Abstract

The famous phrase of Haryana “Jiski Lathi Uski Bhais” which means “the one who wields the stick, commands the buffalo” aptly describes the social reality. The proverbial ‘stick’ in Haryana is wielded by the land-owning community. On the other hand, the scavenger community is the most deprived and oppressed based on various socio-economic indicators. They work as sanitation workers and sweep the roads and streets, clean the sewage, remove dead animals and work as manual scavengers. They also face various forms of violence from the dominant landowning community. The particular focus of the research is on caste violence and its productive role in the dynamic caste relations. It involves a case study of a village in a district of Haryana. This paper is the result of ethnographic research done by spending two years in the field, and data collected through participant observation and in-depth interviews during the stay in the village in 2015-2016. The paper argues that the frequency of changing relationships as “Jajmani System” increases the problems for scheduled castes. The problems of caste politics, untouchability, the hierarchy among scheduled caste and everyday violence on scheduled castes are discussed in this paper.

Introduction

Caste violence is not uncommon in India. In the last decade, there were several incidences of caste violence in various parts of the country. In caste-based Indian society, generations of Scheduled Castes have been facing Caste-based discrimination and. The National Crime Records Bureau of 2012 reveals that 33655 crimes were committed against Scheduled Castes. These included 651 cases of Murder, 1576 cases of Rape, 3855 cases of Hurt, 490 cases of Kidnapping and Abduction, 40 Robbery cases, 27 Dacoity cases, and 214 cases of Arson. The Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 during the year 2012 as compared to 11,342 in the year 2011¹. These high numbers of cases of violence against Scheduled Caste people depict the horrific condition of the constant threat that they live. It also shows the need for scientific studies on Caste violence. The recent cases of large-scale violence against Scheduled Castes at Khairlanji in Maharastra, Mirchpur in Haryana, Dharmapuri in Tamil Nadu are tangible examples of tyranny on Scheduled Castes.

Dr. B.R. Ambedkar played a major role to formulate the constitution of India with the vision of equal society and wrote many provisions in the constitution to protect the rights of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The adoption of the secular and democratic constitution after independence contributed to creating more rifles between the castes. To protect the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes from discrimination and violence, the Constitution of India provides some special laws and acts for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes such as (1) Protection of Civil Rights Act 1955, (2) Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act 1989, (3) Bonded Labour System (abolition) Act 1976, (4) Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986, (5) Employment of Manual scavengers and construction of dry Latrines (prohibition) Act 1993, and (6) The provision of the panchayats (Extension to scheduled Areas) Act 1996.

Violence against Scheduled Castes, which is the governmental term for “untouchable” castes, is both social fact and social embarrassment. It even goes by a particular name: the “caste atrocity.” Violence on the Scheduled Castes based on the caste by upper-castes is called caste atrocity, which is mention in the constitution of India under the ‘Scheduled Castes and Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989′ and ‘Protection of Civil Rights Act, 1955’². Those cases reported under these acts called “caste atrocity’. Therefore, the frequent number of cases of violence on Scheduled Castes as ‘caste atrocity’ suggests that the prevention of caste violence is the story of failure.

Caste in Haryana

In Haryana 4091110 is Scheduled Castes (19.3%) of the total population of Haryana. The SC population of Haryana is 2.5% of the country’s population, and 37% of SC communities notified in Haryana. The 2001 census highlights, Chamars account 51% of Haryana’s SC population, Balmikis 19%, and Dhanaks 12%, remaining 18% divided among the small Castes. There are three numerically dominant communities in Haryana such as Chamar, Dhanuk, and Balmiki. Some Scheduled Castes such as Balmiki is also known as Balmiki, Chuhra, and Lal Begi and many of them scattered across the Haryana, Punjab, Delhi, and Chandigarh. Elsewhere Haryana, Scheduled Caste largely emerged landless³ (Singh 1993).

During the British period, the areas of Punjab like Amritsar and Jalandhar was developed by the government because these are the cantonment areas of the British government. The canal system also developed by the British administration in the area of Punjab and systematically neglected the agriculture in the region of Haryana⁴. Therefore, the landowners of Haryana agitated for the reorganization of Punjab. So, the agricultural development was the major target of Haryana government after the reorganization of Punjab.

