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Chuar Rebellion

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Chuar rebellion or Chuar revolt , also known as Jungle Mahal movement was a series of peasant movements between 1771 and 1809 by the tribal inhabitants of the countryside surrounding the Jungle Mahals settlements of Dhalbhum , Midnapore , Bankura and Manbhum against the rule of the East India Company (EIC).

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97-524: The literal meaning of Chuar or Chuad or Chuhad is a barbaric, an uncultured or a robber. During the British rule,Kurdmi and Bhumijas of the Jungle Mahal area were called chuars (low caste people), their main occupation was hunting of animals and birds and farming in the forests, but later some Bhumij became zamindars and some started working as Ghatwals (feudal lords) and Paiks (soldiers). When

194-419: A Schedule Caste of Odisha ), Haldipukuria Bhumij, Teli Bhumij, Desi or Dehuri Bhumij, Barah Bhuiyan Bhumij and Kol Bhumij . In Purulia Tamaria Bhumij , Sikharbhumi Bhumij . Which are generally indicated their ancestral territory and profession. Each group forms an exogamous group of its own and do not intermarry. Each one of these groups consists of a number of exogamous sub-groups called " kili" ,

291-496: A host of men, a band of comrades as well as a swarm or flock of animals. In Classical Greek , the word took on a meaning comparable to the concept now expressed by "ethnic group", mostly translated as " nation , tribe, a unique people group"; only in Hellenistic Greek did the term tend to become further narrowed to refer to "foreign" or " barbarous " nations in particular (whence the later meaning "heathen, pagan"). In

388-421: A focus on the interface between groups. "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries", therefore, is a focus on the interconnectedness of ethnic identities. Barth writes: "...   categorical ethnic distinctions do not depend on an absence of mobility, contact, and information, but do entail social processes of exclusion and incorporation whereby discrete categories are maintained despite changing participation and membership in

485-408: A group of Munda who moved east and lost connection with other Mundas, and later adopted Hindu customs when non-tribals arrived in the area. While those living nearer to Chota Nagpur Plateau still retain linguistic links with Mundari, those living further east have adopted Bengali as their language. In Dhalbhum they are completely Hinduized. During British rule, or sometimes even earlier, many of

582-415: A little from place to place. But mourning takes place generally for ten days after which the cleaning and shaving rituals are performed, followed by certain rituals and feast marks the last part of death rituals. At times even the charred bones are kept in an earthen pot and carried to the ancestral clan ossuary for burial. They also practice the martial art called Firkal , although it has been reduced to

679-424: A local grouping called the thaks, named after villages. Each of these thaks is also exogamous in the sense that a member of one thak cannot marry a member of the same village even if he or she belongs to a different sept. The rule of exogamy is so strict that a man may not marry a woman of his own sept, nor a woman who comes within the standard formula for reckoning prohibited degrees, calculated to three generations in

776-499: A mercurial character. Ronald Cohen concluded that ethnicity is "a series of nesting dichotomizations of inclusiveness and exclusiveness". He agrees with Joan Vincent's observation that (in Cohen's paraphrase) "Ethnicity   ... can be narrowed or broadened in boundary terms in relation to the specific needs of political mobilization." This may be why descent is sometimes a marker of ethnicity, and sometimes not: which diacritic of ethnicity

873-677: A mountain deity, for general prosperity in Magh, Panchbahini and Baradela, local deities of Bankura Bhumijs, etc., are worshipped by the Bhumijs. Manasa , a deity, presiding over snakes, is worshipped in Shravana (July–August) for two or three days in the courtyards of Seraikela Bhumijs. The Bhumijs also worship Paori, a female deity, in Jaistha (May–June) and again in Asadh (June–July) for timely rains and general welfare of

970-519: A preoccupation with scientists, theologians, and the public. Religious institutions asked questions about whether there had been multiple creations of races (polygenesis) and whether God had created lesser races. Many of the foremost scientists of the time took up the idea of racial difference and found that white Europeans were superior. The ethnicity theory was based on the assimilation model. Park outlined four steps to assimilation: contact, conflict, accommodation, and assimilation. Instead of attributing

1067-412: A process known as ethnogenesis, a period of several generations of endogamy resulting in common ancestry (which is then sometimes cast in terms of a mythological narrative of a founding figure ); ethnic identity is reinforced by reference to "boundary markers" – characteristics said to be unique to the group which set it apart from other groups. Ethnicity theory argues that race

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1164-742: A shared cultural heritage , ancestry, origin myth , history , homeland , language , dialect , religion, mythology , folklore , ritual , cuisine , dressing style , art , or physical appearance . Ethnic groups may share a narrow or broad spectrum of genetic ancestry, depending on group identification, with some groups having mixed genetic ancestry. By way of assimilation , acculturation , amalgamation , language shift , intermarriage , adoption , and religious conversion , individuals or groups may over time shift from one ethnic group to another. Ethnic groups may be divided into subgroups or tribes , which over time may become separate ethnic groups themselves due to endogamy or physical isolation from

