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'''Kushwaha''' (sometimes, '''Kushvaha''', '''Kachwaha''')<sup>[1]</sup> is a community of the Indian subcontinent, which has traditionally been involved in agriculture (including beekeeping).<sup>[2]</sup> The term has been used to represent at least four subcastes in North India, being those of the Kachwahas,kachwaha thakurs,Shekhawats and Bhadorias. They are the real Suryavanshi.They claim descent from the mythological Suryavansh (Solar) dynasty via Kusha, who was one of the twin sons of Rama and Sita. Previously, they had worshipped Shiva and Shakta.

== Demographics ==
The Anthropological Survey of India (ASI) notes the presence of Kachhi communities in Maharashtra and that those communities are also referred to as Kushwaha.<sup>[3]</sup> The ASI also records Kachawah rajput communities in Rajasthan and speculates on their mythological origins.<sup>[4]</sup> William Pinch notes their presence in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.<sup>[5]</sup>

== Origins ==
Today, the Kushwaha generally claim descent from Kusha, a son of the mythological Rama, himself an avatar of Vishnu.
This enables their claim to be of the Suryavansh dynasty but it is a 
myth of origin developed in the twentieth century. Prior to that time, 
the various branches that form the Kushwaha community - the Kachhis, 
Kachwahas,Shekhawat, and Bhadoriya - favoured a connection with Shiva 
and Shakta.<sup>[5]</sup> Ganga Prasad Gupta claimed in the 1920s that Kushwaha families worshiped Hanuman - described by Pinch as "the embodiment of true devotion to Ram and Sita" - during Kartika, a month in the Hindu lunar calendar.<sup>[6]</sup>

== Classification ==

=== Identification as Kushwaha Kshatriya ===
From around 1910, the Kachhis and the Koeris, both of whom for much 
of the preceding century had close links with the British as a 
consequence of their favoured role in the cultivation of the opium poppy, began to identify themselves as Kushwaha Kshatriya.<sup>[7]</sup>
An organisation claiming to represent those two groups and the Muraos 
petitioned for official recognition as being of the Kshatriya varna in 
1928.<sup>[8]</sup>

This action by the All India Kushwaha Kshatriya Mahasabha (AIKKM) 
reflected the general trend for social upliftment by communities that 
had traditionally been classified as being Shudra. The process, which M. N. Srinivas called sanskritisation,<sup>[9]</sup> was a feature of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century caste politics.<sup>[8][10]</sup>

The position of the AIKKM was based on the concept of Vaishnavism,
which promoted the worship and claims of descent from Rama or Krishna 
as a means to assume the trappings of Kshatriya symbolism and thus 
permit the wearing of the sacred thread
even though the physical labour inherent in their cultivator 
occupations intrinsically defined them as Shudra. The movement caused 
them to abandon their claims to be descended from Shiva in favour of the
alternate myth that claimed descent from Rama.<sup>[11]</sup>
In 1921, Ganga Prasad Gupta, a proponent of Kushwaha reform, had 
published a book offering a proof of the Kshatriya status of the Koeri, 
Kachhi, Murao and Kachwaha.<sup>[12][13]</sup>
His reconstructed history argued that the Kushwaha were Hindu 
descendants of Kush and that in the twelfth century they had served Raja
Jaichand in a military capacity during the period of Muslim 
consolidation of the Delhi Sultanate.
Subsequent persecution by the victorious Muslims caused the Kushwaha 
kshatryia to disperse and disguise their identity, foregoing the sacred 
thread and thereby becoming degraded and taking on various localised 
community names.<sup>[12]</sup>
Gupta's attempt to prove Kshatriya status, in common with similar 
attempts by others to establish histories of various castes, was spread 
via the caste associations, which Dipankar Gupta describes as providing a
link between the "urban, politically literate elite" and the "less 
literate villagers".<sup>[14]</sup> Some communities also constructed temples in support of these claims as, for example, did the Muraos in Ayodhya.<sup>[6]</sup>

== Rulers ==
A Kachwaha family ruled at Amber, which later became known as the Jaipur State, and this branch is sometimes referred to as being Rajput. They were chiefs at Amber and in 1561 sought support from Akbar, the Mughal emperor. The then chief, Bharamail Kachwaha, was formally recognised as a Raja and was invested into the Mughal nobility in return for him giving his daughter to Akbar's harem. A governor was appointed to oversee Bharamail's territory and a tribute
arrangement saw Bharamail given a salaried rank, paid for from a share 
of the area's revenue. The Rajput practice of giving daughters to the 
Mughal emperors in return for recognition as nobility and the honour of 
fighting on behalf of the Empire originated in this arrangement and thus
the Mughals were often able to assert their dominance over Rajput 
chiefs in north India without needing to physically intimidate them, especially after their rout of rulers in Gondwana.<sup>[15][16]</sup>

=== Classification as Backward Caste ===
See also: Other Backward Class

Some Kushwaha reformers also argued, in a similar vein to the Kurmi reformer Devi Prasad Sinha Chaudhari, that since Rajputs and Bhumihar Brahmins and other Brahmins
worked the fields in some areas, there was no rational basis for 
assertions that such labour marked a community as being of the Shudra 
varna.<sup>[17]</sup>
Kushwahas are classified as Most-Backward castes(MBCs) in some Indian states.<sup>[18]</sup> In 2013, the Haryana government added the Kushwaha, Koeri and Maurya castes to the list of backward classes.<sup>[19]</sup>

=== Shudra varna ===
The Kushwaha were traditionally a peasant community and considered to be of the stigmatised Shudra varna.<sup>[20]</sup> Pinch describes them as "skilled agriculturalists".<sup>[12]</sup> The traditional perception of Shudra status was increasingly challenged during the later decades of British Raj
rule, although various castes had made claims of a higher status well 
before the British administration instituted its first census.<sup>[note 1]</sup>
Pinch describes that "The concern with personal dignity, community 
identity, and caste status reached a peak among Kurmi, Yadav, and 
Kushvaha peasants in the first four decades of the twentieth century."<sup>[22]</sup>

== Notable people ==
* Ashoka
* Chandragupta Maurya
* Pajawan
* Jai Singh I
* Ramsingh I
* Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II
* Maharaj Sawai Madhosingh I

== References ==
; Notes
# <br>
William
Pinch records that, "... a popular concern with status predated the 
rise of an imperial census apparatus and the colonial obsession with 
caste. ... [C]laims to personal and community dignity appeared to be 
part of a longer discourse that did not require European political and 
administrative structures."<sup>[21]</sup>

== References ==
{{reflist}}

[[Category:Indian people]]⏎
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