Encountering Identity: The Santals in Bangladesh
Ashrafuzzaman Khan
Student ID: 10707018
MSc in Cultural and Social Anthropology
University of Amsterdam
Supervisor
Dr. Alex Strating
Cultural and Social Anthropology
University of Amsterdam
"Declaration: I have read and understood the University of Amsterdam plagiarism policy
[http://student.uva.nl/binaries/content/assets/studentensites/uva-studentensite/nl/a-z/regelingen-en-reglementen/fraude-en-plagiaatregeling-2010.pdf?1283201371000]. I declare that this
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Table of contents
Pages
Summary
5
Chapter one: Introduction
1.
Background and Introduction6-7
2.
The study area7-8
2.1 Jahanpur Union
8-9
2.2 Shahapur Village
9-10
2.3 The East Para
10-11
2.4 The West Para
11-12
3. Socio-economic background of the Santals
12-13
4. Methods
13-14
5. Structure of the thesis
14
Chapter two: Self-identification
1. Theoretical framework
15
1.1 Identity
15-16
1.2 Indigeneity and Indigenous
16-17
2. Self-identification
17
2.1 Language, Arts and food customs
17-22
2.3 Local political Structure
22-23
2.4 Religion
23-25
2.5 Rituals: Death and Naming ceremony
25
2.6 Kinship and marriage
25-27
2.7 State of Land rights
27
2.6 State of political rights
28-30
3. Analysis
30-31
Chapter Three: Categorization
1. Theoretical framework
32
2. Exploration of categorization
33
2.1 Food customs and social relations
33-35
2.2 Living circumstances
36
2.3 Division of labor
37
2.4 Religion
37-38
2.5 The contemporary process of conversion
38
2.6 Judiciary system and social cohesion39
2.7 Social circumstances and land rights39-40
3. Categorization by NGO
40
3.1 ASHRAI NGO
40
3.2 The mechanism of the STEP-UP project
41-42
4. Analysis
43
Conclusion
44-45
Bibliographies
46-48
Summary
The study focuses on the processes of identification of the Santals in Bangladesh and addresses two main questions: how do the Santals identify themselves in the Shahapur village in terms of indigeneity and religion, and how do the non-Santals, particularly the Muslims, Hindus and NGOs, categorize the Santals in the Shahapur village?
The Santals is one of the largest indigenous communities in Bangladesh. They address themselves as
Adivasi or indigenous community. The Santals struggle to achieve land rights in Shahapur village.
Most of them have lost lands for reasons such as lack of literacy, ignorance of the land registration processes and appearance of endemic diseases in the village. These factors deteriorated the living standards of the Santals. Moreover, the marginalized status of the Santals means that they are unable to establish their land rights when dealing with the influential non-Santals in the village. Thus, indigenous and indigeneity demarcate a boundary between the Santals and non-Santals in
Shahapur.
Group identification of the Santals is constituted by symbolism and belief systems. The majority of the Santals converted to Christianity but they did not relinquish the importance of Santali language, the clan system, the kinship networks and local political structure of the Santali culture. Moreover, marital relationships between the same clan are prohibited. This is the most important symbol of the Santals in terms of self-identification. Almost all symbolic forms are the same, despite religious differences.
The non-Santals, particularly Muslims and Hindus, categorize the Santals as a distinctive community in the village by employing their knowledge, power, experiences and social status. The Santals are stigmatized because of their food customs as well as lifestyles. However, the Santals are categorized positively when they are employed as day laborers. External categorization is the product of continuous social processes that are internalized when the Santals and non-Santals meet each other in the public spaces. In social processes, the Santals are categorized as a marginalized community in the village. Though different NGOs have implemented various programs to help the Santals, their living standards and marginalized situation remains unchanged.
Finally, identity is not only constituted by an internal identification processes, but is also associated with external categorization processes. Therefore, identification is driven by bilateral mechanisms— internal and external—in order to confirm the identity of a community.
Chapter One: Introduction 1. Background and Introduction
In Bangladesh, the government does not recognize indigenous communities in its constitutional frameworks. After the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the first constitution ignored the ethnic identity of the indigenous communities (Mohsin, 1997). The indigenous communities constitute approximately 1.5% of the total households in the country (Rafi, 2006). Almost all the indigenous groups in Bangladesh are essentially agriculturalists. But now, most of indigenous people have been become day laborers due to a number of factors, including minority status and loss of land property. The indigenous communities are addressed as a ‘minority’ or ‘backward’ (Ali, 1998). Indigenous peoples are increasingly coming under land-grabbing pressure. They are the most disadvantaged and vulnerable in terms of establishing land rights and settlement processes. They are still in a marginalized situation in terms of making a living (Samad, 2012). Therefore, indigenous communities encounter problems dealing with social, political and economic exclusion, and have a lack of recognition in constitutional frameworks.
The colonial government of the Indian sub-continent divided the populations into different groups and offered limited plots of land to these groups. The colonized populations were displaced from their lands to make a room for plantations, agriculture or settlements. The British government treated the population of the hills as tribes. Subsequently, the tribe peoples prefer to refer to themselves as Adivasi. The United Nations (UN) now addresses them as indigenous people (Li, 2010: 388-389). These categorizations help indigenous people to claim land and political rights. This process of categorization of indigenous communities is associated with the historical and colonial legacy.
The Santals is one of the largest indigenous communities in Bangladesh. The Santals address themselves as Adivasi or indigenous community. The majority of the Santals live in the Rajshahi division. They belong to Austric language group and they were originally hunters and horticulturalists (Rafi, 2006). The demographic size of the Santals is about 202,744 (Barkat, Hoque, Halim and Osman, 2009; based on Bangladesh Population Census, 1991). The Santals migrated from different parts of India and settled in the Barind during the rule of the British India Government (1765 – 1947) (Risley, 1891; O’Malley, 1910; Bhowmick, 1971; Ali, 1998; Barakat et al., 2009). More specifically, they came from Radha (in West Bengal), the forests of adjacent Bihar (Jharkhand) and Orissa, and Chhota Nagpur in India (Banglapedia). According to Hunter’s account (1876), the Santals migrated lastly between 1765 and 1850 from Bihar and Santal parganas in India and settled in the Barind region, in the north of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh, the Santals live predominately in the northern 6
region Barind, which comprises the Rajshai, Naogoan, Dinajpur, Bogra and Chapai Nawabganj districts. The Santals are regarded as the first inhabitants of the Indian sub-continent (Sattar, 1971). The advent and success of the Christian missionary enterprise introduced among the Santals in 1860 means that Christianity has made deep inroads into the Santals’ religion and culture. Christianization restructured and redefined their social and cultural identity (Raj, 2007). The British government settled the Santals in the Rajmahal hills in India, evicting the previous inhabitants, the
Paharias, who were not considered to be a tribe by the British authorities. The Santals were
protected and separated from the general population as they were given a distinct identity, which in fact was fabricated by the British government as well as by themselves. The Santals were deployed by the British government to evict Hindus/Bengalis living in their midst (Banerjee, 2000: 430). Colonial anthropologists asserted that tribal populations were the original population of India, who were conquered, displaced, and maltreated by Hindu-Aryan invaders. Land was a principal commodity and integral element of social life through which the British government developed capitalism, linked to dispossession and indigeneity (Pels, 1999; Li, 2010). The Santals have become day laborers in their own land. The subordination of the Santals began with subjugation of territory by the colonial authorities, and subsequently they became subject to economic exploitation at the hands of local Hindu moneylenders (Ahmed, 2010).
