Drawn mostly from the orientalist and colonial writings,

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1 Cast(e) on the Hill Divine Power, Social Cohesion and Hierarchy in Himachal Pradesh Surinder S Jodhka Caste has often been viewed as a system of hierarchy based on the religious ideology of the Hindus with a common structure across the subcontinent. Based on an extensive empirical study of Himachal Pradesh, this paper shows how caste actively articulates with the given realities of ecology, economy and the local histories of political regimes. Even though inequality and untouchability exist, their structures have specific regional forms. While it documents the everyday practices of faith and their local specificities, the ethnographic accounts presented in the paper also have implications for our understanding of Hinduism in the present-day context. Initial discussions with Maitreyi B Das helped me frame the research questions. Long interviews with T R Sharma, Chetan Singh and Satish K Sharma enabled me to understand the broader processes of change in the region. Pramod Kumar Zinta and Arvind Sehgal helped with the fieldwork. Winnie Bothe, Sneha Sudha Komath and Bhoomika Joshi read an earlier draft of the paper and offered useful comments. I am grateful to all of them. Usual disclaimers apply. Surinder S Jodhka (ssjodhka@yahoo.com) works with the Centre for the Study of Social Systems, Jawaharlal Nehru University and is a senior affiliate fellow at the Centre for Social Sciences and Humanities, New Delhi. Drawn mostly from the orientalist and colonial writings, the classical textbook view of caste treats it as quintessentially a Hindu religious ideology. It frames the structure of caste hierarchy by drawing categories from the Manusmriti, an ancient Indian text, and ranks them within the Varna order with Brahmins at the top, followed by Kshatriyas, Vaishyas and Shudras. Outside the Varna hierarchy and lowest in the rank are the untouchables. According to this view, the structural logic of caste lies in the Hindu mind, as a normative construct, which divides and hierarchises social groups on the basis of ritual purity or impurity of their occupations. Such a view also constructs Hinduism as a cohesive faith system with a singular theological structure and without any variations in its social organisation across geographical regions and vertical hierarchies. In such discursive endeavours, Hinduism is presented as a monistic faith system, comparable to other religious systems, such as Christianity and Islam, similarly presumed to be monistic in their ideological moorings. This religion-centric view of Indian history thus constructs, implicitly or explicitly, the social order of caste as an integrated, cohesive and harmonious tradition, unchanged and uncontested for ages and without any variations across regions and communities of the subcontinent. This view of caste and the Hindu social order would attribute all the changes in the system solely to its encounter with the Western modernity during the colonial period and later to the initiatives by the modern state during the post-independence period. Perhaps the most influential proponent of this view of caste and Hinduism in the disciplines of sociology and social anthropology has been Louis Dumont. He constructed a neat ideal type of the caste system and contrasted it with the modern West. While the Hindu caste system, according to him, was founded on the ideas of hierarchy and holism, the foundational structure of the modern West lay on the ideas of equality and individualism (Dumont 1971). An important inference of this formulation was its differentiation of status and power. While in the modern West, Dumont argued, status was directly dependent on power; in the case of India it encompassed power. In other words, unlike the modern West where social status and power went together, the hierarchy of status in India was independent of positions of power an individual or a group may hold. Dumont s view of caste has been criticised very widely. 1 Among other things, scholars have criticised his theory because it denies any kind of historicity and materiality to Economic & Political Weekly EPW MAY 23, 2015 vol l no 21 59

2 caste. It also defies the value of empirical observation 2 and gives no space to regional variations emanating from local specificities of ecology, economics and politics. 3 However, despite wide-ranging criticism, this framing and formulation of Hinduism and the caste system has continued to be extremely influential among the students of Indian society and beyond. It very widely shapes the common sense views of the Indian society; it influences a variety of political discourses on contemporary India, ranging from Hindutva to Dalit assertions; and it remains an important paradigm in the comparative studies of religions (Raheja 1988: 497). Focus Based on extensive fieldwork in different parts of Himachal Pradesh completed during 2012, this paper attempts to explore the changing nature of caste relations in the hill state. Himachal Pradesh today is also among the front line states of India in terms of several indicators of human development. The state has been particularly commended for its performance in providing an atmosphere for gender parity. Despite its geographic proximity to the strongly patriarchal region of Haryana, Punjab and Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh has a better sex ratio than the national average. Census 2011 reported 974 females per thousand males in Himachal Pradesh against the national average of 940. This figure is even more impressive if we were to compare it with the neighbouring states of Haryana (877), Punjab (893) and Jammu and Kashmir (883). Similarly, its performance on indicators of education, health and inter-group disparities has also been commendable. Poverty levels have also been very low in Himachal Pradesh across social groups. While performance of Himachal Pradesh on various indicators of social and economic development is widely celebrated, we know very little about the relational and cultural dynamics of the region. Despite some interesting research by social anthropologists (Rosser 1955; Berreman 1963; Parry 1979), we do not know much about the contemporary dynamics of caste in the region: how have the processes of social and economic development changed the local order of caste hierarchies and the patterns of their reproduction in everyday life? How do local ecological specificities shape the dynamics of caste in context of a rather rapid process of economic change? How do the prevailing structures of caste hierarchy influence development outcomes and the so-called good governance practices in terms of inclusion exclusion matrix, particularly in relation to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and other traditionally marginalised sections of the local society? The paper also explores the relationship of caste with local-level divinity, the popular institution of devata. The fieldwork presents an account of the regional specificities of Hinduism and finds the central dictum of Dumont on the relationship of caste and power to be completely mistaken and misplaced. 