1 VAGEANT, MENIAL, AND ARTISAN CASTES. 325
2 troublesome than the latter. Mr. Fanshawe notes that in Rohtak " the butcher
3 " class is the very worst iu the district, and is noted for its callousness in
4 " taking human life, and general tm-bulence in all matters " ; and there is a
5 proverb, " He who has not seen a tiger has still seen a cat, and he who has
6 " not seen a Thug has still seen a Qassab.'^ In Karnal the Qassabs are said
7 often to practise market-gardening.
8 648. The Kalal (Caste No. 56).— The Kalal, or Kalwar as he is called in
9 the west of the Paujab, is the distiller and seller of spirituous liquors. The
10 word, however, seems to mean a potter iu Peshawar, He is commonly known
11 as Neb iu Nabha and Patiala, and when a Mahomedan often calls himself
12 Kakkezai and when a Sikh Ahluwalia, the origin of which names will pre-
13 sently be explained. I have said that the Kalal is a distiller ; and that is his
14 hereditary occupation. But since the manufacture of and trafBo in spirits
15 have been subjected to Government regulation a large portion of the caste,
16 and more especially of its Sikh and Musalmau sections, have abandoned their
17 proper calling and taken to other pursuits, very often to commerce, and especi-
18 ally to traffic in boots and shoes, bread, vegetables, and other commodities in
19 which men of good caste object to deal. They are notorious for enterprise,
20 energy, and obstinacy. " Death may budge ; but a Kalal won't." They
21 are, owing to circumstances presently to be mentioned, most numerous in the
22 Sikh portions of the Panjab, and especially in Kapiirthala. In the western
23 districts they seem to be almost unknown. Rather more than half of them
24 are still Hindu, about a quarter Sikh, and the other quarter Musalmiin. The
25 original social position of the caste is exceedingly low, though in the Panjab,
26 it has been raised by special cu'cumstances.
27 Tlie reigning family of Kapiirthala is descended from Sada Singh Kalal
28 who founded the village of Ahlu near Lahore. The family gradually rose in
29 the social scale, and Badar Singh, the great-grandson of Sada Singh, married
30 the daughter of a petty Sardar of the district. From this union sprang Jassa
31 Singh, who became the most powerful aud influential Chief that the Sikhs
32 ever j^ossessed till the rise of Raujit Singh. He adopted the title of Ahlu-
33 walia from his ancestral village Ahlu, the title is still borne by the Kapiirthala
34 royal family, and a Sikh Kalal will commonly give his caste as Ahliiwalia.
35 The caste was thus raised in importance, many of its members abandoned their
36 hereditary occupation, aud its Musalmau section also grew ashamed of the
37 social stigma conveyed by the confession of Kalal origin. It accordingly
38 fabricated a story of Pathan origin, and, adding to the first letter of the caste
39 name the Pathan tribal termination, called itself Kakkezai. The name was at
40 first only used by the more wealthy members of the caste ; but its use is
41 spreading, aud the cultivating owners of a village iu Giijrat entered them-
42 selves as Kalal in the fii'st and as Kakkezai in the second settlement. The well-
43 known Shekhs of Hoshyarpm- are Kaliils who, while claiming Pathan origin,
44 call themselves Shekhs and forbid widow-man'iage. Some of the Musalmau
45 Kalals claim Rajput or Khatri origin, and it is probable that many of the
46 caste have returned themselves as Shekhs. The commercial Kalals are said not
47 to iatermai'ry with those who still practise distillation.
48 MENIALS OF THE HILLS.
49 649. The Menials of the Hills. — The figm-es for such of the menial castes
50 28- as are peculiar to the hills are given in Abstract No. lOG on page 337.* To
51 these must of course be added those members of the menial castes already