Abstract

The present paper is one of the very first attempts to describe the life of ‘Lohra Tribe’ located in the state of Bihar, India. Lohra was never studied as singular entity rather understood under the general rubric of Tribe(s) in Bihar. During the colonial period, Lohras migrated to Bihar from Chhotanagpur plateau of Jharkhand which is also known as the base for most of the tribe(s) of Central India. They migrated along with other tribe(s) like Oroan, Santhal and Mundal to soft soil of north-east region of Bihar for the Indigo plantation. Agricultural land and other necessary tools were provided to them by the East-India company to fulfill their livelihood activities. However, due to varied reasons, majority from Lohra tribe lost their fertile agricultural land as well as their primary skills in making Iron tools with advancement in technology. There is a dearth of literature that looks at the socio-cultural changes that have taken place in the Lohra community and its relationship with other tribes. In the present context, with lack of options for survival, majority of Lohra men are seen only in the occupations like rickshaw pulling, domestic servants and manufacturing of local alcohol. Also the influence and domination of Hindu culture/ beliefs and adoption of Hinduism by other tribes has further marginalized the Lohra community considering them as backward Hindus. This paper uses an ethnographic lens to study the identity crises of the Lohra community within current changing context.

Introduction

This endeavor at capturing the life of ‘Lohra Tribe’ located in the state of Bihar, India is one of my very first attempts to describe the realities of the community. Lohra was never studied as a singular entity rather understood under the general rubric of Tribe(s) in Bihar. During the colonial period, Lohras migrated to Bihar from the Chhotanagpur plateau of Jharkhand which is also known as the base for most of the tribe(s) of Central India. They migrated along with other tribe (s) like Oroan, Santhal, and Mundal to soft soil of the north-east region of Bihar for the Indigo plantation. Agricultural land and other necessary tools were provided to them by the East-India company to fulfill their livelihood activities. However, due to varied reasons, the majority of the Lohra tribe lost their fertile agricultural land as well as their primary skills in making Iron tools with advancement in technology. There is a dearth of literature that looks at the socio-cultural changes that have taken place in the Lohra community and its relationship with other tribes. In the present context, with a lack of options for survival, the majority of Lohra men are seen only in the occupations like rickshaw pulling, domestic servants, and manufacturing of local alcohol. Also, the influence and domination of Hindu culture/ beliefs and adoption of Hinduism by other tribes have further marginalized the Lohra community considering them as backward Hindus. This paper uses an ethnographic lens to study the identity crises of the Lohra community as they are neither tribal(s) nor Hindu(s).

Stating the Location

I still remember the day when my matriculation result was out and my father told me to go for higher education and be someone. I too was motivated to work harder and fulfill my father’s dream. I still remember the day when I went to the concerned block to get my caste certificate issued. That very day I realized how badly deprived and marginalized my community and I was. The experience continues to haunt me reminding me of how we had to struggle to convince the authorities of our own identity.

I had gone to the Block office to apply for a caste certificate. The Block official dismissed me by saying that my community was not a scheduled tribe. In fact, he went on to say that my community does not exist. He wondered why, in so many years, no one in my community had come to ask for a caste certificate. Little did he know that I was the first person in my community to study to this level? The others in my community were daily wage earners and had no need for this certificate. I continued to request him to give me a certificate and asked him as to what I need to do to get one. With a smirk on his face, the Block officer asked me if I have ancestral property or any document which can prove that I belonged to the community. Ironical as this statement was, it left me frustrated and angry.

After coming home I shared my experiences with my father on what had happened in the block office. He told me how, when he was a young boy, the Lohra used ‘lohar’ title as a surname. But generally they were known as Sardar. The anthropological survey notified the Lohar as Lohra tribe because we had a different culture, language, rituals, festival, occupation which qualified us as a tribe. From that time we were identified as a scheduled tribe in Bihar. Most people in the lohra community, due to various reasons, were not attracted towards education, so nobody needed caste certificate for educational purposes. Over a period of time, some people from the community started getting educated and needed caste certificate(s) for education and other work. It is only then that this question arose as to how one can identify us (lohra) as a tribe. Although, lohra has been included in government records but the issuing authority always asked for evidence from scheduled tribes’ that presently reside in the state of Bihar.

To begin with, it was difficult to address as to how does one answer this question? The issue of proving one’s background is very difficult as most people from lohra community belong to the poorer section of the society and are landless, illiterate and thus hardly have any legally acceptable evidence to prove their Scheduled tribe status.