4 Himachal Pradesh, the Broader Context As a political region, Himachal Pradesh has a rather short history. It was only during the post-independence period that it acquired a unified political character. As an administrative 60 region, it was born in 1948 when 30 erstwhile princely states were integrated into a single centrally administered territory by naming it Himachal Pradesh. The region grew in size in 1966 when the union government acceded to the Akalis demand for carving out a separate Punjabi-speaking state by taking out the Hindi-speaking parts from the United Punjab. While the Hindi-speaking region of the southern part of United Punjab became the new state of Haryana, the hilly Hindispeaking areas in its north and north-east were merged with Himachal Pradesh. This move nearly doubled the physical area and population of Himachal Pradesh. However, administratively it continued as a centrally-administered region for another five years. It was only on 25 January 1971 that Himachal Pradesh was conferred the status of full statehood of the Indian Union, with its capital being located at Shimla. Given the nature of its evolution as an administrative unit, the state of Himachal Pradesh has enormous diversities. Though officially it is a Hindi-speaking region, almost every district has its own dialect. The upper hills (old Himachal) and the lower hill (made part of the state in 1966) continue to have distinct cultural and socio-economic profiles even today. Notwithstanding its diversity, there is an element of commonality that one observes in the region, primarily because of its shared topography. Writing on Kullu rural society in 1950s, anthropologist Colin Rosser underlined this far back in 1955 in following words:.the mountain ranges are formidable barriers surrounding each valley. Villagers of one valley feel a sense of unity and difference when they compare themselves with the people living on the other side of the mountain. But these differences are slight and the underlying uniformities of social life are such that no villager need feel uncomfortable or out of place, should he visit one of the villages in the neighboring valley. He may feel a stranger but not an alien (Rosser 1955: 77). Over the past 60 years or so the region has witnessed major developments in infrastructure. Even though the formidable barriers that the mountain ranges pose continue to be a challenge, the state is much more integrated today than it was during the early 1950s. Roads, electricity, telephone wires and towers have made it easier to travel and communicate. Its total population in 2011 was a little less than 7 million (6.856), a mere 0.57% of the total population of India. Himachal Pradesh is almost entirely mountainous and sparsely inhabited, with a density of a little over 123 persons per sq km. In the upper hills, density is even lower and in some parts it goes down to just two or three persons per sq km. Another distinctive demographic feature of the state is its overwhelmingly rural character. Against the national average of over 31%, only 10.04% of Himachalis live in urban areas, 5 lowest of all states of India, and much lower than in neighbouring Punjab, where the proportion of urban population is 37.5%. Even the neighbouring hill states of Uttarakhand and Jammu and Kashmir have more than 30% as urban population. Further, more than two-thirds of the main workers in Himachal Pradesh are employed in the primary sector of the economy even though a significant proportion of its land is either not habitable or not available for cultivation and other productive uses. This is partly MAY 23, 2015 vol l no 21 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

3 because of the nature of the terrain and partly due to official policy of protecting forestlands. Nearly two-thirds of all the land in Himachal Pradesh has been declared as forest reserves. However, Himachal Pradesh is not a backward state. Its economy has been quite dynamic and has been undergoing a process of diversification. Though most landholdings are small in size and often difficult to operate because of their terraced nature, the productivity of land has been growing with increasing use of innovative farming methods and cultivation of high value crops. The growing popularity of commercial horticulture, particularly during the 1980s and later, significantly increased the cash incomes of the farmers, even of those with small and marginal holdings. The production of fruits, particularly apples, has seen a manifold increase in the upper reaches and mid-hills of the state. The farm economy continues to grow with diversification into crops like seed potato, ginger, mushrooms and off-season vegetables during the last two decades or so. The plains of north India provide an easy and accessible market for these products, enabling the Himachali farmers to enhance their incomes. Apart from a steady growth of horticulture and agriculture, floriculture and dairy farming are also becoming popular with farmers in some parts of the state. More recently, the Himachal Pradesh has also witnessed a growth of industry and investments in hydropower projects. During the past 20 years or so, the state government initiated special programmes and incentives in the form of tax concessions to attract industrial investments to the state. It is in response to these initiatives that a vibrant industrial complex has come up in the Baddi area of Solan District, close to the plains of Punjab. Investments in hydropower projects have been growing very rapidly which further creates potential for a variety of ancillary industries. Tradition and Change One of the interesting aspects of contemporary Himachal Pradesh is the recognition and value of change and development on the one hand, and a visible celebration of the religious tradition on the other. The most prominent description of Himachal Pradesh, often even on official platforms, is that of a land of devis and devatas. A college teacher in Sundarnagar summarised this self-image of Himachalis well in the following words: Most people are very religious. They are scared of God. Devis and devatas are still present in the minds and heads of the common people here. Relationship among people here is still not commercial, as we find elsewhere in the country. Even though Himachal Pradesh is well-connected with the outside world, its people have still not become competitive. Inequalities exist, but it is not too bad. Given its terrain, the volume of available agricultural land is small. Not too many people have very large holdings. More importantly, almost everyone has some land. However, this repeated reference to tradition seems to go comfortably with a near complete hegemony of the idea of development in political and economic sphere. One of my respondents argued that the