pnG. 58.B(ii)(NJ 1,000 CENSUS OF INDIA 1961 VOLUME XX-PART V-B HIMACHAL PRADESH Report on Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (A Study of Gaddi-Scheduled Tribe-and affiliated castes) BY WILLIAM H. NEWELL ...... 00' , ,.",-->;:". ,'t·· . ... ~ «..J ". Y::::I zoz «8 (J)z i I- o ~ I: 1l.J"': 0( • 0( - ...J ::l IX C) ci I- ...J ...J a. a. « «O...J3:=~"'J: o 0 « 0 w 0( W Q. IX U. ZIDI-IXIXIII THE SCHEDULED CASTES AND TRIBES OF THE BRAHMAUR TAHSIL OF CHAMBA DISTRICT By WILLIAM H. NEWELL PAGE Chapter one Introduction (Inri background 1 Chapter two Vill'Lge and caste 14 Chapter three Land, crops 'Lnd sensonallllovelllcnts 22 Chapter f}ur Co.operation between sexes, vil"'gers, castes and villages 32 Oha pter five Rites de l'a8sage 41 Chapter six Kinship and [lffinal terms 72 Cha pter seven Religious deities 76 Uhapter eight geligious speci,dists and intermediaries .. 85 Chapter uille Conclusion, social change 93 Appendices A. Bmilluinical books of l'andit Thakur Das Bari village 98 B. Description of Gaddi physiology 98 C. Weights and heights of Brahmaur area 99 D. Settle'uent 'tgreement of Goshen village, Brahmaur tahsil 99 E. Selected teohnioal vooabulary 99 B i hliography 104 PREFACE The printing of this contribution to the ethnography of Chamba is made possible by the courtesy of the Census Commissioner of Himachal Pradesh, Shri R. C. Pal Singh to 'whom I am greatly indebted for his kindness and courtesy during my second visit to Brahmaur in 1963. I also wish to thank the District Forest Commissioner, Shri Hem. Raj 'who gave me information concerning the operation of the local forest office, lI'hich must always be the key government department in this area. I wish to thank various Gaddi and Brahmin informants especially Dr. B. C. Chowhan and Shri Nanak Chand with whom I lived in Goshen and to thank the villagers of Goshen, who never failed to answer my questions in spite of their totally unfounded suspicions that I was an agent of the Central Government at Delhi. During my second visit to the area I '\Tas accompanied by a graduate student of the Department of Sociology of the University of Delhi, Shri Appa R::lO, now an employee of All-India Radio. He greatly assisted me especially in crc:lting good relations with Brahmins, and 'was mainly responsible for the supplementary in­ formation on Sere village. Coming from South India, he was able to see features of Sanscritic culture which I had tended to underemphasize. Although this is an ethnographic report, I have perhaps included an exces­ sive amount of descriptive m.aterial even when I could not completely under­ stand the background of the information. To those readers to whom this is of no interest I would especially advise the omission of those sections dealing with the marriage ritual. It is hoped that within the next few years I will be able to write a more theoretical \\-'ork dealing' with some of the underlying changes in this area between 1951 and 1963 and between castes. I have accordingly not tried to reconcile discrepancies which occurred between the original descrip­ tion in the 1904 Chamba gazetteer and the variations between different castes in ritual. The process of conformity to an all-India pattern is proceeding apace. AnOl.her field in which change is proceeding rapidly is in respect to the pattern of inheritance which has been radically modified between 1951, when I first visited the area, and 1962 when I returned. In 1953 a (yet unpublished) Settlement was carried out. Also during this period many of the village heads had lost their power on account of age and the new village leaders were contem.­ poraries of mine during my first visit so that I was able to treat them as equals on my return. I was thus able to notice the change in attitude between gene­ lations of those OCCll pying the .'i£lmC positions. I would have been unable to '\Tite this report without taking into considera­ tion thE general direction in 'which Caddi society is moving especially with respect to caste. As a result of new opportunities for nuking v,:ealth, the tendenc;' for such groups as Rajput, Brahmin or Rana to become more caste conscious is almost inevitable and it is hoped in a subsequent publication to show that the whole of the Ravi valley is changing in accordance with a long term pattern. The effect of new opportunities is to speed up processes already present rather than to change the direction in which the Gaddis ,,,"ere moving. In this connection I hope the reader will cLefully bear in mind that I have used the term caste not as an