Chamar


Chamar is a dalit community classified as a Scheduled Caste under modern India's system of positive discrimination. Historically subject to untouchability, they were traditionally outside the Hindu ritual ranking system of castes known as varna. They are found throughout the Indian subcontinent, mainly in the northern states of India and in Pakistan and Nepal.
Ramnarayan Rawat posits that the association of the Chamar community with a traditional occupation of tanning was constructed, and that the Chamars were instead historically agriculturists.
The term chamar is used as a pejorative word for dalits in general. It has been described as a casteist slur by the Supreme Court of India and the use of the term to address a person as a violation of the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe Act, 1989.

Occupations

Chamars who have adopted the weaving profession and abandoned tanning and leathercraft, identify themselves as Julaha Chamar; R. K. Pruthi suggests this is in the hope that they might in future be considered as Julaha by other communities. They believe that leatherwork is "degrading" when compared to weaving.

Chamar Regiment

The 1st Chamar Regiment was an infantry regiment formed by the British during World War II. Officially, it was created on 1 March 1943, as the 27th Battalion 2nd Punjab Regiment was converted. The Chamar Regiment was one of the army units which were awarded honours for its role in the Battle of Kohima. The Regiment was disbanded in 1946. In 2011, several politicians demanded that it be revived.

Demographics

According to the 2001 census of India, the Chamars comprise around 14 per cent of the population in the state of Uttar Pradesh and 12 percent of that in Punjab.
The 2011 Census of India for Uttar Pradesh combined the Chamar, Dhusia, Jhusia, Jatava Scheduled Caste communities and returned a population of 22,496,047.

Notable people