Who are ChingaR people?

Arts & Culture Culture, Arts, Literature & Linguistics
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چنگڑ

read about them in a novel.

Just one line ‘chingaR, jo dharti ki takhleeq se abtak mehroom chale aate hain, magar jinhon ne dharti se taluq kabhi nahin toRa’… chingaR who have been deprived from the creation of land , but they didn’t disconnect themselves from the land.

The location in the novel is a village Nurpur (may be an imaginery name) which is 100 miles from Islamabd. So these people are from Potohar region.

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

Not really, they are equivalent of ‘dalits’ or untouchables in Pakistan. Changar, Chamaar, Chooray, Masalli.. these are various sub-categories of these people.A little googling turned this up..Pakistan

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

Interesting ChangaRs are known as Deendar if they practice Islam. Isn’t chooRa just a profession (sweepers)?

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

No.These are various castes. A lot of Chooray converted to Christians, and due to their 'low' caste they are into professions such as these. With passage of time, the caste and profession became synonymous... now people think of the word ChooRa...what comes to mind is a christian sweeper.

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

BTW what does masalli mean? Is it also a profession that merged into caste?

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

I am not sure, but most probably its a caste/tribe too. You can find the info about these in that book by a gora ''castes of south asia'' or something like that...

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

not sure about the real meanings, but masalli's are usually domestic servants in Punjab village life, they do everything their masters tell them to, no special task.

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

term masalli(musalli) is used for reverted muslims. unfortunately this term is bit ridiculous but good thing is it is rarely used now a days

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

Low caste remains low caste (unfortunately) doesn't really matter what religion they adopt.

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

so Musalli is an Arabic term?

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

only partition like incidents provide low castes a chance to gain status of upper caste :hehe:

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

:bummer:

Babayooo **ChingaRR **means… Musalman Mazdoor Tabkay se Taaluq Rakhne Wala…

&

**Musalli **Means… Nau Muslim, Wo Eesaai/christian jo naya naya musalman hoya ho, (Typically wo christians jo 1857 ki azaadi ke baad yahan KuRRa Kirkit uthaate thay)… and still there are several christians jinko is naam se bulaya/pukara jata hai and they are non-muslims/christians…

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

i dont think so. People in punjab used to use this term maybe as distorted derivation of word muslim. similarly sikh and hindu used to call muslim a musla.

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

. . . . . . . . . .

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

right, heard that musla in partition related dramas

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

if this term came from religious people then it might be same as Arabic one (mosque goer). People in punjab used to use this term for newly muslims maybe as distorted derivation of word musalman (muslim). similarly sikh and hindu used to call muslim a musla.

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

:smack: sory i created multiple posts mistakely

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

yes…but i dont think many people could have changed their castes. Some exceptions would be there, but the lowest castes are living in the same conditions for the past thousands of years.

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

Lols. No problem. @ajaz

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Re: Who are ChingaR people?

Probably, people don't want to change their circumstances. Generation after generations don't want to leave their comfort zones.