This constant need to prove one’s Lohra identity has become a farce. I remember as a child, many a times, government officials came to our village to inspect and ascertain our tribal status. We were asked to sing and perform our traditional dance, to entertain them and also display our ‘tribalness’. But, these efforts to convince the officials were not a one-time affair as we would have do perform regularly for the visiting officials to demonstrate our tribal roots. But our tribal identity still remained questioned by the administration. For this reason, many in the community do not want a certificate as it invariably involves arguing with the officials and is harassing for the community members.

Clearly, the status of Lohra as Scheduled Tribe has been questioned by local officials time and again and has been a cause for resentment among many youths from Lohra community who are aware of this entitlement and seek to utilize it for their future. However, it cannot be denied that among the Lohra, there has been a gradual but definite abandoning of traditional ritual and social practices, customs which has also reduced inter-tribe interaction and community cohesiveness.  For this reason, I (the author) view Lohra history as a history of marginalization, not just in terms of mainstream society, but also in relation to their cultural identity. The history of marginalization of the Lohra people is also a history of self-alienation from their own self by distancing away from their own lived experiences of customs and traditions that mark them as a unique identity.

This chapter engages with the history of the Lohras as narrated by the elders in the villages that I (the author) visited, based on their recollection of myths, personal histories as well as reflections on the changes in community life among the Lohra.

A Brief History of the Lohra

The mythological origin of Lohra has a long history. It was found that the term Lohra came from ‘Loha’ called ‘iron’ as they traditionally worked as blacksmith. They were involved in the occupation of making weapons for war-fare and agricultural tools. They got a new name, Sardar from the emperor. Sardar is related to the people who involved in heavy physical work. The mythology derived the term Lohra and the surname called Sardar. As, mentioned by Risley (1891) the word Lohra to being a ‘lohar’ and ‘Asur’. In his opinion, the lohar are large and heterogeneous aggregate, comprising members of several different tribes and castes. But the Lohra of the Chotanagpur plateau in former Bihar are a discrete community, and they are one of the early inhabitants of the place. They are notified as Lohara, Lohra and number 169,089 as per 1981 census. According to some elderly people of Lohra community, many Lohras are also in West Bengal. They are concentrated in Nadia district. About 150 years ago they migrated from Chotanagpur for indigo plantations. In present days they have adopted Bengali culture and language for speaking and writing. They don’t use Lohra surname, they have surnames like Tirki, Toppo, Hor, and Manja. However, now most of them use Sardar as their surname. And some among the Lohra own land and are engaged in cultivation.

Though they were predominantly a rural community, 8.74 per cent of them dwell in urban areas. Like the Hindu social organization of Jajmani system in which the castes like-carpenter, goldsmith, blacksmith etc. lived together with other castes and fulfilled their instrumental needs of society, the same is the case with the tribal social organization. The artisan tribes like Lohra, Chik Baraik and Mahali also lived with the agriculturist tribe like Oraon and Munda. This tribal artisan group doesn’t live in group in a single village but one or two families are found in each village of agricultural tribe (Mohanty P.K. Encyclopedia of Tribes of Jharkhand, 1992). The Lohra make iron tools. They also depend on other tribes and community for their livelihood and have been completely assimilated with them. Earlier they have some specific festivals like Sarhul, Sohrai, Fagua, Jitia, Karma but now they have moved away from their main course of festival and started to celebrate Hindu festivals. Since, traditionally lohra made iron tools under the Hindu influence, now the Lohra have started to celebrate Viswakarma Puja (Hindu god). According to Risley, K S Singh and some anthropologists Lohra tribe is basically Dravidian race of Chotanagpur plateau. Gumla, Palamau, Latehar, Lohardagga districts of the plateau are their original habitat. They migrated to soft soil of north-east region of Bihar during British era. For their basic livelihood, a small section of Oroan, Santhal, Munda along with Lohra migrated to this region. Therefore, it is not unusual to find a small toli (hamlet) of the Lohra in a largely Oraon settlement. In Purnia district of Bihar, Lohra tribe is found in Purnia East block, Banmankhi, Kasba, Jalalgarh, Krityanandnagar, and Srinagar block. Only in Banmankhi, Kasba, Jalalgarh, Krityanand Nagar some of the Lohra are engaged in ironsmith work and rest of them engage in other occupations. Landlessness is the biggest problem of this community. And due to this factor no one from this community has been doing cultivation. They use Sadari language and are conversant with Hindi in their day to day communication and use Devnagari script. Rice is their staple food, but they also eat wheat or maize. Beef, pork and carrion are also part of their food. But in Purnia district Lohra tribe doesn’t eat beef due to holy reasons. They cook their food in mustard and Jethangi oil and also use charbi of pork for oil in cooking. Their cooking stove is called Chulha which is made from soil and bricks. They consume rice beer (Pochhai, haria), Mahua, Tarri, as well as distilled liquor (Daru/wine/alcohol).

