Chaush

Chaush

Total population
600,000+
Regions with significant populations
• India • Pakistan • Bosnia and Herzegovina • Montenegro
Languages
• Urdu • Arabic • Bosnian • Telugu
Religion
• Islam 100% •
Related ethnic groups
• Arabs • Hadhrami • Chavuse • Bosniaks • Siddi • Hyderabadi Muslims

The Chaush are a Sunni Muslim community of Hadhrami Arab descent found in the Deccan region of India. An extension of these Arab descendants are also found in Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro. It is a Turkish word used particularly during the Ottoman era of the Balkans, 'Chaush' or Čauši were military officers generally deputed as palace officers. They have a common origin with the Chavuse community of Gujarat.

Origin

Chaush is a Turkish word meaning military personnel, as many of them served in the armies of the Deccan rulers. They migrated to India in the 18th century, primarily from the Hadhrami people of the Hadhramaut region in Yemen. They have a big community mainly in the Deccan region of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. They have relatives living/working in the Persian Gulf region and many of them still holding Yemeni nationality. They came here in search of work especially from Yemen. They worked here with the Nizam of Hyderabad, serving in the armed forces or police. they have settled well over here and hold the Indian citizenship. They still have maintained the Arab culture in them. Most of them cannot speak Arabic but they still are Arabs. People who have migrated from Jizan(Saudi Arabia), They are the tribe known as Bin Munief Al Nahdi, and many more.

Culturally they are a bit different from the mainstream Indian Muslims. Famous dishes from the Chaush community are Lham- mandi, dajaj-mandi, Asseed, qahwa, and haleem.

In the Balkan region Chaush presence is still evident from the various last names derived from 'Chaush' which last name modified with the local prefix of '(e)vic' meaning 'son of Čauš' Čaušević is the second most common last name in Bosnia as well and almost all Causevic families are of Bosniak (Bosnian Muslim) ethnic stock. A significant Bosniak population in Montenegro also holds many Čauš family roots. More information is available via Bosnian Wikipedia: http://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%8Cau%C5%A1evi%C4%87

A famous 'Chaush' in Bosnia was Mehmed Džemaludin ef. Čaušević (1870 – 28 March 1938) a Bosniak reformer and imam.

Distribution

This community is most commonly found in an area called Barkas (previously known as Barracks), This area "Barkas" is also called as Little Arabia in Hyderabad, A.C. Guards in Hyderabad and in Telangana districts of AP including Karimnagar, Medak, Adilabad, Warangal, Mahboobnagar, Nizamabad etc. Old Aurangabad city of Maharashtra. Besides the majority of them reside in rural Maharashtra. The prominent being Ajanta village, Bhokardan, Dhawda, Jafferabad, Jalna, Ambad, Sawangi, Vaijapur, Gangapur, Partur, Pathri, Kannad, Beed, Osmanabad, Latur, Ausa, Parbhani, Nanded. There are also a few individuals of this community in Surat, Gujarat.

The Arab community in Hyderabad is the central connection chord to the government affairs and where in have some families representing the Hadarims of India and secure their right in Yemen.

The Chaush community of Aurangabad have founded an organisation The Jamiat ul Arab for the welfare of the Arab community of Maharashtra.

Bakulka is also one of the surname of Chaush found in the fore wall of Golcoonda fort.

Chaush people

• Subhani ba Yunus, Pakistani actor
• General El Edroos
• Salam Masdoosi

See also

• Siddi
• Arabs of Gujarat

Further reading

• Omar Khalidi, The Arabs of Hadramawt in Hyderabad in Mediaeval Deccan History, eds Kulkarni, Naeem and de Souza, Popular Prakashan, Bombay, 1996
• Leif Manger, Hadramis in Hyderabad: From Winners to Losers, Asian Journal of Social Science, Volume 35, Numbers 4-5, 2007, pp. 405–433(29)
• Engseng Ho, The Graves of Tarim: Genealogy and Mobility across the Indian Ocean, University of California Press, 2006
• Ababu Minda Yimene, An African Indian community in Hyderabad, Cuvillier Verlag, 2004, pg 201
• Hadhrami Traders, Scholars, and Statesmen in the Indian Ocean:1750s-1960s By-Ulrike Freitag and W. G. Clarence-Smith
• http://bs.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C4%8Cau%C5%A1evi%C4%87