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Kamma (caste)

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This article is about the caste. For the ballet score Khamma by Claude Debussy, see Khamma (ballet).

Kamma
ReligionsHinduism
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StatusForward caste

Kamma is a caste from South India. The community of Kammas is that of agricultural families originating from the Kammanadu region of the Guntur and Prakasam districts in Andhra Pradesh.[1][2] They are believed to have spread out from the region during the Vijayanagara period, followed by some in-migration during the British period, and out-migration again during the twentieth century.[3] Today they constitute a dominant agrarian and trading caste from coastal Andhra with socio-economic and political prominence throughout the Telugu-speaking regions of India (the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana).[4][5]

They also have a notable presence in the neighbouring states in India such as Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.[6] In recent times, a sizeable number of Kammas have migrated to the United States.[7]

Origins

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Gundlakamma River
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Kammanadu region
Main article: Kammanadu

The modern community of Kammas is believed to have originated with the Kapus (agriculturists) of the Kammanadu region in coastal Andhra Pradesh.[2][8] The region, lying between the Gundlakamma river and the Krishna river in the erstwhile Guntur district (which included the three subdistricts later transferred to the Ongole district in 1970), had an identity dating back to ancient times. The term "kamma" either referred to the two rivers that formed the boundaries of the region,[9] or to the Buddhist monastic institutions called sanghakammas believed to have been once prevalent in the region.[10]

As the people of the region migrated to other parts, they were often referred to as the Kamma community (kamma-kula).[11] Terms such as kamma-brahmana, kamma-komati, kamma-sreshti and kamma-kapu are attested in inscriptions as descriptions of people.[12][13][14] The migration was aparently quite extensive, and was made by possible by the Kammanadu's strategic location with access to the Deccan plateau as well as to the regions in the south and southwest.[15] By 1872, only one-fourth of their total population was living in the original region. But the migrants retained links to the homeland and returned to it whenever the situation was favourable.[16]

Medieval history

Post-Kakatiya period

The tradition holds that the Kammas, along with Velamas and Reddis, evolved out of the community of Kapus (cultivators) in the post-Kakatiya period. A popular legend collected by Edgar Thurston narrates that Kammas originated from the youngest son of a certain Belthi Reddi, who managed to recover his mother's ear-ornament (called "kamma" in Telugu) which had been appropriated by a king's minister. The other sons of Belthi Reddi are similarly said to have given rise to the other prominent caste communities of the Telugu people.[17]

Vijayanagara period

During the reign of Krishnadevaraya, Kammas are said to have formed the bulwark of the Vijayanagara army. Kamma Nayaks (commanders) were appointed as governors in many areas of Tamil Nadu.[18] Pemmasani Ramalinga Nayudu was a leading military commander under Krishnadevaraya. Vithalappa Nayaka was another prominent Kamma military commander during the reign of Krishadevaraya and Achyuta Deva Raya.[19][20] Their role in protecting the last great Hindu kingdom of India was significant.[21][non-primary source needed]

Golkonda period

The Kammas were largely reduced by the status of peasants in the post-Kakatiya period.[22] The Vijayanagara kingdom was troubled after the battle of Tallikota in 1565. Pemmasani Nayaks, Ravella Nayaks and Sayapaneni Nayaks helped the Araviti kings in keeping the Muslims at bay. It took another 90 years to consolidate the Muslim power in Andhra country with the capture of Gandikota in 1652. Kamma nayaks migrated in large numbers to the Tamil region. During the Golkonda period, the Sayapaneni Nayaks (1626–1802) ruled Dupadu region as vassals of the Golkonda sultans.[23]

Modern history

Kamma landholdings were consolidated, and their influence consequently increased, by the introduction of the ryotwari system as a replacement for the zamindari system in the 19th century.[24]