most distinctive feature of Himachal Pradesh is its being focused around development: SPECIAL ARTICLE All the political parties and candidates profess themselves to be focused on development related issues. Electoral process is also measured in the number of schools/primary health centres opened or upgraded, along with an added emphasis on the number of people given government jobs. A political activist of the Congress Party (from an SC community) who was aspiring to contest the last assembly elections also underlined this in a slightly different language. In response to repeated inquiries about the significance of caste in the state and local political life, he almost lost his cool as he told me Jati par naheen, vikas par chalti hai Himchal ki rajniti (Politics in Himachal does not revolve around caste. It revolves around development). The preoccupation with peaceful and cohesive social life, or the hegemonic presence of the idea of development in the regional political discourse does not imply either the absence of caste-based differences or their insignificance in everyday social and cultural life. On the contrary, caste hierarchies and even the practice of untouchability appear to be quite significant in some regions of the state. Caste Relations and Religious Life Geographical structure and ecology significantly determine settlement patters and influence social relations. Given the hilly terrain and specificities of life in the mountains, most people live in small or very small rural settlements. Some of the urban centres also have very small populations and even those who migrate to urban centres keep strong ties with their villages and communities. An average rural settlement in Himachal Pradesh would have less than 25 households. Some could even have only four or five households and have the identity of being a distinct village. As one of the local administrators explained: Unlike the plains where you could have a large number of people living together, in the hills the size of the settlement is constrained by the availability of house-able plots. Normally, a plot can accommodate only four or five houses or may be 10 to 20 houses. Another neighboring plot will similarly have another set of houses. This kind of settlement system also has implications for caste relations and caste interaction. Large number of people anyway cannot live together. The prejudices about each other may survive for longer. This was indeed the case. Most of these smaller settlements tend to be mono-caste. It is only by clubbing an average of around 16 villages that a panchayat is formed in Himachal Pradesh. As per a 2005 estimate, the total number of villages in the state is 51,848, which are organised into 20,118 revenue villages for administrative purpose. Given this predominance of the rural in the social demography of Himachal Pradesh, it is important to understand the nature of rural society of the region and its specific patterns of social organisation. Perhaps, the most important feature of caste relations in the region is the dominance of the Rajputs. With a population share of around 25% to 30%, they are the largest caste community in the state. The long history of their control over the political system in the 30 odd princely states, which make most of the present-day Himachal Pradesh, reinforces their power over other communities. Though the religious systems Economic & Political Weekly EPW MAY 23, 2015 vol l no 21 61

4 also play an important role in reinforcing caste hierarchy, the superiority of the Brahmin and the classical ritual order of Varna hierarchy does not work everywhere in the region. The Brahmins also constitute a significant proportion of the state population (around 15%) and enjoy influence and status in the local society. However, their influence seems to be emanating more from their control over productive resources and less from their traditional status in ritual hierarchy. Their position in the social, cultural and political life of the state is below the Rajputs. This is also reflected in the local and regional level political system. Another important factor that reinforces the power of the Rajputs is their omnipresence in the region. Unlike the Brahmins who are almost completely absent from some pockets (such as Kinnaur District), Rajputs are present in almost every part of the state, though not in every village. The Khatris and other trading castes make for around 5% and the Other Backward Classes (OBCs) are 17% of the total population. In proportional terms, the state has the second highest population of the SCs in the country. Divided among 56 communities, the SCs make for nearly 25% of the total population. Around 4% of its population is also listed as Scheduled Tribes (STs). Though the STs are spread across different parts of the state, a majority of the eight ST communities of the state are concentrated in the upper districts of Kinnaur, Lahaul, Spiti and parts of Chamba. Though unlike most other parts of India, the religion of the Himachalis is predominantly Hindu with more than 95% of its population listed in the category, it also has some population of religious minorities. Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians and Jains together make for around 5% of the total population. Himachal Pradesh is also one of the few states where caste seems largely unshaken. The nature of its physical terrain imposes limitations on the possibilities of regional mobilisation of groups and communities. The most obvious reflection of this is the continued dominance of upper castes in the electoral politics and the state power. Ever since its formation, the Chief Minister of state has always been from an upper caste. With the exception of one term when a Brahmin was Chief Minister (Shanta Kumar), it has been a virtual monopoly of the Rajputs. Even though they are only around a quarter of the total population, those from the Rajput caste tend to make for nearly 40% to 45% of all the legislatures in the state assembly. Those from the Brahmin caste make for another 20% to 25% of the seats. In the current state assembly, not only is the chief minister a Rajput, more than 40% of the members of the legislative assembly (MLAs) (28 out of 68 of the elected MLAs) are from the Rajput communities. In contrast, the OBCs, who make for 17% of the total state population, have only 7% of MLAs in the newly elected state assembly. A Rajput also led the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government and in terms of caste-based representation the composition of the state assembly was not very different. Unlike some other regions of the country, the marginal communities have not been able to pose any kind of a political challenge to the dominance of the upper caste. They do not seem to be 62 effective even as vote banks or pressure groups. The continued power of caste in Himachal Pradesh is closely tied to the specific nature of the caste system and its relationship with local religion. Caste and Rajput-Centric