Important Dalit castes

Paswans

Paswans, also called "Dusadh", are an upwardly mobile Dalit caste, primarily inhabiting Bihar. Paswans follow various rituals to show their valour, which include walking on fire.^[3] They have created a unique space among the Scheduled Castes of Bihar with their mythical folklore, which revolves around folk heroes like Chauharmal and Sahlesh.^[4] In Bihar, they are the second-largest community among the Scheduled Castes, and in the census of 1981, their population was lower only than that of the Chamars. Some Dusadhs believe that they descended from the Kaurava prince Dushasana, and since the latter was a Chandravanshi Kshatriya, they claim to be this also. However, some Dusadhs claim to be the descendants of Gahlot Rajputs; according to this school of thought, the original Gahlots branched into 24 sub-castes, and the 21st came to be known as Dusadh. Since then, they have been primarily landless. Economic backwardness exists among them and they had instances of indebtedness to the Mahajans (moneylenders) in the past.^[5]

The Dusadhs, according to political scientist Sanjay Kumar, have been voting for Ram Vilas Paswan ever since his rise as a leader of the community, or for the alliance to which he belongs, both in the Lok Sabha and State Assembly election in 2009-10. Ram Vilas Paswan is also popular among other Dalit castes, but a division from other Dalits is seen, when the opportunity to vote for him comes. Over time, other political parties have also initiated programs to win the support of the Dalit constituency of the state. It is opined by Kumar that most of the benefits of government policies for Dalits in Bihar have been cornered by Dusadhs only, at the cost of other Dalit communities. This is true for the policy of reservation too.^[6]

Due to the nature of their occupation and social standing, Dusadhs of Bihar were first among the Dalit castes to form caste-based organisations for social upliftment. They also participated in the reform movement and struggles against the established order for their castemen. One of the first caste-based organisation of Dusadhs, called Bhartiya Dusadh Sabha, was formed as early as 1915, by the elites among them. According to Shaibal Gupta, the Arya Samaj movement also influenced them, and in their case, instead of making them progressive, it strengthened their belief in the conservative ideals of Brahminism like karma and dharma.^[7]

Pasi caste

Pasi were generally a Toddy tapper caste. They are considered physically strong, but culturally and educationally behind many other Dalit castes with more educational mobility. Earlier, due to their physical fitness, they were employed by Zamindars as lathi-wielding guards. They possess very small landholdings and perform some craft work too, on their doorsteps, to earn a living. Compared to Bihar, their population in Uttar Pradesh is quite high. By 1994, some educational mobility had been seen among them, and they started giving importance to the education of their children. The palm tree not only provides them the drink called toddy, but the raw materials for their craft are also extracted from it.^[8]

Musahar

Musahar are a caste of rat catchers and have been one of the most underprivileged communities of Bihar. Like many other untouchables, they were involved in menial work and this provided [them] very little scope for upward mobility. Due to their socio-economic backwardness, the state government has categorised them as Mahadalits, and both the central and state government have pursued a policy of social justice for them, through various schemes. Apart from Bihar, they are also found in West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand. According to the census of 2011, the Musahar form the third-largest scheduled caste in the state after Dusadhs and Chamars. Their population, according to the 2011 census was 2,725,114 in the state of Bihar. Musahar were earlier classified as a tribe rather than a caste; they are said to have moved from the hills of Chhotanagpur to the plains of Bihar, as late as the 12th century. After their inclusion in Brahminical society, they were put at the lowest end of the caste-based social hierarchy, and were branded as untouchables. Further, after settling into the north Indian plains, the Musahars have been classified into Magahiya Musahars and Tirhutiya Musahars. The socio-economic conditions of Magahiya Musahars are slightly better than those of the Tirhutiya, and no instances of inter-marriage are observed between them.^[9]