1261-766: A single village among the Bhumij who perform it. Bhumij is the language of the Munda subfamily of the Austroasiatic languages , related to Ho, Mundari and Santali, spoken mainly in the Indian states Jharkhand , Odisha and West Bengal . It is spoken by around 100,000 people in India. In January 2019, Bhumij was accorded the status of second language in the state of Jharkhand . The Bhumijs worship Singbonga and Marang Buru , both considered to be their supreme deities. They worship Jahuburu in

1358-508: A stand-in for "paganism" in the 18th century, but now came to express the meaning of an "ethnic character" (first recorded 1953). The term ethnic group was first recorded in 1935 and entered the Oxford English Dictionary in 1972. Depending on context, the term nationality may be used either synonymously with ethnicity or synonymously with citizenship (in a sovereign state). The process that results in emergence of an ethnicity

1455-400: A union. However, in case of woman, levirate applies mainly to widows. In case of widow-marriage also, bride-price of lesser amount is given. Divorce is also allowed among the Bhumijs in extreme cases of adultery, and the divorced women may remarry according to the sanga rite. However, a woman has no right to divorce her husband, and if she is neglected or ill-treated, only remedy available to her

1552-548: Is a group of people who identify with each other on the basis of perceived shared attributes that distinguish them from other groups. Those attributes can include a people of a common language , culture , common sets of ancestry , traditions , society, religion , history, or social treatment. The term ethnicity is sometimes used interchangeably with the term nation , particularly in cases of ethnic nationalism . Ethnicity may be construed as an inherited or societally imposed construct. Ethnic membership tends to be defined by

1649-443: Is a social category and is only one of several factors in determining ethnicity. Other criteria include "religion, language, 'customs', nationality, and political identification". This theory was put forward by sociologist Robert E. Park in the 1920s. It is based on the notion of "culture". This theory was preceded by more than 100 years during which biological essentialism was the dominant paradigm on race. Biological essentialism

1746-423: Is called ethnogenesis , a term in use in ethnological literature since about 1950. The term may also be used with the connotation of something unique and unusually exotic (cf. "an ethnic restaurant", etc.), generally related to cultures of more recent immigrants, who arrived after the dominant population of an area was established. Depending on which source of group identity is emphasized to define membership,

1843-420: Is called ethnogenesis. Members of an ethnic group, on the whole, claim cultural continuities over time, although historians and cultural anthropologists have documented that many of the values, practices, and norms that imply continuity with the past are of relatively recent invention. Ethnic groups can form a cultural mosaic in a society. That could be in a city like New York City or Trieste , but also

1940-467: Is less and less spoken and Bengali is more widely spoken among the community. Bhumij means "one who is born from the soil". Herbert Hope Risley noted in 1890 that the Bhumij inhabit that tract of the country which lies on both sides of the Subarnarekha River . He claimed the eastern branch of Bhumij lost their connection with their original language and spoke Bengali. According to him, they were

2037-642: Is not a noun in Britain. In effect there are no "ethnics"; there are only "ethnic relations". In the U.S., the OMB says the definition of race as used for the purposes of the US Census is not "scientific or anthropological" and takes into account "social and cultural characteristics as well as ancestry", using "appropriate scientific methodologies" that are not "primarily biological or genetic in reference". Sometimes ethnic groups are subject to prejudicial attitudes and actions by

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2134-442: Is salient depends on whether people are scaling ethnic boundaries up or down, and whether they are scaling them up or down depends generally on the political situation. Kanchan Chandra rejects the expansive definitions of ethnic identity (such as those that include common culture, common language, common history and common territory), choosing instead to define ethnic identity narrowly as a subset of identity categories determined by

2231-431: Is the belief that some races, specifically white Europeans in western versions of the paradigm, are biologically superior and other races, specifically non-white races in western debates, are inherently inferior. This view arose as a way to justify enslavement of African Americans and genocide of Native Americans in a society that was officially founded on freedom for all. This was a notion that developed slowly and came to be

2328-464: Is to run away with another man. Adultery within the community is generally condoned with a fine but adultery with a member of another tribe results in ostracization. At birth, a woman is attended by a midwife of the Ghasi community, and the umbilical cord is severed by her, and after birth it is put in a hole dug outside the hut. Birth-related pollution varies from 8 to 10 days, during which mother remains in

2425-507: Is used sumptuously during feasts and festivals. As regards dress and ornaments, they follow their Hindu neighbours. Children of both the sexes go naked till the age of four or five years and after which they wear a towel or trouser till adolescence. The male dress consists of a shirt, a dhoti or lungi, and a towel. The women wear sari and blouse. Young girls are fond of ornaments such as nose-rings, earrings, bead necklaces, armlets and bangles made of brass. They put on flowers in their hair. In