Hinduism, Rituals of Power Travelling to the rural parts of the middle and upper hills of Himachal Pradesh, one often encounters small processions on streets with around 20 to 50 persons. In the middle of the procession is a palanquin carried on the shoulders of four persons. A few men who play drums and other instruments invariably lead the procession. These processions carry the local deity, the devata, to the house where it has been invited. The system of moving deities is common primarily to the districts of Mandi, Kullu, Shimla and upper hills. However, the institution of the devata appears omnipresent in the hill state. Though the details of rituals around the deity varied, the structure seemed to be largely similar. Almost everyone we interviewed in Himachal Pradesh confirmed that these devatas play a very important role in the local society. My respondents ranged from senior civil servants to engineers in power companies, university, college and teachers, local businessmen in towns, local farmers and activists with a variety of political leanings. Traditionally devatas have been assumed to possess power through which they regulate social life. One of the typical responses I heard from a large number of respondents was: We cannot defy our devata. No one can. If we do, the devata would punish us. The belief in devata is not simply a matter of individual religiosity. It reflects and reinforces a particular world view and framework of organising social life, an important aspect of which is the social relations of caste. As schoolteacher from an upper caste (Brahmin) background, speaking in a matter of fact manner, put it: I was a secular person. Caste did not really matter to me when I was studying. But now I teach in the village school. Sometimes I have to also work as purohit (priest) at the local temple of the devata. Now I have to go by what the devata desires. I do not have the choice of not practising untouchability. This is how our religion and society are organised here. And I believe this is right. Similarly, a woman schoolteacher, from an urban upper caste (Khatri) background almost jokingly narrated a story that her friend teaching in a government school had told her about an incident at a school in Mandi District related to the midday meal scheme: Some six months back a new principal from an SC category joined our school. The principal would insist on visiting the kitchen where the meal is cooked for the schoolchildren (under the mid-day meal scheme). Everyone was annoyed. But no one had the courage to tell the principal that given his caste background he should not be entering the kitchen. However, we all were sure that devata would do something about it. And he did. Two or three weeks later, one day when he came to the kitchen, he slipped and broke his leg. Devata taught him a lesson. After that he never entered the kitchen again. We heard the story and all of us laughed MAY 23, 2015 vol l no 21 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

5 Another respondent, a young man in his late 20s narrated his experience of caste and the school: The headmaster of my school was a very good teacher. My brother and I both liked him a lot. He also encouraged us to do well in our studies. We lived together in a rented house in the town because we were studying. One day we invited him to our house. We took him inside the house and gave him food. However, the next day the house-owner got to know about it. He came and shouted at us. He knew his caste. The head master was from a scheduled caste. We did not know that. Even though we apologised we had to hear a lot of abuse for several days from the house owner. Similarly, a Rajput government officer in Shimla frankly admitted: In the town I am known as a leftist and a secular person. I can say anything about caste sitting here in Shimla. However, when I go back to my village, I have to be like the rest. I have to conform to my tradition. If I did not do it, I may even get beaten up by members of my own community. In the village, one is also scared of the devata. He may also punish us. Who are the devatas? How does the system work? What implications does it have for understanding the contemporary context of development and change? As mentioned above, devatas are local deities, who reside in temples. Though every habitation/settlement or village does not have a devata of its own, they are quite large in number. According to a former teacher who taught history at a local university, the number of major devatas in the entire state would be somewhere around 300. However, the actual figure of devata temples in the state could be in the range 2,000 to 3,000. Their number is not static. New devatas are being found even today. Most Hindus in Himachal Pradesh tend to have a kul-devata, a family devata. Besides these local devatas and shrines, the state also has a large number of temples in the name of different devis and other Hindu gods. Though devatas look like totems, they are treated as active and alive. They speak to those who approach them through their interpreters (locally called gurr). I heard two kinds of stories about the origin of these devis and devatas. First suggests that they are various incarnations of various Hindu gods and goddesses. The second set of myths suggests that these devatas are decedents of rajas and princes, the past rulers (Parmar and Rana 2003). They represent the divine kingship. As the local myths go, devatas come up by themselves (pragat hote hain). A respondent in Kinnaur narrated a story, the popular myth, of four devatas, who are presumably brothers. One day, while cutting grass in the field, the local queen cut her finger. Four drops of blood fell on the ground at different places in the field. From there emerged the four devatas. They are children of the queen and now they rule over this whole area. There are four temples of these four devatas. We also have an annual festival when these devatas come together. Another respondent near Mandi town told about how his mother while digging land for constructing their house suddenly noticed a devata, where they have now built a temple. These devatas and their temples are not simply about religious life. The local communities and their social lives are organised around the temples and devatas. In a group interview in the Mandi town, one of our respondents elaborated on this: Devata is the be-all and the end-all of our culture. Devata does all the rituals for us. It is a protection for us. Every household in the SPECIAL ARTICLE community is given a responsibility. They have to do it. They have been doing it for generations. Even when they have become very rich, they cannot escape from this duty. It is closely tied to the local social structure. All caste groups have specific functions in the community. Even if someone from a Scheduled Caste becomes a deputy commissioner, he remains a bajantari (a low level servant of the devata in the local hierarchy) for the village. He also said that