Emerging role of anthropological knowledge in promoting tribal welfare

Emerging role of anthropological knowledge in promoting tribal welfare and
development, culture, economy and sustainable development:
A case study of Dhankut of Bahraich (U.P.).
Alok Chantia & Ritu Garg
Introduction
Anthropology does not only study primitive man, the broad subject matter of anthropology is
the entire life of mankind. The only reason, why much attention is devoted to "Primitive
society by anthropologists is that primitive society exhibits the ground plan on which the
more complex structure that we call civilization has been built up”. (S. C. Ray 1966:65)
Today almost every simple society is facing a transition phase due to the influence of
industrialization, urbanization, etc. So it is very momentous to see how anthropological
knowledge is applicable to them.
Dhankut, an unknown group is living in India without any written evidence even in the
district gazetteer. Dhankut is an endogamous group of district Bahraich. The population of
the group is 2,913. No literature is available about this group. No anthropologist or
sociologist has carried out any test or study on this group. They are not listed in any
government record. Who are they? What is their origin and history? Their physical
characteristics, rituals and customs show their reality.
Bahraich is situated on the Indo-Nepal border. It is a historical and religious city. Its
geographical area lies between the latitudes 27004' and 28024' North and the longitudes
81004' and 82013' East. Its is a sub-Himalayan area. The country of Nepal bounds it on the
north and the northeast. The forest area of Bahraich is predominately covered by Saal (shorea
robusta) trees. The rivers and the lakes of the district abound with fish of many varieties.
Methodology
Ecology is the interaction between man and environment. Ecology gives an idea to man of
his existence in a specific environment and this idea takes shape in the form of culture. S
culture is associated with ecology and both these factors create a sense of adaptability that is
the key of Homo Sapiens who are found every where on earth.
Anthropological parameter as marriage is taken to sketch a profile for their reality. This work
has been completed under interview and participant observation technique.
Problem
Dhankut perform marriage ceremony in the month of Chaitra, which comes after Holi.
Marriage begins with the search for the bride. Here the family members of the groom search
for a girl who has attained marriageable age. This system is the opposite of the urban culture
where the bride's side searches for a groom. After obtaining a suitable match, the members of
the bridegroom's side visit the bride's home with some materials like batashe, urad ki dal,
fish and leaves of the Saal tree.
Both sides throw different colors on each other, this ceremony is known as rang ka parna.
The underlying philosophy behind this ceremony is "Now we are equal in every respect, no
difference exist between us".
Magni : This ritual comes after rang ka parna. The members of the bridegroom's side again
visit the bride's home with batashe, curd, sweets, fish and leaves of the Saal tree to fix the
date of the marriage.
Lagna : It is the same as the tilak in the traditional Hindi society, but in this ritual the
members of the bridegroom's side visit the bride's home, which the reverse of what happens
in the urban scenario. The groom's family members bring batashe, curd, rice, urad ki dal,
fish, five pattals of leaves of the Saal tree. These are distributed among the family members,
also known as biradari.
Badhawa : It is an important ritual of the marriage ceremony. In this ritual, the women from
the bridegroom's side visit the houses of the sisters of the bridegroom. They beat drums and
return back with together.
Bhent : The gathering of women as a result of badhawa, the women meet each other and
embrace each other and sing a song with weeping undertones. This song literally means that
"we are lucky that today our brother is to get married, so we are again under one roof after a
long time, otherwise we are married in different places, which are very far, so we can't meet
easily.
Other ceremonies like bervaiye, kangna, kukhri are the same as other Hindus do.
Cross-cousin, surrogate, levirate marriages are also frequent according to their requirements.
All these specific marriage patterns have existed among all 36 lineage (Dhankut have no
gotra).
Result & Discussion
Their marriage ceremony shows some aspect that may be helpful to decipher the original
place of the Dhankut.
1. In the Dhankut culture, the bridegroom's side searches for a girl for marriage, which is
the opposite of the urban culture. It is similar to the Tharu tribe of the district, so they
may be a migrant tribe, who came to Bahraich and settled down here, because the bridewealth
is very high. In the same manner, the husbands do not take the names of their
wives, which shows the higher position of the women.
2. In the lagna and the rang ka parana rituals, they come with batashe, curd, rice, urad ki
dal, fish and specially made pattals of Saal leaves. As we know, the forests of Saal trees
are abundant in the Himalayan region, and as we proceed from Bahraich to Muradabad or
Bahraich to Nepal, Saal trees are very common. Thus the importance of the Saal trees
show that the Dhankut come from regions with an abundance of Saal. The philosophy of
their name shows that they are related to the jungle environment. Tharu tribe is also
living in the area where jungle of Saal trees (Bahraich-Nepal border) is in abundance.
3. In Badhawa and Bhent the women sing a song, which shows that they belong to such a
geographical area, in which travelling is very difficult and only on some occasion do they
come in contact with the rest of the clan. This is also a fact which shows that this group
came to the plains from the hilly areas, because they have Mongoloid appearance, which
is the characteristic of the inhabitants of the hilly regions. These rituals also show that
before migration they were exogamous.
4. Bahraich is situated on the Indo-Nepal border, so this theory cannot be overlooked that
this unknown endogamous group came from hilly areas in the light of ecological and
cultural parameters.
5. In their marriage, every ritual is bound with fishes, while no source of fish is available at
present at their present living place. If we correlate Saal tree with fish, an indication again
comes from the north side of the district (Tharu’s living place – they are also very fond of
fishes), where the Ghaghara river passes through the Saal jungle, which is a good source
of fishes for Tharus.
6. In the light of the district gazetteer of Bahraich, they show their association with the
Tharu tribe, who are similar in physical and many cultural characters. But both groups
have different names.
7. On 31-10-2001, the U.P. state government has accepted them most backward, neglected
group in the light of the anthropological work of the author.
The state government has accepted many basic programmes as sanitary programme, housedwelling
programme and education programme, etc. All these facilities were absent among
them before the using of anthropological parameters. Anthropology is not merely a subject of
study. It can give a proper support to rural, urban and tribal personals in the light of welfare
state concept. The U.P. state government has declared many policies on 31-10-2001 for the
very first time after the Indian independence for this group. Their pseudo with the Tharus
could come in light by using anthropological parameters.
Acknowledgement
I am very thankful to the Dhankut society, who gave me every support in this work, because
many cultural aspects are preserved in their mind (memory culture), which could not have
been brought out in the front without their support.
References
1. Gazetteer of Bahraich (U.P.) Govt. Press, Lucknow. 1988 Page-9.
2. Sharma, A.N. Physical Anthropology, Abhivayakti Prakashan Allahabad,
1996. Page 410.
3. Madan & Mazumdar : An Introduction to Social Anthropology National Publishing
House, New Delhi, 1989.
4. Gazetteer of Bahraich (U.P.) Govt. Press, Lucknow. 1988 Page-11
5. Sachinanda : Builders of Indian Anthrolopogy, Page 65, N. K. Bose Memorial
Foundation, Varnasi - 1978.