2522-819: The Assam valley . Bhumijs are also found sporadically in Chhattisgarh , Tripura , Arunachal Pradesh , Andaman and Nicobar , Meghalaya , Manipur , Delhi , Maharashtra , Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh . In Bangladesh , the Bhumij people came to the Sylhet region from Bihar as tea-labourers. They can be found in Srimangal with a population of 3000. The Bhumijs lives in Sylhet , Rajshahi , Khulna , Srimangal , Dhaka and Chittagong regions. They are divided into many clans ( killi ) such as Kaitra, Garur, Kasim, Bhugal, Baundra, Ban, Nag, Shona, Shar, Tresha, etc. Their Bhumij dialect

2619-453: The Bhumij language , an Austroasiatic language , and use Ol Onal script for writing. Bhumij means "one who is born from the soil" and it is derived from word bhūmi (a land or soil). According to N. Ramaswani, the word is etymologically Bhūm-jo meaning "people originating from Bhum areas, i.e. Singhbhum , Dhalbhum , Manbhum , Barabhum , etc.", Dalton also had claimed that Bhumijs were

2716-458: The Caribbean and South Asia . Max Weber maintained that ethnic groups were künstlich (artificial, i.e. a social construct ) because they were based on a subjective belief in shared Gemeinschaft (community). Secondly, this belief in shared Gemeinschaft did not create the group; the group created the belief. Third, group formation resulted from the drive to monopolize power and status. This

2813-664: The East India Company started collecting revenue for the first time in 1765 AD in the Jangal Mahal district of Bengal, then in this conspiratorial way of the British, the water, forest, land grab activities were first opposed by the people of Bhumij tribe and the revolution was blown against the British rulers in 1769 AD. When the British asked who these people were, their stoic landlords addressed them as Chuar (meaning rude or wicked in Bengali ) out of hatred and contempt, after which

2910-450: The New World were multi-ethnic from the onset, as they were formed as colonies imposed on existing indigenous populations. In recent decades, feminist scholars (most notably Nira Yuval-Davis) have drawn attention to the fundamental ways in which women participate in the creation and reproduction of ethnic and national categories. Though these categories are usually discussed as belonging to

3007-458: The Puncheet estate was sold to pay taxes required of it by the East India Company , the Bhumij led a revolt against the British. The Bhumij revolt of 1832 is quite well-known. In this case, there was a disputed succession over the crown. The court decided the eldest son of the king, the son of the second wife instead of the son of the first wife ( patrani ), to be the king. Lakshman Narayan Singh,

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3104-561: The 19th century, the term came to be used in the sense of "peculiar to a tribe, race, people or nation", in a return to the original Greek meaning. The sense of "different cultural groups", and in American English "tribal, racial, cultural or national minority group " arises in the 1930s to 1940s, serving as a replacement of the term race which had earlier taken this sense but was now becoming deprecated due to its association with ideological racism . The abstract ethnicity had been used as

3201-868: The Bengal District Gazetteer, "In March 1766 Government resolved to send an expedition into the country west and north-west of Midnapore in order to coerce them into paying revenue, and to capture and demolish as many of their strongholds as possible." Amongst the many dispossessed Bhumij zamindars , those who lent support to the rebels included royalty such as Jagannath Singh of Dhalbhum , Durjan Singh of Raipur , Baidyanath Singh of Dhalbhum , Mangal Singh of Panchet , Lakshman Singh of Barabhum , Raghunath Singh of Dhalbhum , Ganga Narayan of Barabhum , Rani Shiromani of Karnagarh , Raja Madhu Singh of Manbhum , Subal Singh of Kuilapal, Shyam Ganjam Singh of Dhadka, Raja Mohan Singh of Juriah, Lakshman Singh of Dulma, Sunder Narayan Singh and Fateh Singh. In 1798, when

3298-403: The Bhumij became zamindars and some even secured the title of Raja . Others were called Sardar . However, all of them, having climbed the social ladder, proclaimed themselves to be Kshatriyas , in keeping with the trends in the region. An account by Colonel Dalton claimed they were known as robbers ( chuars ), and their various rebellions were called chuaris . The people in

3395-983: The Bhumij form part of the tribe-caste continuum society. Their society is characterised by nuclear family, patriliny, exogamy and hereditary headship of the village community. They follow Hindu practices of succession and inheritance. The Bhumijs are divided into several geographical endogamous groups based on ancestral territory and occupation, such as Tamaliya , Na-gadi, Astha, Choto Astha in Jharkhand; Barah Bhuiyan , Deshua , Haldi Pukhria , Tamadia Sikharia, Tharua in Odisha; Borabhui , Mura, Mura bhumij, Chaibasa mura, Khanga mura, Kumpat mura, Manki bhumij in Assam; Bara, Bhoogol, Bhuiya, Kada kata, Manki, Nag, Patkumia , Sing in Tripura. In Mayurbhanj, segmentary Bhumija group are Tamaria Bhumij, Tamudia (this subgroup earlier notified as

3492-536: The Bhumij have been organising protests and petitions to have their religion recognised by the government of India in census forms. Bhumijas have been designated as Scheduled Tribes in only three states— Odisha , Jharkhand , and West Bengal —by the Government of India. In Bihar , they are recognized as Scheduled Castes [ sic ], and in Tripura and Assam (as the Ex-tea garden community ), they fall under

