Caste Based Endogamy in a Punjabi Village of Pakistan

AbstractCaste based endogamy is one of the main characteristics of traditional caste system practiced in rural Pakistan. Members of different quoms do not inter-marry or at least do not prefer to marry out of their quom. While social acceptance for inter quom marriages among different landowning quoms is increasing in Punjabi villages, inter marriages between landowning quoms and service providing quoms are normatively discouraged even at present. As a result, members of landowning quoms and service providing quoms do not form kinship associations, which reproduce them as two mutually exclusive social groups placing landowning quoms at a higher and service providing quoms at a lower status category. Caste based status differences across landowning quoms and service providing quoms and emphasis on collective life in rural setting are seen as the main reasons that reinforce caste based endogamy. Educational, economic or professional accomplishments of the members of service providing quoms do not affect the structure of caste based endogamy in Punjabi villages. Though a few incidents of elopement marriages among landowning quoms and service providing quoms are found, such marriages do not generally gain social approval.Keywords: Caste, Endogamy, Punjabi Villages, Rural Punjab, Inter Quom Marriages, Landowning Quoms, Service Providing Quoms.IntroductionThis article examines the dynamics of caste based endogamy across traditional landowning quoms and service providing quoms in the contemporary Punjabi villages of Pakistan. Caste system in rural Punjab exists in the form of indigenous hierarchical groupings like quom or zaat and represents division of society into birth-ascribed status groups based on parentage occupations (Lyon, 2004). Contrary to classical categories of Hindu caste system i.e. Brahmins, Kshatriya, Vaishya, and Shudra, the major caste divisions in Punjabi villages are found between landowning quoms and service providing quoms (Ahmad, 1970; Eglar, 1960). Different landowning quoms traditionally associated with cultivation as their parentage occupation are called zamindars. Members of a zamindar quom residing in a village own land with varying size of their landholdings. On the other hand, members of different artisan and service providing quoms e.g. barber, carpenter, cobbler, blacksmith, weaver, potter, Musalli (labourer) are jointly called as kammi. Traditionally, kammi serve the villagers as labour or with the occupational crafts associated with their quom that they inherit from their ancestors (Ahmad, 1970; Alavi, 1972; Eglar, 1960).Division of rural Punjab into landowning quoms and service providing quoms and the dynamics of their social relationships are traditionally organized around the birth-ascribed status in a quom, occupational specializations associated with different quoms by parentage, endogamy and kinship system (biradari), hierarchical positioning of different quoms and labour relations (Ahmad, 1970; Eglar, 1960; Lyon, 2004; Nadvi & Robinson, 2004). However, the caste system in rural Punjab has changed over time and its characteristic need revision e.g. labour relations (Chaudhary, 1999; Lyon, 2004). The traditional labour relation between zamindars and kammi is known as Seyp system in which kammi used to work as labour for zamindars besides serving the villagers with their parentage crafts. Kammi earned their livelihood predominantly through their caste based occupations (Eglar, 1960). Different studies have explored that the caste based occupations of kammi are in decline because of the availability of alternative employment opportunities e.g. industrial and government jobs. Moreover, there are increasing trends among kammi to migrate towards cities and foreign countries for earning purposes. As a result, the traditional labour relations between kammi and zamindars have been transformed and are coming to an end with the passage of time (Chaudhary, 1999; Hooper and Hamid, 2003). …