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{{short description|Dalit community of India}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2019}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2019}}
{{Use Indian English|date=April 2019}} {{Use Indian English|date=April 2019}}
{{pp|small=yes}} {{pp|small=yes}}
{{Infobox_caste
{{Infobox ethnic group
|group= Pasi |caste_name = Pasi
|image = Pasees Low caste Hindoos in Oude 1868 The People of India, a series of photographic illustrations.jpg
⚫ |poptime =
|alt = Pasis Group in 1868
⚫ |popplace = ], ]
|caption = Pasis Group in 1868
|langs = ]
⚫ |poptime =
⚫ |rels=
⚫ |populated_states = ], ]
⚫ |related= ]
|languages = ], ], ]
⚫ |rels =
⚫ |related = ]
}} }}
The '''Pasi''' is a Dalit community.<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> As untouchables, they were traditionally considered outside the Hindu ritual ranking system of ]s known as ]. The '''Pasi''' (also spelled Passi) is a ] (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 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/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 |author-link=Ram Narayan Rawat |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-25322-262-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bz5dKC81O3IC&pg=PA12 |publisher=Indiana University Press |pages=12–15}}</ref> Pasi refers to tapping ], a traditional occupation of the Pasi community.<ref name="Badri Narayan ">{{cite book|author=Badri Narayan|url=https://books.google.com/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 ].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Singh|first=Kumar Suresh|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jHQMAQAAMAAJ&q=rajpasi+borasi|title=India's Communities: H - M|date=1998|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-563354-2|pages=2796|language=en}}</ref> They are classified as an ] in ] and ].<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 live in the northern Indian states of ] and ].


==Etymology==
They live in the northern Indian states of ] and ].
According to ], the word ''Pashi'' derives from the ] word ''Pashika'', a noose used by Pasi to climb and tap ], a drink obtained from palm trees. The tapping of toddy is the original occupation of the Pasi community. However, like other aspirational caste groups of India, Pasis have a ]. They claim to originate from the sweat of ], an incarnation of ]. They claim support for this in the word ''sweat'' being derived from the ] word ''Pasina''. It also furthers their claim of belonging to the ] caste.<ref name="Badri Narayan "/>


==Population== ==Population==
The Pasi live mainly in the northern Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where their traditional occupation was that of rearing pigs.<ref>{{cite book |title=Hindi Dalit Literature and the Politics of Representation |first=Sarah Beth |last=Hunt |pages=8, 23 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=HHc9BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA23 |publisher=Routledge |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-31755-952-8}}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Vij |first=Shivam |date=8 May 2010 |title=Can the Congress Win Over UP’s Dalits? |journal=Economic and Political Weekly}}</ref> The ] for the state recorded their population as 6,522,166. That figure included the ].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/PCA/SC_ST/PCA-A10/SC-0900-PCA-A-10-ddw.xlsx |title= A-10 Individual Scheduled Caste Primary Census Abstract Data and its Appendix - Uttar Pradesh |publisher=Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India |accessdate=2017-02-04}}</ref> The Pasi live mainly in the northern Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where their traditional occupation was that of rearing pigs.<ref>{{cite book |title=Hindi Dalit Literature and the Politics of Representation |first=Sarah Beth |last=Hunt |pages=8, 23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HHc9BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA23 |publisher=Routledge |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-31755-952-8}}</ref> The Pasis of most of the north Indian states have been classified as ]s by the ].<ref name="Badri Narayan "/>
In the 2001 Indian census, the Pasi were recorded as the second-largest Dalit group in Uttar Pradesh. At the time, they constituted 16 per cent of the Dalit population of the state and mostly inhabited the ] region.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Vij |first=Shivam |date=8 May 2010 |title=Can the Congress Win Over UP's Dalits? |journal=Economic and Political Weekly}}</ref> The ] for the state recorded their population as 6,522,166. This figure includes the Tarmali.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/PCA/SC_ST/PCA-A10/SC-0900-PCA-A-10-ddw.xlsx |title= A-10 Individual Scheduled Caste Primary Census Abstract Data and its Appendix - Uttar Pradesh |publisher=Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India |access-date=2017-02-04}}</ref>