3589-1143: The Ghatwals and Paiks, spread this revolt to the entire Jungle Mahal and the surrounding areas, which lasted till 1809. Even after this, the rebellion continued in some areas of Bengal in a sporadic form. In 1832–33, again the Chuars of Barabhum , Manbhum , Dhalbhum , Raipur and Midnapore parganas started revolting against the East India Company, under the leadership of Ganga Narayan Singh . Raghunath Mahato of Manbhum, Bhumij zamindars Jagannath Singh Patar of Dhalbhum, Rani Shiromani of Karnagarh, Durjan Singh of Raipur, Subal Singh of Kuilapal, Shyam Ganjam Singh of Dhadka, Lakshman Singh of Barabhum, Ganga Narayan Singh of Barabhum, Baidyanath Singh of Dhalbhum, Raghunath Mahato of Dhalbhum, Madhu Singh of Manbhum, Mohan Singh of Juriah, Mangal Singh of Panchet, Lal Singh, Sunder Narayan Singh, Fateh Singh, Achal Singh, Gobardhan Dikpati and others led this peasant rebellion at different times. The Chuar Mutiny, led by Durjan Singh,

3686-606: The Greeks. Herodotus (8.144.2) gave a famous account of what defined Greek (Hellenic) ethnic identity in his day, enumerating Whether ethnicity qualifies as a cultural universal is to some extent dependent on the exact definition used. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf , do not consider ethnic identity to be universal. They regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. According to Thomas Hylland Eriksen ,

3783-518: The United States that the ethnicity theory was exclusively based on the immigration patterns of the white population and did take into account the unique experiences of non-whites in the United States. While Park's theory identified different stages in the immigration process – contact, conflict, struggle, and as the last and best response, assimilation – it did so only for white communities. The ethnicity paradigm neglected

3880-994: The added value of being able to describe the commonalities between systems of group identity in both tribal and modern societies. Cohen also suggested that claims concerning "ethnic" identity (like earlier claims concerning "tribal" identity) are often colonialist practices and effects of the relations between colonized peoples and nation-states. According to Paul James , formations of identity were often changed and distorted by colonization, but identities are not made out of nothing: Categorizations about identity, even when codified and hardened into clear typologies by processes of colonization, state formation or general modernizing processes, are always full of tensions and contradictions. Sometimes these contradictions are destructive, but they can also be creative and positive. Social scientists have thus focused on how, when, and why different markers of ethnic identity become salient. Thus, anthropologist Joan Vincent observed that ethnic boundaries often have

3977-449: The belief of common descent. Jóhanna Birnir similarly defines ethnicity as "group self-identification around a characteristic that is very difficult or even impossible to change, such as language, race, or location." Different approaches to understanding ethnicity have been used by different social scientists when trying to understand the nature of ethnicity as a factor in human life and society. As Jonathan M. Hall observes, World War II

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4074-402: The bride would light and blow out the lamps at the corners of the marwa 5 or 7 times, depending on the custom. The bride would then be "given" to the groom, and the priest would then join the couple's right hands. Finally, the groom applied kumkum to the bride's forehead and tied a knot that would remain intact for 3–10 days, after which they would rub themselves with turmeric, bathe, and untie

4171-603: The category of Other Backward Classes . Those residing in other states and countries are considered part of the general population . However, the Bhumij were classified as Scheduled Castes before the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Lists (Modification) Order of 1956. Until 2024, the Tamudia segment of the Bhumij tribe was designated as Scheduled Caste in Odisha, but it was subsequently recognized as Scheduled Tribes. Ethnic group An ethnicity or ethnic group

4268-573: The context of European colonial expansion, when mercantilism and capitalism were promoting global movements of populations at the same time that state boundaries were being more clearly and rigidly defined. In the 19th century, modern states generally sought legitimacy through their claim to represent "nations". Nation-states , however, invariably include populations who have been excluded from national life for one reason or another. Members of excluded groups, consequently, will either demand inclusion based on equality or seek autonomy, sometimes even to

4365-422: The course of individual life histories." In 1978, anthropologist Ronald Cohen claimed that the identification of "ethnic groups" in the usage of social scientists often reflected inaccurate labels more than indigenous realities: ... the named ethnic identities we accept, often unthinkingly, as basic givens in the literature are often arbitrarily, or even worse inaccurately, imposed. In this way, he pointed to

4462-526: The cultural traits of such groups have no demonstrated genetic connection with racial traits. Because serious errors of this kind are habitually committed when the term "race" is used in popular parlance, it would be better when speaking of human races to drop the term "race" altogether and speak of "ethnic groups". In 1982, anthropologist David Craig Griffith summed up forty years of ethnographic research, arguing that racial and ethnic categories are symbolic markers for different ways people from different parts of

