TABLE OF CONTENTS

GUEST EDITORIAL GENERAL EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS

COMMENT ON

WILL INDIA HAVE TO LIVE WITH CASTE FOR ALL TIME TO COME? 11 HARALD TAMBS-LYCHE

ARTICLES

DOMINATION BY HEGEMONY, OR FORCE COUNTERED BY RESISTANCE? THE INDIAN CASTE ORDER BETWEEN SCOTT AND GRAMSCI 14 HARALD TAMBS-LYCHE

FROM REBELLION TO LITIGATION: CHOTANAGPUR TENANCY ACT (1908) AND THE HOS OF KOLHAN GOVERNMENT ESTATE 31 SANJUKTA DAS GUPTA

ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARCHIVES AND ‘CHIASMIC’ TIME IN MODERN INDIA 46 DANIEL RYCROFT

THE POLITICS OF ETHNICITY AMONGST THE LIMBU IN SIKKIM: LITERARY DEVELOPMENT, RELIGIOUS REFORMS AND THE MAKING OF COMMUNITY 69 MÉLANIE VANDENHELSKEN

GOLDEN HAIR: A TRIBAL MYTH OF KINSHIP DETAILING A HINDU NARRATIVE IN THE NEPAL HIMALAYAS 84 MARIE LECOMTE-TILOUINE

THE GLORIOUS DEATH OF KOTI AND CHENNAYA, AND THE RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL INSPIRATION OF THE BILLAYA 98 MARINE CARRIN

SYMBOLIC ADIVASI MEMORIES AND THE ETHNOLOGICAL MUSEUM 115 LIDIA GUZY

DEATH RITES AND DANCE PERFORMANCE AMONG THE SAORAS OF ODISHA: A FUNERAL MARCH AT THE FESTIVAL OF INDIGENOUS CULTURES? 126 STEFANO BEGGIORA

INTERVIEW WITH

PAUL HOCKINGS 139 BY MARINE CARRIN AND HARALD TAMBS-LYCHE

MESSAGE BOARD

143 IRISH JOURNAL OF ANTHROPOLOGY INFORMATION Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

EDITORIAL NOTE

LIDIA GUZY, MARINE CARRIN, HARALD TAMBS-LYCHE

This special edition of The Irish Journal of Anthropology follows the first issue on Emerging Adivasi and Indigenous Studies in Ireland (IJA Vol 18 (2) 2015) introducing Adivasi and Indigenous Studies in Ireland. The articles of the second Issue largely derive from a workshop in Toulouse in 2013, and thus reflect the close collaboration that has developed between UCC and the LABEX-SMS of Toulouse.

The issue addresses, in particular, relationships of dominance and subalternity affecting Adivasi and low caste communities in India and Nepal. In the latter country, the indigenous groups, janajatis, actually form the majority of the population. With over 100 million Adivasis and some 250 million ‘ex-untouchables,’ these groups represent a substantial minority in India. Adivasi, janajatis and low caste groups have developed powerful forms of political imagery that challenge the dominant ideologies of both countries as well as of capitalist modernity. This challenge is not new: numerous tribal rebellions broke out in British India during the nineteenth century. They form part of the ideological heritage of these groups today. Some revolts also emerged in Nepal, where the unification of the country from the end of the eighteenth century brought a heavy pressure towards Hinduization.

The authors of this issue look at domination through the lens of marginalised indigenous communities and low caste groups. The articles propose that hegemony must be relativized by the alternative ideologies that emerge through the subaltern struggles. In the context of historical marginalisation, new forms of identity assertions emerge such as literature, religious reforms, ritual reinvention as well as invention of museums.

Hegemony and subalternity

The historians of the subaltern school (Guha 1982-89) have often referred to hegemony when dealing with the caste order. British rule, on the other, was characterised by Ranajit Guha as ‘Dominance without hegemony.’ In this issue, Harald Tambs-Lyche asks whether dominance in the caste order is a case of hegemony in Gramsci’s sense (Gramsci 1971). In his analyses of hegemony Harald Tambs-Lyche reconsiders Brahmanical textual influence and concludes that the hegemony of the Hindu texts did not conform with local situations of dominance. Criticising Dipesh Chakrabarty for assuming the communitarian organisation of Calcutta’s working class to be a ‘pre-capitalist’ survival, Tambs-Lyche suggests that communitarian values should be seen as dialectically opposed to the dominant capitalist paradigm, as ‘anti- capitalist.’ The argument is that hegemony, in Gramsci’s sense of an overarching ideology that sets the limits for any alternative expression, can never be absolute in the caste order. This is

4

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

particularly true since subalterns are organised in communities, and: as long as subaltern communities persist, hegemony is a relative matter.

Exploitation, land rights, and identity assertion

Since the colonial period the question of land-rights has been crucial for Indian Adivasis. Attempts to regain lost lands have provoked successive rebellions from 1832 to 1905. Stressing that these forms of resistance and rebellion, as alternative forms of identity assertion, must be ‘understood and analysed on the basis of the specific histories of individual communities,’ Sanjukta Das Gupta deals with the agrarian claims and insurrections of the Ho of Chotanagpur, as well as with the legal frameworks imposed by the British. She argues that the Chotanagpur Tenancy act intended to protect Adivasi land tenures produced different results for the various indigenous groups of the area. Unlike the Munda and Santal, who continued to lose land, the Ho, with their internal stratification and strong leadership, succeeded in negotiating a settlement through redefining their past, reshaping their identity, and developing a subaltern agency which allowed them to retain most of their land as well as their social organisation and polity.

Visualizing memories

In his article, Daniel Rycroft addresses the problem of cultural heritage and its construction. Dealing with the cultural interface between Adivasis and post-colonial governance, he redefines heritage as ‘looking both ways’ – from the community outwards as well as the outsider’s gaze. His exploration of this interface between the archive and the portraiture, focuses on representations of Birsa Munda, the leader of the uligan or Munda rebellion of the 1890s. Birsa is perceived both as a prophet by the Munda and as a ‘freedom-fighter’ in the larger society of Jharkhand. Exploring the visualisation of Birsa Munda, he defines the successive representations of Birsa as a chiasmic archive of different encounters and memories. He further shows that this archive, which engages with past rebellion, succeeds in re-invigorating the ethnographic present. This archive has an empowering effect by articulating lost memory to the ethnographic present.

Emergence of a new ethnic identity

When the kingdom of Sikkim was integrated into the Indian Union in 1975, the old order was disbanded and Sikkim became a state of the Indian Union. These political changes created the conditions for Limbu identity assertion. Mélanie Vandenhelsken explores the emergence of a separate Limbu identity, distancing itself from ‘Nepaliness’ since the Limbu settlement straddled the border between Nepal and Sikkim. She discusses the part taken by the

5

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Sikkimese Limbu in the trans-border Kiranti movement, and shows how Limbu activism developed through literature and script. Then, from the late 1980s, as a response to state policy, the emphasis of Limbu activism moved to rituals and religion. Activists succeeded in reforming ‘Limbu religion’ by referring to the teachings of the ascetic Phalgunanda Lingden (1885–1949), and to redefine their religious practice as ‘Yumaism.’ Later, the writer J. R. Subbha furnished Yumaism with a philosophical base, reminiscent of Christianity and Neo- Hinduism.

When the Indian government declared all Sikkim ethnic groups to be Scheduled Tribes in 1994, Limbu religious activity shifted from house and village to community temples which became visible markers of the ethnic community.

Oral literature as a space of resistance

Marie Lecomte-Tilouine writes on the myth of golden hair, as told by the Magar of Nepal. It tells of the marriage of a beautiful Magar girl, and is found in different versions among various groups. In the Magar narrative the girl refuses an alliance which would separate her from her brother, and she leaves this world, ascending to the sky. Lecomte-Tilouine argues that the story stresses the importance of sisterhood and brotherhood by ensuring the endogamy of the group.

The Magars still practised matrilateral cross-cousin marriage in the 1980s, which protected the group from losing their female members through marriage to high-caste men. In the Hinduised version of the myth, however, the girl with the golden hair accepts marriage with a stranger, and mistreats and sends away her brother. Tribal identity is comforted by modifying Hindu narratives to take on a mythological dimension. Through these myths the Magar have found a new way to define the symbolic cohesion of Magar society. Among the Magar oral narrative provides a space of freedom and resistance against the hegemony of the dominant group, more precisely against high caste men who had sexual commerce with Magar women or took them as partners in a secondary marriage.

The politics of identity deployed by a subaltern caste

In South India (Karnataka) the Billava (once Untouchable toddy-tappers), were formerly excluded from the temples and patronised by the high castes. Many Billavas were converted to Protestantism from around 1830: they acquired education and improved their economic status. But in the 1950s, the cult of the bhutas which had declined found a new impulsion, inspiring peasant resistance. Today, the issue, for the Billava and other subaltern communities, is to democratise the bhuta cult, which was linked to the old Tulu chiefdoms.

6

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Marine Carrin’s article focuses on the death of the twin Billavas heroes Koti and Chennaya who are worshipped in special temples called garodis, gymnasiums where the Billava commemorate their martial past and perform their rites of passage. The garodis have been reformed in recent years, a movement been inspired by Billava intellectuals who stress that these places of worship exemplify equality and resistance.

The Billava museum, which is a community museum, aims at staging and representing the struggle of the Billava community. In this museum the glorious death of the Billava heroes are given a special visibility through statues and paintings. But while the Billava elites continue to make alliances with higher castes, the poor are still oppressed by the high castes and the Hindu right.

Staging identity – Musealization of Adivasi culture

In various parts of India, different ethnic and cultural communities endeavour to express their histories and present way of life through the medium of museums. Sometimes, the state supports these projects, which also attract intellectual activists and artists.

In her article, Lidia Guzy deals with the Museum of Mankind in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh which represents the tangible and intangible heritage of subaltern communities of India in the context of a State institution. This museum is unique since it offers an inclusive approach by integrating members of local minority communities, who live nearby, to design and curate the permanent and temporary exhibitions. Her second example, the Museum of Voice in Gujarat, was started by the activist Ganesh Devy. Here, too, the minority communities exhibit their own culture in their own way, seconded by other cultural activities such as schools and an Academy for languages which sponsors Advasi literature and other artistic expressions.

In his article, Stefano Beggiora examines a funeral dance of the Soara in Odisha, which traditionally is a renewal of the alliance between the living and the dead, but today changes rapidly on stage in the context of the contemporary performances held on the occasion of the capital's state sponsored tribal festival (Ādivāsī Melā). Today, the funeral dance in the metropolis Bhubaneswar becomes a yearning for identity on the part of an indigenous culture that is endangered by market forces and modernization.

This new visibility has brought to Adivasi art the problems of commercialisation and market demands, while attempts to include Adivasi art in modern art exhibitions have tended to perpetuate the perception of indigenous artists as exotic others.

This issue is supplemented by an interview with Paul Hockings, whose monumental work on the Badagas of the Nilgiri Hills will be known to many readers: he also talks of his pioneering work in visual anthropology. Finally, there is a comment on the future of caste by Harald Tambs-Lyche.

7

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

References

Guha, R., 1982 -1989. Subaltern Studies 1-VII: Writings on South Asian History and Society. Oxford Unviersity Press: Dehli

Gramsci, A., 1971. Selection from the Prison Notebooks. London: International

MANAGING EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION MÁIRE NÍ MHÓRDHA

As incoming Managing Editor of the Irish Journal of Anthropology, it is with great pleasure that I introduce this follow-on issue on Emerging Adivasi an Indigenous Studies in Ireland, which brings together a rich collection of papers, highlighting the important collaboration between UCC and LABEX-SMS. The Journal is the fruit of a collaborative, creative process, and I’m grateful to be working with or following on from the many people who have given of their time, energy and experience to the Journal to the date, in particular Fiona Larkan, as well as our General Editor, James Cuffe, who has been unstinting in his solid and cheerful support as I found my feet with this issue, in addition to the many years of tireless work he has dedicated to the Journal. I’m delighted that we will benefit from Steve Coleman’s experience as he stays on to lead the IJA Advisory Board. Lidia Guzy and Harald Tambs-Lyche have provided much to the Journal in recent years and will lend their expertise to the Advisory Board going forward. Thanks also to Lobna Abulhassan, our new Digital Editor for her energy and ideas. I look forward to working with James, Lobna, Ela, Sitara, Jill, and the assistant editors, to build on the Journal’s consistent commitment to excellence in scholarship that has allowed it to establish a reputation beyond its geographical and disciplinary remit, and to develop its structure and content to ensure the Journal’s position in the forefront of anthropology in Ireland and beyond.

8

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS Cover Photo: Lidia Guzy, 2010 Location: Contemporary Santal Jadopatia scroll painting of Bengal, Kolkata

STEFANO BEGGIORA Stefano Beggiora is Senior Researcher (habil. Associate Professor) in History of India and Lecturer in Anthropology (Indian Tribal Religions and Society) at the Department of Asian and North African Studies at the University Ca’ Foscari, Venice. Specializing in South-Asian shamanism, he has published widely on Indian Adivasis (Saoras, Kondhs, Apatanis, etc.), colonial history, the constitutional framework and laws for safeguarding Scheduled Tribes and Castes, the contemporary history of political movements of India, and Indian economics. Recent publications include ‘Indian Ethnography in Alexandrian Sources: A Missed Opportunity?’ in With Alexander in India and Central Asia: Moving East and Back to West (ed. C. Antonetti and P. Biagi, 2017), and Mostri, spettri e demoni dell'Himalaya. Un'indagine etnografica fra mito e folklore (2016).

MARINE CARRIN Marine Carrin is Director of Research Emeritus (CNRS) at the Centre d’Anthropologie Sociale, Toulouse. She has published extensively on Adivasis in India, including La Fleur et l’Os: symbolisme et rituel chez les Santal (1986), Enfants de la Déesse: prêtrise et dévotion féminine au Bengal (1997), and Le Parler des Dieux: le discours rituel santal entre l’oral et l’écrit, (2016). She has edited Managing Distress: Therapeutic Cults in South Asia (1999), and co-edited Tribus et Basses Castes: Resistance et Autonomie dans la société indienne, Purusartha, (with C. Jaffrelot, 2002), inter alia. She is currently editing Brill’s Encyclopedia of Religions among the Indigenous People of South Asia, and working on indigenous knowledge in Middle India and the Bhuta cult in South Kanara.

SANJUKTA DAS GUPTA Sanjukta Das Gupta is an Associate Professor of Modern and Contemporary Indian History at the Department of Oriental Studies, Sapienza University of Rome. Her research interests include agrarian and environmental history and the social history of colonial India. She is the author of Adivasis and the Raj: Socio-economic Transition of the Hos, 1820-1932 (2011) and has co-edited Subjects, Citizens, and Law: Colonial and Postcolonial India (2017), Narratives from the Margins: Aspects of Adivasi History in India (2008).

LIDIA GUZY Lidia Guzy is a social anthropologist specializing in the Anthropology of South Asia, Anthropology of Religion, Ethnomusicology, Museum Anthropology and Indigenous Studies in India and globally. She is Head and Lecturer at the Study of Religions Department, a Director of the Marginalized and Endangered Worldviews Study Centre (MEWSC) and board member of the India Study Centre Cork (ISCC) at University College Cork, National University of Ireland. Recent publications include Marginalised Music: Music, Religion and Politics from the Bora Sambar Region of Western Odisha, (2013), and ‘Contemporary Indigeneity and Religion in India,’ in the International Quarterly of Asian Studies (2015). She was Guest Editor of the Special Issue on ‘Emerging Adivasi and Indigenous Studies in Ireland,’ Irish Journal of Anthropology (2015).

9

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

MARIE LECOMTE-TILOUINE Marie Lecomte-Tilouine is Senior Researcher at CNRS, and member of the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Sociale, CNRS/EHESS/Collège de France, Paris. She has coordinated several collective programmes of research in Nepal and the Western Himalayas. Publications include the edited volumes Hindu Kingship, Ethnic Revival and Maoist Rebellion in Nepal (2009), Bards and Mediums: History, Culture and Politics in the Central Himalayan Kingdoms, Almora Book Depot (2009), and Nature, Culture and Religion at the Crossroads of Asia (2010), and Revolution in Nepal: An Anthropological and Historical Approach to the People's War (2013).

DANIEL RYCROFT Daniel Rycroft is Senior Lecturer in the Arts and Cultures of Asia at the University of East Anglia (UEA). He specializes in indigenous and Adivasi arts and heritage, from the perspective of history, art history and anthropology. He has published Representing Rebellion (2006), The Politics of Belonging in India: Becoming Adivasi (2011) and World Art and the Legacies of Colonial Violence (2013), and also worked on a number of film and exhibition projects. He currently chairs UEA's India Dialogue, and is involved in numerous partnership programmes.

HARALD TAMBS-LYCHE Harald Tambs-Lyche is Professor Emeritus of Ethnology at the University of Picardie-Jules Verne, Amiens. He has written widely on the history, society and religion of Saurashtra, Gujarat ('Power, Profit and Poetry,' 1997; 'The Good Country,' 2004) and, more recently, on the Gauda Saraswat Brahmins of coastal Karnataka ('Business Brahmins,' 2011). A theoretical essay on caste is currently in press (Transaction and Hierarchy: Elements for a Theory of Caste). With Marine Carrin he wrote 'An Encounter of Peripheries' (Delhi 2008) on the Scandinavian Mission to the Santals, and co-edited 'People of the Jangal' (2008). He edited 'The Feminine Sacred in South Asia' (1999), as well as a special edition of the Journal 'South Asia,' on the theme 'Religion in the Making of a Region' (2011, co-edited by Nikita Sud).

MÉLANIE VANDENHELSKEN Mélanie Vandenhelsken is Researcher in Anthropology at the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research and Documentation of Inner and South Asian Cultural History (CIRDIS) at the University of Vienna, and was formerly at the Institute for Social Anthropology, Austrian Academy of Sciences. Her research focuses on the making of ethnicity and on ritual dynamics in Sikkim, with special reference to the resident Bhutias, Gurungs and Limbus. Her research at CIRDIS views the cultural dynamics among Limbus in a trans-border perspective. She has recently authored ‘The Making of Gurung Cultural Identifications in Sikkim,’ in Nepali Diaspora in a Globalised Era (co-edited by T.B. Subba and A.C. Sinha, 2016).

10

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

COMMENT ON WILL INDIA HAVE TO LIVE WITH CASTE FOR ALL TIME TO COME?

BY HARALD TAMBS-LYCHE

In his critique of A.M. Shah’s essay, ‘class’) and (3) the hierarchical aspect, which I ‘Division and Hierarchy,’ I.P. Desai, that identify with a particular ideology, to grand old man of Gujarat sociology, asked distinguish it from other aspects of the question I have taken as my title stratification. Why I choose these, and why I (1988: 80). Shah had stated that ‘castes see them as distinct, will be discussed below. are not likely to cease to be castes in the foreseeable future’ (ibid.). Desai argued that new, secular constellations of interest Ghurye said that members of a caste ‘owed groups were gradually eroding the moral allegiance to their caste first’ (1932: 3), ideology of caste, and must one day bring and thus ‘ceased to be members of the about the end of the institution, although community as a whole’ (ibid.: 4). This is why – this would still take time. Desai was one of looking at caste from the perspective of those scholars who saw caste as fading society as a whole – this dimension has been away with the influence of modernity. called ‘separation’ or ‘division.’ Ghurye also pointed out that many castes ruled their internal affairs through councils, which is why That was almost thirty years ago. So far, Shodhan (2003) deemed pre-colonial caste to and well into the ‘foreseeable future,’ be a ‘polity,’ not just a community. I have Shah seems to have been right: caste is argued elsewhere (forthcoming) that still strongly present in Indian society, as communities in India possess, through caste, the recent agitations of Jats and Patidars an organisational tool for furthering their for OBC status show. Yet most of the interests which is lacking in less trends cited by Desai are equally present. communitarian societies, where new The simplest way to tackle this paradoxical groupings may have to form whenever their situation is to reiterate that such changes interests are at stake. This is why Jaffrelot take time. This is not what I shall do here. (2005) talks of democracy by caste. At the Instead, I ask the question – what aspects same time, members of a caste may find that of caste do ‘we’ really want to disappear, individual expression suffers from community and what aspects are ‘we’ quite happy to pressure. live with? The ‘we,’ here, is meant to indicate those, like Desai, who want Indian society to develop towards more equality, We have here four levels: at the highest, castes democracy and social justice. I include are seen as divisive of national unity: at the myself, not an Indian, but deeply involved next level, this very lack of unity may be seen in the question after more than forty years as an expression of democracy; on the level of of research on the subject. the group, caste is a source of co-operation and solidarity, while at the lowest level, caste may be seen as a brake on individual There are many sides to caste. I shall expression. At each level there is a dialectical concentrate on three, which I term (1) the opposite to these statements: seen from community aspect (Ghurye 1932: 179), (2) the above, the presence of communities may stratification aspect (sometimes seen as render communication and mobilisation,

11

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter initiated by the state, more effective: at the concept popular (1966/1970) he explored the middle level the existence of multiple groups implications of a model that puts the Brahmin with similar interests may be divisive, as when at the apex of society. But, as Quigley (1994) class unity is seen to suffer; and at the lowest and others have argued, and Raheja (1988) level, community controls on the individual shows conclusively at the level of one village, also imply a sense of belonging and identity we must allow for an alternative, king-centred that may be lacking in a more amorphous model – which, today, puts the locally society. None of this is new, but I want to dominant caste in the central position. I have stress that caste can be viewed both positively argued (2017) that we must add a model and negatively at each level – individual, group where the merchant castes, seen as and society. It is less than obvious, then, that responsible for economic and material individuals, groups or even the Indian nation reproduction of society, is the node around should want to ‘abolish’ this aspect of caste, which hierarchy is imagined. I maintain that and we do not find evident grounds, here, for these models must be historically situated and the disappearance of caste unless we stick to a that their relative influence has changed over determinist model of modernity. time (1997, 2017). The various hierarchical models thus emerge as ideologies of particular interest groups – Brahmins, dominant ‘warrior’ Stratification is a different matter. Nobody castes, and merchants – which have vied with would deny that differences between rich and each other for hegemony. They cannot be poor are enormous in India. But if we look at conceived, as Dumont did, as explicatory statistical indices, we find that some countries, models of how Indian society works. like Brazil, have far higher concentrations around the top and bottom poles of the income curve: the Indian curve has a much Once we admit the ideological status of these larger proportion of people in the middle. We models, Indian society emerges as an arena for also know that a single caste may include conflicting ideologies, a demystification which people whose income and resources spread opens the way for imagining other, alternative over a very wide range. This is not to deny that visions of society, such as an egalitarian one. average incomes tend to correlate with the Hierarchy ceases to be an intrinsic feature of position of the caste, but, as several scholars Indian society, and becomes, in principle, as have argued, it does imply that caste is not contestable as any other ideology. simply a ‘frozen’ form of stratification. Historically, and no less so in recent times, castes have risen considerably on the My principal point here is to contribute to a economic scale, while others have fallen. It deconstruction of a monolithic notion of caste. may even be argued that economic Indians are certainly not ‘doomed’ to live with development, to some extent, is weakening caste forever. But they – or ‘we’ are likely to the link between economic stratification and have different views regarding each of the caste. This strengthens the argument that three aspects of caste I discussed above. Not reforms to promote greater economic equality everybody, I am sure, would really like to do not directly depend on, and may not even ‘abolish’ the community aspect of caste – quite affect, caste as an institution. apart from the question of how, and by whose agency, it would be possible to do so. The third dimension is hierarchy, which I take Prohibiting caste associations would not work: here to be an ideological phenomenon. As any association may function to further caste such it depends on a model of society shared interests, if one caste group controls it. by its members. When Dumont made the

12

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

On the other hand, efforts to create greater than caste, that is oppressive. True, attempts economic equality and justice do not, in at hegemony tend to produce resistance, as principle, depend on caste, and while the Scott argued (1985). Resistance does not efficient organization of the stronger castes explode the hierarchical order, but I suggest does complicate their implementation, that ‘we’ should work towards a society which egalitarian reforms are opposed by the leaves the community aspect of caste alone, dominant everywhere, whether the societies while we should strive for greater socio- they dominate are organised by caste or not. economic equality and a less hierarchical The question of what is happening to hierarchy ideological order. - which Shah saw as declining gradually, and Maybe this is what I.P. had in mind when, as a Desai as declining fast (1988: 46) is another young anthropologist, I came to see him in matter. I do not agree that this dimension is 1973. ‘You Westerners,’ he said, ‘are all disappearing, but would rather suggest that it obsessed by caste. There is so much else that is changing. Is there no hierarchy in the West? is important in India.’ Maybe he was right: Bourdieu (1990) certainly did not agree to that, caste may not be the problem. Inequality and nor did Veblen (1899). Hierarchy, indeed, oppression is. would seem to part of any ideology which put the dominant at the apex of society. References

Bourdieu, P., 1979. La Distinction. Critique sociale du In Indian films, the dominant generally is a man jugement. Paris: Editions du Minuit. wearing an expensive suit and a tie, seen to Dumont, L., 1970. Homo Hierarchicus. Chicago: control an important enterprise, with lots of University of Chicago Press. money. The corresponding figure in Western Ghurye, G.S., 1932. Caste and Race in India. Bombay: films is strangely similar. A cultural veneer Popular Prakashan. smacking of high caste (in India) or ‘high’ Jaffrelot, C., 2005. Inde: la démocratie par la caste. family background (in the West) may be Paris: Fayard. present, but in both regions pedigree is Quigley, D., 1993. The Interpretation of Caste. Oxford: Clarendon. becoming more and more implicit. It is as if we Raheja, G.G., 1988. The Poison in the Gift. Chicago: move, in India as in the West, towards a University of Chicago Press. hierarchy implied by the neo-liberal economic Scott, J.C., 1985. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms order, with old family and high caste fading of Peasant Resistance. New York: Yale University away in the background. When a powerful Press. manager speaks, we do not ask who his father Shah, A.M., Desai, I.P., 1988. Division and Hierarchy. An was. In India today, the boss may be an ex- Overview of Caste in Gujarat. Delhi: Hindustan untouchable or even, though rarely, a tribal. Publishing Corporation. Tomorrow there might be more such bosses, if Shodhan, A., 2003. A Question of Community. Religious egalitarian policies could succeed in reducing Groups and Colonial Law. Calcutta: Popular the stratification aspect of caste. How much Prakashan. Tambs-Lyche, H., 1997. Power, Profit and Poetry. does it matter, then, that the ex-untouchable Traditional Society in Kathiawar, Western India. boss marries an ex-untouchable wife – Delhi: Manohar. preferably the daughter of another ex- Tambs-Lyche, H., 2017. Transaction and Hierarchy. untouchable boss, of course? Elements for a Theory of Caste. Delhi: Manohar. What I want to stress is that hierarchy is an Veblen, T., 1899. The Theory of the Leisure Class. ideological matter, and as such open to London: Macmillan. conflicting interpretations and to political intervention. Yet it may be hierarchy, rather

13

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

ARTICLE

DOMINATION BY HEGEMONY, OR FORCE COUNTERED BY RESISTANCE? THE INDIAN CASTE ORDER BETWEEN SCOTT AND GRAMSCI

BY HARALD TAMBS-LYCHE

Abstract: The Indian caste order has been seen as sustained by a dominant Brahmin ideology penetrating the conscience of the dominated. This view was crucial to Dumont’s work, and influenced even the subalternists, making Indian society appear as a case of Gramscian hegemony. Anthropologists working on untouchables, however, have argued that these populations interpret the system in their own way. If we take castes as separate communities with distinct subcultures, we might well argue that no stratified society provides as complete a set of preconditions for hidden transcripts and for resistance, in Scott’s terms, as India does. In this paper, I explore the possibilities for integrating Scott’s and Gramsci’s views in a single approach. I shall support my argument by examples from Chakrabarty’s study of working-class consciousness, and from my own work in Saurashtra and on the Kanara coast.

Keywords: India, Caste, Community, Hegemony, Resistance

Introduction This paper explores the questions of form resulting from transcultural domination, hegemony and resistance in processes that produce stratification, the Indian caste order. The term ‘order’ is notably those relating to power, deliberate here: it implies a refusal to economics, and the struggle for resources. analyse caste as a ‘system.’ Caste has This struggle, integral to the paradigm, tended to be seen in terms of two distinct implies a conflict model of society, with paradigms (U. Sharma 1999). One, Weber (1948) as the obvious classical elaborated by Dumont (1966), interprets reference. This second paradigm, at least caste by way of a holistic view of society, in its pure positivist form, is seen as in which each caste has its allotted place. beyond ideology, thought, or culture. In Here, Brahmin texts, with their particular the first paradigm, then, caste becomes a ideology, is seen as concomitant with the ‘system,’ in the second, a stratified ‘order’ ideology of caste, and Brahmins stand which may be compared with other such forth as the ideologists of the dominant ‘orders,’ as in the contrast, now largely (Berreman 1970). This is a statement defunct, which opposed ‘caste’ to ‘class.’ about culture or ideology: society is seen My argument is closely related to these as incarnating a mode of thought. This paradigms. If the caste order is imagined implies consensus, since it is the shared as a holistic model of society shared by its ideological precepts that integrate the members, it becomes crucial to ask whole. whether this consensus is real, and if so, The other paradigm, central to Western how it is maintained. Since we are talking sociology, sees caste as one particular of Brahmin texts, this would mean that

14

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

‘Indians’ – an inexcusably simplistic term - explaining how these groups act together share a view of the social system to form a society. It does, however, propagated by the dominant. To the usefully question the notion of a single, extent that Brahmin ideas of caste overarching ideology of caste. Indeed, if pervade Indian society, we have a clear each caste has an autonomous culture and instance of hegemony in Gramsci’s sense its own view of the system (Gupta 2000), of the term (1971). there would seem to be little scope for Since the second paradigm claims to hegemony on a cross-caste level. transcend thought, we should have no Yet, as Parsons (1961) stated most bluntly, need, if we follow it, to imply anything at a degree of ideological consensus is all about ideology. It may indeed be needed for society to function. We may possible to analyse social stratification in oppose this functionalist view from India solely in terms of economic and conflict theory, and see society as an political factors. For Bailey (1961), the arena for conflicting ideologies, but we main difference was that social must still allow for a shared language, or stratification was ‘closed,’ with no code, in which these ideologies express mobility between castes in India, while it themselves. This implies shared paradigms was thought to be ‘open,’ with mobility of discourse, though not necessarily between classes, in the West. conscious to the participants in the But this leaves us with no explanation of discourse. how or why ‘caste’ becomes different Conflict is certainly present in India. When from ‘class’: we are unable to explain the I worked in Saurashtra in the 1970s and specificity of India. One alternative, here, 1980s, raids by high caste men on the low- close to traditional Marxist approaches caste quarters of the village were quite (Mukherjee 1957, 1999), is to see ‘caste common. 3 Whenever agricultural labour ideology’ as a ‘superstructure’ to the grumbled about low wages, it was thought economic and political ‘base.’ But if expedient to burn their houses, rape some ‘ideology’ has such an impact on the form of their women and kill a few of the men. of a society whose ‘real dynamics’ are Such coercion, quite commonplace in similar to other societies, then that India, would, it was said, calm things down ideology must indeed be influential. Our for a while. Dollard similarly tells us how effort to produce a value-neutral, Whites in the American Deep South universalist, theory of caste leads us back commented on the need for and the to square one: the apparently hegemonic positive effect of periodic lynching of influence of Brahmin and caste ideology. Blacks (1937). There, as in India, the There is, however, a third approach, dominant stressed the harmonious nature crucial to my argument here. This is to see of society. Here I do not deal with coercion India as a pluricultural society, as, in fact, as such, but ask whether, in the Indian has been done when scholars study a caste order, hegemony provides an single caste as a community.1 In this light, ideological persuasion that to some extent India becomes a land of countless replaces coercion (Guha 1989). minorities, without any clear majority group. Indeed, early ‘catalogues’ of ‘tribes The question of hegemony and castes’2 described the culture of each caste or tribe as if they were separate But what should we mean by hegemony? ethnic groups. Such a view is unhelpful in Are we simply talking of the ideology of

15

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter the dominant? Then we must accept the not accepted by everybody – and often possibility of counter-ideologies, as the rejected, precisely, by untouchables and dominated realize that the ideas of the other low castes. Here, then, hegemony dominant run counter to their own again becomes a relative matter, interests. A simple majority opinion hardly dependent on individual and group constitutes what Gramsci meant by beliefs. Several authors (Berreman 1961, hegemony, if minority expressions remain 1973: Khare 1984) cite informants as largely independent of, as well as opposed stating that karmic ideology is a Brahmin to, majority views. invention, that it is an argument designed Guha (1989) poses the paired concepts of to keep the dominated in their place, and coercion and persuasion as constitutive of that no rational low-status person can (or dominance. He defines hegemony as a should) believe it. state of dominance where persuasion Clearly we must distinguish between outweighs coercion, so that the dominant ideology as such, and a situation dominated tend to accept their subjection where hegemony obtains. Neither must be as part of a hegemonic paradigm. Guha’s confused with a simple majority view. But argument is that colonial rule depended even if we accept my definition of the on coercion far more than persuasion, and ‘crucial shifter’ above, we are faced with he goes on to show the important element the problem of relativity: how many of discipline in Gandhi’s leadership and accept the paradigm, how many reject it? control of popular protest. He argues that Clearly we can never know this precisely, neither Gandhi nor the Congress and hegemony must remain a relative succeeded in taming what was, to him, a matter, a matter of degree. relatively autonomous, subaltern revolt. Independent India, then, like the colonial state, was founded on ‘dominance without Hegemony versus community in working- hegemony.’ class history This makes hegemony a matter of degree, Such relativity runs counter to Marx’s view depending on the relative force of in the Grundrisse, where he seems to coercion and persuasion. I suggest, as the expect the logic of capital to transform all crucial shifter on this scale, that social relations radically, creating new hegemony obtains where the dominated, conditions for thinking about society and or most of them, are unable to transcend the individual, conditions that would the hegemonic paradigm to formulate an destroy all ‘pre-capitalist’ or ‘pre- alternative ideology.4 If we assume karmic bourgeois’ thought (Bottomore and Rubel theory – that the sins of past lives explain 1963). This would mean, as Chakrabarty low status (Kolenda 1964) - to be accepted (1989) underlines, that the new class by the untouchable himself, we have a consciousness, born of capitalist society, paradigm that is not transcended, is radically different from pre-capitalist 5 indicating the existence of hegemony. solidarities, based on community. Such a radical transformation would constitute near-absolute hegemony, conditions The prevalence of karmic theory is, where socialist thought must be – by indeed, a widespread common-sense dialectic opposition - the child of the logic assumption about caste society. The of capital. problem, in practice, is that karmic ideology, though widely known in India, is

16

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

But Chakrabarty wants to ‘isolate industry. Technology was simple and questions of culture and consciousness stagnant, labour plentiful and cheap, and where the assumption of a hegemonic millowners were concerned to keep it so. bourgeois culture does not apply,’ since Quality of work was of little account. This the logic of a particular culture cannot be was the background for the Sardar system, explained by political economy. Central, to where each department was ‘ruled’ by an Chakrabarty, are the inequalities that form indigenous intermediary responsible for part of the ‘quotidian experience’ of life in the recruitment, supervision, discipline India, and which show no signs of and dismissal of workers. The Sardars disappearing with capitalism (1989, xii- claimed a fee from the worker for xiii), as Marx once thought and as other recruitment: often, he owned housing or ‘modernists’ expected them to do - had links to those who did: sometimes, he assuming that caste as a ‘traditional’ owned the shop in which ‘his’ workers institution would fade away before the bought their provisions. Sardars lent forces of modernity. money to workers, for example when out Chakrabarty wants to establish the of work. The Sardar, then, was an existence of a ‘pre-bourgeois’ culture ubiquitous kind of authority with a wide among Calcutta jute workers from around range of powers over ‘his’ workers 1890 to 1940. His argument turns on the (Chakrabarty 1989: 96-114). Above him, question of work discipline. As Marx put it, only the managers could be applied to: under capitalism ‘the place of the slave- they, in turn, tried to project a paternal driver’s lash is taken by the overlooker’s image, as the mabap – ‘mother-and- book of penalties,’ so that punishment is father’ – of the workers. Chakrabarty by means of fines and wage deductions stresses how this ties in with traditional (Capital, vol.1: 423-24). Discipline, for forms of authority in India - the king was Marx, was necessary for production, due the archetypal ‘mabap’ (1989: 163-66). to the rhythm of the machines, as was We are far from the contractual supervision to ensure regular work. But arrangements of bourgeois society. discipline entails authority, which was Sardars tended to recruit workers from never ‘a one-sided affair’ for Marx their own community or from other groups (Chakrabarty 1989: 67- 68). 6 Thus ‘a they knew well, and the communitarian particular form of authority’ says structure of the working class was clearly Chakrabarty, ‘implies a particular cultural visible during conflicts between Hindus formation producing and supporting it.’ and Muslims, or between Bengalis and Discipline becomes part of working-class ‘immigrants.’ Though outsiders may have culture, and is one way in which bourgeois encouraged such conflicts, these efforts hegemony is exercised. But that is why, could succeed only since these loyalties says Chakrabarty, ‘it can be used as a already formed a crucial part of the measure of how different capitalism in workers’ culture. And while unions and colonial Bengal was from the paradigm workers’ organisations progressed from developed by (Marx)’ (op. cit.: 69). 1890 to 1940, they never overcame the Authority and supervision in Calcutta’s ethnic, caste, and religious divisions jute industry differed substantially from (Chakrabarty 1989: 186-212). the form found in Britain. Domination here Traditional forms of authority and did not resemble the technically informed ‘primordial’ ties are the main elements of supervision Marx held as typical of what Chakrabarty sees as a pre-capitalist

17

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter working class culture (1989: 212-213). But both in its ‘primordial’ and its wider when he opposes working class sociological sense. The ‘urban villagers’ of consciousness in Calcutta to Marx’s Bethnall Green (Young and Willmott 1957) technically informed view of supervision, may have lived in a ‘pre-capitalist’ setting he compares a ‘real’ situation to an ideal in the fifties, but the Ashford coalminers model. Does domination, in European or (Dennis, Henriques and Slaughter 1956) any other capitalism, really correspond to did not. Rather than penetrate working- the ideal of contractual arrangements and class culture with contractual values, bourgeois hegemony? Chakrabarty’s view bourgeois hegemony seems to provoke a of Calcutta’s working class culture ‘counter-culture’ where these very values strangely resembles the dominant view: are denied. Tönnies (1932), indeed, saw stuck in communitarian relations and the labour movement as reinstating traditional Indian views of authority, the ‘Gemeinschaft’ in a society dominated by workers have not developed a ‘mature’ ‘Gesellschaft’. The conclusion must be class consciousness. that Chakrabarty’s view of domination by hegemony is too simple. The moot question is how we should see the relation between hegemonic and While Chakrabarty (1989: 219) stresses dominated culture. Is the latter the independence of ‘culture’ from penetrated by, and basically a reflection ‘politics’ and ‘economy,’ he reifies culture. of, the former, or is it, rather, in The very notion of ‘community’ is seen as opposition to it, within a hierarchical ‘pre-bourgeois,’ and opposed to a order where the dominated are ‘bourgeois order’ characterized by ideas of encompassed by, but expressing a ‘citizenship, equal rights, equality before dialectical negation to, dominant values? the law, and the like’ (1989: 219). Of Is working-class culture pre-bourgeois, or course he criticises these modernist is it rather anti-bourgeois? concepts, as having produced neither equality nor freedom for all. Chakrabarty is certainly right in stressing that class To understand bourgeois hegemony over consciousness is embedded in culture, but working-class consciousness in the West, he fails to see that the communitarian we need more substance than we find in structure of working-class culture is Marx’s ideal model. Chakrabarty does not characterised, in the West as in India, by compare his material to writers on its opposition to the ‘liberal’ values of the Western working-class history, such as bourgeoisie. While the latter are general, Thompson (1963), whose main theme, in however, ‘community’ can only exist in ‘The Making of the English Working Class,’ concrete relationships, different from one was precisely how such consciousness culture to another, producing some of the came about. Indeed, Thompson and other strengths as well as weaknesses in the 7 writers on Western working-class culture ‘class consciousness’ we actually observe. start from a pre-bourgeois culture. If we turn to sociological or anthropological studies of modern working-class culture, This discussion of working-class culture we do not see ‘bourgeois hegemony’ and consciousness leads us to two main manifested in a focus on contractual points. One is that we must be wary of relations. Rather, such relations are inferring hegemony from an analysis ‘from opposed by those that sustain community, above’ – even when done by Marx or

18

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Chakrabarty – since the answer to would then be seen as encompassed questions of hegemony must be based in within caste ideology. the culture of the dominated. The second point is that the existence of communities among the latter is crucial to a sustained Second, what I would call a ‘modernist’ formulation of counter-hegemonic views. position would assume that the middle- class, bourgeois culture we identify with

modernity is, indeed, hegemonic in India Dominance and the caste order to-day, and that subaltern sub-cultures Let me now return to the question of are but slowly dying residues of a 8 hegemony in the caste system. A traditional order. thoroughly hegemonic, holistic view of caste as a total social system would imply Third, we may consider Guha’s view, that that any view opposed to the dominant the modern state is trying, unsuccessfully, Brahmanical one would be dialectically to impose a bourgeois hegemony encompassed – in Dumont’s terms – in its comparable to what exists in the West. opposition to the former: it would have to This relegates caste ideology – ‘casteism’ be formulated within the paradigmatic in Indian parlance – to subaltern status, presuppositions of the dominant view, as though it still enjoys considerable exemplified by caste ideologies that autonomy and denies hegemony to the accept a hierarchical caste order, but bourgeois state. argues for a higher position, within that order, of the caste in question. This is, of course, a common claim in Indian Fourth, there is the position that would discourse, and such examples seem to follow from Gupta’s view (2000), that each show the hegemony of the dominant view caste, or cluster of castes, constitutes an of caste. On the other hand, if low-caste autonomous culture – which would make views negate these paradigmatic of each community a perfect locus for the presuppositions, we have, in effect, what kind of resistance Scott (1985) talks about. Guha (1989) calls dominance without This would seem to make sustained hegemony. When low-caste people deny hegemony impossible. Dominance, in such karmic reasoning, they are negating at a system, would be either by coercion or, least one such precept. When they are which seems a reasonable view of the claiming that one man is as good as any Indian state today, by a complex policy of other, they are negating another compromise trying to ride above the fundamental presupposition of the contradictions of a complex society, brahminical model of caste. To question sustained by force when necessary. this hegemony, I shall set out five ways of Hegemony would, then, be relegated to a viewing dominance and resistance with secondary role. regard to the caste order, as follows.

What I propose here is as a fifth view, First, we may see traditional caste borrowing from each of the above, but ideology as hegemonic, constituting a differing from them on other points. India, paradigm which subalterns – here, the here, is seen as a multicultural society, lower castes – are unable to transcend. where attempts at establishing ideological Any resistance or sub-cultural dissent hegemony by the dominant appear all

19

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter through the history of the caste order. But confusingly complex societal organisation in spite of two millennia of such efforts, (Tambs-Lyche 2016: 51). It should be complete hegemony has never been noted that the text appears in a period of established. Because of the political unrest, a matter much discussed communitarian structure that caste lends in the Puranas – also Brahminical texts – to society, and the relative ideological of the time, indeed a period when society, autonomy of these communities, this according to R.S. Sharma, was entering a quest for hegemony has never succeeded stage of feudalism, which he identifies as in quelling the various forms of resistance. the ‘Kali age’ (R.S. Sharma 2002, Yadava It follows that my proposition needs to be 2002). There are plaints in the Puranas sustained from an analysis of history as that Brahmins are no longer respected, well as from the present. and that there is widespread disorder in what should have been an ordered hierarchy of castes. A view from history

There is ample evidence for a complex, stratified society in India well before the My main point here, is that the Manusmrti classical age (about 300 A.D. to 300 C.A.). cannot be read as a description of society Some writers see an unbroken line of as it was at the time, but should be seen, stratified society developing from the rather, as a kind of utopic statement about Indus Civilisation: others see the how society should have been ordered, beginnings of ethnic stratification in the according to a brand of Brahminical ‘Aryan conquest.’ By the time the founders thought. At the same time, the evidence of of Buddhism and Jainism lived (6th to 5th the Puranas show that social realities, at century B.C.) the society was certainly the time, did not conform to the norms of both stratified and complex. However, the Manusmrti. Clearly, the hegemony although the Buddhist Jatakas mention a that the text was supposed to imply was number of occupational and ethnic highly relative. groups, there is no evidence that these constituted the kind of hierarchical order Basham held that many of the caste norms we call caste (Jaiswal 2005). current later, regarding such matters as Indeed, the first comprehensive statement occupation and commensality, were not of caste ideology, seeing the whole of yet followed as late as the 8th or 9th society as an integrated system, is the century C.A., and in some cases only much Manusmrti – the laws of Manu – which later (Basham 1954: 148). Thus we are well appears as a text in the last two hundred into the middle ages before the ideas of years B.C., or possibly a little later. 9 The the Manusmrti can be said to have gained ideology of caste, then, is not at the origin a hegemonic position. Dirks (2001) of Indian social stratification. It was maintains, more radically, that the imposed on a society which was already ideological influence of the Manusmrti stratified and highly complex (Tambs- was limited, until the British ‘discovered’ Lyche 2017: 50-51). the text as a main source of ‘traditional Indian law.’ Susan Baily (1999) points to

the rapidly increasing Brahmin influence in I choose to see the ideology of the the Hindu ‘successor states’ that formed Manusmrti as a Brahminical ‘manifesto,’ with the decline of the Mogul empire in trying to impose a hegemonic order on a the 18th century, implying that their

20

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter influence was less important in earlier influence of the Brahminical strain of caste times. For Dirks and Baily, then, any ideology must have been limited. Karmic hegemony ascribed to the Manusmrti’s ideology, however, which probably caste ideology would rather belong to the derives from Buddhist and Jain ideas, may modern age. well have been influential.

My point here is simple: the central tenets While territories close to the capital were of hierarchical caste ideology were controlled and taxed, with urban imposed on a society which did not landowners holding part of the land, most conform to its norms, and its rise towards of the territory dominated by Vallabhi a hegemonic status has been a process of must still have been inhabited by ‘tribals,’ some two millennia. I shall now turn to and the main interest of the state would regional history to examine this process in have been – as in Ashoka’s empire about a more detail. thousand years earlier – in the security of the trade routes. The tribal populations probably claimed loyalty to the ruler and Interpreting Saurashtra’s history may have paid tribute in some form, but In ‘Power, Profit and Poetry’ (1997) I tried their main function in the state would to sketch crucial lines in the history of have been to let traders pass peacefully Saurashtra, a peninsula in Gujarat, North- through their domains. Western India, from about 800 to 1800 A.D. The main theme here is the opposition between a cluster of castes Around and after the fall of Vallabhi there centred on agriculture, territory and are several centuries of immigration, with warfare based in the countryside, and several new communities arriving in the another, mainly based in the towns, peninsula: there was considerable growth of the rural population, and as the constituted by the merchant castes. In 788 or 789 (BDG: 50-55) the kingdom of kingdom fell, political control shifted to Vallabhi, based in the town of that name minor chiefs in the countryside. Gradually, in Eastern Saurashtra, collapsed. This had from about 800 to 1400, these chiefdoms been a state which, like earlier state took on a feudal form, and the caste we formations in ‘classical’ India, was based now know as Rajputs emerged. They did mainly on trade. The merchant not depend on Brahmins for their communities constituted a main pillar of legitimation: with the Rajput caste the society over which the kings ruled, and emerges, simultaneously, a caste of bards, although Brahmins were present, it is the Charans, who were at once the clearly the merchant communities that genealogists of the chiefs and their most dominate urban culture. Buddhism and important sacred agents. The religion of Jainism, both marked by the value of non- the Rajputs was centred on a new class of violence, were the most important Goddesses, conceived as ‘sisters and religions among Vallabhi merchants at the daughters’ of the Charans. Worship of time. I do not wish to state that ‘caste’ was these Goddesses did not need Brahmin absent from this order – at least one of the intervention, and Brahmins played no still influential Brahmin castes is major role in the Rajput chiefdoms at this documented from this period – but with early stage. I should stress that traditional the Buddhist and Jain influence, the Rajput ideology had no place for karmic ideology: the warrior passed, on his death

21

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter at the battlefield, to Swarga, where he was Indian independence and the destruction comforted by beautiful Apsaras – ideas of the princely states in the area. The first that in the best Dumézilian tradition forty years of independence may be (1952) recalls the Walhalla and its described as the period of hegemonic Valkyries. Sacrifice, central to Vedic domination by this bourgeoisie descended tradition, was central, and the buffalo from the old merchant communities, with sacrifice was the rite that established and Brahmins and the sanskritised Patidar maintained chiefdom or state. But the role peasants (some of whom had become part of Brahmin or Vedic priests in this sacrifice of the bourgeoisie) supporting the was quite minimal until a much later Congress as the ruling power. 10 date. This hegemony was not uncontested, however. There was an insurrection in In the 16th century, things began to support of the princes, led by a younger change. Jamnagar, in 1530, was the first brother of the ruler of Bhavnagar, which port city founded by a Rajput chief, with had to be put down violently. It lasted the evident intention of attracting traders. about five years and was finally crushed by The move soon proved its value in 1953 (Spodek 1976, Thorner 1956). The transforming the Rajput chiefdom to a full- land reforms from 1954 on mainly fledged state, as the revenues from trade, benefited the Patidar peasants, while the financing a mercenary army, artillery, and Rajputs lost much land and their Koli the beginnings of a bureaucratic clients, traditionally closely allied to and administration, gradually rendered the fighting for the rulers, largely failed to chief independent of the tribute and benefit from the reforms. The ruler- military support of his vassals. A century merchant opposition had become a later, we see the development of the cult conflict between the bourgeoisie and a of the God-King Rama, the ideal ruler, number of rural communities traditionally which now becomes a standard item of the allied to the Rajputs. When animal constitution of the state. The Rama cult, sacrifice was banned in Gujarat, in 1972, unlike that of the Goddess, calls for an this was clearly a victory of the establishment of Brahmins, who thus Vaishnavite, non-violent bourgeoisie over came to take on a new role in legitimating the rural Goddess worshippers, for whom the rulers. such sacrifice was a central rite (Tambs- Lyche 1982).

