The Gadaria or Gadariya (also known as Gadri,[1] Gayri,[1] or Gaari[2]) is a herding caste that was traditionally involved professionally in livestock breeding, especially sheep.[3] They are primarily found in Uttar Pradesh and in some parts of Punjab, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar.[4] In Gujarat, they are called Bharwad.[5]
The word Gadaria is derived from the old Hindi word Gadar, which means sheep.[6]
In the early 1910s, an educated class of Gadarias formed All India Pal Kshatriya Mahasabha. There were debates within the community whether to add Kshatriya suffix to the community name. In the 1930s, they started referring to themselves as "Pali Rajput", a synonym of Pal Kshatriya.[7] They started caste magazines like "Pal Kshatriya Samachar" and "Shepherd Times". Later the community went through the process of de-sanskritisation and dropped the suffix Kshatriya. Among the reasons cited for de-sanskritization were losing autonomy of their caste identity and avoiding being submerged into the identity of high castes.[8]
There are two major subdivisions amongst Gadarias, namely Dhangar and Nikhar. They share the same gotras such as Chauhan, Parihar, Sisodiya, Shirashwar, Chandel, Mohania, Kula etc are some of the gotras amongst them.[9]
In Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi they are classified as Other Backward Class in the Indian System of Reservation.[10][11][12][13][14]
They generally practice Hinduism, worshipping various popular deities including Rama, Krishna, Shiva, Vishnu, Hanuman, Kali, Chandi and Lakshmi, as well as various Kuladevata, or family deities. Some of them wear the sacred thread. A majority of them are vegetarians.[15]