Tribe, caste, and nation: a study of political activity and political change in highland Orissa

TRIBE, CASTE, AND NATION

Froutispiece PAN musicians at a wedding.

TRIBE, CASTE, AND NATION A study of political activity and political change in highland Orissa

by F. G. BAILEY

Lecturer in Asian Anthropology in the School of Oriental and African Studies University of London

MANCHESTER UNIVERSITY PRESS

@ 1 960 F. G.

Bailey

Published by the University of Manchester at THE UNIVERSITY PRESS 3 1 6-- 3 2 4,

Oxford Road, Manchester, 1 3

Printed in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner Ltd., Frome and London

To

M ARY

N

PREFACE

putting the names of castes into English and using capital letters I have followed here the same conventions as I did in Caste and the Economic Frontier (1957, pp. xv-xvi). An ex­ ' ception is 'Boad OUTCASTEs who are here presented in their ' vernacular name PAN ' . I made a land survey in Baderi similar to that in Bisipara, and the size of estates is presented in the same way (ibid., pp. 279-84). Bisipara is the name of an actual village. But elsewhere in this book I have used pseudonyms for the names of all persons and some places. Many of these pseudonyms are not Kui words, but my own invention. For this reason I have not tried to say how these names should be pronounced. For the pronunciation of Kui words see W. W. Winfield, 1928, pp. 1-7. Cases written in inverted commas are translations of vernacular texts, or quotations from published works. Other cases are sum­ maries in my own words of conversations with informants, or descriptions of incidents which I witnessed. Most of the material was gathered in 1955, although I have also drawn upon material collected between 1952 and 1954, when I lived in Bisipara. Both these visits were made possible by a Treasury Studentship in Foreign Languages and Cultures. I again thank members of the Treasury Committee, and I remember with gratitude the help given me by Mr. C. R. Alien. I began to write this book in the autumn of 1957 and the manuscript was completed early in 1958. Four papers, outlining the argument, were read in the summer of 1957 at seminars in the Department of Social Anthropology in Manchester Uni­ versity. I am grateful to the members of this seminar for their careful criticisms, and in particular I wish to thank Professor Max Gluckman, by whom I was first guided into examining problems of social change. I also thank, for their constructive criticisms of my manuscript, Professor C. von Fiirer-Haimendorf, Dr. Adrian Mayer, Dr. Colin Rosser, Dr. Elizab eth Colson, Dr. H. H. Meinhard, and Dr. Bernard Cohn. Publication has been made possible by a grant from the School

I

vii

Vlll

Preface

of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. I wish to thank the members of the Publications Committee, in particular the secretary, Mr. J. R. Bracken. I am grateful to Dr. R. L. Rooksby who compiled an index for this book, and to Professor Aiyappan of Utkal Un iversity for his assistance in correcting the proofs, and for many acts of kindness. Lastly, while recalling my gratitude to the people of Bisipara, I also thank the Konds and other people who live in the village here called Baderi. Bhubaneswar, October, 1959

F. G.

BAILEY

CONTENTS

PART ONE: THE KONDS CHAP. I INTRODUCTORY: PROBLEMS AND METHODS Bisipara and Baderi . Structure and system Political activity Method of p resentation 11

THE VILLAGE The main lineage Adoption into the main lineage Sisters' sons . Amalgamation The concept of 'Wlity'

3 3 6 10 13 17 18 22 27

40 45

Ill THE CLAN Punuripara and Damopara The clan cults Dispersed clanship . Warfare Conjectural history

47 47 so

IV THE DECAY OF THE LOCALIZED CLAN Jomba tana and koda tana . Immigrants and the fom1ding clan Relationships within the fo m1ding clan Dispersed clanship . Change and conservation .

69 70 78 81 84 87

V

CoNTINUITY IN

THE VILLAGE Unequal wealth Alternative sources of income Migration The effects of migration . The effects of Wlequal wealth The village as a political commWlity Change and continuity ix

52

6o 63

89 89 98 101 105 108 110 114

Contents

X

CHAP.

PART TWO : KONDS, PANS, AND ORIYAS

VI THE KONDS AND THEIR DEPENDENTS HERDSMEN and SMITHS The Baderi PANS Baderi and Bisipara .

I2I I22 127 149

I 57 VII THE KoNDS AND THEIR MASTERS Kond ambivalence 1 59 162 The political system of the Oriyas . Konds and Oriyas before the coming of the Administration 170 175 The Administration and the Oriya Sirdars 180 The Administration and the Konds 184 Konds and the diversified economy 186 The wider political arena . 192 Conclusions .