The green revolution of Haryana/Punjab only makes the rich richer and the poor poorer⁵. Only landowning communities got benefits, as Jats community as well as they are growing importance in the politics and this political arena gave the Jats new confidence and visibility⁶. For example, Jats are numerically less than a quarter of the total population; the post-green revolution Haryana has been popularly known as the Jat-land. The landholding of Jats was also reinforcement by the Punjab Alienation Act (1901) that deprived the rights of purchasing land of the Dalits and other non-agricultural Castes. This act increased the oppression of Scheduled Castes of landowning communities. Nowhere in India, are Dalits so extensively deprived of agricultural land as in the case of Punjab⁷. Ronki ram mentioned, “Jat cultural pattern” in Punjab and landlessness of Dalits. Before reorganization of Punjab in 1966 Haryana was the part of Punjab. Therefore, Haryana is also affected by the Punjab Alienation Act (1901) and played a crucial role to make Scheduled Castes more excluded and landless. The low share of the Dalits in the land seems to be the major cause of their social exclusion. It is also an indication of inequality and the historical denial of rights to them⁸. Haryana is the land of landowning communities like Jats, and the Dalits are bound to live as landless and surviving with disgraceful life in the state.

Caste violence and dominance in Haryana

The state of Haryana is regularly in the news for atrocity against Scheduled Castes. According to the Human Rights Watch report of February 2007 and National Commission for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes for 2001-2002 revealed that the Haryana was one of the states in India where there was a high acquittal rate, cases involving offenses against Dalits⁹. Cases of atrocities against Scheduled Castes in Haryana rose from 303 in 2009 to 380 in 2010 and 408 in 2011. It marks thirty-five percent increased between 2008 and 2011. Of 408 cases registered last year, 60 concerned rapes of Scheduled Caste¹⁰ . Data reveals that crimes against Scheduled Castes are continuing at an alarming rate in the state. It has been reported there has been an increase of atrocities against Scheduled Castes in Haryana over the years. That is evident from the media coverage of what happening at Jhajjar, Dulina (Sonipat), Harsola (Kaithal), Gohana (Sonipat) and Salwan (Karnal) Therefore; it becomes essential to trace the rising factors of this phenomenon. It is equally important to suggest the ways and means for controlling such attacks.

Haryana is numerically dominated by 32.2% of the total population by Jats, which holds the land power in Haryana¹¹. Among the agriculturist Castes, the Jats emerged as the ‘dominant Caste.” The model of the Dominant Caste in a given region as described by M N Srinivas easily established in Haryana¹². The idea of dominant caste coined by M.N Srinivas in 1955, and he defined dominant castes thus: A caste may be said to be ‘dominant’ when it preponderate numerically over the other castes, and when it wields preponderant economic and political power. A large and powerful caste group can more easily be the dominant position if its position in the local caste hierarchy is not too low.

Haryana is a rural state and the vast majorities, that is, 82.29 percent, of rural-based Dalits, are associated with agriculture or agriculture-related activities. Mostly Dalits are engaged in agriculture as agriculture labor, and the dominance Caste groups are still in a position to control the lower Castes. The failure of land reform in Haryana is well acknowledged. In their implementation of land-related laws were easily manipulated, especially against the Dalits¹³. They also face various forms of violence from the dominant Castes, particularly, by the Jats. Dalits face more violence in districts like Rohtak, Jind, Sirsa, Hissar, and Bhiwani, where they have to rely on landowners. In some villages of these districts, the jats control between 93 and 99 percent of the land¹⁴.

Land as a Source of Dominance

Jats are very conscious about land, and ownership of land is a massive source of pride for an individual from the the Jat community. This is implied in the suggestion that a landless Jat may ultimately take to “thievery” (chori) – with all its implications of stealthiness and cowardice which are so repugnant to a Jat who is conscious of being a Kshatriya: “violence [jorï] is better than thievery [con].” To own land in the village is thus a safeguard of independence and status¹⁵.