This study focuses on the processes of identification of the Santals in Bangladesh and addresses two main questions. Firstly, how do the Santals identify themselves in the Shahapur village in terms of indigeneity and religion? Secondly, how do the non-Santals, particularly the Muslims, Hindus and NGOs, categorize the Santals in the Shahapur village? To answer these questions, this study was conducted in the Shahapur village in Bangladesh.
2. The study area
The Shahapur village is located in the Naogaon district of northern Bengal in Bangladesh. The
Santals, Oraon and Mahali are the major ethnic groups in the Naogaon district. The Dhamoirhat, one
of the Upazilas (sub-districts) of Naogaon district, came into existence in 1922, and occupies an area of 300.79 sq.km., including 5.44 sq.km forest area. The Dhamoirhat consists of eight Unions, the smallest administrative unit of local government of Bangladesh. The Shahapur village is situated in the Jahanpur Union of Dhamoirhat (Population and Housing Census, 2011). The study area is circled with black markers on the Bangladesh map below (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Bangladesh map
Sources:
http://www.vidiani.com/maps/maps_of_asia/maps_of_bangladesh/small_administrative_map_of_bangladesh .jpg
2.1. Jahanpur Union
Jahanpur, one of the Unions of the Dhamoirhat Upazila, and is comprised of 13 villages (Figure 2).
The Santals only live in four villages of Jahanpur Union: Kokil (150 households), Mukundapur (3 households), Nanaich (12 households) and Shahapur (35 households). This study was conducted in
Shahapur because the Santals there have close contacts with other ethnic communities, including
the Muslims, Hindus, Mahatos, and Pahans, who live in different parts of the village.
Figure 2: Location of Jahanpur Union
Sources:
https://www.google.nl/maps/place/Jahanpur,+Bangladesh/@25.1352597,88.900459,1496m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s 0x39fc9b00f76f290f:0x195de64a552672ec
2.2 Shahapur Village
The village is the smallest rural geographic unit of local government of Bangladesh. The Shahapur village consists of 15 Paras, which are clusters or neighborhoods of a village. The Santals live in two neighborhoods of the village. The main road of the village divides the two neighborhoods, which are known as the East Para and West Para respectively. The two neighborhoods together are called
Santals or Adivasi Para. Adivasi refers to ethnic minorities and tribal or indigenous communities.
According to the Oxford dictionary, the word ‘Adivasi’ derives from modern Sanskrit language and means the aboriginal tribal people who were living in India before the arrival of the Aryans.
According to the settlement history of the locality, the inhabitants can be categorized into three different groups, namely Santals, Bashoti and Mohajir. The Santals are regarded as Adivasi and are considered to be the first dwellers in the locality. The Bashoti are the Bangali Muslim community who arrived in the locality after the Santals. The Hindus came at the same time of Bashoti. The third group is the Mohajir, also known as the refugee group, who emigrated from India during the partition of British India in 1947. The Mohajir is the Muslim community, who exchanged land properties with the Hindus who moved to India at the same time.
There are almost 550 households in the Shahapur village (Union Parishad household survey, 1212). The majority of families in the village depend heavily on agriculture. The majority of agricultural land is owned by the Muslims. Moreover, the Muslims are the majority group in the village, followed by the Hindus. The Santals constitute 35 households in the village. Almost 90% of the Santals are Christian converts, while a small proportion (10%) of them still practices Hinduism. Approximately 85% of the Santals work as agricultural day laborers in the village (Rafi, 2006). However, a number of NGOs are implementing different programs for the villagers, especially micro-credit, education and water sanitation, to improve the living standards of the villagers. Some NGOs, particularly ASHRAI, BRAC (Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee), Caritas and World Vision, are implementing some programs such as livestock, education, health and micro-credit targeting the Santals in the village. The Santals’ neighborhoods are described below.
2.3 The East Para
There are 17 Santals families in the East Para, of which 12 families have converted to Christianity and address themselves as Christian Santals. The other five families still observe their traditional religion called Adi Dharma and are known as non-Christian Santals. They perform religious worship at the premises of the village Jaherthan, which consist of soil tomb and sacred tree (Figure 3). Additionally, a total of 10 Muslims families reside in the neighborhood. These Muslim families came to the neighborhood through purchasing the land from the Santals who moved to India during the liberation war in 1971. The Muslim families live in the south portion while the Santals reside in the north side of the East Para.
Figure 3: The Jaherthan of the East neighborhood
The Nazarene mission has had a profound impact on the lives of the Santals in the East neighborhood (Figure 4). The Nazarene church is one of the branches of the Protestant Church that preaches Christianity in the remote villages in Bangladesh. It started working in the neighborhood in 1995. In 2014, the Nazarene mission constructed a church for its followers in the East neighborhood. The higher officials of the mission frequently visit this church. Followers of the Nazarene missionary are entitled to receive different handouts such as wheat, rice and winter clothes as well as medical services from the mission.
Figure 4: Nazarene church of the East neighborhood
2.4 The West Para
There are 15 Santal familes and eight Muslim families in the West neighborhood. All of the Santal families converted to Christianity following the creed of the Lutheran missionary (Figure 5). Lutheranists started proselytizing in the neighborhood after the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971. Lutheranism is one of the branches of Protestantism. A Lutheran church was established in 1990 in the neighborhood.
A few months ago, eight families left the Lutheran church and joined the Nazarene Church in the East neighborhood. They moved to the Nazarene Church because there they receive financial, medical and other material support, including foodstuff and stipends and school books for their children. They also attend the Nazarene church for their weekly prayer. The relationship between the followers of the Lutheran church and the Nazarene church are not congenial. Each group blames the other for changing their belief system. Thus, the social relationship between the Christian
Santals of the West neighborhood has broken down. However, the housing pattern is similar to the
neighborhood of the East. The Muslim families settled here through purchasing land properties from Hindu families that migrated to India a few years back.
