Paper No. : 05 Tribal Culture of India Module : 34 Tribe and its Problematic Nature Development Team Prof. Anup Kumar Kapoor Principal Investigator Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi Prof. Anup Kumar Kapoor Paper Coordinator Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi Dr. Mitashree Srivastava Content Writer Department of Anthropology, University of Delhi Content Reviewer Prof. A. Paparao Sri Venkateswar University, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh 1 Tribal Culture of India Anthropology Tribe and its Problematic Nature Description of Module Subject Name Anthropology Paper Name 05 Tribal Culture of India Module Name/Title Tribe and its Problematic Nature Module Id 34 2 Tribal Culture of India Anthropology Tribe and its Problematic Nature UNITS OF THE CONTENTS: A Monographic study of CHOR KA EK GAON The Himalayan Polyandry: Structure, Functioning and Culture Change, A field study of Jaunsar-Bawar, 3 Tribal Culture of India Anthropology Tribe and its Problematic Nature A Monographic study of CHOR KA EK GAON (A Village on the Fringe) by Dhirendra Nath Majumdar (Asia Publishing House, Bombay, 1960) A Look Back at Village studies in India During the mid -twentieth century Uttar Pradesh emerged as the most important state of the Union, not only in respect of size and population, but also in leadership and scholarship. Soon after independence Community Development Program (CDP) was introduced in the country with great zeal and it was thought of an instrument of transforming rural people. Uttar Pradesh turned into a laboratory for sociological and anthropological studies by both foreign and national scholars. Professor D N Majumdar is held as the father of Anthropology in Uttar Pradesh, and besides teaching Anthropology at Lucknow University he played active roles by preparing action oriented work for a newly created U.P. government body known as Planning Research and Action Institute. The two monographs of Professor Majumdar being reviewed here are examples of pattern of diverse rural life in north India. It was Majumdar who initiated the study of communication in a village (Mohana Kallan) near Lucknow. We must not forget that the decade 1950-60 was characterized by studies on Indian villages with diverse conceptual orientations. M.N. Srinivas, for example, studied dominant caste and process of sanskritization in rural belts, Morris Opler (with R.D. Singh) examined unity and extension of a village (Senapur, UP), McKim Marriot looked for elements of Little tradition of Kishangarhi (a village in Aligarh district) contributed development of Great tradition of India and vice-versa. Oscar Lewis examined how an Indian village (Rani Khera, Delhi) is different from a Mexican village (Tepoztlan) and how inter- village networks work in north India what he called “rural cosmopolitanism”. About the same time S. C. Dube was working in Rankhandi Block (Saharanpur, U P.) discovering cultural and human factors involved in Community Development Projects. F. G, Bailey’s study was along the line of tribal-rural continuum in a village of Odhisa. Professor Majumadar thought of investigating how a village on the fringe functions. This the subject matter of his monograph reviewed below. Dr. Majumdar’s Chor ka ek Gaon (A village on the fringe) is definitely a departure from above studies. It was first published in 1960 shortly after his sad demise in May, 1960. Originally the script was written in English by him in 1958. His desire was the book is published in Hindi first. His student, Chandra Bhal Tripathy, translated the scripts into Hindi. Unfortunately, its English version never got published, perhaps lost in the Press! Research Area and People A village named BALUGA about 60 kms. from Hanthinala of Robertsganj (Mirzapur district of North west Uttar Pradesh was treated as a fringe or chor village, but the actual field work was done in Chitaura, a tribal village of Dudhi tahsil, not very far away from the Duddhi railway station. Chor means “the outer part of something”. In the context of rural study, it means a village which has lost 4 Tribal Culture of India Anthropology Tribe and its Problematic Nature its original tribal features and has become a multi caste village having no common solidarity often seen elsewhere. Duddhi communities over the period of time have borrowed the cultural traits of each other simultaneously. He called this cultural process “trans-culturation”. In addition, a fringe village is under the influence of external power, i.e. the government intervention, cultural tolerance and is open to economic wellbeing. We will take up this point later on. Reason for selection of a fringe village Professor Majumdar first describes the reason for studying a village at the outskirt in anthropological terms. Mostly ethnographers (as noted above) studied caste/ tribe dominated village, multi caste village, its social organization, economic interdependence, decision making processes (local level politics) and ritual characteristics. Professor Majumdar deviated from earlier