The term “mhare Kamin¹⁶ (Our labor)” is very common under the Jajmani system among Jats in north India, so this is also a very popular term in Gorakhpur village. This applies especially to ownership of ancestral landowners. For the servant Castes, and they include the Brahmans, the reference is in terms of their “Jajmani” relationship to the landowning Jat families they have been serving for generations¹⁷. William H. Wiser, in his book “The Hindu Jajmani system, was the first to describe in detail how such goods and services exchanged in a rural Indian village. Under this system, each Caste group within a village is expected to give certain standardized services to the families of other Castes. A Khati (carpenter) repairs tools, for example; a Nai (barber) cuts hair, but they do not necessarily perform these services for everyone. Each man works for a particular family or group of families with which he has hereditary ties. His father worked for the same families before him, and his son will continue to work for them, the occupation or service is determined by Caste. The family or family-head served by an individual is known as his ‘Jajman.’ So, the Jajmani system is a part of the Caste system but a little bit different because in this system, the land-owning Castes is more powerful than Brahmins. Brahmins and others non-jats Castes are fully depended on Jats. More important is that what the process of payment under the Jajmani System is in the current scenario and why this system still exists.

This system is the mindset to maintain the traditional Jajmani System¹⁸ at present. The jajmani system is the basic form of the division of labor in traditional India. Therefore, the Jajmani system is very important to understand the Caste system. To investigate the existence and impact of Jajmani System in among Scheduled caste, I interviewed different community people from two different Scheduled Castes communities: Chamar and Chuhras:

Jaiveer is a Chamar from Groh gotra and works as Siri¹⁹ under a landowner Jat, this engagement as a laborer under Jat is his forth generalizations. He has to do whatever and whenever Jat want him to work, his 18-year son his wife also helped him on the land of Jat. The Siri contract typically involved restrictions on the freedom of Siri, and sometimes even on other workers from his family, to work for any other employer. The siris were usually not allowed to leave the land unattended, and at least one person from the Siri household was required to be present on land at all times.

“I am working with landowner Jat from my childhood since my father started to serve Jat as labor. This is our fourth generation working under this system” We do not have any other option for our livelihood and debts on us is increasing day by day.”

Amandeep 17 years Balmiki works under Birma Jat as Siri on 1/6 share of the total profit of crops. He is a school dropout from a govt school in class 10^th due to Siri work. They are two brothers and two sisters, and all are dropouts from the school before 10^th class. Interestingly, this family is not a traditional Siri worker, due to poverty and unemployment in the village they started to work as Siri for their livelihood. They changed six Jat landowners in last eleven years with different reasons and disputes with Jats.

“In 2007 at the time of cotton plucking from the field of Birma Jat, my father beaten up by Birma Jat and he denied to give us the share of crops, we were powerless and could not do anything in response.”

He mentions at the time of cultivation they wanted all of us in the field to work and we left the school to work in the field. The most disturbing thing is that they always tried to interact with my mother and sisters and entered our house anytime to call us for work. They also called us for their domestic works to feed their cattle, cleaning of their houses, and much more. I did not like that and denied to work as Siri, now after 11 years of hard work as sir we are under the debt of 20,000 Rs. In the end, he said, “Jat ki najar badi gandi ho (Jats have lustful eyes) ” the word “Ganddi Najar” means “Lustful Eyes” is very common and connected with the sexual harassment of women. To investigate more on this, I met many Jats and Brahmins landowners, and they share their stories of targeting Scheduled castes women to full-fill their sexual needs.

There are 200 Chamar families in the village and out of 50 families’ works as Siri under different contracts with Jat landowners since the establishment of Gorakhpur village. During my fieldwork, it came to my notice that this system is not limited to the freedom of labor of Scheduled castes; this is connected with the sexual harassment of scheduled castes women. To being Siri in the village is the issue of self-respect because this title is a stigma with sexual harassment of Siri’s family. This is common in the village, and the stories of the sexual relationship between Jats and women of Siri’s family are everyone’s mouth.

Haryana is also well known for the cases of the rapes of Dalit women. Violence on Dalit women has a unique and specific impact on Dalit women who endure multiple forms of violence. Dalit women are especially vulnerable to violence by the police and private actors. The term ‘culturally legitimate victims’ coined by Weis and Borges in 1973 is to describe the victims of rape. The particularly vulnerable groups of people criminalized by the dominant groups in society²⁰. As they are mostly landless laborers, Dalit women come into greater contact with landlords and enforcement agencies than “upper-Caste” women, rendering them more susceptible to abuse²¹. On account of worsening of the female sex ratio (there are just 877 females per 1,000 males, far below the national average of 940 as per census 2011) the incidence of incest is high. But when the khap panchayats issued a ‘fatwa’ against within-clan marriages, Dalit girls increasingly became the victims of sexual assault. Rape is a weapon for reducing the cohesion of family units and the community as a whole²².

