Understanding the State: An Anthropological Study of Rural Jharkhand, India Alpa Shah London School of Economics and Political Science University of London PhD. in Anthropology 2003 UMI Number: U615999 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI U615999 Published by ProQuest LLC 2014. Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 ?OltTtCAL AND uj. TR££ £ S F ZZit, Abstract This thesis explores understandings of the state in rural Jharkhand, Eastern India. It asks how and why certain groups exert their influence within the modem state in India, and why others do not. To do so the thesis addresses the interrelated issues of ex-zamindar and ex-tenant relations, development, corruption, democracy, tribal movements, seasonal casual labour migration, extreme left wing militant movements and moral attitudes towards drink and sex. This thesis is informed by twenty-one months of fieldwork in Ranchi District of which, for eighteen months, a village in Bero Block was the research base. The thesis argues that at the local level in Jharkhand there are at least two main groups of people who hold different, though related, understandings of the state. There is a local elite, usually descendants of the old zamindars, who both understands state ideas and interacts in its local processes. Understanding state ideas is, however, different to an internalisation of, or a commitment to, them. Indeed, the thesis argues that local elite interaction with the state is ultimately guided by their seeing state resources as for their own vested interests. A contrasting understanding of the state is held, however, by the second main group, the poorer tribal peasantry, who are usually descendants of the tenants of the old zamindars. They see the state as a new, outside and foreign agency that is not legitimated in the world of their spirits. As such, they see the state as dangerous and exploitative and seek to minimise interaction with it. The thesis suggests that there is a political economy through which the tribal peasant idea of the state, as distinct from and separate to tribal society, is reproduced. It is suggested that, due to their desires to limit the number of people interacting with the state, the local elite enhances the reproduction of the tribal peasant view. Furthermore, the thesis suggests that even alternative state visions, which appear to be concerned about the welfare of the ‘exploited’ and ‘suppressed’ tribals of Jharkhand, such as that of the new tribal state movement or that of the extreme left-wing Maoist Communist Centre, only serve to further marginalize and suppress those they allegedly serve. 2 Contents Abstract......................................................................................................................................2 Acknowledgements...................................................................................................................7 Glossary of Organisations and Acronyms...............................................................................9 Glossary of Selected Hindi and Nagpuria Terms .......................................................11 Introduction..............................................................................................................................16 Preamble...............................................................................................................................16 The Events...........................................................................................................................16 The Issues............................................................................................................................35 The Debates.........................................................................................................................39 The Approach......................................................................................................................46 Context of Fieldwork.........................................................................................................49 The outsideness of the state..........................................................................................49 Tapu................................... 52 Describing Tapu people.................................................................................................53 Doing the fieldwork.......................................................................................................56 Chapter Outline...................................................................................................................58 Chapter 2: Spiritual Authority and Temporal Power: The Relationship Between the Tenants and the Zamindars....................................................................................................78 The Events...........................................................................................................................80 The Puzzle...........................................................................................................................87 The History of Land Relations.........................................................................................87 The rise of zamindars and the first settler status.........................................................87 The development of Tapu.............................................................................................92 The relationship between the zamindar and the tenants.............................................95 The fall of the Tapu zamindars prior to the abolition of zamindari.........................99 The abolition of zamindari...........................................................................................100 Continuing zamindar power: from land to the state..................................................102 Declining zamindar power...........................................................................................108 The Significance of the Pahan and Paenbharra............................................................110 The significance of the pahan and the paenbharra for the Mundas.......................Ill The significance of the pahan and paenbharra for the Qx-zamindars....................116 Munda perceptions of the ex-zamindar view.............................................................121 Concluding Remarks........................................................................................................124 3 Chapter 3: Understanding the Developmental State: The Implementation of Ministry of Rural Development Scheme.................................................................................................127 The Events.........................................................................................................................129 Elaborating on the DWCRA Shed..................................................................................137 The political elite understandings...............................................................................138 The tribal peasant understandings...............................................................................144 The political economy of understandings..................................................................149 Concluding Remarks: Changing Power Structures.......................................................151 Chapter 4: Understanding the Democratic State: The Parha Mela.................................156 The Events.................................................................................. 