4559-620: The day of the new moon in Kartik (October–November) before reaping, and Nua-Khia, the new rice-eating ceremony. The Bhumijs also celebrate Karam festival in Bhadra (August – September) for prosperity of the village. An unmarried male goes to the jungle and brings a branch of the Karam tree and plants near the house of the Dehuri or at any particular place meant for it. After a long spell of dance and music throughout

4656-1071: The descending line, but sometimes extended to five where bhaiyadi or mutual recognition of kinship has been maintained between the families. According to genetic study conducted on Bhumij population on 2010, it was found that their 70% Y Haplogroups belongs to O2a-M95 found among population of Southeast Asia and Austro-Asiatic language speaker and rest belongs to Haplogroups found in India. Their mitrocondrial Haplogroups belongs Haplogroup M (mtDNA) found in Indian subcontinent. The Bhumijs are primarily inhabitants of Jharkhand , West Bengal , Odisha , Assam , and Bihar . Specifically they are thickly concentrated in East Singhbhum , Saraikela kharsawan district of Jharkhand; Purulia , Bankura , Midnapore and 24 Parganas district of West Bengal ; Mayurbhanj , Sundargarh , Keonjhar , and Balasore district of Odisha and sporadically distributed in other parts those states. In Assam , where they are very recent immigrants, their greatest concentration occurs in

4753-447: The distant past. Perspectives that developed after the 1960s increasingly viewed ethnic groups as social constructs , with identity assigned by societal rules. The term ethnic is ultimately derived from the Greek ethnos , through its adjectival form ethnikos , loaned into Latin as ethnicus . The inherited English language term for this concept is folk , used alongside

4850-452: The distinctions of ethnicity and race that function to set off categories of workers from one another. It is, nevertheless, the process of labor mobilization under capitalism that imparts to these distinctions their effective values. According to Wolf, racial categories were constructed and incorporated during the period of European mercantile expansion , and ethnic groupings during the period of capitalist expansion . Writing in 1977 about

4947-466: The early 1900s, no Bhumij followed child marriage unless they were from the more Sanskritized wealthy families. Brides would be given for an amount ranging from Rs 3 to Rs 12 (in the early 20th century). Usually the wedding would be at the bride's house, where a square space, called a marwa , would be created in a courtyard by dabbing it with rice-water. In the center mahua and sidha branches would be placed, bound with cowries and 5 pieces of turmeric. At

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5044-433: The ends of the square were placed 4 earthen water-vessels, each half-filled with pulses and covered with a lamp. The pots were connected with a cotton thread marking the boundary of the marwa . On the bridegroom's arrival, he would be led to the marwa and sit on a board called a pira . The bride would then sit on his left-hand side, and a short introduction would be delivered by relatives. A priest, would chant mantras, then

5141-530: The extent of complete political separation in their nation-state. Under these conditions   when people moved from one state to another, or one state conquered or colonized peoples beyond its national boundaries – ethnic groups were formed by people who identified with one nation but lived in another state. In the 1920s, Estonia introduced a flexible system of ethnicity/nationality self-choice for its citizens, which included Estonians Russians, Baltic Germans and Jews. Multi-ethnic states can be

5238-414: The fact that identification of an ethnic group by outsiders, e.g. anthropologists, may not coincide with the self-identification of the members of that group. He also described that in the first decades of usage, the term ethnicity had often been used in lieu of older terms such as "cultural" or "tribal" when referring to smaller groups with shared cultural systems and shared heritage, but that "ethnicity" had

5335-518: The fallen monarchy of the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the United States. Current topics are in particular social and cultural differentiation, multilingualism, competing identity offers, multiple cultural identities and the formation of Salad bowl and melting pot . Ethnic groups differ from other social groups, such as subcultures , interest groups or social classes , because they emerge and change over historical periods (centuries) in

5432-580: The following types of (often mutually overlapping) groups can be identified: In many cases, more than one aspect determines membership: for instance, Armenian ethnicity can be defined by Armenian citizenship, having Armenian heritage, native use of the Armenian language , or membership of the Armenian Apostolic Church . Ethnography begins in classical antiquity ; after early authors like Anaximander and Hecataeus of Miletus , Herodotus laid

5529-672: The foundation of both historiography and ethnography of the ancient world c.  480 BC . The Greeks had developed a concept of their own ethnicity, which they grouped under the name of Hellenes . Although there were exceptions, such as Macedonia, which was ruled by nobility in a way that was not typically Greek, and Sparta, which had an unusual ruling class, the ancient Greeks generally enslaved only non-Greeks due to their strong belief in ethnonationalism. The Greeks sometimes believed that even their lowest citizens were superior to any barbarian. In his Politics 1.2–7; 3.14, Aristotle even described barbarians as natural slaves in contrast to

5626-558: The genes. Examples of various approaches are primordialism, essentialism, perennialism, constructivism, modernism, and instrumentalism. Ethnicity is an important means by which people may identify with a larger group. Many social scientists, such as anthropologists Fredrik Barth and Eric Wolf , do not consider ethnic identity to be universal. They regard ethnicity as a product of specific kinds of inter-group interactions, rather than an essential quality inherent to human groups. The process that results in emergence of such identification

