Pasi (caste): Difference between revisions
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{{short description|Caste of India}} |
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The '''Pasi''' (also spelled Passi) is a [[Dalit]] (untouchable) community of India.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Peasant Revolt and Indian Nationalism: The Peasant Movement in Awadh, 1919-1922 |first=Gyan |last=Pandey |title=Selected Subaltern Studies |editor1-first=Ranajit |editor1-last=Guha |editor2-first=Gayatri Chakravorty |editor2-last=Spivak |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-19505-289-3 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JEjsQbxIOC0C&pg=PA274 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=274}}</ref><ref name=Rawat>{{cite book |title=Reconsidering Untouchability: Chamars and Dalit History in North India |first=Ramnarayan S. |last=Rawat |authorlink=Ram Narayan Rawat |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-25322-262-6 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bz5dKC81O3IC&pg=PA12 |publisher=Indiana University Press |pages=12–15}}</ref> Pasi refers to traditionally occupation is [[Palm toddy|toddy]] tapping.<ref name="Badri Narayan ">{{cite book|author=Badri Narayan|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=iAQrpDW4-_YC&pg=PA136|title=Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics|publisher=SAGE|year= 2012|isbn=9780761935377|page=136}}</ref> The Pasi are divided into Gujjar, Kaithwas, and [[Boria (caste)|Boria]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Singh|first=Kumar Suresh|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=jHQMAQAAMAAJ&q=rajpasi+borasi&dq=rajpasi+borasi&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjYobGQ_9TrAhVReX0KHbVhBf8Q6AEwAHoECAAQAQ|title=India's Communities: H - M|date=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=|isbn=978-0-19-563354-2|location=|pages=page 2796|language=en}}</ref> In the state of [[Andhra Pradesh]] they have [[OBC]] status. They live in the northern Indian states of [[Bihar]] and [[Uttar Pradesh]]. |
The '''Pasi''' (also spelled Passi) is a [[Dalit]] (untouchable) community of India.<ref>{{cite book |chapter=Peasant Revolt and Indian Nationalism: The Peasant Movement in Awadh, 1919-1922 |first=Gyan |last=Pandey |title=Selected Subaltern Studies |editor1-first=Ranajit |editor1-last=Guha |editor2-first=Gayatri Chakravorty |editor2-last=Spivak |year=1988 |isbn=978-0-19505-289-3 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=JEjsQbxIOC0C&pg=PA274 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=274}}</ref><ref name=Rawat>{{cite book |title=Reconsidering Untouchability: Chamars and Dalit History in North India |first=Ramnarayan S. |last=Rawat |authorlink=Ram Narayan Rawat |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-25322-262-6 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=bz5dKC81O3IC&pg=PA12 |publisher=Indiana University Press |pages=12–15}}</ref> Pasi refers to traditionally occupation is [[Palm toddy|toddy]] tapping.<ref name="Badri Narayan ">{{cite book|author=Badri Narayan|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=iAQrpDW4-_YC&pg=PA136|title=Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics|publisher=SAGE|year= 2012|isbn=9780761935377|page=136}}</ref> The Pasi are divided into Gujjar, Kaithwas, and [[Boria (caste)|Boria]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Singh|first=Kumar Suresh|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=jHQMAQAAMAAJ&q=rajpasi+borasi&dq=rajpasi+borasi&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjYobGQ_9TrAhVReX0KHbVhBf8Q6AEwAHoECAAQAQ|title=India's Communities: H - M|date=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=|isbn=978-0-19-563354-2|location=|pages=page 2796|language=en}}</ref> In the state of [[Andhra Pradesh]],[[Telangana]] they have [[Other Backward Class|OBC]] status.<ref>{{Cite web|title=National Commission for Backward Classes|url=http://www.ncbc.nic.in/User_Panel/GazetteResolution.aspx?Value=mPICjsL1aLvYBtdZSrP4uO+ploAhiJHMALWmHIwbzS8Il37YLL3Fb0FHfWDHzP7c|access-date=2020-09-07|website=www.ncbc.nic.in}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=National Commission for Backward Classes|url=http://www.ncbc.nic.in/User_Panel/GazetteResolution.aspx?Value=mPICjsL1aLvZW9/wXcIbxcNal/TghxZUuV7adcx5Bs1cEGdzKqq0GufcXEZAUTq0|access-date=2020-09-07|website=www.ncbc.nic.in}}</ref> They claim Pasi kingdom was in awadh region including kings [[suheldev]] and [[Bijli Pasi]].<ref name="Dalit Assertion">{{cite book|author=Badri Narayan|url=https://books.google.co.in/books?id=iAQrpDW4-_YC&pg=PA72|title=Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics|publisher=SAGE|year= 2012|isbn=9780761935377|page=72}}</ref> They live in the northern Indian states of [[Bihar]] and [[Uttar Pradesh]]. |
