The Turk caste in India (William Crooke, 1896)

The Turk caste in India

Turk (Sanskrit turushka), a term properly applied to the Mongolian Turkomans of Turkistan. Sir H. Yule shows that the distinction which we now make between Turk and Turkoman was popular as early as the twelfth century. On the Biloch frontier the word Turk is equivalent to Mughal, and it is often used by Hindus for any official of foreign birth. In the Panjab even Hindu clerks of the Kayasth caste are sometimes called by this name. The Dravidian tribes very often call any Muhammadan a Turk.

In these Provinces there is a large cultivating caste in the Tarai known as Turk, and in Azamgarh the term is applied to a section of the Koeris. Those in the north of Rohilkhand are described as a more manly people than the Namuslim and appear to have come into the district at an early period with some of the Sayyid colonies.¹

From a report received from the Rampur State it appears that the Turks claim to be originally emigrants from Turkistan, whence they came in the train of the army of Shahab-ud-din Ghori. They deny that they have ever admitted converts from Hinduism; but they are more Hindu in their customs than other Muhammadans. They marry early, earlier than even many Hindu castes, and for the ceremonial shaving of their children prefer the month of Baisakh. They care little about the seclusion of their women. They are endogamous, and if a Turk marries a woman of another Muhammadan tribe he is put out of caste. The women wear a peculiar dress, the scarf and drawers, which are generally of coarse cloth, being dyed blue and lined with red. The drawers are very loose above the knee and tight over the ankle. They have sections whose names are derived from local appellation and do not influence marriage. Their profession is agriculture.

Distribution of the Turks according to the Census of 1891.

Districts	Number
Allahabad	7
Gorakhpur	7
Garhwal	18
Tarai	4953
Lucknow	9
Rampur	34008
Total	39002

¹Moradabad Settlement Report, 22; Azamgarh Settlement Report, 34.

William Crooke — The Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh. Volume [04] (1896)