Who Is Majhi

PEOPLE OF INDIA

The Scheduled Tribes

Anthropological survey of India

By Dr. K.S.Singh

Majhi:- The term majhi means boatman. The group has synonym like mallah, kewat and nabik. They believed their forefathers once

inhabited the bank of the Ganga either at Banaras or at Allahabad, and later migrated to the present habitat. They are distributed in the

districts of Shahdol, Rewa, Satna, Panna, Chhatarpur and Tikamgarh of Madhaya Pradesh. According to the 1981 census, the total population of majhi in Madhaya Pradesh is 11074. They speak Bundelkhandi for both intra and intra-group communication, and use the devnagri script. They are non vegetarian and eat fish, meat, and pork. Their staple food is rice and wheat supplemented with pulse. Mustard oil, sesamum and dohori (mahua seed) oil are used by them as cooking media. The majhi are segmented into exogamous clans like Kasyp, Sanwani, Chaudhari, Teliagoth, Kolgath, etc. Child marriage is still in vogue among them. Marriage alliances are usually negotiated. Monogamy is the norm, but polygamy is permitted. The symbols of marriage for women are vermilion (sindur), glass bangles and toe-rings (bichua). The rule of residence patrilocal. Either spouse can seek divorce (chod-chutti). Following the divorce, a sum of money is paid as maintenance to the wife until the remarriages. Widows and divorces can remarry, and is known as chudipinhana. Women have the right to inherit property, but in practice this is not honoured. They take part in agricultural operations, fetch water, and also take part in social and religious activities. They contribute to the family income. The Ghasia women act as midwives for them. Birth pollution continues up to six days, and on the sventh day, a ceremony known as chhathi is performed when the newborn is named. The tonsue(mundane) ceremony is performed after two year. Marriage rituals include the engagement (mangni), magar mati, putting up of the pandal(mandap), application of turmeric paste (tel-huldi), reception of the barat or bridegroom's people (pargani) and circumambulation around the sacred fire, seven times. The consummation of the marriage take place at the groom's house after a ritual called gaona.the dead are cremated. People who die during an epidemic or due to an accident and children below the age of one year are buried. Death pollution continues up to the ninth day and on the tenth day the pagdibandi ritual is celebrated, ancestor worship is observed a year after death. The major economic resource of the Majhi is land. Most of them own some work as boatmen. Today their primary occupations are agriculture and agricultural labour. According to the 1981 census, 44.97 % of their total population are returned as workers (61.33 % male and 28.52 % females). Of them 44.38 % cultivators, 30.82 % are agriculture laboure 7.7 % are in fishing, forestry, etc. 5.46 % in household industries, and the remaining 12.17 % are engaged in other occupations. The children of this community work as wage labourers to the support their families. At the village level, the headman of the Majhi community exercises social control through the traditional council. The regional council, which meets every four years in a village, deals with disputes, crimes and other social problems. Those who flout socials norms are punished with the imposition of fines and in extreme cases, they are excommunicated.

The Majhi now profess Hinduism instead of their traditional religion. The 1981 census records 99.36 % of the Majhi as followers of Hinduism, 0.46 % as Chirstians, 0.10 % as Sikhs, 0.05 % Muslims and 0.03 % as those who follow 'other religions' the 1971 census recorded their total population sa Hindus. They worship Sanker, Hanuman, Durga, Ganesh as well as Dulhadeo. Their sacred specialist is the Brahman priest who performs birth, marriage and death rites. The medicine man (baiga) plays a vital role in the Majhi community. Their major festivals are Diwali, Holi, Ganesh Chaturthi and Cherta. The Majhi boys and girls avail of the facilities of modern education. Their literacy rate is 11.63 %, the male and female literacy rates being 18.57 % and 4.65 % , respectively (1981 census). They make use of both modern and indigenous medicines. They do not follow the modern methods of family planning. They get drinking water from wells and hand-pumps and use electricity. Rain water is used for irrigation. They use firewood cow dung cakes and kerosene oil as domestic fuel.

Majumdar, D.N. "The Racial Basis of Indian social structure", Eastern

Anthropologist 2(3), 1949, pp. 145-52.