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==Etymology== |
==Etymology== |
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Revision as of 20:58, 7 September 2020
| Pasi | |
|---|---|
 Pasis Group in 1868 | |
| Languages | Hindi |
| Populated states | Bihar, Uttar Pradesh |
| Related groups | Turuk Pasi |
The Pasi (also spelled Passi) is a Dalit (untouchable) community of India.[1][2] Pasi refers to traditionally occupation is toddy tapping.[3] The Pasi are divided into Gujjar, Kaithwas, and Boria.[4] In the state of Andhra Pradesh,Telangana they have OBC status.[5][6] They claim Pasi kingdom was in awadh region including kings suheldev and Bijli Pasi.[7] They live in the northern Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Etymology
The word Pashi, according to William Crooke, has been derived from the Sanskrit word Pashika, a noose used by Pasis to climb and tap toddy, a drink obtained from palm tree. The tapping of toddy is the original occupation of the Pasi community. However, just like other aspirational caste groups of India, Pasis have a myth of origin. They claim that they originate from the sweat of Parshuram, an incarnation of Vishnu. They claim support for this in the word sweat being derived from the Hindi word Pasina and it further paves the way for their claim of "Kshatriyatva".[3]
Population
The Pasi live mainly in the northern Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, were their traditional occupation was that of rearing pigs.[8] The Pasis of most of the north Indian states has been classified by the Government of India as Scheduled Caste (SC).[3] As of the 2001 Census of India, the Pasi are the second-largest Dalit group in Uttar Pradesh, where they constituted 16 per cent of the Dalit population and were mostly recorded in the Awadh region.[9] The 2011 Census of India for the state recorded their population as 6,522,166. That figure included the Tarmali.[10]
History
Ramnarayan Rawat notes the role of the Pasi community (and other untouchable castes) in the Kisan Sabha Movement to have been understated by earlier historians, in that they documented a minimal and late-arriving Pasi involvement and additionally, one that was inclined to criminal behavior such as rioting, rather than political activism.[2] From a reading of the archives, he notes that the involvement of Pasi and Chamars were significant from the outset and they being land-occupiers had the same concerns as of other savarna groups, rather than being the 'alienated' pig-rearers, hitherto assumed and portrayed.[2] Chandra Bhan Prasad, a political commentator, has recalled about how those who continued pig-rearing were ill-treated by socio-political activists, who blamed the occupation in large part for their untouchable status rather than the Brahminism.[11]
The Pasi have in recent times engaged in invention of tradition. Badri Narayan, a social historian and cultural anthropologist, says that
Sources of vision and contemplation are absent without literature. This feeling, along with the growing urge to construct an assertive identity and the sense of being deprived of history, led the Pasi community towards the invention of heroes, histories and myths and their documentation in the print medium.[12]
Of late, Hindu Nationalists (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and affiliates) have been trying to appropriate different folk-heroes of the Pasi caste, as Hindu icons to mobilize the electoral prospects of Bharatiya Janata Party.[13] The Hindu nationalists have supported claims that there was a Pasi kingdom that ruled in what are now Uttar Pradesh and Bihar during the 11th and 12th centuries. The rulers of this claimed state included Suhaldev and Bijli Pasi.[7]
Ramnarayan Rawat notes the role of the Pasi community (and other untouchable castes) in the Kisan Sabha Movement to have been understated by earlier historians, in that they documented a minimal and late-arriving Pasi involvement and additionally, one that was inclined to criminal behavior such as rioting, rather than political activism.[2] From a reading of the archives, he notes that the involvement of Pasi and Chamars were significant from the outset and they being land-occupiers had the same concerns as of other savarna groups, rather than being the 'alienated' pig-rearers, hitherto assumed and portrayed.[2] Chandra Bhan Prasad, a political commentator, has recalled about how those who continued pig-rearing were ill-treated by socio-political activists, who blamed the occupation in large part for their untouchable status rather than the Brahminism.[11]
Notable people
- Madari Pasi was a leader of the militant peasant movement Eka Movement.
