Carrier and Pedlar Castes in Punjab, 1883

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This article is an extract from PANJAB CASTES SIR DENZIL CHARLES JELF IBBETSON, K.C. S.I. Being a reprint of the chapter on The Races, Castes and Tribes of the People in the Report on the Census of the Panjab published in 1883 by the late Sir Denzil Ibbetson, KCSI Lahore: Printed by the Superintendent, Government Printing, Punjab, 1916. Indpaedia is an archive. It neither agrees nor disagrees with the contents of this article. Secondly, this has been scanned from a book. You can help by sending the corrected version to the Facebook page, Indpaedia.com. All information used will be duly acknowledged.

Carriers, Cattle-merchants, Pedlars, &c

I have said that the commerce of the Panjab was in the hands of the group just discussed, with the exception of the trade in meat, liquor, and vegetables, the traffic in cattle, the carrying trade, and petty pedling and hawking'. The sellers of meat and liquor will be discussed tinder the head of miscellaneous artisans ; and the group which I am now ahout to describe consists of the traders in cattle, the carriers, and the pedlars and hucksters of the Province. I have divided it into three sections, though I shall presently show that the first two overlap considerably, and that the third is incomplete. The first section includes the Banjaras, the Labanas, the Rahbaris, and the Untwals ; and these castes include most of the professional carriers and cattle-dealers, and some of the pedlars of the Panjab. The second class consists of the Maniars, the Bhatras, and the Kangars, and includes the rest of the pedlars of the Province save only such as belong to the Khoja and Paracha castes just discus-ed. The third class includes the Kunjras and the Tambolis, both Greengrocers.

But it must be understood that, though there are no castes in the Panjab besides those above mentioned whose hereditary occupation it is to trade in cattle and carry merchandise, yet an immense deal of traffic in cattle goes on quietly among the villagers without the intervention of any outsider ; while in the early months of the hot weather, when the spring harvest has been cut, and before the early rains of autumn have softened the ground sufficiently for ploughing to be possible, the plough oxen of the unirrigated Eastern Plains find employment in carrying the produce of their villages to the line of rail or to the great city marts, and in bringing back salt and other products not indigenous to the tract.