Many colonial records also identify Musahars as a Dravidian tribe; they are known by various names such as Bhuyan, Bhumia, Cheru and Bhuihar. According to Gyan Prakash, in the British period, many upper-caste became Zamindars and they introduced many systems in the rural agrarian setup to exploit agricultural labourers. Systems like Kamiauti and Badaliya were set up in north and south Bihar and Musahar became a significant part of this class of agricultural labourers. Hence, in several parts of Bihar, they are also called Badaliya and Kamiya. Others argue that imposition of an image of rat eaters, pork eaters and 'people involved in alcoholism' on Musahars has been done by higher and dominant castes.^[10]

The Musahar also believe themselves to be Hindus of Kshatriya Varna; their folklores and folksongs represent the struggle and resistance against the dominant sections of society and the prevailing social order. During wedding ceremonies, Musahar women sing Jhoomar (a folk song); these songs are also sung during cultivating seasons. Some of these songs narrate the sexual exploitation faced by Musahar women. They also sing songs in praise of Dina and Bhadri, their folk deities, whom they believe to be their protectors during hardship.^[9] According to Sahay, one of their folk songs, which gives insights into their socio-economic condition is:

Bachpan mein baba kailan gawanawa, Sainya kahe rope chala dhanawa, Rope hum gaili jamindar ke badhariya, Jamindar papi nirkhai badaniya (While young, father got me married. My husband says, let's go to plant paddy. To plant paddy, I go to the zamindar's field; zamindar, the sinner, ogles at me), Majoori laawe gaili hum jamindar ke aganwa, Eke hathe jamindar papi taula hai majooriya, Doosar haathe toai aapan manwa and Saiyan kahe rope chala dhanawa (To fetch my wages, I go to the zamindar's courtyard. Zamindar, the sinner, weighs the wages with one hand and sexually fondles himself with the other hand; my husband says let us go to plant paddy.)^[9]

Dhobi caste

Shyam Rajak, president of Akhil Bharatiya Dhobi Mahasangh (a caste organization of the Dhobi community)^[11] (left) with former union minister Ram Vilas Paswan.

Dhobi caste has been associated with the profession of washerman in past. They are also called Rajak or Baintha and are often known in rural folk culture for quarrelsome women and donkeys. In their society, women perform the task of washing clothes at washing spots called ghats. Unlike other Dalit communities, who are primarily landless, Dhobis do possess some land. This is attributed to their role in society, since every village needed a Dhobi in the past. Some land was allotted to them for their service to the village community. Due to the availability of this land, some of the Dhobis also practice agriculture. They were paid in kind for their work and treated fairly, in comparison to other Dalit communities. The association of Dhobis to upper-caste familie led to their cultural development, and of late, literacy has also become one of the observable phenomena in this caste. Nearly 30% of their men and 23% of women were literate by 1994.^[12]

Naach or Launda Naach

Ramchandra Manjhi, a popular performer of the Launda Naach folk dance, who belonged to A Dalit caste.

The Naach which is also called Launda Naach, is a dance form originating in the state of Bihar, but also practiced in the neighbouring states like Uttar Pradesh. It was a popular folk dance of the depressed castes and its popular themes also included the "caste struggle" inherent in the society of Bihar. With the passage of time, the dominant castes also associated with it and Bhikhari Thakur reorganized it with little variation to rename it as Bideshiya (migrant). The term Launda literally mean a young land, but in everyday language, it represents a person who is effeminate, vulgar, immature and from an inferior class or caste. According to author Jainendra Kumar Dost renaming of Naach as Launda Naach was a strategy employed by the upper-castes and classes of Bhojpuri society as a way of belittling a popular folk tradition that belongs to the Other.^[17]

In Bihar, during the Mughal period and afterwards, the Baiji Naach (dance of Tawayafs) catered to the upper section of society, primarily the feudal lords and the moneylenders. In the lower strata i.e among lower and middle castes, the dance of male acting as a female was popular, and it was known as Naach, later Launda Naach. Here, the term Launda describes the male, who is acting as a female. The Naach performance always attacked the upper caste and classes for the atrocities they committed on the lower castes and hence, it was stigmatised by the upper castes as the vulgar and uncouth art. As per Dost, most of the artists and proprietors of the Naach folk art comes from the lower castes and its songs, music, dance, plot and comic elements are largely associated with lower caste-class experiences and aesthetics.^[17]

