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TheLodhi (orLodha,Lodh) is a community of agriculturalists, found in India. There are many[vague] inMadhya Pradesh, to where they had emigrated fromUttar Pradesh.[1] The Lodhi are categorised as anOther Backward Class,[a] but claimRajput ties and prefer to be known as "Lodhi-Rajput",[3] although they have no account of their Rajput origin or prevailing Rajput traditions.[4]
Robert Vane Russell, an administrator of theBritish Raj, described several possible etymologies forLodhi, including derivation fromlod ("clod"), orlodh, a tree whose bark the Lodhi of Northern India gather to make dye. Russell also stated thatLodha was the original term, later corrupted toLodhi in theCentral Provinces.[5] Another theory derives the name from thedistrict of Ludhiana, supposing it the Lodhi homeland.[6]
A historical mention of a Lodhi village chief (nagar chaudhari) occurs in Navalshah Chanderia's Vardhamana Purana, written inSamvat 1825. It mentions a Gajrath pratishtha function organized by Bhisham Sahu, an ancestor of the author in Samvat 1651 (1594 AD) when a temple at Bhelsi was consecrated.[7] The temple built during the rule of the Bundela ruler Jujhar Singh, still exists.[8]
British sources described the Lodhi as "immigrants from theUnited Provinces", who spread from that area, and in doing so were able to raise their social status, becoming landholders and local rulers ranking only below theBrahmin, Rajput, andBania. Some of these large landholders gained the title ofthakur, and some Lodhi families in Damoh and Sagar were labeled asrajas,diwans andlambardars by theRaja of Panna.[6] These now-powerful Lodhi played a significant role in the 1842 Bundela rising.[9]
Members of the community developed amyth of origin, claiming that they are originally fromKazakhstan and that they were the only survivingkshatriyas followingParashurama's cleansing of the earth, thus enabling them to become kings.[10]
Following the1911 census of India, the Lodhi began to further organise politically, and prior to the 1921 census claimed the nameLodhi-Rajput at a conference inFatehgarh.[11] At the 1929 conference, theAkhil Bharatiya Lodhi-Kshatriya (Rajput) Mahasabha was drafted.[12] The first part of the century also saw the publication of various books outlining Lodhi claims to the status of Rajput and Kshatriya, including the 1912Maha Lodhi Vivechana and 1936Lodhi Rajput Itihas.[13]
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)The claim of a new caste name 'Lodhi-Rajput' was made at an All India conference, held at Fathegarh before 1921. The history of Lodhi organization is about 57 years old.
See from 10:12 to !0:16, "I belong to Lodhi caste"