PART THREE: STRUCTURES IN ACTION VIII A DISPUTE IN BADERI . Nrusingh Naik Goneswaro Bisoi Manda Kohoro Liringa Kohoro Ponga Kohoro IX TRIBE, CASTE, AND NATION The concept of 'structure' The political field The individual and choice Conflict and social change Political motivation The dominant caste Tribe and caste Isolation Tribe, caste, and nation REFERENCES INDEX

197 201 209 217 220 224 238 238 24 3 248 251 255 257 263 267 269 273 276

LIST OF CASES

Case I

2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

10

Page 17 21 24 24 25 27 28 31 37 38

Case II

12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20

Page 42 42 48 49 51 53 54 59 72 75

Page 76 79 82 82 91 92 93 95 96 97

Case 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30

Case 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38

Page 97 103 IIO

112 128 I6o

165 197

LIST OF TABLES

20 1 Population of hamlets in the Baderi cluster by caste 28 2 Lineage affiliation of the Baderi Konds 3 Households in Baderi connected to the main lineage through 33 a woman 91 4 Distribution of land among Konds in Baderi village 107 5 Residence of segments of the Baderi lineage 158 6 The population of the Kondmals in 1931 . .

.

LIST OF MAPS

1 Baderi village and Balimendi mutha 2 Eastern Kondmals 3 Kondmals and adjacent states

facing page 18 54 162

LIST OF PLATES

PAN musicians at a wedding PLATE I Baderi valley . 2 (a) Pandrisai (b) Building a house 3 (a ) Turmeric in the yard of a house (b) Turmeric field in the jungle 4 (a) Planting turmeric (b) Spreading leaves on a turmeric field 5 Three Baderi Konds 6 An educated Oriya PAN. (a) Kond . 7 (b) Kond PAN (c) WARRIOR 8 An Oriya girl of wARRIOR caste 9 A Kond woman making leaf cups 10 (a) Oriya musicians: clean caste (b) Oriya musicians: clean caste 11 The wedding of a headman's son 12 (a) Kond buffalo sacrifice . . (b) Kond men dancing at a festival. .

•

•

Frontispiece facing page

17 69 69 99 99

lOO

100

122 149 159 159 159

I6o 161 165 165 179

236 236

PART ONE THE KONDS

CHAPTER I PROBLEMS AND METHODS BISIPARA AND BADERI

ADERI village, around which this book is written, is less than

B an hour's walk from Bisipara, about which I wrote Caste and the Economic Frontier. The people of the two villages know one

another. The Bisipara Oriyas visit Baderi in search of turmeric, which they buy from the Konds of Baderi and sell to middlemen in their own village. The head {Sirdar) ofBalimendi, the admini­ strative division (mutha) in which Baderi lies, is an Oriya of WARRIOR caste from Bisipara: the schoolmaster in the Lower Primary School in Baderi is also a Bisipara WARRIOR. Baderi Konds patronize the shops, attend fairs and festivals, and are sometimes invited to take part in the singing and drum-playing contests which are held in Bisipara. The two villages lie in the same geographical region. Their climate and rainfall are similar. Both villages depend primarily upon irrigated rice for subsistence. They are also part of the same 'historical' region, which was isolated from metropolitan India for many centuries by poverty of resources, inaccessibility, the ferocity of the Kond inhabitants, and by the rigours of the climate, which even to-day afflict men from the plains of Orissa. In the middle of the nineteenth century the region was brought under effective control by the East India Company in the campaigns called the Meriah Wars. Since then the Administration has taken on more and more functions of government, which previously either were not fulft.lled at all, or were performed by indigenous institutions: at the same time there has been a slow expansion of an economic frontier, which gradually incorporates the people of the Kond hills into the wider economy of India. The Administration and the growth of a diversified economy have changed the ex­ isting patterns of social relations both in Bisipara and in Baderi. The two villages are close to one another: they share a common geographical and historical background: and they have been affected by the same outside factors. But Baderi and Bisipara were 3

4

Tribe, Caste, and Nation

different before the process of social change began, and in this change they have followed different courses. By sketching out this difference I can show the purpose and scope of the present monograph. The people ofBisipara arc Oriya-spcaking Hindus. The people of Baderi are Konds, and formerly they would have appeared in the Census Lists as 'Animists' or Tribali s ts ' and n o t as 'Hindus'. The Konds to-day say that they are Hindus like everyone else, but they make a sharp distinction between themselves and the Oriyas who live in their midst. Usually they phrase the contrast between 'Kond' and 'Oriya' custom: but I have heard them make the con­ trast between their own culture and the 'Hindu' culture, and this way of phrasing the difference has appeared in texts which Konds have written for me. The category of 'Tribes' became the subject of an acrimonious debate in Indian politics, 1 but it need not con­ cern this analysis for the present. If we grant the Konds their desired 'Hindu' status, then we will have to add that they are Hindus of a different kind from their Oriya neighbours, and both the Konds themselves and the Oriyas would be anxious to make this distinction. There are many cultural differences between the two peoples. The Konds speak Kui, a language which belongs to the great Dravidian family of south India : while the Oriya language is part of the Sanskritic group of northern India. The traditional Kond house is different from the Oriya house: their traditional dress is different: their rites and ceremonies are very different: their method of greeting one another is different: and although both depend on rice cultivation and use the same techniques, the Konds also cultivate axe-fields on the mountainside, while the Oriyas do not. These differences are recognized and emphasized by both parties, and the Konds are proud of their status as Adibasis (lit. : 'aboriginals' or 'first settlers'), a word which has become an acceptable substitute in modern India for 'tribes'. Besides these cultural differences there are also social differences between Bisipara and Baderi. Bisipara is a nucleated village con­ taining nearly 700 people. Baderi consists of a number of hamlets dispersed throughout a valley, and the aggregate population of these hamlets is less than soo. Bisipara is a multi-caste village con­ taining a score of castes, none of which is larger than one-fifth of the total population. Baderi is virtually a one-caste village, in '