One of the popular performance in this theatrical art form used to be Lakhdev Ram's famous play Ghurva Chamaar (1965). The story revolves around the Dalit person called Ghurva Chamaar, who wanted to go to temple in order to worship the deity, but the temple priest wouldn't allow him because of his caste. As caste restrictions were applied on Dalits in earlier times, the play portrays it through the story of Ghurva Chamaar. When the protagonist tries to enter the temple, the priest stops him. Chamaar requests him that he has brought a gold coin to donate to the deity and the greedy priest allows him to enter the temple.^[17]

Suddenly the Queen arrives, and she asks the priest that how the lower caste man entered the temple. Unable to answer her, the priest lies that he sneaked into temple. Chamaar was then beaten badly as punishment for his act of defiance. But, the news of the incident spreads and the Queen loses the elections, because of her act of punishing the lower caste man. The lower caste audience liked this theme after it was introduced in the Naach performances.^[17]

Root cause of atrocities against Dalits

The government of Bihar, led by KB Sahay was the chief architect of land reforms. The land reforms determined the upper ceiling for the land to be held by an individual household and the distribution of surplus land to the landless. But, the Zamindari abolition didn't immediately follow the land reforms, as the Indian National Congress in initial decades of the post-independence period, remained dominated by Rajput and the Bhumihar caste, who became suspicious of these reforms. Apart from this, these land reform laws had a number of conciliatory measures, which allowed the landlords to manipulate its provisions. Many problems like "absentee landlordism", illegal distribution of land, "bataidari" on unfavorable terms led to brewing of discontent among the landless population. The Bhoodan movement launched by Vinoba Bhave also had limited success, not enough to satisfy the needs of large section of landless people. These challenges provided fertile ground for Naxalism to emerge. The Naxalite groups began organising these landless labourers for their rights.^[18]

Oliver Mendelsohn and Marika Vicziany have explained that the untouchables who formed the bottom of the social set up in Bihar have clashed with many communities including Yadavs, Kurmis etc. in the middle segment and Bhumihars, Rajputs, Brahmins from the upper segment of the society. The scholars have identified land control being the major characteristic of the opponents and not the caste identity in itself. It has been suggested that neither the exploiters of the untouchables have the same caste identity in all the region nor were the conflicts only restricted to Bihar. This has been the situation of untouchables throughout the country where they have also come into conflict with peasant communities and not only the upper castes.^[19]

While Yadav can be the bitter enemies of landless Dalits on one instance, in the other instance, poor among the Yadavs can fight together with Dalits too. It is evident from various instances that sometimes caste feelings lead to unification of Yadavs from various socio-economic background, at the other times, it may not. Further, after the rise of Naxalism from the Bhojpur district in Bihar, many Backward Caste leaders had provided the leadership to the movement besides the untouchable leaders, in order to improve the situation of Dalits.^[20]

Sumit Srivastava noted that more than two-third of the land in Bihar was with upper castes which included Bhumihars, Rajputs and Brahmins. The lower castes were mostly tenants, agricultural labourers and in many instances even bonded labourers. To make the situation more worse for the Dalits, the backward communities like Koeris, Yadavs and Kurmis who in some parts of Bihar had gained from the partial success of green revolution were equally violent with Dalit labourers. Overall the poor results of land reforms and failures of Bhoodan-Gramdan movement was responsible for the bad condition.^[21]