== History == == History ==
] notes the role of the Pasi community (and other untouchable castes) in the ] to have been understated by earlier historians, in that they documented a minimal and late-arriving Pasi involvement&nbsp;and additionally, one that was inclined to criminal behavior such as rioting, rather than political activism.<ref name="Rawat" /> From a reading of the archives, he notes that the involvement of Pasi and ]<nowiki/>s 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.<ref name="Rawat" /> ], 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.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lXyWE6KbG8oC&pg=PA161|title=Caste in Life: Experiencing Inequalities|last=Prasad|first=Chandra Bhan|publisher=Pearson Education India|year=2011|isbn=978-8-13175-439-9|editor1-last=Babu|editor1-first=D. Shyam|pages=161–162|chapter=My Experiments with Hunting Rats|authorlink=Chandra Bhan Prasad|editor2-last=Khare|editor2-first=Ravindra S.}}</ref> ] states that the role of the Pasi (and other untouchable) communities in the ] has been understated by earlier historians. He writes that earlier scholarship held Pasi involvement to be minimal, late-arriving, and more inclined towards criminality and rioting than political activism.<ref name="Rawat" /> He notes that the involvement of Pasi and ]s was significant from the outset. According to him, the Pasi, being land owners, had the same concerns as other ] groups, rather than being the 'alienated' pig-rearers as which they had sometimes been characterised.<ref name="Rawat" /> ], a political commentator, has said that 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 Brahminism.<ref name="Prasad 2011 161–162">{{cite book|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lXyWE6KbG8oC&pg=PA161|title=Caste in Life: Experiencing Inequalities|last=Prasad|first=Chandra Bhan|publisher=Pearson Education India|year=2011|isbn=978-8-13175-439-9|editor1-last=Babu|editor1-first=D. Shyam|pages=161–162|chapter=My Experiments with Hunting Rats|author-link=Chandra Bhan Prasad|editor2-last=Khare|editor2-first=Ravindra S.}}</ref>


⚫ The Pasi have in recent times engaged in ]. Badri Narayan, a social historian and cultural anthropologist, says that {{quote|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.<ref>{{cite book |title=Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics |first=Badri |last=Narayan |publisher=SAGE Publications India |year=2006 |isbn=978-8-13210-280-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7feHAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA140 |page=140}}</ref>}}Of late,{{when|date=December 2020}} ] (] and affiliates) have been trying to appropriate different folk-heroes of the Pasi caste as Hindu icons to mobilize the electoral prospects of the ].<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MQJNDwAAQBAJ|title=Fascinating Hindutva: Saffron Politics and Dalit Mobilisation|last=Narayan|first=Badri|date=2009-01-14|publisher=SAGE Publishing India|isbn=978-93-5280-135-0|pages=65–72|language=en}}</ref> Hindu nationalists have supported claims that there was a Pasi kingdom that ruled what is now Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the 11th and 12th centuries. The rulers of this claimed state include ].<ref name="Dalit Assertion">{{cite book|author=Badri Narayan|url=https://books.google.com/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>


== Notable people ==

{{See also|Pasi (surname)|Passi (surname)}}

*], a king from the Pasi community.
⚫ The Pasi have in recent times engaged in ]. Badri Narayan, a social historian and cultural anthropologist, says that {{quote|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.<ref>{{cite book |title=Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics |first=Badri |last=Narayan |publisher=SAGE Publications India |year=2006 |isbn=978-8-13210-280-9 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=7feHAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA140 |page=140}}</ref>}}
*] was a leader of the militant peasant ].
*], former member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://uplegisassembly.gov.in/Members/main_members_en.aspx#Data/12561/17|title=Ram Naresh Rawat bio profile|website=Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly|accessdate=28 October 2024}}</ref>


==See also== ==See also==
*
*]
*]
*] *]
*] *]
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*{{cite book |title=Fascinating Hindutva: Saffron Politics and Dalit Mobilisation |first=Badri |last=Narayan |publisher=SAGE Publications |year=2009 |isbn=978-8-17829-906-8}} *{{cite book |title=Fascinating Hindutva: Saffron Politics and Dalit Mobilisation |first=Badri |last=Narayan |publisher=SAGE Publications |year=2009 |isbn=978-8-17829-906-8}}
*{{cite book |chapter=Dalit mobilisation and nationalist past |first=Badri |last=Narayan |title=Caste in Question: Identity or Hierarchy? |editor-first=Dipankar |editor-last=Gupta |publisher=SAGE Publications |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-76193-324-3}} *{{cite book |chapter=Dalit mobilisation and nationalist past |first=Badri |last=Narayan |title=Caste in Question: Identity or Hierarchy? |editor-first=Dipankar |editor-last=Gupta |publisher=SAGE Publications |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-76193-324-3}}
*{{cite journal |journal=Contributions to Indian Sociology |doi=10.1177/006996670403800108 |year=2004 |volume=38 |issue=193 |first=Badri |last=Narayan |title=Inventing caste history: Dalit mobilisation and nationalist past}} *{{cite journal |journal=Contributions to Indian Sociology |doi=10.1177/006996670403800108 |year=2004 |volume=38 |issue=193 |first=Badri |last=Narayan |title=Inventing caste history: Dalit mobilisation and nationalist past|pages=193–220 |s2cid=145740670 }}


