Paika (community)
social group of Odisha, India
The Paik or Paika (Odia:ପାଇକ) is a Militia community, found in Odisha state of India.
Origin
The Odia word Paika is derived from Padatika or foot soldier. They were a class of military retainers recruited from a variety of social groups to render martial services in return for hereditary rent-free lands and titles. Most Paiks were recruited from Khandayat, Gopal (cowherd) and Chasa (peasant) communities.
Separate Caste
The Caste-based consensus introduced by the Britishers led to the formation of a separate Paika caste.
History
The Paikas (Paikos) started an armed rebellion ( Paika Rebellion or Paika Bidroha ) against the British East India Companys rule in Odisha in 1817.
Classification
The Paikos are included under Other Backward Class list in the state of Odisha.
“Paika (community)” enters the record as social group of Odisha, India. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Paika, community and social can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Paika (community)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Paika, community and social provides the most credible route into that argument.
Named sources, stable identifiers and responsible institutions provide the strongest route from overview to verifiable evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 28, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q97160241. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1817.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
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- Expand the search: follow Paika (community) primary sources, Paika (community) archive and Paika research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Paika (community)” 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.