LaRoseDermaAgeDefying at 03:40, 9 November 2025

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{{Short description|Bengali Hindu caste in India}}
{{pp-extended|small=yes}}
{{Infobox caste
| caste_name = Aguri
| image = Aguri Cultivator.jpg
| caption = Aguri cultivator, from a 1799 collection of etchings
| classification =
| family_names =
| population =
| populated_states = [[West Bengal]]
| languages = [[Bengali language|Bengali]]
| religions = [[Hinduism]]
|country=[[India]]|state=[[West Bengal]]|caste_name_in_local=Aguri|native_name=Aguri}}

'''Aguri''' ({{langx|bn|আগুরী}}), also known as '''Ugra Kshatriya''' ({{langx|bn|উগ্র ক্ষত্রিয়}}), is a [[Bengali Hindu]] agricultural [[caste]] or community found in the districts of [[Bardhaman district|Bardhaman]], [[Birbhum district|Birbhum]], [[Hooghly district|Hooghly]], and [[Bankura district|Bankura]] in the state of [[West Bengal]] in India.<ref name="kundu">{{cite book |script-title=bn:বাঙালি হিন্দু জাতি পরিচয় |trans-title=An Introduction of Bengali Hindu Castes |language=bn |last=Kundu |first=Santosh Kumar |year=2008 |publisher=Presidency Library |location=Kolkata |isbn=978-81-89466-13-8 |pages=65–67}}</ref> Aguris are now considered as a middle-caste group and according to [[Gail Omvedt]], constitute "more prosperous owner-peasants" among the peasant communities of [[Bengal]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Omvedt |first=Gail |author-link=Gail Omvedt |title=Land, caste, and politics in Indian states |publisher=Authors Guild Publications |year=1982 |lccn=lc82901477 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eW3aAAAAMAAJ&q=aguri |page=92|isbn=9780836410488 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Chatterjee|first=Partha |title=The Present History of West Bengal: Essays in Political Criticism |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1997 |isbn=978-0-19-563945-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OjhuAAAAMAAJ&q=aguri |page=78}}</ref>

== History ==
After the fall of Gopbhum, Aguris emerged as a dominant caste in Rarh region, especially in the district of Burdwan.<ref name=":0" /><ref name="kundu"/> William Benjamin Oldham, a British civil servant and [[ethnography|ethnographer]] who wrote ''Some Historical and Ethnical Aspects of Burdwan District'' (1891), said that they originated from marriage alliances between the [[Sadgop]] rulers of [[Gopbhum]] and the [[Khatri]] rulers of Burdwan. He based this on the Aguri's own account but McLane believes that Oldham was misled by the Aguri. Citing a 1589 [[Chandimangal|work]] by [[Mukundaram Chakrabarti]], McLane says that the Aguri were present "almost certainly" before the arrival of the Khatris in Burdwan.<ref name="mclane">{{cite book |title=Land and Local Kingship in Eighteenth-Century Bengal |last=McLane |first=John R. |date=25 July 2002 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-52654-8 |page=157 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YH6ijJnUPmcC&pg=PA157}}</ref>

Aguris were cultivators and [[jotedar]]s, and were divided into two classes – ''Jana'' and ''Sutto''. The ''Janas'' often demanded that they were Kulins.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Bhaumik |first=Sudarshana |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7SX4zgEACAAJ |title=The Changing World of Caste and Hierarchy in Bengal: Depiction from the Mangalkavyas C. 1700-1931 |date=2022 |publisher=Routledge, Taylor & Francis |isbn=978-1-003-14618-6 |pages=48–49 |language=en}}</ref>

''[[Manusmṛti|Manu]]'', a Hindu religious text, says Ugra (meaning ''aggressive'') was born to a [[Shudra]] girl by a [[Kshatriya]] father. This mixed origin meant that the community was considered to have an ambivalent position in the [[Varna (Hinduism)|Hindu varna system]], although by the 1960s they were [[Sanskritisation|claiming to be Kshatriya]].<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0yqV1Ux0oGIC&pg=PA453 |title=Society In India |first=A. R. |last=Desai |edition=Reprinted |publisher=Popular Prakashan |year=1975 |isbn=978-8-17154-013-6 |page=453}}</ref>

== Culture ==
Around the beginning of the 20th century, the Aguri were among the agricultural communities that still predominantly adhered to the custom of paying a [[bride price]] at the time of marriage, although some more prosperous members among them were already adopting the increasingly common alternative of paying a [[dowry]]. This minority believed that bride price was deprecated by higher castes.<ref>{{cite book |title=Women and Labour in Late Colonial India: The Bengal Jute Industry |first=Samita |last=Sen |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-521-45363-9 |page=85 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gN1dEJuiZ0cC&pg=PA85}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last=Bandyopadhyay|first=Sekhar|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z2SVIflbyHQC&dq=aguri+caste&pg=PA157|title=Caste, Culture and Hegemony: Social Dominance in Colonial Bengal|date=2004-08-19|publisher=SAGE Publications|isbn=978-0-7619-9849-5|language=en}}</ref>

== Notable people ==
*[[Hare Krishna Konar]], Indian Marxist revolutionary, peasant leader and politician<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Liyiyu |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G-VJEAAAQBAJ |title=Alternatives in Development: Local Politics and NGOs in China and India |last2=Dasgupta |first2=Abhijit |date=2021-10-22 |publisher=Springer Nature |isbn=978-981-16-4698-0 |pages=156 |language=en}}</ref>
*[[Benoy Krishna Konar]], Indian Marxist, peasant leader, politician, brother of [[Hare Krishna Konar]]
*[[Dasarathi Tah]], politician and journalist
*[[Shakti Samanta]], Indian film director and producer
*[[Ajit Kumar Panja]], politician
*[[Ranjit Kumar Panja]], politician and brother of [[Ajit Kumar Panja]]
*[[Nikhilananda Sar]], politician

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

{{Bengali Hindu people}}

[[Category:Bengali Hindu castes]]
[[Category:Social groups of West Bengal]]

Aguri caste - Revision history

LaRoseDermaAgeDefying at 03:40, 9 November 2025