Satish Chaudhuri portrays his father
by Dr. Maren Bellwinkel-Schempp
Latouche Road leads into the centre of town. At ten in the morning of 12 February 1996, it is already practically impossible to get through. Madly hooting their horns, cars lorries and scooters try to overtake the many rickshaws, cyclists and horse drawn carriages blocking the road. The houses, some of them are adorned by a facade of engraved stonework, are three to four stories high. These are the homes of the Muslims who make up about 20% of the population of the two million strong city of Kanpur. Direct neighbours to them are the Hindus, who persue a trade in Latouche Road one might consider strange in a large industrial city.
The car stops at the prearranged meeting point in front of the fire station where two pigs rooting about in the ditch are easily chased away, in front of us a large complex of houses opens up with a steep staircase leading up two stories to the flat of Satish Chaudhuri, the elder of the caste of the Khatik, a small, but commercially highly successful caste of Untouchables. The Khatik are fruit and vegetable dealers and some keep pigs. Their name is derived from the Sanskrit word "khatika" meaning "butcher and hunter". (1)
Satish is a young man in his mid thirties, he is neither old nor is he the eldest son, as the literal translation of his name misleadingly would have us believe. All his brothers bear the title "chaudhuri", as do all his relatives, for they all belong to the family of Mitthoo Lall, the Bristle King of India. Taking the photograph of Mitthoo Lall from the wall, Satish has himself photographed with it and his wife by the prayer corner, once both have bathed. This is the most important and most sacred place in the house, and this is the only way he is able to honour his important father.
Satish Chaudhuri and his wife at the prayercorner with a picture of Mitthoo Lall.
M/s Mithoo Lall, Boshan Lall and Mangal Devi was established in 1910. Mitthoo Lall made his nephew and his sister co-partners. "Three are better than one and sisters have a tendency to settle family disputes" his only living brother replies when asked about the partnership. Manufacturing and trading in hog bristle in the years following World War I made Mitthoo Lall the richest bristle dealer in India.
In the beginning, he supplied only the local brush industry. The Cawnpore Brush Factory had been established by the British in 1896 and as it expanded Kanpur became the centre of Indian bristle manufacture.(2)
However, the volume of business far exceeded local demand and by 1925 the company was trading as far away as England and Germany. Known as Calcutta bristle (3), the strong 128 Indian hog bristle was a popular commodity, expecially for the manufacture of hair brushes and industrial brushes. The bristles were taken by rail to Bombay and shipped to London where brokers sold them at auctions which were continued until 1969. The Indians had to clear the hurdles of colonial business practice, but at the end of the day it nevertheless made them rich. First they received an advance from the importer, who had an office in India and negotiated directly with the bristle dressing shops. They received a percentage of the average price achieved at the last auction. This enabled them to ship the goods. Once in London, the bristle was displayed in a warehouse to enable buyers to check the quality. Before the auction, which took place four times a year, the brokers compiled a catalogue listing and describing the products according to their special marks. The brokers consisted of a small group of four to five traditional families who had been in the trade for a long time. They then paid the manufacturers, deducting various costs for packaging, storing and cataloguing etc.
(4)
Bristle dressing by men and women alike
Bristles are obtained by hand and little has changed as far as the organization of the work is concerned. The bristles are plucked out with the root from either the live or the dead animal. Live, the pig is lifted over the branch of a tree by the hind legs, rubbed down with ash and, with much squealing from the pig, bristles are removed. Being the longest, those along the spine are preferred. Men pluck the bristles, and the job is done by the caste which owns the pigs. If the pig is dead the bristles are removed at the abattoir by the subgroup of the Khatik, who are butchers. The bristles are bundled and sold to a bristle shop, where the bristles are processed or passed on to a contractor, who employs workers to boil, wash, dry, sort, bundle and comb the bristles and personally supervises each individual operation.
The manufacturer pays the middleman by the bundle and he in turn pays his workforce. Both women and men are employed, whereby women are mainly responsible for washing the bloody bristles, and the men for sorting, trimming and bundling them. Women are paid less, which is sex-specific discrimination, but it is argued that washing the bristle requires less skill than the other processes. Work in this unorganized sector of Indian society is neither subject to Indian labour legislation nor have the unions become active to help regulate tariffs. Labour relations are informal and strongly influenced by family and caste relations.
