Bara Balutedar

The Bara Balutedar (English: Twelve Balutedar) system was a hereditary village servant system of twelve trades used historically in some regions of what is now the Indian state of Maharashtra. The balutedars used get paid for the services provided with village produce under a complex barter system.

Classification and functions

The balutedar system was supported of the village agriculture sector. Servants under this system provided services to the farmers and the economic system of the village. The base of this system was caste. The servants were responsible for tasks specific to their castes.[1] There were different kinds of servants under Bara Balutedar and they could number more than twelve at times;

  • Sonar (goldsmith)
  • Joshi (Brahmin astrologer)[2]
  • Gurav (temple servant),
  • Nhawi (barbers)
  • Parit (washers)
  • Kumbhar (potters)
  • Sutar (carpenters)
  • Lohar (blacksmiths)
  • Teli (oil pressers)
  • Chambhar (cobblers leather craft and product)
  • Dhor (fine and raw leather processing)
  • Koli (fishing nets manufacturing, small boat and water transport)
  • Mang (manufacturing of organic fiber, making rope and article, making organic broom, security of people call as raakhanyaa)
  • Mahar (village security, messengers, catching criminals, land arbitrators, and removal of animal carcasses[3]
  • Chougula (assistant to Patil)
  • Mulla (mosque servant in villages with a Muslim population)[4]

Under the baluta system, the balutedars had certain rights and privileges at ceremonies. Their services were remunerated by the cultivators in the form of an annual payment in sheaves of corn and a few seers of other grain grown in the field,[5] such as wheat, hulga, gram, tur, groundnut, and others. For special services rendered on ceremonial occasions, payments were made in cash, corn or clothes. Sometimes food was given.

The barber, as a balutedar, would perform many duties not connected with his profession. At the time of a marriage ceremony, when the bridegroom went to the temple to pray, he held his horse and received a turban as a present. At village festivals or marriage ceremonies he sometimes acted as a cook, and also served food and water to the guests at such ceremonies. It was his privilege to act as a messenger at marriage ceremonies and call the invitees for the function. He gave massages to distinguished people of the village. He played the pipe and tambour at weddings and on other festive occasions.

The water-carrier not only supplied water to the villages but also kept watch during floods in the case of villages situated on river banks. He was also useful to the villagers to take them across the river with the help of a sangad (floats joined together.[6] In this list of Balutedar: Dhor, Mang, Mahar, and Chambhar belonged to the untouchable group of castes.[7]

In exchange for their services, the balutedars were granted hereditary rights (watan) to a share in the village harvest.[8] The system was formally abolished by statute in 1958.

See also

References
  1. Brenda Joseph Ness (Author); Roger D. Long (Editor) (2004). Charisma and Commitment in South Asian History: Essays Presented to Stanley Wolpert. Orient Blackswan. pp. 101–102. ISBN 978-81-250-2641-9.CS1 maint: extra text: authors list (link)
  2. Kulkarni, A. R. "Social and Economic Position of Brahmins in Maharashtra in the Age of Shivaji." Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, vol. 26, 1964, pp. 66–75. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/44140322. Accessed 15 June 2020.
  3. Christophe Jaffrelot (2005). Dr. Ambedkar and Untouchability: Fighting the Indian Caste System. Columbia University Press. pp. 10, 20. ISBN 978-0-231-13602-0.
  4. Krishnaji Nageshrao Chitnis (1994). Glimpses of Maratha Socio-economic History. Atlantic Publishers & Dist. p. 52. ISBN 978-81-7156-347-0.
  5. Jaffrelot, Christopher (2005). Dr. Ambedkar and untouchability : fighting the Indian caste system. New York: Columbia Univ. Press. p. 20. ISBN 9780231136020.
  6. Kulkarni, A. R. (2000). "The Mahar Watan: A Historical Perspective". In Kosambi, Meera (ed.). Intersections: Socio-Cultural Trends in Maharashtra. London: Sangam. pp. 121–140. ISBN 978-0863118241. Retrieved 13 December 2016.
  7. Sugandhe, Anand, and Vinod Sen. "Scheduled Castes in Maharashtra: Struggle and Hurdles in Their Socio-Economic Development". Journal of Indian Research (ISSN: 2321-4155) 3.3 (2015): 53-64.
  8. Fukazawa, H., 1972. Rural Servants in the 18th Century Maharashtrian Village—Demiurgic or Jajmani System?. Hitotsubashi journal of economics, 12(2), pp.14-40.
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