5723-433: The heads of sacrificed animals in the communal religious rites. For this, in addition to performance of religious rituals, he makes certain sacrifices like avoiding certain food and observing fast on certain occasions. The office of Naya is generally hereditary. The whole community gets involved in any social or religious celebration. People dance to the tune of a madal (drum) and sing religious and romantic songs depending on

5820-558: The hills. Ganga Narayan fled to Singhbum , where he was asked by the Lakras to prove his loyalty if they would join his cause. Their condition was for him to attack a fort of Kharsawan ruled by a Thakur that claimed supremacy over the area. During the siege, Ganga Narayan was killed, and his head was set to the Britishers by the Thakur. The Bhumijs of Manbhum claim that their original occupation

5917-538: The jungles, and the landless among them work as labourers. Various seasonally available forest products are a subsidiary source of income for them. Marginal income from wage labour, minor non-forest products and animal husbandry are the main source of livelihood for the rural Bhumij. Rice is their staple food and is consumed throughout the year. They are non-vegetarians, but do not eat pork or beef. The Bhumijs also eat white-ants (termites) and insects. Drinks like rice beer and toddy are commonly consumed by them. Mahua liquor

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6014-433: The kernel of a nation which must be defended in times of conflict, or in iconic figures such as Britannia or Marianne . Ethnicity is used as a matter of cultural identity of a group, often based on shared ancestry, language, and cultural traditions, while race is applied as a taxonomic grouping, based on physical similarities among groups. Race is a more controversial subject than ethnicity, due to common political use of

6111-481: The knot. Sex before marriage was not considered taboo, but it was understood that if the girl became pregnant she would marry the father of the child. The Bhumij recognise polygyny, barrenness of first wife is the main reason. Polyandry is unknown. Widows are allowed to remarry according to the sanga ritual in which all the ceremonies of a regular marriage are not performed. Remarriage often takes place between widowers and widows, though bachelors are not barred from such

6208-639: The latinate people since the late Middle English period. In Early Modern English and until the mid-19th century, ethnic was used to mean heathen or pagan (in the sense of disparate "nations" which did not yet participate in the Christian ecumene ), as the Septuagint used ta ethne 'the nations' to translate the Hebrew goyim "the foreign nations, non-Hebrews, non-Jews". The Greek term in early antiquity ( Homeric Greek ) could refer to any large group,

6305-604: The letter written by the then collector, the Chuar rebellion continued to grow and by February 1799, they had occupied a continuous wide area of many villages around Midnapore. In March, Rani attacked with about 300 rebels and looted all the weapons of the Company's soldiers in the garh (local fort) of Karangarh. This sequence of attacks and plunder continued till December 1799. It was later led by Jagannath Patar's son Baidyanath Singh and grandson Raghunath Singh. Later, other zamindars, along with

6402-431: The lying-in-room. After it, a Hindu washerman and barber are engaged to clean the clothes and shave and pare the nails. This is followed by naming ceremony. After death, the rich section of the Bhumijs generally cremates the bodies of adults, and the poor ones bury them due to cost of firewood. However, the children of both rich and poor are buried. The practice of burial or cremation and observance of death pollution vary

6499-477: The marginalized status of people of color in the United States to their inherent biological inferiority, he attributed it to their failure to assimilate into American culture. They could become equal if they abandoned their inferior cultures. Michael Omi and Howard Winant 's theory of racial formation directly confronts both the premises and the practices of ethnicity theory. They argue in Racial Formation in

6596-479: The modernist understanding of ethnicity as proposed by Ernest Gellner and Benedict Anderson see nations and nationalism as developing with the rise of the modern state system in the 17th century. They culminated in the rise of "nation-states" in which the presumptive boundaries of the nation coincided (or ideally coincided) with state boundaries. Thus, in the West, the notion of ethnicity, like race and nation , developed in

6693-573: The name of that rebellion was 'Chuar Rebellion'. In 1767, the tribal revolt started in Dhalbhum and Barabhum and later spread to Manbhum , Midnapore and Bankura districts of Jungle Mahal . Jagannath Singh Patar at Dhalbhum, Subal Singh at Kuilapal and Shyam Gunjam Singh at Dhadka led this rebellion in 1767-71. The Chuar people intensified this rebellion in the surrounding areas of Manbhum , Raipur and Panchet . In 1782-85, Mangal Singh along with his allies also led this rebellion. The Chuar Rebellion

6790-473: The names of which are chosen from diverse sources representing fauna and flora, heavenly bodies, earth, etc. A Bhumij refrains from injuring anything represented by the name of the group. But there are no elaborate rituals in honour of clan totems. It may be that the exogamous groups were totemic, but with the progress of time and contact with their Hindu neighbours, the totemic system has turned into prohibitive marriage rules. Besides, lately they have developed

