Bhumihar

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Bhumihar
Regions with significant populations
Bundeli
Religion
Hinduism

Bhumihar, also locally called Bhuinhar

caste mainly found in Bihar (including the Mithila region),[5] the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, the Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh, and Nepal.[6]

They have traditionally been a land-owning group of eastern India, and controlled some small

zamindari estates in the region in the early 20th century. They played an important role in the peasant movements and politics of Bihar. They claim Brahmin status, although their varna has been subject to much debate.[7]

Etymology

The word bhūmihār is of relatively recent origin, first used in the records of

apabhramsha for brāhmaṇ (Brahmin).[10]

History

As with many castes in India, there are numerous

Buddhists who lost their high position in Hindu society. The Bhumihars themselves dislike these narratives involving "hybridity" or "fallen status", and claim to be pure Brahmins.[9]

Ruler of the Benares State in 1870s

By the 16th century, the Bhumihars controlled vast stretches of land in eastern India, particularly in north Bihar. By the late eighteenth century, along with

fiefdoms ruled by Bhumihars included Bettia, Tekari, Hathwa, Tamukhi, Sheohar, Mahishadal, Pakur and Maheshpur.[citation needed
]

The distinctive Bhumihar caste identity was largely created through military service.[14] During early days of British expansion in India, Bhumihars under Raja of Banaras, Cheyt singh participated in revolts against the East India Company.[15] After his defeat, the Company started recruiting Bhumihar sepoys in large numbers until the Indian Rebellion of 1857.[16]

In

coal miners and even load carriers (Mazdoors or the labourers).[18]

Varna status

Among various narratives regarding their origin, composition and varna status, one states that there is an element of a low caste tribe called "Bhuyans" who gained land and assimilated with the Bhumihars.

varnas. This was considered insulting, especially since several zamindars (land-owning aristocrats) were Bhumihars.[20] Unlike the Brahmans or Rajputs, the Bhumihars did not participate in the rebellion against British rule in India in 1857, but to their dismay, they were classified as belonging to the third varna in the ad-hoc census of 1865 and the regular census of 1881.[21]

Sanskritisation

Like many other castes, the Bhumihars followed the process of

Gaya (1900) and Saran (1908).[24]

These associations made numerous petitions to be classified as Brahmins in the

1901 census report.[25] Persistent pressure from the Mahasabha, who glorified the history of the community, led to official recognition of the Bhumihars as Brahmins in the later Raj censuses. According to Ashwani Kumar, the Bhumihar claim to Brahmin status means that today "unlike other upper castes, [they] guard the local caste hierarchy more zealously for they perpetually feel the pressure of being dislocated and discredited in the topsy-turvy world of caste."[9]

Besides campaigning for the Brahmin status, the caste associations also played an important role in general welfare of the community. In 1899, the Bhumihar Brahmin Mahasabha, with financial aid from a zamindar, established a college at Muzaffarpur. This was accredited to award degrees in the following year and it was a significant development because education in the area was improving rapidly but students desirous of furthering it had to travel to

Calcutta or Patna. By 1920, 10 per cent of Bhumihars in Bihar were literate, making them one of the few literate castes; in this achievement, however, they were well behind the Kayasthas (33 per cent) and some other groups.[26] In the first half of the 20th century, the Bhumihars suffered increasing economic hardships due to the steady fragmentation of land rights among heirs and the decline in agricultural prices during the Great Depression. During this period, the Bhumihar associations served as community networks that facilitated access to English education and urban employment.[20] As with the Rajputs, Kayasthas and other high castes of Bihar – and as opposed to the methods used by most lower castes – neither the Mahasabha nor any other formal body exercised power to make and enforce caste rules.[27]

The Bhumihar Brahmin Mahasabha held annual sessions in different parts of present-day Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Among its prominent leaders was Sahajanand Saraswati, a leader of the Bhumihar Brahmin Sabha of Patna. During the Balia session of 1914, Sahajanand defended the Brahmin status of the Bhumihars, using quotes from Hindu scriptures to argue that priestly functions do not alone define Brahmins. In 1916, he published a book titled Bhumihar Brahmin Parichay ("Introduction to Bhumihar Brahmins"), which outlined these arguments. He classified Brahmins into two categories – begging (yachak) and non-begging (ayachak) – and stated that the Bhumihars were among the non-begging Brahmins. The Bhumihars of Uttar Pradesh attempted to popularise the term "Bhumihar Brahmin", while discarding the term "Babhan". However, the term "Babhan" remained popular in Bihar.[24] The recognised Brahmins did not favour the Bhumihar attempts to claim an equal status, and even stopped going to Bhumihar homes to perform ceremonies.[28]

Political influence

The Bhumihars were influential in the politics of Bihar since the British days upto earlier decades of post independence India. Noted Bhumihar princely state rulers included Harendra Kishore Singh (Raja of Bettiah) and Vibhuti Narayan Singh (Raja of the Benares). However, in the latter years, the OBC consolidation in the state of Bihar led the dominant OBC castes like the Koeri, Kurmi and Yadav to take lead in acquisition of political power; they replaced the upper castes, the Bhumihars, Rajputs, Brahmin and Kayastha in the political circle. By 1990s, there emerged two political blocs in the state, led by Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar respectively, which represented these three castes.[29]

The Bhumihars have also played a pioneering role in organising

Shri Krishna Singh (or Sinha), Ram Dayalu Singh, Ramnandan Mishra, Shilbhadra Yaji, Karyanand Sharma and Sahajanand Saraswati.[32]