The following centuries see the emergence of the modern state in This brief tour of Saurashtra’s history Saurashtra, with the minister as the real shows two things. First, power administrator of the state, with constellations change fundamentally at bureaucracies and armies, generally least twice: from dominant merchant financed from trade and market influence at Vallabhi to the ‘feudal’ order production revenues, and with Brahmins of the middle age, and then a gradual th in central administrative as well as priestly growth of the bourgeoisie from the 16 positions. The autocratic regime of the century onward to the post-independence princes, however, gradually produced period, making the merchants dominant opposition from the merchant again. communities, who would finally become the main agents of the movement for

22

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

At the first age, Buddhism and Jainism may continuation of bourgeois dominance in have been hegemonic in the towns – post-independence days. Gujarat may, though the kings were ‘Hindus’ – but this indeed, be the one among Indian states hegemony cannot have extended to the where marginal Hinduism is under the ‘tribal’ countryside. In the medieval strongest pressure from the hegemonic period, Rajput ideology and Goddess ideology backed by the authorities, but worship was certainly ‘hegemonic’ among even here, there are pockets of resistance. the agricultural population, but this period also sees a healthy Jain literature which stands well outside the paradigm. A discussion about the Goddess Merchant communities, then, may have In ‘The Good Country’ (2004) I dealt with been controlled by Rajput power, but contemporary society in Saurashtra. The certainly did not accept Rajput hegemony. work certainly taught me the dangers of Very probably, the formerly Buddhist assuming a single, dominant ideology as merchants turned Hindus in this period, hegemonic in the region. To show what I but they became Vaishnavites, retaining mean by hegemony and resistance in an the karmic ideology and stress of non- everyday context, I shall relate one violence we know from Buddhism. They, evening’s talk - in 1990 - about the too, retained an ideological autonomy in Goddess in the guest house where I lodged relation to the dominant warriors. in the peripheral town of Dhrangadhra. As the bourgeoisie gained power and ‘The Goddesses are all one and the same,’ th influence from the 16 century onwards, said our Brahmin host. ‘There are just this Vaishnavite ideology grew in different names for the one Goddess. I importance (the Swaminarayana sect know about these things, since I am a th would, from the 19 century, convert a Brahmin.’ Only the anthropologist was large number of peasants, especially dumb enough to protest, in public, as it Patidars, to a religion close to that of the were. But as some of us went outside for a merchants), and we end up in the second smoke, the low-caste Koli who worked in th half of the 20 century with the near- the trucking office behind the guest house hegemonic position of the bourgeoisie. came up to me. ‘You are quite right, he But though this bourgeois dominance was said, there are many Goddesses, and they clear enough in the seventies, as shown by are all different. Our host is a Brahmin, he the ban on animal sacrifice, it was clearly knows nothing about these things. I could a case of coercion rather than persuasion, tell you quite a bit about Bahucharaji, for and the hegemony was notably weaker the she is the Goddess of my own community.’ farther one went into the countryside or Simple as it is, this episode shows the the lower one descended in the caste relation between hegemonic and order. There was, moreover, a return to subaltern discourse: the first assimilates ‘tradition’ – the heritage from the Rajput all difference under a central heading, the period – during the second half of the second asserts the autonomy of subaltern eighties, reducing the degree of bourgeois culture. (and Congress party) dominance. Today, in this area, there is a sustained effort by the BJP government to reform lower-caste This example seems to me emblematic of sanctuaries (Sheikh 2010) and impose a what I have seen of the caste order in Vaishnavite-influenced ‘Hindutva’ on the Saurashtra. A hegemonic discourse exists, lower orders. This may be seen as a direct and to some extent this is a Brahmanical

23

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter discourse, merged with that of the in one’s own community (see also Ghurye dominant bourgeoisie. But at the same 1932: 3-4, Kolenda 1978: 11, Tambs-Lyche time, an alternative discourse, muted in forthcoming). Scott (1985) stresses the public but eloquent in private, underlines importance, for resistance to function, of the limited character of hegemony. What community, and I have argued above that makes it possible to speak about this is a crucial element in working-class hegemony, after all, is this code-shifting, culture. It is the existence of community common to a large number of people. that provides for alternative arenas, There was the policeman who, in private, shielded from the dominant discourse. said ‘how do you think I could dress like This was how Blacks, in Dollard’s Deep this if I was not corrupt?’, the teacher who South (1937), were able to express their would talk indignantly in class about the ‘double personality’ – and he stresses how dowry system yet wonder seriously in blacks prefer to live separated from private how to pay for his own daughter’s Whites, to preserve the relative autonomy dowry, and so on. On each role, I of such arenas. Berreman stresses the concluded (2004), there are rules about same point with regard to Untouchables in what a person in this role (not necessarily his village, in the foothills of the Himalayas related to caste) is supposed to say: it is a (1973). The talk I had with ‘my’ Koli teacher’s duty to support progress and trucking agent could not have taken place talk against the dowry system, just as the if our host had not been a good Brahmin, policeman is supposed to fight corruption. abstaining from tobacco. These strictures on role performance correspond to an all-Indian, hegemonic discourse, clearly related to the ideology My point is simply that caste provides a of the dominant bourgeoisie. But, then, privileged arena for such intra-community everybody knows that these are communication, because each caste (or, ideological strictures which do not sometimes, a cluster of similarly ranked correspond to the exigencies of real life. castes) tend to live separately and guard 11 ‘Resistance,’ as Scott (1985) calls it, is a their own separate arenas. This necessary mode of survival. And, as the fundamental requirement for resistance is discussion about the Goddess or thus practically universal in India. Indeed, Goddesses shows, this duplicity extends to this means that the ‘public scenes’ are the cultural and religious domain. restricted in importance, which implies two things: first, the space for exercising hegemony is restricted, and second, this Duplicity and resistance makes it easier to live with the To what extent, then, is this duplicity a contradictions between what one is specifically Indian phenomenon? I rather supposed to say in one scene and what think it a general one, common to one ‘quite naturally’ says in another. The situations where the dominant can control ‘double personality’ typical of Dollard’s public discourse and thus exercise a blacks thus becomes general in the Indian partial hegemony. Yet there is, I think, a context. particular Indian component here, and this is where Gupta’s view (2000) comes in. South Kanara – a pluricultural setting Gupta stresses how every caste has its own ideology, rooted in caste identity, an Indeed, when my Brahmin host in identity which usually implies some pride Dhrangadhra boasts of his specifically

24

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Brahmin understanding of religion, he is hegemony of the GSB. Thus the GSB doing so in his own guest house, a setting temples, dedicated to the God where he is unquestionably the boss. The Venkatarama, were decidedly the richest Gauda Saraswat Brahmins of South Kanara and most prestigious cult places in the would have been reluctant to say such region, but they were strictly caste things in public. They would have been temples, and only very occasionally used afraid of being accused of ‘casteism.’ To by other castes. GSB banks, schools, me, in private, they did not hide their colleges, hospitals and their ‘deemed pride in being Brahmins, but in public, university’ at Manipal certainly attracted their discourse was modulated in terms of clients or students from other castes, the progressive, liberal bourgeoisie, with giving the GSB a definite predominance in elements of Hindu nationalism. Though it the region, but this, quite definitely, did was somehow understood, by these latter not constitute ideological hegemony. The references, that Brahmins were the common view, among other groups and ‘natural’ leaders of the Hindu nation, it even among the GSB themselves, was that was always implied that this national they were ‘immigrants’ to South Kanara, community included all ‘real’ Hindus. The often called ‘Konkanis,’ since they had duplicity of discourse, here, was come from Goa and spoke the Konkani specifically one of caste: privately, the language. Nobody imitated the GSB, in Gauda Saraswat Brahmins were extremely religion or in culture, and indeed, the proud of their ancestry, but publicly, their schools and colleges of the GSB had been dominance over commerce and urban preceded by those of the Catholics and of society in South Kanara was expressed in the small, mostly Billava, Protestant terms of the bourgeoisie as a class. If they community. Between the communities, dominated the Chamber of Commerce, the there was competition rather than Rotary and Lion Clubs, and controlled the relations of dominance (Carrin and Tambs- important banks of the area, this was Lyche 2010). clearly and simply because they were the very core of the progressive bourgeoisie (Tambs-Lyche 2011). It would, indeed, be difficult to identify a hegemonic discourse in South Kanara. More than any other Indian region I know, But in South Kanara, even more than in and certainly far more than Saurashtra, Saurashtra, this apparent hegemony was this is a ‘multi-cultural’ community. Public distinctly partial. In the countryside, it was discourse has, to some extent, been the Bunts – the old landholding caste – dominated by the GSB, at least in the which were dominant (Surendra Rao 2010, towns, but not to the extent of silencing or Hegde 2015). In the towns, the most muting the voice of other communities. obvious rivals of the Gauda Saraswat Brahmins were the Catholics, of which the elite were converts from that Brahmin Resistance and hegemony in India caste. Among the subaltern communities, What my excursion into history seems to both the Billava ex-toddy tappers and the show, is neither a conglomeration of Mogaveera fishermen had attained autonomous minorities represented by political and social importance. There was the different castes, nor a series of also quite a powerful Muslim minority. situations characterised by absolute None of these groups accepted the hegemony by the ideology of one caste

25

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter cluster over another. Rather, each stage subaltern as well as dominant – dispose of shows what we might call imperfect a double set of arenas for communication, domination, where hegemony extends to intra- and inter-caste, which serves to a part of the population generally limit the influence of any discourse supportive of those in power, while pretending to hegemony. important sectors of the population stand apart. There is, then, for all the periods discussed, an attempt at hegemony by the And yet, in ‘The Good Country’ (2004), I dominant, but an attempt which butts noted a marked tendency for social against the resistance of parts of the encounters, in India, to express rank people. These situations correspond to difference. 12 ‘The definition of the none of the four alternatives I set out situation,’ as Thomas (1923) above. They indicate, of course, an conceptualised it, in India seems to ongoing, historically unbroken quest for require that the parties sort out their domination. They also indicate an equally relative rank for communication to constant resistance against it. proceed. It is, indeed, as if ‘hierarchising discourse’ is hegemonic: nobody can

escape assigned rank to establish the kind Such resistance will not surprise any of egalitarian ideal we (according to the reader of Scott, who seems to see pundits) cherish in the West. Rank, with resistance as the ‘natural,’ dialectical obvious implications for caste status, does opposite to dominance. Even when seem to play a considerable part in Indian coerced into sharing paradigms of the social life. Yet, as I have noted elsewhere dominant discourse, subalterns (not (2004, 2015, 2017), the rank established in Scott’s term, but apt here, I think) will find any encounter does not necessarily extend ways of asserting their difference. Scott beyond the situation as defined: such rank does not cite Dollard’s classical work is clearly important, but it does not (1937) on ‘Caste and Class in a Southern necessarily last. Rank is important in India Town,’ from the Deep South, but he might then. But to what extent does it imply a have done. Dollard, whose initial interest hegemonic rank order, one which must be was in the ‘psychology of blacks’ notes respected and complied with in all how their public discourse – with whites situations? present – show all the required signs of submission, while their talk among themselves – and, he notes with some India has long been a stratified society. pride – at times with the white researcher, But as my swift tour through history has shows very different attitudes. Clearly, shown, this is not a constant, unchanging this is an example of hegemony and situation. One way to interpret the GSB’s resistance, acting simultaneously and acceptance of their ‘immigrant’ status, is through the same actors. to insist on a certain dynamic: the GSB see themselves, to some extent, as the

vanguard of Brahminical civilization in a Neither the Brahminical view of caste nor land, South Kanara, where the countryside the ‘modern’ bourgeois ideology have is dominated by a non-brahminical, local succeeded in overcoming the resistance variant of Hinduism called the bhuta cults. that, in my view, is intrinsic to the Brahmins, in this perspective, stand as a communitarian character of the caste ‘mission of the interior’ whose function is order. This is because the communities – to ‘Hinduise’ or ‘Brahminise’ India.

26

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

influence of a bourgeoisie that is at once We see something of the same attitude Hindu – influenced by ‘brahmanical’ ideas with my Brahmin host in Dhrangadhra. His - and ‘modern,’ continues to increase. Yet Brahmin, ‘pan-Indian’ views on the here again, we butt against the resistance Goddess oppose the remains of the built into the caste system, as the Goddess cults that sustained Rajput movement of the OBC – other backward dominance in the ‘feudal’ period of castes, in practice the class of well-off Saurashtra’s history – what locals still agriculturalists - oppose their sometimes referred to as ‘traditional society.’ I have ‘traditional’ values to those of the noted how Susan Baily sees an increase in bourgeoisie. The quest for bourgeois Brahmin influence from the 18th century dominance, let alone hegemony, still has a onwards, and Dirks from the 19th century. long way to go in India. The process, however, is much older than that: from around 800 A.D., the Tamil If Marx was right, that bourgeois thinking, kingdoms of the South ‘imported’ large the paradigm of capital, would engulf and number of Brahmins and settled them in annihilate communitarian consciousness, Brahmadeya – gifts-to-Brahmins – villages, then the process certainly lasted about a clearly to underpin a new type of royalty hundred years beyond Marx’s own death founded on enormous temples (mainly to in the West. Certainly, the kind of working- Shiva), situated in the royal capitals (Sastri class culture and community described in 1975, Stein 1994). Thus the efforts at the 1950s and 1960s has declined sharply Hinduising or Brahminising India have a since then. But does that mean that there long history, and we have seen how the are no arenas left for alternative Manusmrti (‘laws of Manu’) seems to discourse? Is the liberalist, bourgeois represent a crucial point early in this hegemony absolute in the West today? I process. My argument here is that this shall leave the reader to consider the Brahminical ‘mission to the interior’ – answer. working through what Srinivas called ‘sanskritisation’ (1952, 1962, 1967) as well I conclude, like Tönnies (1932), that as, today, through the various avatars of community is a constant in human history ‘Hindutva’ associated with the Hindu right so far, and that it is the resilience of – has never been completed: it is still an subaltern communities that tends to make ongoing process. The quest for Brahmin absolute hegemony impossible in any hegemony with its particular known social order. But in this context, interpretations of caste society, is still India has a privileged position, since such going on. communities are more systematically present than elsewhere. This is the Similarly, what Srinivas used to call specificity of the caste order. ‘Westernisation’ has been of importance in modern India. When Srinivas wrote, in the fifties and sixties, he opposed this References process to sanskritisation: I would hold, Bailey, F.G., 1963. “Closed Social Stratification in India”. that as the Indian bourgeoisie has become Archives européennes de sociologie, IV, 1, 107-124. more sanskritised, these two movements Bayly, S., 1999. Caste, Society and Politics in India from have tended to melt into one. In spite of the Eighteenth century to the Modern Age. The New the opposition between ‘secularism’ and Cambridge History of India, IV – 3. Cambridge, Hindutva in present-day India, the Cambridge University Press.

27

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Basham, A.L., 1954 The Wonder that was India. London, Gupta, D., 2000. Interrogating Caste. Understanding Sidgwick and Jackson. Hierarchy and Difference in Indian society. Delhi, Berreman, G.D., 1961 “Caste in India and in the United Penguin Books. States”, American Journal of Sociology, 66, 120-127. Hegde, I., 2015. Bunts (A Socio-Cultural Study). Berreman, G.D., 1970 “The Brahmanical View of Caste”, Bangalore: Kuvempu Bhasha Bharati Pradhikara. Contributions to Indian Sociology (n.s.), 5, 16-25. Hobsbawm, E., 1964. Labouring Men: Studies in the Berreman, G.D., 1973 “Self, Situation and Escape from History of Labour. London, Weidenfeld and Stigmatized Ethnic Identity”, in J. Brögger (ed.), Nicholson. Management of Minority Status, Yearbook of the Jaiswal, S., 2005. Caste: Origin, Function and Dimensions Ethnographic Museum of Oslo, Oslo, of Change. Delhi, Manohar. Universitetsforlaget, 11-46. Jha, D.N., (ed). 2002. The Feudal Order. State, Society Béteille, A., 1965. Caste, Class and Power. Changing and Ideology in Early Medieval India. Delhi, Patterns of Stratification in a Tanjore Village. Manohar. Berkeley, University of California Press. Khare, R.S., 1984. The Untouchable as Himself: Ideology, Beyer, E., 1947. Arbeiderklassen i Norsk Historie. Oslo: Identity and Pragmatism among the Lucknow Tiden Norsk Forlag. Chamars. Cambridge and New York, Cambridge BDG: Bhavnagar District Gazetteer, Census of India Unicersity Press. 1961, Gujarat Census. Ahmedabad, Director of Klostermaier, K.K., 1994. A Survey of Hinduism. (2nd ed.), Census Operations. Albany, State University of New York Press. Bottomore, T.B., M. Rubel (eds.), 1963 Karl Marx: Kolenda, P.M., 1964. Re ligious Anxiety and Hindu Fate. Selected Writings in Sociology and Social Philosophy. Journal of Asian Studies 33, 71-81. Harmondsworth, Penguin Books (Originally Kolenda, P. M., 1978. Caste in Contemporary India: published by C.A. Watts 1956, 2nd. edition 1961). Beyond Organic Solidarity. Prospect Heights, IL., Carrin, M., and Tambs-Lyche, H., 2010. “A quelle Nation Waveland Press. se vouer? Les représentations diversifiées de l’Etat Kulke, H. and D. Rothermund, 1986. A History of India. au Sud Kanara, Inde”, Journal dess Anthropologues, London: Routledge. 118-119, 305-35. Marx, K.,1967. Grundrisse der Kritik der Politischen Chakrabarty, D., 1989. Rethinking Working-Class Ökonomie. Frankfurt, Fischer History: Bengal 1890-1940. Princeton: Princeton Marx, K., 1967. Das Kapital, Vol. I. Frankfurt, Fischer. University Press. Mukherjee, R. 1957. The Dynamics of Rural Society. Dirks, N., 2001. Castes of Mind. Colonialism and the Berlin: Akademie Verlag. Making of Modern India. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Mukherjee, R. 1999. ‘Caste in Itself, Caste and Class, or University Press. (I have used the edition by Caste in Class’, Economic and Political Weekly, Permanent Black, Delhi 2002). 34(27): 1759-1761. Dollard, J., 1937. Caste and Class in a Southern Town. Nicholas, R.W., 2012. Night of the Gods: Durga Puja and New York, Doubleday. the Legitimation of Power in Rural Bengal. Delhi, Dumézil, G., 1952. Les Dieux des Indo-Européens. Paris, Chronicle Books. Gallimard. Parry, J., 1979. Caste and Kinship in Kangra. London: Dumont, L., 1966. Homo Hierarchicus. Paris, Gallimard. Routledge and Kegan Paul. Embree, A.T. (ed.) 1988. Sources of Indian Tradition (2nd Parsons, T., 1961. Societies. Englewood Cliffs, NJ, ed.), vol. 1, New York, Columbia University Press. Prentice-Hall. Enthoven, R.E., 1920-1922. The Tribes and Castes of Rao, B.S., 2010. Bunts in History and Culture. Udupi and Bombay, I-III. Bombay, Government Central Press. Mangalore: Rashtrakavi Govind Pai Samshodana, K., Ghurye, G.S., 1969 (1932). Caste and Race in India. and World Bunts’ Foundation Trust. Bombay, Popular Prakashan. Risley, H.H., 1891. The Tribes and Castes of Bengal, I-II. Gramsci, A., 1971. Selection from the Prison Notebooks. Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Press. London, International. Sastri, N. 1975. A History of South India from Prehistoric Guha, R., 1998. Dominance without Hegemony: History Times to the Fall of Vijayanagar. 4th.ed. Delhi, and Power in Colonial India. Delhi, Oxford University Oxford Press.

28

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Scott, J.C., 1985. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Forms Tambs-Lyche, H. 2004. The Good Country. Individual, of Peasant Resistance. New York, Yale University Situation and Society in Saurashtra. Delhi, Manohar. Press. Tambs-Lyche, H. 2011. Business Brahmins. The Gauda Sharma, R.S., 2002. ‘The Kali Age: A Period of Social Saraswat Brahmins of South Kanara. Delhi: Crisis’ in D.N. Jha (ed), q.v.: 61-77. Manohar. Sharma, U., 1999. Caste. Buckingham: The Open Tambs-Lyche, H. 2015. “From the Indian Individual to University. Hierarchizing Discourse”. The Asia-Pacific Journal of Sheikh, S., 2010. “The Lives of Bahuchara Mata”. In E. Anthropology, 16 (3), 282-298. Simpson and A. Kapadia (eds.): The Idea of Gujarat. Tambs-Lyche, H. 2017. Transaction and Hierarchy: Hyderabad, Orient Blackswan. Elements for a Theory of Caste. Delhi, Manohar. Spodek, H., 1976. Urban-Rural Integration in Regional Tambs-Lyche, H., (forthcoming) “Marginality, Historicity Development. A Case Study of Saurashtra, India, and Caste”. Paper for the European Conference of 1800-1960. Chicago, University of Chicago, South Asian Studies, Warsaw, July 2016. To be Department of Geography. published in: A. Prakash and S. Das Gupta, title TBA. Srinivas, M.N., 1952. Religion and Society among the Thomas, W.I., 1923. The Unadjusted Girl. Boston, Little, Coorgs. Oxford, Oxford University Press. Brown & Co. Srinivas, M.N., 1962. Caste in Modern India and Other Thompson, E.P., 1963. The Making of the English Essays. Bombay, Asia. Working Class. London, Victor Gollancz. Srinivas, M.N., 1967. Social Change in Modern India. Thorner, D.,1956. The Agrarian Prospect in India. Delhi, Berkeley, University of California Press. University Press. Stein, B., 1994. Peasant State and Society in Medieval Thurston, E. and K. Rangachari, 1909. Castes and Tribes South India. Delhi, Oxford & New York, Oxford of Southern India. Madras: Government Press. University Press. Tönnies, F., 1932. Innledning til Sosiologien. Oslo, Tambs-Lyche, H., 1980. London Patidars: A Case Study Fabritius. (This book is now very rare so I have used in Urban Ethnicity. London, Routledge and Kegan my own copy of the Norwegian translation). Paul. Weber, M., 1948. From Max Weber. Essays in Sociology Tambs-Lyche, H., 1982. “The Merchantization of and Political Science. Edited by H.H. Gerth and C. Saurashtra”. Journal of Social Science (Dhaka), No. Wright Mills. New York, Oxford University Press. 16: 39-50. Yadava, B.N.S., 2002. “The Accounts of the Kali Age and Tambs-Lyche, H., 1991. “Le roi et les enfants de la the Social Transition from Antiquity to the Middle déesse: quelques contes de Saurashtra”. Cahiers de Ages” in D.N. Jha (ed.), q.v.: 79-120. Littérature Orale, 29, 61-88.

Tambs-Lyche, H. 1996. “Réflexions sur les mythes de fondation des royaumes Rajput”, in N. Revel and C. Champion (eds.), Les littératures de voix : les épopées. Les rites de fondation. Paris: Centre de Recherche sur l’Oralité et INALCO. Tambs-Lyche, H. 1997. Power, Profit and Poetry. Traditional Society in Kathiawar, Western India. Delhi, Manohar.

Notes 4 An example of this might be when a labour union accepts a lay-off or even a reduction in wages to 1 This, indeed, was how my own work on India preserve the ‘competitiveness’ of the enterprise. started, with a study of the Patidars of London ‘Competition’ would represent, here, the paradigm (1980). that, in this particular case, is not transcended, 2 Among the best known are Risley 1891, Thurston indicating the hegemonic status of a market- and Rangachari 1909, Enthoven 1920-22. oriented ideology. 3 I do not necessarily imply that they are less 5 Note that Tönnies (1932) refused this kind of common now, but prefer to stay here with my own opposition between ‘modern’ and ‘traditional’ observations. community formations: for him, community

29

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

(1994: 483). Embree (1988: 214) at the Shunga (Gemeinschaft) is continuously present throughout period, 2nd to 1st century, B.C. Yadava (2002: 82) history as the expression of Man’s fundamentally between 200 B.C. and 200 A.D. Kulke and social nature, while ‘association’ (Gesellschaft) Rothermund (1986: 85) opt for the 2nd or 3rd only appears in the later stages of historical century A.D., later than most scholars. development. 10 I have dealt with the buffalo sacrifice in 6 The subjects ‘imagine that they are subjects Saurashtra and Rajasthan elsewhere (1991, 1996, because he is a king,’ says Marx (Capital, 1: 57, n.1). 1997, 2004). For a discussion of buffalo sacrifice in 7 Among other writers who have inspired my Bengal, see Nicholas, 2012. criticism of Chakrabarty here, I may cite 11 It may be well to remember that, while Hobsbawm (1964) and the Norwegian historian untouchables in Tamil Nadu were banned from Edvard Bull (1947). entering the Agrahara – the Brahmin street – 8 This would seem to be how the remaining Brahmins were not allowed into their street either examples of working-class struggles are seen by (Ghurye 1932, Béteille 1965). proponents of the hegemonic liberalist order in the 12 There is, of course, nothing original in this. West. Among others who stress this tendency, I should 9 The date varies with different scholars. cite Parry (1979). Klostermaier puts it between 200 B.C. and 100 A.D

30

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

ARTICLE FROM REBELLION TO LITIGATION: CHOTANAGPUR TENANCY ACT (1908) AND THE HOS OF KOLHAN GOVERNMENT ESTATE

BY SANJUKTA DAS GUPTA

Abstract: Tribal protest and resistance in colonial India have usually been depicted as rebellions, violent upsurges and ‘savage attacks’ against the state. However, since the late nineteenth century ‘tribal’ communities had also taken recourse to legal battles in the law courts in order to establish their rights – which, in fact, has been far less discussed by scholars. Resistance and rebellion are both forms of identity assertion, and I argue that these interventions have to be understood and analyzed on the basis of the specific histories of individual communities. In course of the rent settlement of 1914-18 which took place following the enactment of the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNTA) of 1908, Ho tenants of the Kolhan Government Estate set out to establish their khuntkatti status through legal claims in the settlement court at Chaibasa. By making khuntkatti tenures secure against encroachments by landlords, the British colonial government intended the CNTA to be a measure of protection for the Adivasis of Chotanagpur. However, in practice it had very different implications in Kolhan, as land rights and the social hierarchy there had developed on significantly diverse trajectories from the rest of Chotanagpur ever since the British annexation of the estate in 1837. This article traces how the Hos reinterpreted their past and proposed a new blueprint for their future in the context of this Act. It therefore draws attention to the agency of the Hos who negotiated actively and with considerable adroitness with the colonial administration from their position of subalternity. In doing so, they reshaped tradition and redefined the parameters of community identity.

movements in which ‘rebellious prophets’ promised the return of a golden age (Fuchs 1965), as class struggles (Mohapatra 1991: 2), and as autonomous subaltern protests Tribal or Adivasi1 protests and resistance (Arnold 1982; Das Gupta 1985; Sarkar movements in colonial India have long 1985; Hardiman 1994). The linkage been depicted as rebellions, violent between tribal rebellions and the wider upsurges and ‘savage attacks’ against the national movement against colonialism state, whether colonial or indigenous. was also debated. K.S. Singh (1985: 157- Focusing on the destabilization of tribal 58), for instance, took 1920 to be the great societies as a result of the colonial watershed between rebellions which were encounter, historians have interpreted the ‘sporadic, isolated and spontaneous,’ and resultant tribal revolts as ‘a crude form of a new phase of tribal politics marked by protest’ (Jha 1964: 1), as part of the ‘movements which could be sustained freedom struggle (Datta 1957; Roy only by organization and through external Choudhury 1959; Baske 1976; Singh 1985), stimuli,’ while Subalternist scholars as religious revitalization and millenarian emphasized the cultural and political 31

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter autonomy of Adivasi movements vis-à-vis However, protest and resistance need not the statist politics and the project of the necessarily be violent, but could be nationalist elites. Despite differences in registered through non-violent means as their theoretical framework, such studies, well. This would include the everyday on the one hand, tend to confirm and forms of resistance through a silent perpetuate the notion of an disregard of existing laws (Scott 1985). Far undifferentiated tribal population less discussed are the various legal forms requiring protection against exploitative of resistance and the legal battles in which outsiders, which largely resembles tribal peasants had participated since the stereotypical colonial depictions of tribal late nineteenth century as subjects of the society. Some recent studies, on the other Raj. hand, have highlighted the fractures and cleavages and the reordering of the hierarchies within indigenous Furthermore, the tribal peasantry have communities as a consequence of British almost always been depicted as victims of rule (Dasgupta 1999; Das Gupta 2011). the new colonial legal framework, unaccustomed to its protocols and duped of their land rights by swindling non- Significantly, in many of these writings the Adivasi lawyers (Baske 1976; MacDougall tribal rebel comes across primarily as a 1985) and, at times, resorting to violent premodern figure attempting to make rebellion as their only means of self- sense of the changes unleashed by the assertion. Without belying the truth of forces of colonial modernity. Bates and such incidents, it is important to consider Shah (2014: 2) have pointed out that even another aspect of the Adivasis’ encounters in the discourses of contemporary with British law, i.e., the consistent and indigenous resistance Adivasis are continuative filing of petitions and represented as the ‘primitive other.’ negotiations in their bid to establish Indeed, the image of the primitive savage statutory recognition of existing rights. prone to violent resistance remains This aspect clearly emerges, for instance, embedded within ‘mainstream’ thinking in in Gunnel Cederlöf’s (2008: 230-31) India. Questioning whether there was analysis of the Todas of the Nilgiri hills, anything intrinsically ‘Adivasi’ about who had expressed their resistance to violent resistance, since peasant societies colonial land appropriations by attempting have time and again resorted to similar to establish their legal claims over their means of protest, Bates and Shah (2014: 2- lands, utilizing the discourse of the 5) have underlined the need for a dominant colonial authority. This was by historically-situated approach to no means an isolated case, as other understand Adivasi resistance. They have communities did the same at other points pointed out the huge variety in the forms of time and space. The Hos of Kolhan of mobilization encompassing both violent Government Estate in Singhbhum district and non-violent agitations. Nevertheless, of Chotanagpur, as I will show, similarly the dominant imagery of tribal protest has registered their protest to homogenizing remained one of violent resistance. As laws which eroded their land rights, and Saliha Belmessous (2011: 13) reminds us, attempted to secure their legal although violence did form an important entitlements by seeking recourse in part of indigenous resistance, it was also colonial law in the wake of the used in support of legal claims over rights. Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNTA) of 1908.

32

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

analyzed on the basis of the specific Although the CNTA was broadly intended histories of individual communities. as a measure to protect the Adivasis of the entire region of Chotanagpur by making The backdrop: Colonial intrusion and the khuntkatti (i.e. original reclaimers) formation of the Kolhan Government tenures secure against encroachments by Estate landlords, it had very unique implications in Kolhan, where land rights and social Within the colonial archives, records hierarchy had developed on significantly relating to ‘tribes’ tend to proliferate at diverse trajectories from the rest of certain moments of disjunction, i.e., Chotanagpur, following the British during times of insurgency. Initially the annexation of the estate in 1837. The tribal world had figured in official deluge of khuntkatti claims filed in the perceptions as the backdrop for the Settlement Court at Chaibasa between counter-insurgency measures of the 1913-14 in the course of the resettlement colonial state. Largely because of this operations in Kolhan, together with the association the image of the Adivasi as an village assemblies convened with the anti-modern rebel continued to inform the specific purpose of discussing the matter, contemporary world. The disruptions of could justly be described as a community’s the Maratha and British incursions had attempt to carve out a specific status and resulted in political turmoil and identity within the framework of colonial uncertainty in the greater part of law, even though this resistance was Chotanagpur, including Singhbhum, during based upon kinship groups and local, the late eighteenth and early nineteenth village-based solidarities, and did not centuries. In this situation the Hos, or refer to the entire, undifferentiated Ho Larka Kols (warrior Kols) as they were then community acting in unison. In this known, frequently rebelled against the movement therefore, we see the Ho indigenous rulers of the region. Not only tenantry claiming their rights as modern did they attempt to repudiate their ever- colonial subjects rather than as ‘wild’ and increasing obligations to the ruling classes ‘primitive’ rebels. This argument also but, goaded by economic insecurity, they prompts an analysis of the manifold ways raided the neighbouring settled peasant in which Hos reinterpreted their past, tracts. In the early nineteenth century the invoked memories, and proposed a new Singhbhum rulers sought British blueprint for their future in the context of assistance in quelling the Hos whom they this Act. As the Hos negotiated actively described as their subjects in rebellion. and with considerable adroitness – albeit Aiming to build up a system of loose with varying degrees of success – with the control over the region with the help of colonial administration from their position this group of local collaborators, the of subalternity, they reflected on and ‘re- British recognised the local feudatory presented’ their own identity and history chiefs as lawful rulers and the tribal in a creative confrontation between population as their subjects. At this initial cultural values and political change. Our point of contact, British understanding of understanding of tribal societies would the Hos was largely influenced by the perhaps benefit considerably from an prevailing notions that existed among the approach where the varying modes of local Hinduized ruling groups. The tribal responses, both violent and non- Ramgarh Magistrate thus described the violent, to colonial intervention are Hos as ‘dreadful pests to the civilized part

33

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter of Singboom’ and as ‘the lowest kind of paternalist British officers who were to Hindoos’ who, in their manners and protect them not only against rapacious customs, were ‘little removed from outsiders, but also from their own ‘self- savages.2’ The Hos were characterized as a destructive’ customs.4 fiercely exclusive community who would not permit the entry of any outsiders into their territory. Commenting on their This was to be achieved through the famed propensity for exclusiveness, Major introduction of British education, and Roughsedge, who led the British forces through retaining the manki-munda into Singhbhum in 1821, wrote, ‘A system, i.e., governance through the traveller would as soon think of venturing village headman, the munda, and the 5 into a tiger’s den as of traversing any point manki, the head of a pir. The communal of Larka Cole.3’ structure of the village was apparently preserved. However, by incorporating the village leadership within the framework of Despite British assistance, strife and British administration, colonial rule unrest remained endemic in Singhbhum in redefined their roles and their the 1820s and ’30s, and finally the relationships with the rest of the Company’s government came to question community. Nonetheless, bringing the utility of a political alliance with the together the Hos of different regions discredited chiefs of the region who could within the Kolhan Government Estate barely keep their overmighty subjects in weeded out their divergent political check. Enquiries into the recurring loyalties by placing them under one rebellions, particularly the Kol uprising of political banner. More importantly, 1831-32, had also led to a new conviction retaining the manki-munda system did of the distinctiveness of these regions, legitimize and indigenize British rule in the which had made them particularly eyes of the people (Das Gupta 2011). vulnerable to powerful adversaries. In the Following British annexation, violent changed circumstances, Hos came to be uprisings of the Hos occurred in 1857, regarded not as predatory raiders and when a section loyal to Arjun Singh, the savages prone to violence, but rather as a former raja of Singbhum, followed him in community wronged by non-tribals. rebellion against the British. After the Henceforth the British claimed for suppression of the rebellion, Arjun Singh’s themselves the role of ‘liberators’ of the estate was confiscated in 1858 and its Hos from the ‘oppressions and administration made over to the Board of exploitation’ of the indigenous rulers. In Revenue in 1859. Significantly, after 1857, order to pursue these objectives, the there were no more reports of large-scale Kolhan Government Estate, composed of militancy among the Hos. This may be the Ho-dominated areas of Singhbhum, contrasted with the experience of other was established in 1837 and placed under Adivasi communities of the region (for the direct administration of the instance, the Mundas and the Oraons) Company’s government. The formerly where violent uprisings, often rooted in ‘savage’ Larka Kols were thus elevated to agrarian grievances, persisted into the the status of ‘noble savage,’ who had lived twentieth century. Much of such agrarian, a life of Arcadian simplicity, and who were and later forest-related grievances existed to be ‘civilized’ into useful subjects of the among the Hos as well, but rather than Raj under the ‘benevolent’ rule of

34

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter open rebellion, protest was organized on practice of primogeniture in the male line other, less violent lines. was practised, which excluded daughters and descendants on the wife’s side of the family from inheritance. The superior Land relations in Kolhan status of the original settling group in the Once the Kolhan Government Estate was village was institutionalized by reserving formed, steps were taken to bring the Hos for itself the key posts of the munda and of the estate under a formal tax structure the manki, who, in fact, represented the as tenants of the British government. By Hos in their dealings with the regional the eighteenth century, despite rulers. In this way the men of the founding dependence on forests and various forms families retained their dominance in socio- of shifting cultivation, the socio-economic economic and political matters. organization of the Hos as also those of the predominant Adivasi groups in Chotanagpur, such as Oraons, Santals and Unlike the Mundas of Chotanagpur, Hos Mundas, had come to revolve around the were, however, not the original reclaimers primacy of settled cultivation based on the of jungle everywhere in Kolhan. Although use of ploughs. The village and the control northern Kolhan had been almost entirely over its resources thus constituted the jungle when it was reclaimed by the Hos, central determinants of Adivasi life. Some and unbroken khuntkatti lineages could be historians, such as Kishwar (1987: 199) traced in this region, the south had have argued that land ownership among already been settled by Gonds and the Hos was communal in nature. Bhuiyas, who were subsequently driven Communal control did not, however, out and replaced by groups of advancing indicate ‘communal ownership of land.’ In Hos (Tuckey 1920: 18). These villages in fact, the unit of agricultural organization south Kolhan, strictly speaking, did not was the individual family, which owned have a significant number of Ho original within certain well-recognised limits the clearers and the distinction between holding it operated. The original clearers original and later settlers was less of jungle who set up the village and their pronounced. descendants, variously known among the Hos as the marang killi (the principal clan) It is important to keep these differences in or the dupup parja (original settlers) as mind when historically situating tribal well as khuntkattidar, formed the communities. Among the Mundas and the dominant group, and claimed special Oraons there was a real distinction privileges within the village. between the khuntkattidars and the later settlers or parjas so far as their Generally speaking, the original relationship with the overlord was reclaimers, as the most important element concerned (Roy 434). The khuntkattidars in the village system, enjoyed special paid the village rent to the local rulers at a rights, which were interwoven with the privileged rate, while the parjas paid rent religious observances and customs of the at a higher rate for lands allotted to them. people. Ho custom decreed that the It is difficult to ascertain whether such a village founding families had an system also prevailed among the Hos. inalienable claim to the fields that they With the strengthening of the state system reclaimed and to ensure this, a strict in Singhbhum in the seventeenth century, some form of tribute had come to be

35

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter exacted by the petty rulers from the Hos, The second half of the nineteenth century who were claimed as their subjects. It was a period of intense agrarian agitation would not be inappropriate, therefore, to against impositions of moneylenders, suggest that the core group was taxed at zamindari control, illegal rent increases preferential rates, as was the custom and imposition of forced labour (begari) throughout Chotanagpur. Since the throughout Chotanagpur and the Santal eighteenth century, however, Hos Parganas. These included the Santal hul of constantly challenged the claim to 1855, the prolonged Kherwar movement superior authority of the overlords and and Sardari larai (1858 to the 1890s) and practically shook off all forms of tribute Birsa Munda’s ulgulan 6 of 1890s. During obligations in many places so that British this period the government conducted records of the early nineteenth century various experiments in tenancy did not note any forms of differential legislations and in formulating ‘fair’ rents, tributes among the Hos. Even if privileged an early example of which was the rent rates had existed for khuntkattidars, Chotanagpur Tenures Act of 1869 which it would appear that the practice was partially recognized the privileged claims more prevalent to north Kolhan, which of the original settlers, the bhuinhars. 7 had been cleared for cultivation by the These did not, however, resolve the Hos themselves. agrarian problem and the tenancy question remained contentious. Following Birsa Munda’s ulgulan in 1899-1900, the Following the British annexation in 1837, government again attempted to address Hos of Kolhan Government Estate were all the grievances of the Adivasis through recognised as tenants of the government legislation. The outcome was the and a uniform rate of rent was fixed for Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNTA) of 1908 the entire community without making any which had major implications for the distinctions between original clearers and Munda people of Chotanagpur, but later later settlers. By the end of the nineteenth for the Hos in Kolhan as well. century, the tradition of rental differentiation, if it had ever existed, had been nearly obliterated. The situation in Intending to provide a degree of Kolhan differed from other parts of protection to the Chotanagpur Adivasis, Chotanagpur in two other ways. In the first the CNTA attempted to make khuntkatti place, unlike northern Chotanagpur and tenures secure against the encroachment the Santal Parganas there was no of landlords, by fixing their rents in intermediary class of zamindars or perpetuity and making the sale of these landlords in Kolhan Government Estate lands illegal for any purpose other than which was directly under the control of arrears of rent. It also gave statutory the government. Secondly, Ho raiyats recognition to existing custom regarding enjoyed yet another advantage in that use of forest, occupancy rights, rights to there was no non-cultivating superior reclaim land etc. Protection of custom, in class of raiyats as was common elsewhere this case, appeared to reflect the imperial and they were all recognised as tenants of notion of government as ‘protector’ of the government. categorized subjects, particularly the ‘primitive’ tribes. The Act fell short of expectations, as it came too late for the Agrarian discontent and the search for majority of the Mundas, since only 156 traditions

36

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Munda villages could trace intact districts in the control of indigenous khuntkatti roots, and registration of chiefs.8 The Final Report on the Settlement ancestral property occurred in only 405 of Kolhan Government Estate of 1897, out of 3614 square miles of cultivated land prepared by J.A. Craven, reported upon (Hoffmann and van Emelen 1990 [1933]: the nature of khuntkatti rights in the 2402). The Jesuit missionary Rev. Hoffman villages in Kolhan. A more detailed enquiry who, as Tete notes, had drafted the special was undertaken by T.S. Macpherson in the laws on Mundari khuntkatti that appeared early years of the twentieth century while in Appendix 1 of the CNTA (Tete 1984), preparing a Record of Rights for Porahat asserted that this did not, however, Estate in Singhbhum. These investigations ‘diminish the intrinsic value and attempted to trace the genesis of significance of the official recognition’ of ‘Mundari khuntkatti’ holdings and laid the Munda land system in the areas where down their specific attributes and rights it has survived. The benefits of the CNTA, together with that of the non-Mundari moreover, were not limited to the tenures. The colonial state’s endeavour Mundas. ‘They extended to absolutely all thus came to reify custom into a ‘vastly raiyats of Chotanagpur, and they were so simplified and uniform property regime’ enormous that nobody, who had not lived (Scott 1998: 34-35). long among the Aborigines in the gloomy pre-settlement times, can appreciate them rightly’ (Hoffmann and van Emelen By uniformly codifying and legalising 1990 [1933]: 2402). Similarly, existing rights, the Act had failed to take contemporary historians have generally into account the historical evolution of conceded that despite its limitations, the these rights. This becomes evident when it CNTA was indeed a recognition of the was sought to be applied throughout political importance of the tribal tenants Chotanagpur, even in Singhbhum district (Mohapatra 1991: 38) and marked a where, as noted above, local customs watershed in the history of the colonial differed significantly. Local specificities state intervention in land relations in and the unique features of Kolhan were Chotanagpur (Singh 1972: 375). not considered when the CNTA was discussed and no special provisions or exceptions were made in its favour. The By actively seeking to identify traditional CNTA thus had very different implications practice and custom, the CNTA, as Carol for the Ho people of Kolhan Government Upadhyay (2009: 34-36) has shown, served Estate, whose social structure and system to objectify the ‘traditional’ Munda social of governance differed considerably from system. She argues that the provisions the other Adivasi groups of Chotanagpur. regarding ‘tribal custom and usages’ in For instance, every resident cultivator had fact largely drew upon the model of tribal the right to extend his cultivation by social organisation developed by colonial reclaiming a portion of the wasteland administrators and missionaries, within his village with the permission of especially Father Hoffmann, during the his headman. There were no intermediate late nineteenth and early twentieth tenures between government as centuries. This search for ‘tradition’ was proprietor and the actual cultivators of the widespread not only in Chotanagpur, but soil, the mankis and mundas themselves also in Singhbhum, which included both being, so far as their holdings were the Kolhan Government Estate and the concerned, on the same footing as the

37

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter other raiyats. In fact, it was feared that ignore these rights merely because they there were many villages where the may lose some revenue by doing so’ headman did not belong to the family of (Tuckey 1920: 92). the original founders and would have to pay a higher rent than those of his raiyats identified as khuntkattidars if the CNTA Since Hos formed the overwhelming became operative. majority of the population in Kolhan, the general impression shared by the colonial administrators was that they were the The provisions of the Act were at first original inhabitants of the Kolhan and that largely ignored in Kolhan when it came practically all the land under cultivation into force in Chotanagpur. However, the had been reclaimed by them. British resettlement operations in Kolhan during officers therefore had expected to find 1913-1918 brought the problem of cultivators with khuntkatti rights in every contradictory rights and claims into focus. village. However, as discussed earlier, in The implications of the CNTA for Kolhan many villages, particularly in the southern came up for discussion in 1912, in the part of the estate, the original reclaimers context of the proposals for the of the soil were not the Hos but others like resettlement of the estate. The issue the Buiyas whom they had driven out. developed into an intense debate between Since the CNTA, following the customs the district officers and the Government of prevalent among the Mundas of Ranchi, Bihar and Orissa in which traditions were restricted khuntkatti rights to the invoked and reinterpreted by officialdom. descendants of the original founders, all The local officers with previous experience claims to khuntkatti in such villages were of the district opposed the introduction of disallowed. Even where the family of the the CNTA in Kolhan, which they felt ran founders lived in the village, it was not counter to the specificities of the region. easy to ascertain their descendants after The Commissioner of Chotanagpur, so many years of British rule. A survey of together with the Director of Land Records seventy-four villages of different pirs in and the Deputy Commissioner, proposed the estate revealed that only about six per that Kolhan should be excluded from the cent of the tenants of these villages could operation of the Chotanagpur Tenancy claim khuntkatti status, although they Act, and that a short and simple regulation held twenty per cent of the area. In six of should be adopted for its administration. the seventy-four villages there were no The Government of Bihar and Orissa, on khuntkattidars, in fifty-seven villages the the other hand, favoured the formulation headmen were khuntkattidars and in of a uniform system and the creation of eleven villages the khuntkattidars did not broad, homogeneous categories include headmen.9 throughout Chotanagpur. Moreover, the government decreed that the resettlement had to be carried out under Moreover, raiyats possessing such rights the CNTA. The Secretary to the were discovered in only 556 out of 913 Government of Bihar and Orissa argued villages. In twenty-three villages the that there was little doubt that khuntkatti khuntkattidars were not Hos but were of rights existed in Kolhan, ‘although the other communities, chiefly Bhumij and people may have been too ignorant to goala (Tuckey 1920: 4). The Deputy assert them and Government cannot Commissioner feared that the differentiation between the

38

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter khuntkattidars and non-khuntkattidars categorically stated that, ‘We did not would have the immediate effect of know that word [i.e. khuntkatti] before, stirring up disaffection and making the and that ‘those who first came to the settlement proceedings unpopular 10 , as village’ were the dupup parja and that the the practice of imposing a uniform rent later settlers came as servants. 11 The upon all classes of Hos ever since the preferred term however was the ‘marang annexation of Kolhan in 1837 had killi.’ Some mankis defined the marang obliterated any memories of rental killi as the clan that first cleared the forest differences as far as the Hos were and stated that other killis settled in the concerned. village later. Others like Garbett Manki claimed that a village was not always cleared by one marang killi, but that this The movement for khuntkatti status was often done by two or three killis The official debates over CNTA as the basis together in which case they were all for the new settlement naturally had a known as the marang killi. 12 There was massive impact upon the Ho tenants who universal agreement, however, on the sought to establish their claims over land cultural significance of the marang killi: it through legal means. There was a was the one from whom all would accept widespread repudiation of the proposal to cooked food. establish differential rent rates for original and later settlers in Ho villages. During the attestation operations in the course of the On the issue of preferential rent rates, it resettlement of 1913-18, ordinary Ho became increasingly clear that the tenants, together with their community majority of the village leadership leaders, disputed the official discounted the existence of differences interpretations of custom and attempted within the community and argued for the to establish their perceptions of same rate for all Ho tenants. Brajmohon community identity. We can identify two Manki, for instance, asserted that the levels of this process: first there were the rates of all the killis who had made their public discussions and conferences held in own lands should be the same as they had Kolhan to determine the nature of land all taken equal trouble doing so. The original killi should not be given any rights among the Hos. This was followed 13 by a mass legal movement to claim preference. Some also put forward the khuntkatti status through filing of practical problems associated with petitions in the attestation courts. granting privileges to a few. Mahendra Manki of Chiru pir pointed out that in his village there were twelve killis of whom In the initial stage, meetings were only one was the marang killi. If khuntkatti organized with the mankis of several pirs, status were granted only to the marang where the significance of khuntkatti rights killi, he argued, they would be the only was discussed. The proceedings of a ones whose rents would not be enhanced conference organized at the district and this would not be liked by the other headquarters in Chaibasa by the killis who would have to pay at higher settlement office with the leading mankis rates. and mundas on 8-9 July 1914 reveal that the term khunkatti was not in common use among the Hos. Some of the Ho leaders Many of the village leaders had formed the impression that khuntkatti meant that no

