Chamar

Chamar is a dalit community classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's system of positive discrimination. Historically subject to untouchability, they were traditionally outside the Hindu ritual ranking system of castes known as varna. They are found throughout the Indian subcontinent, mainly in the northern states of India and in Pakistan and Nepal.

Quotes

• Turning from western to northern India, there were in Uttar Pradesh in the medieval period as of now, Chamars, Ahirs, Brahmanas, Rajputs, Koris, Kurmis and the Bhars. They have all lived, the high and the low, as part of the Hindu civilization. Curiously enough, the most numerous caste of Uttar Pradesh was, in about 1900 or at the end of the medieval period, the Chamars. As per the Imperial Gazetteer, “Musahars, Dosadhs and Chamars may be considered semi-Hinduized aborigines”, but this is unnecessary hairsplitting. All these castes were full- fledged Hindus, as vouched by Alberuni. Chamars formed the largest groups in the districts of Saharanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Meerut, Bulandshahr, Aligarh, Mathura and Agra,” as well as in Banda, Kalinjar, Jhansi, Jalaun, Hardoi, Kheri, Fyzabad and sev- eral other districts like Jaunpur, Azamgarh and Ghazipur.*> In Meerut and Bulandshahr districts, Chamars were the most nu- merous, comprising 20 per cent of the population. So also was the case in Aligarh, Agra and Mathura.”*In Banda and Jalaun too they formed the largest class. But let not the list be made too exhaustive.
  • Lal, K. S. (1995). Growth of scheduled tribes and castes in medieval India. 15