.jpg) Khojas of Western India ca. 1855-1862 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
| Gujarat,Sindh,Maharashtra | |
| Languages | |
| Gujarati,Kutchi,Sindhi,Hindi/Urdu | |
| Religion | |
| Nizari-Ismaili Shia (majority),Twelver Shia,Sunni (minority) |
TheKhoja are a tribe orcaste of Muslims mainly members of theNizari Ismaʿiliyyah sect ofIslam with a minority of followers of Shia Islam originating the western Indian subcontinent, and converted to Islam fromHinduism by the 14th century by the Persianpīr (religious leader or teacher)Saḍr-al-Dīn.[1][2]
In India, most Khojas live in the states of Gujarat,Maharashtra,Rajasthan and the city ofHyderabad. InPakistan, most Khoja live inKarachi,Hyderabad andThatta inSindh province, and inGwadar inBalochistan province.[3]
InOman a large portion of them live inMuscat and in theArab world they are known as theLawatia. Across Africa and especially inEast Africa, the Khoja have historically dominated business in various fields however many of these families migrated to Europe in thecolonial era or immediately afterwards. InMadagascar the Khoja are known by the honorificKarana title and are now concentrated in the capital.
The Khoja originally observed Hinduism and then became adherents of Nizari Isma'ilism.[1][4] In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, particularly in the aftermath of theAga Khan Case a small minority separated and adoptedSunni Islam andTwelver Shi'ia Islam, while the majority remained Nizari Isma'ili.[5]
The termKhoja derives fromKhwāja (New PersianKhājé), aPersian honorific title (خواجه) of pious individuals used inTurco-Persian influenced regions of the Muslim world.
The specific termKhoja in theGujarati andSindhi languages, was first bestowed by thePersianateNizari Isma'iliSadardin (died c. 15th century) upon his followers during the lifetime of theNizari Ismaili Imam Islam Shah (1368-1423 CE). As such, Pir Shihab al-din Shah, brother of one of theNizari Ismaili imams, wrote regarding the origins of the Khojas that the very formation of the community came about through Pir Sadardin's devotion to the Imam.[6]
ManyLohanas of Gujarat converted to Nizari Ismailism due to the efforts of Pir Sadardin. They gradually used the titleKhoja. Before the arrival of theAga Khan from Persia to British ruled India in the 19th century, Khojas retained many Hindu traditions, including a variation on the belief in theDashavatara.[7][8]
The Khojas are an ethnic and cultural group originating from HinduLohanas. Their ethnonymKhoja is derived from the Persian termkhwāja, which roughly translates to 'Lord' or 'Master', a translation of the traditional Lohana title ofṭhakkar.[9][10] However, this term also included certain groups such asCharanas,[11][12] predominantly from Gujarat andKutch.
The HinduLohanas from Sindh were converted toNizārīIsmāʿīlism byPīr Ṣadr al-Dīn in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Ṣadr al-Dīn was a dāʿī ("missionary") acting on behalf of the Nizārīimām who lived in Persia. Ṣadr al-Dīn belonged to a hereditary lineage of pīrs who served as leaders for the Khoja community as a deputy of the imām in Persia.[4][10][13]
The pīrs composed religious hymns calledgināns that served as the religious scriptures for the Khojas rather than theQurʾān. The majority of the gināns glorify the Nizārī imām as an absolute and infallible leader. Some gināns contain large amounts of Hindu-Muslim syncretism, with Hindu deities being identified with Muslim figures. The gināns took inspiration from diverse traditions, including Nizārī Ismāʿīlism, HinduSant andBhakti traditions, andṢūfism. Such syncretism with Hinduism has been viewed as a strategy by the Ismāʿīlī missionaries to convert Hindus, as well astaqiyya to hide them from other Muslims. The religion of the Khojas was known asSatpanth.[10]
At the end of the fifteenth century, the imām in Persia,al-Mustanṣir bi-llāh II, abolished the pīrs as a source of religious authority, and replaced them with a book calledPandiyāt-i jawānmardī, which was then translated intoGujarātī.Imām Shāh (d. 1513) was supposed to become the nextpīr, but in response to the imam's decision,Imam Shāh's sonNūr Muḥammad claimed he was the imām and founded a splinter sect called theImām-Shāhīs, also known as theSat-Panthīs.[10]
In the nineteenth century, the Khojas gathered injamāʿatkhāna buildings, did not read the Qurʾān, and generally did not followIslamic law.[10]
The Khojas, mainly merchants fromKutch andKathiawar, began moving to Bombay in the late 1700s. There they were engaged in petty trade and shop-keeping, with larger magnates gaining fortunes from trade routes withChina,Muscat, andZanzibar.[14]