Lohra have some exogamous totemic clans (Gotra) which include Kachhua, Indwaar, Naag, Suar, Bail, Toppo, etc. However, they use the community name Lohra as their surname in the district. Child marriages used to be the norm, but this practice is now giving way to adult marriage. They used to marry within their own community but nowadays some members in Lohra marry with Oraon and Santhal community as well. The remarriage of a widow or widower is permitted in the community. The Lohra tribe prefers living in nuclear families and follows all the processes of Hindu marriage system. Though, some older people said that previously marriage was performed at the bride’s house, being officiated over by an elderly male member of the community nowadays they prefer Doli Biya system and Baarat system, where the bride goes to the groom’s house after the ceremony which is celebrated in bride’s house. Death pollution is observed for ten days. On the eleventh day, purifactory rituals are performed and a feast is hosted. As stated earlier, Lohra were traditionally ironsmith, but nowadays this has become a subsidiary occupation. Agriculture and wage labor, maid servant, selling local wines, rickshaw pulling have become their primary occupation. Other subsidiary occupations are hunting, gathering and employment in salaried jobs in private sector and thus most of the youth have migrated to metro cities. Men, women, and children are engaged in occupation because of the poverty in community. According to their statement ‘agar kaam nahi karenge to khayenge kahan se, humare paas na to baap dada ki jamin hai na koi sampti’ (if we will not work then from where will we get food, we don’t have land or private property. We are totally dependent on market economy).

Matriculation is highest level of education in the community. People with this qualification can be counted easily without any technical help. Illiteracy is high among their community compared to any other tribal community in Purnia District. Finally, one can say there is no education class in the community.

In addition to ancestor worship, clan and village deities are also worshipped. Hindu gods and goddess are common among other tribal community in district e.g. lord Mahadev (shiv), Hanuman, Durga, Kali etc. Dangari Maa is the main goddess of Lohra community. But very few people of the community do this because there are lots of expenditure incurred in puja, and this puja is celebrated by one in generation to generation. The festivals of Sarhul, Karma (Oraon also celebrate), Jitia, Phagua (Holi), are observed and no one follow Christian religion in Lohra community. Both indigenous and modern system of medicine is used by them.

The entire socio-economic and cultural change or even we can call degradation among the tribe called Lohra has a very close relation with land. Traditionally this community did not have any land of their own.  But they had social security through the ‘Sikmi Right’. Sikmi right is a right accruing to the share-cropper through continuous cultivation of the land of another person. This right started in 1954 under the Bihar Tenancy Act. According to the Act, the land of cultivation is automatically transferred generation to generation. Due to the existence of Sikmi Right, the Lohra tribe got opportunity to cultivate and that indirectly benefited them to a large extent for their economic prosperity.

Moreover, when the Sikmi Right was removed, people lost the right over the land to cultivate. This ultimately pushed them into a dire poverty position. They became the agricultural and wage labourers and had to work on their earlier land which they cultivated on lease.  The wage was very low to maintain family and day to day expenses. They had to adopt a new way of life. Due to lack of economic security they started to migrate for their livelihood which made them to bring changes in different aspects of life starting from culture to traditional practices.  Due to the changing pattern of occupation, landlessness, migration there was a drastic cultural change among the lohra tribe.

Before I discuss the changes, which I consider as a part of the Sanskritization process among the Lohra, I would describe some of the traditional rituals, customs and practices associated with the Lohra.

Celebrations of festivals

1. Sarhul festival

Sarhul is the important festival of the spring season of Lohra community. This festival is also celebrated by Oraon and Santhal community in Purnia district. This festival is generally observed in the month of Chait (March-April) when there are many blossoming plants, trees and newly sprouting edible leaves and fruits. The festival also signifies the marriage of the mother earth. Before the celebration of Sarhul feast in the village, no one eat new edible leaves and fruits, nor do they use the flowers.