In the main, the Khatik are bristle manufacturers, the Kori the subcontractors and the labour force is made up of Kori, Khatik and Pasi, whereby the Kori constitute the largest proportion of the workforce. Men and women work side by side which led to disputes among the Kori, some wanting to abolish female labour altogether arguing that it only encouraged flirtation and adultery. However, the women 128 sucessfully resisted any attempt in this direction, spurred also by the need to improve their meagre incomes. Another argument that women should give up the defiling job of washing the bloody bristles must be understood within the context of a move towards "sanskritisation" ( religious orthodoxy - translator's remark), however, this argument remained unheared. There is extensive evidence for the strong position of women in the Untouchable Castes in Indian anthropological literature and the women of the Khatik, Kori and Pasi are good examples for it.
(6)
In Kanpur,bristle dressing is frequently done by women.
Mitthoo Lall becomes a rich man
Mitthoo Lall was able to use the "despised niche" of Indian society to his advantage by making a profit from keeping pigs industrially. He cleverly invested his wealth in city real estate and a whole block of houses on Latouche Rd. belongs to him and his offspring. The Khatik were not bothered with social esteem and advancement. There was a short phase in which they tried to form gotras (7) following the Brahmin example, however, this attempt failed. Neither did they attempt (as other Untouchables in Kanpur (8) did) to attain higher social status by changing their geneaology. For them economic success sufficed, which Nawal Kishor, owner of the bristle factory Makund Lall and Sons, explains as follows: " There is no Hindu religion, there is only Sanathana Dharma and the Arya Dharma. The former worship statues and the latter believe in God as a pure spirit. I am Arya Samaji and only use the word Om (9). I also only believe in what I can attain through work, my work is my religion." These remarks bring to mind the famous religious and sociological study by Max Weber into the emergence of captitalism from protestantism in Europe. In respect of India, Max Weber claims that capitalism could only be imported. (10) The brush industry of Kanpur was without doubt an English import from which bristle dressing later emerged. But Nawal Kishors' working ethos sounds protestant.
The nonchalance with which the Khatik ignore the Hindu laws on purity and the self-assuredness with which the bristle manufacturers looked upon their despised trade may only apply to the rich dealers, however, it can hardly be interpreted as an expression of sanscritisation, as their frequent adoption of the surname Sonkar, derived from the Hindi word Somkar - moonlight - might suggest (11). The Khatik enjoy a comparatively high social and economic status.
The bristle trade has made many of them wealthy. Many of the Khatik are university educated with good and well-paid government jobs and this has had retroactive effect on the status of their caste. The Khatik are ranked higher than the Chamar, numerically the biggest scheduled caste in Kanpur (12).
In 1942 Mitthoo Lall created the forum for a political event when Dr. Bhimaro Ambedkar, the notable leader or the Untouchables, visited Kanpur. He was met by the leaders of the Congress party who were all caste Hindus, and who wanted to put him up at the Allen Retreat, the guest house of the British employers. However, Dr. Abedkar didn't agree to this, asking to be put up by one of his peers and Mitthoo Lall became his host, not on account of his supporting the affairs of the Untouchables but because he happened to be richest Untouchable at the time. Babuji, the 82 year old cousin of Mitthoo Lall, still remembers this visit, also because Dr Ambedkar called all the leaders of the Untouchable Castes of Kanpur together in Mitthoo Lall's house to allow them to eat together and bury their differences. Today the house belongs to a company making agricultural machines in front of which Satish Chaudhury and Nawal Kishor have themselves proudly photographed.
The bristle trade in independent India
In the past 200 years, different methods of pig farming and political developments have brought about many changes in the bristle trade. In the 19th century, two important fairs used to be held in St.Petersburg and Leipzig which these marked Germany and Russia's roles as leading suppliers in the bristle trade. The political unrest following World War I hampered trade with Russia, China and India took over as number one suppliers. Although India only supplied a tenth of the volume the Chinese did, owing to colonial trade preferences, India supplied a different market. Indian bristle, designated as being British in origin because it was shipped via London, was supplied to the English and most European markets. The USA on the other hand was the largest buyer of the Chinese product. The Chinese Civil War and the restructuring of the state under the Communists in 1948 placed a great strain on the bristle trade and the import of hog bristle from China was finally prohibited when the Americans imposed a trade embargo in connection with the war in Korea. American traders were even prohibited from importing Chinese goods through third countries.