39

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter raiyat would have his present rent ancestral freeholds had been transformed enhanced for any land that he had cleared to service tenures under British rule. from the jungle. The statements of the These mankis, therefore, presented a mankis reveal their misconceptions and memorial stating that, ‘the majority of the the various constructions of the term. For aboriginal tribes living in the pargana are instance, Brajamohan Manki stated that Mundari khuntkatti tenureholders or he had understood khuntkatti to mean raiyats but unfortunately they are never that the clearer of the land would become treated as such. 16 ’ In other words, Hos, individual right-holder over the property. being Mundari khuntkattidars were all He also stated that, ‘What I want is that all entitled to rents at privileged rates. There rice land recorded at the last settlement were more than 5,000 signatories to the should not be enhanced.14’ Garbett Manki memorial (Tuckey 1920: 93). summed up the general mood of the Ho leadership on this issue by saying that, ‘Now that khuntkatti has been explained I Some of the lower level officers of the do not want that one killi who had first district administration, who were settled in the villages should continue at themselves Adivasis and therefore were fixed rates and the rents of the other killis believed to have a greater knowledge of who came to the village should be their customs, also reiterated the advanced. No one likes their rents to be arguments submitted by the village increased, but if it is increased we want all leadership. The Assistant Settlement the Hos to be treated the same.15’ In fact, Officer, D.M. Panna, argued that the overwhelming majority of the mankis khuntkatti rights were quite unknown and mundas argued that khuntkatti meant among the Hos and the recording of such clearing of jungles for cultivation and thus rights would tend to create an artificial all those who reclaimed jungles, whether and invidious distinction among them, the descendants of original founding which could lead to the disintegration of families or not, should be assessed at the the solidarity of the communal system of same rate. Ho government. According to Panna, Hos ‘…believe that all the ancestors of different killis came to settle in the Kolhan Some of the more influential mankis put at the same time. Every Ho may claim that forth this claim in a memorial to the his ancestor was among the original Lieutenant Governor of Bengal. settlers of the community though not of a Discounting the previous existence of any particular village and that every member superior political authority over the Hos, of the Ho community had equal right of they argued that prior to the annexation migration from village to village within the of the Kolhan by the British Government in Kolhan and the right of reclamation of new 1837, the mankis had been the ‘lords of lands.17’ Thus, he argued that as a result of their respective pirs’ and did not have to the CNTA the khuntkatti raiyats, would be pay tribute to anyone. Under British rule looked upon as a favoured section of the they had been transformed into servants community and within the villages where of the government and remunerated with they would form a minority. Where the fees fixed at certain rates. Thus their right munda was a non-khuntkatti Ho, he would to hold property from generation to become an object of envy and even generation had become dependent on the hatred. orders of the government and their

40

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

There were of course dissenters who The evidence in the case files of the spoke in favour of according khuntkatti attestation courts show that in claiming rights to the privileged killis. Most of them khuntkatti status, the objectors showed were the more affluent among the village considerable skill in negotiating with the leadership who would personally benefit government, although their claims were in as a result. Their position was voiced, for many cases overruled. In order to instance, by one Mahati Manki of Gumra ascertain the historical evolution of pir on the second day of the conference.18 khuntkatti rights, the attestation court Together with this, there were isolated drew up elaborate genealogical trees of suggestions that Hos who had never entire pirs. But this often failed to clarify cleared forests but had bought lands from the matter. Settlement officers others could be, if necessary, assessed at complained that genealogical trees were higher rates. at times fabricated to buttress claims to khuntkatti at the attestation courts. In Baiku village of Chainpur pir, for instance, While the village leaders debated the eight objectors stated that they were the nature and meanings of khuntkatti, the Ho descendants of the original founder Sado raiyats embarked upon the second phase Ho and that they had not been recorded as of the movement and took the practical khuntkattidar at attestation since they step of legally protecting their interests by were absent when the genealogical tree putting forward claims to khuntkatti was being prepared. The Case Officer status. During the initial years of the dismissed the genealogical tree prepared settlement operations there was a spate by the tahsildar as ‘a tissue of imagination of claims and counter claims where almost and concoction for the names of ancestors entire villages demanded recognition as three or four generations back. 19 ’ On khuntkattidars. In 1913-14, in the course cross-examination, the claimants did not of the enquiry into khuntkatti rights, a mention Sado Ho as the founder, nor did total number of 4,434 objections relating they include themselves in the founding of to khuntkatti were lodged in the the village and the Settlement Officer settlement courts. Of these 2,848 were concluded that, ‘the genealogical tree heard by D.M. Panna, of which 1,284 were filed by them has evidently been allowed wholly or partly, and 1,564 were fabricated to help this claim,’ and the disallowed (Tuckey 1920: 33). In the claim was disallowed. second phase of attestation between 1916 and 1917 there were fewer cases relating to khuntkatti, possibly due to the Yet the settlement courts allowed several implementation of a more rigorous other claims. In Bagasereng, a village in process of identification. However, in 36 the Ajodhya pir, where the Attestation villages khuntkatti rights granted by the Court had granted khuntkatti status only attestation officer were deemed to have to the Jonko killi, members of the Honhaga been based on a misunderstanding of the and Hemrom killi also claimed khuntkatti law and granted too loosely. These cases status by arguing that their ancestors had went up for revision and the decisions settled in the village and reclaimed forests were upheld in 8 cases, modified in one along with the members of the Jonko killi, and revised in 27 cases (Tuckey 1920: 33). and that the office of the deuri or priest was held by a member of their killi. When the munda (who belonged to the Jonko

41

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter killi) was summoned, he asserted that the The instances discussed above are only a Jonkos, Hemroms and Honhagas had all few representative objections filed by Ho come together and lived on equal terms. tenants to acquire khuntkatti status in In the end, the Case Officer accepted their course of the resettlement of 1913-18. claims stating that, ‘Each of these three The archives of the Chaibasa Collectorate killis is as long standing in the village as record innumerable cases filed by tenants the other and when the members of the of all almost every pir in the estate, in munda and deuri killis admit that the which oral testimonies were zealously Hemroms are also khuntkattidars I do not collected and written down, and see how I can refuse to record them as genealogies constructed by colonial such.20’ officers in an attempt to arrive at an ‘authentic’ version of Ho history. Custom, however, can hardly be fixed in time; it is In another case in Loharda village, Ho necessarily living and is constantly objectors claimed khuntkatti status, as recreated, as are the memories of the they were all descendants of the founder past, which vary according to the of the village who had reclaimed lands interests, situation and needs of the from virgin forests. However, they were present. Genealogies, too, were living not residents of Loharda, but of an memories. As Scott has shown, ‘elaborate adjoining village Uligutu, which had been genealogies … are a vast portfolio of the original village of their ancestor who possible connections, most of which was forced to move out to Loharda when remain in the shadows but could, if their family had become too numerous to necessary, be summoned. The more occupy Uligutu. While the objectors turbulent the social environment, the convinced the Attestation Officer of the more frequently groups fission and justness of their claim, the ruling was later recombine, the greater the likelihood that overturned by the Settlement Officer who the portfolio of shadow ancestors will observed, ‘This is all irrelevant. The fact come into play’ (2009: 232). Like the that the law may be too inelastic does not Kachins of Southeast Asia, the Hos of entitle us to strain the evidence to meet a Kolhan drew upon ‘shadow ancestors’ in priori conceptions. A Section 83 [i.e. this moment of social turbulence to concerning khuntkatti status] officer is buttress claims which were not simply a bound to ascertain the bare facts and spontaneous expression of local 21 apply the law literally. ’ In another case, memories, but a conscious representation objectors claimed khuntkatti status in the of a new community identity. two villages of Thakuragutu and Bachomhatu in Ajodhya pir, stating that Nandu Ho, their ancestor, had founded Concluding remarks both villages. Although the Settlement The evidence illustrated above shows that Officer was inclined to disallow the claim, the response of the Hos on the khuntkatti it was later argued that these two villages issue took the form of a legal encounter in had earlier formed two tolas which the Ho tenants put forth their (neighbourhoods) of a single village and claims, both just and fabricated, in the khuntkatti status was accorded to the 22 context of new tenancy legislations. objectors. Attempts to carve out a space for themselves within colonial rule did not require Ho tenants to resort to violence in

42

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter order to redress grievances. Nor did they confronted with the generalizations of fall back upon a silent subversion of British colonial categories. rule through a disregard of the new regulations and laws in everyday life. Instead we see a consciously articulated Khuntkatti status was sought by the attempt to establish their status in tenants to build up a new colonial ‘legal’ accordance with the requirements of identity, which in certain cases marked a British colonial law and by framing their separation from their living customs. claims according to British legal Rather than rejecting the imposed colonial conventions. Such attempts at securing categories, Hos appropriated them to self-interest on part of a large section of their own advantage and to preserve their the community and the articulation of self-interest in the new set-up of land individual rights in the context of a rights. Confronting the colonial rulers with changing legal and agrarian framework this new legal status was, in fact, another can be construed as a silent, non-violent form of resistance. In this resistance revolution. movement, genealogies and family histories which constituted part of the inner domain of the tribe where the state The movement to establish khuntkatti could not intervene, were utilized by Ho status also revealed the various tenants in their fight for rights in the dimensions of the self-representations of public domain. Thus a situation was Ho community identity. On some created whereby they could force the occasions, the Hos spoke of themselves as British to ascertain the veracity of their a bloc, especially when they put forth claims on their own terms. In this fight claims of egalitarianism. As their oral they sometimes succeeded, sometimes evidence was transcribed into written failed, but above all they were agents testimony, the boundaries between the rather objects of change. individual interests of the Hos and their group concerns became blurred, so that in certain cases, as Alessandro Portelli put it, ‘personal “truth” [came to] coincide with References shared “imagination” ’ (1991: 49). At other Arnold, D., 1982. “Rebellious Hillmen: the Gudem- times, the reality of the fractures within Rampa Risings, 1839-1924”, in R. Guha (ed.) their community – the divisions between Subaltern Studies I: Writings on South Asian History the elites and the non-elites, the original and Society, Delhi, Oxford University Press. clearers and later settlers – became Baske, D., 1976. Saotal Ganasangramer Itihas, Calcutta, evident. In filing legal claims to khuntkatti Pearl Publishers. status, the ordinary Hos preferred to act Bates, C., and Shah, A., 2014. (eds.) Savage Attack: on an individual basis, rather than as a Tribal Insurgency in India, Delhi, Social Science Press. community acting unitedly against the Belmessous S., 2011. (ed.) Native Claims: Indigenous colonial administration. The framing of Law against Empire, 1500-1920, New York, Oxford University Press. their identity and reconstruction of their Cederlöf, G., 2008. “The Agency of the Colonial Subject: history was largely centered around their Claims and Rights in the Forestlands in the Early villages, though on occasions there were Nineteenth Century Nilgiris”, in M. Carrin and H. also references to inter-village Tambs-Lyche (eds.) People of the Jangal: solidarities. Thus the Ho tenants were not Reformulating Identities and Adaptations in Crisis, talking in the same voice, even when Delhi: Manohar.

43

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Craven, J.A., 1898. Final Report on the Settlement of the Porahat in District Singhbhum, 1905-07, Calcutta, Kolhan Government Estate in District Singhbhum of Bengal Secretariat Book Depot. the Year 1897, Calcutta, Bengal Secretariat Press. Mohapatra, P.P., 1991. “Class Conflicts and Agrarian Damodaran, V., 2011. “Colonial Constructions of ‘Tribe’ Regimes in Chotanagpur, 1860-1950”, Indian in India: the Case of Chotanagpur”, in B. Pati (ed.), Economic and Social History Review, 28 (1), pp. 1-42. Adivasis in Colonial India: Survival, Resistance and Portelli, A., 1991. The Death of Luigi Trastulli and Other Negotiation, Delhi, Orient Blackswan. Stories: Form and Meaning in Oral History, Albany, Dasgupta, S., 1999. “Reordering a World: The State University of New York Press. Tanabhagat Movement, 1914-1919”, Studies in Roy, S.C., 1995. (reprint) “The Mundas and Their History, new series, vol. 15(1), pp. 1-41. Country”, Ranchi, Catholic Press. Dasgupta, S., and Rycroft, D.J., 2011. The Politics of Roy Choudhury P.C., 1959. (ed), “1857 in Bihar: Chota Belonging in India: Becoming Adivasi, London and Nagpur and Santhal Parganas”, Patna, Gazetteers New York, Routledge. Revision Section. Das Gupta, S., 2011. Adivasis and the Raj: Socio- Sarkar, T., 1985. “Jitu Santal’s Movement in Malda, economic Transition of the Hos of Singhbhum, 1820- 1924-1932: A Study in Tribal Protest”, in R. Guha 1932, Delhi, Orient Blackswan. (ed.), Subaltern Studies IV: Writings on South Asian Das Gupta, S., 2012. “Introduction”, in S. Das Gupta and History and Society, Delhi, Oxford University Press. R.S. Basu (eds.), Narratives from the Margins: Scott, J.C., 2009. The Art of Not Being Governed: An Aspects of Adivasi History in India, Delhi, Primus. Anarchist History of Upland Southeast Asia, Delhi, Das Gupta, S., 1985. “Adivasi Politics in Midnapur, c. Orient Blackswan. 1760-1924”, in R. Guha (ed.), Subaltern Studies IV: Scott, J.C. 1998. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Writings on South Asian History and Society, Delhi, Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Oxford University Press. Failed, New Haven and London, Yale University Press Datta, K.K., 1957. History of the Freedom Movement in Scott, J. C., 1985. Weapons of the Weak: Everyday Bihar, Patna, Government of Bihar Press Forms of Peasant Resistance, New Haven and Devalle, S.B.C., 1992. Discourses of Ethnicity: Culture London, Yale University Press. and Protest in Jharkhand, New Delhi, Sage Singh, K.S., 1985. Tribal Society in India: An Anthropo- Publications. historical Perspective, New Delhi, Manohar. Fuchs, S. 1965. Rebellious Prophets: A Study of Singh, K.S., 1983. Birsa Munda and his Movement 1874- Messianic Movements in Indian Religions, Bombay, 1901: A Study of a Millenarian Movement in Asia Publishing House. Chotanagpur, Delhi, Oxford University Press. Hardiman, D., 1994. “Power in the Forests: the Dangs, Singh, K.S., 1972. “Agrarian Issues in Chotanagpur”, in 1820-1940”, in D. Arnold and D. Hardiman (eds.) K.S. Singh (ed.) The Tribal Situation in India, Shimla, Subaltern Studies VIII: Writings on South Asian IIAS. History and Society, Delhi, Oxford University Press. Tete, P., 1984. A Missionary Social Worker in India: J.B. Hardiman, D., 1987. The Coming of the Devi: Adivasi Hoffman, the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act and the Assertion in Western India, New Delhi, Oxford Catholic Cooperatives 1893-1928, Rome, Università University Press. Gregoriana Editrice. Hoffmann, J., and van Emelen, A., 1990 [1933]. Tuckey, A.D., 1920. Final Report on the Resettlement of Encyclopedia Mundarica vol. VIII, Delhi, Gian the Kolhan Government Estate in the District of Publishing House. Singhbhum, 1913-18, Patna, Superintendent Jha, J.C., 1964. The Kol Insurrection in Chota Nagpur, Government Printing. Calcutta, Thacker, Spink & Co. Upadhyay, C., 2009. “Law, Custom and Adivasi Identity: Kishwar, M., 1987. “Toiling Without Rights: Ho Women Politics of Land Rights in Chotanagpur”, in N. Sundar of Singhbhum,” Economic and Political Weekly, vol. (ed.) Legal Grounds: Natural Resources, Identity and 22, nos. 3-5, pp. 95-101, 149-55, 194-200. the Law in Jharkhand, Delhi, Oxford University Press. MacDougall, J., 1985. Land or Religion? The Sardar and Xaxa, V., 1999. “Tribes as Indigenous People of India”, Kherwar Movements in Bihar, 1858-95, Delhi, Economic and Political Weekly 34(51): 3589-95. Manohar. Macpherson, T.S., 1908. Final Report on the Operations for the Preparation of Record-of-Rights in Pargana

44

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

10 Ibid., p. 88. Notes 11 Statement of Ringsu Manki of Deoposhi village, 9 July 1914, Govt. of Bihar and Orissa, Revenue 1 The colonial construction of ‘tribe’ with its racial, Proceedings A, No 6, Enclosure 4, March 1915, evolutionist connotations has been debated at British Library Oriental and India Office Collections length by scholars in the last two decades. Adivasi (hereafter OIOC), P 9797. today is a political term which has gained currency 12 ‘Note of Statements of mankis and mundas at since the mid-twentieth century. For details, see conference held in Chaibasa’, 8 July 1914, Govt. of among others, Hardiman (1987), Devalle (1992), Bihar and Orissa, Revenue Proceedings A, No 6, Xaxa (1998), Damodaran (2011), Rycroft and Enclosure 4, March 1915, OIOC, P 9797. Dasgupta (2011), Das Gupta (2012). In this paper 13 ‘Statement of mankis and mundas at conference the terms Adivasi and tribe have been used held in Chaibasa,’ 9 July 1914, Govt. of Bihar and interchangeably to indicate indigenous ethnic Orissa, Revenue Proceedings A, No 6, Enclosure 4, communities, socially organized on lines distinct March 1915, OIOC, P 9797. from ‘caste’. 14 Ibid. 2 Ramgarh Magistrate to Bayly, 30 June, 1817, 15 Ibid. Govt. of Bengal, Judicial Criminal Proceedings, No. 16 Copy of Memorial presented to Lieutenant 39 of 29 July 1817, West Bengal State Archives, Governor of Bihar and Orissa by Hos of Chaibasa, hereafter WBSA. Govt. of Bihar and Orissa, Revenue Proceedings A, 3 Roughsedge to Metcalf, 9 May 1820, No 6, Enclosure 4, March 1915, OIOC, P 9797. Chotanagpur Commissioner’s Political Despatch 17 D.M. Panna’s ‘Note on the Kolhan Settlement’, Register, vol. 27, Bihar State Archives. 11 September 1914, Govt. of Bihar and Orissa, 4 Wilkinson to Tickell, 5 May 1837, Bengal Judicial Revenue Proceedings A, No 6, Appendix K, Criminal Proceedings, No 15, 6 June 1837, WBSA. Enclosure 13, March 1915, OIOC, P 9797. 5 A subdivision consisting of a cluster of villages, 18 ‘Statement of mankis and mundas at conference headed by a manki. held in Chaibasa,’ 9 July 1914. 6 One of the best-known tribal movements of the 19 Case No. 8/89 of 1915-16, Kolhan Thana No. 1, K period, Birsa Munda’s ulgulan (Great Tumult) took 41, Sl 21 of 1912-17, Chaibasa Collectorate Record place in the region south of Ranchi. For a discussion Room (hereafter CCRR). of the ulgulan, see Singh (1983). 20 Case No. 463, Thana No. 31, Basta No. 4, K 41, Sl 7 Bhuinhari was the term used by the Oraons, while 163 of 1916-17, CCRR. khuntkatti referred to the similar usage among the 21 Case No 42/89 of 1915, Loharda Thana No 5, Mundas and the Hos. Basta No 1, K41 Sl 44 of 1916-17, CCRR. 8 This includes Porahat, Seraikela, Kharsawan, 22 Objection No 928, village Bachamhatu, Thana 11, Anandpur, Kera, Manoharpur. Ajodhya Pir, K 41 Sl 70 of 1916-17. CCRR. 9 McPherson, ‘Note on the Kolhan Resettlement’, Tuckey 1920, p. 86.

45

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

ARTICLE ANTHROPOLOGICAL ARCHIVES AND ‘CHIASMIC’ TIME IN MODERN INDIA

BY DANIEL RYCROFT

Abstract: The Government of India Act was formalized in 1935 as a means of transferring administrative power from the British Raj to the Indian National Congress. It introduced a new framework for the governance of ‘Scheduled Areas,’ i.e. those regions inhabited predominantly by Adivasis (literally ‘original inhabitants’), or India’s Indigenous and ‘tribal’ peoples, such as ‘the Mundas.’ Codifying the histories of these areas according to their occupation by Adivasi societies, the Act prompted contemporary anthropological research that questioned colonial categories of racial difference. Contingent and regionally nuanced concepts emerged, such as ‘racial’ minorities, Adivasi rights, and social solidarity that refocused public and administrative attention on Adivasi history and heritage. These concepts are easily forgotten in polarized debates on the workings of assimilationist vs. protectionist ideologies in respect of Adivasi peoples and lands. Yet such shifts prompted a revision of wider temporal and cultural relations between majority (mainstream) and minority (tribal) communities. The paper aims to explore such interfaces through the metaphor of the archive and the prospect of ‘holism’, and with close reference to the medium of portraiture. In particular, images of Birsa Munda – an Adivasi freedom-fighter from the Ranchi district of Jharkhand – are foregrounded as a means to interpret the emergent relationship of Indian anthropology to ‘the Mundas’ and to ‘the nation.’ Signified in different ways by Birsa Munda, his followers, and those interested in making the posthumous prophet-rebel visible again within the political and cultural parameters of modern India, these relations became acquired dynamism through their temporal complexity and embodiment.

Keywords: heritage, nation, tribe, time, holism, chiasm

46

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Introduction Adivasi freedom-fighter Birsa Munda (Fig. 1). Was the work commissioned by the Congress with the primary intention of In the pre-independence phase, the Indian making visible the Munda rebellion? Or intelligentsia apprehended afresh the time was it introduced into the national fold as of the nation according to shared futures a means to address and even resolve that disavowed colonial notions of tensions, associated not only with difference, in respect of pasts that were rebellious pasts but also the politics of either co-owned by different regional minority identities in the present? communities or else considered distinctive (see Datta-Majumder 1955; Bose 1957: 177). Some aspects of ‘tribal’ political culture, such as village-level councils or Panchayats (consisting of five members), easily found their way into the nation’s rubric, as these resonated with Gandhian and similar perspectives on decentralized citizenship (see Uberoi et al 2007: 39, 43) and the histories and values associated with regional democracy in Asia. Yet some aspects, such as the history of Munda, Santal, Gond, and Bhil rebellions that promoted ideals of decentralized governance that accorded more with subaltern consciousness, were seemingly at odds with pan-Indian concepts of inter- community ‘co-existence’ (Roy et al 1945; Haimendorf 1949: 148). This was because Fig. 1 Birsa Bhagwan. U. Maharathi, 1938. Adivasi rebellions disrupted nationalist Pencil drawing, Patna Museum. value systems that idealized tribal Birsa was the self-proclaimed Munda integration and social unity (as perceived leader who spearheaded the ‘rebellious from non-Adivasi perspectives). Any upheaval’ or Ulgulan (using the Mundari anthropological or historical work language) in the Chota Nagpur region of exploring these rebellions in the pre- southern Bihar (equating to modern-day independence phase would necessarily Jharkhand), from 1898 to 1900. also be compelled to question the Interestingly, his political radicalism was prominence afforded to the national identified by subsequent interlocutors, mainstream in defining political identities. notably the lawyer-turned-anthropologist Yet a good number of works emerged on Sarat Chandra Roy, as the latest phase of this topic after the inauguration of the an evolving Munda political consciousness Government of India Act (see Rycroft that incorporated earlier agitations, such 2012a; 2016). This could explain why, in as the Sardar movement (Roy 1912: 160- 1938, a Congress-oriented artist and 162), and that defined ‘the modern history advocate of national cultural heritage, of the Mundas and their country’ (Roy Upendra Maharathi, chose to draw a 1912: 102-199). It was the Mundas’ khunt- haunting yet compelling portrait of the katti system of ancestral rights to

47

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter settlement and cultivation that deep engagement with Birsa’s image and preoccupied both the anthropologist and the Ulgulan as an open historical entity, in the agitators. All of this mattered to terms of the movement or oscillation colonial administrators who were coming between diverse subjects. I aim to to the conclusion following their generate some new insights concerning suppression of the Ulgulan, and their the historical emergence of Indian imprisonment of Birsa, that affected anthropology as a field of archival inter- regions had been mismanaged during the relation, especially in the pre- late nineteenth-century to the extent that independence phase when the cross- the tenancy rights of the Adivasi currents of national and ‘tribal’ heritage population had been overlooked (see were animated by what I am calling the Rycroft 2016). A renewed effort was made reversibility of the archive-as- in the first decade of the twentieth epistemology and epistemology-as- century to readdress this, a move that archive. My terms of reference are resulted in much attention being given to focused on Birsa’s portraiture, as this Roy’s social and ethno-historical research generated opportunities for viewers to and in the belated implementation of the learn or know afresh the vexed relation of Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act. ‘the Mundas’ and ‘their country.’

Such transformations in the political, PART ONE administrative and anthropological The issue of presence interpretation of the Mundas’ political heritage inform my analysis quite It should be noted at the outset that centrally, for I am interested in Maharathi’s portrait is a direct adaptation questioning how the portraiture of a photograph that purported to show associated with Birsa pertained both to Birsa as a prisoner, during the Ulgulan, i.e. the Ulgulan itself, incorporating the after his capture and arrest in January aforementioned tensions and histories, as 1900, and before his death in Ranchi jail in well as to the post-suppression dynamics June 1900 (see Fig. 2). I have my of anthropological dialogue and tribal reservations about this reading of the integration. My entry point into the photograph, even if it was documented as Ulgulan period is the relationship between such in the work of K.S. Singh following its Birsa and his followers (the Birsaites), who original circulation by S.C. Roy with the have featured in later ethnographical caption of ‘Sick Birsa’ (Singh 1966: 130). work, notably by K.S. Singh (1966), that Rather, I argue for a re-reading of the explored the cultural and political aspects photograph in the light of the devotional of Birsa’s movements, as well as the legacy aesthetics brought to it via Maharathi’s of these in the Jharkhand region. The point rendering, and in respect of the of assessing this relationship at the outset contention that, in all likelihood, the is that it gives us clues about the politics photographic portrait was generated of Birsa’s visibility as a leader, which in during Birsa’s initial imprisonment in turn help us to understand the 1895, that is to say well before the Ulgulan anthropological and national significance started. At this time, Birsa was a very of his portraiture. My analysis later popular prophet-healer amongst Munda develops into an exploration of the and other subaltern communities in interfaces that have been propelled by a Jharkhand. This presence would give us more clues about Birsa’s visibility, not only

48

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter at the time but also during the aftermath hand-cuffs were slipped on his wrists … of the suppression of the Ulgulan (that Birsa was carried in a doli. There was a big occurred in 1899-1900). Between then and crowd to see him all along the route and Roy’s publication of Munda ethnographies he smiled and laughed’ (Singh 1966: 67). (from 1910-12), and on the back of this Within days, crowds gathered near his anthropological re-evaluation of Munda base at Chalkad to welcome the prophet history and social relations, new attitudes home, as he had predicted that, if caught, started to emerge amongst colonialists, he would reappear. It was not until the administrators, missionaries and scholars following month, however, that he was about Birsa and his movement. seen again in public: ‘The Deputy Commissioner explained to them [his followers, known as Birsaites] that Birsa I am keen to question how this discursive was not God, as he was neither merciful presence pertained in diverse ways to nor benevolent. The crowd became more Birsa’s pre-rebellion identity as a social angry. Seven persons were arrested and and spiritual leader. This is because it they volunteered to be sent to jail with opens out the duration and sites of Munda Birsa’ (Singh 1966: 72). The trial was thus consciousness away from the Ulgulan postponed until November 1895, when itself to incorporate the political heritages Birsa was imprisoned for more than two and political/aesthetic cultures associated years. As intimated, we are compelled to with this movement. And it is such register Birsa’s re-appearance, but not in processes of incorporation and their the ways predicted by Birsa or anticipated embodiment that I am really interested in by his followers. understanding. In this analysis, it is the figure of ‘the Birsaite,’ or the disciples, followers, and associates of Birsa who also All this would suggest that a certain kind became well-known to the colonial of ‘presence’ was afforded to Birsa around administration during the suppression, this time by the Birsaites. This presence that accrues some historical and analytical inevitably changed as the dynamics of the significance. For they saw Birsa differently political movement instilled a different to colonialists and later anthropologists, leader-disciple, or guru-chela, relationship meaning that embodied sites of difference during the 1897-1900 phase, culminating can also be called into question. in the Ulgulan, when Birsa was released Interestingly, despite its iconic focus, the from his first term of imprisonment and portrait history of Birsa is a good starting embarked on a new campaign to assert point for such work. It is notable that Birsa subaltern Munda rule in the region (Roy was arrested on charges of leading a 1912: 192-197; Singh 1966: 80-134). The skirmish in August 1895 that resulted in point of focusing on the pre-Ulgulan phase his temporary imprisonment at Ranchi and is to account for the historical production his being displayed as a prisoner to Munda of the photograph (see Fig. 2), which Singh devotees at the time of his outdoor trial claims was taken in the final months of (Singh 1966: 67-73). First, Birsa was seen Birsa’s life following his capture in January as a prisoner being taken to Ranchi. On 1900, more in terms of Birsaite notions of 23rd August 1895, ‘the Sub-Inspector from presence than physical appearance. Khunti … entered Birsa’s room: he was Rather than documenting a sick subaltern found asleep, his body smeared with body, in all likelihood the photographic turmeric. He struggled violently when event coincided with Birsa’s public display

49

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter by the police in September 1895. The reinterpretation of the photographic ramifications of this contention are quite portrait. Whilst it would be unlikely that profound, for it would cast Birsa’s Maharathi would have been familiar with presence in terms of a relatively ‘non- the complexity of the historical issues violent’ situation (as compared to the outlined above, his re-envisioning of Birsa militant dynamics of the Ulgulan and its in terms of the Birsaites’ spiritual qualities suppression). This of course would be (as embodiments of the quest for truth more palatable to subsequent Gandhian and justice) rather than their overtly ideas of collectivization and nationhood. It rebellious personae suggests that two is interesting, therefore, that Maharathi moments in the life and afterlife of Birsa re-used the image in a manner that can be productively brought together. The alluded via its own pictorial calmness to first of these would be Birsa’s visibility as this non-violent phase in the life of Birsa, a prisoner before the Ulgulan, and the even as anthropologists convinced second would be Birsa’s visibility as a themselves that it depicted something spiritual leader or embodiment of dharma else. Images related to this photograph, not only after the Ulgulan itself but also such as ‘Captive Birsa’ (Singh 1966: 101) after the colonial reinterpretation of this that show Birsa with a group of police of upheaval in the following decade. Rather army personnel, indicate that the process than identifying the two images in terms heralded by Roy as ‘Birsa Munda Captured of their inter-visuality, or their iconic and Conducted to Ranchi’ in January 1900 casting of Birsa in both instances, I am (Roy 1912: 342) could in fact have been interested in addressing the relative Birsa Munda Captured and Displayed to his ‘outsides’ of the two images, or that which Followers (in September 1895). I am not is suggested but not shown by the images: making these contentions with the aim of namely the proposition that his presence discrediting Roy or Singh, who both assert can be absorbed via a particular kind of that the photographs pertain to the visual recognition from viewers, whether suppression of the Ulgulan. Rather, I am in terms of Birsa’s followers (before the calling into question the timing of the Ulgulan) or his admirers after the Ulgulan initial portrait as a means to help us (in the lead-up to national independence). understand how Birsa would have been This contextual and, it must be said, rather viewed by others involved in the agitation unpredictable attitude is required, and the trial event, such as his disciples because if we probe such spaces of and followers, rather than by the colonial presence carefully, for example by linking jurisdiction or missionary photographers the images to representations of time in etc. For it is this attitude of devotion to the ethno-historical works by Roy (from Munda/Adivasi/subaltern leadership that which they generated), we may arrive at a requires a fuller understanding, given that new understanding of how and why Birsa it was also captured and propelled via and the Ulgulan – as opened ‘archives’ – Maharathi’s portrait, perhaps as a means not only became visible, but also accrued to generate synergy between Congress-led resonance as national heritage in the early and ‘tribal’ notions of belonging in modern twentieth century. The idea is not to re- India. engage such Birsa-facing spaces in a quest for closure about Birsa’s cultural and political identity. Rather, it is first to The issue of presence is thus integral to question how the images generated their the formation and later artistic own temporal dynamics and then to

50

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter comprehend these dynamics, in respect of important to the temporalities (or the the interplay between subaltern and dynamics and politics of time) that I am national movements, and between calling into question under the rubric of national and colonial epistemologies. anthropological ‘archives’. For these enable visual historians to relate Maharathi’s re-use of the de-archived The portrait demonstrated Maharathi’s image to Roy’s earlier re-use of the own revivalist commitment towards archival photograph. This point in turn Bihar’s cultural heritage, to the extent helps us to comprehend the relationship that the Congress would invite him to between the colonial/missionary archive, design the pandal (temporary pavilion) through which Roy most probably came to built for their conference at Ramgarh, just witness and engage the photograph in the north of Ranchi, in 1940. Rendering him first instance, and the national/colonial less as a rebel and more as a visionary, readership of Roy’s tracts on ‘the Birsa became visible in ways that made Mundas’. him comparable, for example, to the historical Buddha who was another of Maharathi’s muses. Informed by swadeshi As Maharathi’s anthropologist ideas – of economic, artistic, intellectual contemporary, Roy had earlier set the and cultural self-reliance (see Raina and process of de-archiving in motion in 1912 Habib 1996: 29; Sartori 2003: 276; when he published the photograph, along Bhushan and Garfield 2011: xv) – with his important documentation of Maharathi’s invocation of the region’s ‘tribal’ settlements, in The Mundas and spiritual leaders sustained a pluralistic their Country (1912: 72). 1 Maharathi heritage of unity-in-diversity. He would later translate the image of responded to the task of making Birsa captivity, which emphasized the fixity of legible in terms that were not so much the past-as-photograph (see Sekula 1986: associated with southern Bihar (now 3; Burton 2005: 3), into a prospect of Jharkhand), i.e. as a region that was once immanent freedom. This radical and highly dominated by ‘tribal’ inhabitants and that moralized concept (see Prasad 2009: 6) included districts listed in the Government also prompted some interplay between of India Act, but that concurred with Adivasi and national notions of utopian national experiences of civilizational futures, thereby aligning in some ways the continuity and change. Although this ‘time of the Birsaites’ with the ‘time of the process fostered some interplay between Congress’. Via this dialogue, what I am visual facts, new conceptual priorities and calling ‘rebel time’ (or the radicalization of ephemeral ‘moments of relation’ (Thrift ancestral pasts and autonomous futures 2001: viii), Maharathi did not render by insurgents in the present) and ‘heritage problematic the terms through which Birsa time’ (or the invocation of civilizational would re-appear, some 38 years after his identities and values) came to coalesce, in demise as a prisoner in the jail at Ranchi, such a way that their mutuality would be the administrative centre of Chota utilized to re-frame both Birsa and his Nagpur. Rather in his retrieval of an legacy. We thus need to probe how these archival photograph that depicted the various constructs of past, present and hand-cuffed Birsa (see Fig. 2) Maharathi future acquired a degree of mutuality. The also sustained a process of re-archiving. turn to Roy’s representations of Birsa, and This process adds something quite of what was then considered to constitute

51

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Munda identity and modern history, is also necessary. For Maharathi’s artistic borrowing points to a complex representational history, not only of Birsa as a distinct and celebrated entity, but also of his photographic image (see Rycroft 2004; Rycroft 2009) through which mainstream (and anthropological) and subaltern (and ‘tribal’) notions of time (see Hirsch 2008: 23) entangled, and created new possibilities for ‘inter- cultural’ recognition, whether in terms of regional identity and/or tribal belonging (see Bose 1954: 256).2 It also points to a specific historical milieu in which the re- animation of the ‘boundaries of reality’ (Gordon et al 2010: 6), which incorporated utopian futures and dystopian pasts (also see Souillac 2011: 8), can be explored further. The unfolding arena of ‘Indian’ anthropology provided an imaginative Fig. 2 Birsa Munda. Anonymous photograph, space in which ‘utopian embodimentation’ as republished in Singh (1966: 101), after Roy (Johnson 2003: 397; also see Thompson (1912: 72) and Zahavi 2006: 80-82) became a meaningful and ethical proposition, for Engaging diverse pasts Roy also re-visited his earlier representations of Munda ‘fanaticism’ As an anti-colonial rebel, Birsa and his (from 1912) to re-cast Birsa Munda in the legacy came to stand not only for Munda- 1930s as an embodiment of dharma related claims, i.e. the recognition of thereby assimilating his legacy according ancestral land rights, but also for to overtly national values. community solidarity and heritage- oriented futures at a national level. Seen through these wider idioms, Birsa’s charismatic leadership and his implementation of a prophetic religious discourse that combined aspects of Munda, Hindu and Christian beliefs and customs (see Roy 1912: 188), acquired resonance. Following Roy’s lead, Maharathi integrated Birsa within the imagined nation as an embodiment of a fluid notion of dharma, which pertains to the ordering and alignment of the part (pinda) vis-à-vis the whole (brahmanda) (Mahapatra 2006: 16). Relatable through the asymmetry of dharmic and adharmic (non-righteous, disordered) experience

52

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

(see Mahapatra 2006: 17), temporal prominent in the swadeshi era. It is aspects of dharma can engender bodily worthwhile therefore to trace the role of and social sensations (Sarukkai 2009: 41) an Adivasi ‘body’ in its ability – via artistic that incorporate sight, touch, and other mediation – to propel such kinds of aspects of time-consciousness. It has been engagements and dynamics. In abstract asserted that in their combination, these terms, the idea of dharma delineates rework ‘the texture of the feel and the principles of unity that integrate humanity outcome of the everyday’ in such a way and the world into one entity that alludes that these could be ‘breathed differently’ to an ultimate reality. For Birsa to have (Thrift 2001: 4). Incorporating aspects of been seen as an entity that corresponds collective memory and forgetting, and with such values, it would have been intimating previous experiences of viewing important for his image and legacy not Birsa – as a leader, prisoner, and archival only to define what was imaginable as the entity – Maharathi’s image defined a tribal world (i.e. as somewhat distinct dharmic devotional aesthetic (see Garfield from what was considered to be modern and Bhushan 2011: xix) that both speaks or mainstream India), but also for these to with and contradicts the original drive forward a certain kind of integrative photograph. I contend that this logic. In modern India this was discernible repositioning could have generated for in non-dichotomous spiritual and material Congress viewers of the Maharathi work a domains, and approachable across ethical numinous feeling, and contemporary and political pathways. Neo-Vedantism meaning as liberationist (Prasad 2006: 6). celebrated and sought unity at inter- Whilst Maharathi’s agenda might now be personal, inter-community, inter-national seen, especially by exponents of Adivasi and universal levels (Malhotra 1966; cultural rights, in terms of cultural Halbfass 1985: 5-7). Informing an engaging appropriation and ‘internal’ colonialism, field of ‘comparative’ philosophy, which this article will not focus on this countered Hegelian assumptions about perception. Rather it will respond to the Indian civilization (Halbfass 1985), it also historical issue of how the image of Birsa shaped contributions to anthropology in became transportable, in temporal and the pre-independence phase, as intercultural terms, across the exemplified by Roy (1938). Adherents utopian/dystopian boundaries that proposed that by adopting a Vedantic marked the Birsaite heritage as distinct position or darsana in the present from, yet also as relatable to, Indian (bhavat), a fuller realisation of Time (Kala) modernity and its integrated futures.3 – as the union of past and future – could be ascertained (Coomaraswamy 1947: 9). It is important therefore to address the In this process, a new dharmic politics of making of Birsa in highly nationalized time assumed a modern, secular, and terms, as the means through which such public role (see Bhushan and Garfield unities, and all that they stood for in the 2011). Ananda Coomaraswamy annotated Congress political imaginary, could be dharmic time as the human potential to harnessed. How did the bodily subject, as apprehend ‘temporal “things” [as] both the mediator of past and future real and unreal’. (1947: 6) The philosophy temporalities, and of private of time as a productive, multidirectional, (experienced) and public (remembered) and experiential notion corresponded spaces, realize the possibilities of dharmic with neo-Vedantic principles that became time ‘in practice’, i.e. in a space that

53

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter extended through yet beyond ‘tradition’ in sites of heritage that (a) enabled archival its diversity (Halbfass 1985: 3; Bhushan technologies to be re-drawn in respect of and Garfield 2011: 13)? both ‘tribal’ and non-tribal heritage, (b) connected anthropology, via utopian embodimentation, to the mainstream As viewers encountered Maharathi’s community, and (c) enlivened spaces of portrait, they were not only reminded of visibility and (devotional) consciousness at Birsa. As a reference to Roy’s a time of Congress-led national anthropological work, they were also collectivization? I assess such questions in prompted (in the manner of the artist terms of archival and visual (i.e. himself) to register the significance of embodied) time as a means of contributing Roy’s own de- and re-archiving impulses, to a conversation on ‘… how the historian not only in respect of the Birsa image, but can use variants of utopian thinking and also of Birsaite heritage and Munda action [in terms of simultaneous history. As intimated, such processes interactions of personal and political developed through the work of K.S. Singh ideas, desires, constraints, and effects] to (1966), whose folklore-inspired historical explore the specificity of a time and place.’ study of Birsa and the Birsaites has since (Gordon et al 2010: 4) Whilst some achieved much cultural, social and scholars, namely André Béteille, have epistemological influence. Despite its presented themselves – with good reason historiographic limitations, The Dust – as ‘anti-utopian’ (see Gupta 2005), such Storm and the Hanging Mist (1966) is explorations can also be very productive. credited as inspiring a host of Subaltern As intimated, the article has a analyses and narratives (see Guha 1983; phenomenological orientation (see Devi 2002). But all of these leave Halstead 2008: 5; Souillac 2011:7). This unquestioned the initial ‘integration’ of has developed via my own relational or Birsa by his followers, whose lives and ‘open attitude’ (Finlay 2009: 12) towards outlooks – in a manner that predicted later interdisciplinary fields, and through ‘the interlocutors – were largely defined by the lineages of inter-relation’ (Thrift 2001: 6) prophet. Further research is therefore that I have activated according to my own needed to ascertain how the portrait’s ethnographic sensibilities (see Rycroft and facilitation of instantaneous and Devy 2014). As noted, the analysis focuses ‘intensive remembering’ (abhiksnam) on the relationship between political (Coomaraswamy 29147: 13) of a utopian resistance as engendered by ‘the Mundas’ future, or a future-made-present, can be (see Roy 1912; Singh 1966; Guha 1983), assessed historically and in ways that are and intellectual swaraj or ‘self-rule’ (see not necessarily dependent upon a Sartori 2006: 276; Uberoi et al 2007: 17) Vedanta-inspired belief in the notion of that was not normally Adivasi-centric. This dharma. Although the entry of Birsa into relationship became manifest in an the national imaginary is a historical increasingly moralized milieu of Indology anthropological process usually associated that, in a non-sectarian gesture (also see with K.S. Singh, its swadeshi and visual Guha 1997: 36), extended to anthropology dynamics cannot go un-noticed. via Roy: ‘Against the backdrop of colonialism, nineteenth century theories of modern science … served as frames for These swadeshi dynamics raise complex the derivation of a morality of the body, methodological questions. How should the body-politic and the cosmos.’ (Raina anthropological historians broach these

54

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter and Habib 1996: 10) As such, the through ethical ‘embodimentation’ and anthropologists’ own ‘theoretical mnemonic citizenship (see Burton 2005: 2; heritages’ (Desjarlais and Throop 2011: Mahapatra 2006: 22). More particularly, I 89), which covered humanity, selfhood, contend that this interdependence culture, etc., would again come into focus, assumed its own intercultural relevance, but this time in a direct relation to the especially in its enlivening of body-politics of the aftermath of the anthropological praxis and of the Ulgulan. possibilities for collectivization – between people, and between human and non- human realms – that the meeting of PART TWO ‘Indian’ science and ‘Indian’ philosophy Anthropological and archival departures encouraged in the early twentieth century (Roy 1912: 325; Raina and Habib 1996). In its re-consideration of epistemological and visual cultural shifts, and Adivasi contributions to these, the analysis relates Jharkhand is a new state comprising to my previous work on Adivasi resistance southern Bihar whose population in the (Rycroft 2005; Rycroft 2011) and on the pre-colonial era was dominated by Adivasi broader ‘politics of belonging’ in India communities. During colonialism, Adivasis (Rycroft and Dasgupta 2011; Rycroft were considered as aborigines and known 2012a, 2012b). Here, however, I address in racial terms as ‘Kol’ (dark) or Kolarian issues of temporality in new ways. I move (Roy 1912: 9-10; Hutton 1935; Roy 1946; away from a historical preoccupation with also see Rycroft 2012b). They referred to narratives of insurgency and counter- themselves as horoko (people) as distinct insurgency (Guha 1983; Rycroft 2005, from diko (others). Within these Kolarian Rycroft 2012c), to consider experiences of societies, Mundas, Bhumij (Hinduised intercultural ‘temporal dynamics’ Mundas), Santals, Hos (i.e. horo, human), (Thompson and Zahavi 2006: 77; also see Birhors (forest people), Oraons and Wilkerson 2010). As noted by Thompson Kharias (amalgams of Mundas and Oraons) and Zahavi: ‘Just as there is no spatial survived as distinctive ‘tribes’, at least object without a background, there is no according to Roy (1912: 27, 69-70), who experience without a temporal horizon’ highlighted the civilizational and (2006: 77). I attend to these points by intercultural qualities of these community touching on a range of key concepts in histories (1912: 27-8). His work added an archival studies, such as archival additional layer of interpretation onto a sites/futures/mediations (see Blouin and complex terrain of ethno-history that has Rosenberg 2006), archival ‘heritage’ since become the grounds for both (Hamilton et al 2002: 10), archival political recognition, i.e. ethno- ‘communities’ (Bastian and Alexander regionalism, in Jharkhand and related 2009), ‘autonomous’ archives (Moore and anthropological research (see Rycroft and Pell 2010) and ‘radical’ archives (Zeitlyn Dasgupta 2011; Rycroft 2012a; Rycroft 2012: 474). I also address the notions of 2016). The utopian spaces of potential reversibility and relationality, as well as coexistence, between Birsa’s the workings of these in phenomenology religious/political movements and the and ‘Indian’ philosophy. These notions will nation, thus did not emerge in a vacuum. enforce my contention that archives, Roy’s work on ‘the Mundas’ helped to heritage, and history became configure these dynamics. The concept of interdependent and mutual entities

55

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter an overtly ‘Birsaite’ heritage thus belonging. Whilst I am not making the registered in and as a shifting intercultural claim that Birsa should be considered as matrix, which comprised distinct yet an ‘archon’ (the magistral governor of related vectors of time and heritage, and pasts), given his integral presence in the of being and belonging. This would acquire anthropological and Birsaite heritage, more resonance in the decades following some effort should be made to assess why Roy’s initial liberation/dissemination of Roy felt compelled to broach ‘traditional’ the archival image in 1912, for example in and contemporary Munda history in inter- the artistic work of Maharathi. archival terms. For many of his ‘tribal’ contemporaries, Birsa – as Dharti Aba (Father of the Earth) – embodied ancient I use the phrase ‘Birsaite’ heritage to and modern, as well as cosmological and address an entanglement of vexed social, time. As such, his arrests (before temporal horizons. In Roy’s era, these and during the Ulgulan), the Ulgulan itself included collective Munda memory as this (as comprising an autonomous future), pertained to khunt-katti lands, i.e. the and the inscription of a Birsaite legacy – areas clearly identified with Munda within both a revised Chota Nagpur ancestors and inhabited in accordance Tenancy Act and an emergent with customary law, and was invoked anthropological discourse after the during prolonged ‘tribal’ agitations movement’s suppression – all contributed including the Ulgulan (see Roy 1912: 62-3; new meanings to these temporal 65-6; 193). In the administrative archive, dimensions. These are variously ‘tribal’ heritage also incorporated the remembered or forgotten in diverse jurisdictions concerning Bhuinhari lands, administrative, social, historiographic, i.e. those areas that were once khunt-katti political and commemorative contexts. but that became distinct, in tenancy and The resonance of these archival meanings taxation terms, following the introduction depended on whether and how of centralised governance in Chota Nagpur respondents would recognise the (Roy 1912: 95, 156-9). Taken together, intangible aspects of the Birsaite heritage, popular and administrative memories as involving Mundas and non-Mundas informed a new anthropological archive or alike. epistemology inscribed by Roy (1912: 113- 4) and developed by Singh (1966), which also documented ‘tribal’ memories of resistance, via rights claims and experiences of conflict. So how did these exponents of ‘Indian’ anthropology Encountering holism navigate first the entanglement of Munda This heritage was first articulated by Roy, history and heritage and then the who researched and published a series of integration of these elements within wider articles on ‘the Mundas’ in the Modern anthropological/ethical/governmental Review between 1910 and 1912. 4 frames? Anticipating his monograph, this series activated the aftermath of the Ulgulan in a manner that would speak to legal, Historical works on ‘tribal’ peoples and administrative, academic and heritage ‘tribal’ movements typically disassociate communities in modern India. Roy was a archival cultures and anthropological member of a Hindu reformist group, the effects from issues of citizenship and