The Lutheran church in the neighborhood has become weaker because higher authorities such as regional supervisors or district officials hardly ever visit the church (Figure 6). Moreover, they are not receiving financial and material support from the missionary, and the authorities closed a missionary primary school in the neighborhood two years back. The students of the Lutheran followers are still receiving stipends from the Lutheran mission. However, the majority of the Lutherans claim that they might be merged with another mission in order to receive financial and material support. The pastor of the church is reluctant to keep relationships with the authorities of the Lutheran missionary as they are not receiving anything from them. At the beginning, the mission provided different handouts to their followers, but in the last two years only three families have received blankets.
Figure 6: Lutheran church of the West neighborhood
3. Socio-economic background of the Santals
Presently, the Santals depend heavily on agriculture work to maintain their livelihood. The majority of the Santals are employed as agricultural laborers or day laborers. Each household has minimal land ownership or landholding with an average of 5-20 decimal. Sometimes, they are employed as masons to construct the lodges or houses for the villagers. Both men and women possess adequate knowledge to undertake such endeavors in the village. The demand for agricultural laborers is not equal all year round, as it depends on the seasonality of agricultural crops. For instance, they become busy during the paddy seasons, called pick seasons. They earn more money in these seasons
as skilled laborers. Children work during the season alongside their parents or elder members of the households in order to generate income.
A few Christian Santals work for NGOs, as preachers in the missionaries and teachers in the schools. A majority of the households receive micro-credit from the different NGOs for various purposes, including raising livestock, purchasing food and arranging marriage ceremonies for their adults. Some of the women receive micro-credit from multiple NGOs. They have to reimburse the outstanding micro-credit on a weekly basis. The majority of the Santals have minimal work opportunities to improve their living standards. Poverty is a common phenomenon in their daily lives. Most of the Santals between 25 and 50 years old could not complete their primary education because of extreme poverty. However, most children nowadays attend government schools and non-government and missionaries schools. The children are also receiving stipends from the respective institutions to encourage them to continue their schooling.
4. Methods
I stayed three months in the Shahapur village between June and September, 2014 to understand the process of identification of the Santals. At the beginning, I built rapport with the pastors of the churches and elder members of the Santals in order to access to the community. I got acquainted with the neighborhoods and the Santals through the extended cooperation of the pastors and the elder members of the community. I also contacted elected members of the Union Parishad in order to collect demographic and socio-economic information on the Shahapur village.
I often visited the local markets where the villagers gathered, especially in the evening after finishing their jobs. The villagers discussed different social and political issues of the country sitting at the tea stalls of the local markets. I also attended the tea stalls to develop relationships with the villagers. These kinds of processes enabled me to build rapport with the village in a short period.
I employed a qualitative approach to collect information. In the first phase, I conducted in-depth interviews, group discussions and observations to understand the symbols, boundaries and indigeneity of the Santals. Different age groups of both sexes were considered for in-depth interviews and group discussion in order to capture intergenerational and gender-specific experiences. Photography helped to visualize physical or expressive symbols. In the second phase, I conducted in-depth interview, focus group discussions, and formal and informal interviews with the non-Santals, particularly Muslims, Hindus and NGO officials, to understand the process of external categorization more explicitly. I visited the NGO offices to understand the programs that were being implemented targeting the Santals in the village. Participant observation was applied in the public 13
spaces and local markets where people usually gathered to understand how the non-Santals addressed, interacted with or behaved towards the Santals. Thus, participant observation helped me to understand social relationships between the Santals and non-Santals in the village.
5. Structure of the thesis
In order to answer the central question, the second chapter outlines how the Santals construct their self-identity in the village. The theories of Anthony Cohen (1985) are reviewed in order to understand how group identity is formed through symbolism and boundary concepts. Furthermore, Adam Kuper’s and Alan Barnard’s debate on indigeneity is considered in relation to understanding the identity formation of the Santals. The third chapter delineates how the Santals are categorized by non-Santals, particularly Muslims, Hindus and NGOs. The theoretical model of Richard Jenkins (1997) is employed to conceptualize the categorization process of the Santals in the Shahapur village. In the concluding chapter, I discuss about the effect of identification and categorization on the changing life and problems of the Santals.
Chapter Two: Self-identification 1. Theoretical framework
1.1 Identity
Identity is defined as an elusive, intangible and ubiquitous concept. It has gained popularity as a social science term since the 1960s. Identity gained currency in the vocabulary of social sciences known as symbolic interactionists. This self-conscious group emerged in the 1940s and was especially interested in the way social interaction, mediated through shared symbolic systems, shaped the self-consciousness of the individual. Consequently, identity became a "stock technical term" for symbolic interactionists (Gleason, 1983: 917-918). Therefore, social interaction and symbolic systems are interwoven or interlinked dimensions to describe, ascribe or demarcate the identity of a group or community. Identity depends upon the markers of ethnicity in terms of language, religion, bodily adornment, nonverbal behavior, etc. (Bentley, 1987).
According to Anthony Cohen (1985), every community has boundary markers that demarcate the identity of a community. The community boundary depends largely on symbolism. In this process, boundary is constituted by symbols. The symbolism might be compared to vocabulary in terms of language to communicate with other people. Learning words, and acquiring the components of language, enables individual to speak a common language. Symbolism may be a visual form in social interaction, for example, in rituals that specify the different roles of genders, generations, and the pure and the polluted. However, much symbolism does not have a visual expression or a special vocabulary or idiomatic behavior but is instead about ideas. This makes their meanings even more elusive.
People acquire symbols to be social. A member of a particular community or group acquires tangible or intangible symbolic forms in order to express their social relationships. It has been demonstrated that communities have important repositories of symbols, whether in the forms of totems or kinship system. The symbolic markers of a community distinguish it from other communities. The symbols of a community are also associated with mental constructs that provide them with the means to express particular meanings. The symbols are effective means to constitute the identity of a community through which people can speak a common language, participate in the same rituals, pray to the same gods, wear similar clothes and so forth. People’s experience thus inheres in their attachment or commitment to a common body of symbols. Furthermore, the symbols are constituted as a system of values, norms and moral codes that provide a sense of identity within the boundary of the communities. The shared symbols generate a sense of ‘belonging’. Thus, identity is a repository of symbols.
Boundaries are constituted through the interaction of people. The boundary may have different expressions or meaning, not only by people outside of it, but also by people in the same group. Community is a boundary that is expressed through symbols, but its meaning varies with the members of the same community. For instance, some symbols may be different in a community in terms of racial, physical, linguistic or religious aspects (Cohen, 1985: 12-21). Thus, identity is constituted by group membership, and an individual's sense of self-worth is deeply tied to the value that others attach to his or her cultural group. Identity can be construed as a necessary component of individual recognition (Taylor, 1994: 25-26). Thus, identity is constituted by the different symbolic or visual expression to recognize a group or community. This process of identification is known as self-identification of a community or group identification.