historical term bn t as an intermarrying endogamous group. The detailed justification for this use of the word "caste" "will have to wait until the census material for the whole valley has been re-assessed. Although I first visited the Gaddis in 1951 and have subsequently under­ taken fIeld studies in Malaya and Japan, my special interest in the Gaddis has never lapsed. The reason I have hesitated so long to rush into print is my belief that we have here an extremely sensitive and religious people whose simplicity conceals an extrclnely deep national character. Since I have only spent a year in the field in total, I hope such shortcomings as this preliminary SUlTCY will }"eveal will be ascribed to the shortcomings of the ethnographer rather than to the people themselves. 'VILLIA~f H. NEWELL Professor of Sociology and Anthropolugy Department of So{:iology and Anthropology International Christian University Mitaka, Tokyo JAPAN 10th J.lat'Ch, 1965 ILL USTRATIONS 1. The Tibetaa inscription below Goshen 10. The rest houses at Matra in Kashmir where village (p. 3). the records of the Brahmin pandas dealing with infectious diseases in Brahmaur are C) .\ s;lcrcd diagram drawn on the rock former­ kept. Each house could probably accom­ lyon the road between Brahmaur and the modate at least a 100 guests. (p. 70). rest home in 1952. When the jeep road II. The annual shrine festival of Goshen vil­ was built this stone was broken up to use lage in 1952. The shrine is to the left. The as road metal. (p. :J). arrangements of the participants is as fol­ :\. Goshen village in :\member. (p. ~:l). lows; In the foreground are the Sipi fami­ lies. Behind them six younger Gaddi boys. 4. A posed group of Gaddi Goshen villagers Behind them to the left are elder Gaddi in 1952 with some of their material imple­ boys while to the right are the senior heads ments. In the foreground a spinning wheel. of gotras including one visiting Brahmin Behind it is an instrument for making rope from Bari. Women are to the left out of dhora. On the extreme left is a grindstone sight behind the shrine. (p. 80). for making oil and behind again is a pound­ ing rod for beating grain. In the background 12. The same scene as the previous illustration is Dr. Chowhan, then local medical officer ten years later. In the foreground are now a group of strangers from other villages (p. 31). mostly Gaddis but many wearing plain :). Half completed Gaddi hOllse. (p. 3B). clothes. Many of these were neighbouring villagers returning from service in the Indian G. The loom owned hy Kalia of Goshen vil­ army. To the right are more senior villagers lage with his eldest son straightening out and also to the left under the shrine, while the wefts. The object in the foreground is more intermediate age groups -:lre now in used for filling the shuttle. (p. 40). the distance. The Sipi family did not arrive until later. Whereas when I took the earlier 7. The diagram (hawaII) specially drawn for photo in 1952 I was standing on grass belong­ me by the two parohits but without the ing to the shrine, in this photo I was forced material objects 011 thelll. (p. 44). to push my way through fields of Indian 8. A mother and daughter from Goa village corn which had been grown on the sacred wearing ceremonial clothes. The daughters ground. (p. 84). in the foreground are for luck with three 13. The chela, Jiddi, while, possessed, before generations in one picture. (p. 53). the shrine at Goshen village in 1952. The Tiara on the left also plays before the prin­ 9. The gotra char rile of the wedding cere­ cipal shrine at the Brahmaur maidan. mony held at Sechuin village in 1952. The (p. 89). formal connection of the bride with her father's gotra is being broken. The bride­ 14. The Brabmaur gram panchayat elections in groom continues to wear his mask from 1962. The man in the dark suit is the pre­ danger of evil spirits until after the end of siding officer and to his right is the Gaddi this ceremony. The bridegroom's father is candidate (dressed in sMrt tails) with his in on the left. (p. 58). supporters. (p 95). iii-iv THE GADDI AND AFFILIATED Gc\.STES OF THE WESTERN HIMALAYAS CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND The Gaddi people of the Himalayas OCCUpY ca,te system, modified by their hard environ­ an area in the Chamba district of Himachal ment, tl~rows a great deal of light on the funda­ Pradesh and along certain foothills oj the mental nature of Indian caste. Since very few Dhaula Dhar in the Kangra district of the non-Gaddis hayc e\'cr learnt the language Punjab.