56

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Brahmo Samaj. As a lawyer-turned- individual and the collective. This process ethnographer he became an influential revived regional ‘history,’ reversed figure in India’s new field of ‘post- modernity’s hierarchical relation of past western’ anthropology, evidenced by and present (Sartori 2003: 281; also see transcultural interconnections and related Goodwin and Taylor 1982: 11-12), and experiences of ethnographic time (see prompted inter-subjective relations Halstead 2008: 5). The Brahmo Samaj between the anthropologist-as-subject shaped the intellectual contours of and anthropological subjects: notably modern India after the turn of the century ‘tribal’ pasts, national futures, as well as (see Bhushan and Garfield 2011). As is those people (such as Birsa) and those becoming clear, their utopian ideals of communities (such as ‘the Mundas’) who dharma could be activated in relation to were deemed to embody these notions. both non-tribal (modern, neo-Hindu) and Yet how did Roy himself broach the ‘tribal’ histories and cultures. The intercultural issues of absorption and self- dynamics of this Indological turn have not forgetting? been studied in respect of the Birsaite heritage, yet they demonstrated a capacity for the academic absorption of Although Roy was not at the forefront of ‘tribal’ cultures (see Bose 1957). an ‘indigenized’ or national academic practice, by the 1930s he had begun to accept fully its relevance to the study of These dynamics paralleled wider social India’s ‘tribal’ populations. He elaborated contexts, in which members of ‘tribal’ this is an article that was pertinently society would adapt linguistic, religious, entitled ‘An Indian Outlook on and political norms according to dominant Anthropology’ (1938). He aimed to locate communities. Thus, integrative two-way the ‘ethnographic present,’ which he flows of absorption and adaptation (i.e. articulated in relation to Munda reversals) connected anthropologists and modernity, within a confluence of their ‘tribal’ subjects. Intriguingly, at least temporal flows. These incorporated according to Roy, a productive journeying human evolution, social integration, between these new subject positions – environmental change, cultural considered then in terms of inner development, and personal development and intercultural spirituality/morality. Extending understanding – was premised on universalist concepts informed by ‘subjective processes of self-forgetting’ Vendanta philosophy, he apprehended (Roy 1938: 150, italics added). These embodiment or Sharira (lived human processes might nowadays be referred to experience) as ‘… manifestations of variously as ‘unlearning,’ if one assumed different stages or aspects of human an empathetic view of dharma and consciousness, [as] different material absorption or, alternatively, as cultural expressions of the individual ‘Self’ silencing if a more critical Subaltern (Jibatma).’ (1938: 147) He argued that position on adaptation was assumed cultural practices and social relationships (Guha 1997). Yet in Roy’s time, the Bengali – including those ascertained via intelligentsia fashioned a radical swadeshi anthropology – were wider approach to sociology that redefined the externalizations of human consciousness nation’s body politic according to a and proposed that integrated and particular kind of coexistence between the divergent histories of ‘accumulated

57

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter experience’ should be interpreted within unpredictable. In the communion between an overarching system of ‘Indian’ Birsa and Roy, the latter made explicit a civilization or, more conspicuously, new correlation. This occurred in the ‘civilizational diversity’ (1938: 148). process of identifying histories of Through his own ‘experiments in holism’ individual and collective integration. (see Bubandt and Otto 2010), which These histories incorporated different echoed contemporary philosophies of registers of embodied time – such as idealism, Roy set out the parameters for ancestral memory, self-forgetting, the recognition of the anthropological autonomous futures – and were seen to value of comparative studies. This was a equate with pre-modern Hindu scriptural broader field that contemporary practices. Just as these early scriptures interdisciplinary thinkers had introduced literally archived ‘such great personages … to India (Bhushan and Garfield 2011). as incarnations, partial or complete, of the Bubandt and Otto have since Deity’ (1938: 148), Roy re-archived Birsa problematised holism as a series of and the Birsaites within an ‘Indian’ mechanisms and concepts that reveal how anthropology to the extent that the ‘phenomena have meaning, function, and correspondences between civilizational relevance, only within a larger context, and insurgent pasts, as well as between field of relations, or “world” …’ (2010: 1). national and ‘tribal’ futures, could signal Roy’s holism, however, re-integrated the moral value of this utopian ethnography with cross-cultural epistemology. That he re-archived a comparison and subjective reflection to photographic portrait in the process prompt further insights on the symbiosis suggests that his traversal of the lines of desi (non-elite) and marga (elite) connecting the public and the private, the cultures in India, on the meaning of past and the present, the inner and the symbiosis to anthropology in India, and on outer, etc., were recoverable. Roy thereby the concept of ‘the visionary’ (1938: 147- assumed a moral conviction in shaping 8). holistic interactions between regional personages and members of various local/non-local communities (including All of these facets were seemingly anthropologists). For Roy’s relatable to the everyday and more contemporaries these interactions would monumental tensions between dharma have affirmed a sense of dharma, (right living) and adharma (disorder). His equilibrium, or unity (at individual and exploration of the concept of the visionary collective levels), that Sivaramakrishna is especially noteworthy, for in their Aiyar (1926: 182) defined as the unique contribution to culture and society ‘vanishing’ of space delimiting self and such innovators could apparently reveal Other. Roy made his revelatory point the moral significance of epochal changes. explicit: ‘The vital facts of human culture He singled out Birsa Munda as an are facts of spiritual experience; and exemplary personage, whose ability to therefore the historian of culture must embody collective memory and self- seek to identify … with the state of soul- forgetting (via his spiritual/political evolution of the people he studies’ (1938: authority) transformed social life in Chota 150).5 Nagpur. Given his previous interpretations, this re-evaluation was breath-taking, yet perhaps not totally

58

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Where does this mystical outlook leave PART THREE the anthropological historian interested in Intertwining conceptual strands intercultural epistemology yet wary of hegemonic holisms (see Bubandt and Otto Birsa led a series of reformist and anti- 2010: 6), such as the ‘cosmic Universe’ colonial movements, notably the Ulgulan (Aiyar 1926: 185), ‘Indian Civilization’ of 1898-1900, and is now known, by (Vidyarthi 1977: 26), and nationhood, Mundas and non-Mundas alike, simply as which activate more mundane yet no less Birsa Bhagwan, or Lord Birsa. His visual integral notions like ‘individual,’ ‘culture’ legacy sustains an awareness of and ‘society’? My own emphasis on the temporalities that extend beyond the notion of interdependence pertains to the Ulgulan into a plethora of pasts and field of relational philosophy that has futures. In 1912, for example, Roy used developed, not only between Birsaite the photographic portrait (Fig. 2) to heritage and the intelligentsia in India, but elaborate an early chapter on the also through a broader set of interactions ‘traditional history’ of the Mundas, i.e. the between continental and Indian, as well as mass migrations towards the Chota Humanist and anti-colonial, philosophies. Nagpur region of Jharkhand in the pre- It allows for a new kind of exploration of colonial era (Roy 1912: 27-60). It was not complex ethical and historical terrains of used to illustrate a subsequent chapter on the nation (involving Chota Nagpur) that the collective Munda experience of most modern philosophers and historians colonialism, through which Roy annotated have taken as existing independently of Birsa’s contribution to the religious, social anthropology, and of anthropological and political history of Jharkhand (Roy subjects and subject-positions. It is in 1912: 102-203). This was marked by close dialogue with early and innovative dynamics of Hinduization, exponents of cultural heritage studies in Christianization, inter-local landlordism, post-colonial India, who have presented class-based tenancy struggles, and the case for anti-elitist models of cultural colonial governmentality. In using the interpretation and transformation (see image to invoke histories of Munda Malik 1976; Nandy 2003: xii). By defining migration and assertions of Munda new interpretive and representational heritage, Roy opened up the temporal frames, the democratic and ethical horizons of this subaltern figure. It parameters of ‘Indian’ anthropology became possible, and part of Roy’s shaped new ‘autonomous’ archives and dharmic approach to historical ‘radical’ archival processes (also see Malik anthropology, to read the figure in 1976: 30; Souillac 2011). These accordance with earlier/ancestral lives. parameters and archives did and do not Birsa’s affinity with, and own strategic exist in isolation. Indeed, they had both recollection of, Munda movements that ‘tribal’ and scriptural antecedents in the preceded him, such as the ‘Memorialist’ pre-colonial and colonial past, thereby and Sardar actions of the 1870s-80s (Roy defining, in part, India’s political and 1912: 162), could thus also be archival heritages and the ethical apprehended through the portrait. On the motivation to sustain these. And via their surface, however, Birsa’s visual anthropological re-integration, they could predicament pointed to a period of and did assume contemporary intellectual captivity that rendered these other and political resonance. temporal horizons absent. Yet Roy re- archived these horizons carefully, to

59

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter implicate himself, the image and the combination of their own terms and some viewer into an unknown integrationist of the above. In any scenario, a vexed future, the uncertainties of which were temporal politics is at work as subaltern, magnified as the image became subject to civilizational, traditional, modern and revision and memory-work (see Fig. 1 and other temporal dynamics are either made Fig. 3). present (in some combination) or absent via the visual apprehension of the image. Such combinations allude to the efficacy of Birsa’s afterlives. In his posthumous ability to criss-cross diverse realms of dis/embodiment, dis/order, and insurgent/civilizational time, Birsa rendered problematic – and productive – the central anthropological and civilizational notion of humanity, which thinkers such as Roy (1912: 325-6; 1938) and Coomaraswamy (1989) came to address variously. Could the re- construction of Birsa as representative of humanity (or humanity in India) rather than solely of ‘the Mundas’ help viewers engage abstract and ethical notions, such as human interdependence, that came to feature in India’s modern anthropology and that were pre-figured by the Birsaites?

Fig 3. Birsa Munda memorial. Birsa Chowk, Khunti Road, Ranchi. Photograph © D. Rycroft Inscribed in the Sutratman (doctrine of the 2000 thread-spirit), interdependence was characterized as the tension of a thread, which revealed itself via the ex-tension of Borrowed, in all probability, from a the humans as they moved towards a missionary archive in Chota Nagpur, after realization of Humanity (Coomaraswamy 1912 the image has be subject to 1989: 3-4), as ‘self-consciousness’ significant re-scaling. From being one (Malhotra 1966: 67). This tension was photograph amongst a very small group of deemed to allow for a certain kind of 6 Ulgulan scenes it has become the iconic simultaneity, or a co-existence and co- image. So how do viewers after Roy see presence, of the micro and the macro Birsa: is it through the lens of the aspects of life-worlds, and of the photographer, the space of the archivist, confluence of the past and the future the mind of the anthropologist, the eye of (Coomaraswamy 1989: 4). For Roy, a sense the artist, the heart of the Birsaite, or the of holism extended to Birsa’s legacy as it scope of the historian, or indeed anyone re-animated the interplay of else? All of these possibilities carry with human/divine realms and human/political them their own ethical and temporal times. Is this anthropological dharma (so horizons. Most likely, viewers – like me to speak) best considered within the arena and you – visually engage Birsa via a

60

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter of academia or post-colonial cultural and less than itself: its visuality transcends politics? Are these discrete arenas? What the photographic event, yet its prolonged does the reversibility of Birsa-as-human temporality as an archival entity is always and Birsa-as-divine say about our mediated at a human level. Its understanding of humanity and Adivasi temporality, or the way it defines, history, or about the up-scaling of the occupies and animates particular aspects Ulgulan in respect of Munda heritage? Is it of time and temporal experience, is valid to read the Birsa Memorial in Ranchi manifest at those diverse sites of in terms of a utopian swadeshi reproduction, interlocution, use, and intervention in India’s ‘racial’ politics, or is reception that have informed, and it best understood in terms of the Ulgulan continue to inform it. At a surface level the itself and the belated introduction of the sites correspond to the conditions of the Chota Nagpur Tenancy Act? As noted, image’s initial emergence, i.e. Birsa’s some important temporal dynamics shifting political/religious identity and his reoccur as the history, memory and constantly changing bodily form/visibility anthropology of the Birsaite movements (Singh 1983: 67), which the anonymous continue to intersect with pre- and post- photographer partially captured. Yet they Ulgulan events. I contend, therefore, that also correspond to the anthropological what we are approaching as the Birsaite interpretation of the philosophical system ‘archive’ should be assessed in terms of (of neo-Vedantism) that Roy employed to the (visual) manifestation of these bring Birsaite and Adivasi heritage into the intersections, rather than as a discrete or consciousness and time of the modern direct representation of the Ulgulan or of nation. Invoking the history of Birsa, its best known embodiment. These anthropological holism, Srivastava intersections point to the shifting analyzed such flows in terms of temporal parameters – of ‘tradition’, ‘civilization’ depth (1974: 23). So, the correspondences and ‘diversity’ (see Srivastava 1974) – between these intertwining registers through which collective belonging and require consideration, and this is where national dharmic consciousness would be the concept of chiasm becomes operative. conceptualised and experienced as intercultural heritage, for example, before independence and at efficacious national The concept of chiasm (pronounced kai- sites, such as Maharathi’s pandal. asm) has achieved some prominence in literary studies and in philosophy (Evans and Lawlor 2000). I have engaged the term ‘Chiasmic’ time via post-colonial philosophy, notably Homi This interplay between archival ‘heritage’ Bhabha’s concept of the ‘temporality of and ‘autonomous’ archives points to an continuance’ (2001: 40). This analytical need to grasp the reversibility of characterizes the embodied and Birsa, whose inter-archival afterlives have remembered aspects of revolution and confirmed the cultural relevance both of revolutionary consciousness, which his lived experience, as ‘tribal,’ subaltern, Bhabha poetically annotated as ‘chiasmic’ etc., and also of his national manifestation time (2001: 39-40). Even though ‘chiasmic’ as a dharmic phenomenon embodying time is not yet a prominent concept in the captivity and freedom, heroism and field of post-colonial studies, the chiasm vulnerability, ancestral and social time. has helped some key thinkers in their The portrait image is always both more understanding of the potential

61

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter intersections of different and competing intercultural interpretation. The tenor of notions/experiences of temporality (see the different adjectives that stem from the Rycroft 2013: 234-7). In literary studies, concept, namely ‘chiastic’ (or chiasmatic) the chiasm is referred to primarily through and ‘chiasmic,’ correspond closely. In my ‘chiastic’ literary devices that in and of analysis, however, the emphasis is not so themselves have become relevant to the much on textual ‘chiastic’ devices that workings of theological and other texts, allow for both repetition and reversal as, and to the possibilities of intercultural for example, A:B through B:A or A:B:C ‘translatability’ (Budick and Iser 1996). In through C:B:A (see Budick 1996: 227-9). continental and post-colonial philosophy, Rather the emphasis is on the the chiasm concept has gained metaphorical and theoretical potential of prominence via Maurice Merleau-Ponty. the chiasm to grasp the reversibility of the Merleau-Ponty was a leftist archive (and archival processes) vis-à-vis phenomenologist who theorized the ‘Indian’ anthropology. The analysis chiasm as an integral part of the ‘relation focuses on Birsa’s image, because such of reversibility’ (see Dillon 1983; Evans kinds of reversibility were integral to the and Lawlor 2000: 10; Rycroft 2013: 236-7), dynamics of the Birsaite heritage that Roy definable as ‘that which binds us to one and Maharathi, for example, re-animated another, something important both to in the 1930s to activate and extend ideas ethics and politics, and that which of unity and community. That these ideas liberates ethics and politics from … an prompted the coalescing of (a) different ontology of full presence’ (Johnson 2008: times, such as the insurgent, the pre- 169; also see Thrift 2001: 3). As explored insurgent, or the post-insurgent, (b) in his celebrated and posthumous work on different durations, such as the life of Le Visible et l’Invisible (1964), for Merleau- Birsa, the life of the photograph, and the Ponty, the chiasm could explicate how life of the anthropologist, and (c) different humans actually experienced the differing temporal mechanisms, as pertaining to yet conjoined dynamics of sensory and embodied, photographic, and archival social experience. Through these ‘inter- worlds, suggests that they merit reflection worlds,’ humans could perceive their own in ways that allude to ‘chiasmic’ time. The individual and collective relation to other chiasmic aspects characterize ‘… a senses and other life-worlds, as well as the potentiality that is brought into being only correspondence between each. This is a as it acts or exists in the interstices of process that has a bearing on how political interaction’ (Thrift 2001: 15). In the pre- ontology and embodiment relate, in terms independence era, I contend that such of the imperfect possibilities of mutuality interstices of interaction were activated as and reciprocity (see Johnson 2008: 177; the pathways towards different kinds of Low 1996; Rycroft 2013: 238-42) that, as I temporal experience, understanding or have explored above, infiltrate the after- consciousness. This was because such lives of Birsa Munda. pathways allowed for multiple directionality, prolonged or momentary journey times, as well as a deeper Sanford Budick (1996: 225) has usefully apprehension of the shifting relations annotated the duplex and multiplex between self and world. aspects of the chiasm and chiasmic or, in his literary terms, chiastic thinking that he contends can become a pivotal process in

62

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

The imagery and history under hold sway: ‘The experience of any consideration may be assessed as a chiasmus with regard to its … absences … multiplex configuration, in which the is [an experience] of movements of mutuality of a Birsaite ‘archive’ and turning and counter-turning’ (1989: 229). ‘Indian’ anthropology becomes graspable. Registers of absence are similarly engaged The notion of mutuality covers their and dis-engaged via Birsaite visual and mutual translatability and their mutual archival cultures that de-binarize or resonance (see Blouin and Rosenberg ‘counter-turn’ the past and the present, 2006: 1). In using the term ‘multiplex’ I and the past and the future, etc., to make mean to extend the duplex configuration present (in time) new temporal horizons, of the chiasm. Conventionally speaking, which would be envisioned and the chiasmus pertains to the experienced at once. These correspondence and movement between transformations acquire some legibility in two complementary notions, such as the (and as) the interstitial moments inner and the outer, the frontal and the suggested by the idea of ‘chiasmic’ time. reversal, the vertical and the horizontal, This ‘new’ present can be remembered, etc., as these become part of people’s re-presented, re-articulated and re- experience, knowledge and integrated. Such chiasmic memory is representation of their life-worlds. enmeshed within complex temporal Chiasmic thinking registers the dynamics incorporating self-forgetting simultaneity of the inner vis-à-vis the and future-as-presence. Within the idea of outer, and vice versa, for example, in ‘chiasmic’ time, the inverse of memory is terms of their reversibility. Any strict not forgetting. Rather, given the mutual sense of dichotomy or symmetry is lost, or reversibility of collective memory and self- at least temporarily forgotten, thereby re- forgetting, ‘chiasmic’ time renders absent rendering the notions, and their and illegible any binary formations, for complementarity, meaningful in new and example of past vs. present, memory vs. unpredictable ways (see Budick 1996: forgetting, or self vs. Other. It is thus 227). Following Budick (1996: 230), I revolutionary and reconciliatory (non- address the concept of chiasmus through oppositional) to the extent that, as a its inter-connection with other chiasma, modern ‘Indian’ temporality, it would and the multiplicity that extends via provide ‘… the horizon and context in artistic invocations of chiasma as inter- which [multiple truths and values] were subjective. These invocations include deemed to be coexisting, reconcilable and relational and anthropological registers accessible to “comparative” and of, for example, the personal and the harmonizing studies … by universalizing collective, the part and the whole, and the traditional … schemes of “concordance” absent/future and the present/past, as (samanvaya)’ (Halbfass 1985: 13). It well as their realisation and activation via renders utopian the unpredictable and ‘intensive’ and other forms of archival autonomous qualities of ‘autonomous’ remembering. archives (Moore and Pell 2010: 255-7). The intertwining of the Birsaite movements’ political legacies with related For Budick, chiasmic thinking creates a archival/national cultures and register of absence pertaining to the fixity anthropological attempts to harness a of those dichotomies that are left behind contemporary experience of these as as experiences of reciprocity and reversal interdependent, generated diverse

63

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter temporal experiences: as embodied, inter- contingencies of the present. These subjective, historical, utopian, ancestral, possibilities engaged the shifting secular and spiritual. relationship between ‘tribal’ pasts and national futures, and enabled radical archival and visual thinking to coexist. Concluding remarks

Roy’s publication of the archival portrait and his later dharmic reinterpretation of ‘Chiasmic’ time annotates the interaction Birsaism sustained temporal horizons of between various kinds of time or coexistence. Rather than necessarily temporality, in such a way that their marking a period after Birsa these convergence and divergence, and their dynamics inaugurated a time with Birsa, in mutuality and non-mutuality, become such a way that a sense of affiliation could conspicuous and graspable. How, for become manifest between Birsaites and example, could Munda history and non-Birsaites. The mutuality of the political heritage translate into national as movements and the imagery came about well as ‘tribal’ futures? Roy’s work attends in and amongst an on-going struggle for to this probing question thereby becoming land rights and forest rights, and part of the anthropological/cultural political/cultural autonomy, which was realities under consideration. The embodied by Birsa and his political interactivity inherent in the concept of forebears. It was re-embodied in different ‘chiasmic’ time also prompts an ways by subsequent interlocutors to the exploration into the reversibility of any or extent that a collectivization via shared all of those temporalities that were or are ‘archival’ experiences (of embodiment and involved. In the context of 1912, Roy re-embodiment) could occur. The began this process of reversal by re-using temporal boundaries that have shaped the the Birsa portrait to bear witness to the presence of Birsa in the historical record historical injustices inherent in usually dwell on the Ulgulan, on Birsa’s conventional or dominant non-Kolarian captivity and on his death. This means that views of India’s ‘tribal’ peoples, rather Birsaism and its history are inevitably than to embellish a history of the Ulgulan defined by the historian’s self-location per se. In other words, it came to speak to after Birsa, and by an agenda to render the and of a different kind of political movement historical, rather than sharing temporality, which was associated with inter-temporal locations, which would (but not overtly defined by) the Ulgulan. inevitably entail some levels of self- If, as anthropological historians, we are forgetting and self-transformation able to engage the significance of these (especially amongst non-tribals). Roy kinds of reversals, the wider point about undoubtedly contributed to this sense of the re-alignments of insurgent lives and historicity, whilst also setting the stage for anthropological/utopian his dharmic exegesis. But through his embodimentation before independence archival and visual work he set out becomes pronounced. This raises many possibilities for readers to acknowledge a questions concerning how insurgents, more coeval proximity to the Birsaite or photographs, historical anthropologists ‘archival’ heritage, through which notions (such as Roy), and anthropological of ‘civilizational diversity’ could be historians convey temporal notions and, of remembered and forgotten, or lost and course, the intersections of these notions. recovered, according to the absorbing In re-thinking the relation between Birsa

64

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Munda and ‘Indian’ anthropology, the Figurations of the Space Between (ed.) S. Budick and concept of chiasm engages archival W. Iser, 224-244. Stanford: Stanford University ‘heritage’ as private and public, closed and Press. open, subjective and objective, in such a Budick, S. and Iser, W. (eds), 1996. The Translatability of way that moments of coexistence and Cultures: Figurations of the Space Between. Stanford: Stanford University Press. reversal activate the archive as Coomaraswamy, A.K., 1947. Time and Eternity. Artibus autonomous. Perhaps it was such kinds of Asiae 8, 1-40. autonomy that Maharathi envisaged, as he Coomaraswamy, A.K., 1989. What is civilization? And aligned his vision of Birsa with the Other Essays. Great Barrington: Lindisfarne Press. Congress party’s aspirations for a new Datta-Majumder, N., 1955. The Tribal Problem. In The heritage-conscious political engagement Adivasis (ed.) Government of India, 21-27. Delhi: in the region. Moving on from this Government of India Press. intervention, and in developing an Desjarlais, R., and Throop, C.J., 2011. Phenomenological understanding of Birsa’s legacy as an Approaches in Anthropology. Annual Review of ‘autonomous’ and national (rather than an Anthropology 40, 87-102. un-used or colonial) archive, Birsaism may Devi, M., 2002. Chotti Munda and his Arrow. Kolkata: Seagull Books. apprehended afresh by anthropologists Dillon, M.C., 1983. Merleau-Ponty and the Reversibility and historians. Thesis. Man and World 16, 365–88. Finlay, L., 2009. Debating Phenomenological Research Methods. Phenomenology and Practice 3:1, 6-25. References Gordon, M.D., et al 2010. Utopia and Dystopia beyond Aiyar, S., 1926. The Future of Anthropology. In Man in Space and Time. In Utopia/Dystopia: Conditions of India 6: 2-3, 182-6. Historical Possibility (eds) M.D. Gordon et al, 1-19. Bastian, J.A., and Alexander, B., 2009. Introduction: Princeton: Princeton University Press. Communities and archives – a symbiotic Guha, R., 1983. Elementary Aspects of Peasant relationship. In Community Archives: The Shaping of Insurgency in Colonial India. Oxford: Oxford Memory (eds) J.A. Bastian and B. Alexander, xxi-xxiv. University Press. London: Facet Publishing. Guha, R., 1997. Dominance without Hegemony: History Bates, C., 1988. Congress and the Tribals. In The Indian and Power in Colonial India. Cambridge (Mass.): National Congress and the Political Economy of India Harvard University Press. 1885-1985 (ed.) M. Shepperdson and C. Simmons, Gupta, D., 2005. The Anti-Utopian Liberal: An 231-252. Aldershot: Avebury. Introduction to the Works of André Béteille. In Anti- Béteille, A., 2005. Tribe and Peasantry. In D. Gupta (ed.), Utopia: Essential Writings of André Béteille (ed.) D. Anti-Utopia: Essential Writings of André Béteille, Gupta, 1-19. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. 115-135. New Delhi: Oxford University Press. Haimendorf, C., von Fürer- 1949. Problems and Bhabha, H.K., 2001. Unsatisfied: Notes on a Vernacular Prospects of Indian Anthropology. Man in India 29:3- Cosmopolitanism. In Postcolonial Discourse: An 4, 147-168. Anthology (ed.) G. Castle, 39-52. Oxford: Blackwell. Halbfass, W., 1985. India and the Comparative Method. Bhushan, N., and Garfield, J., 2011. Indian Philosophy in Philosophy East and West 15:1, 3-15. English. New York: Oxford University Press. Halstead, N., 2008. Introduction: Experiencing the Bose, N.K., 1957. Anthropology and Tribal Welfare. Man Ethnographic Present: Knowing Through Crisis. In in India 34:4, 249-256. Knowing How to Know: Fieldwork and the Bubandt, N., and Otto, T., 2010. Anthropology and the Ethnographic Present (eds) N. Halstead et al, 1-20. Predicaments of Holism. In T. Otto and N. Bubandt New York: Berghahn Books. (eds) Experiments in Holism: Theory and Practice in Hamilton, C., et al 2002. Introduction. In Refiguring the Contemporary Anthropology, 1-15. Chichester: Archive (eds) C. Hamilton et al, 7-12. London: Kluwer Blackwell. Academic Publications. Budick, S., 1996. Cross-Culture, Chiasmus, and the Hirsch, E., 2008. Knowing, Not Knowing, Knowing Anew. Manifold of Mind. In The Translatability of Cultures: In Knowing How to Know: Fieldwork and the

65

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Ethnographic Present (eds) N. Halstead et al, 21-37. Roy, S.C., 1912. The Mundas and Their Country. New York: Berghahn Books. Calcutta: The Kuntaline Press. Republished in 1970. Hutton, J.H., 1935 (2003). Anthropology and India. In London: Asia Publishing House. The Shaping of Indian Science (ed.) Indian Science Roy, S.C., 1938. An Indian Outlook for Anthropology. Congress Association, 339-354. Hyderabad: Man 38, 146-150. Universities Press. Roy, S.C., 1946 (1936). The Aborigines of Chota Nagpur: Johnson, G., 2003. Merleau-Pontian Phenomenology as their proper status in the reformed constitution. Non-Conventionally Utopian. Human Studies. 26, Man in India 26:2, 120-136. 383-400. Rycroft, D.J., 2004. Capturing Birsa Munda: The Johnson, G., 2008. Merleau-Ponty, Reciprocity, and the Virtuality of a Colonial-era Photograph. In Indian Reversibility of Perspectives. In Intertwinings: Folklore Research Journal 1:4, 53-68. Interdisciplinary Encounters with Merleau-Ponty Rycroft, D.J., 2005. Representing Rebellion: Visual (ed.) G. Weiss, 169-187. Albany: State University of Aspects of Counter-insurgency in Colonial India. New New York Press. Delhi: Oxford University Press. Low, D., 1996. Merleau-Ponty and the Foundations of Rycroft, D.J., 2009. Revisioning Birsa Munda: Visual Multiculturalism. Journal of Philosophical Research Constructions of the ‘Vanavasi’ in Jharkhand. In 21: 9, http://uwf.edu/dlow/multiculturalism.pdf Identity, Cultural Pluralism and State (ed.) N.K. Das (accessed 14 March 2011). and V.R. Rao, 261-280. Delhi: Macmillan. Mahapatra, P.K., 2006. Survey of Modern Writings on Rycroft, D.J., 2011. Beyond Resistance: Idioms and Classical Indian Ethics. In A Historical-Developmental Memories of Anti-colonial Insurgency in the Adivasi Study of Classical Indian Philosophy of Morals (ed.) Movement, Jharkhand State, India. In Narratives R. Prasad, 13-15. New Delhi: Concept Publishing. from the Margins: Aspects of Adivasi History in India Malhotra, S.L., 1966. The Social and Political (eds.) S. Das Gupta and R.S. Basu, 257-276. New Orientations of Neo-Vedantism. Philosophy East and Delhi: Primus Books. West 16: 1-2, 67-80. Rycroft, D.J., 2012a. India’s Adivasis (Indigenous/Tribal Malik, S.C., 1976. Role of the Past in a Developing Peoples) and Anthropological Heritage. In Nation. Social Scientist 4:46, 29-37. Anthropologists, Indigenous Scholars, and the Moore, S., and Pell, S., 2010. Autonomous archives. Research Endeavour (eds) J. Hendry and L. Fitznor, International Journal of Heritage Studies, 16:4-5, 80-93. New York: Routledge. 255-268. Rycroft, D.J., 2012b. Indian Anthropology and the Nandy, A., 2003. The Romance of the State: And the Construction of ‘Tribal Ethnicity’ before Fate of Dissent in the Tropics. New Delhi: Oxford Independence. In Nationhood and Identity University Press. Movements in Asia (ed.) S. Gupta, 141-165. Delhi: Otto, T., And Bubandt, N., 2010. Beyond Cultural Manohar. Wholes? In Experiments in Holism: Theory and Rycroft, D.J., 2012c. From History to Heritage: Adivasi Practice in Contemporary Anthropology (eds) T. Otto Identity and the Making of Hul Sengel. In Voices from and N. Bubandt, 89-101. Chichester: Blackwell. the Periphery (eds.) M. Carrin and L. Guzy, 48-74. Prasad, R., 2009. General Introduction. In A Historical- New Delhi: Routledge. Developmental Study of Classical Indian Philosophy Rycroft, D.J., 2013. Co-existence and art historical of Morals (ed.) R. Prasad, 1-12. New Delhi: Concept apprehensions. In World Art and the Legacies of Publishing Colonial Violence (ed.) D. Rycroft, 231-251. Raina, D. and Habib, S.I., 1996. The Moral Legitimation Vermont: Ashgate. of Modern Science: Bhadralok Reflections on Rycroft, D.J., 2016. ‘Locating Adivasi Politics: Aspects of Theories of Evolution. Social Studies of Science 26:1, ‘Indian’ Anthropology after Birsa Munda’, in S. Das 9-42. Gupta, ed. Anglistica (Special Issue on Adivasi Roy, R.C., et al 1945. Comment. Man in India (Rebellion history), forthcoming. Number) 24:5, 205-6. Rycroft, D.J. and Dasgupta. S., (eds) 2011. The Politics of Roy, S.C., 1911. The Curious History of a Munda Fanatic. Belonging in India: Becoming Adivasi. Abingdon: Modern Review 9: 6, 545-554. Routledge Rycroft, D.J. and G. Devy, 2014. Indigenous Studies and Fieldwork in India: a Dialogue. In Memories and

66

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Moments of Fieldworks: South Asian Experience Uberoi et al, Anthropology in the East (eds) 1-63. (ed.) S. Chaudhuri, in press. Delhi: Sage Publications. New Delhi: Permanent Black. Sartori, A. 2003. The Categorical Logic of a Colonial Vidyarthi, L.P., 1977. The Tribal Culture of India. Delhi: Nationalism: Swadeshi Bengal, 1904-1908. Concept Publishing. Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Visvanathan, S., 2006. Official hegemony and Middle East 23: 1-2, 271-85. Contesting Pluralisms. In World Anthropologies: Sartori, A. 2005. The Resonance of “Culture”: Framing a Disciplinary Transformations in Systems of Power Problem in Global Concept-History. Comparative (eds) G.L. Riberio and A. Escobar, 239-258. Oxford: Studies in Society and History 47:4, 676-699. Berg. Sekula, A. 1986. The Body and the Archive. October 39, Wilkerson, W., 2010. Time and Ambiguity: Reassessing 3-64. Merleau-Ponty on Sartrean Freedom. Journal of the Souillac, G. 2011. The Burden of Democracy: The Claims History of Philosophy 48:2, 207-234. of Cultures, Public Culture and Democratic Memory. Zeitlyn, D., 2012. Anthropology in and of the Archives: Lanham: Lexington Books. Possible Futures and Contingent Pasts. Annual Singh, K.S. 1966. The Dust Storm and the Hanging Mist. Review of Anthropology 41, 461-80. Calcutta: Firma. Republished in 1983. Veblen, T., 1899. The Theory of the Leisure Class. Birsa Munda and his Movement. Calcutta: Oxford London: Macmillan. University Press. Srivastava, H.C. 1974. Concept of Tradition in Indian Sociological Thought. Social Scientist 3:27, 17-25. Thrift, N., 2001. Non-Representational Theory: Space/Politics/Affect. Abingdon: Routledge Uberoi, P. et al 2007. Introduction: The

Professionalisation of Indian Anthropology and Sociology – Peoples, Places and Institutions. In P.

Notes associate. An additional note to readers of my early article (2004): I have become sceptical of my own 1 All page references (except for the photograph) interpretation of Rev. Lusty’s role in the production pertaining to Roy’s monograph (1912) relate to the of the photograph. I now think that it was taken at republished version (1970). The same goes for the time of Birsa’s first trial (that was later Singh (1966; 1983) as a means of facilitating the abandoned) at Khunti, rather than at the time of reading, unless otherwise indicated. his first arrest and hope to develop this proposition 2 As I’ve discussed previously (Rycroft 2004: 62), further in another article. Birsa’s portrait was included in Christopher 3 The term Birsaite denotes followers of Birsa and Bayley’s exhibition entitled The Raj at the National Birsaism. Its phraseology corresponds with Portrait Gallery, London, in 1990. The image was Vaishnavite (or devotees of Vishnu) and Saivite (or borrowed from the Nehru Memorial Museum and adherents of Saivism). Library, having entered that collection from the 4 These are too numerous to mention. It suffices to Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti. The catalogue say that they largely correspond with the format of for The Raj exhibition cites the image as a copy- the chapters included in the monograph. print of a photograph. Close inspection reveals that 5 Coomaraswamy (1989: 5) also alluded to it in his the image is more likely a copy of Maharathi’s claim that ‘the pattern of all other societies and portrait than of the photograph published by Roy, [the pattern] of a true civilization’ were contained given Birsa’s new faciality and the accentuation of within humans as community actors or citizens. the prominent shadow under the beard/chin. This 6 There is little correlation between the visual suggests that Maharathi’s portrait could also have make-up of Roy’s series in the Modern Review and been a part of, or once related to, the Gandhi Smriti the visual aspects of his monograph (1912). There and Darshan Samiti. Maharathi’s portrait, now is much more consistency in terms of the earlier housed at Patna Museum, or the copy-print could and later versions of the written texts. The causes, well have been seen, used or owned by Gandhi an impacts and effects of these visual discrepancies

67

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

and Peter Kumar as lenders/sources of various require further research. Interestingly both the photographs, but the origin of the portrait of Birsa Ulgulan and non-Ulgulan images seem to have (shown here in Fig. 2) is not acknowledged or been borrowed from missionary archives. In the credited anywhere. series and the monograph Roy credits Rev. Whitley

68

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

ARTICLE THE POLITICS OF ETHNICITY AMONGST THE LIMBU IN SIKKIM: LITERARY DEVELOPMENT, RELIGIOUS REFORMS AND THE MAKING OF THE COMMUNITY

BY MÉLANIE VANDENHELSKEN

Abstract: This paper sets the political context for the changes in Limbu cultural practices in Sikkim from the last century until today. It first discusses the Limbu’s relations with the Sikkim state, highlighting that these were assigned simultaneously to two opposed categories—having been perceived as one of the pillars of the newly founded Sikkimese kingdom in the 17th century, in recent times they were eventually moved to the category of ‘foreigners’—which reflected the division of the group by the establishment of the Nepal–Sikkim border. The political changes that followed the fall of the Sikkimese kingdom and the 1975 integration of Sikkim into the Indian Union as a distinct state created the conditions for the emergence of assertions of Limbu identity; this entailed distancing themselves from ‘Nepaliness.’ From the late 1980s, in relation to state policy, Limbu activism’s main emphasis moved from literature and script to rituals and religion, whose site of practice was consequently shifted from the house and the village to community temples and the ethnic community.

Keywords: Limbu, Sikkim, Kiranti, literary development, rituals, identity assertion, state categorizations

Introduction paper discusses the part played by the This paper focuses on cultural dynamics Sikkimese Limbu in the trans-border amongst the Limbu (or Yakthungba) in Kiranti movement in the early twentieth Sikkim by discussing the main Limbu century—mainly focused on literary identity movements prevalent over the development—and describes the path past century. The Limbu are one of the that has led their ethnic leaders to place ethnic groups recently recognized as a rituals and cultural unity at the core of Scheduled Tribe (ST) in India (in 2003). their activities. By doing so, it firstly Unlike the other ethnic groups still highlights the malleability of ascribed considered as ‘Nepalese’ in Sikkim, the categorization, including that of Limbu claim indigeneity in Sikkim. Their ‘indigenous.’ It secondly highlights forms identity movements in Sikkim carry the of articulation between the administrative mark of this double belonging, which category of Scheduled Tribe, and the entails simultaneously taking part in ethnographic classifications it entails, with struggles fought on the other side of the indigenous views of ethnic ‘identity,’ border, while striving to construct a illustrating the ways ethnic groups unified ethnic identity as part of claims appropriate and adapt categories from anchored within national territories. This above to make the community both a space of belonging and a means to access

69

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter political rights. I also highlight the role of political struggle that led to the fall of the politics in religious change among Limbu in monarchy and to the integration of Sikkim Sikkim and show how it influences the as a state in the Indian Union in 1975. As choice of religious aspects representing we shall see in more detail below, the ‘Limbu-ness.1’ Limbu were considered as ‘Nepalese,’ even while a division was simultaneously maintained between ‘indigenous’ and The Limbu and the state in Sikkim’s early ‘foreign’ Limbu. This political context history largely determined their strategies for The main Limbu settlement stretches identity assertion. The implementation of along both sides of the border between the recommendations of the Mandal eastern Nepal and Sikkim. The Limbu Commission in the 1990s for the first time number about 300,000 in Nepal (Nepal created the conditions for the assertion of National Population Census 1991, Central a collective identity specific to the ethnic Bureau of Statistics 1993), residing mainly group, and detached from ‘Nepalese’ in the easternmost part of the country; identity. I now further develop these they are 56,560 in Sikkim, accounting for points and discuss the ways the Limbu 9.74% of the total population, and make articulated their identity claims in these up the fourth largest community of the various contexts. State (Department of Economics, Statistics, Monitoring and Evaluation, Sikkim state census 2006: 60). Together The Limbu today claim to be indigenous to with the Rai they form the major part of Sikkim (T.B. Subba 1999: 34–37; see also the Kiranti,2 who are considered to be the Arora 2007) mainly on the grounds of their ‘oldest’ settlers in the area.3 They speak a participation in the foundation of the language of the Tibeto-Burman family. Bhutia kingdom in the seventeenth century. This is attested by the treaty known as the Lho Mon Tsong sum Among the twenty ‘communities’ Agreement, signed in 1663 by enumerated by the Sikkim government representatives of Bhutia, Lepcha and (Sikkim State Census 2006: 2),4 the Limbu Limbu to recognize a single structure of are one of the four groups recognized in authority headed by the Bhutia king, and the state as Scheduled Tribes, alongside their subordination to it (Mullard 2012: the Bhutia, Lepcha (recognized in 1978) 140). 6 The treaty also circumscribed the and Tamang (2003). Scheduled Tribes in territory of the kingdom, which very likely Sikkim account for 37.39% of the total included—although no written sources population (Sikkim State Census 2006: 50). confirm it—at least parts of the Limbu Since the British colonization of Sikkim at Territory or ‘Limbuan’ (including current the end of the nineteenth century, the Northern Panchthar and Ilam according to Sikkim population has been divided into Chemjong 2003: 162). This connection to two groups, the ‘Sikkimese’ and the Limbuan was later secured by the ‘Nepalese,’ emphasizing the local ruling marriage between the second Sikkimese elite’s view of the latter as foreigners in King Tensung Namgyal (1670–1700) and opposition to its own indigeneity the daughter of the Limbu chief Yong-Yong (Vandenhelsken 2011). 5 This division Hang, simultaneous with the marriages of formed the main basis of organization of several other Limbu women to Bhutia political groups, in particular in the ministers (Thutob Namgyal 1908: 24).

70

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

centuries collected by the British diplomat Nevertheless, the Sikkim kingdom Brian Houghton Hodgson, Dhunghel remained unstable. Mullard (2012) argues that Sikkim, like Bhutan, at that highlights various internal conflicts time adopted a policy of suppression of between factions competing for power in indigenous practices (i.e. Limbu and Sikkim as well as tribal conflicts in the first Lepcha), aiming at replacing them with part of the eighteenth century. The those of Tibetan Buddhism (2006: 53; J.R. conceptions of ethnicity prevalent at the Subba 1999: 247). This provides an time can inform us about relations explanatory frame for the murder of between these groups: Limbu and Lepcha Srijanga—1704–1741 according to were both labelled ‘Mon’ by the Bhutia Chemjong 2003—by Sikkimese Buddhist (Mullard 2012: 86, fn 49). In Tibetan, the lamas (Sprigg 1959: 591; Gazetteer of term ‘Mon’ refers to people settled in the Sikkim 1989: 37; JR Subba 1999: 243; van southern Tibetan areas and Bhutan and Driem 2001: 674–675; Chemjong 2003; has the derogatory meaning of Dhungel 2006; Pradhan 2009: 58; Gaenszle ‘barbarians’ (Pommaret 1999: 52–53). The 2011 and 2013). Srijanga is believed to have ‘rediscovered’ the old Chong script use of ‘Mon’ for both Lepcha and Limbu th suggests that the Bhutia gave them equal (supposedly dating from the 9 century), status; this status was perceived as and developed a new Kiranti alphabet, inferior to Bhutia noble clans, as shown by today known as Sirijanga (Dhungel 2006: the establishment of a special monastery 54). He spread the idea of a Limbu cultural for Lepcha, Limbu and Bhutia of low rank— specificity, and was murdered ‘from fear Sangacholing in West Sikkim—in the of the Limbu, now becoming a united and vicinity of the royal priests’ monastery of separate people’ (Gazetteer of Sikhim Pemayangtse, reserved for the Bhutia 1989: 37). This suggests that already in nobility (Vandenhelsken 2009). eighteenth-century Sikkim, a script was perceived as the foundation of unity of a culture (Schlemmer 2003/2004: 134). Following a conflict between Limbu forced into labour and Bhutia leaders in the early 18th century, Limbuan was separated from In the aftermath of Pritvhi Narayan Shah’s Sikkim (Thutob Namgyal 1908: 35; conquest of Nepal at the end of the Pradhan 2009: 80). Political relations and eighteenth century, the areas roughly conflicts were both pursued, however comprising present-day Limbuan were (Thutob Namgyal 1908: 42). Connections consolidated into Nepal (Davids and van between Sikkim and present-day Drien 1985: 118; Pradhan 2009: 130–140; northeast Nepal were maintained as late T.B. Subba 1999: 36–37). This brought as 1850, when Hooker noted that the different tribes of ‘Mongoloid’ and people of “Wallanchoon”—actually, Tibetan origins under the control of the Walangchung Gola in the Limbu area at the new kingdom of Nepal (Pradhan 2009: Nepal–Tibet border (Pradhan 2009: 79)— 140). The Limbu became ‘transborder paid ‘taxes to the Nepal and Sikkim Rajahs’ peoples’ (Weiner 1985): the political (Hooker 1854, vol. 1: 215). border no longer coincided with the ethno-cultural divide.

