Nair

The Nair also known as Nayar, are a group of Indian Hindu castes.

Quotes

• Before leaving Malabar, Haidar passed an edict that deprived the Nairs of all their privileges. They were hitherto considered the second important caste after the Brahmins, but were downgraded to the lowest of the caste hierarchies, requiring them to even salute the lowest of the castes and the untouchables. They were forbidden from possessing arms, while all other castes were allowed to have them and also kill any Nair they found bearing arms, creating thereby a sense of fear and insecurity in the Nairs. ...Those Nairs who agreed to convert to Islam were reinstated with all their past privileges.
  • Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024)

• As de La Tour states: ‘By this rigorous edict Hyder expected to make all the other castes enemies of the Nayres [Nairs]; and that they would rejoice in the occasion of revenging themselves for the tyrannic oppression this nobility had till then exerted over them.’
  • De La Tour. Tour, Maistre de La (MDLT.), The History of Hyder Shah, Alias Hyder Ali Khan Bahadur and his Son Tippoo Sultaun (London: W. Thacker & Co., 1855), in Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024)

• The Sultan threw a banquet to celebrate the occasion. The distinguished officers of his court who were invited to it were all elevated with the title of Mir Maran. Among them was Saiyid Gafar, Muhammad Raza (also known as Benki Nawab), the maternal uncle of Haidar and grandfather of the Sultan, Khan Jehan Khan and Purnaiya. Kirmani explains why Muhammad Raza got the name Benki Nawab—benki, in Kannada meant fire. During one of the Malabar conquests, Raza had been sent to quell the Nair revolts. ‘Having brought the signs of the last day,’ writes Kirmani, ‘on these misguided people, and having taken many of them prisoners, he shut them with their wives and children up in a house and burned them alive. He was therefore, called by this name.’
  • Kirmani, in Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024)

• As early as 13 February 1786, just three years into his rule, Tipu Sultan had already congratulated Badr-u-zaman Khan, who was then the Fauzdar of Nagar: ‘Your two letters, with the enclosed memorandum of the Nair captives have been received. You did right in causing a hundred and five of them to be circumcised, and in putting eleven of the youngest of these into the Asad Ilahi class and the remaining ninety-four into the Ahmadi troop.’
  • Tipu Sultan , in Vikram Sampath - Tipu - The Saga of Mysore's Interregnum (2024)