The elders or old age people of the community inform the villagers about a particular day fixed for fasting and the following day for the celebration of Sarhul. The people of community give contribution either in cash or in kind. Generally, rice, Marua (millet) is collected by the elders to perform the propitiation of Sarana-bruhia. Rice beer (hadia) is prepared in the community by the women on the occasion, which is to be drunk by the Pahan, Pujar, Susar, and Mahto of the village on the festival day. In all nine persons propitiate the deity. The Lohra’s propitiate their ancestors by sacrificing chickens at their houses. In the beginning, the marriage of the Pahan[1] and his wife is celebrated. This signifies the marriage of the Sun and Earth. Then the Pujar and Pahan sacrifice chickens in the name of various deities and spirits. After the sacrifice Sarana-burhia is propitiated by offering flowers, milk, vermillion, sweets, rice-beer, sal flowers etc. On this occasion the female fasts till evening and cook various newly grown vegetables, fruits and edible leaves, the consumption of which was taboo before this festival came into vogue. They offer these things in sal-leaf-cups to their ancestors and then their feasting and drinking starts. During fasting Lohra female carry Tahri (rice and the sacrificed chicken cooked together) to the house of the Pahan. As on other festivals, they dance and sing in their Akhara, a dancing ground with Mandra and digga music instrument.

2. Phagua Festival

Holi or Phagua is an important New Year festival which takes place on the last day of Phagua. The Lohra collect wood and branches of trees and heap them in an open place. At night they set on fire the heaped firewood, and dance, sing and shout around it. The next morning, which is New Year’s Day, they enjoy by throwing ashes, dust, abir, colored water, mud, etc., upon their friends and neighbors. They cook pooa, maal pooa and nice dishes like rice-bread, wheat-bread, meat or chicken and prepare rice-beer. The well-to-do Lohra’s invite other people to drink and eat with them.

3. Cattle Festival

Being agriculturist the Lohra’s have domesticated animals to assist them in cultivation. Their Sohrai festival coincides with the Hindu Dipawali festival. Sohrai is basically their cattle festival. It is celebrated on the Amawas (Dark night) evening in the month of Kartik (October-November). Like the Hindus, the Lohra light the earthen lamps in all rooms and cattle-shed, manure-pits, on the tree attached to the house and upon their wells. All pet animals of the house become special on that night. On the next morning they feed boiled masi, gram, bodi and other vegetables. Before doing so the cattle are cleaned and washed, decorated with colors or rice-paste and some oil and vermillion is put on their forehead and on their horns. They are taken along the decorated path where the house wife has placed flowers and vermillion. They are taken to the cattle-shed and offered special food. The goddess Lakshmi is also propitiated by offering sacrifices of chickens. All villagers drink rice-beer together. But nowadays very few people among Lohra celebrate cattle and agriculture festival. The reason behind is that no one has their own land to live so where will they do farming (especially in Purnia District)? But in some district in Bihar like Katihar, Madhepura, Saharsa, etc. people are doing cultivation and are celebrating agriculture based festivals.  According to the elders of community earlier when they engaged in cultivation they used to celebrate lots of agricultural festivals as well mention below:

Table 1.1

List of some traditional festivals of Lohra community

Festival	Hindi Months	English Months
Hariari	Asarh	June-July
Kadleta	Bhado	July-August
Karma-jitia	Bhado	August-September
Khalihani	Aghan	November-December

(Source: interaction through the elderly persons of the community)

4. Karma festival

Karma is one of the important festivals of this community which has been celebrated by Oraon and Santhal. Elders of the Lohra community in Purnia district said that they started celebrating Karma festival but presently only Oraon celebrate it.  Oraon community also accepts this fact. Karma is observed on the eleventh day of Bhado (July-August). The Lohra and Oraon Youth go to the forest to cut the Karma tree. They bring the Karma branches in a procession, dancing and singing Karma songs. Meanwhile the girls bring bodi, urid, barai etc. in a red basket. After listening to the sound of music and songs, the villagers welcome the party to the Akhara. Then the Karma branches are ceremonially planted in the middle of the Akhara. Traditionally, Karma branches are called Jhud. All the people of the community and other neighboring communities sit around the Karma and hear the story of Karma narrated by elderly persons. Now due to the effect of Hinduism they engage a Brahmin to recite the story. After the story, maidens distribute Jawa (barely wheat) and Maithee seedlings among all the persons present in occasion. All of them put Jawa on their ears or on their hair.

