People of the Konkan Division

The Konkan Division is the administrative division in the costal region of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It has a diverse number of ethnic and religious communities.

Mahars

The people of the Mahar caste are supposed to be the original dwellers in Konkan. There exists certain traditions and rituals in Konkan that allude to this. For example 'Mahar Muth'(symbolically giving some share of corn to Mahar as the first 'Mankari'(authority or owner of the land), 'Mhar dhan'(symbolically giving some money to mahar and buy some land for funeral rites)etc.

There is also a ritual followed among Konkani Brahmans which is linked with Mahars. Basically if there are any issues with child or concerns over child birth, the infant is given to a Mahar family. The child stays with Mahar family for a day or two and is then given back to the biological parents; the parents in turn give betel leaves and a kanika to the Mahar family. The child is given a Mahar name. It is believed that all ills associated with family or child is washed off and they get the child back from blessing of the goddess. Another important tradition to feed the Mahars during religious occasions and auspicious days.

Gabit

Gabits or Aarmari Marathas is supposed to be one of the ancient branches of Maratha root. They originally belong to South coastal Konkan (i.e.Ratnagiri, Sindhudurg and Goa) and traditionally worked in the Aarmar(Navy) of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj.South Coastal Konkan. They are found in the coastal parts of Karnataka also.The traditional profession of Gabit people is fishing and working on the ships. They are also one of the ancient dwellers in Konkan, living with the help of the sea. Living near the coasts the community has acquired many skills to live with the sea.

Marathas

The Maratha community is situated from Mumbai to Karwar. They are majorly found in Raigad, Sindhudurg, North Goa, the southern tip of South Goa and Karwar. The dialect of the Maratha community changes as per the region, although almost all of them are well-versed in Marathi which is the caste-language of the Marathas. Marathas in Raigad and Ratnagiri speak pure Marathi, while those in Sindhudurg speak the Malvani langguage, which is a creole between Marathi and Konkani. Those in Goa and Karwar speak Konkani.

All Royal families of Marathas like Shirke, More, Sawant, Surve, Rane, Jadhav, Vichare,Ingale and so on have been migrated to Konkan area from Marathwada region of Central Maharastra. Fall of Deogiri kingdom near present day Aurangabd during 1310, triggered large scale migration of these Maratha families. Also during Muslim rule many small Maratha- kingdom owners on Deccan plateau like Mohite of Khandesh, Sawant of Solapur, More of Paithan migrated to Konkan in 14th and 15 th century. These 96 Kuli royal Marathas have also brought Karhade Brahmins along with them in Konkan from Desh region. As These people are from Royal families along with these Kshatriyas, large no. of people dependant on them like 12 Balutedars (Sutar, Lohar, Nabhik, Shimpi) and other service class communities like Dhobi, Khatik also migrated with their Dhani(owner).

Chitpavan Brahmins

The Chitpavan Brahmins, also known as Kokanashta, are found in coastal Maharashtra. Many of them have contributed a lot to the development of a distinct Kokan-Marathi culture which distinguishes the Maharashtrian Konkanites from the Desh Marathis. The Peshwas of the Maratha Empire like Bajirao, Balaji Bajirao and Madhavrao belonged to this community. So did Bal Gangadhar Tilak and Swatantryaveer Savarkar.

The fourth anomalous community, the Chitpavans are hypothetized to be of East European, Scytho-Iranian or Ashkenazi origin as per the DNA analysisFact|date=February 2007. One can easily make out a prototype Chitpavan by his distinct European looks, fair skin, and light eyes.

The Chitpavans appear to be the last of the immigrants to the Konkan. They have typical surnames like Ranade, Paranjape, Karve, Chitale, Bhat, Gokhale, Bapat, Phadke and Tilak.

Regardless of when they immigrated, they indisputably assimilated and spoke a dialect of Konkani called Chitpavani. Later on in the 17th and 18th century, they emigrated to the Desh (the original Maharashtra) and adopted Marathi as their language, although some of them still use Chitpavani at home.out of 2000 families of Chitpavan in 1700 AD it is estimated that 60-70 families have immigrated to Pune, Sangli,Satara, Solapur, Nashik and Nagpur.Again, during 1818-1947 many families migrated to Mumbai and Pune.

The Chitpavan immigration into Maharashtra proper began when Balaji Vishvanath Bhat was made the Peshwa of the Maratha kingdom, replacing the earlier Pingle dynasty of Peshwas.

Today, a small number of Chitpavans remain in their original homeland in the Konkan and continue to speak their Chitpavani dialect of the Marathi language.

The Chitpavans are also called Konkanastha Brahmins, as distinguished from the other Maharashtrian Brahmins, who are called Deshastha Brahmins.

Daivadnya Brahmins

The Daivadnya community is a Hindu caste from the western coast of India, the Konkan. Languages spoken by members of the community include Konkani and Marathi.

Rajapur Saraswat Brahmins

This community gets its name from Rajapur in Ratnagiri district. They are allied to Kavale Mutt in Goa.

