Rajput Vocabulary of Violence

Abstract

The aim of this article is to reflect on certain keywords of the Rajput world shaped by the “predominantly masculine martial culture” (Kasturi 2002: 12). Those keywords are crucial to understanding the phenomenon of violence in the Rajput milieu, violence that is perpetrated irrespective of kshatriyahood and outside the battlefield. Keeping in mind that violence cannot be identified with a particular community, but certain types of aggressive acts can be associated with certain social classes or groups (Kasturi 2002: 20), this article seeks to demonstrate that terms such as vair, bāroṭiyā, dacoity, and bhomiyāvat, reveal the mechanisms of collective violence in the socio-political practice of the Rajputs. This will be useful in understanding the cultural background of specific regional patterns of violent behaviour in contrast to the colonial stereotype of a Rajput as primitive, violent, but brave.