6887-452: The night, they immerse it in water on the next day. The community priest, variously known as Laya, Naya or Dehuri, is from their own tribe rather than a Brahmin, and he solely conducts all the rituals and ceremonies for all deities. As the Naya is a communal servant of the village, all its inhabitants have equal claims on his services. For his services he receives a few plots of rent-free land and

6984-486: The occasion. Community feast and intoxicating drinks provide the Bhumijs the desired amusement. The institutions of soya and phul among the Bhumijs of Manbhum help in establishing ceremonial friendship with people of other communities. Thus, the Bhumijs have a good sense of community feeling and they maintain equilibrium and peaceful coexistence. However, by the turn of the 20th century, Hinduism had begun to change many of their local customs. The followers of Sarnaism among

7081-529: The original inhabitants of Dhalbhum , Barabhum , Patkum and Baghmundi . The social structure of the Bhumijas is characterized by its dynamism, incorporating both tribal traits inherited from their parent tribe, the Munda , and elements from caste-based society. During the colonial period, they were often labeled as Hinduized or semi-Hinduized tribes, and sometimes even identified as a distinct caste. In modern times,

7178-551: The parent group. Conversely, formerly separate ethnicities can merge to form a panethnicity and may eventually merge into one single ethnicity . Whether through division or amalgamation, the formation of a separate ethnic identity is referred to as ethnogenesis . Although both organic and performative criteria characterise ethnic groups, debate in the past has dichotomised between primordialism and constructivism. Earlier 20th-century "Primordialists" viewed ethnic groups as real phenomena whose distinct characteristics have endured since

7275-450: The problem of racism became the sole responsibility of already disadvantaged communities. It was assumed that if a Black or Latino community was not "making it" by the standards that had been set by whites, it was because that community did not hold the right values or beliefs, or were stubbornly resisting dominant norms because they did not want to fit in. Omi and Winant's critique of ethnicity theory explains how looking to cultural defect as

7372-433: The public, political sphere, they are upheld within the private, family sphere to a great extent. It is here that women act not just as biological reproducers but also as "cultural carriers", transmitting knowledge and enforcing behaviors that belong to a specific collectivity. Women also often play a significant symbolic role in conceptions of nation or ethnicity, for example in the notion that "women and children" constitute

7469-567: The result of inherited traits and tendencies. With Weber's introduction of the idea of ethnicity as a social construct, race and ethnicity became more divided from each other. In 1950, the UNESCO statement " The Race Question ", signed by some of the internationally renowned scholars of the time (including Ashley Montagu , Claude Lévi-Strauss , Gunnar Myrdal , Julian Huxley , etc.), said: National, religious, geographic, linguistic and cultural groups do not necessarily coincide with racial groups: and

7566-483: The result of two opposite events, either the recent creation of state borders at variance with traditional tribal territories, or the recent immigration of ethnic minorities into a former nation-state. Examples for the first case are found throughout Africa , where countries created during decolonization inherited arbitrary colonial borders, but also in European countries such as Belgium or United Kingdom . Examples for

7663-601: The sacred grove of the village at the Sarhul festival in Baisakh (April–May) and Phalgun (February–March). Karakata, a female deity, responsible for rains and bumper crops, Baghut or Bagh-Bhut, a male deity, responsible to ward off the animals and protect the crops in Kartik (October–November), Gram-Deota and Deoshali, the village deities to ward off sickness and watch over supply of water for drinking and irrigation in Ashadh (July–August), Buru,

7760-581: The second case are countries such as Netherlands , which were relatively ethnically homogeneous when they attained statehood but have received significant immigration in the 17th century and even more so in the second half of the 20th century. States such as the United Kingdom , France and Switzerland comprised distinct ethnic groups from their formation and have likewise experienced substantial immigration, resulting in what has been termed " multicultural " societies, especially in large cities. The states of

7857-417: The son of the patrani, opposed his brother, was arrested and died in jail. A younger son of the patrani , Madabh Singh, was appointed diwan but became widely detested as a cheat who abused his position. Therefore, Ganga Narayan Singh (Lakshman's son) attacked Madabh Singh and killed him, and afterwards led a general uprising. The Britishers were forced to send in troops to quell the revolt, and pushed him into

7954-420: The source of inequality ignores the "concrete sociopolitical dynamics within which racial phenomena operate in the U.S." It prevents critical examination of the structural components of racism and encourages a "benign neglect" of social inequality. In some cases, especially those involving transnational migration or colonial expansion, ethnicity is linked to nationality. Anthropologists and historians, following

8051-407: The state or its constituents. In the 20th century, people began to argue that conflicts among ethnic groups or between members of an ethnic group and the state can and should be resolved in one of two ways. Some, like Jürgen Habermas and Bruce Barry, have argued that the legitimacy of modern states must be based on a notion of political rights of autonomous individual subjects. According to this view,

8148-441: The state should not acknowledge ethnic, national or racial identity but rather instead enforce political and legal equality of all individuals. Others, like Charles Taylor and Will Kymlicka , argue that the notion of the autonomous individual is itself a cultural construct. According to this view, states must recognize ethnic identity and develop processes through which the particular needs of ethnic groups can be accommodated within