Forms of atrocities

In the feudal society of rural Bihar, the lower castes were dehumanised, as indicated by the available records of the initial decades after independence. Author Kalyan Mukherjee's account of the Bhojpur region (a stronghold of Naxalism in Bihar), points towards the dual challenge of wages and honour in front of the lower castes, who were subjected to the tyrannical attitude of the upper-caste landlords, primarily belonging to Rajput and Bhumihar castes. Mukherjee elaborates that the landlords were not only involved in the sexual exploitation of the lower caste women, but they also treated the lower castes in inhumane manner. According to Mukherjee, sitting in front of the landlord, on the cot, even in front of their own houses, and wearing a clean dhoti was also considered as a challenge to the authority of the upper-castes. The existence of the practices like Dola Pratha— the custom in which the newly wed Dalit bride was forced to spend her first night with the Rajput and Bhumihar landlord of her locality— also points towards the dehumanisation of the Dalits, under the socio-political dominance of the upper-castes.^[22]

Ranvir Sena

The map showing the districts of Bihar, affected by Ranvir Sena.

Out of all caste based armies of Bihar, which were launched to take on the Naxalites, who were encouraging the lower-caste Dalits to become vocal for their rights, Ranvir Sena was the most dreaded one. The Sena derived its identity and political support from Bhumihars, but other upper-caste groups like Rajputs also supported it. It was manned by the members of both Rajput and the Bhumihar caste.^[37] According to some sources, Rang Bahadur Singh Rajput happened to be the first president of Ranvir Sena,^[38] but later on the leadership passed into the hands of Brahmeshwar Singh. It committed many massacres on Dalits, out of which Laxmanpur Bathe massacre is most notable. An eyewitness account of one of the resident of the particular village, collected by a visiting team of Human Rights Watch explains the killing pattern of the Sena members and atrocities they committed against the Dalit women and girls. Surajmani Devi, a thirty two years old victim states:

Everyone was shot in the chest. I also saw that the panties were torn. One girl was Prabha. She was fifteen years old. She was supposed to go to her husband's house two to three days later. They also cut her breast and shot her in the chest. Another was Manmatiya, also fifteen. They raped her and cut off her breast. The girls were all naked, and their panties were ripped. They also shot them in the vagina. There were five girls in all. All five were raped. All were fifteen or younger. All their breasts were cut off.^[39]

The tactics followed by Ranvir Sena members to terrorise the lower caste villagers included rapes, looting of villages and massacres. The raising of voice against the rapes of Dalit women and girls also brought retaliation from the Sena members in some cases. As for example in 1997, three Dalit youths were gunned down for protesting against the rape of a Dalit girl by the upper-caste youths.^[40]

The hobnobbing between the state administration, particularly the police force and Ranvir Sena members, also remained a controversy for long. Many Naxalites were killed in police encounters while Ranvir Sena members were never subjected to confrontation with the police force. In districts of central Bihar, particularly the Bhojpur district, the police force has traditionally been dominated by the upper-caste Rajputs and Bhumihars, and in Bhojpur, "caste ties" has remained an important factor in the police force. Human rights activists hence argued that the collusion between Ranvir Sena and police officials have resulted in some small scale extrajudicial killings of Naxalites as well, apart from the large scale massacres perpetrated by the Sena members.^[40]

Ranvir Sena also enjoyed considerable political patronage with the chief Brahmeswar Singh himself being an activist of Bhartiya Janata Party. The Sena was also said to be dominated by the leaders of various political parties which included Indian National Congress and Janata Party. It was also alleged that Sena received arms and ammunition from some of the former members of Central Reserve Police Force. According to reports from People Union For Democratic Right and Human Rights Watch, the politicians from Ara district often used the Sena during election campaigns to gain votes in their favour, as the "booth capturing" (forcibly capturing the votes of people in the favour of a particular candidate) and manipulation of elections were common phenomenon in the 1990s. Further, the prosecution of the members of Sena were negligible and its members were frequently given bails after being arrested on various charges. In contrast, the members of left-wing extremist groups when held were often given death sentences.^[40]

