Sadgop

From Bharatpedia, an open encyclopedia

The Sadgop sub-caste is a Bengali Hindu Yadav (Gopa) caste, [1] found in West Bengal, Odisha, Jharkhand and parts of Bihar state in India.[2] Traditionally they are engaged with Dairy-farming and cultivation,[3] but nowadays most of them are rich cultivators or land holders.[4] However, historically Sadgop kings had ruled some parts of Bengal such as Gopbhumi, Amragarh,[5] Narayangarh and Balrampur etc.[6]

History and origin[edit]

In the 1910s, Sadgops along with Ahirs, Gops, Gopals, and Goalas began claiming kshatriya status based on claimed descent from the legendary king Yadu. The Yadav-kshatriya movement attracted communities in the Gangetic plain who were associated with a combination of cultivation, cattle-herding, and dairy farming.[7]

Present circumstances[edit]

The Sadgop consist of a number of sub-divisions. They are an endogamous group and practice gotra exogamy. The Sadgop are mainly a landholding community, but many Sadgop have settled in Kolkata and other cities of West Bengal. Their own community organization is named as Bangiya Sadgop Samiti.[2]

References[edit]

  1. "Global Prayer Digest". Global Prayer Digest. 2020-04-24. Retrieved 2021-02-09.
  2. 2.0 2.1 People of India Bihar Volume XVI Part Two edited by S Gopal & Hetukar Jha pages 827 to 831 Seagull Books
  3. Man in Biosphere: A Case Study of Similipal Biosphere Reserve. Anthropological Survey of India. 2013. ISBN 978-81-212-1163-5.
  4. Suraj Bandyopadhyay; A R. Rao; Bikas Kumar Sinha (2011). Models for Social Networks With Statistical Applications. SAGE. pp. 24–. ISBN 978-1-4129-4168-6.
  5. John R. McLane (25 July 2002). Land and Local Kingship in Eighteenth-Century Bengal. Cambridge University Press. pp. 157–. ISBN 978-0-521-52654-8.
  6. Sekhar Bandyopadhyay (1 July 2004). Caste, Culture and Hegemony: Social Dominance in Colonial Bengal. SAGE Publications. pp. 51–. ISBN 978-81-321-0407-0.
  7. William R. Pinch (18 June 1996). Peasants and Monks in British India. University of California Press. p. 91. ISBN 978-0-520-91630-2. Retrieved 9 July 2017.