The next morning after performing Parna [2] they uproot the Karma branches and carry them in a procession, singing and dancing all along. The Karma branches are taken to a stream and thrown into it. This festival is celebrated for the fair sex. The married daughter of the community visits their parent’s houses for performing Karma festival. The Lohra women and maidens celebrate Karma for the well-being of their brothers. It is said “Apan Karam Bhaiyak Dharam.”

5. Saraswati Puja and Phulkhundi

The Phulkhundi festival is observed in the month of Jyestha-Baisakh (April-May). In this festival lord Shiva and Saraswati, the Hindu Goddess of knowledge is also propitiated by the students and community people. The Lohra have adopted this worship from their neighboring Hindus. In the past, worship was not popular among the Lohra and other tribal community. It is a Sanskritised trait. Some Lohra families have individually started worshiping goddess Saraswati.

Some other festivals

The festivals borrowed from the neighboring Hindus are Jitia, Mahabir Puja, Ramnavami, Durga Puja (Dashera, Luxmi puja, (Deepawali), chatt puja. Jitia festival is a Hindu festival which is celebrated in Bhado, twelve days after the Karma festival. Very few Lohra families celebrate this festival which is performed for the welfare of children. Lakshmi, the Hindu goddess of wealth, is also worshipped by the Lohra on Deepawali and also on the day of Sohrai. Touching plough on Thursday is a taboo for them. Thursday is the day for the goddess of wealth. In the month of Ashwin (October-November) goddess Durga is propitiated by educated and urbanized Lohra’s. In the interior villages the Lohra do not propitiate Goddess Durga but they do participate. Mahabir puja or Ramnavmi is celebrated in the month of chait (March-April). On this occasion subscription in kind or cash is collected from the villagers and the ceremony is celebrated collectively. They worship Mahabir who is responsible for health and welfare. It appears that Mahabir is their God. In the village Anjani, which is called the birth place of the mother of Hanumanji, there is statue of (Mahabir) hanuman. When they fall ill and suffer from some calamities, they propitiate Mahabir with Arwa rice, sweets, flowers etc. Vishwakarma Puja is also celebrated in Lohra community but only by those who are engaged in iron work.

As we know that tribal are known specially for their different culture and festival. Every tribal community has their own feast and festival, therefore Lohra community also has few festivals. Lohra community lives nearby Oraon helmet. Due to this very often they exchange there rituals and festivals. So some festivals are similar to Oraon community. Often it was found that both the communities have similarities.   Presently, Lohra community only celebrates few festivals which are not related to cultivation, due to the fact that they don’t have their own land. During British period Lohra community used to celebrate all the festivals. But due to end of Sikmi Right[3]  and migration from their own land nowadays they don’t celebrate all the festivals as celebrated by Oraon but they participate with them.

Dr. S. S. Sashi in his book “Tribes Of Bihar” discusses in details about festival of Oraon tribes such as (Jitia, Karma, Sohrai etc.) while in my research setting I found that these festival were started by Lohra community. Few respondents also mention that these festivals were main festival of Lohra community but now they don’t celebrate these festivals and these festivals have been taken by other tribal communities in the district.

There is not even a single research or study done on the Lohra community to the best of my knowledge. As an insider in the community, I found that few festivals are still celebrated by the community and few of the festivals have ended due to Sanskritization, economic causes and effect of Hinduism. At this backdrop, there is an urgent need to understand the reasons for not celebrating following (u used the word ‘following’ so u must mention the list of festivals not celebrated) festivals by Lohra community in Bihar. It becomes clear from the foregoing discussion and findings from the study that most of the festival were agriculture and land based. Due to all these economic factors and other contemporary economic constrain majority of the lohra people are not in a position to celebrate all their earlier tradition based festivals.

The socialization process of Lohra community

Lohra men and women have a strong desire to have children in the family. The child is regarded as someone who brings good fortune in many ways. Material progress, security and peace are dependent upon children. The position of Lohra women is disdained by her community. They love their children irrespective of their sex. Children are the most precious possession in the Lohra community. The child is a practical asset for the parents. Having children not only serve economic aspects but also it gives dignity to the couple in the society. They think it comes by the grace of god and they don’t take precaution against reproduction. They say it is a sin and we don’t want to play against the wish of God, they believe that children would help them in cultivation and other economic pursuits. A barren Lohra wife is despised and ridiculed by others.