According to one opinion, Ranvir Sena alone was responsible for raping more than 200 Dalit women including young girls of the age of 6 years to 70 years old elderly women. Between 1995 and 1999, it is estimated that they were also responsible for killing of more than 400 Dalits.^[41] Most of the carnage organised by the Sena took place in Bhojpur and Jahanabad districts.^[42]

Other significant incidents of violence by the Upper-Caste landlords

Confrontation with the Backward Caste landlords

It was not only the caste armies of the upper-caste landlords which perpetrated the caste based atrocities on the Dalits, but also that of Backward Castes like Kurmis. In a village called Dumri, located in Jehanabad district of Bihar, the Kurmi were considered as the "dominant caste", just like the other villages of the district and all the households belonging to the Kurmi caste were owners of vast stretches of land. It was natural ground for the Bhumi Sena— a caste army of Kurmi landlords to strengthen its root here.^[54] Alarmed by the killing of the prominent Kurmi landlords, Bhumi Sena was formed in Punpun-Masaurhi region of the Patna district in 1982 and soon after its formation it arrived in the Dumari village. There were also some sympathizers of the Maoists and the "Dalit resurgence" among the members of Kurmi caste. These were primarily the poor Kurmis, who were at an unprivileged position in the village of Dumri due to their low socio-economic status. The Bhumi Sena targeted not only the Dalits but also those members of Kurmi caste, who sympathized with the latter and were part of the Maoist movement.^[53]

The Sena not only forced the Kurmi households to give "protection money" and support to its cadres but also tried to radicalise the Kurmi youths in the name of saving the 'prestige and pride' of the community. Slogans were raised to woo the community to fight the Maoists. The absence of Brahmins in the village and due to presence of limited number of households of the Rajput and the Bhumihars, the Kurmis were at the top of caste hierarchy in the village.The Dalits which included castes like Chamar, Dusadh, Musahar, Dhobi and Dome were at the bottom of this hierarchy and the Kurmis, whom they refer to as Zamindar and Malik, imposed on them all those discriminatory practices which the upper-caste landlords applied in other areas of Bihar. This includes getting up from their cot, when the Kurmi Malik passed by, even in their own homes. They were also not allowed to wear watches or sandles.^[53]

Despite the struggle between the Kurmis and the Dalits in this village, some Kurmi youths were sympathetic to the Dalits and ironically the Maoist first came into the village on invitation of a Kurmi youth, who was a member of Socialist Party and a sympathiser of the Dalits. Some landlords from the Kurmi caste even claimed that the arrival of Maoists in the village was not due to any form of oppression but due to factional fights amongst the Kurmis themselves. They also claimed that the bringing of Maoists in the village was aimed at establishing the supremacy of the other group of rival Kurmis, who were against the peaceful co-existence of the farmers and the labourers.^[53]

The struggle here was led by an organisation called Mazdoor Kisan Sangram Samiti (MKSS), a front organization of CPI (ML) Party Unity. Most of the Dalits joined the struggle under the aegis of MKSS and while its president Dr. Vinayan was from Uttar Pradesh, its vice president was a person from the Kurmi caste from Jehanabad itself. The ordinary people didn't draw a distinction between the Party Unity and the MKSS, and they used a collective term Sangathan, to denote the two groups. However, the activities and composition of the two groups were different.^[53]

The Party Unity maintained its own armed squad and mostly drew its membership from the Dalits. The commander of the armed squad was a Dalit named Raju Bhai. The Party Unity's first armed intervention in the village of Dumri took place in 1981, in support of a strike organised by the MKSS. The MKSS preferred the mass protests and economic blockade of the landlords, as their method to show the dissension against the feudal setup.^[53]

The caste strife was witnessed between the Dalit Maoists and the Kurmi landlords in 1981, when a Kurmi landlord called Munna Singh, who operated a brick kiln, refused to increase the wages of his Dalit labourers. In order to keep the Kiln functioning amidst the protest organised by Dalit labourers under the banner of MKSS, he brought his own gunmen and other labourers. The Dalit protesters tried to stop new workers from operating the kiln, as a response to which, the gunmen opened fire. The PU armed squad also retaliated from the homes of the Dalits, and a gun battle ensued. A landlord was killed and Maoists hunged his head on a tree. The battle was followed by the policy of "selective annihilation", in which most oppressive landlords were killed one after another. It was this policy of annihilation that led to the rise of Bhumi Sena— the caste army of Kurmi landlords.^[53]