Indigeneity is a contested concept to understand identity and is an important symbol that develops the boundary between the Santals and non-Santals. This study will employ the concept of indigeneity to understand the process of self-identification of the Santals. The framework of indigeneity can contribute to understanding the state of the Santals in Bangladesh.
1.2 Indigeneity and Indigenous
‘Indigenous’ refers to the original inhabitants of a country or area. Indigenous people are regarded as the first inhabitants of a specific territory, or at least to have occupied the place prior to successive waves of settlement (Gausset, Kenrick and Gibb, 2011). Adam Kuper’s and Alan Barnard’s sensitivity to and recognition of the indigenous people transcend debates in the theoretical and ideological sensitivities of anthropologists in Western academia (Guenther, 2006). Adam Kuper argues that the term ‘indigenous people’ is political and thus they can be contextualized appropriated by different groups in various contexts (Kuper, 2003: 395). Kuper strongly argues against ‘indigenous people’ as both an anthropological concept and a political tool for activists, claiming that this phrase is based on obsolete anthropological notions of ‘primitive society’ and essentializations of culture. More specifically, he argues that ‘indigenous’ is a political construct in order to achieve political goals for a category of people whose identity is created by themselves (Guenther, 2006). On the other hand, Barnard discusses the concept of ‘indigenous people’ and explains the strategic importance of an indigenous identity. He applies the term ‘indigenous’ to people – a term that people also apply to themselves – who are engaged in an often desperate struggle for political rights, for land, for a place and space within a modern nation’s economy and society. Identity and self-representation are vital elements of the political platform of such peoples (Guenther, 2006).
‘Indigenous’ is a term used to address the peoples who are engaged to achieve political and land rights within a society. Indigeneity appears as a symbol to address self-representation. One category of local people can claim land, fishing and grazing rights, shares in resource companies and political representation, while indigenous people might be excluded or undermined from claiming. Indigenous people were systematically dispossessed by European empires on the basis of their identity, and perceived as too backward to manage themselves or their lands. They were manipulated, exploited, commodified and commercialised by outsiders, including colonial administrators (Tomaselli, 1995; Guenther, 2002; Buntman, 1996). Indigenous people are marginalized because worldwide they have a history of exploitation in terms of dispossession. Land rights of indigenous people were forcibly denied by the states. The politics of indigeneity are, of course, first and foremost the politics of land. The field of indigeneity is inseparable from the politics of territorial expropriation (Niezen, 2003; Kenrick, 2002; Guenther, 2002; Wolf, 1999).
Indigeneity appears as a defensive response through which indigenous peoples proclaim to establish their land rights. It is a vehicle that enables indigenous peoples to resist large-scale enclosures and mass eviction (Li, 2010). Similarly, indigeneity is articulated through a range of positions and struggles of indigenous communities (Barnes, Gray, and Kingsbury, 1995; de la Cadena & Starn, 2007; Li, 2000). For instance, the Ogoni, an ethnic minority of the Niger delta, are struggling to hold their land because of valuable resources, in this case oil (Watts 1999). In New Zealand, Maori who can trace their links to a tribal group and a tribal territory are recognized as indigenous, and only they can benefit from restored collective rights to the territories under the Treaty of Waitangi Act of 1975 (Rata, 2002). In Bolivia, indigenous groups struggle to establish their land rights (Postero, 2006). The identities and cultures of indigenous peoples are associated with the lands on which they live and the natural resources on which they depend (World Bank, 2005: par. 2). Indigeneity gained global importance in the 1980s when the United Nations and the International Labor Organization defined indigeneity by employing a variety of elements such as historic continuity, distinctiveness, marginalization, self-identity, and self-governance (Dove, 2006: 192).
Furthermore, indigeneity is an image of self-constructed by subaltern discourses. The indigenous definitions of indigenousness are necessarily always: ‘hybrid constructions...both tribal and modern, local and worldly’ (Clifford, 1997: 154-156). Indigenous identity has become an agenda in terms of global political dialogue. Indigenous identity has produced new political spaces, dialogues, strategies, and alliances throughout the world as a result of the development of a framework for indigenous rights located at the international level (Jung, 2003). Indigeneity appears as a series of events that make visible the relationships between non-indigenous and indigenous communities 17
(Osuri, 2003). Indigenous culture is represented across the world not only as representatives of distinct cultures but also as part-owners of collectively propertied cultures in terms of defining them as property (Brown, 2003). Political struggle is organized around indigenous representation to negotiate the legacies of colonial occupation, incorporation into modern national projects, and the pressures of globalization. However, NGOs, researchers of diverse fields, religious organizations, international funding agencies, corporations, and state bureaucracies all influence and complicate the politics of indigenous representation in accordance with their own agendas (Greene, 2004: 211-212). Thus, worldwide indigeneity plays a significant role in the self-identification of indigenous peoples.
2. Self-identification
The processes of self-identification of the Santals take place through the use of symbols, including language, food custom, social and political structure, rituals, kinship and marriage as well as religion. Also, the notion of indigeneity is important to understand the state of the land rights and the political rights of the Santals. The Santals identify themselves as Adivasi or indigenous community in the light of symbolic features. The concept of indigeneity is noticeably present to identify them in the village.
2.1 Language, arts and food customs
The Santals belong to a specific linguistic family known as the Santali language through which they have been communicating with each other for time immemorial. The Santali language is considered the mother tongue of the community. Thus, the Santali language is the prime symbol that enables the Santals to unite together and recognize themselves distinctively in the village. The language allows the Santals to share collective feelings with each other. The Santali language is the principal mode of communication between the Santals. Rituals and ceremonies are celebrated by Santali songs and customs. For instance, they sing Santali songs before embarking on hunting and gathering in the adjoining forest. Santali songs and rhymes are embedded features in their culture. The Santals sing different songs and rhymes depending on the nature of festivals and ceremonies, including marriage, birth, death as well as new months of a year. At these events, they play their traditional musical instruments (Figure 8). Non-Santals do not understand the meaning of these songs or rhymes.
The Santals can also converse in the Bangla language, which is the national language of Bangladesh. The Santals use the Bangla language to communicate with the non-Santals—the Muslim and the Hindus—in the village, in order to procure the livelihoods. Thus, the Santals are the bilinguals of the 18
village. The children of the Santals learn Bangla when they attend the educational institutions in the village. Bangla is the principal teaching method because the majority of the students in these schools are non-Santals. As non-Santals cannot speak Santali, the language demarcates a boundary between the Santals and the non-Santals in the village.