In the 1872 census, the Kammas made up 40 per cent of the agricultural population of the Krishna district (which included the present Guntur district until 1904). Along with Brahmins, they formed the domininant community of the district.[25] By 1921, their population in the district increased to 47 per cent, representing a large in-migration. The literate Kammas learned the Vedas, wore the sacred threads, taught Sanskrit and performed priestly functions for the lower-caste members, which are said to have generated controversies. Despite this attachment to Brahminical orthodoxy, the Kammas related to the Kapus (cultivators) and their Shudra identity.[26] The upward mobility of the community was noted in N. G. Ranga's study in the 1920s. The Kammas were also politically active, associating themselves with the Indian National Congress almost from its inception, and agitated for farmers' interests. They formed the Kamma Mahajana Sabha, a caste association, in 1910, which received encouragement from the political leaders. Ranga also started a Madras Kamma Association in 1919 and founded a journal Kamma Patrika, later renamed to Ryot Patrika.[27] The Kammas constituted 6 per cent of the population in the Telugu-speaking of the Madras Presidency in 1921, a figure slightly higher than Brahmins, but lagging far behind 'Kapur or Reddi'.[28]

Construction of dams and barrages and establishment of an irrigation system in Godavari and Krishna River deltas by Arthur Cotton was a great boon to the Kamma farmers. Availability of water and the natural propensity for hard work made the Kammas wealthy and prosperous.[29] The money was put to good use by establishing numerous schools and libraries and encouraging their children to take up modern education.[30]

The Kammas of Southern Tamil Nadu have also excelled in the cultivation of black cotton soils and later diversified into various industrial enterprises, particularly in Coimbatore and Kovilpatti.[31][32]

Classification

The varna system of Brahmanic ritual ranking never took hold in South Indian society outside Kerala. There were essentially three classes: Brahmin, non-Brahmin and Dalit.[33] Kammas naturally fall into the non-Brahmin class.[34] Classification of social groups in the Andhra region has changed frequently as the various communities jostle for status.[35] During the British Raj, the Kammas were considered to be "upper Shudra", along with the Reddy and Velama castes, under the varna system.[36][37]. Kammas claim the Kshatriya status and argued that the Kshatriya status was given based on one’s deeds, according to dharma. Despite this line of reasoning, by claiming that the contemporary Kammas were Kshatriyas because their ancestors had attained that status by virtue of good deeds or marriage into royal Kshatriya families like the Kakatiyas, in fact the Kammas proved the validity of pedigree rather than dharma in determining one's varna.[38]

Selig Harrison said in 1956 that

Kamma lore nurtures the image of a once-proud warrior clan reduced by Reddi chicanery to its present peasant status. Reddi duplicity, recounted by Kamma historian K. Bhavaiah Choudary, was first apparent in 1323 AD at the downfall of Andhra's Kakatiya dynasty. Reciting voluminous records to prove that Kammas dominated the Kakatiya court, Chaudary suggests that the Reddis, also influential militarists at the time, struck a deal at Kamma expense with the Moslem conquerors of the Kakatiya regime. The Kammas lost their noble rank and were forced into farming.[22]

.

Politics

Prior to the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, creating the new state of Telangana, the Kammas and the Reddys were politically and economically dominant in the state.[5]

During the 1980s, they played a key role in state and national politics with the inception of the Telugu Desam Party by its then President Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao also called as NTR.[39]

