<sod>'''Yādav''' refers to a grouping of traditionally non-elite,<ref name="Bayly2001-p383"/><ref name="Bayly2001-p200">{{cite book|last=Bayly|first=Susan|title=Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HbAjKR_iHogC&pg=PA200|accessdate=7 October 2011|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-79842-6|page=200}} Quote: "In southern[[Awadh]], eastern [[North-Western Provinces]], and much of [[Bihar]], non-labouring gentry groups lived in tightly knit enclaves among much larger populations of non-elite 'peasants' and labouring people.  These other grouping included 'untouchable' Chamars and newly recruited 'tribal' labourers, as well as non-elite tilling and cattle-keeping people who came to be known by such titles as Kurmi, Koeri and Goala/Ahir."</ref><ref name="Luce2008">{{cite book|last=Luce|first=Edward|authorlink=Edward Luce|title=In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oMYeyhrgd_wC&pg=PT133|accessdate=9 October 2011|year=2008|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|isbn=978-1-4000-7977-3|page=133}} Quote: "The Yadavs are one of India's largest 'Other Backward Classes,' a government term that covers most of India's [[Shudra|Sudra]] castes.  Yadavs are the traditional cowherd caste of North India and are relatively low down on the traditional pecking order, but not as low as the untouchable Mahars or Chamars."</ref><ref name=michelutti-2004>{{Citation|last=Michelutti|first=Lucia|title='We (Yadavs) are a caste of politicians': Caste and modern politics in a north Indian town|journal=Contributions to Indian Sociology|year=2004|volume=38|issue=1-2|pages=43–71|doi=10.1177/006996670403800103}}  Quote: "The Yadavs were traditionally a low-to-middle-ranking cluster of pastoral-peasant castes that have become a significant political force in Uttar Pradesh (and other northern states like Bihar) in the last thirty years."</ref> [[peasant]]-[[pastoral]] communities, or [[Indian caste system|castes]], and certain elite communities  <ref>{{cite book |title= Sons of Krishna: the politics of Yadav community formation in a North Indian town |publisher=  University of London Phd thesis of Dr Lucia Michelutti   |page= 302 |url= http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/2106/1/U613338.pdf }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= Rise of a Folk God: Vitthal of Pandharpur |publisher=  Oxford University   |page= 240 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=jUeeAgAAQBAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=Rise+of+a+Folk+God:+Vitthal+of+Pandharpur&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiyl66P3OvLAhVV82MKHfYCD14Q6AEIHTAA#v=onepage&q=Rise%20of%20a%20Folk%20God%3A%20Vitthal%20of%20Pandharpur&f=false}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title= The cattle and stick: An Ethnographic profile of the raut of chhatisgarh |publisher=  Oxford University   |page= 13 |url= https://books.google.co.in/books?id=wT-BAAAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=Ahirs</ref>   <ref><nowiki>{{</nowiki>cite book |title= The cattle and stick: An Ethnographic profile of the raut of chhatisgarh |publisher=  Oxford University |page= 13 |url= https://books.google.co.in/books?id=wT-BAAAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=Ahirs</ref>  in India that since the 19th and 20th centuries<ref name=pinch-p90/><ref name="Hutton1969"/> has unified politically under a single caste name using claimed descent from the mythological King [[Yadu]] as a part of a movement of social and political resurgence.<ref name="socialesAnthropology2001">{{cite book|last1=Jassal|first1=Smita Tewari|author2=École pratique des hautes études (France). Section des sciences économiques et sociales|author3=University of Oxford. Institute of Social Anthropology|title=Contributions to Indian  sociology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jA0tAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=7 October 2011|year=2001|publisher=Mouton|pages=319–351|chapter=Caste in the Colonial State: Mallahs in the census}} Quote: "The movement, which had a wide interregional spread, attempted to submerge regional names such as Goala, Ahir, Ahar, Gopa, etc., in favour of the generic term Yadava (Rao 1979). Hence a number of pastoralist castes were subsumed under Yadava, in accordance with decisions taken by the regional and national level caste sabhas.  The Yadavas became the first among the shudras to gain the right to wear the janeu, a case of successful sanskritisation which continues till date.  As a prominent agriculturist caste in the region, despite belonging to the shudra varna, the Yadavas claimed Kshatriya status tracing descent from the Yadu dynasty.  The caste's efforts matched those of census officials, for whom standardisation of overlapping names was a matter of policy.  The success of the Yadava movement also lies in the fact that, among the jaati sabhas, the Yadava sabha was probably the strongest, its journal, ''Ahir Samachar'', having an all-India spread. These factors strengthened local efforts, such as in Bhojpur, where the Yadavas, locally known as Ahirs, refused to do ''[[begar]]'', or forced labour, for the landlords and simultaneously prohibited liquor consumption, child marriages, and so on."</ref><eod>
