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•Introduction

Kolis of Maharashtra are traditionally grouped into Dongri Kolis (residents of hills) and fishermen Kolis. The Dongri Kolis haves sub-groups as Mahadev Koli, Dhor Koli, Malhar Koli etc. There are around 27 communities of fishermen Kolis in Maharashtra (Ghurye 1969: 1-15) which are sub-divided into Son Kolis, Vaitee Kolis and  Mangela Kolis due to their occupation offishing in both salt and sweet water bodies. Though many of them are into other professions, the words ‘Koli’ and‘fisherman’ are used as synonymous termsin Marathi.

Son Koli is a chief group among the fishermen Kolis and the original residents of Mumbai area. The Gazetteer of then Bombay Presidency of Kulaba district (1989) mentioned that the Son Kolis are ‘Older than the cocoa-nut palm, older thanthe Bhandari palm-tapper, are the Kolifishing folk of Bombay, among whom, if in any one tribe, one must seek for the blood of the men of the Stone Age’. Mumbai comprises seven islands, which were resided by the Koli settlements, most of which still show the traces like Sion Koliwada or Warli Koliwada. Also Mazagaoni is believed to be known as ‘Machcha-gaum’ meaning a ‘Fish village’ earlier. The Koli settlements are mainly found in and around Mumbai, along Thane coasts and in Raigad district as well. Some scattered settlements are spread throughout Konkan from Vasai-Virar up to Ratnagiri. Presently, there are total 23 villages of Kolisin Mumbai, which are mainly fishing villages.

Son Kolis consider themselves superior than other Koli communities. They believe that they got their title ‘Son Koli’ because  of their main deity Khandoba. Turmeric , known as ‘Bhandar’ is favourite of the god Khandoba. Thus the Kolis connect this golden colour of the auspicious turmeric powder to their name as Son (meaning gold) Kolis. Maharashtriya Dnyankosh gives following myth about Son Kolis’ origin. It says that a person originated through the ‘Soham’ sound of almighty god was known as ‘Soham’ or ‘Som’.  He had a daughter called Achintawho got married to sage Kashyap. The coupleh had a son named Mardhan who abandoned the righteous and ascetic way of life and turned towards violence. So sage Mayat advised him to live on fishing. He and his descendants got title ‘Som’ or ‘Son' that later changed into ‘Son Koli’ (Ketkar1924:  830-836).

As of 2012, various communities bearing the Koli name appear in the central lists of Other Backward Classes maintained by the National Commission for Backward Classes, although at least one is also in part recognised as a Scheduled Tribe. These classifications have been in force since at least 1993.

The Government of India classified the Koli community as Scheduled Caste in the 2001 census for the states of Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.

I hope the answer helps!

Best regards,

Abhinav Gupta

Hello Aspirant ,

I was able to collect  the following data ,

Sonkoli is a sub cate from the KOLI tribe and you as a Son-koli belong to the OBC category for the state of Maharashtra.

Check the document below :

http://ncbc.nic.in/Writereaddata/cl/maharashtra.pdf