The Qassab (Qasaab & butcher), are members of a north Indian community or biradari. Occasionally most Quresh caste members are referred to as the Qassab. At present,Qassab who are engaged in meat cutting and selling business are Qureshi.

 

History and origin.

The community is entirely Sunni, and in North India speaks Urdu. For their participation in Indian Rebellion of 1857, fine Rs. 63,000 was imposed on the people of Rohtak who were mostly Ranghars, Shaikhs and Muslim Qassab.

 

Present circumstances.

In North India.

The community remains associated with the slaughtering of animals. Apart from selling meats, they are also involved in the sale and purchase of animals, as well as trading in hides. The Chikwa of Awadh are also involved in the selling of hides. In terms of distribution, they are found throughout Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. They are strictly endogamous, which marriages preferred within a small kinship circle. Most towns include distinct quarters where the community lives, such as Kanpur, Allahabad, Banaras, Fatehpur, Qureshnagar in Delhi. The Anjuman Quresh is an India-wide association, and is the oldest Muslim organization. The community belong to both the Sunni and Shia sects of Islam, but the majority are Sunnis. The Chikwa speak Awadhi, while the Qureshi Qassab speak Urdu.

 

In Rajasthan, the Qassab are found in the districts of Ajmer, Jaipur, Nagaur, Jodhpur and Pali. The Qassab speak Mewari among themselves, and Hindi with outsiders. They have two sub-divisions, the Barakasab, who slaughter ox, bulls and buffaloes, and Chhotakasab, who slaughter goats. The Qassab have local caste associations, known as jamats, in each of their settlements, which deal with disputes within the community. In Bihar, the Qassab are a class of Muslim butchers, and are generally known as Qureshis. They are found throughout Bihar, and are one of the few Bihari Muslim communities that speaks Urdu. The Qassab consist of two sub-groups, the Bara Karbar, who were involved in the slaughtering of ox, bulls and buffaloes, and Chota Karbar, who slaughtered goats. Closely related to the Qassab are the Chik, a caste also associated with the slaughtering of goats. The Anjuman Quresh has a Bihar branch, which acts as a welfare association. They are entirely Sunni Muslims, and are fairly orthodox. They were one of the earliest groups to shift towards the Deobandi sect.

 

In Maharashtra

The Qassab of Maharashtra are said to have come over from Hyderabad to Amravati, and were soldiers in the army of the Nizam of Hyderabad, and still speak the Dakhani dialect of Urdu. They were initially divided into two groups, the Gai Qassab (ox, bulls and buffaloes butchers) and Bakar Qassab (mutton butchers). The community is further divided into three groups, the Chaudhary, the Saudagor and Sikku. They speak the Dakhani dialect of Urdu among themselves, and Marathi with outsiders. The Qassab are Sunni, and strictly endogamous. They practice both cross cousin and parallel cousin marriages. In Maharashtra, the community are found in the cities of Amravati, Buldhana, Akola, Chandrapur, Nagpur, Pune, Bhiwandi and Mumbai.

 

Bawarchi of Uttar Pradesh

The Bawarchi are a sub-group within the Qassab, and get their name from the Urdu word bawarchi, which means "a cook". A split from the wider Qassab community is said to have taken place when a group of Lucknow Qassab changed their occupation from butchering to cooking. There is no intermarriage now between the Bawarchi and neighbouring Qassab communities. They are still found mainly in the city of Lucknow, in the localities of Sadar, Husainganj, Fatehganj and Chowk. The Bawarchi prefer to be known as Qureshi or Ahl-e-Quresh.

The Bawarchi speak Urdu and belong to the Sunni sect. They are a community of professional cooks, who historically were employed by wealthy Awadh taluqdars. With the disappearance of their traditional patrons at the time of the independence of India, the community are now employed in restaurants and hotels, and specialise in Awadhi cuisine.

 

The Bawarchi and Rakabdars of Awadh gave birth to the dum style of cooking or the art of cooking over a slow fire, which has become synonymous with Lucknow today. Their spread would consist of elaborate dishes like kebabs, kormas, biryani, kaliya, nahari-kulchas, zarda, sheermal, roomali rotis and warqi parathas. The richness of Awadh cuisine lies not only in the variety of cuisine but also in the ingredients used like mutton, paneer, and rich spices including cardamom and saffron.

 

Like other Muslim artisans, many have seen a decline in their traditional occupation, and are now petty businessmen. The Bawarchi have no formal caste association, but each of their settlements contains a panchayat, an informal caste association. Each settlement panchayat is headed by a chaudhary, a post which was traditionally heredity. The panchayat deals with intra community disputes and punishes any social transgressions. Some Bawarchi are also involved with the Anjuman Quraish.

 

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