CENSUS OF INDIA 1961 VOLUME IV BIHAR PART VI-NUMBER 5 Village Survey Monograph on MEROMDEGA (Tn Simdega Subdivision,: District Ranchi) Field Investigation and First Draft BANGLESHW ARI PRASAD, M. A. AND RAJENDRA PRASAD, M. A. INVESTIGATORS Supervisiofl, Guidance and Final Draft R. N. MISRA OF THE BIHAR CIVIL SERVICE Deputy Superintendent of Census Operations, Bihar Editor S. D. PRASAD OF THE INDIAN ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICE Superintendent of Census Operations) Bihar 1961 CENSUS PUBLICATIONS, BIHAR (All the Census Publications of this State will bear Vol. no. IV) Central Government Publications PART I-A(i) General Report (Chapters 1 to IX)· PART I-A(ii) General Report (Chapters X to XII)t PART I-B Report on Vital Statistics of Bihar, 1951-60 PART I-C Subsidiary Tables* PART II-A General Population Tables· PART II-B(i) Economic Tables (B-1 to B-IV and B-VII)* PART II-B(ii) Economic Tables (B-V, B-VI, B-VIII and B-IX)· PART II-C Social and Cultural Tables· PART II-D Migration Tables* PART III(i) Household Economic Tables (B-X to B-XIV)* PART III(ii) Household Economic Tables (B-XV to B-XVII)"* PART IV-A Report on Housing and Establishments* PART IV-B Housing and Establishment Tables. PART V-A Special Tables for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes* PART V-B Ethnographic Notes on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes PART VI Village Surveyst (Monographs on 32 selected villages) PART VII-A Selected Crafts of Bihar i" PART VII-B Fairs and Festivals of Bihart PART VIII-A Administration Report on Enumera.tion· f~ (Not for sale) PART VIII-B Administration Report on Tabulation t PART IX Census Atlas of Bihar* PART X Special Migration Tables t state Government Publications 17 Volumes of District Census Handbooks* *Already printed tIn Press ;Nos.l,2-4 & 5 {present YOhllDe} of the series aJready :ninted Ilnd 6- S in the Press. CONTENTS PAGE FOREWORD vii PREFACE .xi CHAPTER I : THE VILLAGE Introducing the village 1 Location 1 Physical aspects 1 Flora and founa 2 Size and number of households 2 Residential pattern 2 Communications- 4 Public places 4 History of the village 4 Legends about the origin of people .. 6 CHAPTER II : THE PEOPLE Ethnic composition 7 House and House-type 10 Dress 11 Ornaments 12 Tattooing 13 Household goods 14 Food and drink 14 Birth, pregnancy and pre-natal practices 16 Marriage 17 Death 22 CHAPTER III : THE VILLAGE ECONOMY Land 24 Livestock 24 Other resources 25 Livelihood classes 25 Ownership of land 26 Factors influencing the economic life in the village 27 Occupations 28 Income and expenditure 33 Indebtedness 36 CHAPTER IV : SOCIAL AND CULTURAL LIFE Introductory remarks 38 Sex ratio 38 IV· PAGE Age composition 38 Growth of population 39 Marital status 39 Disease and medical care 40 Literacy and education 40 Family structure 42 Intra-family relationship 42 Inheritance 43 Leisure ancl recreation 43 Religion 43 Panchayat 46 CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION 48 INSET TABLES 1. Distribution of households by caste or trihe ., 2 2. Settlement history by each caste or tribe 5 3. Distribution of inhabitants by caste or tribe ., 7 4. Distribution of households by number of rooms occupied 10 5. Extent of use of ornaments among households classified by income groups 12 6. Some common ornaments 13 7. Distribution of livestock and poultry by cach community 24 8. Occupational distribution of households by each community 25 9. Distribution of agricultural land 26 10. Distribution of households in each community by the extent of land 26 owned. ' 11. CalE'ndar of agricultural a,ctivities 28 12. Acreage under different crops 28 13. Production and consumption of crops 28 14. Households engaged in household industries 31 15. Communitywise average monthly income 33 16. Household by monthly income group 34 17. Monthly average expenditure per household. 35 18. Communitywise indebtedness 36 19. Kinds of loan, amounts and number of loanees 37 20. Sex ratio in different community 38 21. Age composition 38 22. Growth of population.. 39 23. Marital status by age group 39 24. Marital status by comml'l.nity 40 25. Literacy and education 40 26. Households classified by size 42 27. Types of families 42 28. Religion 43 v PHOtOGRAPHS F ..WING pAGE 1. A view of the village 3 2. Long view of a cluster of honses 3 3. An approach road to the village 3 4. Ma,rket scene at Simdega town 4 5. The LO\ver Primary ~chool in Girja Toli 4 6. A katcha drinking water well 4 7. The Village Community Hall, constructf'd in Mahto Toli in 1959 5 as it appeared in June, 19fi3. 