increasingly the younger generation of SCs does not wish to be part of the temple culture. They are moving away from their traditional duties in the temple. However, there was plenty of evidence to suggest that the local order of caste hierarchy is reproduced in rural Himachal through the temple and the devata. Every caste group of the village settlement is a part of the devata community and has roles and responsibilities associated with the devata, albeit in a hierarchical system. In another interview, a principal of a local college, a woman, further underlined the significance of temples and devatas in the local life: Temples and devatas are very important in everyday life of the common people. Everyone is attached to their temples and devatas. They would take leave from their jobs and go back to the village to accompany devatas when they go out on pilgrimage, etc. They would make it a point of going with their devata even when they have to lose a part of their salary for this. Sometimes this is also obligatory because of the commitment that families have towards devatas. They also have a lot of fun. They get to go out. Eat meat and have feasts. In Mandi District the most important caste is that of the Rajput. The administrative head of the temple, in charge of everything in the local temple, is almost always a Rajput and is designated as the kaardhaar. Second in line is the bhandari, literally head of the stores. The bhandari is followed by kathwar, who is in-charge of musical instruments and kathiyare, in-charge of ration supplies. All these offices are generally held by Rajputs. The temples also have a pujari who is always a Brahmin. Apart from these, the devata also has a gurr, a living person through whom the devata communicates his instructions and commands members of the village community. The gurr is always from an upper caste, generally a Rajput. However, there is place for members of other communities as well. Though members of all caste groups are allowed to visit the temples, not everyone has equal access to the devata. The untouchables can only sit outside the main temple and they have an interpreter who communicates with the devata through the gurr on behalf of the members of their caste/community, a kind of junior gurr, from a Dalit caste. There are specific timings when the devatas communicate. The timings are however flexible. If the community is large, it could be every morning at a specified time. It could also be once or twice in a week. Modernisation of everyday life has also altered the routines of devatas. In Mandi District, a prominent leader of the region who lived close to a temple invited me. He promised to take me to the temple where the devata communicates with members of the community every morning. However, when we reached the temple, we were told that the morning event had to be cancelled for the day because the local gurr had to go to the town for some urgent work. Similarly, Economic & Political Weekly EPW MAY 23, 2015 vol l no 21 63

6 seasons also matter. In the upper hills, the temples open only in certain months of the year. The winter months are very cold and a large proportion of the local population moves down to lower hills or is confined to their homes. Or some months/seasons of the year are not considered good/auspicious for the devata to come out and communicate. As mentioned above, devatas also go out of their temples, whenever they are invited by a member of the village community, or at the time of special festivities in the town. It is almost obligatory on the part of every villager to invite the devata to his or her home on an auspicious occasion, sometime even otherwise. The devata s visit is often an occasion for the family to organise a feast for the entire village, where every household sends at least one member of the family to eat. Those from the untouchable castes are also invited to these feasts. However, they sit separately, away from the upper castes. Members of the untouchable communities also have specific roles to play in the everyday life of the devatas. For example, apart from participating in the rituals, they also play drums. These are called bajantaries (literally, the drummers). Along with drums, there are also long wind instruments, made of silver or gold. But a low caste person does not play some of these instruments. They play the drums because they are made of leather. There is a clear hierarchy of roles, corresponding to the local caste hierarchy. In principle, devatas can also visit the homes of the untouchables, provided they make appropriate arrangements. In such cases, the host needs to put a tent outside his house where the devata, along with the upper caste guests, can sit. The food must also be cooked by a Brahmin cook, boti, and the upper castes must not be served food along with the untouchables. The religious hierarchy around the devata in districts like Mandi, Kullu and Shimla is controlled by the Rajputs, who are seen as a traditionally ruling community and currently a dominant caste. However, in parts of Himachal Pradesh where Brahmins are the predominant caste community in the village, and there are many villages in the state where Brahmins are the only or major landowning dominant caste group, they control all the positions in the temple. Similarly in the tribal district of Kinnaur, the caste of Brahmins has traditionally been absent. However, communities do divide themselves into two groups, the Rajputs and the untouchables. The district also has followers of Buddhism. The Buddhist monks also perform rituals for the locals, including for the local Hindus. What do people ask of their devatas? They mostly approach them for things about which they are anxious. These may range from the possible causes of illness in the family to the pros and cons of a proposed developmental project for the village. Devatas are also mobilised during resistance movements. They become a rallying point for the local people against outside interventions. A senior officer involved with construction of a hydropower project in Kinnaur District narrated a story of negotiation with the local community through their devata. The community leaders asked him to visit the local devata, who articulated the local demands. The officer promised the 64 devata that those demands would be met in return for their agreeing to allow the project in their area. Devatas and the Local State Devatas have traditionally played an active role in social control and keeping the community together. Everyone comes together in the local temple and their roles in the temple reinforce the structure of traditional social hierarchy. As one of our respondents said: It is mandatory for people to pay obeisance to their devata. They do so by visiting the temple, participating in various activities or by paying a nominal sum demarcated according to the social position and social class (landownership). It is widely believed that if a person or family does not conform to [the] devata s authority, misery or