Village with a difference - Bishnoi

4 January 2007

For centuries, the Bhil and the Bishnoi cultures have coexisted in the Rajasthan desert of central India. Though they live diametrically opposed lifestyles and have vastly different philosophies, they are drawn together by a bond much stronger than their differences: the struggle to survive in this harsh and unforgiving land.

The name “Bishnoi” (“Twenty-nine”) represents the number of principles espoused by their prophet, Lord Jhambheshwar. Despite being born a Khstriya, the second highest Hindu caste, he disapproved of the caste system and created a classless community into which all were accepted. The only requirement was to live by his 29 life principles including no killing or eating of animals, no cutting down of living trees and no alcohol consumption.

It is said that Lord Jhambheshwar attained saintly enlightenment while meditating beneath a tree in a place that would later become the village of Jhamba. There, where he discovered a water source that rescued his people from a 20-year drought, he established his ideal community, a society of people living in harmony with each other and with their environment. Many of the rules he imposed are still followed today.

Equal appearance was one of Lord Jhambheshwar’s principles. Believing that it would prevent jealousy and promote peace, he instituted a policy of uniformity that is still followed today. All women wear very bright, predominantly red saris of patterned cloth and adorn themselves with nose rings, bracelets and anklets. Men wear basic white clothes representing simplicity and modesty.

Among the Bishnoi, young married couples must settle on bare land and make it arable by digging wells, planting millet and cultivating other vegetation. The prophet Jhambheshwar preferred a proactive philosophy of agricultural development to a passive approach to the environment.

Although the Bishnoi are renowned for dedication to their faith, one incident in particular ensured their place in modern Indian history. In 1847, the Jodhpur king sent his army out to cut trees to build his palace. When his army started to log a Bishnoi forest, they staged a non-violent protest, offering their bodies as shields for the trees. The army’s axes killed 363 before the king, hearing of their courage, halted the logging and declared the Khejarli region a preserve, off limits for logging and hunting.

The Bishnoi eat remarkably well despite the harsh desert environment and the strict rules by which they live. During the monsoon season, they grow millet, which is then ground into flour for their staple food, chapattis. Sangari, the small, bean-like fruit of the khejadi tree, is dried and mixed with the berry of the kair, a desert bush. Chapattis, sangari and kair berries are the staples at most meals, frequently supplemented with butter and yogurt, delicacies from the few cows that Bishnoi families raise.

July and August, the monsoon season, usually brings rain to the Rajasthan desert. In a good year, the harvest season extends through October and the generous yield will feed a family for up to two years. Sometimes, rain may even fall in the off-season, allowing the Bishnoi to also grow barley. The threat of extended drought always hangs heavy over the region, forcing the inhabitants to plan far ahead to survive on their reserves of food and water.

Both vegetation and fuel for fires are scarce in this arid region. In accordance with their principles, the Bishnoi never cut living trees for firewood or building materials. Instead, they rely entirely on the scarce, dry, dead wood they find and much of their fuel for cooking comes from dried cow and water buffalo dung.

Numerous traditions and rules of social conduct have been combined with the original principles that guide Bishnoi lives. The most significant of which arose in the original Jhamba village soon after the death of the prophet. Each year, the people chose a man they called shaand, or breeder: a strong young man in his early twenties, handsome, intelligent and a prototypical specimen of their race. His duty was to breed with the women to improve the genetic stock of the entire ethnic group. Instead of wearing traditional mojari leather shoes, the shaand was known by his wooden karau. It was a great honor to be chosen by the shaand, who would leave his karau outside the home as a sign that no other men were welcome. Although being chosen as the shaand was glorious, it was a short-lived honor with an abrupt end: every year, a new shaand was chosen and the outgoing one was sacrificed. This tradition ended in the1920’s, doomed by both modernization and the increasing desertion by shaands in the last weeks of their tenure.

Although the shaands are gone, the traditional annual celebration in honor of Lord Jhambheshwar is still observed on the first night of the new moon in the month of Chetry, two weeks after the Holy Indian National Festival. Thousands of people make the pilgrimage to the remote desert village to drink the salty water from the sacred source, believing it will cleanse them of all their sins.