Figure 7: Santals playing their traditional musical instruments
The Santals have distinct food habits very different from their Muslim and Hindu neighbors. They eat pork, conch, tortoise, snake, rat, squirrel and boiled rice. They usually have pork at different festivals, including marriage, birth and religious ceremonies, because it is expensive and they cannot eat it regularly. They gather conch, tortoise, snake, squirrel and rat to eat on a regular basis (Figure 8). They also collect Jongli Allu, a kind of black potato that grows naturally in the bush areas of the village (Figure 9). The Santals collect these foodstuffs from abandoned or public places such as rivers, canals, forests and ponds in the village or adjoining localities. These foodstuffs are considered as traditional food customs as well as natural gifts. The Santals can easily collect these foods without spending money, but labor is required. Both men and women are involved in the gathering of these foodstuffs. Collecting and gathering is their integral way to subsist.
Muslims do not consider pork, snake, tortoise, rat and conch as Halal or pure food. The Hindus of the village are vegetarian and they always avoid pork, snake and rat, but some Hindus eat tortoise. Furthermore, the non-Santals use conch to feed domestic animals, especially chickens or ducks, because most of the families rear chicken and duck to feed themselves. Therefore, the food habits appear as strong boundary between the Santals and non-Santals in the village.
Figure 8: One of Santal families collects conch in order to make a meal.
Figure 9: The plant of Jongli Allu, a kind of black potato
Every spring, the Santals organize a hunting festival to celebrate the new months of the year. Different migratory birds such as duck and crane arrive in the adjoining forests of the Santals’ neighborhoods in the spring. The Santals are aware about the seasonality to arrange such hunting festival. They usually hunt the birds and animals for two months of the spring. To some extent, such a festival enables them to procure a livelihood. They use bow and arrow as well as spears to hunt bird and animal (Figure 10). They organize the hunting festival by forming groups of three to four people. Each member of a group receives an equal proportion of bird and animal after hunting. They spend three to four hours in a day for hunting during this period. They hunt different species of birds 20
and animals that are available in the forests such as pigeon, duck, wild chicken, crane, squirrels, rat and snake. Thus, the hunting provides a kind of subsistence economy to the Santals during the spring. They learn hunting practices from their fathers or elder members of the community. The
Santals have been hunting for generations, and it is an integrated component of their culture. On
the other hand, few of the non-Santals hunt, especially wealthy Muslims who occasionally hunt birds with air guns. Therefore, hunting is considered as a primordial heritage and inseparable symbol of the Santals. Moreover, the Santals depend heavily on nature for not only food but also medicine. For instance, they use different herbs as medication, while the non-Santals frequently consult with village doctors or pharmaceutical doctors for their diseases.
Picture 10: A Santal man in position to prey the bird
The Santals enjoy distinct types of alcoholic drinks known as Harria and Chuani, which are prepared indigenously from boiled rice, molasses, herbs and roots of the different plants. The Santals preserve boiled rice under the soil for few months, and in second stage they boil the preserved rice with different herbs that produce a kind of evaporation for processing Harria. The same techniques are applied to prepare Chuani, but molasses are the principal ingredient. The methods of preparing
Harria and Chuani are known only to the Santals. Though the Santals and the non-Santals have been
living in the same locality for decades, the non-Santals have not learned how to prepare them. Moreover, the non-Santals, particularly Muslims, are reluctant to learn the techniques because alcoholic drinks are prohibited in Islam.
Every Santal adult is allowed and accustomed to drink Harria and Chuani. It is considered as an integral part of their daily lives. Harria and Chuani are required to celebrate different ceremonies and festivals of the Santals. Food custom remains unchanged among the Santals despite religious differences. Therefore, food customs demarcate a boundary between the Santals and the
non-Santals in Shahapur. 2.2 Local political structure
The Santals have a distinct form of political structure in each Santali village, called the ‘cabinet committee’, which has five to seven members, mostly elderly men. The cabinet committee undertakes different endeavors to foster and maintain social cohesion among the Santals. The cabinet organizes meetings, including village courts, festivals and rituals, for the Santal community. The committee is associated with the different roles and responsibilities in order to synchronize social relations among the Santals. The cabinet is headed by the village chief known as Manjhi and other members act as assistants to the chief. The assistants are addressed with different titles such as Paranik, Jagmanjhi, Jog Paranik, Naeke, Kudam Naeke, and Godget. The chief has the highest hierarchical position in each of Santal village, and therefore is respected by everyone in the village. Thus, Manjhi coordinates village administration and his approval is mandatory to initiate any social and cultural events in the village. Paranik acts as an assistant to Manjhi. Paranik performs all responsibilities in absence of Manjhi. Moreover, Paranik preserves the minutes of different meetings that take place in the village. Jagmanjhi organizes different culture programs in the village.
Jog Paranik acts as the assistant of Jagmanjhi. Jog Paranik also collects different information in the
village, including about conflicts, incidence of diseases, and births and deaths. Naeke organizes religious and festival ceremonies in the village, assisted by Kudam Naeke. Godget arranges the village court, which aims to resolve conflicts and disputes among the Santals. Godget also disseminates different messages among the villagers relating to communal meetings and festivals. The cabinet committee has informal power in terms of resolving internal disputes and conflicts. Furthermore, the committee makes requests to the elected members of the Union Parishad, which has formal power in relation to endeavors such as water installation and sanitation for the Santals. Although the cabinet committee is not recognized formally by the Union Parishad, the cabinet members are respected by the villagers and concerned authorities of the Union Parishad. The cabinet committee is considered as representative of the Santal community towards the wider communities.
In the East Para, the members of cabinet committee inherited their position. In the West Para, on the other hand, the cabinet members were selected by the elder members of the Santals. To some extent, the cabinets are dominated by male members. The majority of the Santals claim that the cabinet committees have been losing their control over the community because of the presence of the Christian churches in the neighborhoods. The pastors and preachers of the churches have become powerful in the neighborhoods, and have formal power and authority dealing with different problems of the Santals because they are affiliated with missionaries. Therefore, the cabinets exercise limited authoritative functions in the neighborhoods due to the emergence of the new roles and responsibilities of the Christian churches.
2.3 Religion
A majority of the Santals has converted to Christianity and refers to themselves as Christian Santals. A few of them observe Adhi Santali Dharma, an animistic religion. They also believe in some deities of Hinduism. This latter group is recognized as non-Christian Santals. The non-Christian Santals observe and perform ancestral rituals and ceremonies while worshipping different deities and nature, including the sun, the moon, trees and animals. The Christian Santals are divided into two groups: the Nazarene church and the Lutheran church. The majority are the followers of the Nazarene church, while others have adopted the Lutheran creed. Both belong to the Protestant form of Christianity. The young generation of the Christian Santals prefers to address themselves as Christian rather than as Santal Christian because Christianity is one of the most dominant religions in the world, and they seek affiliation with a prestigious religious identity. The Christian Santal insult non-Christian Santals during social interaction and call them “baydin”, meaning non-religious group. To understand religious differences among the Santals, I arranged a debate between the Christian
Santals and the non-Christian Santals in the village. Both groups presented arguments from their
religious point of views, as described in the following passages.
