Koli people
Kshatriya caste of India
The Koli people are an agriculturist caste of India, mostly found in Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh. At the beginning of the 20th century, the Koli caste was recognised as a criminal tribe under Criminal Tribes Act by British Indian government because of their anti-social activities; but during World War I, Kolis were recognised as a martial caste by British Indian Empire. Kolis of Gujarat were well-known pirates of Arabian Sea.
The Kolis form the largest caste cluster in Gujarat comprising 24% of the total population in the states.
Distribution
India: Kolis are distributed across the country, though the majority of the population is found in the Indian states of Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, and Maharashtra. Kolis are 24% of the total state population in Gujarat and 30% of Himachal Pradesh.
Pakistan: Kolis are found in the Sindh province of Pakistan, most of them related to Kolis of Gujarat.
Penang Island: Kolis also found in the Penang Island. They were sent by the British Indian government because of their rebellious activities against the British East India Company during Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Fiji and New Zealand: Koli citizens here are agriculturists by profession and use the surname of Patel.
“Koli people” enters the record as kshatriya caste of India. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Koli, people and Kshatriya can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2724195. The Library of Congress control number is sh85072831. None of the 1 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1857.
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This entry incorporates text from “Koli people” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.