Notable people

References

  1. ^ Nāgabhūṣaṇaśarma, M.; Sastry, M. V.; Śēṣagirirāvu, C. (1995), History and culture of the Andhras, Telugu University, p. 80 Quote: "Next to birth and profession, it was region which accounted for sectarian sub-divisions in all the castes like those of Kammanadu being called Kamma-Brahmana, Kamma-Kapu, Kamma-Sresthi and so on."
  2. ^ a b Sastry, P. V. Parabrahma (1996), Rural Studies in Early Andhra, V.R. Publication, p. 59 Quote: "The modern Kamma sect of people in Andhra desa is originally of the Kapu families hailing from Kamma nadu or Kamma rashtra of the medieval period."
  3. ^
  4. ^ Benbabaali, Caste Dominance and Territory in South India (2018), pp. 2–3; Keiko, Politics and representation of caste identity (2008), p. 356
  5. ^ a b Srinivasulu, K. (September 2002). "Caste, Class and Social Articulation in Andhra Pradesh: Mapping Differential Regional Trajectories" (PDF). London: Overseas Development Institute. pp. 3–4. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
  6. ^ Benbabaali, Caste Dominance and Territory in South India (2018), pp. 6–7, 25–29, 29–30
  7. ^ Bhaskar, T. L. S.; Bhat, Chandrashekhar (2007). "Contextualising Diasporic Identity". In Oonk, Gijsbert (ed.). Global Indian Diasporas: Exploring Trajectories of Migration and Theory. Amsterdam University Press. pp. 108–109, 112. ISBN 978-90-5356-035-8.
  8. ^ Keiko, Politics and representation of caste identity (2008), p. 356: "their actual dominance was originally limited to two districts on the lower banks of the Krishna River, namely Krishna and Guntur districts."
  9. ^ Lincoln, Bommala Abraham (1992), A study of place-names of Bāpaṭla Taluk: a study on onomastics, B. Subhashini, p. 118: "Here, Kamma indicates a stream. Cf: Gundlakamma: Prakasam District; Perakamma: a big Kamma, River Krishna"
  10. ^ Benbabaali, Caste Dominance and Territory in South India (2018), pp. 6–7: According to epigraphical records, the Krishna delta area was known as Kammanadu during the Chola empire—a toponym that probably came from the Buddhist monastic institutions called sanghakammas.
  11. ^ Rao, B. S. L. Hanumantha (1995), Social Mobility in Medieval Andhra, Telugu University, pp. 52–53
  12. ^ Pramila, Kasturi (1 January 2002), Economic and social conditions of Āndhra Deśa, A.D. 1000 to 1323 A.D., Bharatiay Kala Prakashan, p. 189
  13. ^ Sarma, M Somasekhara; Sōmaśēkharaśarma, Mallampalli (1948), History of the Reddi Kingdoms (circa. 1325 A.D. to Circa 1448 A.D.), Andhra University, p. 278
  14. ^ Nāgabhūṣaṇaśarma, Modali; Sastry, Mudigonda Veerabhadra; Śēṣagirirāvu, Cīmakurti (1995), History and culture of the Andhras, Telugu University, p. 80
  15. ^ Keiko, Politics and representation of caste identity (2008), p. 356: "Its historical prominence, however, derived from the fact that it opened into the extensive Deccan plateau."
  16. ^ Keiko, Politics and representation of caste identity (2008), pp. 357–359: "their population in the Krishna delta in the 1872 census was one-fourth of their total strength in the entire Madras Presidency, but had increased by 1921 to about 47 per cent."
  17. ^ Talbot, Austin Cynthia (2001), Pre-colonial India in Practice: Society, Region, and Identity in Medieval Andhra, Oxford University Press, p. 206, ISBN 978-0-19803-123-9
  18. ^ Dutt, K. I. (1926). "Kamma Commanders of the Vijayanagara Empire". Journal of the Andhra Historical Society. X: 223.
  19. ^ Wagoner, Phillip B. (1993). Tidings of the king: a translation and ethnohistorical analysis of the Rāyavācakamu. University of Hawaii Press. p. 14. ISBN 9780824814953.