The views of the Christian Santals toward the non-Christian Santals
The Christian Santals reveal that they believe in Jesus, who will save them from the blazing fires of hell. He is the Almighty and will provide food and shelter for humankind. Jesus always advises humankind to be devoted to Christianity with a view to entering into the heaven after death. The Christian Santals assert that the non-Christian Santals do not have religious manuscripts or holy books in order to practice religious activities. The Christian Santals also add that religious books give instructions on how to offer prayers for God. The non-Christian Santals perform religious prayers based on the knowledge and skills they have acquired from the elder members of their families.
The dead bodies of the non-Christian Santals are cremated as a part of religious rituals. The Christian
Santals state that the non-Christian Santals have minimal financial solvency to arrange cremation
rites during funeral ceremonies. Cremation is expensive because it requires wood, oil and other material to burn the dead bodies. Because of a lack of money, the dead bodies are sometimes buried in the graveyard instead of being cremated. Furthermore, the dead bodies may be buried in the graveyard without washing and cleaning.
The non-Christian Santals worship multiple deities, who the Christians say, cannot save them from dangers or show them the right direction to achieve eternal peace. In the modern period, the Christian Santals say that the non-Christians should be converted to Christianity in order to rescue them from the blazing fires of the hell. The Christian Santals argue that: “their ancestors might be ignorant and backward about the religion and they observe Adhi Santali Dharma, but the non-Christian Santals should be aware about the contemporary religions of the world. Therefore, the non-Christian Santals should convert to Christianity.”
The views of the non-Christian Santals towards the Christian Santals
The non-Christian Santals state that they believe in Chandubaba, known as the sun and the moon, which are the nuclear elements for the planet. Secondly, they offer prayers for Maranbura, the ancestors. Finally, they also worship some Hindu deities. Non-Christian Santals believe that cremation might be beneficial for the environment because the decomposed bodies in the graveyard might spread diseases to the surroundings. Moreover, they say that dead bodies become worthless after their souls depart.
The non-Christian Santals claim that the majority of the Santals converted to Christianity in order to receive financial and medical services, including education stipends for the children and health benefits from the missions. Many of the Santals also found employment in the Christian churches or missionaries. The Christian Santals have also divided into two groups: the Nazarene and the Lutheran. They have internal competition with each other in terms of converting non-Christian people to Christianity. Non-Christian Santals proclaim that: “Christianity has erected a boundary between two brothers of the Santals”.
The lifestyles of the pastors of the two neighborhoods
The non-Christian Santals reveal that the pastor of the East neighborhood lives next to the church. A number of preachers have worked under his supervision. He donated a piece of his land to construct the church building in the neighborhood. Moreover, he works as a higher official of the church, designated as a regional supervisor. He also recruited three people from the neighborhood in order 24
to preach Christianity in the adjacent neighborhoods. He has become wealthy and influential due to his higher official position in the church. In contrast to other Santals’ houses, which are made of mud, straw and woods, the pastor built a brick house for his family and installed solar panel on the roof for electricity, because there is no electricity coverage in the neighborhood. By contrast, the pastor of the West neighborhood is a peasant and cannot live from his income as a pastor. But he is a solvent farmer compared to the other Santals in the same locality.
2.4 Rituals: Death and Naming ceremony
The Santals have some common rituals, especially at birth and death, despite religious differences among them. They sacrifice a chicken and spread paddy while the dead body is placed on the floor of the graveyard, so that evil spirits cannot return to the village accompanied with the souls of deceased person in order to harm them. Similarly, birth ceremonies are arranged according to Santal traditions. The naming ceremony of the infants depends on the gender of the newborn. Five days are required to finalize a name for a daughter while three days are required to select a name for a son. On the final day of the naming ceremony, the parents of the newborn baby prepare a special meal with rice and the leaves of the neem tree (Azadirachta indica). Subsequently, the meal is distributed among the households of all the Santals. This process introduces the newborn baby into the community. Elder community members sing humorous songs to celebrate the birth. They pray for the future successes of the baby during the ceremony. All Santals of a village are expected to attend the naming ceremony. Thus, the naming ceremony is the one of predominating cultural symbols of all Santals.
2.5 Kinship and marriage
There are twelve clans among the Santals: the Murmo, Baskay, Maddy, Tudo, Hemram, Hazda,
Choray, Kisku, Besra, Saren, Powrea and Bedowa. The clan system demarcates the unique boundary
of the Santals in the terms of self-identification. Marriage between members of the same clan is prohibited because individuals from the same clan are considered to be siblings. The clan system plays a very important role in terms of developing marital relationships between the Santals. Each clan consists of totems, which are animals, birds and plants. They believe that violation of clan rules could cause misfortune for them.
The Christian Santals cannot ignore the rules of the clan system in developing conjugal relationships because the clan considers the symbols of the Santals essential, despite religious differences. Most married Santal women wear bangles of conch-shell and use vermillion on the forehead, except for the Lutheran followers (Picture 11). The Lutheran women believe that Christianity does not 25
prescribe this, and they prefer to follow the lifestyles of Christianity because the worldwide Christian community does not practice such customs.
Figure 11: The married women of Nazarene followers use vermilion on head while Lutheran followers do not.
The non-Christian Santals reveal that the churches play a vital role in the marriage system of the
Santals. The non-Christian Santals claim that the churches impose restrictions on marital
relationships between non-Christians Santals and Christian Santals. The churches always encourage the Christian Santals to establish affinal relationships between Christian Santals and with other Christian ethnic communities. To some extent, non-Christian Santals can marry into Christian Santal families. In this instance, the non-Christian Santals have to convert to Christianity prior to the wedding. In the village, there are six adults of non-Christian Santals who converted to Christianity before marrying. The marriage ceremonies of Christian Santals take place in the churches while non-Christian Santals arrange such ceremonies in the premises of the Jaherthan in the neighborhood. The Manjhi plays pivotal roles in terms of performing different wedding rituals when marriage is arranged between the non-Christian Santals. The pastors play important roles in terms of arranging marriage between the Christian Santals.
A new trend in the marriage system of the Christian Santals is to allow marriage with individuals from other Christian ethnic groups. This type of marriage is called a religious endogamy marriage. Thus, the Santals marriage system can be classified as clan exogamy marriage as well as religious endogamy marriage. In matrix 1, Christian Santals can marry non-Christian Santals as well as other Christian ethnic communities. On the other hand, non-Christian Santals cannot marry other Christian ethnic communities. Marriage between Christian Santals and non-Christian Santals takes place according to the principals of exogamous marriage. The non-Christian Santals always try to develop
conjugal relationships between them according to the rules of exogamous marriage. They have to change belief system in order to get a spouse from the Christian Santals.
