Mazhabi

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or more correctly Mazhabi, is a Chuhra who has become a Sikh. Sikh Chu'hras are almost confined to the Districts and States immediately east and southeast of Lahore, which form the centre of Sikhism. Mazbi means nothing more than a member of the scavenger class converted to Sikhism. The Mazbis take the pahul wear their hair long, and abstain from tobacco, and they apparently refuse to touch night-soil, though performing all the other offices hereditary to the Chuhra caste. Their great guru is Tegh Bahadur, whose mutilated body was brought back from Delhi by Chuhras who were then and there admitted to the faith by Guru Gobind as a reward for their devotion. But though good Sikhs so far as religious observance is concerned, the taint of hereditary pollution is upon them and Sikhs of other castes refuse to associate with them even in religious ceremonies. They often intermarry with the Lal Begi or Hindu Chuhra. They make capital soldiers and some of our Pioneer regiments are wholly composed of Masbis. One of the bravest of the generals of the Gurus, was Jiwan Singh, a Masbi, whose tomb is still shown at Chamkaur in Ambala. He fell at its siege in 1705-06. During the' Muhammadan persecution of the Sikhs they dropped out of notice and failing a supporter in the place of Guru Govind, they never came to the front as a class, although Maharaja Ranjit Singh had a great admiration for their bravery and enlisted them freely. Being afraid, however, to form them into separate corps, he attached a company to various battalions. They were, however, looked down upon by the other men and naturally became discontented. When the Punjab was annexed, the Mazbi was a dacoit, a robber and often a thug. In this capacity he was generally styled a Rangretha. The latter are a class of Mazbi apparently found only in Ambala, Ludhiana, and the neighbourhood who consider themselves socially superior to the rest. The origin of their superiority, according to Srt. Denail Ibbetson 's information, lies in the fact that they were once notorious as highway robbers! But it appears that the Rangrethas have very generally abandoned scavenging for leather-work, and this would at once account for their rise in the social scale. In the hills Rangretha is often used as synonymous with Rangrez, or Chhimba or Lilari, to denote the cotton dyer and stamper, and in Sirsa the Sikhs will often call any Chuhra whom they wish to please Rangretha, and a rhyme is current Rangretha, Guru ka beta, or "the Rangretba is the son of the Guru'." The Mazbis have social distinctions among themselves. The descendants of the true Mazbis who rescued Tegh Bahaldur's body (Head) are strictly speaking, the only asl or real Mazbis, but the term is applied loosely to more recent converts. Recent converts are looked upon more or less with a critical eye and are termed Malwais. This term was probably a geographical distinction at first, but is now merely a caste one. It takes some generations to make a Mazbi, but how many he cannot say. Much depends on circumstances, and on the strictness of the convert's adherence to the faith as to when he may be admitted to an equal footing with a true Mazbi. For this reason the asl Mazbi is scarce and his physique is falling off. Until quite lately he was never found in large numbers in any special locality, except for the purpose of work on a new canal or railway. Two or three Mazbi houses are attached to the villages where they work as labourers. Grants of land have, however, been made in Gujranwala to pensioners of Pioneer regiments. The Mazbi gots are numerous and many of them are the same as those of the Jat, doubtless following the family or group whose hereditary servants they were. In their customs too, at weddings, etc., they conform to a great extent to those prevalent among the Jats.

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