Rajuar

Rajuar
Regions with significant populations
India
Bihar2,85,485[1]
Jharkhand196,320[2]
West Bengal1,12,184[3]
Assam15,213 (1951 est.)[4]
Odisha3,517[5]
 Bangladesh2,327 (2022)[6]
Languages
Magahi language
Regional languages (Hindi, Khortha, Kurmali, Bengali, Odia)
Religion
Hinduism
Related ethnic groups
Bhuiya/Bhuyan, Bathuri

Rajwars or Rajuar (also spelt as Rajuala, Rajuad) is a shifting cultivation community.[7][8] The people of this community mainly live in Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal. In Odisha, they are recognized as a Scheduled Tribe, while in Bihar, Jharkhand, and West Bengal, they are classified as Scheduled Caste.[9][10] In other states, the community is considered part of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) or general population.[11][12][13][14]

Overview

Distribution of Rajwar/Rajuar people, 2011 census

The people living in Odisha are mostly from the Nagbansi group and they live in Mayurbhanj and Baleshwar districts. They migrated from places like Dhalbhum, Shikharbhum, and Tungabhum to the Bengal border village of Handibhanga, from where they scattered to the eastern part of the district.[7][15][16] According to 1931 census, their population in Mayurbhanj was 1014 and distributed in Nij Majhalbagh (4), Deuli (34), Asankhali (459) and Khanua (44) of Baripada subdivision; Gartal (6), Khauta (69), Saranda (92) of Bamanghati subdivision; Khunta Karkachia (127), Dukura (142) of Kaptipda subdivision; There was no return from Panchpir subdivision and their literacy rate was 0.39 per cent (only four people).[17] However, the Rujwars were predominantly recorded as 159,698 in total during the 1901 census, with significant numbers in Goya (63,189), Manbhum (32,166), and the Chota Nagpur tributary states (21,686). In contrast, in the Orissa tributary states (incl. Mayurbhanj), their population was only 495.[18] As of the 2011 census, they had a population of 3,517 and a literacy rate of 51.6 per cent in Odisha. Many years ago they lived in Chotanagpur and they were engaged in shifting cultivation. Later, They started to live with different ethnic people in a village when they found settleable land to live in the process of shifting cultivation. Now they are occupationally settled agriculturist but some of them are flattened rice sellers.[19][12]

People living in Odisha speak Odia but due to their historical proximity to Bengali-speaking people, many people use Bengali / Kudmali for daily conversation.[16] The origin of the Rajuar community remains doubtful. While some researchers claim that the Rajuar caste is an offshoot of the Bhuyan, the people of West Bengal claim that the Rajuar caste was formed from a mixture of the Kurmi caste and the Kol caste.[20][21] As the 1931 Mayurbhanj state census noted that;

The Rajuars are a low cultivating caste of Bihar and Chotanagpur, who are probably an offshoot of Bhuinyas. In the Central Provinces, the Bhuinyas hava a sub-caste called Rajuar. The Rajuars of Bengal give a different story, admitting that they are descendants of mixed unions between Kurmis and Kols. In Chotanagpur, the Rajuars, like the land-holding branches of other forest tribes, claim to be an inferior class of the Rajputs.[8]

A note on Rujwars in 1858

Society

The Rajuar is divided into endogamous groups such as Rajbansi, Rajbhar, Bhogta, Lathaur, Nagbansi and Nakchedia. Among those groups, the Nagabansi group is lagging in society. Again those groups are divided into some exogenous clans such as Nageswar (Nag), Kachap (Kachim), Sankhua (Sankh), Champa, Mukut (Mod), Sinha and Kashyapa. The surnames used by the Rajuar people living in Odisha are Behera, Ram, Ray, and Parmanik.[15][22][19][23]

The festivals celebrated by the people of Rajuar are similar to the festivals celebrated by the people of the region and are based on Hinduism. Dhulia Festival, Jantal Festival, Magha Puja, Bandhna and Karam Festival are considered the main festivals of Rajuar.[12]