Between 1950 and 1970 Kanpur's bristle dressers and traders were offered new market opportunities. The Chinese market being closed to them for political reasons, the Americans turned to the Indian market, in some cases even importing the bristle directly from Kanpur to manufacture it into toothbrushes, hair brushes and paintbrushes, although the bristle was unsuitable for such purposes. By-passing the London auctions turned out to be more profitable for most Indian businesses as they were able to avoid the expenses it incurred. It was not until Richard Nixon reopened the Chinese market in 1972 that the Indian's luck started to turn. The Chinese were able to supply a much larger volume of different quality hog bristle at more competitive prices. Kanpur's bristle dealers actually imported Chinese bristle themselves (14). Since then, small new regional markets have formed in Delhi, Sherkot and Bhijnor.
Meanwhile, the Indian Government has taken over most of the traditional companies in India's oldest industrial city, closing down production while maintaining only a useless administration. Kanpur's oldest brush factory met the same fate. The company was closed in 1994 and the dusty rooms are now guarded by four watchmen. Because their turnover is so small, for ten years bristle manufacturers have no longer been required to register their trade with the Chamber of Industry and Commerce. I was told that there are still seven bristle companies operating in the area, five of which are owned by Khatik. Six businesses have specialised in Chinese hog bristle. The 12 brush factories on which statistics are available are, on average, 15 years old. (15). In addition there are eight bristle dressers and nine bristle dealers who are not registered. Only a few companies still export bristle to Europe as it is mainly sold on the Indian market where it is in high demand. The manufacture of paintbrushes has become an important business owing to the building boom set off by the government's economic policy.
The food makes the man
Some members of the Scheduled Castes such as the Pasi, Khati and the Bhangi keep pigs and numerous other members of the Scheduled Castes also eat pork, such as the Chamar. The consumption of pork has increased in Kanpur and some pigs are kept for slaughtering. The Khatik proudly show off a fat white pig which is supposed to be Chinese in origin. As the Chinese pigs were originally black like the Indian ones it can only be surmised that it was cross bred with a European species and later introduced to India via China. (17) The pig is kept and fattened in a sty and unlike the black pigs cannot root around loose in the road. There is scant reference in anthropological literature to which castes eat pork .(18) This is probably due on the one hand to regional differences on the other to the fact that the castes which keep and handle pigs are considered to be unclean. Sikhs, Parsees and Christians are permitted to eat pork, but speculation as to who else eats it varies according to reference group and status. The Khatik claim the Muslims do, although their religion prohibits it. Caste Hindus consider pork to be the diet of Kanpur's poor working classes and put it on a level with drinking alcohol. For educated members of the Scheduled Castes, eating pork is something poor caste members of their caste do, or something they may have done in their youth.
Pigs are omnivorous, they eat garbage, excrement and carrion. Caste Hindus and Muslims consider them unclean animals. Cows, water buffalo, sheep and goats are clean animals because they eat grass. Caste Hindus are however permitted to eat chicken, and in wide parts of the country, chicken is preferred as a meat, although they eat worms and impurities. A distinction is also made between sacred and profane animals. Animals considered to be sacred are the vahanas or the vehicles of the Gods. The rat is the vehicle of the elephant God Ganesha and the vulture that of Sani. (19) These are animals which consume impurities, communicate disease and eat carrion. Sacred animals must not be slaughtered.
As a sacred animal, the cow enjoys a prominent position, The Hindu God Brahman is said to have created priests and cows at the same time. The five matters excreted by the cow are considered to be sacred and are offered to the Gods, like milk and fat. Female members of the priestly caste many work cow dung and it is also used for ritual cleansing. Hindus look upon the cow as the Mother of India, and one does not kill a mother. However, this does not apply to all Hindus, but rather to Brahmin tradition. On the other hand the Scheduled Castes eat beef, although on the whole they observe the rule that cows should not be slaughtered. (20) However, people working in slaughterhouses will eat the meat of animals which have died of natural causes.(21)
The Muslims consider the cow to be a pure animal which may be eaten. However, the movement to protect the cow has been extended to include the Muslims, and this is loudly propagated by the Khatik accompanied by frightening threats of: "Just wait, if the Muslims kill a cow, they'll be in for it." Therefore, the Muslims do not eat beef, preferring water buffalo meat instead. In the past, killing a cow has been the cause of frequent Hindu-Muslim clashes. The Muslims and the Khatik slaughter animals for consumption. the slaughterhouses are located in different parts of town and under supervision of the Public Health Office; however, the notion of hygiene is far removed from ours. What is relevant is that the sub-groups of the Khatik and Muslims who specialise in the butcher's trade bear the same names. The Muslim Chik slaughter water buffalo and goats at the Bakarmandi abattoir (meaning goat market) using the halal method.. The Khatik Chik on the other hand slaughter goats and pigs at the abattoir in Fazalganj, which is also the pig market. The animals are stabbed in the heart and the arterial blood flowing out is caught. However, the animal is not bled completely. "It tastes better that way", the Khatik say, but must concede that meat with a high blood content spoils more quickly.
