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They live in the northern Indian states of ] and ]. They live in the northern Indian states of ] and ].


==Population==
==Present circumstances==
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.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>


== History ==
], a journalist and adviser to dalit organisations, recalls how those who continued pig-rearing were ill-treated by socio-political activists of their community, who blamed the occupation in large part for their untouchable status "and not the Caste Order or the systems of Brahmanism". Threats of ostracism would be issued and, at least in his village, the tradition of pig-rearing eventually stopped.<ref>{{cite book |title=Caste in Life: Experiencing Inequalities |editor1-first=D. Shyam |editor1-last=Babu |editor2-first=Ravindra S. |editor2-last=Khare |publisher=Pearson Education India |year=2011 |isbn=978-8-13175-439-9 |first=Chandra Bhan |last=Prasad |authorlink=Chandra Bhan Prasad |chapter=My Experiments with Hunting Rats |pages=161–162 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lXyWE6KbG8oC&pg=PA161}}</ref> ], a journalist and adviser to dalit organisations, recalls how those who continued pig-rearing were ill-treated by socio-political activists of their community, who blamed the occupation in large part for their untouchable status "and not the Caste Order or the systems of Brahmanism". Threats of ostracism would be issued and, at least in his village, the tradition of pig-rearing eventually stopped.<ref>{{cite book |title=Caste in Life: Experiencing Inequalities |editor1-first=D. Shyam |editor1-last=Babu |editor2-first=Ravindra S. |editor2-last=Khare |publisher=Pearson Education India |year=2011 |isbn=978-8-13175-439-9 |first=Chandra Bhan |last=Prasad |authorlink=Chandra Bhan Prasad |chapter=My Experiments with Hunting Rats |pages=161–162 |url=https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=lXyWE6KbG8oC&pg=PA161}}</ref>


According to the historian ], the role of the Uttar Pradesh Pasi community in the ] (Peasant Association) movement of 1919-1922 has been understated by earlier writers, such as ] and ]. Rawat argues that these earlier historians have an ] viewpoint that tended to disdain the contribution of Dalit communities in the struggle against ]. Whereas his predecessors at best documented a minimal and late-arriving Pasi involvement in the movement&nbsp;— and one that was inclined to criminal behaviour, such as rioting, rather than political activism&nbsp;— Rawat believes that the Pasi and ] untouchable groups were significant from the outset and their motivations were similar to the other agricultural caste communities that were involved in it. In his recasting of the nationalist perspective that, according to him, downplays the significance of Dalits in Indian history, Rawat says that the Pasis who were involved in the Kisan Sabha were in fact land-occupiers and had the same concerns as other groups of that type, rather than being the landless labourers that his predecessors had assumed.<ref name=Rawat /> ] notes the role of the Pasi community in the ] (Peasant Association) movement to have been understated by earlier historians, in that they documented a minimal and late-arriving Pasi involvement in the movement&nbsp;and one that was inclined to criminal behavior such as rioting, rather than political activism.<ref name=Rawat /> Rawat, from a reading of the archives, notes that the involvement of Pasi and ]<nowiki/>s were significant from the outset and they being land-tillers had the same concerns as of other savarna groups, rather than being the alienated landless laborers that had been hitherto assumed.<ref name="Rawat" />


==Invention of tradition== ==Invention of tradition==

Revision as of 16:31, 14 January 2020

Ethnic group
Pasi
Regions with significant populations
Bihar, Uttar Pradesh
Languages
Hindi
Related ethnic groups
Turuk Pasi

The Pasi is a Dalit community. As untouchables, they were traditionally considered outside the Hindu ritual ranking system of castes known as varna.

They live in the northern Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Population

The Pasi live mainly in the northern Indian states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where their traditional occupation was that of rearing pigs. 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. The 2011 Census of India for the state recorded their population as 6,522,166. That figure included the Tarmali.

History

Chandra Bhan Prasad, a journalist and adviser to dalit organisations, recalls how those who continued pig-rearing were ill-treated by socio-political activists of their community, who blamed the occupation in large part for their untouchable status "and not the Caste Order or the systems of Brahmanism". Threats of ostracism would be issued and, at least in his village, the tradition of pig-rearing eventually stopped.

Ramnarayan Rawat notes the role of the Pasi community in the Kisan Sabha (Peasant Association) movement to have been understated by earlier historians, in that they documented a minimal and late-arriving Pasi involvement in the movement and one that was inclined to criminal behavior such as rioting, rather than political activism. Rawat, from a reading of the archives, notes that the involvement of Pasi and Chamars were significant from the outset and they being land-tillers had the same concerns as of other savarna groups, rather than being the alienated landless laborers that had been hitherto assumed.

Invention of tradition

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.

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. Hunt, Sarah Beth (2014). Hindi Dalit Literature and the Politics of Representation. Routledge. pp. 8, 23. ISBN 978-1-31755-952-8.
  4. Vij, Shivam (8 May 2010). "Can the Congress Win Over UP's Dalits?". Economic and Political Weekly.
  5. "A-10 Individual Scheduled Caste Primary Census Abstract Data and its Appendix - Uttar Pradesh". Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India. Retrieved 4 February 2017.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.

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.
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