bad luck would befall. As local beliefs go, devatas could also punish those who violate the traditional social norms, which often reinforce hierarchy and inequality. A notice outside a temple in Kinnaur district strictly warned the visitors about the basic rules to be followed while visiting the temple and those not doing so would be punished by the devata himself: This is a notice for all those who visit the temple. Smoking is prohibited inside the temple complex. Men and women are required to come to the temple wearing the prescribed dress. This is an order of the devata Those who disobey will be appropriately fined by the devata. There is a larger social logic of traditional power. A professor, who also specialises in the local history of the region, explained that traditionally devatas have played a critical role in connecting the local community with the raja: Most temples also own agricultural land. Some of the land has been distributed to peasants but the devata institution is very strong. The local communities are organised around devatas and the hierarchy that manages the temples has a lot of power, locally and beyond the village. The local elected panchayat also works in conjunction with the devatas. These devatas can order the senior police officers and civil servant to present themselves at certain occasions and the officers normally obey. Even if you are a senior officer working in Delhi and if you are summoned by the devata to be present in the village on a particular day, you will certainly have to be there. Very few will have the courage to defy the devata. Himachal is one of the least urbanised states of India. Almost everyone here lives in a village. Even the senior officer working in Shimla will go to his village during the weekend. Absolute loyalty is the dominant culture of Himachal. Devatas do follow their own modes of discretion, which also reinforces the order of caste. For example, it would often be those from the lower castes who get punished more frequently for violating traditional norms and the punishment would often be in the form of having to make a donation of a goat to the temple. Donation of the goat would also provide an occasion for a feast with goat meat for the community. 6 Devatas and the Divine King During the precolonial period, when the region was divided into princely kingdoms, the devatas were also a part of the regional political structure. They were invariably viewed as being related to the king, though subordinate to him. A respondent told us that in the local myths, the king, at least in some MAY 23, 2015 vol l no 21 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

7 districts, was always the elder brother of the devatas in his territory. Raja and devata had a close kinship relationship. Raja was like the elder brother of the devatas, and they behaved like his younger brothers. Devatas accepted patronage of the king. Devatas would also get land from the raja. Even now when devatas come to the town at the time of a festival, a visit to the house of the raja is obligatory. In other words, the religious authority of the devata was almost always subordinate to the political authority of the king. The rajas used the institution of devata to get their will enforced at the local level. This relationship was also ritualised and its symbolic remnant is still present. This has continued during the post-independence period as well. A senior bureaucrat, an Indian Administrative Service officer working in a district headquarters, told that as per the administrative norms, He is also designated, ex-officio, as the commissioner of temples for the entire district of Bilaspur. As per the local statute, he is the exofficio head of all the major/historic Hindu temples of the district. The SDM is the ex-officio chairman of the trusts of the communities that manage these temples. We also supervise their functioning, including their earnings, accounts and financial allocations. As commissioner of temples, I also become head of the annual melas and festivals celebrated in the district. Similarly, in the districts of Mandi and Kullu, the local administrators have taken over the task of the earlier king in organising their annual visit to the town. There were occasions when the king had the obligation of inviting all the devatas to the seat of power, the capital town of his kingdom. The king of Mandi did this at the time of Shivaratri and the king of Kullu at the time of Dushehra, the two important Hindu festivals of the region. Interestingly, this practice still survives. The local bureaucratic heads of the two districts, the deputy commissioners, are obliged to send invites to all the devatas who are formally registered with the district office at the time of the two festivals in the two districts. The devatas of the two districts still visit their respective headquarter and participate in festivities in the traditional way at the time of Shivaratri in Mandi and Dushehra in Kullu. The celebrations are carried out strictly according to the traditional norms of hierarchy and deference. Given the overall change in social, economic and political life, the nature and form of these festivals would have indeed undergone a lot of change, but by formally accommodating the local devatas in the modern state system, their traditional authority, at least to some extent, is reinforced by the secular authority of the modern state. Devatas also play a role in electoral politics. One of our respondents, who was asked to oversee the local assembly elections in 2012 by the Election Commission, reported that irrespective of the political parties, candidates and other political leaders invariably initiated their campaigns for election to the state assembly with a visit to the local devi or devata. The local deities would also find frequent mention in their speeches and informal discussion with the electorates. Even after the voting was over, a large majority of them visited these deities to seek their blessings. SPECIAL ARTICLE The Power of Caste As is evident from the above discussion, the institution of devata and the associated rituals reinforce caste hierarchy and an unequal social and political system. This combination of caste, religion and administrative recognition has wider implications and enables reproduction of traditional hierarchies even when the underlying economic relations and legal frames have changed. A Brahmin woman respondent who runs a BEd college of her own told about its wider acceptability: Caste is very strong but there is no caste violence in Himachal Pradesh. The reason is simple. Caste is still accepted as the norm. Since everyone accepts it, there is no confrontation. No SC would have the courage to enter my house. Even when someone is an MLA, he will normally not enter my house. He will come and wait outside. Even when they invite us for a village feast, they will insist on seating us separately. Caste divisions are deep in their own mind. Even in my college, the students who come