Man and Beast
Attempts have been made to systematise and equate the hierarchy of man and beast according to purity and impurity, as if the human and animal cosmos were founded on the same structural principles. (22) As a sacred animal, the cow is equated with the Brahmins, the priests, who represent the highest caste in the Indian caste system.
The Untouchables are members of the lowest castes in the Indian caste system, and with respect to their personal qualities are treated as being equal with pigs. The Untouchables and pigs are considered impure because they work with or come into contact with unclean matter. This is matter produced by the vital processes, e.g. human excrements and all areas surrounding death. Traditionally, washers, street sweepers, cleaners, hairdressers, cobblers, midwives, knackers and corpse washers belong to the Untouchable Castes. In the same way pigs eat garbage, the Untouchables must handle and process the waste products of the highest castes.
Phenomenologically, equating the Untouchables with pigs is understandable because most people assigned to the Untouchable Castes live in squalid conditions, in the vicinity of refuse and filth. The mountains of rubbish by the wayside, even in Kanpur's best residential districts, cannot be overlooked. Road sweepers and pigs alike scavenge them for anything edible or usable. However, cows can also be found grazing on the rubbish. In their common search for food, pure and impure animals generally defy the categories set for them by man.
The tenet "The food makes the man " is incorrect. Nominal understanding of the hierarchical arrangement of man and beast is rooted in Indian caste theory and is therefore the ruling ideology, however it does not suffice to explain caste rank. Socio-economic factors and the concept of the inherent qualities of the caste play a decisive role in defining rank. Many members of the Untouchable Castes do work which is not defiling, however, they continue to be ranked as "Untouchable" " because of their poverty. "Untouchability" is a definition of being, and cannot simply be brushed off or changed. (23)
Pigs bring affluence and fertility
It has already been mentioned that the Khatik were not at all concerned with Hindu laws on purity, and considered commercial success to be more important.
Facing every ruling ideology is the ideology of the downtrodden with its own power and dynamics. According to Brahmin ideology one must dissociate one's self from the impure , so that it does not become a potential danger. From a psychoanalytical point of view a culture which will not take responsibility for the underprivileged, which leaves behind its rubbish in the confidence that a person of lesser status will remove it, grants great power to that person, he becomes a potential danger. The tales and myths of the Untouchables are full of the power and danger embodied by the pig. The tale of the Chamar goddess Chamaria Mai is a good example. Chamaria is so strong she is invincible. If followed, she hides in the dirt. If pursued by a Muslim, she hides in the pig sty, which he may not enter. A piglet is sacrificed in her honour and served to her with alcohol.
For the Untouchables the pig embodies fertility, pleasure, strength, power and protection. Etymologically no distinction is made between the domestic pig and the wild boar, the pig is domesticated and wild at the same time, i.e. it has retained the strength of the wild species. This power can still be felt in the myth of the boar which saves the sunken world on its tusks from the floods of primeval waters. The myth is of prearyan origin but is identified with Visnu in so far as the boar, vraha, is accepted as the third incarnation of Visnu. (26)
The consumption of pork fills man with power drawn from the fertile qualities of the pig. At weddings and caste celebrations pork is served. These meals have high social and cultural significance. In times of illness, sacrifices are made to the Goddess to implore her protection of the pig. In this case a piglet serves as the sacrificial animal.
