The Kolis were among those whom the Rajputs targeted in Gujrath

During the later period of the British Raj, the Gujarati Kolis became involved in the process of what has subsequently been termed sanskritisation.
The Rajputs were politically, economically and socially marginalised(अधिकारहीन कर दना) because their own numbers — around 4 - 5 per cent of the population — were inferior to the dominant Patidars, with whom the Kolis were also disenchanted.

The Kolis were among those whom the Rajputs targeted because, although classified as a criminal tribe by the British administration, they were among the many communities of that period who had made genealogical claims of descent from the kshatriya. The Rajput leaders preferred to view the Kolis as being kshatriya by dint of military ethos rather than origin but, in whatever terminology, it was a marriage of political expedience