KNOW MORE ABOUT MALLAH CASTE IN MADHYA PRADESH

THE TRIBES AND CASTES OF THE

CENTRAL PROVINCES OF INDIA

VOL. IV Page no. 171 to 112

 R. V. RESSELL

HEERALAL

Mallah, Malha.- A small cast of boatman and fisherman in the Jabbulpore and Narsinghpur District, which numbered about 5000 person in 1911. It is scarcely correct to designate the mallahs as distinct caste, as in both these Districts it appears front inquiry that the term is synonymous with Kewat. Apparently, however, the Mallahs do from inquiry that the term is synonymous with kewat. Apparently, however, the Mallahs do form a separate endogamous group, and owing to many of them having adopted the profession of growing hemp, a crop which respectable Hindu castes usually refuse to cultivate, it is probable that they would not be allowed to intermarry with the Kewats of other Districts. In the United Provinces Mr. Crooke state that the Mallahs, though, as their Arabic name indicates, of recent origin, have matured into a definite social group, including a number of endogamous tribes. The term mallah has nothing to do with the Mulla or Muhammadan priest among the Frontier tribes, but comes from an Arabic word meaning ‘to be salt’ or, according to another derivation, ‘to move the wings as a bird.’ The Mallahs of the central provinces are also, in spite of their Arabic name, a purely Hindu caste. In Narsinghpur they say that their original ancestor was one Bali or Baliram, who was a boatman and was so strong that he could carry his boat to the river and back under his armpit. On one occasion he ferried Rama across the Ganga in Benares, and is said that Rama gave him a horse to show his gratitude; but Baliram was so ignorant that he placed the bridle on the horse’s tail instead of the head. And from this act of Baliram’s arose the custom of having the rudder of a boat at the stern instead of bow. The Mallah in the Central Provinces appear from their family names to be immigrants from Bundelkhand. Girls are married under the age of twelve years, and the remarriage of widows is permitted, while divorce may be affected in the presence of the panchayat or caste committee by the husband and wife breaking a straw between them. They are scantily clothed and are generally poor. A proverb about them says:

Jahan baithan malao

Tahan lage alao

Or, ‘Where Mallah sit, there is always a fire.’ This refers to their custom of kindling fires on the river-bank to protect them from cold. In Narsinghpur the Mallahs have found a profitable opening in the cultivation of hemp, crops which other Hindu castes until recently tabooed on account probably of the dirty nature of the process of cleaning out the fiber and the pollution necessarily cased to the water supply. The sow and cut hemp on Sundays and Wednesdays, which are regarded as auspicious days. They also grow melons, and will not enter in the melon-field with their shoes on or allow a woman during her periodical impurity to approach it. The Mallah are poor and illiterate, but rank with Dhimars and kewats, and Brahmans will take water from their hands.

                                                                                                        Courtesy –        
                                                                                                        R. S. Kewat.

(Founder and managing director, majhi samaj mahasangh)