Based on Limbu and Lepcha manuscripts from the eighteenth and nineteenth

71

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

foreign Limbu remained in common Limbu, indigenous and foreigners in people’s discourses and practices, as well Sikkim as at political level (see Grover 1974: 56- 57). This distinction is ‘naturalized’ by th At the end of the 19 century, all Limbu reference to two descent groups amongst were moved from the status of one of the the Limbu—‘Lhasa Gotra,’ presumably ‘three races living in Sikkim’ (the Lho Mon originally from Tibet, and ‘Kashi gotra,’ Tsong sum; Thutob Namgyal and Yeshe from Benares—an expression of which is Dolma 1908: 23, section ‘Pedigree of also found in colonial literature (Gazetteer Sikkim Kazis’) into the category of of Sikhim 1894: 27). Limbu indigenous to ‘Nepalese immigrants’ (Strawn 1994: 25– Sikkim—called ‘Tsong’ in Sikkimese 26). This move, as well as the enduring Tibetan, and also considered as Buddhist stigmatisation of Nepali as foreigners in (Sinha 1975: 31)9—are assimilated to the Sikkim, reflected inter alia the British former, while ‘Nepalese’ and ‘Hindu’ colonial administration’s imposition upon Limbu would belong to the ‘Kashi gotra.’10 the Sikkim ruling elite of the mass settlement of Nepali in Sikkim—this policy bearing similarities to the one Until the 1960s, all Limbu were subject to implemented in Assam in the early the same unequal rules as other nineteenth century (Weiner 1978).7 It also Nepalese—unequal to that of Lepcha and reflected colonial categorizations which Bhutia—in regard to land and citizenship divided the Sikkim population into ‘more rights; notably, they paid taxes as or less allied’ (Limbu, Gurung, Murmi, Nepalese (Grover 1974: 56). From the Khambu, Mangar), ‘later immigrants from 1960s, the Sikkim kingdom implemented beyond the Arun [river] in Nepal,’ and several changes differentiating ‘Tsong’ Bhutia and Lepcha (Gazetteer of Sikhim from other Limbu on the grounds of the 1894: 27). This pattern was also simplified indigeneity of the former. In 1967, a seat into the one of ‘Lepcha, Bhutia, and reserved to ‘Tsong’ was added to the Nepalese’ (Gazetteer of Sikhim: 1894: Sikkim State council. The then king of 259), which is commonly used today in Sikkim Palden Thondup Namgyal Sikkim—in particular in tourist supported the view that ‘the Tsongs were brochures—to describe the population of not Nepalese although they had so far the state. The division of the Sikkim been ‘lumped’ with the Nepalese. They are population into ‘Sikkimese’ (i.e. Bhutia a distinct identity in themselves and as and Lepcha, to which the ruling elite such have now been given a separate seat’ belonged) and ‘Nepalese’ (all the other (National Herald, n. 81 quoted by Grover groups) was institutionalized between 1974: 56–57). This view is also to be 1950 and 1979 through the reservation of connected to the king’s endeavour from seats for each category in the Royal the 1960s to ‘invent’ Sikkim national council (eventually renamed ‘legislative identity, which involved bringing out a assembly’).8 ‘Mongoloid stock’ from ‘ethnically Nepali’ and bringing together the ‘Mongoloid Tribes’ and the Bhutia-Lepcha in order to However, the division of the population of withstand Indian hegemony, supported by Sikkim into ‘Sikkimese’ and ‘Nepalese’ did the Nepalese of Sikkim (Hiltz 2003: 73– not replace but in fact co-existed with 75); and this at a time when the other forms of categorization. Notably, a ‘Nepalese’s’ opposition to the ruling elite, distinction between indigenous and

72

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter demanding more democracy in the state, ‘Merger’ 11 and the beginning of Limbu had gained much strength. In 1968, the activism in Sikkim king organized the teaching of Limbu Whereas the rhetoric of the Kiranti language in schools and Limbu language movement launched in North Bengal and teachers were appointed (J.R. Subba 1999: Nepal in the early twentieth century 247). In 1971, a five-member Committee largely expressed their opposition to and was formed chaired by the queen to difference from ‘high castes’ or prepare Limbu text books (ibid.). However, ‘Thagadaris’ (see, for example, T.B. Subba disagreements occurred between the 1999), the Sikkimese Limbu political claims committee members and the palace over were determined by the context of the the name to be given to the language and ruling class’s domination, which created to the script, which hints at the Sikkimese the conditions of their assimilation to Limbu indigenists’ endeavours towards ‘Nepalese’ to maintain political unity. The the cultural unification of the need for political unity very likely 12 transnational Limbu community: while the prevented them asserting their cultural palace wanted the name ‘Tsong language,’ distinctiveness from Nepali culture as the Limbu preferred ‘Limboo language’ well, whereas the Kiranti political struggle and ‘Srijonga script’(ibid.). entailed fighting ‘Aryan [Hindu] domination’ through constructing a In this context, the Limbu—more precisely unifying narrative for all Kiranti based on ‘Tsong’—political leaders claimed that on a common history and culture (Gaenszle religious grounds, their group had more 2002 and 2013; Schlemmer 2009). This affinity to Bhutia and Lepcha than to the movement laid emphasis on the Nepalese (Jha and Mishra 1984: 33). promotion and development of the However, the mention of the Tsong in the Srijanga script. The first Kiranti Sikkim Subject Regulation of 1961 and the organization, the Sarva Kiranti Chumlung, inclusion of a Tsong seat in the Council in was founded in Kalimpong in 1925 to 1967 were considered part of a ruling propagate cultural awareness amongst the elite’s project to reduce the political Limbu and develop their language (T.B. effectiveness of the majority Nepali Subba 1999: 113). A major figure of this community (Sinha 1975: 31; Grover 1974: movement is the scholar and early 56 and 121). In 1973, Sikkimese Nepalese promoter of the ‘Srijanga’ script Iman 13 rose up against the lack of democracy in Singh Chemjong (1904–1975). the kingdom, which led to the integration of Sikkim into India in 1975. The 8 May Little is known about the participation of 1973 agreement, which followed the the Sikkim Limbu in the Kiranti movement, largest uprising in the kingdom, which possibly reflects either the state of specifically mentioned that the Sikkimese infancy of the research on the Sikkim of Nepali origins included the Tsong Limbu, or the impossibility for the Sikkim (Moktan 2004: 53–55). This was contested Limbu to assert cultural specificities due by Nepalese leaders and no Tsong seat was to the political context in Sikkim. finally included in the newly constituted According to secondary sources, Lalsor assembly one year later; there was instead Sendang, founder of the Sarva Kiranti an equal number of seats for the Bhutia- Chumlung in Kalimpong, stayed in west Lepcha and for the Nepalese (Jha and Sikkim after having fled Nepal, and taught Mishra 1984: 84–85). people about the life and work of Srijanga,

73

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter but this teaching had little effect due to Scheduled Tribe Status from 1976 (op. cit.: people’s illiteracy (J.R. Subba 1999: 238). 34), and this demand was explicitly opposed by the Chief Minister N.B. Bhandari in 1990 on the grounds of The integration of Sikkim into India preventing the political division of the provided the conditions for the emergence ‘Nepalese’ (T.B. Subba 1999: 115). State of Limbu activism, further highlighting the support for Limbu activism then mainly dependence of cultural dynamics on focused on the development of the Limbu political categorizations and alliances in language. Sikkim: the first Kiranti association in Sikkim, the Akhil Sikkim Kirat Limbu (Tsong) Chumlung, was founded in Tharpu Early Limbu activism as development of (West Sikkim) in May 1973 (T.B. Subba language and literature 1999: 114), a couple of weeks after the 8 From the 1970s to the 1990s, Limbu May agreement from which mention of a activists worked on the organization of Tsong seat had been stripped. One of the teaching Limbu language in government resolutions passed in the first general schools, whereas Limbu was little spoken meeting of the association was that the in Sikkim; Nepali is the main language for ‘Chong’ (Tsong) were not ‘Nepali’ but one all groups in Sikkim, as ‘ethnic languages’ of the indigenous tribes of Sikkim (ibid.). are less spoken than in Nepal. In 2001, The activities of the association focused 6.3% speakers of the Limbu language were on the demand for ST status, restoration counted in Sikkim (Census of India 2001), of the Limbu seat in the Sikkim Legislative 0.7% higher than in 1981. 15 As Turin has Assembly, and promotion of Limbu culture shown (2011), affirming an ethnic and identity (ibid.). language as a mother tongue is also a means to assert ethnic belonging in From the beginning and until today, Sikkim. It does not necessarily imply that Sikkimese Limbu activism has focused on the language is used in daily life. However, the interconnected goals of getting a a number of Sikkim Limbu do write and share of state benefits, in particular access speak in Limbu, and the development of to participation in power, and the Limbu language teaching in government composition of a distinct Limbu cultural schools through the preparation of ‘identity,’ believed to have almost textbooks and the training of teachers disappeared in the course of recent enabled its instruction to a large number history due to political domination. ST of students: in 1998, the Limbu language status is viewed as instrumental in this was taught in 77 schools, and around context, and its claim entails getting state 4,000 students were studying the recognition of distinct ethnic cultural language (J.R. Subba 1999: 253). By the practices (Middleton and Shneiderman end of the 1990s, Sikkim included 267 2008). From the late 1970s, Limbu activism Limbu teachers (all levels included) and in mainly focused on the development of 2000, textbooks were finalized for all Limbu literature and script, together with classes until college level (ibid.). claiming Scheduled Tribe status, reservation of seats for the Limbu in the In 1981, the Limbu language was declared legislative assembly, and official a state language, together with Nepali, recognition of Limbu language (K.B. Lepcha and Bhutia. A weekly radio Limboo 2003). 14 The Limbu applied for

74

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter program in Limbu was introduced in 1983 specificity, which the demand for ST status on All India Radio. Literary journals in in particular entails, bear an increasing Limbu were also published, such as the promise of social, political and economic Tumtumdo Hena, which came out empowerment over time (Vandenhelsken between 1973 and 1981 (B.B. Subba 2003: 2016). Notably, the Rai and the Limbu, 52–53). Among Limbu intellectuals— who recomposed and highlighted their mostly government employees—B.B. common history and cultural practices in Subba (joint director, Education Nepal, each developed their own scripts in Department of the Government of Sikkim) Sikkim. Rai schoolbooks are now printed in is a particularly prominent figure. He Sikkim, distinct from the Limbu ones published around thirty books in Limbu (Gaenszle 2011: 291).16 between 1976 and 1984, including textbooks, Limbu grammars and dictionaries (translated into Hindi, Nepali The focus of activism on narrow ethnic and English) as well as novels (ibid.). This entities is, however, not only a recent work was supported by the creation of a phenomenon in Sikkim. The movement, Limbu Language section in the Education supported by the foundation of the All department of the Sikkim government. Kirata association in 1925, was first mainly The Sikkimese Limbu also worked on the upheld by the Limbu (T.B. Subba 1999: codification and standardization of the 112–123). The focus of the activities of Srijanga script and Limbu language; this cultural associations on ethnic groups endeavour led more particularly to the continued after Merger when new Kiranti establishment of a Limbu printing press in associations arose which concerned 1983, Subba Prakashan Press (in Gangtok), specific ethnic groups in particular, such using typeface designed in Sikkim by B.B. as the Akhil Sikkim Kirat Limbu (1981), the Subba. Before this date, Limbu books were Akhil Kirant Rai Sangh (1990), and the handwritten and B.B. Subba’s books were Akhil Kirat Dewan (Yakha) Sangh (2005). partly published by the Nagaland Basha Parisha in Kohima. This typeface was later The religious turn: community rituals, used to design a font for computers. and the ritualization of the community

From the late 1980s, a pro-tribal Thus, unlike in Nepal, Limbu activism movement gained strength in the entire focused on the ethnic group, rather than eastern Himalayan region, largely on larger ethnic categories such as that of nourished by the rising opposition to the the Kiranti and Nepalese, despite walking Panchayat system in Nepal, which led to in the footsteps of the Kiranti movement’s the adoption of parliamentary democracy founding fathers by understanding ethnic in 1990 and to the movement of activism primarily as support for literary ‘indigenous nationalities’ (Np. Janajati) and literacy development. The Kiranti (see Gellner Pfaff-Czarnecka and movement in Nepal gathered together Whelpton 1997; Gellner 2007). The several groups on cultural and historical struggle for democracy was articulated in grounds, and this alliance was perceived terms of the fight of ‘tribes’ (janajati) as a means to oppose Hindu domination against Hindu domination, and, for several (Gaenszle 2000 amongst others, ethnic groups such as the Gurung, entailed Schlemmer 2003/2004, Hangen 2010). In rejecting Hinduism or ‘becoming not- Sikkim, ethnic cultural differentiation and Hindu’ (Hangen 2010). In Sikkim, the pro-

75

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter tribal movement rose up in opposition to upon to record ‘Limboo’ as their mother the then Chief Minister, N.B. Bhandari, tongue. They should also record ‘Yuma’ as who had opposed the implementation of their religion (Sikkim Now! 2010). The the recommendation of the Mandal foundation of associations largely Commission with the intention to supported the group’s cultural endeavour. safeguard the unity of the ‘Nepalese’ Between 1979 and 2007, more than (Sikkim Herald 1990). The election of P.K. twenty Limbu and/or Kiranti associations Chamling as Chief Minister in 1994 were founded in Sikkim. From the early succeeded in bringing to power the first 1980s these associations combined government representing tribal people in literary and religious activities, and from centuries. The new government launched the 1990s Limbu associations started to be a politics of state recognition of ethnic founded which had only a religious cultural specificities in support of the purpose. These associations were devoted recognition of all Sikkim ethnic groups as to the maintenance of the newly built Scheduled Tribes by the central Indian Limbu Temple, Mang Heem or Mangkhim, government. 17 In 1995, the Newar, Rai, following the building of the first of them Gurung, Magar, Sherpa, and Tamang were in Mangshila in North Sikkim in 1993. added to the list of State official languages Sikkim today counts around fifteen (the state official newspaper, Sikkim Manghim in the four districts. Herald, is now published in all the official languages of the state). The policy also entailed recognition of distinctive The attempt to constitute a unified and collective cultural practices, in particular revised ‘Limbu religion’ materialised in a community rituals. As regards the Limbu, recomposed religious practice called 18 Sirijungha’s birth anniversary was ‘Yumaism.’ In his study of the Limbu in recognized as a state holiday in 1997 eastern Nepal in the 1970s, Sagant under the name of Teyongshi Sirijunga describes Yuma, the grandmother—she is Singthebe Tongnam and has become an an ancestor and the worldly form of the occasion of community religious creator of the universe—as one of the celebration (J.R. Subba 2008: 218). major Limbu divinities, guardian of the house and the body. Each household made offerings to her twice a year (Sagant 1969, From the 1990s, Limbu ethnic activists 1981, 2016). Yumaism is the form given in clarified their view of cultural unity, whose Sikkim to the movement known as contours were drawn for example in the Satyahangma (C. Subba 1995: 87) context of the 2011 census. On this developed by the ascetic Phalgunanda occasion, the Sukhim Yakthung Sapshok Lingden (1885–1949), from Panchthar in Sangjumpo, the apex body of the Limbu of East Nepal, who propagated its use as a Sikkim, circulated guidelines amongst symbol of a reformed Kiranti religion in Sikkimese Limbu explaining how questions opposition to the Rana regime (1846– in the census should be answered: 1951). 19 This reform, started by ‘Limboo’ should be spelled with the Phalgunanda and which regained strength ‘double-O’ instead of ‘Limbu.’ Those who from the 1990s, can be interpreted as a write ‘Subba’ as their surname were ‘Sanskritization’ of the religious practices requested to include ‘Limboo’ in brackets (Gaenszle 2011: 290); it entailed not to reiterate their belonging to the merely ‘to rid Kirant religion from its ‘bad’ community, and all Limboos were called cultural aspects and from external

76

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter influences in order to find again its original been transformed into community and purity’, but also to ‘revise’ religion temple-based public performances. (Schlemmer 2003/2004: 132). Recent religious changes in the Limbu community thus include a move from the household to the community as the In Sikkim, Yumaism includes a specific space—and object—of a cult. ‘teaching’ called Yuma Samyo (J.R. Subba 2008: 306 and 309–310). The Limbu writer J.R. Subba’s work was instrumental in Writing down the oral speeches providing a philosophical basis to this As in Nepal, the Limbu religious reform religious practice; in particular, in his book includes writing down speeches which Yumaism, the Limboo Way of Life. A were previously orally transmitted Philosophical Analysis (2012), he explicitly amongst ritual specialists; this mainly provides Yumaism with a philosophical regards the Limbu ‘mythology transmitted base borrowing ideas from Christianity from the ancestors’ or mundhum, which is and Hinduism, in line with Phalgunanda’s a system of thought based on myths and a Satyahangma religious reforms. system of practice (Gaenszle 1991, 2000, 2002). The process of ‘graphisation’ also In giving shape to Yumaism, Srijanga’s life entailed ‘scripturalising’ oral texts, in the has been reinterpreted, his religious sense of transforming them into sacred features having been brought to light in scriptures to form a scriptural canon addition to his literary achievements. He is (Gaenszle 2011: 293). The source of the depicted as the founding father of newly printed and published material is Yumaism that he came to propagate in yet to be found and studied; it could either Sikkim, accompanied by eight disciples be traditional ritual specialists (Yeba and (J.R. Subba 2008: 306 and 309–310). Phadangma) or mundhum already printed Yumaism—as well as the transformation in Nepal, where the movement is older. In of Srijunga into a religious figure—took a all cases, the ‘scripturalisation’ of the new turn in 2004, when a 15-year-old mundhum not only accompanies, but also Limbu woman from Darap in West Sikkim contributes to religious reforms. was possessed by Yumamang, and was consequently accepted as the A few examples of printed mundhum in reincarnation of Srijunga. A meditation Sikkim are Yuma Mudhum published in centre was opened for her in the village Gangtok by Sanchaman Tamling (J.R. (Yuma Mang Meditation Centre). Similarly Subba 1999: 257; see also also to present-day Hindu ascetics, the young Government of Sikkim 2001), and Dr woman—known as Sri Srima Yuma Mang— Buddhi L. Khamdhak’s several books on does not eat salt, boiled water, rice or Limbu mundhum, including the recent cereals, and delivers speeches during the (2015) publication of his PhD dissertation, various Limbu celebrations focusing on Yakthung Mundhum: Legwagen Chamiok spirituality and on compassion and mutual Thakmellay. Limbu Mythology: revisit respect among people of all faiths and (Khamdhak Publications, West Sikkim). origins (see Gustavsson 2017). Buddhi L. Khamdhak is assistant professor in Limbu at the Namchi Government Since the 1980s, several Limbu rituals have College, and obtained a PhD at the been given larger prominence and have Department of Political Science, North

77

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Bengal University. This work highlights the ethnic identity to the tourist industry was recent move of Limbu literary production nevertheless inspired by the government’s and ethnic activism from intellectuals to program to develop village scholars trained in political science or tourismconnected to the notion of ‘green’ anthropology; this is highlighted in Nepal, or ‘organic tourism’—in order to diversify for example, by Dr Ramesh Kumar Limbu the rural economy, and to develop (lecturer at the Nepal Sanskrit University), ‘touristic pilgrimage.’ As part of this who has published on Limbu mundhum program, giant statues of Buddha and and indigenous knowledge.20 Guru Rinpoche have been built in South Sikkim as well as the impressive set of Hindu statues and temples of Solophok View from the field: the making of a Chardham in the same district. distinctive culture, tourism and the quest for democracy In a South Sikkim village, 21 Limbu Secondly, displaying Limbu culture to activists—teachers in a government tourists served the purpose of school—explained that they had founded ‘highlighting Limbu cultural specificity’ in an association focused on the building of a order to preserve Limbu culture, ‘traditional Limbu house.’ They had perceived as being vanishing. A sense of recently finalized the payment for the land urgency to preserve the culture had thanks to the contributions of other Limbu recently been reactivated by information in the village community, and they concerning the central government’s expected to start their project shortly. project to conduct an ethnicity-based Their plan was to exhibit their ‘traditional census, based on which reservations of culture’ in the house, that is to say, seats in the Sikkim Legislative assembly artefacts and practices specific to the would be organized. In 1979, reservations Limbu: Limbu food (organic), language, of ‘Nepalese’ seats, including Limbu, was dances, and so forth. They also intended ended, while the twelve Bhutia-Lepcha to open the house to tourism, ‘to make it ones (commonly called ‘B-L seats’) were like a home stay, where tourists can have maintained in the thirty-two-seat Sikkim a good time.’ This opening to tourism had Legislative Assembly. B-L seats were two main purposes. justified by the fact that these groups were listed as Scheduled Tribes. Constitutional experts later advised that, Firstly, the association was founded even in accordance with the old Sikkim laws, though another association already seats in the assembly should be reserved existed in the village. According to my for Bhutia-Lepcha as a special category, interlocutors, this older association was and not as ST (Gurung 2011: 296-300). run by ‘high-level bureaucrats’ who did Limbu and Tamang, who became ST in not want to cooperate with ‘grass root 2003, were thus excluded from sharing B- activists.’ My interlocutors intended in L seats. The question then focused on the future to merge their organization with best way to enable the reservation of their the state-level Limbu association, but seats in the assembly in a context where their independence from the control of eight other ethnic groups had applied for the administration at the time we met ST status with government support. If the entailed a lack of public funds. The project distribution of seats was now based on the of ‘linking’ the assertion of a distinct size of the ethnic group, the question of

78

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter identifying Limbuness had understandably revival, preservation or making of cultural become crucial to Limbu activists. identities, and claim for empowerment 22 and democracy. This paper shows that Limbu religious practices have changed My interlocutors also emphasized that the through time, and that, through people’s Limbu had a specific language, which, like agency and in interaction with the social all ‘ethnic’ languages in Sikkim, was about and political context. It also highlights the to disappear in favour of Nepali. They larger focus given by people, also in further insisted on the specificity of response to state policies in India and Yumaism, which formed a religious Nepal, to rituals as ‘maker’ of a distinct practice distinct from both Hinduism and and coherent ethnic community, and as Buddhism, and which now had written the ethnic community as a site of political scriptures. action. This paper however does not intend to a give general ethnographic characterisation of Limbu religion, but ‘The need for reserved seats,’ they highlights some main society change from explained, ‘comes from the fact that, at which social actors drew out their views the moment, the Chief Minister decides and framed their action leading to how many ‘tickets’ [i.e. nominations] the religious change. More empirical research ruling party will give to each ethnic on Limbu in Sikkim today is needed, that community. We now have three MLAs, should also take into account pan-ethnic including one Minister, but this is entirely dynamics and local variations, to take this at the CM’s discretion. We actually have forward. no constitutional rights.’

Concluding remarks References Administration Report of the Sikkim State, 1933-34, In the ethnic activists’ narrative 1937. Kalimpong: Mani Press. mentioned above, Limbu religious Arora, V. 2007. “Assertive Identities, Indigeneity and the development is the outcome of a claim for Politics of Recognition as a Tribe: The Bhutias, the the recognition of Limbu as a distinct Lepchas and the Limbus of Sikkim”, Sociological group, that is to say, benefitting from Bulletin 56(2): 195–220. distinctive practices as well as political Balikci, A., 2008. Lamas, Shamans and Ancestors: independence and representation; the Village Religion in Sikkim. Leiden, Boston: Brill. cultural and political aspects are perceived Barnard, A. and Spencer, J., 1998. Encyclopedia of Social as being interdependent. Besides, and Cultural Anthropology. London & New York: religious change through history that are Routledge. highlighted in this paper led to the Bergunder, M., Gengnagel, J., Heidle, A., Michaels, A., Schneidmüller, B., and Simon, U., 2010. Preface to present-day emphasis on written sacred the Series “Ritual Dynamics and the Science of scriptures, on a form of ritual purity— Ritual”: http://www.harrassowitz- following in this respect a parallel path to verlag.de/dzo/artikel/201/001/1564_201.pdf?t=12 those of the Rai in Nepal (Gaenszle 2002, 91286725 2011, 2013)—on cultural commonality Bourdieu, P., 1982. “Les rites comme actes within the ethnic community, and so forth. d’institution”, Actes de la recherche en sciences Here, the politics from which cultural sociales, 43(1): 58-63. change emerged is not described as mere Central Bureau of Statistics., 1993. Nepal National instrumentalism, but as complex Population Census 1991. His Majesty’s Government processes that combine practices for and United Nations Population Fund. 79

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Chemjong, I.S., [1948] 2003. History and Culture of the Grover, B.S.K., 1974. Sikkim and India. Storm and Kirat People. Part I-II. Lalitpur: Kirat Yakhtung consolidation. New-Delhi: Jain Brothers. Chumlung. Gurung, S.K., 2011. Sikkim. Ethnicity and Political Davids, I.M.H., and Driem, G.L. van, 1985. “Limbu Dynamics. A triadic perspective. New-Delhi: Kunal kinship terminology: a description”, Kailash, Journal Books. of Himalayan Studies, XII (1-2), 115-156. Gustavsson, L. 2017. “Yumaism: A new Syncretic Department of Economics, Statistics, Monitoring and Religion among the Himalayan Limbus”, in H. Evaluation, 2006. State Socio-Economic Census 2006. Havnevik, U. Hüsken, M. Teeuwen, V. Tikhonov, K., Gangtok: Government of Sikkim. and Wellens (eds), Buddhist Modernities. Re- Dhungel, R., 2006. “The Long-ago Fight for Kirant inventing Tradition in the Globalizing Modern World. Identity”, Himal South Asian, 19(7), 52-56 New York: Routledge. [http://www.himalmag.com/2006/october/essay.ht Hangen, S.I., 2010. The Rise of Ethnic Politics in Nepal: m] Democracy in the Margins. New York: Routledge. Director of Census Operations, Sikkim, 2001. Census of Hiltz, J., 2003. “Constructing Sikkimese National Identity India 2001, Series 12–Sikkim. District Census in the 1960s and 1970s”, Bulletin of Tibetology, Handbook. Gangtok. 39(2), 67-83. Directorate of Census Operations, 1988. Census of India Hooker, J. D., 1854. Himalayan Journals. Notes of a 1981 Series 19 Sikkim Part XII. Delhi: Controller of Naturalist in Bengal, the Sikkim and Nepal Publications Himalayas, the Khasia Mountains, etc. London: John Driem, G.L.van, 2001. Languages of the Himalayas: An Murray. Ethnolinguistic Handbook of the Greater Himalayan Hutt, M., 1997. “Being Nepali without Nepal: reflections Region. Leiden: Brill. on a South Asian diaspora”, in J. Pfaff- Czarnecka, Gaenszle, M., 2000. Origins and migrations: kinship, D.N. Gellner, and J. Whelpton (eds), Nationalism and mythology and ethnic identity among the Ethnicity in a Hindu Kingdom. Amsterdam: Harwood Mewahang Rai of East Nepal. Kathmandu: Mandala Academic Publishers. 101-44. Book Point & The Mountain Institute. Jha, S.K., and Mishra, S.N., 1984. Sikkim: Government Gaenszle, M., 2002. “Countering the great traditions: and Politics. New-Delhi: Ess Ess Publications. Remaking of the Kiranti Past”, in A. Harneit-Sievers Kaplan, M., and Kelly, J.D., 1990. “History, Structure, (ed.), A Place in the World, New Local and Ritual”, Annual Reviews of Anthropology, Historiographies from Africa and South Asia. Leiden: 19:119-150. Brill. 331-346. Limboo, K.B., 2003. Limboos of Sikkim. Background Gaenszle, M., 2011. “Scripturalisation of Ritual in Papers on Scheduled Tribe Status. Martam: Eastern Nepal”, in C. Brosius et K.M. Polit (eds), published by the author. Ritual, Heritage and Identity. The Politics of Culture Limbu, Ramesh K., 2010. Performance in Limbu and Performance in a Globalised World. Londres, Mundhum: A Study of Cultural Representation PhD New York, New Delhi: Routledge. 281-297 dissertation. Tribhuvan University, Faculty of the Gaenszle, M., 2013. “The Power of Script: Humanities and Social Sciences. Phalgunanda's Role in the Formation of Kiranti Middleton, T. and Shneiderman S., 2008. “Reservations, Ethnicity”, in V. Arora and N. Jayaram (eds.), Federalism and the Politics of Recognition in Nepal”, Routeing Democracy in the Himalayas: Experiments Economic and Political Weekly (10 May), 39-45. and Experiences. New Delhi: Routledge. 50-73. Moktan, R., 2004. Sikkim and Darjeeling. Compendium Gazetteer of Sikhim, [1894] 1989. Gangtok: Sikkim of documents. Published by the author. Nature Conservation Foundation. Mullard, S., 2012. Opening the Hidden Land: State Gellner, D.N., 2007. “Caste, Ethnicity, and Inequality in Formation and the Construction of Sikkimese History. Nepal”, Economic and Political Weekly 42(20): 1823– Leiden: Brill. 28 O’Malley, L.S.S., 1913. Census of India 1911, volume V. Gellner, D.N., Pfaff-Czarnecka, J., Whelpton, J. (eds.), Bengal, Bihar and Orissa and Sikkim. Part I, Report. 1997. Nationalism and Ethnicity in a Hindu Kingdom: Calcutta: Bengal Secretariat Book Depot. The Politics of Culture in Contemporary Nepal. Pommaret, F., 1999. “The Mon pa Revisited: in search Amsterdam: Harwood Academic Publishers of Mon”, in T. Huber (ed.), Sacred Spaces and

80

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Powerful Places in Tibetan Culture. Dharamsala: Anthropological Perspective. New-Delhi: Sterling Tibetan Library of Works and Archives. 52-73. Publisher. 183-202. Pradhan, K., [1991] 2009. The Gorkha Conquests: The Sinha, A.C., 2006. “Search for Kirat Identity. Trends of process and consequences of the unification of De-sankritization among Nepalmul Sikkimese”, Nepal, with particular reference to Eastern Nepal. Peace and Democracy in South Asia 2 (1 and 2). Kathmandu: Social Science Baha – Himal Books. [http://www.digitalhimalaya.com/collections/journ Rustomji, N., 1987. Sikkim. A Himalayan Tragedy. als/pdsa/index.php?selection=3] Ahmedabad et al.: Allied Publishers Private Ltd. Sprigg, R.K., 1959. “Limbu books in the Kiranti Script”, Sagant, P., 1969. “Tāmpunmā, divinité limbu de la Akten des Vierundzwangzigsten Internationalen forêt”, Objets et Mondes, 9(1), 107-124. Orientalisten Krongresses. Munich 26 August – 4 Sagant, P., 1976. Le paysan Limbu, sa maison et ses September. champs. Paris, La Haye: Mouton. [http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/16711/1/Sprigg%201959 Sagant, P., 1981, “La tête haute: maison, rituel et %20Limbu%20script.pdf] politique au Népal oriental”, in G. Toffin, L. Barré, C. Strawn, C., 1994. “Nepali Migration to Bhutan”, Jest (eds), L'Homme et la maison en Himalaya : European Bulletin of Himalayan Research, 7: 25-36. Ecologie du Népal. Paris: Centre National de la Subba, B.B., 2003. “Memorandum”, in Limboo, K.B. Recherche Scientifique. 149-180. (ed.), Limboos of Sikkim. Background Papers on Sagant, P., 2016. “Death of a Headman or Shaman's Scheduled Tribe Status. Martam: published by the Logic”, Himalaya, the Journal of the Association for editor. 52-53. Nepal and Himalayan Studies 5(2), article 16. Subba, C., 1995. The Culture and Religion of Limbus. [http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/himalaya/v Kathmandu: K.B. Subba. ol35/iss2/16] Subba, J.R., 1999. The Limboos of the Eastem Schlemmer G., 2004. Vues d’esprits. La conception des Himalayas. Gangtok: Sikkim Yakdhung Mundhum esprits et ses implications chez les Kulung Rai du Saplopa. Népal. PhD dissertation. University of Nanterre. Subba, J.R., 2008. History, culture and Customs of Schlemmer, G., 2003/2004. “Inventing a Past for Sikkim. Delhi: Gyan Publishing House. Inheriting a Future: New visions of history among the Subba, T.B., 1999. Politics of culture: a study of three Kirant intellectuals of Nepal”, European Bulletin of Kirata communities in the eastern Himalayas. Himalayan Research, 25/26: 119-144. Chennai: Orient Longman. Schlemmer, G., 2009. “Les vicissitudes de l’ethnonyme Subba, T.B., 2010. “Indigenizing the Limbu: Trajectory of « Kirant ». De l’orientalisme aux revendications a Nation Divided into Two Nation States”, in B.G. identitaires”, in G. Krauskopff (ed.), Les faiseurs Karlsson and T.B. Subba (eds), Indigeneity in India. d’Histoire. Politique de l’origine et écrits sur le passé. London: Kegan Paul. 143–158. Paris: Société d’ethnologie. 55-84. Subba. J.R., 2012. Yumaism, the Limboo way of life. A Shneiderman, S., 2009. Rituals of Ethnicity: Migration, Philosophical analysis. Gangtok: Yakthung Mixture, and the Making of Thangmi Identity across Mundhum Saplappa. Himalayan Borders. Unpub. PhD Dissertation, Namgyal, T., and Dolma, Y., 1908. History of Sikkim, Cornell University [published: 2015. Rituals of English translation (unpublished). Ethnicity: Thangmi Identities between Nepal and Turin, M., 2011. “Results from the Linguistic Survey of India. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Sikkim: Mother Tongues in Education” in A. McKay Press]. and A. Balikci-Denjongpa (eds.), Buddhist Himalaya: Sikkim Herald, Dec 28, 1990. “Bhandari Calls for Peace, Studies in Religion, History and Culture. Proceedings Communal Harmony,” 34(84): Frontpage. of the Golden Jubilee Conference of the Namgyal Sikkim Now! April 09, 2010. “Limboo apex body issues Institute of Tibetology, Gangtok, 2008, Volume I: Census feedback guidelines to community”, 3A(92): Tibet and the Himalaya. Gangtok: Namgyal Institute 3. of Tibetology. 127-142 Sinha, A.C., 1975. Politics of Sikkim: A Sociological Study. Vandenhelsken, M., 2009/2010. “Reification of Faridabad: Thomson Press. Ethnicity in Sikkim: ‘Tribalism’ in progress”, Bulletin Sinha, A.C., 1981. “Resource distribution and multiple of Tibetology, Special Issue: The Dragon and the ethnic identity in Sikkim”, in C. Von Fürer- Hidden Land : Social and Historical Studies on Sikkim Haimendorf (ed.), Asian Highland Societies in and Bhutan (Bhutan-Sikkim Panel at the 12th

81

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Seminar of the International Association for Tibetan Vandenhelsken. M., 2016. “The making of Gurung Studies, Vancouver 2010), edited by Saul Mullard, cultural identifications in Sikkim”, in T.B. Subba and 45(2) and 46 (1): 161-194. A. C. Sinha (eds), Nepali Diaspora in Globalised Era. Vandenhelsken, M., 2011. “The Enactment of Tribal New Delhi, London, New York: Routledge. 153-169. Unity at the Periphery of India. The political Role of Weiner, M., 1978. Sons of the Soil. Migration and Ethnic a new Form of the Panglhabsol Buddhist Ritual in conflict in India. Princeton: Princeton University Sikkim”, European Bulletin of Himalayan Studies, 38: Press. 81-118 Weiner, M., 1985. “Transborder Peoples”, in W. Connor Vandenhelsken. M., 2009. “Les spécialistes de rituels (ed.), Mexican Americans in Comparative bouddhiques nyingmapa de Pemayangtse” in A. Perspective. Washington DC: Urban Institute. 130- Herrou and G. Krauskopff (eds), Moines et moniales 158. de par le monde. La vie monastique au miroir de la

parenté. Vers une comparaison des différentes formes de vie monastique. Paris: L’Harmattan. 145- 159.

Notes ‘Sikkimese Nepalese,’ to stress the conception of the category as a ‘quasi ethnic group’ (Hutt 1997:

102) further highlights its quality of foreignness 1 This paper is in line with research on ritual (Vandenhelsken 2011: 97). dynamics in that it supports the view that ritual and 6 See also Thutob Namgyal and Yeshe Dolma 1908. social structure mutually inform each other 7 The division between ‘Sikkimese’ and ‘Nepalese’ (Barnard and Spencer 1998: 493; see also Bourdieu was also nourished by a view of their ‘cultural 1982, Kelly and Kaplan 1990, Bergunder et al. incompatibility’, largely linked to their religious 2010). (Buddhism vs Hinduism) and linguistic differences 2 Even though ‘Kirat’ has been the label of a religion (tribal languages vs Indo Aryan language). This is in the Census of Nepal since 1991, there is little also expressed in colonial literature agreement on what this constitutes (Gaenszle (Administration Report for Sikkim 1933–--34: 28; 2011). H.H. Risley in Gazetteer of Sikhim 1894: xxi), as well 3 These groups, however, probably came from as by writers close to the Sikkim ruling elite such as further East more than two thousand years ago, Rustomji (1987: 8–9; 29; 32–33). As Shneiderman and they still have cultural and linguistic affinities explains (2009: 268 n19), a sense of Nepali national with other Tibeto-Burman speaking groups in the identity may also have played a role in the inclusion Eastern Himalayas (Sagant 1976: 1; Gaenszle of Tibeto-Burman language–speaking, beef-eating 2000). groups of Nepali heritage such as the Tamang, 4 This figure is based on the official notification no. Gurung, Magar, Rai, Limbu and Thangmi under the SNSWD/WD dated 17/09/03, 17/HOME/2003 rubric ‘Nepali,’ rather than with the Bhutia and dated OS/04/03 and 18(3)-Home/7S dated Lepcha. 06/07/78. These communities are organized into 8 This was known as the ‘parity system,’ see Sinha four administrative categories: Scheduled Tribe, (2006: 7), Hutt (1997: 131–132), Sinha (1981), Scheduled Caste, Other Backward Classes and Vandenhelsken (2011). Most Backward Classes (Sikkim State Census 2006: 9 This possibility of the Limbu having been Buddhist 49; for detail and history of these categories in is contested today by most Limbu, but this is Sikkim see Vandenhelsken 2009/2010 and 2011). certainly how the Sikkim ruling elite perceived part From a socio-anthropological viewpoint, they of them. include castes (Bahun, Chetri, Kami, Damai, Sarkhi, 10 See Jha and Mishra (1984: 33) and Balikci (2008: Mahji), and tribes (Bhutia, Lepcha, Tamang, Limbu, 178, fn 8) for expressions of this assimilation. Pradhan, Rai, Manger, Gurung, Sunuwar, Mukhia, 11 ‘Merger’ is the term commonly given in Sikkim to Thami, Jogi, Dewan, Bhujel, and Sanyasi/Giri). the integration of Sikkim into the Indian Union in 5 The recent attempt by the Sikkimese 1975. administration to replace ‘Nepalese’ with 12 Research on this topic is still in progress.

82

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

differentiated: ‘It is for this reason that each 13 On this movement, see T.B. Subba (1999), community has retained the knowledge of its Gaenszle (2002, 2011 and 2013), and Schlemmer language, customs and traditions to a great extent (2009). in Nepal. It is only recently that the various 14 In 1978, only the Bhutia-Lepcha had been communities in Darjeeling and Sikkim have recognized as ST, and the legislators’ view was that become aware of the need for a revival of their the ‘Nepalese community [which then included the own language and culture’ (T.B. Subba 1999: 20– Limbu] obviously does not qualify to be classed as 21). a tribe’ (Jha and Mishra 1984: 85). 16 Note that the Rai is the largest ethnic group in 15 This figure was 5.66% in 1981 (Census of India Sikkim, to whom the current Chief Minister, P.K. 1981). A history of the use of vernacular languages Chamling, belongs. in Sikkim is still lacking (whereas a recent linguistic 17 This was labelled ‘politics of tribalization’ by study has been carried out by Turin 2011). We can Sinha (2006). See also Vandenhelsken (2011) and venture the hypothesis that local people’s lack of (2014). knowledge of their ‘ethnic’ languages could be 18 Not all Limbu view Yumaism as encompassing all related to interethnic relations and politics after Limbu religious practices. Part of the regret the nineteenth-century migration, more than to expressed by Limbu ethnic activists is that the migration itself, as is suggested by the 1911 Yumaism denigrates Limbu shamanic rituals, or Census: ‘The Limbus [in Darjeeling and Sikkim] even calls into question its efficacy. Limbu returned Limbu as their language to the number of shamanic practices are still performed in Sikkim. 22,389 out of a total of or 25,466. The number of 19 Gaenszle 2011: 290; see also Schlemmer 2004: speakers is only 354 more than it was 10 years ago, 121, Schlemmer 2009: 65 fn9, Gaenszle 2013. whereas the Limbu have added over 2,000 to their 20Self-published: number’ (O’Malley 1911: 397). T.B. Subba (1999: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Ramesh_Li 20–21, 44) explains the greater linguistic and mbu/publications?pubType=article cultural uniformity in Sikkim than in Nepal in terms 21 I carried out five-months of fieldwork in 2010 of the ‘Nepalese assimilation’ of most ethnic and 2011 in this village; place and people names groups in Sikkim. He explains this ‘assimilation’ of are omitted to protect informants’ anonymity. the Kiranti in Sikkim compared to Nepal by 22 This is in line with Hangen (2010) who argues reference to the better economic and educational that ethnic parties in Nepal in the 1980s and 1990s development, the lesser socio-political strength of were not incompatible with democracy but have high castes, the larger presence of Christian the potential to strengthen the democratic system. missionaries, and ethnic diversity in most villages— whereas ethnic groups in east Nepal are spatially

83

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

ARTICLE GOLDEN HAIR: A TRIBAL MYTH OF KINSHIP DETAILING A HINDU NARRATIVE IN THE NEPAL HIMALAYAS

BY MARIE LECOMTE-TILOUINE

identity, if not an area of resistance, among the indigenous peoples of Nepal. It is particularly the case regarding social organisation, which relies on distinct kinship rules, and which the Indigenous peoples of Nepal have retained until now In the clustered society of Nepal, which despite Hindu coercion. It is therefore includes more than a hundred 'tribes' and important to investigate the means at castes, collective identity has always taken their disposal to perpetuate their own 1 on a vital dimension. This is especially the practices, and their motivation to do so. case among the Tibeto-Burman- speaking Due to the very low literacy rate and the tribal groups, (today called Janajati in lack of free media until the 1990s, Nepali and indigenous peoples in English), assertion of collective tribal identity in which make up about a third of the total Nepal has had few available means of population of Nepal. These groups have expression until very recently. In this been progressively placed under Hindu regard, oral narratives have represented a control, beginning in the 15th century, unique space of freedom and resistance with the emergence of about 50 petty for the dominated tribal groups of Nepal. Hindu kingdoms in the region of the Central as they were to the Janajati's own central Himalayas where the Janajatis religious practices, which rests entirely on were settled, which was to become the oral traditions, oral narratives offered kingdom of Nepal. The Hindu stranglehold these groups an opportunity to assert over the tribal populations intensified, their own worldviews, and even to counter following the unification campaign led by the orthodox Hindu norms imposed on the Shah dynasty of Gorkha at the turn of them, notably by derailing important the 18th century, which led to the creation themes taken from Hindu narratives. of the kingdom of Nepal. The Janajatis Narrative appropriation has been were thereafter subjected to numerous particularly instrumental in asserting and royal decrees and harshly punished for perpetuating distinct kinship rules, as we Hindu-specific crimes, such as the killing of will show by examining different versions cows. They were finally merged into the of a popular story, that of Golden Hair, Hindu caste organisation by the 1854 Code among the Magar Janajati group and their of Law, and subjected to strict Hindu Hindu neighbours from western Nepal.2 control of their daily life, notably regarding commensality, sexual relations, and kinship rules. Yet, some specificities in The Hindu orthodoxy that was imposed on these matter were tolerated by the Hindu the various populations of Nepal is no State, and were soon to form a symbol of better illustrated than by the custom of

84

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter hypergamy. Legally defined within the women from clan C, whose males marry Hindu conception of social hierarchy, women from clan A. This system offers no according to which wife-givers are inferior possibility of alliance outside the local in status to wife-receivers, the result of community, and rests upon matrilateral this principle was that only a wife of equal cross cousin marriage or marriage with or inferior 'caste' rank was to be taken as one's maternal uncle's daughter, mamako a spouse in Nepal. This definition chori, as it is called in Nepali. It rests upon happened to be the exact opposite of that a fragile state of equilibrium in terms of held by the indigenous Magars, who clan size, but was still practised in the consider the wife-givers as the wife- 1980s among the Magars of Taka Sera in receivers' hierarchical superiors. Elevating the Rukum district (Oppitz 1988), and it the Brahmanical kinship system to the remained an ideal model for their status of a universal law, the Hindu southern Magar neighbours of Darling, in government severely punished tribal Gulmi district (Lecomte-Tilouine 1993: 71- people for offences of this sort, 77). In other settlements, the system was sentencing Magar males to death for less circular, but the alliance with the having sexual relations with a woman of a matrilateral cross-cousin was still superior status, while high-caste males preferential among all the Magars up until had intense commerce with tribal the 1990s, and it is still considered an women.3 This law, which was maintained obligation to ‘give one's daughter’ if a until the 1960s, limited inter-caste demand for marriage with his matrilateral marriage for tribal males, who found no cousin is made by the sister's family for female partners whose purity status would their son, to the sister's brother. This rank below their group, with whom they preferential alliance also continues to could therefore lawfully engage in sexual induce a number of prescribed behaviours, or marital relations. Indeed, only impure such as strong respect and love for the castes were ranked below the tribal maternal uncle, and a joking, if not groups. Yet, it did not succeed in changing flirtatious, relationship between the Magar conception of hierarchy matrilateral cross-cousins. between wife-givers and receivers. We may even postulate that it could have reinforced it, as an internal response from the tribal males faced with the danger of losing their female partners through inter- group marriage. This danger was not negligible, given that polygamy was a common practice among high-caste Hindu males, who frequently contracted second and/or third marriages with tribal women, up until the 1980s. The Magars, like other tribal groups in Nepal, have developed circular practices of marriage, which insured tribal and local endogamy. It Fig. 1. Generalized exchange and matrilateral cross-cousins marriage among the Magars. works ideally between three clans, along a system of ‘generalized exchange,’ where the males members of clan A marry women from clan B, whose males marry

85

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Although less circular in appearance than privilege granted by the State to be generalized exchange, the alliance authorized to practise such a forbidden between matrilateral cross-cousins is alliance.6 In the same manner, taxes were tightly related to the brother-sister imposed on the consumption of impure relationship and hence to incest. A literal food, such as pork or chicken meat, by illustration was offered to me by a Magar tribal peoples. teenager, who drew a diagram in my notebook, where I had already drawn some kinship charts. He connected the The State therefore followed a double cousins with a line to signify their logic, promoting Hinduization and wedding, and drew a similar line between simultaneously taxing unorthodox the groom's mother and the bride's father, practices, which represented an important who are sister and brother, explaining that source of income. These antithetic the brother-sister relationship is government policies indirectly reproduced and reinforced by the wedding encouraged the adoption of high-caste of their children, as if it were a form of practices to avoid taxation. However, transposed incest. Such an exegesis fits despite the taxes levied and the well with the myth of origin of the three condemnation of their marital practices by main Magar clans (Sris, Gharti and Pun) the Hindu government, the Magars in the inhabiting the teenager's village, which first half of the nineteenth century told depicts each clan as the offspring of a Hodgson: ‘Auspicious marriage is with the brother and sister, who were forced to maternal uncle’s daughter and such must flew away from their original settlement be first sought’ (Hodgson, n.d.), and they for having committed incest.4 have continued marrying their cross- cousins until now, certainly because it corresponds to an ancestral schema, but While the Magar perception of also without doubt, because it protects matrilateral cross-cousins marriage is that the group from appropriation of their of an auspicious and creative form of female members, especially by high caste alliance, transposing the primordial males. This danger is well illustrated in the incestuous relationship between the Magar version of Golden Hair, a tale I brother and sister into a socially collected in Gulmi district. acceptable lock, this relationship was simply viewed as incestuous by the Hindu government. The latter forbade its Golden Hair practice among twice-born Hindus of The story of ‘Golden Hair’ (Sunkesha, western Nepal soon after the conquest of Sunkeshi, Sunkeshra or Sunkeshari), is a this region during the first half of the 19th popular folktale in Nepal, numerous century, but tolerated this 'barbarous' versions of which may be found among form of marriage among the ‘alcohol- various groups and in different regions. drinking’ (Matwali) castes and tribal The heroine is quite remarkable in this groups, who were ranked below the Twice- area, due to her golden hair. Similar to the Born.5 Yet, these groups had to pay fines tale of Tristan and Iseult, of which the in order to be granted permission to story of Golden Hair is strongly conclude alliances with their matrilateral reminiscent, the sight of one of her fallen cross cousins, not at the time of such an hairs floating on the water provokes an alliance, but in general, as it was seen as a

86

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

(impossible) love for her, leading to her older brothers, often described as various developments as examined below. stupid, who finds it. And when the girl learns that her father is going to marry her to her elder brother, she flees into the A comparative analysis of the various forest and takes refuge at the top of a versions shows a common core to the tree. One by one, the girl's relatives arrive story, along with a number of particularly to try and persuade her to come down. In significant variants. I will attempt to argue some versions, at each of her relatives’ that these variants are more meaningful requests to come down, the tree grows than the common core, as they can be higher and higher into the sky to protect viewed as containing the specific meaning the girl. But in most versions, all of the of the narrative for each group. My study girl’s relatives die at the foot of the tree is based on two oral versions of the story when the girl tells them that their kinship that I collected in Gulmi district, on two name in the register of consanguinity is versions collected in Achham district, as not compatible with their names as in- well as on several published versions, laws: ‘should I call father-in-law the one including one, which was recorded by who is my father?’, she says, provoking her Purna Prakash Yatri in the Dailekh district father's death, and so on. To avoid incest, and transcribed into the local dialect. The the golden-haired girl therefore passes no other published versions, unfortunately, moral argument, but makes reference to have been fully rewritten, and their place the clear distinction between kins and 7 of origin is not provided. However, to affines (in-laws) and the impossibility of simplify my purpose, I will examine a mixing these two categories of people. Magar version from Gulmi district and a Openly stating this rule immediately Thakuri version from Achham district, causes the death of those who intend to while making reference to other variants disregard it. This statement is probably a 8 only when necessary. central teaching of the story, since one version (Sharma 1976) stops right there: after all of the girl’s relatives have died, The story tells of a beautiful young girl the tree turns into a prince who marries with golden hair. 9 She has a number of the girl. Yet in most versions, once the older brothers (between one and seven) father, mother and older brothers are and always a single little brother. Her dead, the little brother comes to the foot parents, often described as king and of the tree. 10 The difference in the queen, are obsessed with their daughter’s relationship between these inbred is hair, which they count one hair at a time, immediately marked by the fact that the every night, in some versions. They forbid younger brother doesn't ask his sister to her from untying her hair for fear that she come down, but whether he can go up to loses even a single hair. However, one day, her. The girl finally accepts, and lets down despite her mother's objections, the girl a thread to take him up. While perched up decides to bathe in a river. She loses one there, all the blunders he makes lead to hair in the stream. In some versions her the creation of a new living environment angry parents decide that she will be given for them: asking for some food, her sister in marriage to the one who finds her hair, offers him rice and beans, telling him not while in other versions the person who to drop a single grain. But some fall, and finds the hair falls in love with it and from them come a house and cattle. decides to marry the girl who has such There, they both lead a happy life as wonderful hair. It is systematically one of

87

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter brother and sister, in a secure relationship regularly quivers to reset the spirit's where incest is not imaginable, with the count. The boy then sets out on a journey younger brother presented as an with a drum he has fashioned from the immature madcap flanked by his older skin of a toad, to find his sister. On his sister. way, he meets a buffalo herder who asks him for a short dance and a song with his drum before telling him which direction The siblings live in the forest together, Golden Hair has taken. He then meets respecting a clear share of the work: she successively a woman at a fountain, a does the housework while he puts out the shepherd, a goat herder, and a mulberry cattle to graze. She remains hidden in the bush who behave in the same manner. He house, her face blackened with soot to finally reaches the house where his sister hide her beauty, while the boy goes is seated at the balcony, combing her hair. around boasting about his sister’s beauty. From there, she spits on her brother face, Heard by a stranger, who is either then throws dust in his eyes, before the portrayed as a king or yogi (at both siblings finally see each other. The sister extremes of the social order), Golden Hair welcomes and feeds her brother with is discovered in her hiding. In some bread. In the night, while the yogi is published versions, the story ends here sharpening his knife to kill the boy, Golden with a happy ending: the king marries Hair wraps up beans, rice, and her comb in 11 Golden Hair and takes her brother along. her handkerchief, and the two siblings run But in other versions, among which the off, pursued by the infuriated yogi. On Magar and Thakuri versions I have chosen their way, Golden Hair scatters magical to compare, the story continues: the man objects that become obstacles on the takes the girl away by force and leaves her yogi's path. She throws her comb, which little brother on his own. Without the grows into a bamboo grove upon reaching protection of his sister, the boy is the ground, delaying the yogi who has to frightened and finds support from the cut them all; later, she throws her mirror, cattle. With them, or alone, he begins a which turns into a cliff, then she throws quest to find his beloved sister, helped by rice and beans which the yogi takes time a musical instrument. When he finally to eat. Nevertheless, he overcomes all finds her, the story again takes different these obstacles in the end. Then seeing no directions, which bring its own identity to other way out, the brother and sister the narrative. become the sun and the moon by the power of Golden Hair's ‘word of truth.’12 In the Magar version of the story collected in Northern Gulmi, when Golden Hair is The version from Achham district, abducted from her forest home by a yogi, narrated by a Thakuri woman, differs in she spits at the four corners of her house. many details, which reflect the Her younger brother, coming back with specificities of both the region of origin the cattle, calls her and hears her voice and the caste of the narrator. 13 Thus, from where she has spat. He spends the when the boy finds that his sister is gone, night at his home, taking refuge into the he does not craft a musical instrument by nostril of a cow, where a bad spirit (bhut) himself like the Magar boy, but goes to a tries to devour him. The boy is rescued by Damai (of the musician caste) and asks him his cow, who asks the spirit to count her to make one for him. The Magar boy builds body hair before eating the boy, and

