Koli people

"…[The] Kholees, or, as they are pretty generally called, Coolies,…form perhaps two-thirds of the population, and are considered by public men in Guzerat as the original inhabitants of the country, a character which, I know not why, they refuse to the Bheels, who here, as in Malwah, seem to have the best title to it. I suspect, indeed, myself, that the Coolies are only civilised Bheels, who have laid aside some of the wild habits of their ancestors, and who have learned, more particularly, to conform in certain respects, such as abstinence from beef, &c. to their Hindoo neighbours. They themselves pretend to be descended from the Rajpoots, but this is a claim continually made by wild and warlike tribes all over India, and it is made, more particularly by the Puharree villagers at the foot of Rajmahal, who have embraced the Hindoo religion; and that the Coolies themselves do not believe their claim, is apparent from the fact that they neither wear the silver badge, nor the red turban. Be this as it may, they are acknowledged by the Hindoos as their kindred, which the Bheels never are; and though their claim of being children of the sun is not allowed by the Rajpoots who live among them, there have been instances in which intermarriages have taken place between Maharattas of high rank and the families of some of their most powerful chieftains. Their ostensible, and, indeed, their chief employment, is agriculture, and they are said to be often industrious farmers and labourers, and, while kindly treated, to pay their rent to Government as well, at least, as their Rajpoot neighbours. They live, however, under their own Thakoors, whose authority alone they willingly acknowledge, and pay little respect to the laws, unless when it suits their interest, or they are constrained by the presence of an armed force. In other respects they are one of the most turbulent and predatory tribes in India, and with the Bheels, make our tenure of Guzerat more disturbed, and the maintenance of our authority more expensive there, than in any other district of the Eastern empire…."