Matrix 1: Changing patterns of marriage system in the Santal community Non-Christian Santal Non-Christian Santal/Christian
Santals Christian Santal Other Christian ethnic Community
2.6 State of land rights
The Santals regard themselves as the first dwellers in the territories. During British colonial rule, the territories were covered with thick jungle. They had to clear the jungle to set up their settlement in the territories. The majority of the Santals lost their land properties at the end of the British rule because of lack of literacy, ignorance of the land registration processes, and appearance of endemic diseases such as diarrhea, cholera and chicken pox in the Santal villages. The Santals were reluctant to formally register the land in their names. Land ownership was distributed verbally or orally among the children of the Santals and Santal men inherited land. But this land registration processes was not formally recorded. The Santals rarely went to land offices to register their properties.
The Santals were left the villages when diseases such as diarrhea, cholera and chicken pox became endemic in these places. But their ancestors had not found any curative medications to prevent these diseases. The Santals believed that these diseases had been caused by evil spirits, and therefore chose to move to new places. This processes damaged the livelihood of the Santals. Subsequently, non-Santals took over the land of the Santals by preparing false documentation to process land registration. After British rule, Hindu landlords started to evict the Santals from their settlements as well as from the cultivated lands. Furthermore, the Muslim of the areas continued to follow the methods of the earlier invaders by seizing the land of the Santals. Incidences of land grabbing have increased in the last few decades. At present, many non-Santals, especially Muslims, have encroached upon the land of the Santals.
2.7 State of political rights
The Santals have been living in the Shahapur village for decades, but they have a weak position in politics, especially party politics. The political leaders only appear on their doorsteps during the elections periods, including national and local government elections. In election campaigns, candidates from different political parties give false promises, for instance stating they will provide jobs, water and sanitation facilities for the Santals. After these politicians get into power, they pay no attention to the Santals.
The majority of the Santals are employed as wage laborers by landlords, especially by Muslims in the adjacent villages. During elections, these landlords force the Santals to cast a vote for their favorite candidates. If they do not, they will lose their job. This is a kind of psychological pressure on the
Santals, who worry that the preferred candidates of their landlords may not win the elections. If the
favorite candidates fail, the Santals might lose their employment, even if they personally voted for them.
There are no Santals involved in party politics in Shahapur and so they are very marginalized. Most people believe that the Santals have favoritism towards a specific political party in Bangladesh, although they acknowledge that solidarity among the Santals is fragile due to the crisis of the leaders. They assert that: “we need a leader like Nelson Mandela to establish our rights in the country. We need to reduce our dependency on the grants of the NGOs because these grants cannot solve our problems. The NGOs are implementing different projects by employing our leaders and educated persons. Subsequently, leaders become interested in earning money from these NGOs and they cannot provide enough time for the community. Thus, NGOs have introduced an individualistic approach among the Santals because our leaders are concerned about earning money and establishing their own careers.”
The Santals celebrated ‘International indigenous day’ on 9 August, 2014 at the premises of the
Adivasi College in Beneduar, which is a neighboring village of Shahapur, with a procession around 12
o’clock (Figure 12). The Catholic Church organized the event, but non-Christian Santals and Protestant Christian Santals, including Nazarenes and Lutherans, attended the ceremony. The procession started from the premises of the Catholic church of Beneduar village and ended up at the premises of the Adivashi College where a meeting took place. At the end of the procession, the leaders of the Santals —fathers of the Catholic Church, pastors of different churches, members of the cabinet committees—delivered speeches. The indigenous leaders emphasized the importance of the unity and cohesiveness among the Santals. Moreover, they noted that indigenous people did not 28
have equal rights with the majority of Bangladeshis. They claimed that the Santals are not united in these localities because they are divided into different religious groups. They asserted that in spite of religious differences, the Santals should be united in order to build a stronger community, to make demands for land rights and political rights in Bangladesh. The father of the Catholic Church called for unity among the Santals, irrespective of religions and class. In the meeting, the indigenous leaders denounced the policy of the Bangladesh government of addressing them as small ethnic groups in Bangladesh.
The government published a press release on 9 August, 2014, declaring indigenous communities as ethnic minorities in Bangladesh. The leaders of the Santals rejected the term of ethnic minorities and demanded that the government should declare the Santals as an indigenous community in Bangladesh. They also added that: “we are not an extinct community that needs to be preserved in the zoo.” The leaders of the Santals urged that International Indigenous Day should be celebrated in a proper manner every year, so that they can raise their voices for rights. The Santal leaders demanded the constitutional right to be declared as an indigenous community in Bangladesh. At the end of discussion sessions, a cultural ceremony was held in the meeting place, with Santal men and women performing traditional dances and songs with traditional musical instruments (Figure 13). Figure 12: The procession held celebrating International Indigenous Day.
Figure 13: Cultural ceremony took place after the discussion of the International Indigenous Day
Analysis
Internal identification of the Santals is constituted of symbols and belief systems. The missionaries have influenced them to change their belief system, but symbolic forms are also important to define the identity of individuals of the Santals. The majority of them converted to Christianity, but they did not relinquish the importance of Santali language, the clan system, kinship networks, and the local political structure of the Santali culture. Moreover, marital relationships between the same clan are prohibited, which is the core symbol of the Santals in terms of self-identification. To some extent, self-identification has changed due to religion differences. Thus, a new boundary has developed among the Santals based on religious practices: they address themselves as either non-Christian
Santals or Christian Santals. Though the churches have introduced a religious endogamy marriage
system among Christian Santals, they cannot ignore the basic community symbols of Santali culture. The Christian Santals and non-Christian Santals have different boundaries in terms of religious practices, which have different meanings for members of the same community. Anthony Cohen theorized the same notion about the community boundary.
Indigeneity demarcates a boundary between indigenous and non-indigenous people in Shahapur. The Santal identity is highly contested by indigeneity because it frames a relationship between the
Santals and non-Santals in the village. The Santals have been struggling to achieve land rights in the
village. In the past, the majority lost their land, which damaged their living standards. Influential non-Santals encroached the lands of the Santals. The major challenge of the Santals is to establish land ownership in the village. Their marginalized position in the village means that they struggle to 30
deal with the influential non-Santals. The local government is reluctant to deal with Santals land rights because influential non-Santals control local politics. Therefore, the local government is not interested in undertaking any endeavors relating to the indigeneity of the Santals. The Santals do not have political platforms as an indigenous community in Bangladesh to raise their voice and claim political rights.