88

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter a damphu drum which the Magars use in Golden Hair is thus treated in a strictly ceremonial contexts, 14 while the Thakuri opposite manner in both versions: in the boy is offered a hudko hourglass drum, Magar narrative, she refuses an alliance which is played by the Damai caste to sing which would cause separation with her epics in the far western region in Nepal.15 brother, and ascends to the sky where she These regional and group-related becomes the sun, forever followed by her adaptations to the narrative also apply to younger kin, while in the Thakuri version, the field of kinship relations, leading to she accepts to marry the stranger; she the sharpest contrast between the Magar mistreats and sends away her brother, and and the Thakuri versions under study. In finally disappears into the abyss. the Thakuri version from Achham district, when the girl learns about her father's decision to marry her to her elder brother The whole story may be considered as a and climbs on a tree, her refusal does not matter for reflection on alliance, provoke her kin's death, and the paternal sisterhood-brotherhood, and their aunt is mentioned among her close kin interplay. Two extreme forms of alliance who try to convince her to marry her are presented: the closest possible (incest brother. Later, when Golden Hair receives with one's kin) and the most distant form her brother at her new husband's place, possible (with a stranger encountered in she refuses to feed him whereas he is very the forest). Marital alliance with a kin hungry, telling him that the first bread is member is rejected in all versions (but for her mother in-law, the second for her one, see footnote 17), and causes the kin father in-law, the third for her brother-in- member's death or disappearance from law, introducing a whole marital family, the narrative, while a distant alliance when the yogi of the Magar version is creates a great variety of responses, which alone, and never presented as Golden all deal, however, with the brother-sister Hair's husband, but only as her relationship. kidnapper. 16 In the Thakuri version, Golden Hair expels her younger brother The brother-sister apotheosis to which it from her marital home. He finds refuge in leads in the Magar context is particularly the forest among a society of wild striking and closely parallels social buffaloes, who feed him with their milk, features specific to their group, as we make him a house, and even find him a have seen. Big Sister the Sun (surya didi) spouse. Golden Hair finally hears about and Little Brother the Moon (chandra her brother living in the forest with bhai) endow a dimension which trespasses numerous buffaloes and pays him a visit. the context of narration of the tale. The Upon leaving, her brother offers Golden story of Sunkesha is actually the first story Hair a she-buffalo wearing a big bell, that I was told in Nepal, in a village in asking her not to untie the bell before Gulmi district in 1987. The very context reaching her place. Thinking that by that led to its narration is important, liberating the bell, all of her brother's giving this story an explanatory value that cattle would follow her up to her place, would lead us, as anthropologists, to call it Golden Hair unties it. But instead, the bell a myth. The day before nag pancami, a publicly tells the truth about what she did Magar boy came home to draw nag on to her brother, and Golden Hair is so papers for the next day's ceremony, ashamed that she asks the earth to open accompanied by his older sister. On both and swallow her.17 sides of a mass of intertwining snakes, the

89

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter boy had drawn the sun and moon, each marriage, who finally rose up into the sky with a human face. He had placed a tika with her little brother and became the sun mark on the sun's forehead. I asked him while he became the moon. Here the story why he had drawn it, given that outside a provides an explanation as to the gender ritual context, only women wear tika, and of the sun and the moon, and its narration that in my imagination the sun was is semi-ritualized, given that it is masculine. His sister, Narmati, performed by specific people, at a specific immediately replied: but it’s surya didi, big time (at night): these features evoke a sister the sun, and the moon is her little myth told in a ritual context, though the brother, Candra bhai. The tika was indeed specialization is informal and the a revealing detail, in line with the feminine prescribed time quite large. In fact, there gender of the sun. To kill the time while is no word for myth in Nepali, which is her brother was using my table and my designated either as itihas, history, or candlelight, I went to get my binoculars for katha, story, in Hindu rituals. The term a closer look at the moon. Narmati took sastar probably derives from sastra and the binoculars, and whispered: ‘look at the can be translated as instruction. It may moon, it is stained with sputum. It’s the refer to a folktale or to a myth, depending big sister who spat in her little brother's on the explanatory dimension granted to face.’ I took a closer look at the spittle and the narrative. I tried to find out more. However, she refused to tell me any more details, saying that there was a sastar that recounted the For the Magars, the alliance with the story of Surya didi and Candra bhai. That matrilateral cross-cousin, mamako chori, evening I learned from Narmati that only which they regard as the best form of certain people knew sastar, and that the alliance, is a reaffirmation of the bond only person who could tell the sastar between brother and sister, which should about the sun and the moon was her be safeguarded. Among the Magars of maternal uncle's wife. I immediately Syangja, there is even a clear distinction pressed her to take me to her the next between the maternal uncle who is older morning. But Narmati was embarrassed than the mother, called kuba, (or bad and told me two things: you cannot tell a father if the term is of Nepali origin) and sastar in the day, or you become lato, the maternal uncle who is younger than dumb or stupid. And not only did we have the mother, the mama, who alone to cross at night the ‘Guye khola’ river, provides a spouse for his nephew. This which is haunted by evil spirits at night, to fully corresponds to the two opposing get to her aunt, but she also believed her attitudes of the older brother and younger aunt to be a witch. Nevertheless, I brother in the Magar version of the story. convinced her to take me there the next The correspondence suggests that in this evening, but we took a flaming torch to story the Magars discovered a narrative protect us from evil spirits along the way that enabled them to embroider a myth. and we promised Narmati’s mother not to Indeed, they attach great value to the eat anything at her sister-in-law's. The motives it explores. As a matter of fact, maternal aunt, who obviously did not have they are also found in the Sorathi many visitors, was surprised at our arrival. narrative that the Magars sing ritually But she finally told us three sastar, each year in the region of Palpa and including the story of the sun sister, who Syangja, located to the south of Gulmi, and was initially a golden-haired girl, refusing with which the Magar strongly associate

90

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter their group identity. Sorathi recounts the because of her pregnancy. Her child was story of a king who puts his baby girl in a born when his mother's corpse was taken golden box and throws it into the river, to the funeral pyre. This short account because an astrologer told him that he deals with the sun, the death of a woman would fall in love with her and cause his and the posthumous birth of a boy, a death. The box is found by a fisherman, future king. At first sight, it is little related who raises the girl. Several years later, the to Golden Hair. However, its more king meets his daughter and falls in love developed versions, recorded by Marc with her, causing his death.18 Gaborieau, bears striking parallels. In one 21 of them, Rani Maula is the barren queen of King Pirthamdeu who reigns over In the same manner that Golden Hair is Ajayamirkot (present-day far western found in a reminiscent ritual performance Nepal). The queen undertakes a 12-year among the Magar, the Sorathi, in the pilgrimage in order to obtain a son. While region of far western Nepal, her character she is practising austerities on the bank of is also present in a formalized and a river, she becomes pregnant by the sun ritualized performance: the epic and she loses her golden hair in the narration, bharat. As in the case of the stream. Her hair is found by a fisherman, Magar myth, it co-exists with fairy tales who brings it to the local king, and the and short stories, but the bharat differs latter decides to marry the girl to whom it from the latter by being considered belongs. Rani Maula succeeds in historical, aitihasik. preventing the wedding from taking place by addressing the king as ‘father.’ Afterwards, she finally goes back to her The bharat texts are sung by bards, who palace, but her husband has some doubts also are all genealogists, at least in the about her pregnancy. The queen then districts of Dailekh, Achham, Bajhang and commits suicide, and a ray of sun gives Baitadi where I carried out fieldwork. 19 In birth to her son in a pit next to her pyre. this latter region of far western Nepal, a The king successfully tests the baby to be bharat narrates the story of Rani Maula, sure that he is a member of the Solar clan, which lies somewhere between the epic and he becomes King Tapi Malla. and the genealogical account, and is closely reminiscent of the story of Golden Hair. It describes the birth of a dynasty, Marc Gaborieau recorded another version that of Nag Malla or Nagi Malla, who is of this epic, which he did not translate. In considered to be a historical great king of this version, the queen is named Devi the Doti kingdom. An inscription dated Maula, and her baby becomes King Nagi 1384, found at Ajayameru (Dadeldhura), Malla (the founder of the kingdom of Doti and two copper plates dated 1387 and in the fourteenth century). The king who 1393, mention a king named Nag Malla in finds her golden hair and tries to marry her 20 Doti. A rich oral history refers to this king is the king of the fishermen and the queen in the region of Doti. The story of his birth calls him ‘brother,’ not ‘father,’ to prevent shares some common features with the the wedding from taking place. On the way bharat of Rani Maula. It is said that the home, she gives birth to the future king mother of Nag Malla committed suicide Nag Malla, and only then does she die. But when she was pregnant with him for the major difference between the two having committed darsan of the sun: that versions appears at the end of the story. is to look at the sun while she was impure

91

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

In the first one, it is said: ‘Pritham Deo to other versions, took him prisoner. constantly entertained doubts about the However, in the meantime queen Sunkasa child's legitimacy throughout the latter's had already cut her own throat out of childhood and he submitted him to various despair. The kings of Jumla and Raskot tests. However, Nag Malla always emerged annexed King Jhampan’s territory of unscathed. His father then sent him to Charkabot. The two kings signed a treaty fight a demon at the bottom of a lake and establishing the division of the Jhampan's Nag Malla noticed that his father and the kingdom between the two of them, and demon were one and the same person and this was recorded on a copper plate dated killed him. He then became king.’ 1620. (Jumla gained the territory between Tusarakhola and Guligada, and Raskot between Khandacakra and Lekhamanma. The final battle between the prince and his There were many witnesses to this treaty, father, the king-demon, is remarkable for among whom there was the Mongolian bharat usually recount filial devotion and king Nagmaka). The statues of describe how the orphaned son avenges Vikramashåhi and his wife Sunakasa have his father's death to restore the honour of been kept in the temple of Tripurasindari his line, often bringing back his dead in Jumla, while the goddess Tripurasundari father's head that had been carried off as of Tibrikot has also been identified as a trophy by the enemy. The centrality of Queen Sunkasa, to whom a cult is said to the queen is equally remarkable, for have been established after her death. female characters are otherwise Many elements go towards substantiating secondary in western Nepal's epic the historical content of this last story, tradition. These two features may be leading to a real imbroglio between the brought together: Golden Hair introduces myth, the tale and history. The core of this a major historical incident in royal kinship: imbroglio deals with alliance. In addition the breaking of the royal line from father to the prohibition of incest and the to son. The historification of Golden Hair brother-sister relationship, many other among the Thakuri of far western Nepal forms of alliance are explored in the last was taken even further in another story: between a Thakuri king and a ‘historical episode,’ linked to the history woman of low extraction, between the of the Kingdom of Jumla, during the reign enemy Tibetan king and the latter, and of Vikramashahi who ascended the throne finally the war alliance between the 22 in 1602. It is said that King Vikramasahi Thakuris against this Tibetan king. fell madly in love with a dancer named Somehow, the historical reality is closer to Sunkasa, Golden Hair, and made her the contents of a bharat than the actual queen. The king loved her so much that he bharat about the golden-haired Queen. used to take her with him everywhere, even during the hunting parties he was fond of. It was during such a hunting party The bharat about Golden Hair (under the that Sunkasa was abducted by the name of Rani Maula), on the other hand, neighbouring Jad king named Jhampan, shares many features with the Magar myth who had heard of her beauty. To rescue his of the Sun sister and the Moon Brother, as Queen, the king of Jumla asked for help well as with the Thakuri fairy tale about from the Raskoti King Saimalasai, his Golden Hair: it includes the theme of the former enemy. They attacked Jhampan's loss of hair in the river, falling in love upon fort together, and killed him or, according seeing the hair, and the impossible

92

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter marriage with the one who finds the hair. presented either as a younger brother or But the transgressive nature of the as her son, whereas all the Magar versions alliance is not related to incest, and the asserts her survival, and her role in the fact that the queen is married is not a real perpetuation of the group as the model for obstacle, since a union with a married alliance.23 women or jari bibah, was (and still is at a lesser degree) customary in Western Nepal. Instead, it is the loyalty of the The various tales of Golden Hair explore queen that is put to the test, and as often themes that are very widespread in Nepal in the bharat, the listener is first led to and India and can be traced back to Europe imagine that she accepts the alliance, (in Tristan and Iseult or in the French story when posing her conditions to agree to it, of Donkey skin /All-fur in Germany). The to give the story a twist in what happens story’s wide distribution in no way helps next. Interestingly, the stratagem used by determine its origin, but its importance in the queen to avoid the wedding the Himalayan region located to the west reintroduces the theme of incest, but with of the area inhabited by the Magars and to the father and the father’s brother (or its south, strongly suggests that it was classificatory father), and in a reversed spread from Hindu groups to this pattern where the girl proposes and the Indigenous population, which has no men refuses. history of migration, in contrast with the latter.

In the Bharat about Rani Maula, the sun is the golden-haired queen's only true In such a clustered society, it is possible to husband, especially in the version where show that the variants of the narrative are her husband is in fact a demon. The sun is all in keeping with the values of the group also the baby king's only genitor, since he that produced it. In Western Nepal's not only makes Golden Hair pregnant, but bharat, a genre patronized by the Thakuri even creates the baby in a pit near his royal caste, the sun appears as the male mother’s pyre. The son of the sun has no progenitor of a superior and royal race, human father and is even almost while among the Magars, the sun is a motherless: he is born of a corpse or of the female emblematic figure, that of the Big earth. The narrative erases all the kinsmen Sister forever fleeing with her young surrounding him to present his birth ex- brother to avoid any alliance with nihilo from the association of the sun and strangers. She forms a protective figure the earth. Interestingly, parallels with the that ensures an internal and positive bharat about Rani maula are found in the alliance, which strengthens kin Thakuri version of Golden Hair collected in relationships and group identity. For the Achham district. When the two siblings, Thakuris of Western Nepal, who strictly separated by the girl's capture and her forbid marriage between cross-cousins, on marriage, finally meet again, the sister the other hand, alliance is not determined first mistreats her little brother, the latter or made possible by the siblings. The sister then causes her to commits suicide in has no major role to play, and even the return. Thus, at the end of the story, only mother is secondary. These royal clans are the boy remains. In the various "Thakuri" constantly reminded of their pedigree and versions of far western Nepal, Golden Hair obsessed by their genealogies, which they dies, and leaves her place to a boy, display as the sign of their identity during weddings. Their genealogies are usually

93

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter linear and draw the line from father to form is not only very polysemic, because eldest son only. It is thus a strictly vertical of the reduction it imposes on reality, but and linear view of descent. This also because of the variety of the social conception finds a perfect metaphor in the contexts in which it fits. Yet, these ray of the sun giving birth to a baby king in narratives all refer to a single ‘named’ the ground, by getting rid of all figure. As noted by Marc Le Bot (1989: 62), intermediaries and surrounding kinsmen. ‘The myth and the poem think by figures Among the Suryavamshi (Thakuris of Solar and the names they give to figures are clans) of Western Nepal, such as in Dullu, proper names.’ In the stories studied here, the wedding itself is an alliance of the sun a stable element is the golden haired girl, and the moon, since the men of the solar and her name, ‘Golden Hair,’ which holds clan marry women of the lunar clan (or a special position in how a group Candravamshi). The gender of the celestial represents the relationships between kins bodies is thus inverted, with both the sun and affines. and the moon as masculine figures but a strong association of the sun with males and groom, and of the moon with women Lately, anthropologists have ceased to and brides. The spatio-temporal focus on such stories, which have framework of the narrative is also quite somehow been left to a specific type of different in the two cases of the Magar specialist, the folklorist, who generally myth and the Thakuri Bharat. For the treats this material independently of its Magars, the alliance between the sun and social context of production. It is true that the moon is the mythical model of the the very wide distribution of many stories ideal couple, while this alliance is represents a major difficulty in studying actualised among the Thakuris, who enact them in context. Yet, in the case of Golden it at each wedding and assign a historical Hair, rather than the common themes, it is dimension to their direct birth on earth the variants that form the core of the from the ray of the sun, as well as to story, strongly parallel the group social Golden Hair. Though the marvellous is features and hence its specific present in both the Thakuri and Magar appropriation, as the context of the versions of Golden Hair, in the speaking clustered society of Nepal makes it clear. animals, plants and musical instruments, Their study suggests that tribal identity the Thakuri versions contrast with the has found in this material a strong form of Magar tale, which depicts a malleable and expression, enabling them to protect their transformable world, where a boy spends group identity and cohesion, by derailing a the night in his cow's nostril, objects Hindu narrative, bringing it a mythological transform into categories of the landscape dimension, and playing with figures that (forest and cliff) and two siblings flew in were not liable to the Hindu law. the sky to become the sun and the moon. In contrast to Vladimir Propp (1946), who The narratives related to the sun that we viewed the fairy tale as a degeneration of have discussed regarding the different the myth, there is no traceable historical versions of the Nepalese story of the shift leading to this sense in the case of golden-haired girl show the multiplicity of Golden Hair. The same story is found both representations in different social as a myth, insofar as it is quoted to explain contexts. This suggests that the symbolic the gender of the sun and moon, and as a fairy tale, i.e. a story told in the evening to

94

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter entertain children, even within the same Lecomte-Tilouine, M., 2010. “To be more natural than locality. Interestingly, in the case studied, others. Indigenous self-determination and Hinduism the mythical dimension is only found in a in the Himalayas”, in M. Lecomte-Tilouine (ed.), group that attributes major importance to Nature, Culture, and Religion at the Crossroads of the themes explored in the story to Asia, New Delhi: Social Science Press, p. 118-157. Lecomte-Tilouine, M., 2016. "The Untouchable Bard as illustrate the brother-sister bond and its Author of his Royal Patron in Western Nepal: relationship to alliance, which is essential Understanding Ritualised Speech in Context", Oral in their own kinship system. Building Tradition Journal, Special issue coordinated by M. myth, in this case, appears rather as a Lecomte-Tilouine and A. de Sales "Words of truth. social imperative related to identity Authority and Agency in Ritual and Legal Speeches in assertion. It is perhaps not by chance that the Himalayas". 30(2):211-242. it inscribes the feminine gender of the sun, Oppitz, M., 1988. Frau für Fron, Franckfurt: Suhrkamp this paternal figure of kingship, in a Verlag. reversal that highlights the paradoxical Parajuli, K.P., 1988, Sunkesra, Kathmandu, Ratna Pustak nature of the alliance between Magar and Bhandar. Thakuri.24 Propp, V., 1983. Les racines historiques du conte merveilleux. Paris, Gallimard (1st publication in Russian 1946). References RRS 1975. 1975. “Selected Documents of Shrawan- Aswin 1887 Vikrama”, Regmi Research Series, 7(3): Adhikary, S., 1998. (2055 V.S.). Jumla rajyako itihas. 45–58. Kirtipur: CNAS. Sharma, N., 1976, Folk tales of Nepal, New Delhi: Bandhu, C. M., 2008. “Common Languages and Sterling Publishers. Common Narratives: Cases from Nepal”, Folklore Some folk tales of Nepal, Kathmandu, Dept. of Culture, and Folkloristics Vol - 1; No - 1 : 20-27. Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, HMG for Helffer, M., 1997. “The drums of Nepalese Mediums”, Nepal National Commission for UNESCO, Ministry of European Bulletin of Himalayan Research 12-13:176- Education, HMG, 1968. 195. Subedi, R.R., 1999. Karnali pradeshma madhyakalin doti Helffer, M., and Gaborieau, M., 1974. “A propos d’un rajya. Dilpa, Bhojpur: R.B Bantava Rai and D. K. Rai tambour du Kumaon et de l’ouest du Népal : (eds.) remarques sur l’utilisation des tambours-sabliers Vaidya, K.K., (ed.) 1971. Folk tales of Nepal; First series. dans le monde indien, le Népal, le Tibet”. Studiae Kathmandu, Ratna Pustak Bhandar. Instrumentorum Musicae Popularis III : 75-79, 268- Vaidya, K.K. (ed.) 2042 V.S. [1985] Nepali dantya katha. 72. Kathmandu, Ratna Pustak Bhandar. Hodgson, Brian H., N.d. Papers, vol.5, vol. 12, Manuscripts, London, British Library. Le Bot, M., 1989. Les Noms propres des dieux. Fontfroide, Fata Morgana. Lecomte-Tilouine, M., 1993. Les dieux du pouvoir: les Magars et l’hindouisme au Népal central. Paris: CNRS. Lecomte-Tilouine, M., 2009. “Hindu Kingship, Ethnic Revival and Maoist Rebellion in Nepal”. Collected Essays. Delhi: Oxford University Press.

Notes 2 For further reading on the Magar identity, see 1 The 2011 census listed the population in 125 Lecomte-Tilouine (2009). distinct groups, including 63 indigenous peoples, 3 In 1827, as reported by Hodgson (n.d, n.p.) a 59 castes, and 3 religious groups. Magar male was ‘capitally punished for commerce with a Khasni widow,’ i.e. a high caste women.

95

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

13 The regional form of the tale appears, among 4 Incest is forbidden by custom in Nepal. The guilty other things, in the title. In Achham district, it is parties may settle in the vicinity of their original found as ‘The cretin brother,’ and the Vaidya settlement, but are required to cross a hill or version, whose place of origin is not mentioned, mountain crest. may well be from Achham or far western Nepal, 5 In 1830, the king stipulated, ‘We therefore decree given its title and its plot. that henceforth Tagadhari Khasas should not 14 The damphu is defined as a ‘frame drum with follow the custom of cross-cousin marriage, but pegged skin beaten with bare hands used by the that liquor-drinking Khasas may do so’ (RRS, 1975: Tamangs (Hellfer 1997: 188). 48). Khas (feminine Khasni), Khasa or Khasiya 15 On this drum, see Helffer and Gaborieau (1974). designate all the pure castes of western Nepal in 16 In the two other versions collected from Achham ancient texts, that is, Brahmans and Kshatriyas (see The Cretin brother, http://epopee.huma- without distinction. Sacred thread wearers num.fr/corpus.php), the situation is similar. In one (Tagadhari) and alcohol-drinking Khas were later of these versions collected from a Dalit woman, of distinguished by the State. the Tamauta (or copper-smith) caste, the episode 6 The royal family of Nepal and other Thakuri clans of the tree is not included, and the girl is married from central Nepal also practise this form of with her brother. alliance, but I have never seen mention of taxes 17 In the Tamauta version from Achham district, that they would have had to pay. Royal Thakuris after marrying her brother, the girl's hair turns from western Nepal, on the other hand, consider golden and, on seeing this, a king takes her as one this alliance as incestuous, and the Shah's cross- of his seven spouses. She then gives birth to twins cousin alliance as the sign of their Magar origin. for the childless king, and her babies are thrown 7 Two short versions of the tale were published in away by her co-wives, but later found but their English: ‘Rajkumari Sunkeshi: The Golden Haired father. As for the cretin brother, he is poisoned by Princess’ (Sharma 1978: 100-103), and ‘Golden- Golden Hair's co-wives, and resuscitated by his Haired Princess’ (Some Folk tales of Nepal 1968: sister. But he finally flies away into the sky, holding 11-13). And among the versions of the tale the legs of a falcon, singing, ‘my sister has poisoned published in Nepali, one may quote: Parajuli (2045 me.’ V.S. [1988]), Sunkesra, and ‘Lato ra bato ko katha’ 18 Sorathi is sung in several regions of northern (Vaidya, 2042 V.S. [1985]: 29-32) India, but it is not performed as is the case in Nepal, 8 The text and audio of a second version of the tale, where it includes dance. On this tradition, see entitled The Cretin Brother, which I recorded in Bandhu (2008). Achham district, may be accessed at the following 19 On the bardic tradition of western Nepal, see link: http://epopee.huma-num.fr/corpus.php (The Lecomte-Tilouine (2016). Cretin Brother, narrator Lal Sobha Tamauta). A 20 On the history of the kingdom of Doti, see Subedi third is also included on the same website, but the (1999). narrator's name was not collected, and her caste is 21 The recording and the text may be found at: unknown. http://epopee.huma-num.fr/corpus.php 9 In some versions, such as Vaidya (2042 V.S.), her 22 On the history of the kingdom of Jumla, see hair is extremely long, but not golden. Interestingly Adhikary (1998). in the version of the tale collected in Achham 23 The version published by Parajuli (1988) is worth district, which is very similar to the Vaidya version, mentioning here, although its origin is unknown. In the girl's hair, initially very long, turns golden after this version, after refusing to marry her brother, her incestuous marriage with her brother. the girl climbs onto a tree, gets rid of her kin 10 In the versions from Achham district, some other members and leaves with her younger brother, as relatives are involved in this episode. in most of the versions. She is then taken away by 11 Some Folk Tales of Nepal, 1968: 13. two soldiers, and when her younger brother finally 12 In a very similar version collected in a nearby finds where she is, he is killed by the two soldiers village, from a Brahmin woman, the brother and during a hunting party. Golden Hair has a vision of sister simply escape, and there is no mention of her brother, dancing, and understands that he was their transformation. killed. She runs away in the middle of the night and

96

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

and alliance, finds yet another formulation in this goes high in the mountain to hide in a cave. The version. story ends with these words (Parajuli 1988: 8): 24 On other forms of reversed identity assertion ‘Until now, she is staying there in the shining sun, among the Magar, see Lecomte-Tilouine (2010: waiting for the sun in the form of a prince to go and 131). take her.’ Golden Hair's association with the sun,

97

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

ARTICLE THE GLORIOUS DEATH OF KOTI AND CHENNAYA AND THE RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL INSPIRATION OF THE BILLAVA

BY MARINE CARRIN

Abstract: The Billava, once untouchables (toddy-tappers), are classed today among the OBC (Other Backward Castes) by the government of Karnataka. Nevertheless, the politics of representation practised by this once stigmatised community expresses itself through social struggles and ritualised identity assertions. The Billava, who formerly were excluded from the temples patronised by the high castes, have their own network of shrines which are not dedicated to the great gods of India, but to their valiant caste heroes who fought injustice. When, from around 1830, the Billava were converted by the Protestant missionaries of the Basel mission, they acquired education and improved their economic status. However, in the 1950s, the cult of the bhutas, which had been in decline, found a new impulsion, inspiring peasant revolts. Today, the issue for the Billava and other subaltern communities, is to democratise the bhuta cult, which was linked to the old Tulu chiefdoms, while foregrounding that they constitute the majority of the active labour force of the region; a strategy opposed to the regionalist movement led by the dominant Bunts. This article focuses on the heroic death of the Billavas’ twin heroes Koti and Chennaya, who are worshipped in special temples called garodis, gymnasiums where the Billava commemorate their martial past and perform their rites of passage. The reform of the garodis has been inspired by Billava intellectuals, like Babu Amin and Damodar Kalmady, who have stressed how these places of worship could exemplify equality and resistance.

Keywords: South India, resistance, religious reform, caste identity

This article aims to analyse the politics of chief. Traditionally, the village (uru) forms identity deployed by the Billava of South part or whole of the domain (magane), Kanara as a subaltern caste. South Kanara which was part of a larger region. The chief lies between the coast of the Indian Ocean of this region was the king, while the and the Western Ghats. Behind the coastal manors under him belonged to junior plain, there is a region of low hills where lines. the cultivated and forested valleys running The organization of society in Tulunadu is east to west are separated by dry ridges. not centred, as in other regions of India, The language of rural South Kanara is 1 on the dominant position of the Tulu, and the speakers of this language Brahmans, but on the prestigious position call the region Tulunadu. Each village may that the Jain and the Bunt occupy as be described as a cluster of scattered former chiefs and landlords. The Bunt, homesteads of tenants, cultivating rice who were formerly the soldiers of the and areca nuts, around the manor of a Jains, became rich and powerful during

98

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter the second half of the 16th century, when demand justice from the dominant Bunt. they bought some of the land of their While descendants of the chiefs try to impoverished Jain patrons. These lands control rural society, low castes like the were mainly worked by members of the Billavas still work for the Bunts, and Billava caste, originally toddy-tappers on endeavour to assert their identity in other the coast, an occupation which was ways, since they do not share the interests regarded as a highly impure. The Billavas of their old lords. Conflicts between the were more or less untouchables. Today, former landlords and low castes such as they are classified as an OBC (Other the Billavas are not uncommon, and often Backward Class). relate to labour issues (Carrin and Tambs- Nowadays, the old chiefdoms are still Lyche 2003). known and find their expression in the Some Billavas were serving as mediums bhuta cult. The bhutas form a pantheon (patris) in these and other bhuta cults, which include three hundred demi-gods. since the members of the caste are known Some among them have a human origin, for their ecstatic powers and their ability others stem from a mythic birth or have an to pronounce oracles. The Basel Mission, animal form (Carrin, 1999). The bhutas of influenced by the Pietist movement, and human origin fought during their life founded in Basel in 1815, established itself against the injustice of the landlords, in Mangalore in 1840 (Fischer 1906) and fighting for a noble cause before they succeeded in converting a number of decided to leave this world. Among these Billavas. The Billavas acquired education are the twin bhutas, Koti and Chennaya, through Christianity, and improved their worshipped by the Billavas who were economic status. As a result of turning toddy-tappers, a highly impure Christian, the Billavas had to abandon occupation. 2 They form, today, the main their social and ritual obligations and lost labour force of South Kanara and they are their tenancies as well as the protection of politically well represented. their Bunt patrons. The missionaries studied the Tulu language and culture, and they objected strongly to the Billavas’ The Billavas, worshippers of bhutas of performance of the bhuta cult, as the human origin rituals were associated with wild dancing, Under the patronage of small kingdoms, idolatry, drumming and blood sacrifices bhuta worship developed into an (Burnell 1894-1897). organised system. The rajandaivas or royal bhutas, who are celebrated during the The reform movement nema, a prestigious ritual, are still associated with the coronation ceremony At the turn of the twentieth century, of the local kings (Brückner 1995, Carrin Hindu reform movement3 emerged among and Tambs-Lyche 2003). The Bunts act as several low castes, to ‘purify’ their religion patrons of the rituals, and ask the bhutas, from rites involving blood sacrifice and through a low-caste medium, if he is libations of alcohol. These movements aim satisfied with the state of his domain. The at a higher status in the Hindu hierarchy. answers of the bhuta should contain One such reformer was Narayan guru, who divine justice beyond any social was born in Kerala among the Izhavas, a considerations. The medium who voices community which is the equivalent of the the bhuta’s answer may express the Billavas in Karnataka (Osella and Osella concerns of the oppressed castes and 2000). They, too, were toddy-tappers, and

99

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Narayan Guru argued that the Izhavas they may use different channels of should take up alternative employment. expression. Under the influence of his reform movement, the Billavas began to abandon toddy-tapping. The return of the bhutas Narayan Guru called the lower caste The Protestant missionaries of the Basel temples places of filth and superstition, Mission founded schools in Mangalore, and condemned the worship of fierce local Udupi and elsewhere. They started textile deities such as the bhutas. He replaced and tile factories, in which workers of both toddy and blood in the offerings with sexes could experience a new model of fruits and flowers (Lemercinier 1994:198). work (Prabekkar 1981). This social reform Izhava temples were replaced by shrines opened up access to professional training and ashrams. In 1897, the guru composed for many Billavas, who soon came to form his verses of self-instruction a new Protestant working class. (atmopadesha satakam), making Vedanta Nevertheless, the bhuta cult had not philosophy available to the masses. He disappeared, and the new converts had to formed an order of sanyasins (renouncers) endure the exactions of the non-converts and founded 21 temples in Kerala (Jeffrey as well as the opposition of the followers 1993:52). Narayan Guru’s slogan was ‘one of Guru Narayan. Among the Hindu caste, one belief, and one God for one Billavas and the Izhavas, access to a high man.’ He came to Mangalore in 1912, caste temple became a cornerstone and a where he founded a temple and an prominent symbol of the campaigns ashram. The temples celebrated the glory against caste discrimination, both in of Narayan Guru and had a mirror instead Kerala and in South Kanara. of statues, to inspire each devotee to find In the late 1950s, the bhuta cult found a God in himself. new meaning in the rural power structure, Many Billavas in South Kanara adopted his since several peasant revolts were at that reformist ideas. The new forms of worship, time identifying their struggles with the inspired by Vedic sacrifice, were Billava twins, Koti and Chennayya, as well applauded by the Billavas, who soon sent as with other low caste heroes, who devotees for religious training in Kerala. became symbols of resistance. Those The reforms of Narayan Guru extended to bhutas who had fought for justice could all domains of activity. However, as many return to inspire oracles and bring their Billavas had no land, it was not easy to divine justice to bear on the world (Claus leave toddy-tapping. Today, huge 1978, Nandavara 2001). differences of income exist between rich Billavas - who are part of the Tulu elite - Myth and ritual today and poor labourers. These differences can be explained by migration, since a number A particular political order had developed of Billavas went to work in Mumbai in the in the region, characterized by Jain kings 1930s, where they established themselves and Bunt chiefs who were devotees of the in catering. Later, many Billavas migrated royal bhutas. But the latter also represent to the Gulf to amass capital, and set up a moral order, which corresponds to the businesses on their return. In spite of political, since the justice of the bhutas these differences, all Billavas seem eager concerns everybody. Even the non-Tulu to assert their common values, although may discover that they must offer a cult to the bhutas attached to their land. 100

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Otherwise, the deities will torment them descendant of a line of darshan patris, and send illness and other evils. The Bunts Damodar Kalmody, have been would like to represent Tulu autochthony, instrumental. while Billavas or Gaudas (agriculturists) challenge Bunt dominance. These tensions are reflected in various epics in Tulu, called paddanas, such as the epic of Khoti and Chennaya. These poems represent the narrative frame of the ritual, which lasts at least one full night and involves a possession cult where mediums impersonate the different bhutas. But these poems also describe the labour of the subaltern castes, like the Billavas, who used to cultivate paddy and areca nuts in the fields of their landlords. Bhutas are the spirits of past heroes or heroines who often died a violent death (Claus 1979). They are frightening and destructive figures associated with the wilderness, whom only the just need not fear. These bhutas are supposed to sit in a court of justice in the other wold, a court which should serve as a model for a virtuous king, but they come back periodically and possess two kinds of Fig 1. Possessed priest, patri, at Garodi shrine, mediums. The first mediums are dancers, South Kanara. who enact the previous life of the bhutas while the epic poem is sung. The second kind of medium, the darshan 4 patri, Koti and Chennaya, the heroic twins reveals the ‘vision’ of the bhuta. Formerly, the Billavas were the traditional In the garodis,5 which are the temples of healers of the Tulu kings and chiefs. Koti the Billavas, dedicated to Koti and and Chennaya’s mother, Deyi Baydi, who Chennaya, the situation is different to that had been abandoned in the forest since of the royal bhutas, since the Billavas try she had her menses before marriage, to control the ritual role of the Bunt even knew the medicinal plants and succeeded if the latter still owns the land. We arrive in curing the chief when the latter’s life at a conflictual situation where the was in danger (Carrin 2008). She was subalterns try to take control of the rituals pregnant, and the chief promised her that performed in the garodis. I shall now he would donate land to her offspring. resume the story of the twins Koti and Later, she encouraged her sons to seek Chennaya, the deified heroes who have their fortune, since she knew they would become the champions of the Billava become heroes. caste, before turning to the reform of the The twins claim the land that the chief has garodis, inspired by different intellectuals, promised, and decide to offer buffalo among whom the poet Babu Amin and the races to the bhutas whose protection they

101

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter wish to attract. Then, they sow rather infertile lands, and with other exploits we understand that they have worked to transform the forest on the borders of the feudal kingdom. But the king’s vizir, 6 Budhiyanta, is jealous of the power of these upstarts, and to take revenge he beats the sacred buffaloes and the fighting cocks of the two brothers. This is a serious insult, since these sacred animals belong to the bhutas. The twins kill the vizir. The sons of Budhiyanta torment the twins to take revenge for their father’s death, and destroy Koti and Chennaya’s rice-fields. Then, Koti and Chennaya escape from the chiefdom, but are taken prisoners by the king of Panja. They escape again, and are given lands on the boundary of the chiefdom of Yenmor. They engage in the hunt that is one of the rituals to domesticate the land, and wound a boar, Fig 2. Terracotta fresco on Koti and Chennaya which they pursue across the border into Museum, South Kanara, Karkal. the forest belonging to the chief of Panja. This chief sends a boar, a sign of war, to the king of Yenmor, who has no choice but The story of Koti and Chennaya shows us to take up his arms. His forces are led by how the identity of the region is Koti and Chennaya. conceptualized through the idea of the They are close to victory over the superior forest which is cleared to become a feudal Panja forces, when, suddenly, Koti is wounded kingdom. It is important to stress that by an arrow treacherously shot from behind by while the kings are often perceived as the Pernamale king, the very one who had foreigners, like the Jains who came from been cured by Koti’s mother. Before dying, the North, the autochthonous and Koti blames the king who, ashamed, tries to laborious castes such as the Billavas, are commit suicide. When Chennaya sees his considered to be the most important brother dead, he breaks his head against a groups of the feudal kingdom in the Koti- rock, and the brothers go to the other world Chennaya epic poem. The heroes (maya).7 Here, Brahma tells them they shall be themselves symbolize the cultivation of his darshan patri, oracles, while the chiefs hear the territory since they do the agricultural the voice of the twins ordering them to build work and take care of irrigation. More garodis to honour Koti and Chennaya.8 Suicide importantly, the epic stresses that when implies leaving this world of illusion and the twin heroes received land from the injustice. It is a recurrent motive in the bhuta king, the minister who was jealous of them epics, where twins share the same destiny submerged the rice-fields and destroyed after death and represent a superior justice the crops. But the twin heroes killed the which is true (satya) (Carrin 1999, in press, a). minister, fled the kingdom and got new rice-fields. They fought for this chief in an

102

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter epic battle, which has become a metaphor others, for various reasons, have a special of the struggle of the oppressed. fame. This might be due to the ability of the possessed patri to utter oracular pronouncements, or to the beauty of the 9 The meaning of the death of the heroes ritual performed in the shrine. The epic poem of Koti and Chennaya As noted above, many of the garodis are represents Tulu society and its values, still controlled by high-caste patrons. from the perspective of the Billavas. It While it may be impossible to get rid of shows us a world where the Billavas try to this patronage, Billavas may still influence stress their importance but where they the management of the shrine, which is often feel excluded. In this respect, the above all a ‘gymnasium,’ a place where poem shows the acceptance of the only Billavas can perform the martial hierarchy, where the dominated try to dance which pleases the twin martyrs. limit the power of the dominant, without rejecting the hierarchy and the caste The ritual reform aims at standardizing the system completely. Koti and Chennaya ritual style of Billava worship and the symbolise the region as land cleared for furnishing of the garodis, and to establish cultivation. Formerly, Billavas were in Billava control of all the garodis. charge of defending the boundaries of the ‘Each garodi must have six pillars, little kingdoms. Today, Billava friends will and its entrance should face East. take you to the forest of Pernamale, to Each shrine is built around a central show you the places where the twins fell. pillar (kamcha) and has ideal The birthplace of the twins is well known measurements. 10 The three levels and the place of their death marked by of the altar evoke the elements, two highly venerated tombs. Their sister earth, air, fire, ether, hot, cold and Kinnidaru, who has joined them in death, the seven cakra of (the) body. The is venerated as protecting women from devotee should concentrate his infertility. vision on Brahma or Bermerlu and Tulu historians and archaeologists have meditate on the courage of the discovered different statues of the heroes, heroes, to get the cosmic energy and argue passionately about the (Shakti) of the Goddess who is authenticity of these reinvented vestiges. represented by Kinidaru, who is the The cult of the twin brothers is celebrated sister of the twins.’ all over Tulunadu in 217 garodis which are The ritual which takes place in the shrines visited by pilgrims inspired to follow the consists of vegetarian offerings example of the twin heroes and fight for (devakryas) and is called vrata dare, which social justice. implies that the patri must abstain from eating meat and fish for seven days before the ritual, in order to be able to give the The ritual reform of the garodis darshan of Koti and Chennaya through his The garodis are hierarchised, and the most possession. He should also abstain from important of them is probably Pangala, sex during this period. which used to function as a military school Among the Billavas, twins or brothers may for the youth. Some of these shrines be called by Koti and Chennaya and thus belong to important Billava families whose implicitly be destined to become ancestors had judicial powers, while mediums, an appeal which may become

103

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter imperious. The rituals performed in the of Tulu society, although many households garodi concern both men and women and have become patrilineal due to relate to puberty, marriage, pregnancy, government pressure. and funerals. Without entering into detail The naming ceremony pudar depini (‘give here, let me stress that these rituals affirm a name’) takes place on the 16th day after the identity of all Billavas, who need not birth. To perform this ritual, the maternal pay any fee to the patris. In the feminine uncle carries the baby and places it in a rituals it is stressed that Kinnidaru, the decorated cradle. Then he utters the name sister of the heroes, is wearing a scythe on he has chosen for the baby. In some cases, her waist, to protect herself from the some respectable grandmother may name sexual assaults of high caste men. the baby. The madhivalti (washerman caste) woman who has bathed mother and We may ask how devotees internalise the child will receive some clothes, including virtues of the twin heroes. There are the cloth she has used when she cut the several paths to salvation: while couples umbilical cord (dara) with a bark. Then celebrate diverse rites of passage in the sihi, ‘non-vegetarian food,’ will be served garodi, young men may meditate on the in front of the shrine. figure of a renouncer, Jogi Purusa, who is The coming of age ritual for a girl is present in each shrine and is linked to the performed when she has menstruated for Jogi Math of Kadri (the sect of the the first time. She is given a bath by a Kanphata or Nath yogis). 11 The rituals maldhivalti on the seventh day after her performed at the garodis aim at protecting menses. She is then decorated like a bride, the devotees who receive the blessing of and the washerwoman will draw a Koti and Chennaya. mandala or a rangoli with white flour. The concept of garodi should express the After the puja, the girl sits on a plank, and equality of all Billavas, explains Mr a plantain leaf is held on her head (bareda Kalmady, a Billava activist. But there iri). The priest pours sacred water on her should not simply be lip-service paid to head, and the pujari gives her the 12 this equality, and this is why the pingara of areca flowers to decorate her community should provide a salary to the hair. Then the girl is symbolically taught 13 darshan patris, the possessed priests who how to cook (kara patauni). The girl are forbidden from taking up any mundane should then be given a new cloth by her work, as they are the guardians of the maternal uncle, as well as some special Tradition. Some Billavas have suggested food, including a blood purifier made of that their priests should receive a small jaggery, ginger, sesame seeds and salary from the government, similar to the coconut. The role of the maternal uncle case of Protestant priests in some used to signify that he had a right to retain countries. By doing so, the government, the girl as a wife for his son, a custom they say, would acknowledge the garodis which is not frequently observed today. To as the places of worship of the Billavas. conclude the ceremony, the maldhivalti and all the guests will be given festive food. Rituals performed at the garodis In annual rituals, Billava families bring I shall briefly summarise the most their children to the garodi to be blessed important rituals performed in the garodi by the mediums of Koti and Chennaya. which still emphasize the matrilineal ethos During these annual rituals of protection,

104

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter a male medium impersonates Deyi Baideti, Babu Amin was born in Bannanje, near the mother of the twins, who blesses the Udupi in 1945 as the last of nine children. children one by one and foretells their He received a middle school education and future in a few words. went to work as a clerk in a medical Death rituals, ‘saavu,’ still take place in college. In 1977, he went to Mumbai, the garodi. The mourners take the body of where he worked in the office of a the deceased to the courtyard of the chemical firm, and in other jobs. shrine. The washerwoman acts as a Though he was unable to find a permanent funeral priest and bathes the body of the job in Mumbai, Babu Amin acquired fame deceased. The nephews of the departed in other fields. He became a writer and a apply a mixture of coconut and turmeric yaksagana 15 artist. His involvement in powder to the corpse. To conclude the religious activities was important since he ceremony, the relatives pour sacred water was able to perform the legendary story of to include the deceased among the the deity Sanni (Shani) 16 whose follower ancestors. Then they share a meal of rice he had become. Similarly, the Tulu poet and boiled vegetables. proved himself able to act as a mediator Engagement rituals can be performed in (madipu), to interpret the oracle of the the garodis, but marriages are generally bhutas. These different abilities inspired celebrated in Guru Narayana temples, him to write on Koti and Chennaya when where special priests trained in Kerala he was living in Mumbai, between 1978 perform Vedic rituals on behalf of the and 1990. couple. Rural Billavas do not seem to feel After the publication of this story, he any contradiction in worshipping in the began research on the garodis dedicated Guru Narayana temple when they go to to the twin heroes (with a team of town, although they patronize the garodi fieldworkers), and published a book with of their own village. Billavas living in towns Mohan Kotiar, recording their results like Mangalore might choose either to (Babu Amin and Mohan Kotiar 1990). One pray in the garodi or in the Guru Narayana of the aims of the study was also to clarify temple. Both places of worship emphasise which of the garodis were managed by the the values of equality, courage and Billava, and which ones were still under resistance. Bunt influence. The rites of passage and the rites of As Babu Amin told me17, commenting on protection performed in the garodis are the epic poem of Koti and Chennaya: associated with matrilineal values. But the ‘When one plays with a competitive mind, main rituals in the garodis are the bhuta the result is a disaster. Koti and Chennaya kolas, the rituals performed annually in win because the minister’s sons have honor of Koti and Chennaya. Preeminent played tricks and the competition stands Billava families may own a garodi or have for the deep rivalry between Koti and a ritual connection with their ancestors’ Chennaya and the minister’s sons, who village shrine. In some cases, as for Babu would like to become kings and fear the Amin, this ritual privilege might orient the power of Koti and Chennaya, who are in engagement of the devotee. the king’s favour.’ Koti and Chennaya as perfect twins are not rivals but feel solidarity, and this quality is important for 14 Bannanje Babu Amin, poet and writer the Billava as an oppressed community (Carrin 2012).