The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) reports showing that the number of rape cases wherein Dalit girls/women are the victims in Haryana has consistently gone up from 21 in 2007 to 56 in 2011. While at the national level, the number of rape cases wherein Dalit girl/woman are the victims went up by 15% over the period, the increase in Haryana was 167%. In September 2012 alone, there had been 19 cases of gang-rapes of Dalit girls.

Direct Resistance VS Direct Violence- A Lessons from the Past and Surrounding Atrocities

I still remember one scene in a Hindi film ‘Manjhi-The Mountain Man²³’ when the lower castes were celebrating the abolition of the untouchability and after getting this news ‘Dashrath Manji,’ an untouchable give a hug to the upper caste to celebrate caste free society, and he has beaten up by the upper castes. This is the common reaction when lower castes realize their rights and try to break the system without any preparation and experience physical violence. There are thousands of cases about the physical violence between the Dalits and upper castes when Dalits raise their voices against oppression as an immediate response against caste discrimination and experience the same. For instance, they know upper castes will not allow them inside the temple, but they enter to show their resistance and to get rid of the stress of the oppression. They know they are weaker than the dominant castes, but still, they show their aggression at the great risk of violence. As Johan Galtung explained by direct resistance is meant, here, very explicit and articulate actions, characterized by a clear identity of the actors. It is known to everybody who the actors are: they sit in front of the trucks with the rockets, in front of the bulldozers. But he also explained the way of direct resistance against powerful, dominant opposition will be less affected and powerful will win finally, and the powerless oppressed will lose²⁴.

The most of the cases of physical violence happened with the Balmikis in Gorakhpur and in Haryana state compare to other scheduled castes. The Balmikis of Gorakhpur village is also known for the direct resistance against the Jats. The incident of everyday resistance and violence is common between Balmikis and Jats. Even some Jats and other upper castes also consider Balmikis as ‘martial qaum’ mean a caste which is fearless and always ready to fight. The very popular and old incident of the group violence between Jats and Balmikis is still flowing as a story of the pride of the Balmikis among the scheduled castes. Fifty-five years Balmiki recalled the same story, a sheep of one Balmiki entered in the agriculture filed of a Jat and the Jat land owner abused the Balmiki. The Balmiki could not tolerate that abusive language, and he released a punch on the face of Jat. The Jat was injured, and he called other Jats to support him, and few Balmikis also got together to support Balmiki. The dispute ended up with many fractures and injuries on both side and but Balmikis made more injuries and fractures on Jats, and Balmikis won the fight. That was the fight between 50-60 people and with the use of lath (a thick stick, a pet weapon during traditional warfare) and no one used other weapons in the fight. After that, it went a long dispute between Jats and Balmikis. But, after a long time, the case was settled without the intervention of police in the Panchayat with a mutual agreement.

The rise of the Balmikis started in Gorakhpur fifty years ago but in the form of direct resistance. During the data collection in different narratives, I observed that Balmikis have six riffles with them due to their army background. The retired army men of Balmiki caste returned to Gorakhpur with great exposure and with the knowledge of legal rights of scheduled caste, especially the rights of the labor. According to Dirk Kolff’s study of the military labor market of north India from the sixteenth to early nineteenth centuries has, however, given some degree of support to an emphasis on the social heterogeneity of East India Company soldiers which could potentially include many lower-caste soldiers²⁵. The three Balmikis assigned themselves to stand in favor of lower castes, especially on the issues of the labor and discrimination by the Jats. They become the barefoot lawyers in the village not only for the Balmikis but for all the lower castes. As Macmunn described the entry of untouchable Chuhras in the Indian army was a change which reflected the growing Punjabization of the Indian Army, and he called Chuhras a martial race²⁶. They performed well in the army and also became the voice of voiceless in the village and settled many cases with the help of their physical power. As one of the Balmiki respondents stated;

“Balmikis were hunters, and usually they go for hunting with the hunter dogs. But now our people left this practice of hunting. We had six guns with us that time for hunting and other issues, our ancestors were fearless and brave. They always kept Guns, hunter dogs. They stood for lower castes against injustice.”