In 1845,Ḥasan ʿAlī Shāh aka Āghā Khān I moved to India due to conflict with theQajar dynasty in Persia. He settled inBombay, which had the largest concentration of Khojas in India. For centuries the Khojas had been a self governing community with nominal allegiance to a distant Nizārī imām in Persia, but the newly arrived Āghā Khān sought to interfere in their internal affairs. This led to conflict in the Khoja community, culminating in theĀghā Khān case of 1866. The Khoja plaintiffs argued that community in fact were Sunnī Muslims and thus were not under the authority of the Āghā Khān imām. The British judge decided in favour of the defendant, Āghā Khān I, ruling that the Khojas were the descendants of Hindus who became Shīʿa Ismāʿīlīs and thus were under the religious authority of the imām, Āghā Khān I. In response to the verdict, some Khojas converted toSunnī Islam.[10]
The imām succeeding the next imām,Sulṭān Muḥammad Shāh Āghā Khān III (r. 1885–1957) continued to attempt exert his authority over the Khojas and push them towards normative Ismāʿīlī–Shīʿa Islam; this led to theHaji Bibi case. The plaintiffs in the Haji Bibi case of 1908 claimed that the Khojas were followers ofTwelver Shīʿa Islam, however the British judge upheld that the Khojas were Ismāʿīlī and so those Khojas split off to followTwelver Shi'ism.[10]
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the Khojas were under pressure from the Āghā Khāns as well as Muslim and Hindu fundamentalist movements to alter their religion. The religious fundamentalists considered the Khojas to be heretics who should convert to Sunnī or Twelver Shīʿī Islam or normative Hinduism. The Āghā Khāns who wielded religious power over the community as imām sought to Islamise the community to normative Ismāʿīlism. The gināns were codified under their authority, those with Hindu influences were purged, and new gināns were composed with Qurʾānic verses. The use of the Gujarātī language was also replaced byEnglish. By the time of the imāmShāh Karīm al-Ḥusaynī Āghā Khān IV (r. 1957-2025), the Khojas had been integrated into a transnational Ismāʿīlī community with a focus on the Qurʾān and literacy of Islamic concepts.[10]
The Khojas live today in India and Pakistan, with a significant diaspora inEast Africa,Europe, andNorth America. They show a strong commitment to the values of Indo-Muslim philanthropy in their business entrepreneurship and contribution to societies in which they live. From the 18th century, some of the Khojas have migrated to thePersian Gulf region, mainly in the Sultanate ofOman andU.A.E, where they are known asAl-Lawatia.[15]
OriginallyNizari Isma'ili, after the 1866Aga Khan Case that consolidated the bulk of the Bombay Khoja community under the leadership of theAga Khan. The Khojas credit their title toPir Sadr al-Din who allegedly laid the foundations for the Nizari Ismaili community in India, even before theAnjudan phase of thehistory of Nizari Ismailism.[16]
Khojas who followTwelverShia Islam and have large communities inPakistan,India, East Africa,North America and theUnited Kingdom.Moulvi Ali Baksh who had settled in Mumbai in the mid-late 1800s was a prominent Moulvi with great respect in Ithna'ashari Khoja community. It is said that then the Shias were organised into a distinct community by Moulvi Ali Baksh himself. (Excerpts as translated from the book Greatness Bygone authored by Ziauddin Ahmed Barni Published by Taleemi Markaz Karachi on 30 July 1961, Page: 342 written on one of 93 great personalities Ali Mohammed Moulvi. The author had not met only 2 of the 93 personalities noted in his book).
Twelver Khojas are said to have broken away from the Isma'ili Khojas due to their determination to defend their remembrance practices against Aga Khan's efforts to ban them, in order to elevate his personal status as the reincarnation ofIsma'il ibn Ja'far, the seventh Imām of the Isma'ilis.[17]
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Traditionally, Khoja men wore apāghaḍī (loose white turban),chol (double breasted jacket),suthaḷī (trousers) ordhotiyuṁ (dhoti), and pointed shoes. By the second half of the 20th century, Khoja men had forsaken their traditional garb in favour ofṭopī (velvet cap),kabjo (European shirt/long jacket),paheraṇ (collarless inner shirt), andsurvāl (European buttoned trousers or waist-string trousers). Khoja women wear a tight blouse or short armed jacket, aghāghro skirt as a lower garment, and anoḍhaṇī (veil) on the head.[18]
Some, like the Khojah caste, are Bania groups converted to Islam by Muslim pirs (saints).
Some, like the Khojah caste, are Bania groups converted to Islam by Muslim pirs (saints).
The Padamsees, who came from the village of Mauva in Saurashtra, had originally belonged to the caste of Charanyas. Having been converted to the Khoja sect of Islam, their clan had become followers of the Agha Khan. Akbar's grandfather, who was a landlord and village chief, prided himself on the fact that he had, by his own express persuasion, brought the then Agha Khan to visit their village.