References

  1. ^ "A-10 Appendix: District wise scheduled caste population (Appendix), Bihar". Census commission of India. 2011.
  2. ^ "A-10 Appendix: District wise scheduled caste population (Appendix), Jharkhand". Census commission of India. 2011.
  3. ^ "A-10 Appendix: District wise scheduled caste population (Appendix), West Bengal". Census commission of India. 2011.
  4. ^ "Estimated Population by Castes, 5. Assam – Census 1951" (PDF). Office of the Registrar General, India. 1954. p. 15.
  5. ^ "A-11 Appendix: District wise scheduled tribe population (Appendix), Odisha". Census commission of India. 2011.
  6. ^ Population and Housing Census 2022 – Preliminary Report (PDF) (Report). Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics. August 2022. pp. 33–34. ISBN 978-984-352-977-0. OCLC 1378729652. Archived (PDF) from the original on 8 July 2024.
  7. ^ a b Ota 2016.
  8. ^ a b Laeequddin, Muhammad (1937). Census of Mayurbhanj State 1931. Vol. I. Calcutta. p. 163. JSTOR saoa.crl.25352830. OCLC 496724918.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  9. ^ Bhattacharya, Birendra KUMAR (1985). West Bengal district Gazetteers, Purulia. State Editor, West Bengal Districts Gazetteers. pp. 141–142.
  10. ^ Mandal, Debabrata (2006). "Agrarian System of Rajuar Tribe of Mayurbhanj District Orissa". In Sahu, Chaturbhuj (ed.). Aspects of Tribal Studies. New Delhi: Sarop & Sons. pp. 69–87. ISBN 8176256188. OCLC 255614228.
  11. ^ Singh, Kumar Suresh (1992). People of India: Odisha (2 pts.). Anthropological Survey of India. p. 1275. ISBN 978-81-7046-294-1.
  12. ^ a b c Ota, A. B.; Kodamasingh, Anjana; Kanhar, Nilamadhaba (2016). Rajuar. Scheduled Castes & Scheduled Tribes Research and Training Institute. ISBN 978-93-80705-52-1.
  13. ^ Division, India Census (1961). India. Office of the Registrar General. p. 1078.
  14. ^ Panda, Nishakar (2006). Policies, Programmes, and Strategies for Tribal Development: A Critical Appraisal. Gyan Publishing House. p. 124. ISBN 978-81-7835-491-0.
  15. ^ a b "Report on Scheduled Tribes of Orissa, Part-V-B, Volume-XII, Orissa - Census 1961" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 9 December 2024. [It's] referred to their original home as Dhalabhumi, Sikharabhumi and Tungabhumi from where they had migrated to Handibhanga of Suliapada Police Station of the Mayurbhanj district. They have settled in village Totapada [of Asankhali] for the past few generations.
  16. ^ a b Mandal (2006), p. 71: "The Rajuar of Kamli village [of Khunta] have migrated from Rairangpur area of Mayurbhanj district about two generations ago. Before that, they had been at Midnapur district of West Bengal. They speak in 'Tamlia Bangla' dialect, which is a mixture of Tribal, Bengali, Hindi and Oriya languages."
  17. ^ Laeequddin, Muhammad (1935). Census of Mayurbhanj State 1931. Vol. II. Calcutta. JSTOR saoa.crl.25352831. OCLC 496724918.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  18. ^ Gait, E. A. (1909). Census of India - 1901, Vol- VIA - The lower probinces of Bengal and their Feudatourie (Part II, The Imperial Tables). Bengal Secretariat Press. p. 253. Archived from the original on 24 Jan 2017. Alt URL
  19. ^ a b Kumar, Satinder (2000). Encyclopaedia of South-Asian Tribes: The Orakzi - The Rongmeis. Anmol Publications. p. 3062. ISBN 978-81-261-0517-5.
  20. ^ Anthropology of Small Populations. Anthropological Survey of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Culture, Government of India. 1998. p. 131. ISBN 978-81-85579-46-7.
  21. ^ Singh, Swaran (1994). Bathudi and Sounti Tribes: A Bio-anthropological Profile. Gyan Publishing House. p. 29. ISBN 978-81-212-0466-8.
  22. ^ Singh, Kumar Suresh; India, Anthropological Survey of (2008). People of India. Anthropological Survey of India. p. 808. ISBN 978-81-7046-303-0.
  23. ^ Singh, Kumar Suresh (1998). India's Communities: H - M. Oxford University Press. p. 2964. ISBN 978-0-19-563354-2.

Further reading