8245-512: The study of ethnicity was dominated by two distinct debates until recently. According to Eriksen , these debates have been superseded, especially in anthropology , by scholars' attempts to respond to increasingly politicized forms of self-representation by members of different ethnic groups and nations. This is in the context of debates over multiculturalism in countries, such as the United States and Canada, which have large immigrant populations from many different cultures, and post-colonialism in

8342-605: The surrounding areas were quite scared of them. The well known Chuar revolt , a series of peasant rebellions started between 1766 and 1816 by the inhabitants of the countryside surrounding the West Bengali settlements of Midnapore , Bankura and Manbhum against the rule of the East India Company (EIC). The rebels rose in revolt due to the exploitative land revenue policies of the EIC, which threatened their economic livelihoods. According to L.S.S. O’Malley, an EIC administrator who wrote

8439-524: The term in social studies in the 1980s and 1990s. Barth went further than Weber in stressing the constructed nature of ethnicity. To Barth, ethnicity was perpetually negotiated and renegotiated by both external ascription and internal self-identification. Barth's view is that ethnic groups are not discontinuous cultural isolates or logical a priori to which people naturally belong. He wanted to part with anthropological notions of cultures as bounded entities, and ethnicity as primordialist bonds, replacing it with

8536-446: The term. Ramón Grosfoguel (University of California, Berkeley) argues that "racial/ethnic identity" is one concept and concepts of race and ethnicity cannot be used as separate and autonomous categories. Before Weber (1864–1920), race and ethnicity were primarily seen as two aspects of the same thing. Around 1900 and before, the primordialist understanding of ethnicity predominated: cultural differences between peoples were seen as being

8633-461: The usage of the term "ethnic" in the ordinary language of Great Britain and the United States , Wallman noted The term "ethnic" popularly connotes "[race]" in Britain, only less precisely, and with a lighter value load. In North America, by contrast, "[race]" most commonly means color, and "ethnics" are the descendants of relatively recent immigrants from non-English-speaking countries. "[Ethnic]"

8730-456: The village. Asadhi puja is performed before ploughing and transplanting of paddy seedlings. They worship Jaharburi in Chaitra (March–April), associated with the better flowering of the sal tree and also better shooting out of sal leaves. Atra, a Goddess, for protection from smallpox is worshipped. Dhulla Puja is held in Baisakh (April–May) for the wellbeing of the village. Vadhna Parab is held on

8827-448: The ways in which race can complicate a community's interactions with social and political structures, especially upon contact. Assimilation – shedding the particular qualities of a native culture for the purpose of blending in with a host culture – did not work for some groups as a response to racism and discrimination, though it did for others. Once the legal barriers to achieving equality had been dismantled,

8924-442: The world have been incorporated into a global economy: The opposing interests that divide the working classes are further reinforced through appeals to "racial" and "ethnic" distinctions. Such appeals serve to allocate different categories of workers to rungs on the scale of labor markets, relegating stigmatized populations to the lower levels and insulating the higher echelons from competition from below. Capitalism did not create all

9021-483: Was a turning point in ethnic studies. The consequences of Nazi racism discouraged essentialist interpretations of ethnic groups and race. Ethnic groups came to be defined as social rather than biological entities. Their coherence was attributed to shared myths, descent, kinship , a common place of origin, language, religion, customs, and national character. So, ethnic groups are conceived as mutable rather than stable, constructed in discursive practices rather than written in

9118-591: Was at its height in 1798-99, but was crushed by the Company's private army . Bhumij people Bhumij (also transliterated as Bhumuj, Bhumija) is a Munda ethnic group of India. They primarily live in the Indian states of West Bengal , Odisha , Assam and Jharkhand , mostly in the old Singhbhum district and also in states like Bihar and Assam. There is also a sizeable population found in Bangladesh . Bhumijas speak

9215-517: Was at its peak in 1798–99 under the leadership of Durjan Singh , Lal Singh and Mohan Singh, but was crushed by the British Company's forces. In early 1799, the Chuars were organized at three places around Midnapore : Bahadurpur , Salboni and Karnagarh . From here they launched guerrilla attacks. Among these was the residence of Rani Shiromani in Karnagarh, who actively led them. According to

9312-407: Was contrary to the prevailing naturalist belief of the time, which held that socio-cultural and behavioral differences between peoples stemmed from inherited traits and tendencies derived from common descent, then called "race". Another influential theoretician of ethnicity was Fredrik Barth , whose "Ethnic Groups and Boundaries" from 1969 has been described as instrumental in spreading the usage of

9409-412: Was military service. Subsequently, agriculture was taken as the sole activity by all the tribes, except the iron-smelting Shelo. A few were engaged in petty trade, and some immigrated to the tea districts of Assam. In Jharkhand and Bihar, the Bhumij even today depend upon agriculture, fishing, hunting and forest produces. Thus, the Bhumijs who are mainly agriculturists also hunt and trap birds and animals in

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