158 Elaborating on the Parha Mela.......................................................................................169 The tribal peasant understandings...............................................................................170 The political elite understandings...............................................................................172 The political economy of understandings..................................................................174 Concluding Remarks: An Inherent Problem of MLA Status.......................................178 Chapter 5: Jharkhand State Threatened by the Love of Labour: Seasonal Migration to the Brick Kilns............................................................................................................................183 Migration as a Problem..................................................................j................................183 Escaping to the Brick Kilns............................................................................................186 The Misery of the Daisy Brick Factory?........................................................................190 The Love of Labour.........................................................................................................191 More Reasons for Migrating...........................................................................................197 Putting Data Into Tables..................................................................................................200 Threatening Jharkhand State...........................................................................................203 Chapter 6: Alternative States?: The Maoist Communist Centre......................................214 Conventional Understandings of the Naxalites..............................................................220 Politicians, Contractors and the MCC............................................................................223 The State and the MCC....................................................................................................234 The MCC’s Alternative Vision?: Controlling Tribal Drinking Practices...................237 Concluding Remarks........................................................................................................243 Conclusion............................................................................................................................247 Appendix A: A Matrix of Transaction in Food Boiled in Water in Tapu.......................256 Appendix B: Notes on The Film, ‘Heads and Tales’........................................................258 Bibliography..........................................................................................................................260 4 List of Figures Figure 1: Map to show Jharkhand.......................................................................... 14 Figure 2: People and their land in Tapu in 1932 ................................................... 61 Figure 3: Land ownership in Tapu in 1992 ........................................................... 65 Figure 4: Tribal and Hindu festivals in Tapu........................................................ 69 Figure 5: Genealogy of zamindar descendants...................................................... 70 Figure 6: Genealogy of Burababa........................................................................... 208 Figure 7: Table to show the reasons for migrating for the 2000-2001 Tapu migrants...................................................................................................... 209 List of Plates Plate 1: Chasing elephants..................................................................................... 71 Plate 2: One of the three holes in Wahib’s house resulting from elephant attack......................................................................................................... 71 Plate 3: Forest Guards and villagers at the elephant destruction meeting in Ber Toli.................................................................................................... 72 Plate 4: The white bundle of the decapitated Oraon woman who was stamped by an elephant in the road blockade in Bero.......................... 72 Plate 5: Tapu village............................................................................................... 73 Plate 6: Track between two hamlets of Tapu village......................................... 73 Plate 7: Pahan and paenbharra in Tapu offering a sacrifice of chickens to the spirits at the Khalihani festival....................................................... 74 Plate 8: Preparation of hadia, rice beer, at the (s)election of the pahan and paenbharra in Tapu................................................................................. 74 Plate 9: Blindfolding of the man who is to be possessed by the spirit to (s)elect the pahan and paenbharra in Tapu........................................ 75 Plate 10: The man and winnowing basket, who are possessed by the spirit, moving from the fields to the houses to (s)elect the pahan and 5 paenbharra in Tapu................................................................................. 76 Plate 11: Neel and Darshan Odhar at the (s)election of the bhutkhetta beneficiaries in Tapu............................................................................... 77 Plate 12: Dancing in the Tapu village akhra at the Karma festival.................... 210 Plate 13: Women in Tapu in the ropa, rice transplanting, season........................ 210 Plate 14: The Daisy Brick Factory in West Bengal with the labour camp in the background and the owner’s mansion to the left.................................. 211 Plate 15: Men receiving bricks from women inside the brick kiln..................... 212 Plate 16: Women carrying uncooked bricks........................................................... 213 Plate 17: Shila chosing a necklace in Bandel on Sunday, holiday from working in the brick kilns....................................................................... 213 6 Acknowledgements It is impossible to acknowledge all of the many people who have contributed to this work. I am grateful to them all, and want to mention some in particular. This work was made possible by an Economic and Social Research Council Post- Graduate Research Studentship. It also benefited, at various stages, from the support of the LSE Malinowski Memorial Grant, the Royal Geographical Society’s Violet Cressey- Marks Fisher Travel Scholarship, the LSE Metcalfe Studentship for Women and the Newnham College, Cambridge, Jean Mitchell and Piddy Funds. This work was also made possible by the kindness and generosity of the people of Tapu, to whom I owe a special debt. They treated me with patience, warmth and mild amusement, and overlooked my shortcomings. I am grateful to my informants and friends in Bero and Ranchi who spent many long hours in my, sometimes intrusive, presence. I acknowledge the research assistance of Alok Kumar, Ashok Betha, Indumati Dwivedi, Pratibha Dwivedi and Tanu Shekha Arya, at various stages. I am thankful to Margaret Dickinson, Ajay T.G., Tejendra Tamrakar and others at Jandarshan for making the film possible. Thanks are also due to Dr Jamuar at the Asian Development Research Institute, Professor Ram Dayal Munda, Sanjay Kumar and his family, and Shriprakash at Kritika. I am grateful to Professor Vikram Pramar and Hannah Pramar for their hospitality and for many long hours of discussion. Dr Kathinka Sinha-Kherkoff and Dr Vinod Sinha were also a constant source of intellectual, emotional and moral support, and to them I am deeply grateful. This work would not have been possible without the criticism and inspiration of my supervisors, Chris Fuller and Johnny Parry. They have had a profound influence on my life and work over the last six years. They introduced me to anthropology and showed me what it could be. 7 This work would also not have been possible without the support of friends and colleagues in England. I would like to thank in particular the staff at the LSE and my colleagues at the thesis writing seminar. I have also benefited at various stages from the help of Atul Aggarwal, Ben Rogaly, Ed Simpson, Francis Gaudin, Konstanze Frischen, Mareike Junge, Massimiliano Mollona and Stuart Corbridge. Orlanda Ruthven, Toby Kelly and Will Norman require special thanks for many invaluable comments and for much moral support. Thanks to Rob who has supported my writing with kindness and love, and has been a great source of encouragement and critique. My greatest debt is to my family, and in particular to my mother, father, Mala, Seema and Deepa, who have stood by my side no matter how far I have strayed. This thesis is dedicated to my late grandfather who has been a profound inspiration throughout my life. 8