The Historical Evolution of Mewati Muslim community in India and Pakistan

Abstract

The Mewati community, primarily located in the semi-arid regions of southern Haryana, northeastern Rajasthan, and western Uttar Pradesh, represents a culturally distinct and historically complex population in northern India. This paper provides a trace of how the community evolved since its Rajput roots by way of Islamization, during the imperial, colonial, and post-independence socio-political upheavals. The Mewasis first appeared as pastoral and trade communities which are firmly integrated in the socio-political life of Rajasthan. With the course of time, they became agrarian and had to navigate the socio-religious relations of cultural synthesis of Hindu and Muslim. The Mewati community is still marginalized even though it is resilient and adapts well; it has a high level of socio-economic disparities such as poor access to education, health and job opportunities. Females, especially, have even more disadvantaged issues like gender-based violence, early marriages, and limited mobility that worsens their marginalization. This paper also brings out the multi-layered migration patterns of the community with a cultural tendency to rural-urban migration due to economic neediness. Nonetheless, these migration patterns also indicate gendered patterns in which, men migrate to work, abandoning women to do the chores in their house and their farms. The education level of the Mewatis is still quite low as the educational accessibility is being hindered by social-cultural and infrastructural factors. Also, even with the working government welfare programs, including MGNREGA, Forest Rights Act, and Self-Help Groups, the community still experiences a gap in implementation, and low impact because of the socio-cultural barriers. The paper proposes a comprehensive strategy toward development that is sensitive to the Mewati cultural tradition, supports economic growth, and tackles the entrenched socio-cultural inequalities to be achieved by the participatory and context-based policy changes.

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