Other Bishnoi beliefs have their roots in more modern traditions. Most Bishnoi people, converted Hindus, still believe in reincarnation and their main objects of veneration are the gentle antelope, revered as returned dead ancestors. Antelope are frequently seen in large numbers near Bishnoi millet plantations and irrigated land—a scenario that has become the crux of an oddly symbiotic and contentious relationship with their neighboring ethnic group, the Bhil.

The Bhil people are highly skilled desert hunters; the art of hunting has been in their blood for many centuries. Although the government now forbids hunting, the Bhils secretly preserve their culture by venturing out at night to kill birds, rabbits and lizards with their hunting sticks. Their favorite target is the bountiful antelope population, prized for its plentiful, high-quality meat. Among the poorest people in India, few Bhil people own rifles or those who do can’t afford the licenses or bullets. They fill rifles leftover from their mercenary work with black powder, stones and glass debris and hunt under cover of darkness.

Even more offensive to the Bishnoi than their stalking of antelopes is the Bhils’ attitude towards trees and vegetation. The Bhil flaunt Bishnoi taboos by cutting trees to fuel their fires, build their houses, and most importantly, to provide materials for basket making, especially the green wood of the precious arana tree.

Over the centuries, the Bhil have become semi-nomadic, offering their services to kings and maharajas as mercenaries and soldiers for hire. As the era of warring maharajas and kings came to a close in the early 20th century, the Bhil lost their only source of income and were forced to adopt a different way of life. Since then, they have settled in rural villages where they live from hunting and limited herding.

In recent decades, more and more Bhil people have settled next to Bishnoi communities, drawn to the few places with dependable sources of water and game. Unlike the Bishnoi, they have never farmed—their legacy for centuries has been their merit as fierce warriors on the field of combat.

Bhil people practice the Sonatan religion, a form of Hinduism. Although they do not use the Hindu veda book, they pray to the same gods and worship cows. They venerate the prophet Bhapuji, a 15th century warrior known for his courage, and honor him once a month during a full moon celebration called Jagaran. Women are not allowed to attend these celebrations where male drummers called bhoppas play and sing all night to accompany the men as they dance around a large fire.

In contrast, Bhil women are dominant when it comes to marriage. Marriages are always arranged and treated as a business agreement. Yet in this case, the negotiations are reversed. Bhil families do not pay a dowry to marry off their daughters; men outnumber women. It is the men who must pay 10 goats (about $100) for the right to marry an eligible woman! Every year during the July to August Full-Moon Day Fair, young men compete for the honor of marrying some of the wealthiest young women.

Bhil men fervently protect the women in their families. No outside men are allowed in a family’s house unless the women’s male relatives invites them to enter. Men do not talk to women without permission from a man of the family. Women do not attend night celebrations to avoid male dancers who may get drunk and overly zealous. The overt practices of modesty begin at puberty. Most young married women must keep their faces covered all day, especially in the presence of their in-laws. Only women with grown children can be seen without a veil.

Water dominates the lives of all who dwell in Rajasthan. Both Bishnoi and Bhil women often walk long distances through the desert, returning to their mud and dung huts with jugs of water on their heads there is so little water that people wash their dishes using sand and only a cup or two of water suffices to wash their faces and hands in lieu of bathing. Recently, the region has suffered through a three-year drought that has devastated crops and caused widespread deaths of both livestock and wildlife. With wells drying up and people starving, communities have been forced to rely on aid from welfare organizations and the government just to survive.

Today, larger populations and more defined private property boundaries are putting pressure on the Rajasthan desert dwellers. Years of drought have also brought additional hardship. As Bishnoi and Bhil communities are forced to live closer to each other permanently, conflicts are starting to emerge. The future of these people may depend upon NGO support: education may be the best way for them to voice their need for their ancestral land and rights while learning to live in harmony in a shrinking space offering fewer and fewer resources.