The Lodhi (or Lodha, Lodh) is a community of agriculturalists, found in India. There are many in
Madhya Pradesh, to where they had emigrated from
Uttar Pradesh.[1] The Lodhi are categorised as an
Other Backward Class,[a] but claim
Rajput ties and prefer to be known as "Lodhi-Rajput",[3] although they have no account of their Rajput origin or prevailing Rajput traditions.[4]
Etymology
Robert Vane Russell, an administrator of the
British Raj, described several possible etymologies for Lodhi, including derivation from lod ("clod"), or lodh, a tree whose bark the Lodhi of Northern India gather to make dye. Russell also stated that Lodha was the original term, later corrupted to Lodhi in the
Central Provinces.[5] Another theory derives the name from the
district of Ludhiana, supposing it the Lodhi homeland.[6]
History
A historical mention of a Lodhi village chief (nagar chaudhari) occurs in Navalshah Chanderia's Vardhamana Purana, written in
Samvat 1825. It mentions a Gajrath pratishtha function organized by Bhisham Sahu, an ancestor of the author in Samvat 1651 (1594 AD) when a temple at Bhelsi was consecrated.[7] The temple built during the rule of the Bundela ruler Jujhar Singh, still exists.[8]
British sources described the Lodhi as "immigrants from the
United Provinces", who spread from that area, and in doing so were able to raise their social status, becoming landholders and local rulers ranking only below the
Brahmin, Rajput, and
Bania. Some of these large landholders gained the title of
thakur, and some Lodhi families in Damoh and Sagar were labeled as
rajas,
diwans and
lambardars by the
Raja of Panna.[6] These now-powerful Lodhi played a significant role in the 1842 Bundela rising.[9]
20th-century caste politics
Members of the community developed a
myth of origin, claiming that they are originally from
Kazakhstan and that they were the only surviving
kshatriyas following
Parashurama's cleansing of the earth, thus enabling them to become kings.[10]
Following the
1911 census of India, the Lodhi began to further organise politically, and prior to the 1921 census claimed the name Lodhi-Rajput at a conference in
Fatehgarh.[11] At the 1929 conference, the Akhil Bharatiya Lodhi-Kshatriya (Rajput) Mahasabha was drafted.[12] The first part of the century also saw the publication of various books outlining Lodhi claims to the status of Rajput and Kshatriya, including the 1912 Maha Lodhi Vivechana and 1936 Lodhi Rajput Itihas.[13]
Notables
Avanti Bai, a Lodhi queen of
Ramgarh, now in Madhya Pradesh, who opposed the British in 1857 and is now a
Dalit political icon[14]
^Chauhan, Brij Raj (1980).
Extending frontiers of sociological learning. Meerut University. Institute of Advanced Studies. Dept. of Sociology, Institute of Advanced Studies, Meerut University. p. 63. The claim of a new caste name 'Lodhi-Rajput' was made at an All India conference, held at Fathegarh before 1921. The history of Lodhi organization is about 57 years old.
^Chauhan, Brij Raj (1980).
Extending frontiers of sociological learning. Meerut University. Institute of Advanced Studies. Dept. of Sociology, Institute of Advanced Studies, Meerut University. p. 55.