Kahar

The Kahars are an Indian people. The Kahar were once palanquin bearers. As the palanquin is not used anymore, the Kahar carry water for upper castes for weddings, funerals and grow water nuts in ponds and lakes.They are followers of Hinduism, Islam. The Muslim Kahar are chiefly found in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.

Some Kahar claim descent from the rishi Kashyap

In Bidar district of Karnataka, Meengar (Kahar) community belongs to Other Backward Classes. A proposal was moved to Government of India to include Kahars and few other castes of Uttar Pradesh in the category of Scheduled caste, however, central government returned the same to state for further justification. They are found mainly in Farrukhabad, Kanpur, Muzaffarnagar, Shahjahanpur, Sultanpur, Faizabad, Jaunpur and Ambedkar Nagar districts of Uttar Pradesh and most parts of Bihar and West Bengal. Although they are present in most parts of India but are concentrated in North India. Their main occupation is to officiate at the various holy occasions which occur along the banks of the Ganges river. With changing times this community has also abandoned its ancestral work and shifted to new avenues of modern living.

In Rajasthan, the Kahar have three sub-divisions, the Budana, Turaha and Mahara. These sub-divisions consist of clans, the main ones being the Pindwal, Sikarwal, Bamnawat, Katariya, Badgujar, Bilawat, Kashyap and Oatasaniya. The origins of most of these sub-divisions are rooted in Rajasthan.