Bhadkar village exhibits diverse nature of caste, religion practices

ALLAHABAD: An interesting study, undertaken by a group of students from St Stephen's college, Delhi, have come out with some very fascinating facts about caste and religious practices in remote villages of the country.
The group of students, who conducted their study while undergoing internship at Dalit Resource Centre of the prestigious Govind Ballabh Pant Social Science Institute (GBPSSI), Jhunsi, has discovered that Bhadkar village of tehsil Phulpur was different, both in terms of caste and religion, showing some interesting practices followed by the villagers there.
The research, aimed to study various socio-economic aspects associated with Bhadkar village, carried out under the supervision of noted social scientist Badri Narayan, showed that in the village Mallahs or Nishads accounted for half of the population, far outnumbering the next numerical majority, the Yadavs. And power in terms of village pradhan has been changing hands between Nishads and the Yadavs.
Aranya Sahay, a student while speaking about the origin of the village shared some interesting stories. "One villager said they had been a part of the village since the time of 'Sanatani Dharma', while another said that the village originated about 300 years ago when villagers from Neebhi came to feed their cattle and gradually settled on this side," Sahay added.
According to one of the interns, Dhruv Shekhar, caste as an identity also existed there but it does not lead to morbid practices like untouchability, with basic respect for every community being quite visible among villagers. "However, some of them showed a peculiar behavior like Yadavs would not eat at the dwellings of Nishads but would invite them to their homes and even wash their utensils," he added.
However, the economic condition of Nishad community hadn't improved over the years while the Yadavs and the Brahman tola continued to amass sufficient amount of wealth, the study claimed.
Another student, Ankit Sharma, said every community claimed to be 'original inhabitant' of the village, so it was rather difficult to construct an accurate history of the place. "As far as social concerns and tensions are concerned," Kabir, another research student, said, "Iequality and unjust treatment of a few still persists and needs to be addressed in the village," he said.
After a presentation based on their study at GBPSSI held recently, the session was opened for discussion. Pradeep Bhargava, director of the Institute, raised the issue of development and how it was perceived amongst different tolas or hamlets. He applauded the efforts of the young students and asserted that such studies should be carried out in near future to make the youth aware of the intricacies of social structure in rural India.
Prof Badri Narayan congratulated the students on their study and said that this tendency of linking our roots to 'Sanatan Samay' was interesting as the community was trying to find its roots and identity through this process. "There is a need to understand politics behind their claims and counter-claims, only then our work would be of worth," he added. Teachers, research scholars and the staff of Dalit Resource Centre also participated in the discussion.