studies and concentrated on a defined bordering area having features of de-tribalization and trans- culturation. He called this fringe features. That’s why the title of monograph is A CHOR KA EK GAON. To Majumdar, the following are the constituent elements of a fringe village: 1. Its geographical characters 2. Its communities- tribals and non-tribals 3. Socio economic relationships among communities 4. Religious characteristics 5. Responses to the development programs 6. Rapid de- tribalization 7. Increase of trans- culturation Keeping the above points in view we may now present chapter wise relevant information as described by the ethnographer. Chapter 1 Duddhi and Its Inhabitants Duddhi is a revenue village of the district of Mirzapur of southern western Uttar Pradesh. Its northern region falls in the Gangetic plains as such its region is very fertile. Middle and southern regions of district are surrounded by the Kaimur hills and Sone River. The famous Rehand barrage has been constructed here. The hilly and forest tracts of Sone turn the area into a natural bondage. The hilly tracts are rich in mineral deposits of lime stone. Agriculture is the main stay of the people. Duddhi is the most backward region of the district. Duddhi is a large revenue circle which embraces a number of villages. For the study purpose the ethnographer selected a revenue circle (Duddhi), and its surrounding villages fully described in the 5 Tribal Culture of India Anthropology Tribe and its Problematic Nature next chapter. The inhabitants are both tribals and non-tribals. Their socio-cultural statuses in hierarchal order are as follow: Brahman Thakur Kalear, Agrahari Lohar, Ahir, Kewat Kumar, Teli Sardar, Chero Manjhi’ Pasi, Panika, Chamar Bhiuyan Korwa Most of the higher Hindu caste communities are migrants from Bihar (now Jharkhand) and Madhya Pradesh (Chahttisgarh). These two states surround the border of Duddhi, i.e. Mirzapur (now Sonbhadra) of Uttar Pradesh. The Koiree and Kunbi in large population are primarily agriculturalists. Communities are endogamous and live in villages independently. Among all, Korwa are most primitive tribal group. A little better position is of Agheria ehgaged in metal work, supply tools to the agricultural communities. They are mainly concentrated in middle of Duddhi close to Kirril iron mines from where they obtain irone ores. Manjhi or Majhwar come next to Agheria. They are agriculturalist migrated from Sarguja district of Madhya Pradesh. Kherwar are engaged in katha production and also work in agricultural field. They are mainly distributed in northern, North West and north western villages of Duddhi such as Hathwani, Mordhawa, Dallapeepal, Belguri. They consider themselves superior to tribals and claim themselves originated from Kshatria varna. Chero are the oldest inhabitants of Duddhi. They act as Purohit and Ojha and the local communities in magico-religious ceremonies. They are also known as Baiga. A group of Chero community, locally called Parahiya lives in Duddhi. Basically, Chero or Baiga are custodian of village God. Today they are fully acculturated and follow Hindu way of way of life. Majhwar or Manjhi are the Gond migrated from Madhya Pradesh long ago. They are a successful agricultural community settled in several villages of Duddhi. 6 Tribal Culture of India Anthropology Tribe and its Problematic Nature Korwa are the most primitive group in Duddhi. They migrated from the villages of Kundpan, Chainpur, Bisrampur and Sangobang of Surguja (Chahttisgarh)) long ago. Today their population is on decrease. Panika are migrated from neighboring villages of Bihar and they are in good number in Duddhi. They are one of the Proto-Australoid groups. Earlier they were weavers. Today they have given up this work are engaged in agriculture. They are, like Agheria, distributed throughout Duddhi Tahsil. To sum, the tribal communities are the oldest settlers of Duddhi. Hindu higher caste communities came to this area later on when British government required their services in collection of revenue and education. Each tribal population is different from the other; their families vary from 5 to 15. Distance between two villages is fewer furlong. Nearer to the tahsil lesser are the distance of villages. It is difficult to furnish demographic profile of Duddhi. (The ethnographer did not cite census of per available records, in 1881 the density of population in Duddhi was 99 per sq mile. In 1891 it was 65.58. 1n 1901 it rose to 73 while in 1931 it reached 97.3 per sq,km. Duddhi is largely rain water agricultural region. Its tribals works in forest, mines and neighboring areas on wage during agriculture off season. However, well off families of Gond, Chero, Baiga, Panika, Agheria enjoy their surplus. The region has lost traditional tribal dress, dance and music. Chapter 2: Villages under Study The study is mainly based on Chittaura village and its three wards, viz. Piparahi, Mahuaria, and Chutkai Bahra. (Elsewhere in official record Dhanaura is noted,but Dr Majumdar never mentioned Dhanaura in the book).