Julaha, Momin.--A low Muhammadan caste of weavers resident mainly in
Saugor and Burhanpur. They numbered about 4000 persons in 1911. In
Nagpur District the Muhammadan weavers generally call themselves
Momin, a word meaning 'orthodox.' In northern India and Bengal
Julahas are very numerous and the bulk of them are probably converted
Hindus. Mr. (Sir Denzil) Ibbetson remarks: "We find Koli-Julahas,
Chamar-Julahas, Morhi-Julahas, Ramdasi-Julahas, and so forth; and
it is probable that after a few generations these men will drop the
prefix which denotes their low origin and become Julahas pure and
simple." [228] The Julahas claim Adam as the founder of their craft,
inasmuch as when Satan made him realise his nakedness he taught
the art of weaving to his sons. And they say that their ancestors
came from Arabia. In Nimar the Julahas or Momins assert that they
do not permit outsiders to be admitted as members of the caste, but
the accuracy of this is doubtful, while in Saugor any Muhammadan who
wishes to do so may become a Julaha. They follow the Muhammadan laws
of marriage and inheritance. Unions between relatives are favoured,
but a man may not marry his sister, niece, aunt or foster-sister. The
Julaha or Momin women observe no purda, and are said to be almost
unique among Muhammadans in this respect.
"The Musalman [229] weaver or Julaha," Sir G. Grierson writes,
"is the proverbial fool of Hindu stories and proverbs. He swims in
the moonlight across fields of flowering linseed, thinking the blue
colour to be caused by water. He hears his family priest reading the
Koran, and bursts into tears to the gratification of the reader. When
pressed to tell what part affected him most, he says it was not that,
but that the wagging beard of the old gentleman so much reminded
him of a favourite goat of his which had died. When forming one of a
company of twelve he tries to count them and finding himself missing
wants to perform his own funeral obsequies. He finds the rear peg of
a plough and wants to set up farming on the strength of it. He gets
into a boat at night and forgets to pull up the anchor. After rowing
till dawn he finds himself where he started, and concludes that the
only explanation is that his native village could not bear to lose him
and has followed him. If there are eight weavers and nine huqqas, they
fight for the odd one. Once on a time a crow carried off to the roof of
the house some bread which a weaver had given his child. Before giving
the child any more he took the precaution of removing the ladder. Like
the English fool he always gets unmerited blows. For instance, he once
went to see a ram-fight and got butted himself, as the saying runs:
Karigah chhor tamasa jay
Nahak chot Julaha khay.
'He left his loom to see the fun and for no reason got a
bruising.' Another story (told by Fallon) is that being told by a
soothsayer that it was written in his fate that his nose would be
cut off with an axe, the weaver was incredulous and taking up an axe,
kept flourishing it, saying--
Yon karba ta gor katbon
Yon karba ta hath katbon
Aur yon karba tab na----
'If I do so I cut off my leg, if I do so I cut off my hand, but
unless I do so my no----,' and his nose was off. Another proverb
Julaha janathi jo katai, 'Does a weaver know how to cut barley,'
refers to a story (in Fallon) that a weaver unable to pay his debt
was set to cut barley by his creditor, who thought to repay himself
in this way. But instead of reaping, the stupid fellow kept trying to
untwist the tangled barley stems. Other proverbs at his expense are;
'The Julaha went out to cut the grass at sunset, when even the crows
were going home.' 'The Julaha's brains are in his backside.' His wife
bears an equally bad character, as in the proverb: 'A wilful Julahin
will pull her own father's beard.'"