Bauris of Durgapur — A Scheduled Caste I was blind to
We grew up in Durgapur — the Steel Authority of India Ltd (SAIL) township.
It was divided into Zones — A & B. We were almost at the end of A-Zone, and after the end of the township was a place called Dangaal. It was where the Bauris stayed.
Who are the Bauris? I never knew. Remember Bengal is a place where caste is not in the discourse. But the Bauris were always the maids in our homes, and if someone had a garden the one tending that was also invariably a Bauri.
The Dangaal and Bauris never really stayed in my mind, except for a few exceptional ones whom we happened to employ. One was Nibha, an extremely smart girl who we always wondered what she would have become if she had a middle-class home. Anyway in time, Nibha got married to someone from her community and that was the end of all the sparks she showed.
None of the Bauris kids were ever our friends or part of our social occasions, and least of all in our schools. But it never bothers me.
As I grew up, I once heard Ashish Nandy saying Bengali is an upper caste-dominated society, but it has over time gone through reforms where the lower castes don’t face day-to-day social ostracization, but surely they are not part of the economic developments.
I am sure Ashish Nandy made many Bengalis uncomfortable, and angry too. After all, we are evolved enough for most of us not to even know what caste we belong to — let alone being casteist.
But it got me thinking. And I found Bengal has around 25% of SC/ STs, one of the highest levels in the country. But I have never met them much in my life. The Bongs were always Chatterjee’s, Banerjee, Ghosh, Roy, and Sarkars. Not much the Dindas, Thakurs, Bauris, Majis, Murmus.
I thought they must be in the rival districts of Bankura, Birbhum, and Purulia, and mostly busy in the local economic activities. But should they not be in the capital city too? If not one 4 (as their population suggests), but at least 1 in 10?
Anyway, I moved on. And I never heard much about this from my friends too.
Recently I saw a movie on Kolar Gold Fields, In Search of Gold. Basav Biradar in his accompanying discussions talked about the lack of documentation of industrial history in India. I connected with him and told him about Durgapur — how cosmopolitan a place it was. But he said — it is also a place of extreme deprivation of the lower strata of the society. A huge jolt for sure for me.
But this changed when the BJP started doing very well in the so-called tribal districts of Bengal. In 2016, and especially in 2019. The Matuas came into the news from the CAA perspective.
Now, who are these Matuas? I never even heard about them. And I am sure most around me too. So all eyes were on them now.
Political leaders started making rounds to meet the Matua matriarch, plans were afoot to make teleserials in them, comics and books came out — they were in the news. I too found (I was there in Kolkata in 2019) that I do pass the Matua hub on my way to work.
Now, who are Matuas? Well, it is a reformed movement among the Namasudras (a Scheduled Castes) which started in erstwhile Bangladesh in 1860, by Harichand Thakur. The focus is on education. Post partition they moved to India.
What is their number? The estimate is between 8–10 million(Namasudras as per the 2001 census were a little over 3 million). That is almost 10% of the population. But I am not even aware of them. How so?
Well, I think it is exactly what Ashish Nandy had talked about, much to the chagrin of many Bengalis. Bengal is a very forward caste-dominated society, but it is invisible (unlike many other parts of the country).
So while there is no visible social stratification (no denial of access in a social context, or humiliation, or not even a covert attempt to find someone’s caste), around 25% of the population is effectively outside the social consciousness of Kolkata-centric Bengali society. And that translates to their lack of access to economic goodies too.
Yesterday I came across a much-shared and appreciated video of a bunch of cultural icons singing about the preservation of the Bengali ethos, but almost none (or possibly none) of the protagonists are from the so-called SC/ ST communities we are speaking about.
And just an aside, Rajbonshis or Koch-Rajbonshis are the biggest among the Scheduled Castes in Bengal, and they are mostly in North Bengal. And the University of North Bengal is still getting VC deputed from Kolkata.
Today I go through a little more publicly available data. And back to the Bauris who I started with. As per the 2011 census, they were a little over 1 million in number. And while all whose homes they worked at moved on, data says only 4.7 percent of the Bauris were matriculates or completed schooling.
So what is the positive impact of the BJP in Bengal?
Churning the caste cauldron. All are now being made aware of the existence of 25% of the people who were so far invisible. And whatever the outcome of the elections, they will surely gain in our consciousness, and hopefully economically.
(Enclosed — নিজের মতে নিজেদের গান/ Citizens United full song)
