 Anti-caste activists like Ambedkar called the "Arzal" caste among Muslims as the equivalent of Hindu untouchables, as did the controversial colonial British ethnographer Herbert Hope Risley.In Bengal, some Muslims refer to the social stratification within their society as "qaum" (or Quoms), a term that is found among Muslims elsewhere in India, as well as in Pakistan and Afghanistan.Qaums have patrilineal hereditary, with ranked occupations and endogamy.