While a section of Bhumihars were landowners, the vast majority belonged to

non-cooperation movement also alarmed the landlords, who were loyal to the British colonial administration. The growing differences between the two factions resulted in a split in the Mahasabha, in 1925-26. Sahajanand established an ashram at Bihta, which started attracting tenants and peasants from other castes as well. When the rich Bhumihar landlords stopped supporting Sahajanand's activities, he declared that caste associations were a means to continue their supremacy.[7] He established a caste-agnostic peasants movement, which later evolved into All India Kisan Sabha. In Bihar, Kisan Sabha, as well as the Communist Party of India (which was heavily inspired by Kisan Sabha), were identified as Bhumihar-dominated organisations for years.[20]

After Sahajanand gave up

Chief Minister of Bihar.[33] His tenure saw the rise of a number of influential Bhumihar leaders including Mahesh Prasad Sinha, Krishnakant Singh, L. P. Shahi, Basawan Sinha, and Kailashpati Mishra.[34] Singh also worked for the welfare of the lower castes. He was the first chief minister in India to abolish the zamindari system.[30] He also led Dalits' entry into Baidyanath Temple.[2]

After Shri Krishna Singh's death in 1961, the Bhumihar political hegemony gradually declined. A small number of Bhumihar leaders continued to play a significant role in the state unit of the Indian National Congress. These included Ramashray Prasad Singh, Rajo Singh, Ramjatan Sinha, Shyam Sunder Singh Dhiraj and Maha Chandra Singh.[34] The Congress parliamentarians Ganga Sharan Singh (Sinha) and Shyam Nandan Prasad Mishra also belonged to the Bhumihar community.[35][32]

The Bhumihar influence in Bihar politics declined considerably after electoral defeat of Congress in the

Rashtriya Lok Samata Party).[34]

As their power in the electoral politics declined, a number of Bhumihars were attracted to

Laxmanpur Bathe massacre.[36] The Ranvir Sena which employed Bhumihar youths emerged as the most dreaded caste army in Bihar. It was named after the 19th century chieftain, Ranvir Chaudhary, who became a cult figure among Bhumihars after taking on powerful Rajput Zamindars.[37]

Socio-economic condition

In 2023,

₹ 6,000 per month as family income.[38]

Influence in other fields

Being one of the early literate groups of British India, the Bhumihar community produced several prominent literary figures. These include Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Rahul Sankrityayan, Rambriksh Benipuri and Gopal Singh Nepali.[32]

Customs and traditions

The Bhumihars follow a subset of the Brahmin rituals, and claim to be "tri-karma" Brahmins.[4]

Some Bhumihars in

Bengali": they worship Kali as their primary deity, and are regarded as Brahmins by others in the village.[40]

Common surnames

In Bihar, the Bhumihars started using the surname Sharma and the title Pandit in the 20th century.[41] Other common traditional Brahmin surnames used by the Bhumihars include Mishra, Chaudhary, Dikshit, Tivan, Pathak, Pande and Upadhyaya.[42] It is also common for Bhumihars to affix Singh (usually identified with Kshatriyas, especially Rajputs) to their name.[43][42]

See also

References

  1. ^ "What Bihar caste census data say". Indian express. Archived from the original on 2 October 2023. Retrieved 2 October 2023.
  2. ^ a b Kumar (25 January 2005). "Bhumihars rooted to the ground in caste politics". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 30 September 2008. Retrieved 5 April 2008.
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  17. ISBN 978-0197529867. Archived
    from the original on 12 July 2022. Retrieved 12 July 2022. the majority of these high-caste households were small landlords with landholdings that might also qualify them as "middle peasants." Their economic status was very similar to the middle peasant households among the backward-caste (Bania, Yadav, Kurmi, and Koeri). Although the Maoists identified these backward castes as a sympathetic class, some landowning, backward-caste households actually had economic interests in common with the upper-caste farming families.
  18. ISBN 978-1583677087. Archived
    from the original on 9 November 2023. Retrieved 27 May 2023. Nevertheless, the Bhumihars in Bihar are certainly not all "casteist" landlords. In the villages, there are Bhumihar landlords, but there are also Bhumihars who are small landowners. Of course, they consider it below their dignity to labor in the fields, especially ploughing the land, and as a result of their caste loyalty, they are politically on the same side as the big landowners of their caste. In urban areas, Bhumihars can be professionals, teachers, bureaucrats, judges, factory workers, coal miners, and even loading mazdoors.
  19. ISBN 9781474291125. Archived
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  21. ^ KUMAR, PURUSHOTTAM. “BHUMIHARS STRUGGLE FOR BRAHMIN STATUS (1857-1911).” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 56, Indian History Congress, 1995, pp. 739–41, http://www.jstor.org/stable/44158695 Archived 8 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine.
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  29. ISBN 9789352805860. Archived
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  30. ^ a b Singh, Abhay (6 July 2004). "BJP, Cong eye Bhumihars as Rabri drops ministers". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 30 September 2008. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  31. ISBN 978-0-521-09873-1. Archived
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  32. ^ a b c "These days, their poster boys are goons". The Economic Times. 16 March 2004. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
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  35. ^ Sinha, Bindeshwari Prasad (2003). Kayasthas in making of modern Bihar. Impression Publication. p. vi. J.P's most intimate friend was Ganga Sharan Singh, a Bhumihar
  36. ^ Kumar, Ashwani (6 June 2012). "No gentlemen in this army". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 5 July 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  37. ISBN 8176481602. Archived
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  38. ^ "Bihar caste-based survey report | Poverty highest among Scheduled Castes, lowest among Kayasths". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 8 November 2023. Retrieved 9 November 2023.
  39. ^ Ahmad, Faizan (21 January 2008). "Hindus participate in Muharram". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 13 February 2009. Retrieved 5 April 2008.
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  43. ^ Asian Studies at Hawaii. Asian Studies Program, University of Hawaii. 1978. p. 64.

Further reading

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