Sterility is a curse and a sin. The name of the barren women among the Lohra is bandied from mouth to mouth, her life is made intolerable by the sneers of her husband and wife. Both go to diviner called Bhagmati. The Bhagmati may be a male or female and demand fowls, cattle, vermilion, flowers from the husband and sacrifice is made by Bhagmati. The lohra women now are seen as able to conceive. They are few instances where the marriage tie was revoked in the case of barrenness. Such lohra wives are force to leave village. The lohra believe that such woman has premarital sexual intercourse with others that led to illegal abortion and consequently implied her womb and made her incapable of being a child. The sterility of lohra husband is also likely to result in the dissolution of marriage, since their desire for having children in the family cannot be fulfilled.

The settlement

 The distinct feature of all lohra settlement is their location near the Oraon helmet and especially in government places because 70% population of this tribe has no land in the state (field data :2011). The Lohra settlement small in terms of its size and population. The highest population is 300 to 400 people in one village, while the minimum is less than 100 persons. A typical Lohra settlement consists of 300 people. Each of these small settlements is inhabited by not more than 35-40 households. The Lohra villages are called Basti. This specific name is derived, a senior person in the village told that earlier they used Padda instead of Basti but nowadays due to the effect of Hinduism we are using Basti, Mohalla. Maximum settlement of this community is located in semi urban areas and the reason is that they don’t want to live in rural area. There are no sources of employment and survival. They are fully dependent on market economy of urban areas (wage labour, rickshaw pulling, maid servant etc.). The typical Lohra settlement is characterized by congestion and a little disorderliness. The houses are distributed unevenly in the settlement area. Many a time, the houses were constructed whenever a place is available. The entire household in Lohra settlement is attached and uniform in their structure. Their houses look like as if they have been just made for few days but they have been made for permanent living. And that is the reason when an outsider comes in their settlement they think they are nomadic people and after sometimes they will leave the place. But fact is that they are living in that settlement more than 50 years.

Another significant feature of the Lohra settlement is that no one has single Pucca house. Every family has single room house which is used for everything like living, sleeping, cooking. In summer season they use outside space for coking and sleeping. No one has toilet facilities near their houses. All people of the community go out. Maximum lohra settlement located nearer to Railways tracks or end of the city.

The degree of natural disaster (flood) ids directly proportional of the displacement of Lohra. It is commonly seen that lower the degree of disaster; lohra looks outside for food and accommodation for longer period of time. Every year flood is frequent in these areas. Lot of information and data on flood is readily available with the local government as flood in this district is a common phenomenon which is experienced every year. However, there are no rehabilitation created by the government and no pre-strategic precautionary measures are measures are adopted. During disaster, the only help reaching these tribal is through local population.

Changing pattern of Social custom and practice among Lohra community

With the passage of time the distinct culture of Lohra community has undergone several changes.  There was a time when special collective-rituals called “Jhurr-Puja in Jitiya festival” used to organized, in which collective tribal dance Jhummar with traditional musical instrument ‘Mandra and Digga’ were performed. As an oral history of elders and my grandfather stated that his father was the “Sardar” head of the community in region. He used to organize the “Jhurr-Puja” (Jhurr -branch of new Kadamb leaf and karma) in which community members were to be invited with neighboring tribe. Local drink “Hadia & Pochay” was served to the guests. But due to economic incapability the tradition could not be continued.  The special pattern of Jitiya festival with Jhurr-puja is only a pleasant story of our ancestors for the present generation. But the Naagpuri –adhunik (Modern-Nagpuri ) song even now make appeal to our old tribal dance in many occasion like Holi and marriages.

In Lohra community child marriage used to be the norm but now these practices is not visible. Earlier in lohra community marriage was free from dowry system. It is very important to note that in the earlier marriages groom family provided 2.50 to 5 Rs.  or as per the capability to the bride. In addition to that the groom’s family gifted ‘Maien[4]’ especially to the mother of the bride.  But now a day’s these practice is convert in dowry system like typical Hindu marriage.