Chapter Three: Social Categorization
1. Theoretical framework
Identification is a multilateral and dialectical process. Social interaction contributes to group identity in various ways in terms of internal and social categorization or external categorization. Internal identification is the process in which a person comes to realize what groups are significant to them, what attitudes concern them, and what kind of behavior is appropriate for them. The first of these, known as the group identification process, occurs inside the ethnic boundary based on symbolism construction. The second one occurs outside or across the boundary through social interactions. Therefore, identification is not just a one-sided issue; it may be ascribed or prescribed by others. This kind of identification process is called external categorization or social categorization. Thus external categorization only takes place within active social relationships (Jenkins, 1997: 52-55).
According to the theory of Jenkins, categorization contributes to groups in various ways. External categorization has five possible features in order to identify a group. First, external categorization may be similar forms or aspects of existing group identity, in which they simply reinforce each other. Secondly, the identity boundary may change through inter-ethnic interaction. A continuous culture change is likely to be a product of inter-ethnic contacts. The ethnic boundary may be changeable, and not just in terms of language. The boundary may also interact between groups, and in the process, identity is likely to be affected. Thus, identity may be defined somewhat differently in the light of social intercourse between groups. Third, external categorization might be produced by people who have the legitimate authority, knowledge and higher social status to categorize other groups according to their own styles or ways. Fourth, external categorization may be produced by the exercise of power or physical force. Stigmatization and violation may be deployed to identify a group. Under these circumstances, ethnic categorization may be pejorative, negative and stigmatizing. Finally, the oppressed group can refuse to accept the imposed boundary and develop another form of group identification. External categorization might reshape the identity of the particular community through the use of physical force and threats, as well as the exercise of power and knowledge. Power and authority are embedded within social relationships and enable control over resources. Though social categorization may not be institutionalized, ethnic categorization is likely to be partly institutionalized. Therefore, identity is produced and reproduced during social interaction, and interaction is always situated in the context of a social milieu (Jenkins, 1997: 52-73).
2. Exploration of categorization
The non-Santals, particularly Muslims and Hindus, employ their knowledge, power, social and economic status and world view to categorize the Santals in the village. The non-Santals are the majority in the village and are socially and economically advanced. The findings from the fieldwork delineate how external categorization is framed or fabricated by these stakeholders. Active social relationships between the groups play intrinsic roles in categorizing the Santals in the Shahapur village. Moreover, the mechanisms of NGOs are considered to understand how they implement programs categorizing the Santals.
The following discussion will help us understand how the Muslims and Hindus categorize the Santals in the village. Muslims and Hindus address the Santals as Adivasi or indigenous community based on the distinct food habits, religion, judicial system, settlement history and political structure that demarcate a boundary between the Santals and Santals in the village. Moreover, the
non-Santals categorize the non-Santals on the grounds of physical appearance, because the non-Santals have a
distinctive appearance in terms of dark colored skins, curly hair and average height. 2.1 Food custom and social relations
Muslims and Hindus state that the Santals regularly eat pork, frog, rat and rabbit, as well as livestock (cows, goats and sheep) that have died from diseases. They believe that the Santals are addicted to alcoholic drinks called Haria and Chuani that they prepare indigenously. The Muslims consider these foods and drinks as impure from a religious point of views. Even, Hindus dislike such food customs of the Santals because Hindus are vegetarian in the village. Moreover, they state that such food habits might cause severe health problems or diseases. The Muslims and Hindus believe that the food customs of the Santals are similar to those of other primitive or backward communities in the world. Like other ‘primitive’ people, Santals prefer to go to the forest in order to prey on birds and animals by means of bow and arrow as well as the spear. The Muslims rarely visit Santal households because of the food behaviors of the latter. Furthermore, Santal households often rear pigs in the courtyard or backyard of their houses (Figure 14). Eating pork is considered an impure and harmful practice by the Muslims. Therefore, the food habits mark a boundary between the Muslim and the Santals.
Figure 14: Pigs are kept beside the house of the Santals
The Muslims also add that the Santals usually celebrate their religious occasions and festivals by dancing, singing, playing music as well as drinking alcohol (Haria and Chuani). They sing songs in the Santali language and non-Santals cannot understand the meaning of these songs. They become unsteady or unconscious by drinking excessive Haria and Chuani. Their ceremonies cannot be fulfilled without drinking Haria and Chuani. The intoxication by Haria and Chuani may damage morality and ethics in the character of the individuals, state the Muslims. Moreover, this drinking may provoke misdeeds. Furthermore, Haria and Chuani cause bad breath and Muslims feel embarrassed to converse with the Santals. Therefore, Muslims are reluctant to participate in the ceremonies and festivals of the Santals.
Although the Santals are invited to the occasions of Eid-ul-Fitre and Eid-ul-Adha of Muslim families, the foodstuffs are distributed or served separately for them. Sometimes, the Santals attend these ceremonies with their own plates and glasses. Moreover, they are not allowed inside the households of the Muslim families to have their meals. They usually sit outside on the floor next to the house of the Muslim families to eat. The Muslims do not share plates and glasses with the Santals for having meals. Muslim families offer food to the Santals on a separate set of plates and glasses when they visit the Muslim families as agricultural labors (Figure 15). Lunch is sometimes offered to the agricultural laborers according to the labor contract of the locality. The non-Santals use banana leaves instead of plates and glasses to serve the foodstuffs to the Santals.
However, I have observed that the non-Santals and Santals share the same utensils during meals at the hotel or restaurants in the village markets. These restaurants are run by Muslims who do not use separate utensils for customers or clients of different communities. The customers share the same utensils for food in hotels irrespective of ethnicity, class and status. Thus, the notion of community 34
boundary in terms of using separate utensils is absent in public places such as the hotels and restaurants in the village.
Figure 15: The sets of utensils are used by the Muslims to offer the meals for the Santals
Some Muslims, especially young people, visit the Santal villages for alcoholic drinks Haria and
Chuani. They usually go to the Santal villages at night when the locality becomes calm and quiet. The Santals families offer Haria and Chuani to them in separate crystal glasses (Figure 16) that they keep
apart in their households and use merely for the entertainment of Muslims. They are aware that Muslims will not drink Haria and Chuani in glasses used by the Santals. Moreover, they sell each glass of Haria and Chuani for a price of 0.15 cents. Only two families of the East neighborhood sell
Haria and Chuani commercially. Sometimes, a few young Muslims become unconscious by drinking
excessive Haria and Chuani and guardians of these young men threaten the Santals for selling these drinks to them. For this reason, Santal families sell limited amount of Haria and Chuani to the young Muslims, and do so clandestinely, so that nobody can blame the Santals.
Figure 16: The glass is used for the non-Santals who visit the Santals’s households for Haria and
Chuani. The glass also contains Haria.