- Uda Devi, claimed to have been a fighter at Sikandar Bagh in the Indian Rebellion of 1857.[14]
See also
References
- ^ Pandey, Gyan (1988). "Peasant Revolt and Indian Nationalism: The Peasant Movement in Awadh, 1919-1922". In Guha, Ranajit; Spivak, Gayatri Chakravorty (eds.). Selected Subaltern Studies. Oxford University Press. p. 274. ISBN 978-0-19505-289-3.
- ^ a b c d e Rawat, Ramnarayan S. (2011). Reconsidering Untouchability: Chamars and Dalit History in North India. Indiana University Press. pp. 12–15. ISBN 978-0-25322-262-6.
- ^ a b c Badri Narayan (2012). Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics. SAGE. p. 136. ISBN 9780761935377.
- ^ Singh, Kumar Suresh (1998). India's Communities: H - M. Oxford University Press. pp. page 2796. ISBN 978-0-19-563354-2.
{{cite book}}:|pages=has extra text (help) - ^ "National Commission for Backward Classes". www.ncbc.nic.in. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
- ^ "National Commission for Backward Classes". www.ncbc.nic.in. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
- ^ a b Badri Narayan (2012). Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics. SAGE. p. 72. ISBN 9780761935377.
- ^ Hunt, Sarah Beth (2014). Hindi Dalit Literature and the Politics of Representation. Routledge. pp. 8, 23. ISBN 978-1-31755-952-8.
- ^ Vij, Shivam (8 May 2010). "Can the Congress Win Over UP's Dalits?". Economic and Political Weekly.
- ^ "A-10 Individual Scheduled Caste Primary Census Abstract Data and its Appendix - Uttar Pradesh". Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
- ^ a b Prasad, Chandra Bhan (2011). "My Experiments with Hunting Rats". In Babu, D. Shyam; Khare, Ravindra S. (eds.). Caste in Life: Experiencing Inequalities. Pearson Education India. pp. 161–162. ISBN 978-8-13175-439-9.
- ^ Narayan, Badri (2006). Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics. SAGE Publications India. p. 140. ISBN 978-8-13210-280-9.
- ^ Narayan, Badri (14 January 2009). Fascinating Hindutva: Saffron Politics and Dalit Mobilisation. SAGE Publishing India. pp. 65–72. ISBN 978-93-5280-135-0.
- ^ Narayan, Badri (2006). Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics. SAGE Publications. pp. 139–143. ISBN 978-0-7619-3537-7.
Further reading
- Narayan, Badri (2009). Fascinating Hindutva: Saffron Politics and Dalit Mobilisation. SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-8-17829-906-8.
- Narayan, Badri (2004). "Dalit mobilisation and nationalist past". In Gupta, Dipankar (ed.). Caste in Question: Identity or Hierarchy?. SAGE Publications. ISBN 978-0-76193-324-3.
- Narayan, Badri (2004). "Inventing caste history: Dalit mobilisation and nationalist past". Contributions to Indian Sociology. 38 (193). doi:10.1177/006996670403800108.