Konkani/Kokani Muslims

There are large Konkani Muslim communities in Mumbai, Thane, Ratnagiri and Sindhudurg. In local lingo, the pronunciation is Kokani rather than Konkani, which can be confused with konkani language speaking people from Goa. Mother tongue of Konkani Muslims is Kokani, a Marathi dialect, peculiar to the community. They are descendants of Arab traders and some Hindu converts. Konkani Muslims are heavily involved in the merchant navy, shipbuilding, and textile industries in India. Most in villages are also into farming and fishing, whereas numerous work as expatriates in Gulf countries. They trace their ancestry back to the Arab traders who arrived on the Western coast of India during the medieval era. The diaspora spread out around India and the rest of the world but maintain their strong sense of community and identity. They predominantly belong to the Shafi'i school of Islamic jurisprudence, unlike North Indian Muslims who generally adhere to the Hanafi school.

The third community is that of the Navaiyats or "Newcomers", Muslim Arab refugees from a civil war in Arabia, the Karmali rebellion, who also settled in the Konkan about 800-900 A.D., and whose mother-tongue is the Navaiyat dialect of Konkani.

The Konkani Muslims are further divided into at least two major categories, namely those who are the progeny of Arab intermarriages with the women of the cultivating castes, and those who are converts to Islam. The former are known as the Jamaatis, and the later as Daldis; the later however, resent this term and prefer being called Mahigir (fishermen), another indication of the desire of some Konkanis for Arabic/Persian terms instead of Indian, which can be interpreted as another instance of homogenization with the Urdu speaking Muslim communities. The Jamaatis are conscious and proud of their Arab ancestry and constitute the elite group. The Mahigirs are the descendants of the Kolis, the Konkan fishermen. The Mahigirs continue their traditional occupation even in the late 1990s. The two Konkani groups are spatially differentiated due to occupational differences. Mahigirs live in the fishing villages by the creeks, whereas the Jamaatis are mainly concentrated in the inland villages as agriculturists and as those involved in forestry and mango orchards.

The Konkani Muslims possess most of the important attributes of an ethnic group. Like the Moplahs of Malabar, they are the progeny of Arab immigrants and Indian women, they speak the same dialect of Konkani language, and marry among themselves, in anthropological terms they are generally endogamous. Yet, according to A.R. Momin, "the Konkani Muslim community has a well defined system of ranking and stratification. They frequently have fair skin, and light eyes.

Topmost in the hierarchy are those who distinguish themselves from the rest on account of purity of descent and ancestral nobility. Families with surnames like Al-Hadad, Faqih, Farid, Khatib,Mukaddam, Patel,Qadiri, Burbere, Narvil, Hani, Qazi, Tase, [among some others] and Muallim belong to this category.

Next come people with surnames like Chivne, Bolinjkar, Bhoje, and Jairumi. They are considered to be lower down in the hierarchy on account of differences in occupation and family background. Lower than these two are the Wajas or Wazah.

iddis

The Siddis are North African pirates who were shipwrecked near Ratnagiri. They quickly organized themselves and gained control of the surrounding territory. The Janjira fort was occupied and held by them for a long time, they are Muslims and are found around Ratnagiri and Raigad.

Bene Israeli

The Bene Israelites were originally Teli by caste, Vaishyas or Shudras specializing in the extraction of vegetable oil and its commerce. It is claimed that they are descended from Jewish refugees in the Konkan. However, their mother tongue is Marathi, not Konkani. (Their language is described as Judæo-Marathi, but it is admitted that this is not a truly distinct dialect).

Samvedi/Shamedi

The Samvedi are descended from a Brahmin sub-caste that settled around Bombay, or more exactly around the then entrepots of Thane, Kalyan and Sopara.

The Shamedi are descended from a Musician and Dramatician sub-caste from Puri Orissa that settled during the Buddhist era during the times of Samrat Chandra Gupta around Mumbai, or more exactly around the then entrepots of Thane, Kalyan and Sopara, for Mumbai did not exist then. They adopted Christianity as a result of missionaries sent by the Portuguese who had conquered the area from the Arab controlled Sultanate of Cambay in present-day Gujarat State. They have existed in the Konkan from at least 500 B.C., so they predated any Jewish refugees-settlers. Yet they have retained their dialect of Konkani as their mother tongue, unlike the other "Norteiro people" (natives of the former Portuguese "Court of the North", centered around Baçaim) who were forced to adopt Marathi by the Maratha conquerors under Baji Rao Peshwa, and who renamed themselves "East Indian" about the 1870s.

East Indians

East Indians are a Marathi-speaking , Roman Catholic ethnic or sub-ethnic group, based in and around the city of Mumbai in western Indian state of Maharashtra. These people are of the original Marathi ethnic group and had been evangelized by the Portuguese.

Notable residents

*Bal Gangadhar Tilak, pillar of the Indian Independence Movement
*Zakir Naik, a radical Islamic scholar
*Makhdoom Ali Mahimi, a Sufi saint
*Ratnakar Matkari, a playwright
*Balaji Vishwanath, Peshwa of the erstwhile Peshwa empire
*Johny Walker, an Indian filmstar
*Shafi Inamdar, an actor
*Abdul Rehman Antulay - MP and former CM of Maharashtra