I also met a sixty years old Jat to understand the situation of the caste conflicts between Balmikis and Jats in the village. I was curious to understand what has changed in the village and how was the relationship between the Jats and Balmikis. He shared many differences in the behavior of Jats as well as Balmikis like food habits, religion, fashion, new occupations, and some history. He makes a laugh, and he shared one of his stories, and he stated;

“I still remember when I was Sarpanch of Gorakhpur village, I was sitting on the chair with Niku ram( a person from balmiki community). One Jat came to me for the meeting, and he just looked at Niku Ram because there were only two chairs to sit. Niku ram was sitting on the chair next to my chair; he wanted Niku ram to vacate the chair. But Niku ram said in loud words ‘Choudhry,’ do not look at me, I am not going to vacate chair for you, go and pull your chair or ask Sarpanch to vacate his chair for you”.

The two parallel narratives of fifty-five years old Balmiki and sixty years old Jat proved that clearly; the Gorakhpur village was not peaceful earlier and Balmikis were direct resisters. Earlier the interference of police and legal system did not exist in the village, and they solved their cases with the physical power and later through the village Panchayat. The village panchayat was Khap Panchayat and fully dominated by the Jats as they were the landowner and the establisher of the Gorakhpur village. After many incidents of caste conflicts, the Khap Panchayat of Jats felt offended by the Balmikis and used different techniques to control the Balmikis. As one of the balmiki stated that Jats also attacked our hamlet by stone-pelting and they started to target us one by one. They also did the social boycott of Balmikis and stopped allowing us to enter in their agriculture fields and also stop giving us work. In the current situation, all six guns of the Balmikis under the police custody and many resisters are under the trial of the court. The narratives mentioned above has derived from the old aged people. These two persons have a good reputation in their communities. This is important to understand what is the situation of young Balmikis those are tackling the issues of caste violence in their everyday life in the village. I the context of the caste-related conflicts and resistance one of the twenty years old Balmiki stated;

“They want to control us, and recently they threatened the whole balmiki community on Balmiki Jatyanti with the rumor of attaching. That’s why most of the balmiks avoided attending the balmiki jayanti function. Twenty years ago, Jats attacked our hamlet with weapons, stones, and bricks. Many Balmikis injured that time by that group attach. It can happen again; that’s why we are life under terror. The Mirchpur village is very also very close to our village and reminds me of the violence. The caste violence of Mirchpur is the best example for us, and they said we could repeat Mirchpur anytime in Gorakhpur. If something happened to Balmikis anywhere in Haryana, we feel afraid because that attack is not only on the few Balmikis but on the whole Balmiki Caste.”

The narrative of the Balmiki young boy influenced by the past experiences of Balmikis, the caste atrocities on Balmikis in surrounding areas, and also influenced by the current situation of the Jat dominance in the village. The incidents of direct resistance from the Balmikis are decreased but still exist. I interviewed a Jat leader a former Sarpanch( head of the village) about caste tensions between Balmikies and Jats in Gorakhpur village, and he started with this statement. “Eb to ye thik hoge,Giddad ban gaye, pehle sheer hua karte the” means now they are behaving correctly (under control) and become Jackals, in past days they were lions. This statement from a Jat leader itself a journey of Balmiki community’s change from Lion to Jackal, why they become Jackal from Lion and how? I was quite surprised by this statement because I was assuming Dalits to become stronger and raising their voice strongly after independence and SC/ST prevention act in our constitutions. But as Galtung described in his speech on the context of dominate as a ruler when they crushed the attempt of direct resisters of the poor or powerless; “Now, children, you had your time – we are happy- all went so well because if it hadn’t we are sorry to say that we had had to have been somewhat rough let us now forget about it, the world goes our history moves or, the missiles are there, you lost, we won”²⁷.