8. The Lutheran Church in Girja Toli. 5 9. Tho Roman Catholic Church in Girja Toli 5 10. A house of a Kharia " 10 II. Another Kharia house--note storage of water pots 10 12. The house of Bano Gond 10 13. An elderly Mahar male 8 14. A Mahar bO~T 8 15. A young man of the Naik caste 9 Hi. A Naik girl 9 17. A Kharia girl on the way to church 12 18. A school-going Christian Kharia girl and her mother 12 19. A Chik Baraik mother with her children 13 20. A Chik Baraik on his way to sowing paddy 13 21. A smiling Gond woman 6 22. A Goud, ripe in age .. 6 23. A group of Christian Kharia women assemble near the church. 7 24. Christian Kharia males near the church 7 25. A Kharia woman dehusking paddy in a hole made iri a stone slab. 14 26. Mat-making is a profitable pastime 14 27. The f!henki used for dehusking . 15 28. A stringed armlf'ss chair locally known as Machia 15 29. Storage of water pots. 15 30. Mahar women-mark the designs of tattoos 30 31. Ghtdra--Tobacco and lime container prepared b~- the Malar 30 32. Indigenous oil crusher known as Okapi 30 33. St,arched yarn spread in the sun to dry 31 34. A Mahar is weaving ckadar on his loom 31 35. The finished chadar is 12' in length 31 36. Plough and yoke • 28 37. ]{or'i or the spade 28 38. Lohras at work 28 39. A Gond woman with tattoo marks 29 40. Interviewing a group of Gonds .. 29 vi MAl'S A'ND DIAGRAMS FACING :PAGE 1. Map of Ranchi district showing the location of Meromdega •• I 2. Map showing the layout of village Meromdega 2 3. Diagram showing house plan 11 4. Diagram showin~ classification of households by occupation 26 5. Diagram showing sex ratio in differE'nt communities 38 6. Diagram showing marital status by sex and broad age gorupB 38 FOREWORD ,APART from laying the foundations of demography in this sub-continent, 'a hundred years of the Indian Census has also produced 'elaborate and scholarly accounts of the variegated phenomena of Indian life-sometimes with no statistics, attached, but usually with just enough statistics to give empirical under-pinning to their conclusions', In a country, largely illiterate, where statistical or numerical comprehension of 'even such a simple thing as age was liable to be inaccurate, an understanding of the social structure was essential. It was more necessary to attain a broad understanding of what was happening around oneself than to wrap oneself up in 'statistical ingenuity' or 'mathematical manipulation'. This explains why the Indian Census came to be interested in 'many by-paths' and 'nearly every branch of scholarship, from anthropology and sociology to geography and religion'. In the last few decades' the Census has increasingly turned its efforts to the presentation of village statistics. This suits the temper of the times as well as our political and economic structure .. For even as we have a great deal of centralisa­ tion on the one hand and decentralisation on the other, my colleagues thought it would be a welcome continuation' of the Census tradition to try to invest the dry bones of village statistics with flesh-and-blood accounts of social structure and social change. It was accordingly decided to select a few villages in every State for special study, where personal observation would be brought to bear on the interpretation of statistics to find out how much of a village was static and yet changing and how fast the winds of change were blowing and from where. Randomness of selection was, therefore, eschewed. There was no intention tc? build up a picture for the whole State in quantitative terms on the basis of Villages selected statistically at random. The selection was avowedly purposive; t~e object ?eing as much to find out what was happening and how fast to those Villages which had fewer, reasons to choose change and more to remain lodged in the past as to discover how the more 'normal' types of villages were changing. ~he~ we.re to! be primarily type studies which, by virtue of their number and dlstnbutlon, would also give the reader a 'feel' of what was going on and some kind of a map of the country. A brief account of the tests of selection will help to explain. A minimum of thirty-five villages wa~ to be chosen with great care to represent adequately geographical, occupational and even ethnic diversity. Of this minimum of thirty­ five, the distribution was to be as follows: (a) At least eight villages were to be so selected that each of them would contain one dominant community with one predominating occupa­ tion, e.g., fishermen, forest workers, jhum cultivators, potters, weavers, salt-makers, quarry workers, etc.