<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 [[Backward]] 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 nineteenth and twentieth 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 other clans 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 lower 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> Yadavs  also claim to be the descendant of Lord [[Krishna]],<ref name="gooptuMAS1997">{{Citation|last=Gooptu|first=Nandini|title=The Urban Poor and Militant Hinduism in Early Twentieth-Century Uttar Pradesh|journal=Modern Asian Studies|volume=31|issue=4 (Oct., 1997)|pages=879–918|jstor=312848|doi=10.1017/s0026749x00017194}} Quote: " ... Lord Krishna, a legendary warrior and a Hindu deity, whom some shudra castes, notably the ahir or yadav, claim to be their ancestor." (page 902)</ref> whose dynasty went on to constitute the [[yaduvanshi]]<nowiki/>s.'Yadav' now covers many traditional castes such as [[Ahirs]] of the [[Hindi belt]], the [[Gavli]] of Maharashtra,<ref name="Jaffrelot2003p187">{{cite book |title=India's silent revolution: the rise of the lower castes in North India |page=187 |first=Christophe |last=Jaffrelot |authorlink=Christophe Jaffrelot|publisher=C. Hurst & Co. |location=London |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-85065-670-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OAkW94DtUMAC |accessdate=2011-08-16}}</ref> the [[Gavli|Goala]] of Andhra and the [[Konar (caste)|Konar]] of Tamil Nadu. In the Hindi belt, "Ahir," "Gwala," and "Yadav" are often used synonymously.<ref name="Bayly2001-p383">{{cite book|author=[[Susan Bayly]]|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=PA383|accessdate=7 October 2011|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-79842-6|page=383}} Quote: '''Ahir''': Caste title of North Indian non-elite 'peasant'-pastoralists, known also as Yadav."</ref><ref name="Swartzberg1979">{{cite book|last=Swartzberg|first=Leon|title=The north Indian peasant goes to market|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nCUuAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA11|accessdate=7 October 2011|year=1979|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|location=Delhi|page=11}}  Quote: "As far back as is known, the Yadava were called Gowalla (or one of its variants, Goalla, Goyalla, Gopa, Goala), a name derived from Hindi ''gai'' or ''go'', which means "cow" and ''walla'' which is roughly translated as 'he who does'."</ref> The Yadav  are included in the category [[Other Backward Class]]es (OBCs) in many Indian states and the socially uplifted categories are included in [[Creamy layer]], who are excluded from the Govt. benefits or job reservations.<ref name="ncbc#1">{{cite web|last1=National Commission for Backward Communities, India|title=Govt. of India, Office Memorandum,|url=http://www.ncbc.nic.in/Writereaddata/dopteng.pdf|website=ncbc.nic.in|publisher=National Commission for Backward Communities, India|accessdate=30 March 2016}}</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 [[Backward]] 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 nineteenth and twentieth 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 other clans 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 lower 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> Yadavs  also claim to be the descendant of Lord [[Krishna]],<ref name="gooptuMAS1997">{{Citation|last=Gooptu|first=Nandini|title=The Urban Poor and Militant Hinduism in Early Twentieth-Century Uttar Pradesh|journal=Modern Asian Studies|volume=31|issue=4 (Oct., 1997)|pages=879–918|jstor=312848|doi=10.1017/s0026749x00017194}} Quote: " ... Lord Krishna, a legendary warrior and a Hindu deity, whom some shudra castes, notably the ahir or yadav, claim to be their ancestor." (page 902)</ref> whose dynasty went on to constitute the [[yaduvanshi]]<nowiki/>s. 'Yadav' now covers many traditional castes such as [[Ahirs]] of the [[Hindi belt]], the [[Gavli]] of Maharashtra,<ref name="Jaffrelot2003p187">{{cite book |title=India's silent revolution: the rise of the lower castes in North India |page=187 |first=Christophe |last=Jaffrelot |authorlink=Christophe Jaffrelot|publisher=C. Hurst & Co. |location=London |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-85065-670-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OAkW94DtUMAC |accessdate=2011-08-16}}</ref> the [[Gavli|Goala]] of Andhra and the [[Konar (caste)|Konar]] of Tamil Nadu. In the Hindi belt, "Ahir," "Gwala," and "Yadav" are often used synonymously.<ref name="Bayly2001-p383">{{cite book|author=[[Susan Bayly]]|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=PA383|accessdate=7 October 2011|year=2001|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-79842-6|page=383}} Quote: '''Ahir''': Caste title of North Indian non-elite 'peasant'-pastoralists, known also as Yadav."</ref><ref name="Swartzberg1979">{{cite book|last=Swartzberg|first=Leon|title=The north Indian peasant goes to market|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nCUuAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA11|accessdate=7 October 2011|year=1979|publisher=Motilal Banarsidass|location=Delhi|page=11}}  Quote: "As far back as is known, the Yadava were called Gowalla (or one of its variants, Goalla, Goyalla, Gopa, Goala), a name derived from Hindi ''gai'' or ''go'', which means "cow" and ''walla'' which is roughly translated as 'he who does'."</ref> The Yadav  are included in the category [[Other Backward Class]]es (OBCs) in many Indian states and the socially uplifted categories are included in [[Creamy layer]], who are excluded from the Govt. benefits or job reservations.<ref name="ncbc#1">{{cite web|last1=National Commission for Backward Communities, India|title=Govt. of India, Office Memorandum,|url=http://www.ncbc.nic.in/Writereaddata/dopteng.pdf|website=ncbc.nic.in|publisher=National Commission for Backward Communities, India|accessdate=30 March 2016}}</ref><eod>