to do BEd are divided on caste lines. The SCs stay away and tend to avoid inter-mingling with other students. A senior professor in the university at Shimla also spoke in a similar vein: There is no overt dissent of low castes in Himachal Pradesh. Their dependence is partly because of the scattered nature of settlements. They are often served food separately in village feasts and weddings. They seem to completely accept their subordination. There must be a lot of discontent but there is no sign of dissent or assertion. Even when a conflict situation arises, it is diffused using kinship networks and minimal accommodation. An activist of Communist Party of India, himself a Rajput, spoke in Mandi about the power of caste and how the institution of devata institutionalises exclusion: Around three months back one of our activists, a Dalit by caste, came to see me and showed me a picture of a notice outside a temple in his village openly prohibiting the entry of Scheduled Castes into the temple. Given his weak position in the local society, he could not do much about it. He asked us to do something about it. I was quite surprised and shocked. Even though it exists, generally there would be no formal declarations of it. I decided to approach the local police and administration and asked them to register a complaint under the Atrocities Act. The local administration got panicky. They immediately sent someone to the village and contacted those who managed the temple. Next day a group of people arrived from the village to meet me. Given that I too am a Rajput some of them were able to find some kinship relation with me. They pleaded with us that we should not insist on registering the police case. Most interestingly, they told us they had already removed the notice. However, that does not mean that they would now allow SCs inside the temple. Instead, as they told me, they had decided not to allow anyone inside the temple. Only the pujari will be permitted to enter. Rest would all worship from the outside! The continued hold of caste and its exclusionary impact on everyday life of those from marginal categories was also corroborated by a group of students we interacted with in Shimla. Even though development is quite significant in Himachal Pradesh, caste system is still very strong here. Thanks to land reforms and growth of horticulture and agriculture, poverty has significantly come down. However, caste values still have their hold over people. Even untouchability is practised here. For example, the lower castes will not be served tea with milk. They are also not allowed inside the houses of upper castes. Even in a town like Shimla, people enquire caste of the person they interact with. I have also seen that when a group of Economic & Political Weekly EPW MAY 23, 2015 vol l no 21 65

8 66 villagers come together for a political rally or some other work, they get divided on caste lines the moment they return to their village. This happens even when leftist parties mobilise people. Based on his own observations, another student activist in Shimla spoke about how such differences impact the general well-being of the Dalits: It has significant impact on the psychology of those who come from a Dalit background. I have been observing over the last many years. Even when an SC student is very good in studies and otherwise smart, s/he would have many hesitations. They do not become leaders. They hesitate when they have to deal with others from upper castes. Their caste pulls them down. They are always aware that everyone has caste in their mind. Even university professors here have caste on their mind. Almost everyone accepts it. Kinship norms are very strong. Even those from the upper castes cannot marry outside the boundary of their specific jati. Even a Rajput marrying a Brahmin is not acceptable. Caste divisions are observed very seriously in relation to food. A student hailing from Kangra District added to what was being discussed: Kangra has nearly 30% Dalits. However, they have no say in politics. Politics is completely controlled by the local Rajputs. Even when the constituency is reserved for an SC, the Dalit MLA hardly carries any weight. It is the Rajput patron and party leader who matters. The police and local administration also discriminate. They do not respond to the SC MLA. Only when the Rajput party leader gets active, the administration moves. Dalits have no independent leadership in the state. They remain dependent on upper castes. Even the young people in Kangra proudly claim their caste identity. To be known by caste names has become more fashionable now. This intimidates the younger people from SC communities. A local SC leader of Shimla from Valmiki community, who has been active in local politics and has worked with both the Congress and the BJP put it in even sharper language: Development is indeed happening in the state. But all benefits go to the upper castes. Those who do not have assets do not gain from development. Parties and institutions are completely controlled by the Rajputs. Even when our people become MLAs, no one takes them seriously. Even when someone becomes a minister, no one takes him seriously. Officers do not listen to him. He is taken very lightly. There has never been a powerful minister from any SC category in Himachal Pradesh. Only those who have a dependent mind-set are made ministers. In the social sphere, we face untouchability. If a Dalit accidently touches an upper caste person in the districts of Kullu and Mandi, he is punished and is asked to donate a goat in the temple (bakre ka dand) by the local devata. Our people are also not allowed entry into temples. Untouchability is strong and often goes uncontested. Dalit children are treated differently in schools. Dalit teachers also experience strong prejudice. No one gives them house on rent. In a neighbouring town, a woman teacher had to stay inside the school because she could not find a house in the town because of her caste. Assertion and Change As the fieldwork progressed, I came across some instances of subtle assertion by Dalit communities, albeit within the local religious traditions. There were cases of individuals from Dalit communities setting up their own separate temples, with a devata becoming its custodians. A Brahmin schoolteacher, who also works as a priest, said during an interview in the town of Mandi: For the last ten years or so we have observed that new devatas are appearing in the houses of SCs. Once a devata appears in the house, the SC family has to take good care of it. They have to do all those things that they try to move away from. They have to follow all the norms of caste system, dev-shaili. Even though in some sense it raises their status in the local community, they also develop stakes in the traditional ritual system. They have to follow the traditional norms. In a neighbouring village, for example, a temple had come up a few years back when an SC family claimed to have found a new devata at the site where