MUNDA RELIGION and SOCIAL STRUCTURE by HILARY
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MUNDA RELIGION AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE by HILARY STANDING School of Oriental and African Studies submitted for the Degree of Ph.D in the University of London ProQuest Number: 10731312 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a com plete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. uest ProQuest 10731312 Published by ProQuest LLC(2017). Copyright of the Dissertation is held by the Author. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States C ode Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 2 . ABSTRACT The thesis is concerned with the Mundas, a 600,000 strong tribe living on the Chptanagpur plateau in South Bihar, India. An attempt is made to explore and correlate linkages between certain religious and social changes found to be taking place among this group of people. A substantial body of ethnographic literature about the Mundas exists in the writings of colonial servants and foreign missionaries. This providesaa point of departure and a baseline for assessing some of the many subsequent changes undergone by this group of cultivators who are traditionally organized into a segmentary lineage society and who are outside the Hindu caste system both ritually and economically. The changes in social organization discussed here include the protective tenancy legislation enacted by the British in 1908 to prevent further alienation of tribal land to outsiders, the growing shortage of virgin land and its effect on lineage organization and village life, the growth of marketing and monetary structures, missions and education, and the increased cultural 'nationalism' of tribal people in Chotanagpur. These changes are linked with changes in religious organization, and particularly the decline in significance of the village priest (pahan) and the observances traditionally associated with village life and which are tied in with the cycles of wet and dry rice cultivation. The importance of 3. village medicine men and diviners is analysed and placed in the context of the search for explanations of new problems and of old problems for which existing explanations lack credibility. Religion is seen as a charter of meaning as well as a reflector of social and economic changes and con straints. It is a product of history, and particular attention is paid, in this analysis, to the role of historical memory and traditions in shaping present ideologies. 4. Table of Contents Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 7 INTRODUCTION 8-32 Background to the Study 10 Tribe and Caste: the Definitional Question 19 A brief Survey of Existing Literature 26 Nature and Scope, of the Analysis 29 SECTION I HISTORY AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION 33-142 CHAPTER I HISTORY 34-69 Munda perceptions of the pre-colonial period 34 The Colonial Experience: Maharajas and Moghuls 38 British Rule 46 History and the Colonial Experience 61 CHAPTER II HISTORICAL AND ETHNOGRAPHIC INTRODUCTION TO THE VILLAGES 70-105 Village Statistics, past and present 78 Village Organization: Kili and Khunt 85 Village Organization: Caste and Christianity 94 CHAPTER III SOCIAL ORGANIZATION AND SOCIAL CHANGE: CASE STUDIES 106—142 Sukuhatu 108 Kadu 124 SECTION II RELIGION 143-283 CHAPTER IV RITUAL 144 The Asur Myth 145 The Pahan: Rituals for the Community 160 Other Community Rituals 171 The Household: Ancestors and Rites of Passage 188 Page The Deora: Healing and Protective Rituals 235 CHAPTER V THE NATURE OF THE UNIVERSE; MEANING AND CLASSIFICATION 252-283 Idioms of Separation 2 75 SECTION III RELIGION AND SOCIAL CHANGE 284-351 CHAPTER VI VILLAGE CASE STUDIES 285-351 Summary of Parts I and II 285 Social Change and the Community Cult 289 New Models for Old; Causes, Models and the Role of the Deora 295 CONCLUSION 352-364 A revision of the Concept of 'Borrowings' 358 Final Amendment 359 Maps and Tables Map of Chotanagpur 9 Table Showing the Results of Permanent Settlement 49 Breakdown of Village populations 71-2 Maps of Sukuhatu and Kadu 70 Human Classification among Chotanagpur Mundas 252 The footnotes are at the end of each chapter and numbered in separate sequences. Notes on Transliteration The ' in some Mundari words indicates a stopped vowel or consonant. All transliteration is approximately phonetic. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Fieldwork was conducted under the auspices of a Social Science Research Council Studentship, and X would like to express my grateful thanks to them and to my supervisor, Professor C. von Furer Haimendorf, who first suggested that I should undertake this study and gave me all possible assistance during fieldwork and in the writing of this thesis. Thanks are due particularly to my interpreter and assistant in the field, Miss Salomi Kerenj. Without her, much of this material would not have been collected. The Sisters of the Ursuline Convents in Khunti and Ranchi were kind enough to accommodate me and to provide a refuge when I was away from the village. Local officials in Khunti, Sukuhatu and Kadu gave me valuable and cheerful assistance. It would be impossible to name them all. Most is owed to the villagers of Sukuhatu and Kadu for making me a kinswoman. INTRODUCTION L 9. MAP OF BIHAR STATE •s...