Poundra (caste)

Poundra is a section of the Scheduled Caste community from West Bengal.[1][2] They are called Purno in North Bengal, Pod and Padmaraja in South Bengal, and Baleya in Medinipur and Baleshwar. They find the name Pod offensive.[3] Their population was around two and a half million in 2011. As per census of India 2001, their overall literacy rate was 72 % - male 83% and female 59%. [4] Their main subcastes are or used to be, the Chasi Poundra, the Mecho Poundra, the Tanti Poundra and the Dhamna Poundra.[5] The differentiation between seems to have its origin in the occupations.[6][7] They are divided in a number of gotras.[8]

History

Medieval Bengal

No mention is found in the Bṛhaddharma Upapuraṇa (c. 13th century[lower-alpha 1]), which remains the earliest document to chronicle a hierarchy of castes in Bengal.[9][lower-alpha 2] The Brahma Vaivarta Purana, notable for a very late Bengali recension c. 14/15th century, notes "Paundrakas" to be the son of a Vaisya father and Sundini mother but it is unknown if the groups are connected.[10] Mentions remain scarce in medieval vernacular literature.

Colonial Bengal

In his 1891 survey of castes, Herbert Hope Risley documented the Pods to be a branch of Chandala.[11] Akin to Bagdi in the social hierarchy, they faced untouchability from Brahmins as well as Navasakhas.[11] A majority were peasants though some had become traders, and even zamindars.[11]

In late nineteenth century, two influential members of Pod community —Benimadhab Halder and Srimanta Naskar— produced multiple tracts of caste-history, in sync with their times. Arguing a descent from the "Poundras" —mentioned across a spectrum of Hindu literature— they sought to establish the Pods as Kshatriyas and remove the stigma of untouchability.[11] In what was a self-respect movement, it was demanded that all Pods follow Kshatriya rituals.[11]

In 1901, Halder organized a pan-Bengal conference of the Pods, wherein it was resolved to have the government rename the caste as "Poundra".[11] Further mobilization happened under the leadership of Raicharan Sardar, a lawyer and first graduate from this community.[11]

Status

Today the Poundra are still highly abused for their caste, although they are dominant in southern Bengal especially in South 24 Parganas. In urban areas they were dominant in Canning Town, Kolkata, at the beginning of the 1940s, one of the few Dalit-dominant areas of the city. Today they, along with other Scheduled Castes, form only 13% of the urban population. Thus they are vulnerable to casteism in higher education and in daily life in urban areas as well as rural areas.[12]

References
  1. "Inclusion in Scheduled Castes List". pib.nic.in. Retrieved 7 January 2018.
  2. "THE CONSTITUTION (SCHEDULED CASTES) ORDER (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2007" (PDF). 164.100.47.4. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  3. Rup Kumar Barman (1 January 2014). "From Pods to Poundra: A Study on the Poundra Kshatriya Movement for Social Justice 1891–1956". Contemporary Voice of Dalit. 7 (1): 121–138. doi:10.1177/0974354520140108. S2CID 148661602.
  4. "West Bengal : DATA HIGHLIGHTS: THE SCHEDULED CASTES : Census of India 2001" (PDF). Censusindia.gov.in. Retrieved 1 December 2018.
  5. Risley, Herbert Hope, Sir, 1851-1911. (1892). The tribes and castes of Bengal. Printed at the Bengal secretariat Press. OCLC 609335795.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  6. O'Malley, Lewis Sydney Steward; I.C.S (7 January 2018). Bengal District Gazetteers: 24-Parganas. Concept Publishing Company. ISBN 9788172681937. Retrieved 7 January 2018 – via Google Books.
  7. Singh, Kumar Suresh; Bagchi, Tilak; Bandyopādhyāẏa, Śekhara; Bhattacharya, Ranjit Kumar (7 January 2018). People of India: West Bengal. Anthropological Survey of India. ISBN 9788170463009. Retrieved 7 January 2018 – via Google Books.
  8. Bera, Gautam Kumar (7 January 2018). The Unrest Axle: Ethno-social Movements in Eastern India. Mittal Publications. ISBN 9788183241458. Retrieved 7 January 2018 – via Google Books.
  9. Furui, Ryosuke (2013). "Finding Tensions in the Social Order: a Reading of the Varṇasaṃkara Section of the Bṛhaddharmapurāṇa". In Ghosh, Suchandra; Bandyopadhyay, Sudipa Ray; Majumdar, Sushmita Basu; Pal, Sayantani (eds.). Revisiting Early India: Essays in Honour of D. C. Sircar. Kolkata: R. N. Bhattacharya.
  10. Rocher, Ludo (1986). "Mixed Castes in the Brahmavaivartapurāṇa". Journal of the American Oriental Society. 106 (2): 254. doi:10.2307/601589. ISSN 0003-0279. JSTOR 601589.
  11. Barman, Rup Kumar (2014-01-01). "From Pods to Poundra: A Study on the Poundra Kshatriya Movement for Social Justice 1891–1956". Voice of Dalit. 7 (1): 121–138. doi:10.1177/0974354520140108. ISSN 0974-3545. S2CID 148661602.
  12. Barman, Rup Kumar (2020-02-17). "Casteism and Caste Intolerance in India: A Study on Casteism of Contemporary West Bengal". Contemporary Voice of Dalit. 12 (2): 165–180. doi:10.1177/2455328x19898451. ISSN 2455-328X. S2CID 214164973.
  1. Ludo Rocher however notes the text to contain multiple layers (like all other Puranas) making any dating impossible. However, he agrees with R. C. Hazra that a significant part was composed as a response to the Islamic conquest of Bengal.
  2. Older sources on social setup (not caste) include inscriptions of the Gupta and the Pala periods but Pods don't find a mention.
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