105

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Promoting the architectural reform of the mediums. Some of these stories relate to garodis, the Billava tried to gain monopoly bhutas of human origin who were made to over their shrines, as they felt they had suffer like Kordababbu. Kordababbu was been excluded from the ‘big temples.’ an orphan boy adopted by a certain Babu Amin told me how he remembers Kodanga Bannara. But the boy was pushed being beaten by Bunt men as a boy, for into a well, which was sealed by a villain having sneaked into a big temple from a higher caste. Then Kordababbu was dedicated to Shiva. Since that day, he rescued by a low caste maiden, swore to himself that ‘the Billavas had Thannimaniga. Later, both renounced better worship their heroes in their their physical existence and entered the garodis rather than entering Hindu other world (maya). In many of these folk temples where they were not welcome.’ poems, the heroes leave the world when The Billava, who used to be excluded from they can no longer contain their anger, the temples patronized by the high castes, and sometimes they try to destroy their have their own network of shrines which class enemies, ultimately leaving a world are not dedicated to the great gods of where they feel they have no real place. India, but to Koti and Chennaya. The issue, This ritually conveyed knowledge has for the Billava, is to democratize the bhuta inspired Babu Amin’s awareness of the cult, which was linked to the old Tulu humiliations endured by his caste-fellows. chiefdoms, while foregrounding that they Babu Amin’s other books relate other tales constitute the majority of the active of exploitation, when low castes heroes labour force of the region; a strategy and heroines meet an unjust death and opposed to the regionalist movement led become deified. Other books, such as by the high castes. Nudikatte, published in 2006, contain prayers to the bhutas and oracular Babu Amin as a ritual expert and a critic pronouncements. This book classifies the of reinvented rituals bhutas according to their mode of worship and discusses the kind of offerings one Babu Amin’s family had a historical should make to these deities. This book connection with the Kadekar Kidyoor has become a kind of guidebook in Tulu garodi where his elders had the honour of rituals and is very popular. Other works by being addressed by the Koti and Chennaya Babu Amin include novels and short mediums at the time of the annual stories which attempt to capture village festival. When he was thirteen, he had the life. Babu Amin felt the need to found his privilege of carrying the challanageije (a own publishing house to publish his books. brief worn by the priest medium at a Later, he founded two awards to be possession ritual) from the house of a Bunt presented to outstanding persons in the family located near his house in Bananje to field of Tulu folklore: one for research and the temple dedicated to the folk deity, the other for an exceptional folklore artist. 18 Kollapu Pancha Dhumavati. The same Dooja Poojary (2010), who has written a year, he learned to officiate as an short biography of Babu Amin, underlines interlocutor (madipu) during the bhuta how the poet has revived Tulu folklore kola. Later on, Babu Amin reflected on this (janapada) for which a commemorative ritual knowledge in some of his books, volume was published in his honour in including Daivagala Madidalli (Amidst Folk 2003. I should stress that Babu Amin Deities, 2002) which includes the stories represents an interesting interpretation of of six bhutas, told to him by different the revival of the bhuta cults since he

106

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter explains in his work why Billava should ornaments instead of flowers in the worship their caste champions. For the costumes of the mediums, and spoil the Tulu poet, this worship represents an act village rituals. of resistance, since it allows the Billava to This criticism also concerns the so-called stand apart from the other Hindus in the modernization of the garodis by applying region - an attitude that, however, some excessive marble ornamentation on the Billava contest. old wooden structures of the shrines that In his writing, Babu Amin has criticized the wealthy Billava control. The main disputes attempt to impose alien elements on the over the control of garodis concern the traditional Tuluva culture. Thus he leadership of the shrine since the caste criticises the new custom of consulting an members who obtain leadership will be astrologer to fix an auspicious day for able to impose their views on ritual presenting a sari and flowers to the matters as well as taking decisions expectant mother at the pregnancy concerning the renovation of the shrine. ceremony in the garodi (Nudikatte 2007:18). 19 He also disapproves of the practice where a pregnant woman should A dispute in Yermal garodi touch the feet of the elders of the family, Two darshan patris (possessed mediums) to seek their blessing - a symbolic gesture were contesting the leadership of the ‘which tortures the lady.’ The poet has garodi of Yermal, a village on the coastal also raised his voice in favour of widows, area. The dispute was about the telling me that today, a woman becoming “improvement” of the garodi. One a widow is capable of deciding herself if darshan patri was from Yermal, another she wants, or not, to remove her bangles, was from Sude, a neighbouring village. arguing against the authoritarian elders Both wanted the leadership in order to who, too often, constrain the woman as a impose their views. widow. The British helped renovate the garodi in More generally, Babu Amin has protested 1936, but since then only minor repairs against the introduction of Vedic rites in have been carried out. The patri from Sude Tulu funerals, and he laments the new wanted to modernise the shrine ‘in a custom of going to Gokarna (a holy place moderate way’ by taking contributions in the Uttara Kannada district) to immerse from the people, and he presented his the bones and ashes of the dead. These view as ‘democratic’ and in accordance Vedic procedures, says Babu Amin, have with the policy of the Billava caste now entered the shrines of Koti and association (Sangha). The other patri, Chennaya, and he denounces the Vedic from Yermal, wanted to involve the Iruena priests (sometimes Brahmans) who have family, rich Bunts who had made money in changed the nature of the bhutas. They Mumbai. One day, they were discussing were protective but have been turned into the matter inside the garodi when a punishing deities. Other criticisms concern representative of the Iruena family the astrological calculations in use in declared that they wanted to do Hindu temples which have now been everything alone. He argued that Mrs. introduced in the garodis. But Babu Amin Harinidamar, one lady of their family, had is even more critical of the newly rich already given money. To settle the matter, among the Billava who indulge in the darshan patri said that he would look ostentation, have introduced silver at the vegetal offerings brought by the

107

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter devotees (areke), become possessed, and they have accomplished social reforms tell the truth. A Billava friend who had through their caste association. taken me to the shrine, thought it would Preeminent personalities, such as Babu be better if everybody contributed to the Amin, have played a decisive role in the renovation, otherwise, he said, ‘people caste association. This shows that the will not come anymore to the garodi: It same person may well be involved in ritual will become a private place only.’ reforms and in social work. In 1988, Babu Then, the Pangala gudde family, influential Amin became a member of the Billava Billavas who control the Pangala garodi, association in Mumbai, which had been where Billava youth once received their formed in 1932. In 1991 he became a Joint military training, entered the dispute Secretary of the Association, and saying ‘they would also do it.’ More than introduced revolutionary changes in its five lakh rupees was needed to renovate policy by working for the development of the shrine, and they had only 48 days to the Bharat Cooperative, sponsored by the finish the work, before celebrating an Association. As an editor of Akshaya, he important ritual in February. Both the rich wrote columns for the journal on different families wanted to finish the work quickly, aspects of Tulu village life, and although ninety per cent of the people encouraged the emergence of Tulu writers thought it would be better to finance the from the Billava community. In the 1990, improvements from contributions from Babu Amin returned to Udupi to gather the people. ethnographic material on garodis, and The ‘dispute was discussed’ (panchattige) founded a Trust for the Cultural Study of but could not be settled, and a new ritual Brahma Baidarkalu, a term alluding to Koti had to be performed. In other words, the and Chennaya since Baidarkalu is the decision was to wait for the oracular family deity of the twin. pronouncement of the mediums of Koti Among other Billava personalities, I would and Chennaya. Then a rich devotee from like to mention Mr Damodar Kalmady, who the Iruena family brought two bronze idols has been instrumental in developing the of the twin heroes in a basket and offered Billava Cooperative Bank, and has them to the garodi. This donation meant, launched saving programmes aimed at implicitly, that the Iruena family wanted to fighting poverty among the Billavas by take control of the shrine. After the providing funds to support unemployed ceremony to install the idols had been caste members. performed inside the shrine, some of my Billava companions said they have been cheated once more by the Bunt and their Damodar Kalmady and the Adi-Udupi money, and they felt dispossessed of their association place of worship. Mr. Kalmady speaks in terms of class, This story shows us how the rich Bunts or although ethnicity and identity are always Billavas try to maintain monopoly of the present in his mind. In 2004, he received management of the shrines, by giving me for the first time in the Adi-Udupi sumptuous donations, in spite of the fact Centre and showed me photographs of that the garodis stand for the two heroes, various Billava personalities who were who struggled for equality and justice. influential in the caste association Many Billavas feel they have fought for (sangha). 20 Then he commented on the social justice, and proudly declare that financial report of the sangha which was

108

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter positive, and had generated funds for conform to Tradition and made ‘authentic’ supporting widows. Like Babu Amin, Mr. by the intervention of the Billavas, an Kalmady claims that his ancestors near operation which is too costly for a single Malpe were serving as mediums (patris) in patron. These ‘authentic’ (eyade) garodis garodis. Several times he repeated that he allow for the emergence of a collective felt very “emotional” towards Koti and sponsor, the Billava community, which Chennaya, whose folk-epic he recorded then opposes the traditional leadership. and published in Kannada, and then in Unfortunately, adds Mr Kalmady: ‘Billava English, translated by S.N. Poojari (2007). donors from Mumbai have contributed to Mr. Kalmady not only recorded the folk- the renovation of the shrines, but some of epic, he also added valuable footnotes to them have been tempted to play patrons, the book which introduces the reader to and this has led to disputes.’ As we have the semantics of the Tulu language and to seen with the example of the Yermal the atmosphere of the folk epic. garodi, the Billava try to solve this type of Mr. Kalmady has supported the ritual conflict by consulting the oracle, who reform of the garodis, and founded the generally expresses the wish of the deities Adi-Udupi association, where Billava to institute collective sponsorship! In writers and intellectuals meet some cases, however, the Billava who periodically. The Adi-Udupi association wants to become the patron seeks the has received the support of Billava arbitration of Bunt or Brahman patrons, a politicians such as Vinayak Kumar Sorake, class strategy. Reproducing the hierarchy Member of Parliament, who has been a sometimes seems unavoidable and many left-wing Congress minister. Mr Kalmady Billavas stress that devotees from high explains why the cult of Koti and Chenneya castes are welcome, although they try to is crucial to the Billavas: ‘Four hundred restrict the entry of castes lower than years ago, the Billavas had no god for their themselves to the garodis. caste, and we needed some representatives in the other world; Koti A museum in honour of the twin heroes, and Chennaya were obvious for this since a secular project? they had fought injustice. As we give a seat to our political leaders like Mr Sorake, More recently, there has been tension they needed a seat in our heart, they between Billava intellectuals who have needed a real cult.’ taken different positions with regard to the promotion of Billava identity. While Here, the ritual reform is thought of in a Babu Amin expresses his ideas through his terms of a political idiom where the deities books, Mr. Kalmady, although he shares have a seat like politicians. The ritual Babu Amin’s position on the reform of the reform implies that the Billavas try to gain garodis, prefers to involve himself in the leadership of all shrines where Koti ‘secular projects,’ such as the and Chennaya are worshipped, a step establishment of a museum in honour of which opposes the Billava to the former Koti and Chennaya. patrons of shrines owned by Bunts or Brahmans. One of the strategies of Mr In 2012, Mr Kalmady began a theme park Kalmady and his friends has been to project near Karkal, after having received promote architectural reform of the a large piece of land and a considerable garodis, sponsored by the Billavas sum of money from the State, thanks to themselves. The shrines must be rebuilt to the intervention of Billava politicians. From the point of view of the State, it was

109

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter important to allow more visibility to the establishment of a museum is also, for the Billava in the public sphere since they are Billavas, an effort to place themselves in numerous and include several active the view of others. Clearly, the museum in politicians. On another level, the site Karkal, which is still in progress, is aimed chosen for the museum, in the suburbs of at staging Billava identity. the little town of Karkal seemed Outside in the park, two huge statues of appropriate, as it was already well-known the twin heroes have been erected. for its ancient Jain temples. With the help However, these are not merely sculptures, of a committee including a few Billava and as Mr Kalmady explained to me; their eyes other intellectuals, the committee had a had been ritually opened, which means house built in the Tulu palatial style to that Koti and Chennaya are present in the shelter the collections, which included park. My Billava friends told me that the mainly antique wooden sculptures of huge statues of the twin heroes which bhutas that Mr Kalmady had saved from 21 dominate the landscape would now stand destruction. for centuries, prompting me to conclude Inside the museum, we find thirty-eight that they were trying to inscribe the paintings, created by Uttar Kannada statues of their heroes on the religious artists. These artists, working under the landscape of Tulunadu, till then direction of the Billava intellectuals, have dominated by the impressive statue of the painted the most important events of Koti Jain Bahubali of Karkala. and Chennaya‘s life. A number of artefacts But the choice of Karkal, an old Jain capital exhibited in the museum evoke the rural dominated by Jain architectural life of Tulunadu. Other initiatives include monuments, evokes the past splendour of a huge terracotta fresco adorning the the Jain kings, which is revived when the outer wall of the museum, describing the Jain Bahubali festival is performed from different stages of agricultural work in time to time. Karkal is already a touristic order to celebrate manual labour, and to place. When I visited the museum in 2014, express the beauty of the landscape and I understood that there was a shortage of the value of rural life. In the same vein, the money to prepare the building to receive park is planned to include a garden of visitors. Then, I understood that the medicinal plants to alert the visitor to the situation was blocked due to the criticism value of indigenous knowledge, since the of Billavas from the Southern part of the Billava were the doctors of the Tulu rulers. district (the native place of the twin This park does not yet exist, but Mr. heroes). The opponents of the Adi-Udupi Kalmady and his friends have prepared its association argued that Koti and design, and created a model of it. Chennaya’s story had taken place in the Inside the museum, a small garodi South and that a ‘Billava Museum’ located dedicated to Koti and Chennaya has been in Karkal had no meaning or relevance. erected to show the beauty of its Several Billava intellectuals in Mangalore, architecture. As Mr. Kalmady tells me, including Protestants, declared they ‘this garodi is smaller (than usual) but its would not visit the Karkal museum, since proportions are respected. It is a museum it had no connection with the history of piece: it is desacralised. It is there to show the twin heroes. other people, even Muslims, how we pray I found the Museum very impressive and I to our caste heroes.’ I felt this statement felt the opponents to the Karkal Museum was particularly apt since it shows how the might be lending too much importance to

110

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter the local links of the heroes. It seemed said, represented perhaps the passionate important to me that there was a museum wish of Mr Kalmady and his friends, who to represent Billava identity. Then I heard had tried to translate their religious of another project which made me fervour into a museum. When I raised the wonder. In 2014, we were invited to a historical argument with Mr Kalmady, he panchayat meeting in Puttur, in the replied: ‘Nonsense! Koti and Chennaya are Southern part of the district, involving pervading our lives, their presence cannot various personalities, to discuss the be limited to these historical places, they project of a Billava Museum complex are everywhere!23’ which was to be sponsored by the State government.22 This new project included a building, a guest-house and other facilities Conclusion as well as a kind of ritual itinerary to the Cultural productions of subaltern different places where Koti and Chennaya communities have wrought a new set of had lived, fought and died. This second discursive formations, which convey the project was even more ambitious, since it idea that ideologies framing cultural acts included a kind of memory trip that the and events are meaningful tools of protest visitors would be invited to perform, and assertion. For Mr Kalmady, it was sharing with the Billava the sacredness of imperative to start a museum, and to save the various places where the twin heroes the wooden statues from destruction. He had been living and fighting. Curiously, obtained land in Karkal and began his nobody protested that this second project. When I asked him how he felt museum would reduplicate the one in about his Billava opponents, he answered: Karkal. When I raised that point, my ‘I come from a line of possessed priests Billava interlocutors told me it would not (patri). I have Koti and Chennaya in my be the same thing at all, since only the blood, I have “seen” the Museum in dream second project could become a pilgrimage and we have made it.’ Here, the visionary for the Billava. scenario legitimates the cultural assertion. Although the project was approved and The politics of representation involves partly financed, it proved difficult to subalterns as actors of their own expropriate the land where the museum performances, rituals, commemorations was going to be built. One year later, and literature, leading to a series of nobody was sure that this project, questions. Do these productions reflect approved by different political parties and only subjectivities, or do they allow by the municipality of Puttur, would ever subalterns to negotiate the limits they come to fruition. Of course, the second perceive between mainstream and museum project was supported by non- indigenous epistemologies? Social actors Billava as well, on the simple ground that like Babu Amin or Damodar Kalmady are ‘this was a meaningful place’ for the deeply involved in Billava religiosity, but Billava, a place close to the big temple of they have also contributed to combating Subramanian, which had potential for exclusion and poverty. With the support of tourism. In other words, the second politicians, these intellectuals try to exalt project was more like a government the Billava identity through the renewal of enterprise, but the politicians were keen the bhuta cult, challenging the higher to stress that the project was more castes such as the Bunt who would like to coherent from a historical viewpoint than control the shrines of the two heroes. The the museum in Karkal. The latter, they Billava intellectuals have founded

111

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter journals, and published folk epics and tradition, what Fiernup-Riordan (2000: other literature, attempting, sometimes, 167) calls a ‘conscious culture,’ performed to follow a more secularist path in old and new contexts and asserted represented by the work of the caste against the historical experience of loss association and the politicians. and stigma. The politics of representation concerns But while Billava elites succeed in gaining the deployment of a subaltern presence in an amount of recognition from other the cultural field, a presence which is not communities, individual households and fortuitous, but political. For example, local communities continue to jostle for Babu Amin often lamented the fact that he positions in local configurations where had to finance the publication of his books power and prestige are inseparable, and himself, contrary to higher caste writers where high-caste patrons impose their who received prizes from the Tulu Sahitya view. Caste identity is still reproduced Academy. Ultimately, Babu Amin received with a certain stigma. Billava, whether a reward from the Tulu academy in 2006 in toddy-tappers, possessed priests (patris), recognition of his literary contribution to intellectuals, or politicians, remain in a Tulu culture, but he felt that this low position in relation to other acknowledgment ignored his main claim, communities in the region, and are still that the poor Billavas were still oppressed. stigmatized. As Billava elites continue to We must ask, finally, whether the Billavas forge alliances, the poor are easily have succeeded in staging a politics of targeted by the high caste and the Hindu representation capable of addressing the right. As we have seen, individual State, while articulating their political initiatives show new ways of staging rights. In other words, (Prabekkar 1981) identity through museums or literature have these cultural performances helped that aim to present a more secularist the Billavas to gain more visibility in civil image of the caste to a larger audience. But we have also seen that the Billavas society? While the ritual reform of the garodis expresses the need to worship need to share among themselves the separately to remove the old stigma theodicy of suffering which has produced attached to Billava presence in Hindu the twin heroes, and which expresses temples, the attempt to create museums itself through the ritual importance they showcasing Billava identity expresses the accord to their garodis. desire to show the community’s achievements to a wider audience. Personalities such as Babu Amin and Damodar Kalmady have understood that References tradition is never neutral as Clifford (2004: Babu Amin, B., 1982. Koti Chennaya. Published by the 8) stresses, since it documents a Author. English translation: The Tale of the Twin rearticulated identity which, here, Warriors (2009): Bangalore: Sahitya Akademi. becomes a process of emergence of Billava Briggs, G.W., (1938) 1989. Goraknath and the Kanphata intellectuals. As we have seen, the Billava Yogis, Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass. Burnell, A.C., 1894-1897. “Devil Worship of the Tuluvas heritage work includes oral and historical from the papers of the late A.C. Burnell”, in M. research, language description, pedagogy, Temple (ed.), Indian Antiquary, 23-26. and cultural evocation through museums Brückner, H., 1995. Fürstliche Feste, Texte und Rituale and reinvented rituals. For the Billava, der Tulu Volksreligion an der Westküste Südeindiens, heritage becomes a self-conscious Neuindische Studien 12, Wiesbaden: Harassowitz.

112

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Carrin, M., 1999. “Les multiples bouches de la vérité, la Fienup-Riordan, A., 2000. Hunting Tradition in aa possession des médiums au Karnataka,” in J. Assayag Changing World: Yup’ik Lives in Alaska Today. New and G. Tarabout (eds.), La Possession en Asie du Sud, Brunswick: Rutgers University Press Purusartha 21. Paris: EHESS: 382-420. Fischer, G., 1906. Erquickung auf der Wege. Carrin, M., 2012. “The Billavas of Karnataka and the Missionsarbeit auf der Station Karkala 1898- Santals of Orissa: Two Peripheries Asserting their 1904. Basel: Verlag der Basler Missionsbuchhandlung. Position Towards the Center”, in M. Carrin and L. Hardgrave R.L., 2006. The Nadars of Talminad, The Guzy (eds.), Voices from the Periphery: Subalternity Political Culture of a Community in Change, Delhi: and Empowerment in India. Delhi: Routledge: 203- Manohar. 224. Jeffrey, R., 1993. “Politics, Women and Well-Being: How Carrin, M. in press (a). “La mort dramatique des Kerala Became “A Model”? Delhi: Oxford University jumeaux déifiés en pays Tulu”, in C.Bonnet, N. Press. Belayche et M. Albert-LLorca (eds.), Puissancess Kalmady D., 2007. (ed.) Epic of the Warriors (Koti Divines à l’épreuve du comparatisme : constructions, Chennaya Pardana) translated into English by S. variations et réseaux relationnels, Turnhout : : Narayan and D. Poojary, Chennai: National Folklore Brepols Publishers. Support Centre. Carrin, M. in press (b) “The Twin Martyrs of our Destiny: Lemercinier, G., 1994. Religion and Ideology in Kerala. the Billava Reappropriation of a Possession Cultt Centre Tricontinental: Louvain la Neuve and (Karnataka, India)”, in M. Sanyal, and G. Bailey (eds.), Trivandrum. Religion, Caste, Tribe and Gender: Essays on Society, Nandavara, V., 2001. Kooti Cennaya Folkloristics Study, Culture and Development in India, Hyderabad: Mangalore: Hemamshu Prakashana. Orient Blackswan. Osella F., Osella, C., 2000. Social Mobility in Kerala, Carrin, M. forthcoming. “Staging Billava identitiess Modernity and Identity in Conflict, London: Pluto : through Museums in South Kanara”. Poojari, S., Dooja, N., (2010) Bannanje Babu Amin, A Carrin, M. and Tambs-Lyche, H., 2003. “You Don't Joke Barefoot Folklorist, Udupi : Kemmalaje Janapada with These Fellows: Power and Ritual in South Prakashana. Kanara, India”, Social Anthropology, 11(1), 23-42. Prabekkar, J., 1981. The History of the Basel Mission, Claus, P., 1978. “Heroes and Heroines in the Conceptual Ph.D dissertation submitted in 1981 at Mangalore Framework of Tulu Culture”, Journal of Indian University. Folkloristics, 1-2. Upadhyaya, U.P. 1988 to 1997. Tulu Lexicon. Tulu- Claus, P., 1979. “Spirit Possession and Spiritt lGovinda Pai Samshodana Kendra. Mediumship from the Perspective of Tulu Oral Traditions” , Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry, 3, 29-52. Clifford, J., 2004. “Looking Several Ways Anthropology Books (Tulu): and Native Heritage in Alaska”, Currentt Babu Amin, 2002. Daivagala Madillali (Amidst Semi-t Anthropology, 45(1), 5-30. Babu Amin, 200-. Nudikatte (Tulu ritual Prayers) Dube, S., 1998. Untouchable Pasts: Religion, Identity, narration in Kannada and prayers in Tulu. and Power among a Central Indian Babu Amin and Mohan Kotiar (1990) Tulunada Community,1780-1850, New York: Albany State Garodigala Samskrita Adhyayana, Adi-Udupi University. association: AdI Udupi.

Notes although some communities have their particular dialect such as Brahmin or Jain Tulu, while the 1 Tulu belongs to the Dravidian family and is spoken Girijan dialect is spoken by various subaltern by around 2 million people. Although Kannada, the communities. The total number of Billavas, official language of Karnataka State, is used in including those living in other regions, is about two education and administration, Tulu is the native to two and a half million. In South Kanara, they language and lingua franca of South Kanara district, speak common Tulu. which is therefore called Tulunadu. Tulu does not have a script of its own, but possesses a rich oral 2 The OBC (Other Backward Classes) are not tradition. For more details, see Upadhyaya S.P. classified as Scheduled Castes (SC) like the ex- 1988-1997. Dialect variations are mainly regional, untouchables, but are considered as subalterns in

113

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

16 The cult of the Nine Planets (Navagraha), which opposition to the dominant castes. The Billavas includes Shani (Saturn), is present in the region as have been considered untouchables by the it is in Tamilnadu were temples are dedicated to dominant castes because they were toddy- the Navagrahas. Shani, being inauspicious, is tappers. Their conversion to Protestantism propitiated to avoid evil eye at small shrines where allowed them to escape the stigma of male devotees sing bhajans in honour of Shani to untouchability. Other OBC in India share the same ward off evil influences. kind of status and feel superior to the Scheduled 17 tribes or Adivasis, who number 100 million people I met Babu Amin in October 2003, although I had and often consider themselves outside the caste started field-work in South Kanara in 1995. Later, I system. often met Babu Amin, who was selling his books in front of the garodis, and was very keen to explain 3 This a pan-Indian phenomenon, see Dube (1998) his views to me regarding his community. I have for the Chamar of Uttar Pradesh or Hardgrave met Babu Amin several times since 2012, to clarify (2006) for the Nadars of Tamilnadu. some points concerning the worship in the garodis 4 The term darshan, here, refers to the divine vision or to get some details on the Billava community. of the bhuta that the medium conveys to the Babu Amin does not conceal that some rich Billavas devotees. have forgotten their caste-fellows and generally he feels that the Billavas have not benefited enough 5 A term which means a gymnasium. from social mobility. 6 This term, of Persian origin, is used in the Tulu 18 Dhumavati is a rajan daiva (royal bhuta) and a epic. sanskritic deity associated with many temples and 7 In Tulu, the term maya (illusion) takes another shrines in Tulunadu. meaning. Nichter (1977) explains that in Tulu, 19 My thanks to Mr Jaya Shankar, a Billava lawyer maya corresponds to the non- manifested, the who has helped me to understand some of Babu latent and is opposed to joga, ‘the manifest.’ The Amin’s books. expression mayee means ‘he vanished, he became 20 a bhuta,’ since these deities merge with maya I thank Mr Kalmady and the Billava of the Adi- when they do not manifest. Udupi association who have generously given me their time and attention. 8 For a version of the folk-epic, see Damadar 21 Kalmady (2003, 2012). See also the studies of It is customary to discard religious sculptures Nandavara (2001) and Babu Amin (1982). (murti) into the sea when they develop small defects and become unfit for worship. 9 My interpretation is mainly based on Kalmady 22 (2012) and Babu Amin (1982). I thank Prof. Krishnaiah from the Regional 10 ‘Koti and Chennaya have established the ideal Resources Centre for Folklore MGM College, for measurements of the shrine, the breath of which having taken us to this interesting meeting in should equal half of its length and half of its height. Puttur and for the explanations he provided. These measurements are ideal for wrestling but 23 To my knowledge, nothing has been published they are not always followed nowadays…’ on the history of these museums, apart from a 11 On Kanphata Yogis, see Briggs (1938) (1989). small brochure published by Tukaram Poojari, professor of history, who has organized the 12 In botanical terms the pingara is the Museum of Queen Abbaka in Bantwal, along with inflorescence of the areca flower (Areca catechu, his wife and some friends. This museum has L.) received some support from V. Hegde of 13 The term kara means a pot and symbolizes both Dharmasthala, who is a Jain ex-prince and an the cooking and the procreative powers of the girl. important local personality. For the museums and the staging of identities in South-Kanara, see Carrin 14 I express my gratitude to Babu Amin who spared (forthcoming). no effort to introduce me to his books. 15 Yaksagana is a traditional theatre form from South Kanara. 114

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

ARTICLE SYMBOLIC ADIVASI MEMORIES AND THE ETHNOLOGICAL MUSEUM1

BY LIDIA GUZY

Abstract: This article focuses on museum development in India with special attention towards the inclusion of symbolic memories and the intangible cultural heritage of marginalized Adivasi communities. It discusses the development of Adivasi art through Indian museums.

Keywords: Adivasi, Museums, India, Adivasi Art

Museums and indigeneity century, especially for actors in the realm of Today’s global museum world faces a culture, politics, museums and science. Claims major post-colonial shift in museum to give voice to hitherto silent, silenced, paradigms: museums transform from a ignored or unheard voices (Murray Schafer perspective of cultural or colonial 2003: 25-41) impregnate the anthropological hegemony to spaces of social inclusion and discourses since the writing culture debate the restoration of social and historical launched by James Clifford and Georg Markus justice (Clavir 1996: 99-107). Today, pre- (1986). Since the 1980s, the dialogic discourse colonial people and socially excluded meets the premises of New Museology in groups, marginalized for centuries, which museums are seen as spaces of ‘social demand a more active part in the inclusion’ (Dodd/Sandell 2001:4). New Museology follows a direction formulated at representation and interpretation of their own cultural heritage. Western forms of the beginning of the 1980s by members of the scholarship, collecting practices, International Council of Museums (Gansmayr strategies of representation and 1989: 79-84), having been instigated by a mediation face severe cultural and ethical debate about demands for the representation criticism. Whose history is collected? Who and participation of indigenous peoples. This speaks and who is represented? Who is was mainly led by museum scholars from the addressed? Does an egalitarian dialogue United States, Canada, Australia and New or rather a hierarchical discourse take Zealand. New Museology strives towards close place? Socio-political pleas for a fairer cooperation with various public groups and for world transgressing the hierarchies of the their social empowerment. Demands for the past, shape today’s museum debates and repatriation of items of heritage (artefacts and indigenous quests. descriptions) by indigenous peoples are today’s expressions of cultural and political struggle over the right and legitimacy to In the name of dialogue: the new museum represent their own heritage. movement Dialogue within different cultures, including Adivasis1 and museums their collective memories and experiences have become a major challenge of the 21st The new museum movement began in India (Chakravarti 2005: 25-30; Basa 2005: III-VI.) in

115

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter the 1980s, and was formulated with new or “Primitive Tribal Groups,’ perpetuated guidelines specifically for Indian museology the stereotype of Adivasi cultures as (Bhatnagar 1999: 63-65). Under these tribal, primitive, non-sedentary and non- guidelines, the entirety of India and its urban communities, with a pre-modern, inhabitants were understood as parts and ‘archaic’ way of life. This led to the participants of a museum. Inspired by the paradox inherent in a situation where philosophy of Mahatma Gandhi, local numerous Adivasis have benefited from communities were seen as the museum's the political reservation system while fundaments. The new museology of India was sometimes feeling a need to distance conceived as a community-based eco- themselves from their culture. Adivasi museology, where local communities act as cultures continued to be measured by an curators, narrators and teachers of their own evolutionary model of urban modernity, cultural heritage. The role of museum sedentariness and industrial professionals was to be restricted to development. India’s industrial boom has supporting and mediating these activities. In continued the pre-Independence colonial this context, marginalized and officially exploitation of Adivasi cultures through silenced communities such as the Adivasi were displacement and industrial to be included in museum representation. environmental destruction of Adivasi territories.

Adivasi and marginalization The recent interest exhibited by Indian In pre- and post-Independence India, Adivasi museums in representing marginalized groups have been persistently marginalized minority communities can be seen in the (Carrin/Jaffrelot 2002: 21–24). Historically, present definition by India itself as well as Adivasis were certainly marginalized well foreign definitions of India as a global before this, as the history of the Bhil and the economic and industrial power. This Mina in Rajasthan shows, where Bhil were obviously produces an official need of the marginalized by Rajput dominance from the Indian nation to define its ‘own cultural 15th to the 16th century. In Odisha particularly, others.’ Indian ‘cultural others’ seem to be marginalization of Adivasi began with the best presented in the endangered pre- British Empire and the establishment of the modern, ‘archaic’ Adivasi groups. The land revenue zamindari system in 1793 where relentless industrialisation and vast the indigenous rulers remained far more destruction of the socio-cultural and dependent on the ‘tribal’ population. ecological diversity of Indian Adivasi and rural communities have created a national Sociologically, the marginalization of need for symbolic compensation for the indigenous peoples in India can be seen in destroyed or vulnerable communities. This relation to the differences between need may also result from directives Adivasi cultures, religions and kinship issued by transnational cultural systems and the hegemonic Hindu caste institutions such as the United Nations, system and local politics of power. UNESCO and ICOM. It seems as if, in view Paradoxically, the post-Independence of the national industrial development, a governmental policy of positive museum reconstruction of endangered discrimination through administratively ways of life has become necessary. constructed categories of ‘social backwardness,’ such as ‘Scheduled Tribes”

116

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

The Indian anthropological museum The politicization of culture, the rise of discourse faces the critical retro- and new ethnicities, industrialization (and its introspection that Anna Laura Jones destruction of indigenous life forms), as describes in Exploding Canons: The well as increasing cultural-political Anthropology of Museums (1993: 201-220) awareness of the danger of extinction of for anthropological museums worldwide. valuable local knowledge and cultural Once on display, indigenous voices seem resources, are challenges confronting to have already lost their vitality. After the Indian anthropological museums. Indian social annihilation and displacement of anthropological museums dramatically indigenous communities, a history of their bear witness to the paradoxes of valuable cultural tangible and intangible globalization: on the one hand, they heritage may be presented in a museum, reflect de-territorialized global discourses sometimes generously sponsored by and act within a framework of industry2. international conventions, such as the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2003 The anthropological museum’s urge for and the Convention on Cultural Diversity cultural revitalization of contemporary in 2006. On the other hand, they Adivasi communities has a subversive constitute iconic spaces of local tradition, character in this context: the marginalized objectifying the ‘own cultural other’ local communities are supposed to supposed to represent the vulnerable and strengthen their resilience and resistance marginalized communities of indigenous through museums. And this strength, as India. cultural self-affirmation, can be directed against the state, and therefore may become ‘subversive,’ as Kishor Basa Collecting in India observes: ‘While “culture” has been the Systematic ethnographic collections were key concept in anthropological museums founded in India in British colonial times. all through, a major challenge of the Local specimens of crafts, economic anthropological encounter is how to artefacts, dress and ornaments as well as reconcile between the celebration of objects related to religious activities and cultural identities of all possible forms and musical instruments deriving from the potential threat some of them pose to indigenous peoples and from rural the concept of the contemporary nation contexts were collected by British officers state” (Basa 2007: xxxvii). and researchers. In the colonial The recent awakening of Adivasi political terminology, the collected objects were identity and resistance in the context of labelled tribal artefacts, objects and the pan-Indian political Adivasi movement specimens. The category ‘tribe’ was not and discourse on indigeneity has led to a used in any systematic way until the end political demand for regional autonomy of the century (see Bayly 1993: 165-218). and, in 2000, to the creation of three new In this context the problematic term ‘tribe’ Indian states: Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and was introduced to India (Hacker 2003: 30- Uttarkhand. Today’s unrest in northeast 32) in the mid-nineteenth century as an India is another dynamic of indigeneity administrative and ideological category struggles and politics of ethnicity (see (Guha [1994] 1951:152-190). The colonial Karlsson /Subba 2006). terminology, particularly through the influence of H. Risley (1908), from 1870 117

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter onwards, and particularly in the 1890s, An outstanding figure from this period is was coloured by a racial ideology which the British anthropologist, Verrier Elwin. categorized the diverse ethnic He has substantially influenced collections communities of India according to an in India. With the publication of Elwin’s evolutionary anthropometric typology 1951 book The Tribal Art of Middle India, a (Guha, B.S. 1926: 1-81; Guha, B.S. 1937 new trend arose in India: the focus on [1994], 133-151). indigenous material and immaterial cultural expressions as vernacular artistic forms. As an ardent disciple of Mahatma Colonial administrators and researchers Gandhi, Elwin tried ardently to convince gathered the material and visual culture of Gandhi to support ‘a separate status’ for indigenous communities of South Asia in Adivasis, which the latter however never order either to send them to numerous supported (see Guha 1999). Elwin European museums or in order to succeeded in convincing Jawaharlal Nehru, assemble them in newly founded however, arguing for the preservation of museums in India. An example of this is their unique ways of life. The Tribal Art of the British colonial research institution of Middle India documents in detail the rich the Asiatic Society in Calcutta, which was cultural and aesthetic traditions of the created in 1784 by Sir William Jones Adivasi, with a minimum of interpretation (Chakrabarty 2008:2-28). In 1839, the by the author. Elwin’s work hastened a Asiatic Society suggested the shift in perspective that was already establishment of a public museum in underway: that artefacts and material Calcutta, which was finally founded in culture were a form of art, leading to the 1875 as the Indian Museum in Calcutta, emergence of the category of ‘Adivasi Art,’ the oldest public museum in India.3 In due also known as ‘Tribal Art.’ Museums also course, important collections owned by played a crucial role in India in the the Asiatic Society were transferred to the establishment of this new category of art. Indian Museum. Following Independence in 1945, the ethnographic collections of the Indian Museum have been Creating art and artists through administered by the newly created alternative Indian museums Anthropological Survey of India, which as The Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav an autonomous research unit has the Sangrahalaya, or Museum of Mankind, in explicit aims to document, collect and Bhopal, the largest anthropological spread the knowledge on local Indian museum in Asia, is an outstanding communities. example of Indian new museology and of alternative museum concepts in India. From 1945, the Anthropological Survey of This museum is particularly devoted to the India began vigorous collection activities traditions of rural and indigenous Adivasi aimed at accumulating an abundance of India with its local knowledge resources ethnographic material, including (see Chakravarty 2005: 25-30; Chakravarty audiovisual documentations of local 2010: 137-150: Bhatt 2010:157-160, Guzy communities. 2009: 78-139). It has been collaborating 456 Post-Independence collections from India with artists from Bharat Bhawan, a became a symbol of post-colonial pride multi-art centre set up by the Government and emancipation. of India in 1982 to create a close interface between the oral, visual and performing 118

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter arts. The Indian modern artist and later With its emphasis on the immaterial tribal collection director of Bharat cultural heritage, the Museum of Mankind Bhawan, Jagdish Swaminathan, influenced places marginalized and muted voices of the Museum of Mankind strongly due to source communities in a position to speak his appreciation for and collection of tribal for themselves through their own art at Bharat Bhawan. conception of exhibition, manifested in diverse habitat design, or by the Mythological Trail created by local artists The Museum of Mankind is distinguished (Shah 2004; Guzy 2009: 116). The Museum from other museums in India by its of Mankind, situated as it is on 200 emphasis on open air exhibitions. 7 The hectares of land challenges the open-air area displays the ecological and conventional European / Western museum socio-cultural diversity of India and concept, where artefacts are forced into embodies a new political and social urban architecture and presented within a sensitivity; the long neglected and context of timelessness. In contrast to the discriminated rural and Adivasi cultures of structural inflexibility of a museum, the India are nationally recognized and time and change of the seasons is symbolically empowered. By focusing on inherently included into the Museums’ marginalized social groups in rural India, optics; the monsoon and the winds change the Museum of Mankind raises its own the face of nature, as well as of the mud ‘pre-colonial people’ (Chakravarty 2005: houses and the outdoor exhibits. Local 27) to a new level of prestige and representatives from different Adivasi respectability; local Adivasi communities communities are invited to give workshops are understood as pre-modern and pre- on their healing, artistic or religious colonial knowledge cultures, which have systems. Representatives of indigenous accumulated a rich knowledge on communities shape the architecture of the sustainability. Such knowledge is museum’s open air exhibits - they build considered by museum professionals such and annually restore the houses in their as Kalyan Kumar Chakravarty to bear own way. No-one gives instruction on how substantial importance for the survival of to build or decorate. The houses, India as an advanced industrial nation decorations, paintings and sculptures (Chakravarty 2005: 29). arise as indigenous creations. The climate and social change simultaneously alter the museum’s façade. Urban school children, well as middle class urban visitors from all over India, come to the museum’s area to re-discover India’s rural and Adivasi identity. Change is included in the museum’s vision. The ever-changing range of workshops and local artists are designed to alter both their own, and their visitor’s perspectives. Returning back to one’s own locality, a new self-awareness as an artist (kolakar) is created among

representatives of hitherto marginalized Fig. Mythological Trail, Museum of Mankind, 2015. and silenced social groups.

119

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

The museal representation of Adivasi communities with which the Centre has cultural creativity can be interpreted as a been actively involved, have expressed clear symbolic revaluation of a themselves through various spaces and marginalized memory. The Museum of mediums such as art, theatre, publishing, Mankind in Bhopal offers a model for journalism and cultural activism. In this participatory New and Eco Museology for way the Vaacha Museum (the Museum of India as a whole. Its exemplary character Voice), was created. has affected every anthropological/ ethnological museum in India, all of which are run by either (a) the Anthropological The Vaacha Museum at the Adivasi Survey of India (ASI), (b) the Scheduled Academy is central to the philosophy and Castes and Scheduled Tribes Institutes of design of the Adivasi Academy. The the respective Indian states, (c) Museum aims to revitalize the living independent organisations, such as the traditions of Adivasi and nomadic Adivasi Academy 8910 and Vaacha, the communities in India. The Museum was Museum of Voice in Tejghar (Gujarat)11 or first opened to the public in 2004 and has (d) initiated by private persons. since been active in documenting the cultural traditions of Adivasi communities.

Over the years, the Vaacha Museum, through the various activities and programmes at the Language Studies Centre and the Adivasi Academy, has built a collection of audio and video recordings, as well as around 50,000 photographs, which provide insight into contemporary Adivasi life, culture and society. These images and recordings, produced mainly

by Adivasi themselves, present the Fig. Bhasha Museum of Voice, Vadodara, LG 2015. diversity of Adivasi cultures in India, bringing them to life through visual The Museum of Voice, imagery, community traditions and Vaacha, in Tejghar, Gujarat, is a lifestyles as well as cultures in transition. community museum, originally set up by villagers, with the help of a devoted The inclusion of new media as innovative activist, Dr Ganesh Devy. Devy founded tools for cultural revitalisation and the Bhasha Research and Publication preservation is a very popular part of the Centre in 1996 with the purpose of giving Museum’s online exhibition – the National ‘voice’ to Adivasi communities in India Consortium of Tribal Arts and Culture (Bhasha = voice/language). The Adivasi (http://www.indiantribalheritage.org/?p= Academy was then founded by the Centre 6859). at Tejgadh in the Chhotaudepur district of Gujarat, to combine the functions of a national arts academy, museum and Adivasi art and global contemporary art library with respect to Adivasi culture, art The synthesis of handicraft and art and literature. Over the years, the Adivasi mediated by anthropological and art 120

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter museums has created a new art market. in a post-orientalist, post-colonial, Today, the work of contemporary Adivasi dialogic and polyphonic way? This issue artists appears in Indian and Western remains both critical and unresolved. modern art galleries. This trend also seems to give rise to incidents of Orientalism, however, as the Eurocentric/Western The ‘discovery’ of contemporary Adivasi construction of the ‘Other’ in order to art by the global art market has led to a define ‘Oneself;12 a feature of the global surge in the commercialization of Adivasi contemporary art market. The much- art. A shocking event in this context was criticized New York Museum of Modern the sudden suicide by Jangarh Singh Art (MoMa) exhibition Primitivism in 20th Shyam, carried out in a Japanese museum Century Art - Affinity of the Tribal and the where he was invited to display his work. Modern (see Rubin 1984) has become the Shyam, a member of the Gond community basis for the new concept of global art of Madhya Pradesh, was famous as a (Haustein 2008: 83) created by comparing representative of Adivasi contemporary the de-contextualised aesthetics of art, having participated in the Magiciens ‘modern’ and ‘tribal’ art as constructed de la Terre exhibition, and chosen as one categories. Subsequently, at the art of five artists to exhibit their work at the exhibition and show entitled Magiciens de prestigious exhibition, Other Masters. This la Terre (see Martin 1989; Araeen 1989), tragic example shows how vulnerable at the Centre Georges Pompidou and the Adivasi art can be when exposed to the Grande Halle at the Parc de la Villette global trade, raising serious concerns (Paris) in 1989, the organisers tried to about the implications of the mass present a global vision of art by including production of art, and commercial an exotic cultural ‘other’ in the global art exploitation of artists. It also raises world. questions about how to adequately ensure the presentation and re-presentation of One hundred contemporary artists from such fragile art in the context of museums all continents were invited to present and and exhibitions. represent their art personally. Among them were five Adivasi artists from India. “In this Paris exhibition, The synthesis of art and craft mediated by contemporary European artists museums, then, has opened up a new were mixed indiscriminately with avenue of symbolic empowerment for shamans and artists from ex- Adivasi communities through the art colonial cultures in a show with a market, although it has also created new major cultural impact, but one in kinds of exploitation and vulnerability. which the distinctive dominance of Today, many individual styles of the Eurocentric institution contemporary Adivasi art appear in Indian remained” (Cubitt 2002: 3)13. modern art galleries, around the world. The Rabindranath Tagore Cultural Centre in Kolkata, inaugurated on June 1, 2008, The criticism arising from both of these includes exhibitions of jadu patua exhibitions foregrounded a challenging paintings, of the itinerant singers of the issue for cultural politics and diplomacy - indigenous Sora community and of the how to avoid ‘racist parochialism’ (Cubitt bronze dokri figures of the indigenous 2002: 3) so as to present ‘otherness’ (see Rana community, which have become very Hallam & Street 2000; Araeen et al 2002) 121

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter expensive pieces of contemporary Indian art.

This transnational flow of ideas, commodities and agents, has had a strong impact on the development of the representation of Adivasi culture through the creation of contemporary Adivasi art. One may discern several recent transnational trends in the type of art in demand, as well as the mediation and Fig. Museum of Mankind, Sora house, LG integration of Indian Adivasi art into the work of western art galleries and design projects. A Fine Line, an artist organization, 141516 based in the United Animation technology as an innovative Kingdom and focusing on contemporary representation of Adivasi art crafts and visual arts, has, for example, The Adivasi Arts Trust 171819 is a London- founded a Here and There (HAT) and Delhi-based charity dedicated to programme, which enables Adivasi artists preserving and promoting tribal art and to work in Western galleries and design culture from India through digital media companies. In 2008, Warli Adivasi artists such as animation technology, in order to were invited as ‘artists in residence’ to document, revive, and enact the create ‘displaced art’ in art workshops. endangered oral traditions of Indian The artistic production of contemporary Adivasi cultures. The Trust invites Adivasi art is now offered for sale in art representatives of different Adivasi galleries in the West. This transformation groups to narrate their own stories via from culture to art, through the mediation animation workshops, to sing their own of museums such as the Museum of songs and to paint or sculpt their own Mankind in Bhopal, is indication of the myths. These creative artistic expressions aesthetization and de-territorialization of are recorded and brought together in Indian museums. Museums have become animated trick films. Through video art galleries of contemporary Adivasi and animation art, endangered vernacular rural art, leading to the symbolic and languages are reanimated, and economic empowerment of marginalized marginalized indigenous cultures are communities, and the cultural culturally empowered. Pioneering projects revitalization of vulnerable traditions. such as The Tallest Story collection, The most recent trends in India towards produced by Highland Animations’202122 by preserving and revitalizing the intangible Leslie McKenzie, and continued by Dr Tara cultural heritage in a creative and dynamic Douglas from the Adivasi Arts Trust with way are visible in the new genre of video Tales of the Tribes (a series of tribal animation art. animation films from India) reanimate the ancient indigenous stories to music and

with moving traditional paintings and sculptures. Based upon creative expressions of contemporary Adivasi art, animation video art would appear to be a

122

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter new medium for transnational cultural References communication, and the symbolic Araeen, R., (ed.) 1989. Magiciens de la terre. Third Text empowerment of minority and vulnerable 6 Special Issue. London: Routledge. cultures. Araeen, R., Cubitt, S., Sardar, Z., (eds.) 2002. The Third Text Reader: On Art, Culture, and Theory. London & New York, Continuum. From museums to indigenous media Bayly, S., 1995. “Caste and Race in the Colonial Ethnography of India”, in P. Robb (ed.), The Concept In its quest for appropriate cultural of Race in South Asia. Delhi, Oxford University Press. representation of indigenous Adivasi 165-218. knowledge systems, the new museum Bhatnagar, A., 1999. Museum, Museology and New movement in India and the Museum of Museology. New Delhi. Mankind in Bhopal, with their alternative Basa, K.K., 2005. “Humankind Matters”. Humankind museum concepts, have planted the seeds Vol. 1. The Journal of Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Manav of de-musealization. Sangrahalaya. Bhopal, New Delhi: III–VI. Basa, K. K. 2007. “Introduction”, in Basa, K.K., Rehad, M., Gupta, R.K. (eds), Museology: A Comprehensive Today, indigenous discourses find their Bibliography and Webliography. Bhopal, Indira expressions represented less by museums Gandhi Rashtriya Manav Sangrahalaya, xiv-xxxii. and more and more by ‘Indigenous media.’ Berg, E., Fuchs, M., 1999. Kultur, Soziale Praxis Text. ‘Indigenous media’ include creative Frankfurt, Suhrkamp. expressions and productions through Carrin, M., Jaffrelot, C. (eds.) 2002. Tribus et Basses Castes. Résistance et Autonomie dans la société audio-visual media, preferably Indienne. Collection Purusartha. Paris: École des documentary films, produced by Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales. 21–24 representatives of Adivasi communities. Cubitt, Sean 2002. “Prologue: In the Beginning. Third Through such films, Adivasi intangible Text and the Politics of Art”. In Araeen, R., Cubitt, S., heritage, memories and quests for social, Sardar, Z. (eds.), 2002. The Third Text Reader: On economic, and ecological justice are Art, Culture, and Theory. London & New York, expressed. Through the voices of NGOs Continuum. 1-8. such as Other Media Adivasi Mukti Coates, B., Coates, E., 2009. “Vaacha: Voice and Sangatham 23 in Sendhwa, Madhya Memory in the Museum”. Moving Worlds, A Journal Pradesh, the Pyara Kerketta of Transcultural Writings 9, 116–122. Foundation 242526 in Ranchi, Jharkhand, or Clifford, J., Marcus, G. E., 1986. Writing Culture. The Poetics and Politics of Ethnography, Berkeley, private companies such as The Other 27 University of California Press. Media Communications in Bengalore, Chakravarty, K.K., 2005. “Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Kerala, or through organized civil society Manav Sangrahalaya: The Noah’s Ark”. Humankind, movements such as the Environment 1, 25–30. Protection Group, Odisha2829 or The Indian Chakravarty, K.K., 2010. “The Living Museum Confederation of Indigenous & Tribal Movement in India. From Heritage Interpretation to Peoples, 303132 the voices of indigenous Heritage Action?” In L. Guzy, R. Hatoum, S. Kamel peoples communicate their own oral (eds), From Imperial Museum to Communication histories33 concerns and discourses. Thus, Centre? On the New Role of Museums as Mediators audio-visual media have helped to give between Science and Non-Western Societies. expression to indigenous counter-voices, Koenigshausen & Neumann. 137-151. Dodd, Jocelyn / Sandell, Richard (eds.) 2001. Including and acts of socio-cultural resistance. Museums: Perspectives on Museums, Galleries and Social Inclusion. Leicester. Dudley, K.M., 1998. “In the Archive, In the Field: What

Kind of Document is Oral History”, in M.