Now infant-marriage is a rare occurrence. The ceremony is modeled on the orthodox type. A bridegroom price is paid, and polygamy is lawful only on failure of issue by the first wife. Besides negotiation, other modes of acquiring mates are courtship, capture, elopement, intrusion, and exchange. Regarding divorce some diversity in practice seems to prevail. Kanaujia profess to prohibit it altogether, while other sub caste admit it only with the permission of the Panchayat, and regards the remarriage of divorced wives with disfavor. Widow marriage is recognized both in Bihar, Jharkhand and elsewhere. By no means, it’s a distinctive Dravidian custom, but rather a survival of early Aryan custom, which has fallen into disuse among the higher class under the influence of Brahmanical prejudice.

Dangri-puja and Jhurr puja, Mokha puja were the traditional rituals in which community members of the region were to be invited. But due to somewhat economic-incapability and most them engaged in daily earning of bread and butter rich-cultural-tradition could not be continued to present generation. Could it need revitalization?

Due to the ongoing interaction with the different society, the Hindu worship entered into the main course of rituals of the lohra tribe, like Ramnawmi, Chhath-puja, Shiv-charcha etc. Due to these variations in original traditional practices and frequent assimilation of non tribal way of worshiping pure- tribal-traits is missing and becoming a major cause of identity crisis.

Community Panchayat was used to be an influential institution to maintain the characteristic of tribal community .My Grandfather and aged people of community share an experience of ethnocentric nature where in their younger age if someone get married to people other than their own community then Panchayat used to punish the accused family by ordering to organize a ‘Jati –Bhoj[5]’, then married couple may enter inside the village by performing special ritual “Jhulathan” (By sticking with a hot stick or bamboo ). But now this type of institution is not seen, instead of that modern small hamlet entered and modern state government.  Functionary regulation is a widely accepted in the community.  With the emergence of modern Panchayat and ward system the Community-Panchayat system has lost their authority. Earlier in the community-Panchayat system the whole development and governance have been looked after by the Community-Panchayat itself. But now these days the modern Panchayat system is fully controlled by the elite group where hardly the issues and concern of the common people get tabled. These modern ways of governing system have not been attracted by the common masses of the community because their voices have never been placed.

Common language is one of the tribal traits, but regional variation also exists.   However, “Sadri” being the means of communication among lohra tribal people but at the same time it is distinct from the language of Oraon, Santhal.  Due to the impact of major – regional – language Maithily, Khorta cause some variation in original tongue of the Lohara community language. Its variation is inevitable with time and demography of region which has been accepted by the community without any imposition.

The intensity of assimilation of lohra tribe into Hindu society is very high. As a community insider I found that the major reason for that is similarity in nomenclature with Lohar. People generally make mistake by understanding “Lohra” and “Lohar” as the same. But “Lohra” has different culture and language from the “Lohar”.

Now some marriages are seen in which daughters are being married to outside the state like UP and Punjab. Poverty and economic constrain resulted this kind of human trafficking in the community. Hardly there exists any contact with family member after marriage is over. The degradation pattern of population is also very serious concern. Seasonal-migration to metro cities for livelihood and daily bread and butter made discontinuation of tradition.

Conclusion

This brief history of the Lohra demonstrates how over time the displacement from land has not only uprooted the community physically; it has also led to the decline of Lohra culture. As most of the cultural activities were related to agriculture and corresponded to the agricultural cycle, the giving up of agriculture has led to a sort of a crisis among the Lohra. Many of the festivals are now celebrated by other tribes, such as the Oraon and Santhal, in the region which Lohra claim to be originally theirs. A very popular activist in the region, from the Oraon community, asserted to this claim of the Lohras. This assertion on the part of many Lohra that I interacted in the field indicates a sense of resignation in the community regarding their situation. The meaning of community life has changed. Lohra are now distributed not only across villages, but many have migrated to cities and towns in search for work. The question that remains with me is how one retrieves a sense of self and community in the face of marginalization and the difficult conditions in which the Lohra live.

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Endnotes

[1]Pahan term is used for the priest of the tribal community.

[2] Parna term is used for the process of breaking fast

[3] Sikmi right is a right accruing to the share-cropper through continuous cultivation of the land another person. this right started in 1954 under the Bihar tendency act. According to this the land of cultivation is automatically transferred from generation to generation.

[4] Maien- leg of goat which was for the mother of the brides.

[5]Jati Bhoj – Kind of dinner party to legalize the inter-community marriage.

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