An ancient cultural heritage common to the Untouchable Castes is the worship of Goddesses. There may be a connection with some aspects of Brahmin high culture, however, independent traditions have been maintained. These differ from caste to caste. The Chamaria Mai is the tutelary Goddess of the Chama, the Javana is a special ritual observed by the Kori. All the Untouchable Castes worship Ma, the Mother, who is non-personified. These Goddesses are usually associated with the seven sisters, the Goddesses of sickness, who live in squalor and who are regarded as the wives of Shiva. (27) They are powerful Goddesses who give and take life. To appease them, a pig must be offered in sacrifice. All the Untouchables worship Vindhyachal, the Goddess of the Vindhya mountains in the Mizrapur District, to which a pilgrimage takes place twice year at the beginning of summer and winter. Satish Chaudhuri goes on these pilgrimages with his family. However, a pig is no longer sacrificed to the Goddess, it has been replaced by a goat. Animal sacrifice has been preserved for the Goddess associated with Kali (28)
Hindu Muslim disputes in Kanpur
The potential danger constituted by the cultural structure of this segregation has been aggravated by economic, social and political events. There are about as many Muslims (20%) living in the industrial town of Kanpur as there are Untouchables (16%). (29) Kanpur's industrial development began with the establishment of cotton spinning and weaving mills, followed by saddlers and harness makers, and later by shoe and boot factories. Following in the wake of these British establishments, came tanneries run by Muslims who, although they had a predominantly Muslim workforce, also employed some labourers from the Untouchable Castes, who were traditionally leather workers.
Few Muslims became affluent, the majority were mere labourers working in the tanneries and textile industry, while some became small traders. The Muslims therefore enjoyed the same social status as the Untouchable Castes, who in the main were employed as labourers in organised and unorganised industry.
Before World War I, the relations between the Hindus and the Muslims in Kanpur were friendly. (30)
However the nationalistic agitation conducted by the Congress party after World War I led to violent disputes between the Hindus and the Muslims in Kanpur in the course of which 400 persons were murdered and 1200 injured. Temples and mosques, stores and houses went up in flames.(31) There ensued an exodus of Muslims from Hindu-dominated parts of town, while at the same time Hindus moved from those parts of town populated mainly by Muslims. It wasn't until after these excesses that the communists-purposely set about providing a counterbalance within the union movement. (32) However, the mistrust between the Muslims and the Hindus remained.
In December 1992, violence erupted anew between the Hindus and the Muslims of Kanpur. The cause was the assault on the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya by fanatical right-wing Hindus, sparking a local uprising in Kanpur. It was the poor who bore the brunt, 600 to 800 people were murdered, 70% of the victims were Muslims; while the majority of the Hindus who lost their lives were from the Scheduled Castes. Many of the bodies in this bloodbath were never found and surviving dependants never received any form of compensation or pension, depending wholly on private aid programmes.
However, the differences were still not resolved, and the Bharatiya Janata Party, which was responsible for the Ayodhya massacre, continued to take advantage of local resentments, cultural peculiarities and religious sensitivity.
The declared enemy of the Hindutva slogan of the BJP "India for the Indians" were the Muslims. In Kanpur, the BJP managed to win over a fraction of the Khatik and to use them against the Muslims. Kala Bacha, black child, as this hero of the dark side was called, was a Khatik who had taken to stealing pigs. This fall into delinquency is explained by the Khatik's loss of social and economic status following the decline of the bristle trade.(33)
Kala Bacha had put himself up as an independent candidate in the municipal council elections. Joining the Hindu Nationalist Party, BJP, he later became its chairman in Kanpur. During the 1992 riots he, as the pioneer himself carefully puts it, played a heroic part, actively supporting those Khatik who lived in and therefore had to flee the Muslim quarters . Information on his other activities is discreetly withheld. (34).
On 9th February 1994, Kala Bacha was attacked by two men and killed by several bombs while driving a motor scooter.
The rumour immediately spread that the assassins had been Muslims. Violence erupted, kindled by protest demonstrations held by the BJP. Four people lost their lives and 12 houses were set on fire. It was only due to the resolute action taken by the District Magistrate, who immediately imposed a curfew and called in the army for support that a general uprising was prevented. (35) Both the English speaking press and the District Magistrate circulated the news that the murder had been committed in an internal dispute between two criminal groups, and had nothing at all to do with local resentments. In the end a carefully considered policy, combined with energetic measures - Kala Bacha's family and the leaders of the BJP were temporarily imprisoned - paid dividends, as unrest was prevented from spreading.