123

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Chamberlain, M., P. Thompson (eds.), Narrative and Guzy, L., 2009. “Displaying Diversity”. In L. Guzy, R. Genre. London, Routledge. 160-166. Hatoum, S. Kamel, P. Metzger, Museum Islands. Elwin, V., 1951. The Tribal Art of Middle India. Delhi. Berlin, Panama Verlag. 78-139. Ganslmayr, H., 1989. “Die Bewegung Neue Hacker, Katherine 2003. “Tribal Art”. In M.A. Mills, P.J. Museologie”, in H. Auer (ed.), Museologie Neue Claus, and S. Diamond (eds.), South Asian Folklore. Wege – Neue Ziele. München, KG Säur. 79-88. An Encyclopedia. New York, Routledge. 30-32. Guha, B.S., 1926. “The Comparative Anthropometry of Jones, A.L., 1993. “Exploding Canons: The Museology of Indian Castes and Tribes”. Man in India 6: 1-81. Museums.” Annual Review of Anthropology, 22, Guha, B.S., 1937, “An Outline of the Racial Ethnology of 201-220. India”, in C. Roychaudhuri, 1994. The Asiatic Society Karlsson, B. G., Subba, T.B. (eds.), Indigeneity in India. and Anthropological Studies in India. Calcutta, London, Paul Kegan. Asiatic Society. 133-151. Martin, J.H., 1989. Magiciens de la terre. Paris, Centre Guha, B.S., 1951. “The Indian Aborigines and their George Pompidou. The People of India. Administration”, in C. Roychaudhuri, 1994. The Risiley, H., 1908. The People of India. London & Asiatic Society and Anthropological Studies in India. Calcutta, Thacker, Spink & Co. Calcutta, Asiatic Society. 152-190. Rubin, W. (ed.), 1984. Primitivism in 20th Century Art. Guha, R., 1999. Savaging the Civilized: Verrier Elwin, His Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern. New York, Tribals, and India. Chicago, University of Chicago MoMA. Press Said, E.W., 1979. Orientalism. New York, Vintage Books. Guzy, L. (ed.), 2015. “Emerging Adivasi and Indigenous Sarkar, S.R., 2005. “Anthropology in the Indian Studies in Ireland”, Irish Journal of Anthropology, Museum”. In Lok, S.N. (ed.), An Appraisal of 18(2). Anthropological Perspective in ethnographic Guzy, L., Alles, G., Skoda, U., (2015). “Emerging Adivasi Museums of India. Kolkata, Anthropological Survey and Indigenous Studies in Ireland: Local Agents, of India. 4–12. Performances, And Traditions”, Irish Journal of Schafer, M., 2003. “Open Ears”, in Bull, M., Back, L. Anthropology, 18(2), 12-18. (eds.), The Auditory Culture Reader. New York, Berg. Hallam, E., Street, B.V., 2000. Cultural Encounters. 25-41. Representing ‘Otherness’. London, Routledge. Shah, S., 2004. “Anugunj”. Catalogue of the Haustein, L., 2008. “Global Icons”, in Globale Mythological Trail featuring Folk and Adivasi Myths Bildinszinierung und kulturelle Identitƒt. Goettingen, of India. Bhopal. Wallstein Verlag. Tilche, A., 2009. “Translating Museums.” In Devy, G. N., Hermann A. (ed.), Museologie Neue Wege – Neue Ziele. Davis, G.V., Chakravarty, K. K. (eds.), Indigeneity, Muenchen, KG Saur. 79-88. Culture and Representation. Delhi. 394–404.

Notes suggested the construction of a museum of culture of the indigenous community of the Soara and 1 This article is a slightly revised version of the Khond in the newly constructed plant article “Adivasi Art - The Convergence between villages/camps. This paper was presented at the Tangible and Intangible”. In G. N. Devy, Geoffrey V. conference ‘Indigenous Theories and Religions- Davis, K. K. Chakravarty (eds.) 2016. The Language Rethinking the Tangible and Intangible Cultural Loss of the Indigenous, p 34-43. Heritage of India,’ organised by Lidia Guzy, N.K. Das 2 India’s indigenous population of 100 million is and Ranjan Sahu at the Zonal Anthropological generally referred to as Adivasi, a term which Survey, Jagdalpur, 2-3 February 2009. derives from the Sanskrit terms ‘adi’= the first, and 4cp.http://www.britannica.com/eb/article- ‘vasi’ = dweller (see Guzy 2015; Guzy et al 2015: 12- 9042286/Indian-Museum; Sarkar, Sabita Ranjan 18). 2005. Anthropology in the Indian Museum. In Lok 3For example, Romy Kraemer describes in her oral Nath Soni (ed.), An Appraisal of Anthropological presentation ‘Field notes from Bhurkamunda R&R Perspective in Ethnographic Museums of India. colony,’ how the rehabilitation R&R programmes Kolkata: Anthropological Survey of India, 4–12. of Vedanta Alluminium after displacement

124

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

contrasting image, idea, personality, experience… 5 http://bharatbhawan.org/html/about_us.html Orientalism is a style of thought based upon an ontological and epistemological distinction made 6 The open-air museum is a much older idea, between “the Other” and… ”the Occident”’ (Said originating in Norway ‘Maihaugen’ and since 1979: 1-2) . copied by the ‘Folk Museums’ of the Scandinavian 10 See Cubitt (2002: 1-8). and other countries, including Greenwich Village of 11 the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit. http://www.afineline.co.uk

7 http://www.Adivasiacademy.org 12 http://www.talleststory.com/Adivasiartstrust/

8 ibid.; Coates / Coates 2009: 116–122; Tylche 2009: 394–404. 13www.westhighlandanimation.co.uk 9Orientalism is the term made famous by Edward Said, that describes ‘a hegemony; or rather the 14http://www.aidprojects.org/projects-view- result of cultural hegemony at work… a collection 1.asp?login=guest&id=512 notion identifying “us” Europeans as against all 15 “those” non-Europeans’ (Said 1979: 7). http://www.kharia.in/foundation.php

Orientalism, according to Said, is ‘a way of coming 16 http://www.othermediacommunications.com to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient`s special place in European Western 17 http://www.freewebs.com/epgorissa experience. The Orient is not adjacent to Europe; it is also the place of Europe`s greatest and richest 18 http://www.propoor.org/ngos/?id=533 and oldest colonies … and one of its deepest and 19 most recurring images of the Other. The Orient has Dudley (1998: 160-166). helped to define Europe (or the West) as its

125

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

ARTICLE

DEATH RITES AND DANCE PERFORMANCE AMONG THE SAORAS OF ODISHA: A FUNERAL MARCH AT THE FESTIVAL OF INDIGENOUS CULTURES?

BY STEFANO BEGGIORA

Abstract: This article documents the choreutic ritual tradition among the Lanjia Saoras, an indigenous community of Odisha. The funeral dance, a kind of itinerant procession covering the sacred sites of the village and its surroundings, consecrates the renewal of the alliance between the living and the dead. The arrival of modernity has, however, overwhelmed many of the old customs and this performance, once reconnecting the community with the ancestral land, is rapidly transforming. The article highlights the contrast between the traditional ritual gestures and the contemporary performances held in occasion of the capital's tribal festival (Ādivāsī Melā), where these dances are repeated ad infinitum devoid of their original religious meaning. The funeral dance, proudly displayed in traditional costumes by indigenous delegations that come to the metropolis (Bhubaneswar), it is almost a cry of despair, a yearning for identity of an indigenous culture that is now rapidly disappearing.

Keywords: Saora, dance, choreutic performance, Odisha, Adivasi, funeral

Introduction: Some considerations on destruction of the old and the dance in tribal India reintegration in the beginning of the new cycle (Eiss 2013:19). Taking an overall view, we can say that, according to Indian The symbolic and ritual use of dance in the culture, theatre and dance – which Indian Subcontinent is so diverse and constitute the central theme of such widespread that we cannot but restrict treatises on aesthetics as Nātya Śāstra and ourselves here to some general Śilpa Śāstra – form the regulatory element considerations. Acting as a rhythmic of the cosmic antithesis between devas order, the dance of gods and mythical and asuras, gods and antigods, and also heroes contributes to the cyclical the means of human transcendence. In the adjustment and the organization of the current era, the Kali Yuga or the dark age, world. In a very general way, ritual dances dominated by violence and ignorance, are a means to re-establish the humanity would be without any possibility relationship between the earth and the of salvation were it not confident in the sky - whether they invoke the rain, love, teaching of various texts of Hinduism, with fertility, victory: rendering possible a particular reference to Tantra. In relation synthesis between the human and the to art, among many sources, the myth of divine. The prototype of the cosmic dance the dialogue between the king Vajra and in India is the Tāṇḍava of Śiva Naṭarāja the sage Markandeya is particularly who, surrounded by a circle of flames, renowned. The Viṣṇudharmottara Purāṇa represents at the same time the (III. 86-66) tells how king Vajra consulted dissolution of the universe and the the saint (ṛṣi) Markandeya about the way germination of the new world, the of salvation (Kramrisch 1976: 425; 126

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Delahoutre 1994: 12-13). The sage replied of countless circles. These are conditioned that only the images preserved in the by seasonal periods, subordinated to the temple could provide union with God. rise and fall of the lunar cycle, influenced Therefore, the contemplation of art can be by the position of the sun at the equator, considered as a way of transcendence for their rotation scheduled according to the man. On the basis of that, King Vajra climactic year, which in turn determines requested to learn the art of sculpture the timing of subsistence work in rural from the sage, in order to acquire centers (Tribhuwan, 2003: 11-16). Hence happiness through the worship of the the simple observation that the cycle of gods. Markandeya replied that there is no life, the cosmic cycle of the ages of man sculpture without painting. Moreover, (yugas), symbolizes the cycle of growth there can be no canon for painting without and decline of the human religiosity. It is the knowledge of dance: here it seems to interesting to note in this context that the be the basis of the aesthetic experience ritual dances of indigenous peoples of (Beggiora 2015: 33). India often develop through circular movements, or in semicircles, where in many cases the men’s group stands But can it be appropriate today to apply opposite to the women and faces them theories of classicism and doctrinal with a rocking motion. Some apparently elements of the Hindu world to the reality complex steps in fact, involving of the indigenous peoples of demanding stretches, with sweeping contemporary India? By virtue of centuries gestures toward the ground, in most cases of coexistence side by side both within the symbolize sowing activities, the harvest, jungles and on the plains, it is possible to the work in the fields. In addition to such at least imagine an exchange of elements, dynamic movements there is – both in a flexible relationship that has favoured a Hindu and in the Buddhist context – the kind of bidirectional cultural osmosis. so-called pradakṣiṇa, or clockwise Dynamics existed in the past based on this circumambulation around the sacred place interaction, which probably only in of prayer or to the deity. Even in the colonial times crystallized into that social animistic praxis similar dynamics are marginalization of minorities, with which expressed through ritual. As soon as a even today India is coping. This opinion fracture manifests itself in the cosmic was held by Baydyanath Saraswati (2003: equilibrium, such as an illness or a natural 3-10). I recall him during the days of my disaster, it is immediately necessary to try PhD; the famous anthropologist – by this to propitiate the village deities. Among time very elderly and retired to private life the Saoras of Odisha, the topic of our field, as a sannyāsin in the kṣetra of Benares – the shaman makes a circumambulation used to await me on the porch of his house around the outer edges of the village to for our long discussions. He tried to prevent the entry of malevolent forces. A analyze the complexity of the village, ritual quarantine is then imposed on contemplating it carefully in its structure. members of the community and access is Every part, through the symbols of local no longer permitted to outsiders. Here culture, ends up most likely representing again, then, a kind of circuit is created but the characteristics of the whole cosmos. this time of a social type, inscribed in a Maps of the villages of India show community matrix: a maṇḍala symbolizing meanders and zigzags in their tracks, but again the cosmos. the locals live their world as a continuum

127

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

The reiteration of the tribal dance can thus awareness of mimicking the cosmic be read as a projection symbolizing the journey. strength of the group: a self-organizing system capable of maintaining harmony through music and removing chaos from The German ethno-musicologist, Curt human or non-human life as it is Sachs, referred to dance as the ‘mother of potentially intended. The tribal people of all arts.’ No other art form has boundaries India, therefore, look at the world as a so broad: it involves the body, the mind, plurality. Their numbers increase or the soul, the need and the desire to dance decrease according to a geometric ratio. (Sachs 1963). Over the centuries, people So there are lineages, families, clans, have recognized dance as an important warrior phratries, hunters, crafts guilds: communication tool and dance has been a individuals in constant relation to each means, since the dawn of time, of other. The dispersion or contraction of expressing with maximum intensity man’s these ongoing relationships create micro- relationship with nature, society and circuits supported by exogamous religion. marriages, learning groups, creative Since the early days of anthropology, communities, places for meeting in which despite its peripheral status within the to develop knowledge, or festivals, or discipline, dance has emphasized its own even sacred sites for festivals and social cohesive and integrative function in celebration of rituals. When we assert that non-Western societies (Boas 1944: 5-20; the Indian tribal world is actually a Malinowsky 1922: 25). Dance acts, composite reality emerging through a therefore, as prayer, sacrifice, devotion, certain complexity, so we allude to social gratitude, and ritual. In all of these clusters organized through levels formulations, dance was envisioned as a originating from historical, geographical system of communication that could be and cultural objectiveness: the universe- analysed through the category of etic and village forms a unicum that encompasses emic, the semantic of body language or a variety of worlds and overlapping the sharing of emotions (Chakravorty dimensions. These are societies that to 2011: 138; Kaeppler 2000: 119). this day identify themselves within a great Movements and choreographies were tradition, which continues to live its analyzed to find underlying systems that identitarian synthesis through dance cannot be observed but must be derived (Khokar 1987; Deogaonkar and from the social and cultural construction Deogaonkar 2003). of the specific world. In other words, existing in memory and recalled as movement motifs, as imagery and as a Living the dimension of dance entails system, movements are used to create living inside a circle aimed at compositions, producing social and strengthening and enhancing the social cultural meaning in performance. Humans dynamic of the village. Likewise, the circle dance in front of what is mysterious, is the imago aeternitatis par excellence, unfamiliar, supernatural, since this is a the cohesion between empirical reality 1 means to get in touch with what is and the supernatural. Again through unknown. Words can indeed explain the dance, men bring to bear what appears to simple and understandable events of daily be their highest faculties, namely the life, but not the subtle dimension that transcends the human. If the word could

128

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter verbally express this empathy with the classification of ethnic minorities who are sacred, there would be no need to dance. now designated Scheduled Tribes are: It is, rather, precisely clear in the context geographical isolation, backwardness, of the indigenous cultures of India how distinctive culture and marginalization dance celebrates every moment of from other cultures. Among these are liminality: from the ordinary ceremonies included today the latest community of of social transformation, rites of initiation, hunters and gatherers (Ministry of Tribal weddings, passages to adulthood, to the Affairs 2014: 25). greatest mysteries marking the time span of human existence, such as birth and death (Turner 1967; 1969: 95; Van Gennep The use of different definitions for 1981). indigenous peoples was witnessed in colonial times, many of which are reported But today as we are facing a period when also in Indian literature and in the oldest traditional cultures are vanishing, so also texts of Hinduism. Classic names are the heritage of knowledge of indigenous vanavāsī (forest dwellers); girijan minorities is disappearing in conformity (mountain people); while ādimjāti (the with the processes of modernization. primeval caste) and janjāti (more Paradoxically, dance remains as a mere widespread in Nepal) probably indicate footnote of past folklore. Therefore, this some possible connection with the essay aims to highlight the contrast concept of caste (Nathan 1997: 114-116). between traditional ritual gestures and Today the terminology is quite fluid. Many the contemporary performances held on people in the north-east, that is, the seven the occasion of tribal festivals in states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Bhubaneswar - the capital of the Indian Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland state hosting our research - where these and Tripura, seems to prefer the obsolete dances are repeated ad infinitum devoid term ‘tribal,’ or better ‘indigenous of their original religious meaning. people,’ while others, such as people in Nevertheless, such a performance seems Middle India self-identify as ādivāsīs (ādi– to be the only way for the tribal minorities the first; vāsī– dweller). The term had to reaffirm their existence and distinctive currency in the Gandhian period and is culture. From this perspective, the today synonymous with aboriginals, the performative model of culture shifts the original inhabitants of the subcontinent central analytic focus of dance studies (Sanganna 1963-64: 3-5). Although the from movement systems and cultural root meaning of the neologism ‘ādivāsī’ cohesion of shared symbols to the ongoing would seem to imply that ādivāsīs are the processes of cultural contestation and first settlers of the Indian sub-continent, change (Krystal 2011: 3-15; 27-39). persistent historico-cultural exchanges within local groups make it difficult and perhaps even futile to identify any group A case study on indigeneity: the Lanjia of people in India as primary settlers (Guzy Saoras et al., 2015: 14). Some ādivāsīs might in The Indian subcontinent has one of the fact be primary settlers in a specific area, highest percentages of indigenous peoples but others are certainly recent newcomers in the world. According to the most recent who have replaced the initial inhabitants. census (2011), they compose nearly one- tenth of the total population amounting to more than 100 million. 2 The criteria for

129

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

The inequality among the different minority of only 5,960 individuals. The communities in terms of development and Indian Government currently classifies access to means of subsistence, resulted in them in the subgroup of PVTGs on account the formation in the 1960s of a sub- of the peculiarities of the territory in category: the Primitive Tribal Groups, which they live, the low level of today PVTG (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal demographic growth and in general the Group). The Government identified about backwardness of the techniques and 70 groups, today increased to 75, thanks methods employed for their subsistence. to more accurate census procedures. Living in small groups of villages, they inhabit the plateau rising from Gunupur towards Pottasing, in the Rayagada and Apart for the adaptation processes of Gajapati districts of Southern Odisha groups today clustered near urban (19°6'0" North, 83°58'0" East). Clan centres, and the mass of indigenous organization is absent among the Hill people employed as workforce in intensive Saoras, but the endogamic society is agriculture, the traditional subsistence divided into exogamous extended families methods of the ādivāsīs are quite (birinda) claiming descent from a common backward and in many cases these recall ancestor. Their subsistence economy is the Bronze Age. The most widely used mainly based on agriculture cultivating technique in this proto-agriculture, a rice on terraced fields, relying on the slash feature of a large percentage of and burn technique (jhum) sporadically communities, is the nowadays heavily supplemented by activities of hunting and criticized practice of jhum cultivation, or gathering. The language spoken by Lanjia slash and burn. This practice has led to a Saoras is Saora/Sora, a Munda language sedentary or semi-sedentary lifestyle in descending from Austro-Asiatic stock, the great majority of these communities. classified as part of the South Munda Despite the great changes brought about family (Ethnologue ISO: 639-3 srb). by modernization, we can identify hunting and gathering activities integrative to Moreover, perhaps thanks to the fact that horticulture and proto-herding, or they have lived throughout history in ‘encapsulated’ in the context of agro- relative isolation in the jungles of the pastoral societies. highlands, from a cultural point of view, the Lanja Saoras are renowned both for the peculiarities of a particularly vigorous Our case study concerns the Lanjia Saoras shamanism and for the deep symbolism of (or Hill Saoras), a small ethnic group with their cult of the dead. The kurans, or a distinctive culture of great relevance, shamans in the Saora language, are the living in the Central-Eastern Indian state of intermediaries between the village Odisha. They are part of the so called community and the ancestors or the subtle Savara grouping (alternatively also spelt as entities that inhabit the forest (sonum). Soras or Sauras), one of the largest indigenous tribes of India, including ethnic subdivisions inhabiting areas of the Fieldwork was carried out discontinuously neighboring states of Andhra Pradesh, in Odisha's tribal areas, over a period of West Bengal and Bihar. According to the fifteen years (1998-2013), as part of Census of India of 2011, their number research projects sponsored by Italian amounts to a total of 534,751. Among universities and governmental these latter, the Lanjas are a small development projects.

130

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

clothes and everything that might be The cult of the dead and choreutic considered useful in his new chthonic accompaniment existence.

The Lanjia Saora have a shamanistic religion strongly centered on the cult of The spirits of the dead (rauda) are the dead. One of the key concepts of this destined to a chthonian dimension called shamanism is sonum, an umbrella term Kinorai, the world of the dead, which encompassing all of the subtle entities, extends below the earth's surface. 3 This from the forest deities, to the ancestral dimension – a fairly typical element of the forces that govern the natural indigenous cultures of India – is a kind of manifestations. But the sonums, in the reflection of real life, but in some way sense of ‘memories’, are also the totality contiguous. On the surface the jungle – of the dead with which Saoras weave the dimension of wild nature, the kingdom continuous dialogues that are at the heart of spirits and animals (the abode is of communication between natural and typically the trees or waterfalls of the local supernatural, between the community and sacred geography), the place of dynamic its own ancestry (See also Vitebsky 1993). and creative potential, of chaos – is in some way opposed to the domesticated

space of the village, inhabited by men, the The guar, or funeral ceremony, takes place dimension of order. This underlies the twelve days after the cremation of the dynamics of permeability/communication deceased (which usually occurs one day across a complex cosmological structure. after death) and is considered by the On so-called cataclysmic days, when the Saoras to be the most important funeral memory of ancestors is celebrated, the ritual. Ashes are buried in the ganuar, the deceased who have reached a happy place where memorial stones for the dwelling in the subsoil, are conversely commemoration of the ancestors are called to return to their original village, in erected; the bigger the stone, the greater order to strengthen the ancient covenant the importance of the deceased. The ritual between the living and the dead. They requires the sacrificial killing of a buffalo, pass through the gaps between the two a psychopomp animal that will guide the parallel dimensions, which are conceived deceased towards the kinorai, the abode in Saoran shamanism as: the place of of the ancestors. Usually the beast is cremation, the mortar at the foot of the struck with a sharp axe blow to the neck, main pole supporting the roof of the hut once the head is severed, the meat is then and the ganuar, or place of erection of boiled and consumed collectively at the megaliths. funeral banquet.

In the immediate post-mortem period, the According to the Saoran culture, the souls of the dead are fearful, and wander megalith and the buffalo are a kind of the forest seeking to return to their passport to the afterlife. Since the soul of villages of origin. This is a particularly the deceased is imagined disoriented and dangerous phase because, as is commonly in pain, therefore in need of several items, believed in many cultures, if they do not relatives should ensure large number of receive the appropriate funeral rites, they different types of offerings. The whole may become larvae or spectra, embodying birinda offers him food, alcohol, tobacco, the dynamic of revenants (kulba). During

131

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter the funeral, a bamboo structure is will be identified as a member of his own constructed containing all the property of birinda. the deceased. This looks like a miniature hut, situated on top of a heap of earth, with cloth walls and a roof made with an In many indigenous communities, during umbrella. Clothing, utensils, pitchers, funeral ceremonies, there is a tradition of weapons, etc., are placed inside. This is making offerings of food to the dead. considered a sort of transitional house Among the Lanjia Saoras, little bundles of from which the soul of the dead can attend food are prepared as viaticum for the the ceremony, and this will be the starting dead; they are the equivalent of the piṇḍa point for the trip to the underworld. It is in the Hindu tradition. Within the food interesting to note that all items are offerings, typically the shaman proposes inverted: it is a clear symbolism of the the contextual symbolism of blood and nature of the journey. Similarly, during wine: three droplets of blood and three 4 annual commemorations (such as karja droplets of alin, the local palm wine, are rituals) permanent structures in wood are deposited on bundles with rice/cereal intended as huts for clan ancestors. These flour figures before being closed in siali 5 are set up with items that belonged to the leaves and sealed with bronze rings. deceased and the shaman enters a trance (me?er) in front of them. While in trance, the kuran is seated in front of the ganuar: the stones form long rows, abutting each other. This presents the idea that he talks with the dead or, as it were, with their hypostasis. In fact, the community gathers around to listen and support the shaman. There follows a formal request to the most recently departed to accept the new member of the family. In response, the spirits of the deceased possess the body of the shaman and, through him, they receive plenty of alcohol through libations made with a typical carved pumpkin and tobacco Fig. 1: Regingtal village, kuramboi (shamaness) in smoke. trance during funeral ceremony. This long digression on funerary rituals is The moment of trance is crucial to the necessary to understand the importance celebration, since it is through possession, of dance (tangseng/tǝnoŋ’se:ŋǝn) and that the spirit of the dead can how it is deeply connected with the communicate with the living, and at the dimension of ancestrality. Although the same time its ‘formal’ presentation to the scene of the shaman singing his chants in afterlife takes place. The kuran, or shaman front of the megaliths appears fairly static, (kuramboi if female) introduces the this contrasts with the dynamism of the deceased to the ancestors and wishes that dances that bind together each section of he will be accepted. Whispering the name the rite as a kind of leitmotif. In a dancing is a way to affix the soul of the dead who procession, the relatives of the deceased

132

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter pass through the forest to arrive at the and it is not necessary to move the corpse, place of funeral. Other dancers perform in they dance in a circle for hours in front of a circle around the place of sacrifice, and his house. At the end, the departing soul again in a circle the villagers celebrate the formally receives a white robe (the colour memory of the deceased in front of his of death, symbolizing also rebirth) that the hut. Likewise, in the subtle dimension, the shaman wears around his head and deities and ancestors are imagined as shoulders, representing acceptance. If being summoned in a dancing procession. everything has been carried out without a This is quite clear from the translation of hitch, the soul can undertake the long the invocations. One of the most common process of transformation into an themes is precisely the summoning of the ancestor, becoming a tutelary of the clan. spirits in a single line, from the forest (tirinbarran), from the hills (ekolan), tutelary entities (maneji) and ancestors Dance as ritual (ildaji) are called to form a procession The first significant study on the Saora (gelgelsitoŋən) and to dance towards the people dates back to the mid-20th century; village. A topos regards the footprints. The in his The Religion of an Indian Tribe shaman can see the rows of footprints left (1955), Verrier Elwin has shown how this by the dance of the spirits. They are indigenous culture was emblematic of the encouraged to follow each other, step by ādivāsī reality of the Indian Subcontinent. step, and vice versa they should make sure The only discordant note – no pun that other evil spirits are not following in intended - is that Saoran dance in line after them. Some liturgies provide particular would prove to be the most consecutive recitation of the names of ungraceful of all India, so much as to shamans or village leaders of previous reveal an apparent poor attitude on the generations; this offers the suggestion of part of this particular group. This sort of a mnemonic chain linking the shaman to mystery makes the study even more the forefathers. For reasons of space we intriguing and can only be solved by must defer here to another source for the putting the performance in relation to its reading of our translations (Beggiora ritual value. As a whole, its evolution is 2010: 129-48). Moreover, examining the absolutely chaotic and cacophonous: this classical murals of Saora, namely anitals is its peculiarity. The dance in fact did not (‘i:di-tal), these often portray patterns of come into being as a form of recreation; it dance and choreutic performances. As was not invented simply for pleasure. explained elsewhere (Beggiora 2015: 13- From the very beginning, it was a serious 47), this is not a decorative motif, but business. Its forms depend on the function describes by means of pictorial it fulfils in Saoran society (Elwin, 1955: transposition a subtle/oneiric vision of the 214). In primis, as we said, it is more a coming of sonums. procession than a dance, and moreover this procession consists of a serious piece of ritual conduct. Once they arrive at their destination, human and non-human dancers (tangseng maranji) dance (or so they are envisaged) Although this may also be applied to other in a circle around the ganuar, proceeding tribal communities, we can observe that then to the house of the dead. On the Saoras have a unique style differing from other hand, if a man dies in his own village, other neighboring ādivāsī groups. The

133

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter dance itself is of a simple character, well in the air while the dancers rotate at the adapted to its peripatetic purpose. The same time on themselves. Considering the choreography is confused; everyone strong consumption of alcohol often participates: men, women and children; reached in these cases, I sometimes found infants are kept tied with a strip of cloth the situation somewhat worrying; but and pressed against the breast of the ultimately the safety of all has always mother who does not hesitate to jump into been preserved by the tangseng the group. There are no predetermined galanmar, the head of the dances, who steps, but everyone hops and stamps has the task of setting the basic rhythm, while advancing clockwise, occasionally expanding the circle when it shrinks too twirling on themselves or turning in much and directing, roughly speaking, the reverse. Men in traditional dress jump pace of all the dancers. with feet together brandishing and waving their weapons in the air. Among the Saora there exists the peculiarity that, to dance, During my stay in Rayagada, I attended it is necessary that each person brings many dances performed for different something in his hand to wave in the air, kinds of ceremony. In truth, I did not note as well as the musicians who hold their major differences between a dance instruments. As Elwin (1955: 216) performed on the occasion of a funeral describes: and another performed on the occasion of a marriage (although someone has drawn ‘There is no singing but everyone my attention to the existence of a vast carries something (a stick, a sword, repertoire). All proceed according to an a bunch of peacock feathers, an itinerant pathway, which in most cases umbrella) and weaves it on the air. means that the dancers move along a The band mingles with dancers circumference. blowing trumpets, horns, clashing cymbals, beating drums and gongs, and boys whistle piercingly with one knuckle in the mouth. From time to time they all raise the arms and weapons on the air and give a great shout.’ Peacock feathers are connected to a myth of origin that tells about the death of one of the daughters of Kittung, a primordial deity with a fundamental role in the creation of the world. In honour of the daughter, the god celebrated the first Fig. 2: Regingtal village, altar (with tools of the funeral ritual dancing like a peacock and dead). adorning himself with its feathers (Elwin, 1954: 628). This element clearly connects the dance with the funeral ceremonies. The musicians follow the procession; while Even umbrellas, in some sense, are not the percussionists usually march towards just everyday tools but, as we have seen the inner side, those who play wind before, can be used in ritual function. It is instruments and cowbells of various types still customary to swing swords and axes follow the procession jumping, dancing

134

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter and waving their instruments in the air. I these ceremonies. In other words, noticed that, in these contexts there is although it may however sound like a some care in working out the rhythm cliché, this spontaneity is what is session, perhaps an innate and natural habitually understood by ‘tribal dance.’ inclination. The Saoras play a number of Everyone, naturally and effortlessly, percussion instruments ranging from large relaxes and lets themselves enter into the drums of cow skin (debding), to various collective emotional climate thus kinds of instruments, whose sound box is developed, which in other times would derived from the processing of fruits, probably have less meaning. The fact that gourds, shells and carved wood (tudum).6 there is no discrimination and that The rhythms are always frantic, sometimes children, not yet able to walk and firmly with syncopated variants. Variation in tied to their mother’s breast, are included depth additional to the capacity of the in the performance indicates how the instrument is occasionally provided by sense of these communicative means of pressure exerted with the hand manifestations is developed within the on the tensed skins. The actual percussive family. In conclusion, as a proof of the lack effect, on the other hand, is provided of artificiality of the act, we note that, through the use of wooden sticks and rods during the celebration of a guar, once the according to the case. dances have started, it seems no longer possible to stop them. The dancers, tireless, continue to dance throughout the The same cannot be said for the wind duration of the ceremony and the instruments; apart from a series of small following night, regardless of the hours or trumpets to whom is reserved the days that it requires. exclusive task of improvisation, the attention is still captured by the imposing horns that Saoras blow continuously. 7 In It is clear that the itinerant aspect, more dancing processions there is the main horn than the musical performance, is which is followed, in turn by three or four important here. For normally, the Saoras others marching behind. These dance in order to escort someone or instruments are really bulky and produce something. Movement is intended a squeaky and deep sound, depending on between villages or from one place to the air pressure developed inside them. another. Just to mention some other The musicians proceed waving the horns in occasions, they escort a buffalo to a the air and jumping; but as soon as the sacrifice and afterwards they dance on its principal horn fits into the rhythm, the blood; they dance to fetch a menhir for the others echo it with a certain delay. Under ganuar or escorting the water carrier to these conditions, we cannot think that all the well at the funeral rite.8 They can also musicians are in time and the wind session escort the remains or the ashes of a dead is always uncoordinated. The whole is person from the place of death and dominated by the sound of cowbells cremation to the village of origin, producing a general cacophony. zigzagging through the jungle if necessary. Lastly it is quite clear that this gesture has a clear connection with all moments of The overall view, in itself quite grotesque, liminality, and in particular with funeral is perhaps the most effective rituals. The aggressive pace and warrior representation of the emotional feeling of Lanjia Saoras during the celebration of

135

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter pantomime clearly has an apotropaic increasingly used as a tool of social control value against real or subtle enemies.9 over the indigenous masses. It is not by chance that among christianised ādivāsīs, the wild dance, with weapons and I collected an ancient legend telling of a frequent abuse of alcohol is considered a woman who had lost her husband away major sin: not so much because it is seen from home. As is customary, the body was as a dangerous pastime, but because it burnt in one of the cremation sites, but acts as part of a cultural (tribal) identity when she came to collect the bones and that is to be deleted (see also Gundlach the ashes it was no longer possible to 2004: 139-140). locate them. So the husband's spectre (transformed in a kulba) began to haunt her every night, asking to be taken home. Government policies on tribal affairs have The woman replied that she was not able too long wavered between the attempt to to find the humble remains. The ghost preserve the cultures of the jungle and the taught her to dance thus in a circle around dynamics of development. Today, despite the cremation site, so she was able to the existence of a certain awareness about identify the few bones that were still the importance of this intangible cultural remaining. After closing the remains in a heritage, the focus is increasingly moving jug, the wife brought them home with a towards a modernization and integration dancing procession; here she could devote process of these people, threatening an the guar to the deceased, sacrificing a eventual disintegration of their local buffalo and erecting the megalith. The identities. It is noteworthy that at the ghost was pacified and the dance was same time, as a sort of repercussion to this born: the symbolism of this myth appears deplorable trend of annihilation of ādivāsī abundantly clear. culture, throughout the state interest in the ‘tribal’ dance is experiencing a moment of genuine revival. People realize Conclusion that it is an endangered, if not yet After the change of economic policy in vanished, tradition and that it must be India (1990-91), great changes have protected by some means. So the impacted the subcontinent; a boost to Government of Odisha and many NGOs modernization has arrived also in Odisha, organize exhibitions, festivals – like this particularly in the last twenty years. annual event of Ādivāsī Melā in Indigenous traditions are fast Bhubaneswar – celebrating the bare disappearing as a result of various factors survival of indigenous culture. A such as urbanization, globalization and workforce of tribal origin is often industrialization. Traditional costumes are employed in this new dynamic, with the increasingly rare, and they are worn on task of mass production, reinterpreting very special occasions. Further to that, the traditional patterns of dance in a Christian missions, in the name of modern way. evangelization, are significantly These kinds of events have therfore been contributing to the homogenization of established in order to fulfil a recreational most ādivāsī communities. Tensions and entertainment purpose, which between converted and unconverted generally loses contact or memory itself of communities were often reported in the original meaning of the dance. Saoran territory, also because religion is Paradoxically, dance is still recognized as

136

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter an art form, but its roots seem to melt away in the common oblivion. Today the dancers recite, interpreting with a bitter and forced smile that which was once a funeral march but which has now lost its References profound ritual value. These are purely Beggiora, S., 2010. “The Whisper of the Spirits. folkloristic performances for national and Shamanic Kinship and the Cult of the Ancestors foreign tourists. On the other hand, this among the Lanjia Saoras of Orissa”, in F. Ferrari (ed.), same style conveyed outside the Health and Religious Rituals in South Asia, London, community becomes the desperate cry of Routledge. 129-148. the indigenous communities that affirm Beggiora, S., 2015. “Aspects of Saora Ritual: their right to exist in the contemporary Permanence and Transition in Artistic Performance”, world. The ancient funeral dance, proudly Irish Journal of Anthropology, 18, 32-47. displayed in traditional costumes by Beggiora, S., 2016. “Caryota urens: From Vegetable indigenous delegations arriving to the Manifestation of God to Sacred Tree of the Shamans metropolis, expresses almost a yearning of Odisha”, in F. Ferrari and T. Dähnhardt (eds), Roots of Wisdom, Branches of Devotion: Plant Life in for identity of an ādivāsī culture that is South Asian Traditions, London, Equinox Publishing. now rapidly disappearing. The sad circle of 193-210 dancers on a town stage, under neon Boas, F., 1944. “Dance and music in the life of the lights, in front of a clapping audience, Northwest coast Indians of North America seems to recall the dance of Śiva in his (Kawakiutl)”, in F. Boas (ed.), The Function of Dance circle of fire. The Natarāja put an end to in Human Society. New York, Boas School. 5-20. the old world to begin the next cosmic Chackravorti, P., 2011. “Global Dancing in Kolkata”, in I. manifestation. This dance in a circle Clark-Decès (ed.), A Companion to the Anthropology appears to be the funeral march of an of India, Oxford/Chichester UK, Blackwell Publishing. ancient culture, the last gasp of a world 137-53. struggling to survive, while simultaneously Delahoutre, M., 1994. Lo spirito dell’arte Indiana, Milan, Jaca Book (1978, Originalité de l’art indien. Neuilly, marking the beginning of a new era in Perspectives Asiennes. which the Saoras (like many other Deogaonkar G.S., and Deogaonkar S.S., 2003. Tribal minorities) will have to fight for their Dance and Songs. New Delhi, Concept Publishing rights and the acknowledgment of their Company. identity. Eiss, H., 2013. The Mythology of Dance. Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Elwin, V., 1954. Tribal Myths of Orissa. Bombay, Oxford University Press. Elwin, V., 1955. The Religion of an Indian Tribe, Bombay, Oxford University Press. Gundlach, B. Helga, 2004. “New Approaches to the Study of Religious Dance”, in P. Antes and R.R. Warne (eds), New Approaches to the Study of Religion, 2, Berlin, Walter de Gruyter. 139-164. Guzy, L., Alles, G., and Skoda, U., 2015, “Emerging Indian Ādivāsī and Indigenous Studies in Ireland”, Irish Journal of Anthropology, 18, 12-20. Kaeppler, L. A., 2000. “Dance Ethnology and Anthropology of Dance”, Dance Research Journal, 36, 1, 116-25. Fig. 3: Regingtal village, funeral dance.

137

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

Khokar, M., 1987. Dancing for Themselves: Folk, Tribal, Nathan, Dev (ed.),1997. From Tribe to Caste. Shimla, and Ritual Dance of India. New Delhi, Himalayan Indian Institute of Advanced Studies. Books. Sachs, C., 1963. World History of Dance. New York, Kramrisch S., 1976. The Hindu Temple, Volume 2. New W.W. Norton & Company [1937]. Delhi, Motilal Banarsidass Publisher. Sanganna, Toyaka, 1963-64. “Signification of Adibasis”, Krystal, M., 2011. Indigenous Dance and Dancing Indian: Ādivāsī, V: 3-5. Contested Representation in the Global Era. Turner, V., 1967. The Forest of Symbols: Aspects of Boulder, University Press of Colorado. Ndembu Ritual. Ithaca, Cornell University Press. Malinowsky, B., 1922. Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Saraswati, B., 2003. “Cosmology, Oral Tradition”, in B. An Account of Native Enterprise and Adventure in Saraswati (ed), Sacred Science Review, 2. 3-10. the Archipelagoes of Melanesian New Guinea. New Tribhuwan, D. R., 2003. Fairs and Festivals of Indian York, George Routledge & Sons. Tribes, New Delhi, Discovery Publishing House. Ministry of Tribal Affairs, 2013. Statistical Profile of Turner, V., 1969, The Ritual Process: Structure and Anti- Scheduled Tribes in India. New Delhi, Government of Structure. Chicago, Aldine Publishing Company. India. Van Gennep, A., 1981. Les rites de passage, Paris, Picard Ministry of Tribal Affairs, 2014. Report of the High Level [1909]. Committee on Socio-Economic, Healt and Vitebsky, P., 1993. Dialogues with the Dead. The Educational Status of Tribal Communities in India, Discussion of Mortality among the Sora of Eastern New Delhi, Government of India [Xaxa Commission, India. New Delhi, Cambridge University Press. May, 2014].

Notes 5 Also known as mahul patta, is a giant creeper of the Indian jungle, Bauhinia vahlii. 6 Tudum is a small drum with one skin from one 1 As an example, for indigenous people of India, as side. Both terms, tudum and debding, undoubtedly well as for the Buddhist or Hindu communities or have an onomatopoeic sound. The percussionist even for mixed groups, usually the houses are and the art of playing that particular instrument facing east or north. This is because the south is are known respectively as tuduman and tudumgal universally associated with death, the kingdom of for the small drum and debdingan and debdingal the dead, and at the same time the sun sets to the for the big one. west. Likewise, in funeral rituals, the pyre for 7 When I moved among the villages there was often cremation or grave for burial have an opposite a crowd of children who accompanied me. I saw orientation, still following the same orientation that everyone was making strange gestures in the criteria according to the cardinal points. air, and it was explained to me that they mimicked 2 To be exact: 104,281,034 ST persons, constituting the transport of horns playing at doing a kind of 8.6 % of the country (Ministry of Tribal Affairs dancing parade. 2013: 1-10). 8 Here, as in the rest of the Indian world, water 3 Or Kinorai desa (similarly to the loose Hindi term establishes a passage occurred in liminality: the deś/deśi: land, country, people); the country of the ashes of the pyre are sprinkled with water, the dead. menhir is ritually washed to consecrate it, etc. 4 In Odisha, commonly named as salap or salpo, 9 Gongs and horns - the uproar in general - are produced by the fermentation of juice of the demon scarers. sacred plant Caryota urens (Beggiora 2016: 193- 210)

138

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

INTERVIEW WITH PAUL HOCKINGS

BY MARINE CARRIN AND HARALD TAMBS-LYCHE

Q: As of today Paul, you must be among the I had initially suggested to Mandelbaum that I anthropologists who has worked for the would like to examine the mass longest time in Adivasi studies. How did you communication processes at the great come to enter this field? Why did you choose pilgrimage centre of Madurai (since I had to go to the Nilgiris? learned Tamil), but he brushed this idea aside with a comment that the place was ‘too hot

and dusty’ and that I would much prefer the After I had received a solid grounding in both mild climate of the Nilgiris. Who wouldn’t?— British and American anthropology at the it had been the first hill station that the British Universities of Sydney, Toronto and Chicago, had established in India for their relaxation my mentor at Berkeley recommended that I and recuperation, around 1820. So, armed do fieldwork for my doctorate in the Nilgiri with introductory notes from Mandelbaum Hills, a small area about the size of and M.B. Emeneau, a Berkeley linguist who Luxembourg that forms part of the Western had also worked with the Todas and Kotas, I Ghats in the south of India. This made good was immediately able to establish myself in sense because there was already a large the area and start working with informants. I amount of literature on all sorts of subjects have now been working for half a century on concerning this area; but more than that, Badaga ethnography, ethnohistory and there were three closely linked communities language. This work has involved interviewing on these hills, the Todas, the Kotas, and the and observing in about 80 villages, which is 20 Badagas, and of these the Badagas, though by percent of the total. Everywhere the Badagas far the largest group, had never been studied. have been interested and accommodating. The Todas were already very well-known from the 1906 ethnography of W.H.R. Rivers; the Kotas had been studied for many years by my Q: You are also among the pioneers of mentor, David G. Mandelbaum; and ancillary modern visual anthropology, but when literature was abundant. starting to make ethnographic films, you chose to do so among Irish peasants. Why

this apparently rather surprising shift – from Providentially, the American Institute of the green Nilgiris to the Emerald Isle? Indian Studies was founded in the very year I was off to the field, and I became its first grantee. With more than usual foresight, I had After completing my studies, I was teaching at put it to Mandelbaum (who was on the the University of California in Los Angeles relevant committee) that in the future there (UCLA) where, after several years, an would be Indian students at American Ethnographic Film Programme was universities who would need fieldwork established in his department by Colin Young support, and so the benefits should not be (a Scot who later became Director of the restricted to U.S. citizens (I was British). This National Film and Television School, argument worked. Buckinghamshire). Young needed an anthropologist to help teach in this new

programme, and I was lucky enough to be invited.

139

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

After some months of teaching what was then farming. Moreover, it was easy to ship a totally new subject, I teamed up with exposed 16 mm. film from there to London to another professor, Mark McCarty, to make a have it developed; while just outside Dublin, new style of documentary that we were in Bray, there was a lab that could print rushes beginning to call Observational Cinema. We for us, that we would travel to look at from had no restrictions on subject-matter, but did time to time. want to meet certain criteria in making the film: So I crossed the Atlantic on the Queen (a) We took along two graduate students from Elizabeth, a memorable trip because, just as the film programme, Americans whom we we were leaving New York, war broke out wanted to immerse in a tangibly foreign between Israel and Egypt; and as we arrived culture while filming: this meant operating in in Cork that war came to an end. I rented a car a language other than English. and drove up the west coast for three weeks, (b) We also wanted to give ourselves the from Cork to Donegal, looking for a suitable awkward experience of filming people who village to work in. Several places that I used a language that none of us knew (in the examined closely had been studied by event, McCarty and I took lessons in Arensberg and Kimball, so that there already rudimentary Gaelic). This was done purposely was anthropological literature available on so that we would have to grapple with the them. But these and most other likely villages problem of translation for what we presumed had one flaw, from a filmmaking viewpoint: would be a film audience of English-speaking they had scattered settlement patterns and students in the USA. were flat. This meant that one couldn’t get an establishing shot of the whole village without (c) The film was not to have any old-fashioned renting a helicopter, and that was beyond our commentary, but to rely on on-camera budget. comment and discussion. That was going to call for some inspired editing. When McCarty joined me, we opted for the village of Dunquin (Dún Chaoin) in Co. Kerry, (d) Though Africa could have easily met our opposite the Blasket Islands, because it requirement for a foreign locale, we wanted offered several attractions: to work somewhere that was not too far from a film processing lab, so that we could see (a) Everyone spoke Munster Gaelic. rushes from time to time during the shooting (b) The 180 inhabitants, we were assured, and know how we were doing. This would included some’real characters,’ a plus in any probably have been impossible in Africa, for film. logistical reasons. (c) Directly behind the village were two high (e) As I had been working closely with peasant hills from which one could see and film the farmers in South India, I wanted to interact entire village in one sweeping shot; no with peasants in another setting, so that I helicopter needed. could both compare and contrast their adaptations to different environments. (d) Remarkably, there were several extaordinarily good autobiographies written

by members of the tiny community that had We quickly decided that the best locale to existed for centuries on the offshore Great meet all these criteria would be the Irish Blasket, until 1953: translated into English, Gaeltacht (like most people, both McCarty these were as informative as ethnographies. and I had distant Irish ancestors, though not In addition, this maritime peasant society had from the Gaeltacht). It was 1967, and western been well documented by J.M. Synge, and parts of Ireland still had pockets with an further north by Arensberg and Kimball. impoverished, Gaelic-speaking peasant It was only some time later that we realised population practising subsistence fishing and we had chosen to work in the most westerly

140

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter village in Eurasia! The editing of the film, on Madame Bovary that would star John Mills, which took longer than the shooting, was Robert Mitchum, Trevor Howard and Sarah completed in 1968, and since then the film, Miles. Since the local settlement pattern was titled The Village, has been screened in a very dispersed one, while MGM wanted this universities and film festivals throughout to look like a consolidated east-coast village, Europe, North America, China and Japan. We they spent over a year building one to plan; handled the comprehensibility problems and this activity employed local labour brought up by the Gaelic language through a exclusively. As a result, many villagers became mixture of 70 English subtitles and some quite well-off, and so were able to modernise voice-overs in English. their homes or even build second ones. The film was rather a critical flop, but the

unexpected result was that many in the village In retrospect, the film could be dubbed were now poised to offer accommodation to ‘historical’ in two senses. As we were making tourists, the village school now reopened as it, we were quite conscious that we were new children arrived here, and what had been breaking new ground, by putting together an isolated peasant community now began to sequences of shots that were meaningful look more like the rest of Ireland, as busloads without the intervention of any commentary of tourists arrived and professional families whatever. This was what came to be known as moved in because they liked the extraordinary Observational Cinema, a new style of beauty of the landscape and the fact that their documentary. But in another sense what we children could now be educated in Gaelic. recorded was historical, because this 70- While we were filming there was only one car minute film was quite possibly the last in the place; today there are many, and detailed visual record of peasant society in commuting to work in a nearby town is the British Isles. And this was because of a commonplace. totally unforeseen event.

Q: In a long career, then, you have While we were filming it was obvious that contributed to several quite different fields most of the villagers were surviving on very of anthropology. How would you sum up little cash, and that mainly from small these contributions – how does it all fit government benefits. Nobody except the local together? innkeeper (who had once worked as Gloria

Swanson’s bodyguard) showed any signs whatever of affluence. People did a little Anthropologists in America customarily talk fishing if they were not too old, and that land about the ‘four fields.’ By this they mean which was not peat-bog could grow a few Archaeology, Biological Anthropology, crops or support sheep. It was a peasant Sociocultural Anthropology, and culture still, although one that was quite Anthropological Linguistics, in other words, different from the Badagas. They had what is taught there in most departments of traditionally done millet farming, and in anthropology. But my own career has been in recent times had switched to potatoes and a rather different quadrivium. From the above small tea plantations. People in the Gaeltacht, recollections it is obvious that I have been on the other hand, were maritime peasants, concerned both with the ethnography of the where fishing had traditionally been quite as Badaga people and with the use of film and important as small-scale farming. still photography in anthropology. As to the latter interest, I have had a central position in

visual anthropology over the past quarter- This way of life changed altogether a couple century simply by being the editor of the of years later, when David Lean and MGM leading journal in this field, Visual decided to use this place as the locale for Anthropology. filming Ryan’s Daughter, a film based loosely

141

Irish Journal of Anthropology Vol. 19(2) 2016 Autumn/Winter

At the time when we made The Village, there was considerable opposition among senior American anthropologists to the whole idea of visual anthropology, which many looked on as an abstruse form of classroom entertainment, good for those days when one didn’t feel like lecturing, but not to be taken too seriously. So ominous was this attitude then that I determined to make myself useful in other areas too.

Another concern I was mulling over was the whole question of getting some anthropological understanding into the minds of the general public. This interest had begun early in my life when I gave a lot of radio talks in four countries: it was back in the days when the radio talk was still considered a minor literary form. Then in 1970, during a brief stint at MGM, I worked as the research director on a film about palaeo-anthropology, which we called The Man Hunters. It was made for television, and in a single night was seen by an estimated 53 million people across North America, on the NBC network.

Long after this the same interest came to fruition again, when I collaborated with Melvin Ember, David Levinson and others to edit a series of encyclopaedias for the general public, and more particularly for undergraduate students: these were the Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Encyclopedia of Medical Anthropology, Countries and their Cultures, Encyclopedia of Cultural Anthropology, and Encyclopedia of Modern Asia. Most of these multi-volume series can be found in reference libraries around the world today.

There was yet a fourth area to which I contributed: Dravidian linguistics. Collaborating with Christiane Pilot-Raichoor, a Parisian linguist, we produced the only dictionary of the Badaga language (which is close to Kannada), and also a book of proverbs, prayers, omens and curses. It’s been a full life.

142