Meo (ethnic group)

Meo (pronounced: mev or may-o) (also spelled Mayo or occasionally, Mewati) are a Muslim ethnic group originating from the Mewat region of north-western India.

The term "Meo" semantically correlates with the historical region of Mewat, which consists of the Nuh district of Haryana and some parts of adjoining Alwar and Bharatpur districts of Rajasthan and parts of western Uttar Pradesh. The term Mewati, in terms of use for ethnic classification, is also interchangeable with Meo. Although, not every Mewati is necessarily an ethnic Meo as the term is a general demonym for someone from Mewat.

Meos consider themselves as a mainly Rajput caste. According to one theory of origin they were Hindu Rajputs who converted to Islam between the 11th and 17th centuries, until as late as Aurangzeb's rule.

The Meos embraced Islam primarily through the influence of the Sufi saint Ghazi Saiyyad Salar Masud, who was the nephew of Mahmud Ghaznavi. Over the centuries, various other Sufi saints also played significant roles in shaping the Islamic beliefs of the Meo community. Notable figures include Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia, and Miran Sayyed Husain Khang Sawar. As a result of these influences, the Meos gradually became a prominent community in the Mewat region.

Over the centuries, they have maintained their age-old distinctive cultural identity. According to S. L. Sharma and R. N. Srivastava, Mughal persecution had little effect on the strengthening of their Islamic identity, but it reinforced their resistance to Mughal rule.

Though the general claim of Kshatriya Rajput descent may be true, some of them may be descendants of other castes who might have laid claim to this ancestry after converting to Islam to enhance their social standing. The names of many gots (gotra) or exogamous lineages of Meos are common with other Hindu castes as Meena, Ahir and Gujjar who live in their vicinity. While the kinship structure is closer to Jat system prevalent in Punjab and Rajasthan. It thus seems possible that the Meos belonged to many different castes and not just to the Rajputs; this phenomenon is also seen in other Rajput communities and is not limited to the Meos.

Meos speak Mewati, a language of the Indo-Aryan language family, although in some areas the language dominance of Urdu and Hindi has seen Meos adopt these languages instead.

The Hindu inhabitants of Mewat, although belonging to the same Kshatriya castes to which the Meos belonged before conversion to Islam, are not called Meo. Thus the word Meo is both region-specific and religion-specific. According to many, Meos come from many Hindu clans who converted to Islam and amalgamated as the Meo community, however there is no solid basis for this claim.