a local organisation which organised "Adivasi Akrosh Maharally", a gathering of all principal tribal groups of the state to protest against the same.

Telis in Nepal

TheCentral Bureau of Statisticsof Nepal classifies the Teli as a subgroup within the broader social group ofMadheshiOther Caste.At the time of the2011 Nepal census,369,688 people (1.4% of the population of Nepal) were Teli. The frequency of Telis by province was as follows:

• Madhesh Province(5.1%)
• Koshi Province(0.9%)
• Lumbini Province(0.9%)
• Bagmati Province(0.2%)
• Gandaki Province(0.1%)
• Karnali Province(0.0%)
• Sudurpashchim Province(0.0%)

The frequency of Telis was higher than national average (1.4%) in the following districts:

• Saptari(7.3%)
• Rautahat(5.6%)
• Sarlahi(5.4%)
• Dhanusha(5.2%)
• Siraha(4.8%)
• Parsa(4.2%)
• Bara(4.1%)
• Mahottari(4.1%)
• Parasi(3.3%)
• Sunsari(2.3%)
• Kapilvastu(1.9%)
• Morang(1.6%)

See also

• Other Backward Class
• Ghanchi (Muslim)

Further reading

• Jaer, Øyvind (1995).Karchana: lifeworld-ethnography of an Indian village.Scandinavian University Press.ISBN9788200215073.
• Khanna, L. M. (2002).Incredible story of social justice in India.Aravali Books International.ISBN9788186880920.
• Bendix, Reinhard; Lipset, Seymour Martin.Class, Status, and Power: Social Stratification in Comparative Perspective.Taylor & Francis.