  20. ^ Patil, Madhao P. (1 September 1999). Court Life Under The Vijayanagar Rulers. B.R. Publishing Corporation. pp. 70–71. ISBN 9788176460941.
  21. ^ Jackson, William (2005). Vijayanagara Voices. Ashgate Publishing. p. 124. ISBN 0-7546-3950-9.
  22. ^ a b Harrison, Caste and the Andhra Communists (1956)
  23. ^ Narayanarau, V.; Shulman, D. D.; Subrahmanyam, S. (2003). Textures of Time: Writing History in South India. Other Press LLC. p. 264. ISBN 1-59051-044-5.
  24. ^ Kumar, P. Pratap (2013). "Andhra Pradesh: Economic and social relations". In Berger, Peter; Heidemann, Frank (eds.). The Modern Anthropology of India: Ethnography, Themes and Theory. Routledge. p. 18. ISBN 9781134061112.
  25. ^ Keiko, Politics and representation of caste identity (2008), p. 357.
  26. ^ Keiko, Politics and representation of caste identity (2008), pp. 358–359.
  27. ^ Keiko, Politics and representation of caste identity (2008), pp. 360–361.
  28. ^ Keiko, Politics and representation of caste identity (2008), p. 356.
  29. ^ Murty, K. R. (2001). Parties, Elections and Mobilisation. New Delhi: Anmol Publications. p. 20.
  30. ^ Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi (2002). Education and the disprivileged: nineteenth and twentieth century India. Orient Blackswan. p. 58. ISBN 978-81-250-2192-6.
  31. ^ Stein, Burton (1989). Vijayanagara. Cambridge University Press. p. 46. ISBN 0-521-26693-9.
  32. ^ Chari, Sharad (2004). Fraternal Capital. Stanford University Press. p. 162. ISBN 0-8047-4873-X.
  33. ^ Fox, Richard G. (January 1969), "Varna Schemes and Ideological Integration in Indian Society", Comparative Studies in Society and History, 11 (01): 27–45, doi:10.1017/S0010417500005132: "When recognition of a regional varna scheme has been unavoidable—such as the tripartite division into Brahmins, non-Brahmins, and Untouchables in much of the South— it has been explained in terms of an historical corruption or breakdown of the standard four-class system, rather than regarded as a functional entity in its own right."
  34. ^ Gopi, K. N. (1978), Process of Urban Fringe Development: A Model, Concept Publishing Company, p. 35
  35. ^ Kumar, P. Pratap (2013). "Andhra Pradesh: Economic and social relations". In Berger, Peter; Heidemann, Frank (eds.). The Modern Anthropology of India: Ethnography, Themes and Theory. Routledge. p. 14. ISBN 9781134061112.
  36. ^ Bhattacharya, Sabyasachi (2002). Education and the disprivileged: nineteenth and twentieth century India. Orient Blackswan. p. 17. ISBN 978-81-250-2192-6.
  37. ^ Ayres, Alyssa; Oldenburg, Philip (2002). India briefing: quickening the pace of change. M. E. Sharpe. p. 138. ISBN 978-0-7656-0813-0.
  38. ^ Keiko, Politics and representation of caste identity (2008), pp. 364:
  39. ^ Political Parties in South Asia, S. K. Mitra and M. Enskat, 2004, Praeger/Greenwood, p.115, ISBN 0-275-96832-4
  40. ^ http://templesinindiainfo.com/b-munuswamy-naidu/
  41. ^ a b c d e "Khammas of AP have money power, so they just go get it". Retrieved 7 September 2016.

Bibliography

  • Benbabaali, Dalel (2018), "Caste Dominance and Territory in South India: Understanding Kammas' socio-spatial mobility", Modern Asian Studies, 52 (06): 1938–1976, doi:10.1017/S0026749X16000755, ISSN 0026-749X
  • Keiko, Yamada (2008), "Politics and representation of caste identity in regional historiography: A case study of Kammas in Andhra", The Indian Economic and Social History Review, 45 (3): 353–380, doi:10.1177/001946460804500302
  • Harrison, Selig S. (June 1956). "Caste and the Andhra Communists". The American Political Science Review. 50 (2): 378–404. JSTOR 1951675. (subscription required)

Further reading

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