By the end of 1982, the retaliatory action by the Bhumi Sena, and the activity of Police in the region, led to the weakening of Maoists. The Bhumi Sena forced many Dalits and the Kurmis, who sympathised with them, to leave the region and migrate elsewhere. The Maoist guriella now resorted to "economic blockade" and selective killing once again, and in a short period of time, as many as 16 landlords were killed. By 1984, the tactics followed by the Maoists, of burning the stores of grain of the Kurmis, broke the resistance on latter's part. The Kurmis resolved to stop this fight with the Sangathan and the terms of surrender were decided. Pradeep Das, a Dalit leader, from the Ravidasi community, organised the surrender of the Kurmi landlords, in which the latter gave written confirmation to the MKSS, that they will not wage a war against it and will not interfere in its activities. The surender led to an end of all the feudal practices and discrimination, and a Dalit leadership emerged in the village as a challenge to Kurmi dominance.^[53]

In the Magadhi region of Bihar, it had been observed that the villages with mixed population of different communities were more inclined to violence against Dalits when compared to the villages which had population of only upper castes and Dalits. The villages having Koeris as dominant caste with good numbers of Dalit population were equally vulnerable to violence and land dispute with Dalits.^[55]

Backward Castes in the Dalit-Naxal movement

The broad categorisation of the various caste groups in North India falls in three categories. The upper-caste or the Forward Castes, who constituted some big Zamindars, but most of the landowners from the upper-caste had such landholdings, which might qualify them as belonging to the "middle peasants" category. In fact, their landholdings, barring some exceptions were identical to the intermediate caste groups of Koeri, Kurmi and the Yadavs—another category of castes, who fall within the categorisation of Other Backward Class. The economic status of majority of the upper-castes, thus, was similar to the middle peasants from these Backward Castes.^[58]

The caste was the most important unifier at the rural level for the upper-castes, as on the question of "wage suppression" and making the hiring of Dalit labours affordable for the farming families of their caste, the upper-castes had common opinion. On these questions, even poorest of the poor upper-caste families united with the prosperous families of their own caste. On the other hand, many OBCs, who owned no land, worked along with Dalits as the agricultural labourers without much interaction with them on the social level. However, some of the landed families of the Backward Castes also shared same interest with the farming families of the upper-caste, on the question of wages and affordability of the agricultural labourers. This section of the Backward Castes complained that due to Maoists the availability of cheap labour for the commencement of farming operations has become difficult. But, above all, the social interaction and alliance of upper-caste and the Backward Castes were not viable, because of the taboos related to inter-caste marriages and the social interaction between them.^[58]

The Maoists primarily considered the landed gentry from the upper-caste as the class enemy of the Dalits and the poor. They mobilised the landless agricultural labourers from the Dalit communities as well as the Backward Castes. Though, some of the rich farmers from the Backward Castes were anti-Maoist, given the economic prosperity they achieved in the years after independence. The Maoist considered the Backward Castes as the sympathetic group for the cause of Dalits and the landless labourers. The Maoists, hence, recruited from the Backward Castes as well, apart from the Dalits.^[58]

A report published by the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) Liberation, titled Reports From The Flaming Fields Of Bihar, asserts that the unity with the middle peasant castes like the Koeris develops easily because of the position of these castes in the social hierarchy and their status in the rural power relation. It identifies that being hard-working nature and sufferers of both the discrimination (by the upper-caste landlords) and the widespread dacoity, as the primary reason behind attraction of these castes to the revolutionary movement. The report also outlines that barring some exceptions, Yadavs also serve as good allies of the Leftists.^[59][60]