The caste atrocity of Mirchpur is the best example of the Jat dominance where Balmikis tried to raise their voice as direct resistance and faced a great mob attaches of Jats, and it was similar as the group of the road rollers crushed the powerless people. Right now two hundred and forty-five families of Balmiki caste displaced and forced to stay outside from the village in the tents with miserable conditions²⁸. On another hand, the Jats are living with the same lifestyles and dominance and still blaming on Balmikis for filing fake cases on the Jats. The conflict is still going on, and again, they beat Balmikis after the case of violence. No doubt the Jat killers and attackers are in the Jail and under the court trial but who are suffering from the real punishment as homeless untouchables. The Jats of the Mirchpur also got supported by the Jats of the Gorakhpur on the name of Jat brotherhood. In Haryana to control the lower castes, Jat is using the incident of Mirchpur is as a threat. As Jeffery described in his research conducted in the Jat dominate village of the UP where due to the reservation policy a lower caste Chamar become the Sarpanch of the village, and he tried to resist, but he is beaten up by the Jats, and at the end he was under the control of the Jats as puppet and Jats said we teach the lesson to the Chamars²⁹.

The same things are happening in the Gorakhpur village, and whenever Balmikis tried to do direct resistance against Jats, they use the word ‘Mirchpur’ as a threat, and this is very fearful. The big cases of the violence against the Dalits are propagating as the big lessons for the Dalits. It is clear that the Gorakhpur village was not a peaceful village and the direct resistance has observed in the past, but after the mob attacks on the Balmikis by the Jats, this village is in the category of the peaceful village. But this is not a peace this is impunity where lower castes are oppressed and live in the terror of upper castes. They are not free, and they are under the control of dominant Jats by the use of physical violence and power.

The incidence of violence does not arise immediately, but it is a result of everyday friction between two groups – weaker sections and powerful groups or classes³⁰. The landowners want to maintain the power and authority with themselves. There is clear evidence of ‘everyday form of resistance’ of the Dalits to overwork that James Scott speaks of³¹. In the context of Haryana, this everyday resistance and changing relationships of Scheduled Castes and Jats may be the cause of violence on Scheduled Castes and creates the situation of conflict.

Conclusion

This paper is the story between the two different statements from Haryana first is the famous phrase of Haryana “Jiski Lathi Uski Bhais” which means “the one who wields the stick, commands the buffalo” aptly describes the state. The proverbial ‘stick’ in Haryana is wielded by the land-owning community and second is recent one from research field “Eb to ye thik hoge,Giddad ban gaye, pehle sheer hua karte the”(Now they are behaving correctly and become Jackals, in past days they were lions). However, the culture of dominance linked to land ownership is more powerful than the Brahminical orthodoxy and the Jats have replaced Brahmins in term of dominance.

As noted by Ambedkar, “India is admittedly a land of villages and so long as the village system provides an easy method of marking out and identifying the untouchable; the untouchable has no escape from untouchability³². Especially Khap village like Gorakhpur creates the situation of collective violence, and this is more destructive when it is performed by dominant Caste group to the most deprived Caste or group. In Indian villages, Dalits are facing collective violence frequently and hence regularly suffer the loss of lives, respect, and freedom. Lynching is more likely to be violent and lethal when the offender is poor or a member of an inferior group or Caste³³.

Among the Scheduled Caste community, sub-Castes and hierarchies are even more pronounced and significant. For instance, the sub-Caste known as ‘Balmikis(Scavenger)’ is considered the lowest among Scheduled Castes, while ‘Jatavs(Chamar)’ are higher in status. The former are engaged in manual scavenging, while the latter is engaged in leather crafts, indicating that status within the Scheduled Caste community closely linked to Brahmanical notions of purity and pollution³⁴. Therefore, the condition of Balmikis is the worst among Scheduled Castes, and they are facing more violence.

Scheduled Castes are suffering not only because of economic exploitation but also from social discrimination. The present conflicts in rural India have arisen from a disruption in the established pattern of inter-caste relations, attitudes, and beliefs associated with the acceptance or rejection of the traditional social order. The relation between violence and inequality appears to be part of a more general tendency for the quality of social relationship to be less good in an unequal society. The unequal society creates more chances of discrimination and violence in deprived communities³⁵. If this is the story of a ‘thanda gaon’ (peaceful village), then what will be the condition of violent villages? If this is peace, it must be destroyed by spreading more awareness in society.

End Notes