<sod>'''Yādav''' refers to a grouping of traditionally non-elite,<ref name="Bayly2001-p383"/><ref name="Bayly2001-p200">{{cite book|last=Bayly|first=Susan|title=Caste, Society and Politics in India from the Eighteenth Century to the Modern Age|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HbAjKR_iHogC&pg=PA200|accessdate=7 October 2011|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-79842-6|page=200}} Quote: "In southern[[Awadh]], eastern [[North-Western Provinces]], and much of [[Bihar]], non-labouring gentry groups lived in tightly knit enclaves among much larger populations of non-elite 'peasants' and labouring people.  These other grouping included 'untouchable' Chamars and newly recruited 'tribal' labourers, as well as non-elite tilling and cattle-keeping people who came to be known by such titles as Kurmi, Koeri and Goala/Ahir."</ref><ref name="Luce2008">{{cite book|last=Luce|first=Edward|authorlink=Edward Luce|title=In Spite of the Gods: The Rise of Modern India|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oMYeyhrgd_wC&pg=PT133|accessdate=9 October 2011|year=2008|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|isbn=978-1-4000-7977-3|page=133}} Quote: "The Yadavs are one of India's largest 'Other Backward Classes,' a government term that covers most of India's [[Shudra|Sudra]] castes.  Yadavs are the traditional cowherd caste of North India and are relatively low down on the traditional pecking order, but not as low as the untouchable Mahars or Chamars."</ref><ref name=michelutti-2004>{{Citation|last=Michelutti|first=Lucia|title='We (Yadavs) are a caste of politicians': Caste and modern politics in a north Indian town|journal=Contributions to Indian Sociology|year=2004|volume=38|issue=1-2|pages=43–71|doi=10.1177/006996670403800103}}  Quote: "The Yadavs were traditionally a low-to-middle-ranking cluster of pastoral-peasant castes that have become a significant political force in Uttar Pradesh (and other northern states like Bihar) in the last thirty years."</ref> [[peasant]]-[[pastoral]] communities, or [[Indian caste system|castes]], in India that since the 19th and 20th centuries<ref name=pinch-p90/><ref name="Hutton1969"/> has claimed descent from the mythological King [[Yadu]] as a part of a movement of social and political resurgence.<ref name="socialesAnthropology2001">{{cite book|last1=Jassal|first1=Smita Tewari|author2=École pratique des hautes études (France). Section des sciences économiques et sociales|author3=University of Oxford. Institute of Social Anthropology|title=Contributions to Indian  sociology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jA0tAQAAIAAJ|accessdate=7 October 2011|year=2001|publisher=Mouton|pages=319–351|chapter=Caste in the Colonial State: Mallahs in the census}} Quote: "The movement, which had a wide interregional spread, attempted to submerge regional names such as Goala, Ahir, Ahar, Gopa, etc., in favour of the generic term Yadava (Rao 1979). Hence a number of pastoralist castes were subsumed under Yadava, in accordance with decisions taken by the regional and national level caste sabhas.  The Yadavas became the first among the shudras to gain the right to wear the janeu, a case of successful sanskritisation which continues till date.  As a prominent agriculturist caste in the region, despite belonging to the shudra varna, the Yadavas claimed Kshatriya status tracing descent from the Yadu dynasty.  The caste's efforts matched those of census officials, for whom standardisation of overlapping names was a matter of policy.  The success of the Yadava movement also lies in the fact that, among the jaati sabhas, the Yadava sabha was probably the strongest, its journal, ''Ahir Samachar'', having an all-India spread. These factors strengthened local efforts, such as in Bhojpur, where the Yadavas, locally known as Ahirs, refused to do ''[[begar]]'', or forced labour, for the landlords and simultaneously prohibited liquor consumption, child marriages, and so on."</ref><eod>