At the slaughter house
Our excursion into politics ends here. Much new remains to be examined. We visit Latouche Road for the last time on 23 February 1996, this time early in the morning. Satish Chaudhury is not awake yet, it takes a while for him to waken his cousin Munna, the pork butcher. Today our journey takes us to the abattoir at Fazalganj, where we will retrace the path from bristle to pig. Satish is a good guide, he is aware of my nervousness, as I find the squeals of the pigs in mortal terror hard to bear. The abattoir was built by the city administration especially for the Khatik, who slaughter their pigs and goats here. Being, the butcher Munna is the greater expert, buying and selling for advance payment without a single bank note anywhere to be seen.
The abattoir is a large paved yard which serves as a marketing centre for many pigs driven in by the villagers. Some of the pigs may be kept for a few days until they are picked up and taken away in large lorries. " They will be sold in Assam where they fetch higher prices," Satish Chaudhury explains. Some of the pigs, at least those from the city, may also be brought in tied and bundled on rickshaws. The pork butchers have already arrived, among them a woman, waiting in quiet equanimity for the specimen she is to process today.
The young butchers proudly display their long, curved knives. The stab into the heart is well-aimed, the arterial blood is collected and later processed into black pudding. Salami is also made, but different spices to those used for the black pudding are added. The bristles are plucked out in a swift, deft motion by the young men. This is followed by singeing. on grill under a corrugated iron roof. The skin is cleansed in a basin of water, the dark brown slop of which is probably only seldom changed. After the head is removed the pig and its entrails are sold to the butcher and taken away on the same rickshaw.
Meanwhile, the notabilities have withdrawn to a teahouse, amongst them the Hog King of Kanpur, a tall, handsome man, with a white cloth bound round his head like a turban as a symbol of his status. He owns 20 000 pigs, which run around loose in the 2 000 000 strong city of Kanpur, bearing his mark and tended by swineherds. By keeping livestock within the city walls professionally India's oldest industrial city has fallen back into an agrarian production system. In following the trail of the Bristle King, the economic decline of India's oldest industrial city has become all too evident. The Bristle King no longer lives, his dominion belongs to the past. His place has been taken by the Hog King.
Dr. Maren Bellwinkel-Schempp, September 1996
Maren Bellwinkel-Schempp spent two years, from 1972 to 1974, in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, researching a group of industrial workers belonging to the Untouchable Castes. A dissertation in ethno-sociology ensued. In the past three years the Khatik, a caste of pork butchers and swineherds, who attained affluence through the bristle dressing trade and dealings with Germany and Great Britain in the 30's, has aroused her interest .She would like to continue her work on the historical changes which have taken place in bristle dressing and welcomes any replies showing the extensive international relations in this special trade.
Dr. Maren Bellwinkel-Schempp
13 Wagman, Howard M.: Bristle and its Importance to the American Paint and Brush Industry. MBA thesis in Marketing, University of Pennsylvania 1952. The Wagman company was also a leader in the bristle trade.
14 Bristle dressing shops and bristle businesses are family businesses with a rich tradition . They are handed down from father to son. It was easy to tell which German companies were supplied by MLDL, Mitthoo Lall's business initials. Howard Wagman actually visited Mitthoo Lall at Latouche Rd. in the 50s. ( Conversation on 24th April 1996 at the INTERBROSSA, Special Fair for the Brush and Paintbrush Industry and Suppliers).
15 Directorate of Industries, Kanpur.
16 I owe this information to Pavan Sood, owner of the Indian and Overseas Trading Company . His father, Sudharshan Sood, is president of the Indian Bristle Manufacturing Association. This company, which belongs to Punjabis, has stolen a march on the Khatik in Latouche Rd. becoming Kanpur's richest bristle dealers and manufacturers.
17 This information I owe to Professor Geldermann of the University of Hohenheim. According to him it is a "large white", which is obvious.
18 The People of India Survey of the Census Commissioners mentions that some castes eat meat. It is not stated what type. It is mentioned that a sub-group of the Khatik are swineherds. See Singh, K.S.: The Scheduled Castes, People of India, Anthropologigal Survey of India, Oxford University Press, Delhi 1993, p, 302, 726. Only in the case of the Dhanuk is it claimed that pig farming led to the loss of their pure caste status and membership of the Ahir, p. 425.