{{DEFAULTSORT:Pasi (caste)}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Pasi (Caste)}}
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Latest revision as of 18:34, 28 October 2024

Dalit community of India

Pasi
Pasis Group in 1868Pasis Group in 1868
LanguagesHindi, Bhojpuri, Awadhi
Populated statesBihar, Uttar Pradesh
Related groupsTuruk Pasi

The Pasi (also spelled Passi) is a Dalit (untouchable) community of India. Pasi refers to tapping toddy, a traditional occupation of the Pasi community. The Pasi are divided into Gujjar, Kaithwas, and Boria. They are classified as an Other Backward Class in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. They live in the northern Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Etymology

According to William Crooke, the word Pashi derives from the Sanskrit word Pashika, a noose used by Pasi to climb and tap toddy, a drink obtained from palm trees. The tapping of toddy is the original occupation of the Pasi community. However, like other aspirational caste groups of India, Pasis have a myth of origin. They claim to 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. It also furthers their claim of belonging to the Kshatriya caste.

Population

The Pasi live mainly in the northern Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where their traditional occupation was that of rearing pigs. The Pasis of most of the north Indian states have been classified as Scheduled Castes by the Government of India. In the 2001 Indian census, the Pasi were recorded as the second-largest Dalit group in Uttar Pradesh. At the time, they constituted 16 per cent of the Dalit population of the state and mostly inhabited the Awadh region. The 2011 Census of India for the state recorded their population as 6,522,166. This figure includes the Tarmali.

History

Ramnarayan Rawat states that the role of the Pasi (and other untouchable) communities in the Kisan Sabha movement has been understated by earlier historians. He writes that earlier scholarship held Pasi involvement to be minimal, late-arriving, and more inclined towards criminality and rioting than political activism. He notes that the involvement of Pasi and Chamars was significant from the outset. According to him, the Pasi, being land owners, had the same concerns as other savarna groups, rather than being the 'alienated' pig-rearers as which they had sometimes been characterised. Chandra Bhan Prasad, a political commentator, has said that 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 Brahminism.

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.

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 the Bharatiya Janata Party. Hindu nationalists have supported claims that there was a Pasi kingdom that ruled what is now Uttar Pradesh and Bihar in the 11th and 12th centuries. The rulers of this claimed state include Bijli Pasi.

Notable people

See also: Pasi (surname) and Passi (surname)

See also

References

  1. 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.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ Badri Narayan (2012). Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics. SAGE. p. 136. ISBN 9780761935377.
  4. Singh, Kumar Suresh (1998). India's Communities: H - M. Oxford University Press. p. 2796. ISBN 978-0-19-563354-2.
  5. "National Commission for Backward Classes". www.ncbc.nic.in. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  6. "National Commission for Backward Classes". www.ncbc.nic.in. Retrieved 7 September 2020.
  7. Hunt, Sarah Beth (2014). Hindi Dalit Literature and the Politics of Representation. Routledge. pp. 8, 23. ISBN 978-1-31755-952-8.
  8. Vij, Shivam (8 May 2010). "Can the Congress Win Over UP's Dalits?". Economic and Political Weekly.
  9. "A-10 Individual Scheduled Caste Primary Census Abstract Data and its Appendix - Uttar Pradesh". Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  10. 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.
  11. 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.
  12. Narayan, Badri (14 January 2009). Fascinating Hindutva: Saffron Politics and Dalit Mobilisation. SAGE Publishing India. pp. 65–72. ISBN 978-93-5280-135-0.
  13. Badri Narayan (2012). Women Heroes and Dalit Assertion in North India: Culture, Identity and Politics. SAGE. p. 72. ISBN 9780761935377.
  14. "Ram Naresh Rawat bio profile". Uttar Pradesh Legislative Assembly. Retrieved 28 October 2024.

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): 193–220. doi:10.1177/006996670403800108. S2CID 145740670.
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