their house stood. The mother of the current custodian of the temple claimed to have come upon the totem while digging the plot for renovation of their house. They mobilised some money and constructed a small temple adjacent to their house. However, unlike other temples, this temple remains a private property of the Dalit family. He is not only the custodian of the temple, but also performs all the other functions, of being priest, gurr and everything else. Though, apparently some upper caste persons also visit his temple, it is not seen as a regular or normal temple of the larger community. Even when he organises a feast at his temple, he hires a Brahmin cook (goti) to make sure that the upper caste members of the village community also come to eat. Over the next weeks I came across many such Dalit families having their own temples. Not only does having a temple of their own raise the status of the family, it also provides a source of some additional income. The local Dalits also prefer visiting these temples to the temples controlled by the upper castes. As an upper caste respondent said in Mandi: These temples not only provide them social power and prestige, but give them a channel to communicate with the members of other castes through their own devis and devatas. Most of these new temples are obviously not registered with the district administration and hence, unlike the other devatas and temples, they are not formally invited by the deputy commissioners of Mandi and Kullu during the respective annual gathering of devatas. However, they do participate in these festivals and are provided some space during the festival. They also receive offerings and gifts from individual devotees and social organisations without much discrimination. There is also an indication of some kind of formalisation of the compulsive relationship that Dalits have with the temples. In Shimla District, Dalits work as bajantaries for a fixed wage, something around Rs 200 for a day, for accompanying the devata to a house. However, the job remains tied to their caste, and almost everywhere it is only the Dalits who work as bajantaries. In the lower districts of the state where devata culture is relatively weak, Dalit communities try to move away from the village community by shifting to other religious customs. In a village in Solan District the local dalits have a temple with photographs of a Sikh Guru, but also of some Hindu gods. Similarly, there are visible signs of the neo-bhakti sects like the Radha Soamis growing in the state over the past years and it is mostly amongst the lower castes. Conclusions One of the first thing I was struck by when I started my fieldwork in the upper hills of Himachal Pradesh during early 2012 was the repeated emphasis by a variety of respondents on social cohesion and contentment of the local people. For example, in the town MAY 23, 2015 vol l no 21 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

9 of Mandi, a group of senior citizens who had all been in important positions in the state government or outside repeated this in many different ways. One of them put this quite sharply: People of Bhutan have been described as the happiest people in the world. If we were to do a similar survey in Himachal Pradesh, we will surely be a close second to Bhutan. Common people of this region are used to a simple life that does not require too many resources. They are not restless. They are mostly content with what they have. A village sarpanch from a Dalit caste from Solan District, in lower hills of the state substantiated it in a different language. There is a sense of contentment here. People are not greedy. We hardly ever put a lock on our doors when we go out to another village or to the town for a few hours. However, beneath words like social cohesion, contentment and love for tradition survives the divisions and exclusion of caste. Himachal Pradesh has indeed witnessed many changes in its social and economic structure over the years. Apart from the impact of the processes of economic development and diversification, Himachal Pradesh is also one of the few states of India where implementation of land reforms legislations has been quite effective and successful (Bhatnagar 1981). Soon after its formation, the state government introduced several legislations and implemented them quite effectively. The land reforms in the state have had twofold objectives. First, the introduction of ceiling under which a farmer was allowed to possess only up to a particular amount of land, ranging from 10 to 30 acres, depending on the quality of land and the nature APPOINTMENTS/PROGRAMMES/ANNOUNCEMENTS of its terrain. The surplus land was distributed among the landless agriculturists and many among them were from SC communities. Those who had been tenants were given ownership rights over the land they were cultivating. Almost every family was given a small plot of cultivable land. With horticulture taking off during the 1980s, even a small plot of land could provide a reasonable good income. Two-thirds of all the SCs in the state are officially listed as cultivators. Among them, the largest SC community of the Koris/Kolis has as many as 80% of its households listed as cultivators. In contrast, only around 5% of the SCs in the neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana are cultivators. However, even when Dalits do not economically depend on the local upper castes, caste as a system of domination, hierarchy and humiliation survives. This is particularly true about the upper hills of Himachal Pradesh. There are obvious implications of this persistence of caste, social, political and developmental. Whole near absence of absolute poverty in the region can perhaps be attributed to the land reforms, their political effect appears to have been conservative. Further, ecological realities and political specificities of the region also help the caste-related traditional practices to survive. Most communities are quite small in size and spread across the state. Democratic/electoral politics tends to work in these areas very differently. Informal and personal contacts invariably become more important than the political programmes and ideology. On the positive side, service ADVERTISEMENTS Subscribe to the Print edition + Digital Archives When you subscribe to the Print + Digital Archives, you get issues of the print edition every year delivered to your door All special and review issues Archival access on the website for all content published since 1949 to date (including the Economic Weekly) Web Exclusives Featured themes articles on contemporary issues from our archives And a host of other features on To subscribe, visit: Attractive subscription rates are available for students, individuals and institutions. Postal address: Economic and Political Weekly, , A to Z Industrial Estate, GK Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai , India. Tel: circulation@epw.in Economic & Political Weekly EPW MAY 23, 2015 vol l no 21 67