ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ways in which the Urs endeavoured to change their identity from warriors to modern aristocrats through tactical use of the cultural capital provided by colonial modernity. It also discusses the troublesome life of the Urs after many of their privileges were stripped from them by the policies of the government of independent India, such as the abolition of privy purses in 1971 and the radical land reforms introduced by the state government. Many Urs have crucial roles running institutions such as gentlemen's clubs in Mysore and Bangalore. The Urs had maintained various practices to differentiate themselves from the other Kshatriya before the colonial authorities recognised their special status. One of these was Sanskritisation, such as the adoption of vegetarianism. Another was the creation of the origin myth. In post-independence Karnataka, the cultural and economical differentiation within the Urs community was largely diminished thanks to the expansion of royal education, but the economic privileges the upper.