1

G. S. Ghurye,

1943,

Chapter

5·

Problems and Methods

5

which the Konds form 70 per cent of the population. Bisipara is a village of part-time middlemen, while the men of Baderi partici­ pate in the modern commercial economy as the producers of a cash-crop and never act as middlemen or traders. The activities of the Administration and the spread of a diversi­ fied economy changed the political structure of Bisipara. Wealth and power, formerly monopolized by the wARRIOR caste, was distributed more evenly throughout the village, and castes which formerly were dependent upon the wARRIORS asserted their inde­ pendence and rebelled against wARRIOR dominance. At the same time effective political action came to be taken more and more outside the system of relationships within one village, and the men of Bisipara, of whatever caste, gained their end more frequently by appeal to the Administration rather than within the caste system in the village, and in some cases, notably the Harijan untouchables, by concerted action in the framework of a widespread caste organization. I was able to isolate Bisipara from its surroundings and to con­ sider it as a social system in itsel£ This does not mean that Bisipara was in fact isolated: the changes which occurred were the result of external factors, and had the village been truly isolated, they would never have taken place. But the factors which brought about change in the village were considered only in so far as they intruded into the village. I did not analyse the systems in which these factors were themselves elements (with the partial exception of political developments among the Harijans). In other words I focused attention mainly on the political system of the village, because this seemed a significant and important arena for political action. Baderi village is an arena for political action, but for two reasons I have not concentrated only upon Baderi. In the traditional political system the Kond village is a unit in a larger corporate group, the clan, whereas Bisipara stood on its own as a maximal unit of corporate political activity. The political changes among the Konds, which correspond to the change in Bisipara, occcured not at the level of the village but at clan level, and these changes cannot be analysed without surveying a political arena much larger than one village. The second reason lies not in the material but in the purpose of this book, which is intended to be not so much a comparison between political change in a Kond and in an Oriya village, but rather to provide a complementary account, B

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Tribe, Caste, and Nation

which, taken together with Caste and the Economic Frontier, will give a general view of political activity and political change in one part of the Kond hills. The first book made a study of political action within a single village. Some events which affected the course of political development were the result of the peculiar situation of Bisipara, as a sophisticated commercially-minded community in the middle of a Kond area. But this fact was noticed only incidentally. In this book I concentrate on a wider political field, in which important political cleavages arc not only within Kond villages and within the Kond tribe, but also between Konds and other castes. The first book was a study of an Oriya village and of the decay of caste as a political institution within that village: this is a study of a region, and of the rise and fall of political insti­ tutions not only in the caste system, but also in a tribal system, in a modern bureaucracy, and in a representative democracy. STRUCTURE AND

S YSTEM

I might have called this book 'The political structure of the Konds'. I have not done so, although I lean heavily on the concept of 'structure'. A structural analysis emphasizes the regularity, the continuity, the permanence of certain forms of social interaction, and of groups of persons. It also emphasizes system: that is to say, it assumes that the various roles (or institutions) in which persons or groups are engaged are connected with one another in such a way that what happens in one institution, or role, will regularly affect what happens in others. I have distinguished between 'structure' and 'sub-structure'. A 'sub-structure' is made up of groups and institutions which are classified by their content-by what they are about. There are sub­ structures which concern primarily politics or economics or ritual or kinship, and so forth. I have not used 'sub-structure' often be­ cause the phrase is clumsy, and because the relevant adjective is sufficient to distinguish the meaning of the noun. The word 'structure', strictly used, refers to a higher level of analysis at which interconnections are sought not within a political or ritual sub­ structure but between them. 'Structure' thus carries with it the idea of 'total social structure', while 'sub-structure' refers to divisions classified on the basis of the 'referent' or 'content' of social relations. In making a structural analysis the elements of social activity

Problems and Methods

7

which are abstracted are those of coherence and