19 Wilkins W. J.: Hindu Mythology Vedic and Puranic (first published 1882), Calcutta 1982, p. 448 ff).
20 Sometimes the Untouchables would have a hand in helping a cow die Briggs describes how a cow is poisoned. p. 52. As the Dalit literary movement gained ground the practice became wider known, albeit in the respective local tongues.
21 Eating carrion is a tradition which is not talked about, and which is known to Westerners only in its negative implications. The leader of the Untouchables, Dr. Bhimrao Ambedkar expressly opposes this view. See: Keer, Dhanajay: Dr. Ambedkar: Life and Mission, Bombay 1954. The first detailed examination of the practice can be found in : Randeira, Shalini: The Politics and Representation and Exchange among the Untouchable Castes in Western India (Gujarat), Dissertation, Berlin 1992.
22 See Dumont: Homo Hierarchicus. The Caste System and its Implications. London 1972 and the review: Das, Veena: Der anthropologische Diskurs über Indien. Die Vernunft und ihr Anderes. In: Berg. Eberhard und Fuchs Martin ( publ.): Kultur, soziale Praxis, Test. Die Krise der ethnographischen Representation. Frankfurt 1993,p. 402-245: Veena Das points out that Dumont has adopted the Brahmin point of view.
23 Böck, Monika and Aparna Rao: Aspekte der Gesellschaftsstruktur Indiens: Kasten und Stämme. In: Rothermund, Dietmar ( Publ.): Indien: Kultur, Geschichte, Politik, Wirtschaft, Umwelt: Ein Handbuch. München 1995, p. 112 - 130
24 Douglas, Mary: Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. New York 1966
25 Own investigation Sept. 1977
26 Horstmann, Monika: Die gestalthaften Manifestationen (avatara) von Gott Visnu. In: Mallebrein, Cornelia ( Publ): Die anderen Götter. Volks- und Stammesbronzen aus Indien. Cologne 1993, p. 103-111, p. 90-102, p. 92 and Trivedi, D.D.: Sculptures in the Jhansi Museum. the Government Museum, Jhansi 1983.
27 Briggs, George: The Chamara, Calcutta 1920, p. 138
28 One of the pithasthanas, the bodily parts of Devi, the spouse of Shiva is worshipped in Vindhyachal. Legend has it that tormented by grief, Shiva, tore his spouse apart. The 51 parts of her body are worshipped in different temples, one at the foot of the Vindhya Mountains. See Dowson, John: A Classical Dictionary of Hindu Mythology and Elogion. Geography, History and Literature, London 1968, p. 87, p. 235.
29 Census of India , 1961: Uttar Pradesh District Handbook 27, Lucknow, Superintendant Printing and Stationary 1965.
30 Molund p. 42.
31 Barrier, N. Gerald: Roots of Communal Politics. New Delhi Arnold Heinemann 1976.
32 Pandey, S.M.: As Labour Organizes. A Study of Unionism in the Kanpur Cotton Textile Industry. New Delhi 1970.
33 Kala Bacha managed to steal the pigs by branding them with his mark which is reminiscent of the cattle thefts in the Wild West of the USA, where the same method was used. I owe this analysis to Subhashni Ali, ex-MP of the CPM and Daulat Ram, District Chairman of the CPM , which seems credible in so far as Daulat Ram, himself a Kori, is well acquainted with bristle manufacturing because the Kori were traditionally labourers in the bristle factories.
34 Kala Bacha actively participated in the uprising, as the Khatik admit in both horror and admiration, making no secret of the fact that the Muslims are their declared enemies.
35 The Pioneer, 10., 11., 13., 14., 15., 16., 17., 18., 21. February 1994
There is local demand for Indian bristles. -- Dressing bristle by hand in Kanpur.
Impressions from the Kanpur region in India.
Agricultural Tools Factory.
Satish Chaudhuri and Nawal Kishor standing inn front of the building. This is the house Dr. Bhinrao Ambedkar stayed the night at in 1994. The house was the headquarters of M/s Mitthoo Lall.
Transporting two pigs on a rickshaw.
Street sweeper and pig on rubbish heap.
Indian bristle experts stand for a photo by Dr. M. Bellwinkel-Schrempp, author of the article for BROSSA PRESS.
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