-' ^ Ganges SANTALPARGANA SANTALS / fe : t r - R a o n NAGURlf HASADA //./■ //V.y/s/i' 'S-iXiS-/y\ Khunti J* HOS -f miles — International boundary / / / / / Ranchi District ------------- State boundary Road ------------- Distriet boundary v.Land over 1640 feet (500 metres) ------------- Border of Chotanagpur tfOS Tribal names 10. Background to the Study The material for this study was collected during the period May 1972 to May 1973 in two Munda tribal villages on the Chotanagpur Plateau, South Bihar. This area has attracted much attention since colonial times, both as an administratively 'difficult' area, and also as an ethno logical focus for many colonial administrators and missionaries with a taste for anthropology. The reasons for this interest may be sought in the writings of some of these early anthropologists. One of the first ethnographic references is found in Lieutenant Tickell's 'Memoir on the Hodesum: improperly 1 called Kolhan, ' which was publisl^m 1840 and describes the Singbhum area in the South of Chotanagpur, inhabited by a branch of the Munda tribe. The people are described as being totally different in language, manners and customs from both the Oraons, a Chotanagpur Dravidian-speaking tribe, and the Hindus. Tickell goes on to relate that, 'it is these Oraons who first give us accounts of a people called Moondas, whom they found in possession of Chotanagpur at the time of their flight into it. These Mundas were, 'a wild people, living chiefly by hunting, and who offered no opposition to the Oraons settling in the fine open tracts to the north ward of Sonepur.'3 Sonepur is to the northwest of Ranchi District. Tickell also assures us that 'none of the vile traits of common 4 Hindustanee life ever offend the ear.' IX. Later in the century, Colonel Dalton, speaking of the Santals, a branch of the same tribal group, tells us that their moral character is, 'the higher, the less their intercourse with the Hindus. They speak with abhorrence of the Hindu practice of marrying children. The women are modest, but frank, without the shrinking sgueamishness of Hindu women. They are credited, in 19th century writings, with many admirable characteristics, such as courage, cheerfulness, honesty and a noble sense of right and wrong. They are also considered to be of a quite distinct ethnic stock from that of the Hindus. Hunter states this view in 1868, 'They certainly number a million and a half and probably approach two millions of human beings claiming a common origin, speaking one language, following similar customs, worshipping the same gods and forming in all essentials a distinct gthnical entity among the aboriginal races. 1 Three main points emerge clearly from this brief, but representative sample of colonial writing. The first is that the tribes were 'primitive' in the technological sense, the second is that they compared very favourably in their behaviour with the Hindu population, and the third is that they are of a distinct ethnic or aboriginal identity. This 'noble savagery' endeared them to their administrators and explains, perhaps, the considerable interest evinced in their customs and way of life. Concern was frequently expressed over the tendency for those tribal people living in close contact with Hindu settlers to adopt Hindu customs and taboos, and thus to become 'Hinduised.' 12 . My own interest in Chotanagpur was prompted, not so much by the intrinsic ethnological interest of the area, but by present day conditions, and particularly by the effects of historical and administrative changes on a tribe traditionally considered to be ethnically and culturally distinct from its Hindu neighbours. The 1961 Census statistics convey some idea of the contrast between the north and south of Bihar. The research took place in the Khunti Subdivision of Ranchi District, which is one of six such districts making up the Chotanagpur Division of the State. It is divided into four sub divisions . Ranchi District Bihar % scheduled tribes to total population 61.6 9.05 Average population density per square kilometre 117 267 Average % availability of land in acres 1.46 0 . 6 6 Ranchi District also contains the rapidly expanding city of Ranchi (population 200,000) which inflates the figures for the rural area, but they still indicate some of the major differences between Chotanagpur and the rest of Bihar in matters of population density, land availability and popu lation mixture.