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For other uses, see Panchayat (disambiguation).

A panchayat near Narsinghgarh, Madhya Pradesh, India

Caste panchayats, based on caste system in India, are caste-specific juries of elders for villages or higher-level communities in India.[1] They are distinct from gram panchayats in that the latter, as statutory bodies, serve all villagers regardless of caste as a part of the Indian government, although they operate on the same principles. A panchayat could be permanent or temporary.[2]

The term panchayat implies a body of five (Sanskrit: panch) individuals, although the number may vary in practice. The number is kept odd to ensure there is no tie when a decision is made. Panchayat members are appointed by consensus.[3]

History

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Panchayats, the council of five elders, had existed since Vedic period (c. 1500 – c. 600 BCE) from the times of Ramayana and Mahabharata. Kautilya (Chanakya) also provides the 4th century BCE description of decentralised autonomous governing organisation for each village based on the council of five where the king ruled the empire based on the conglomeration of villages.[4] The earliest mention in English of Panchayats was made by Ram Raz in a letter to H.S. Graeme of the Madras Council around 1828.[5][6]

Historical mentions[7] of panchayats include the Parsi Panchayat in 1818,[8] the Aror Bans Panchayat at Lahore in 1888,[9] Dalit panchayats in 1907,[10] and the Prachin Agrawal Jain Panchayat of Delhi, founded in the late 19th century, which runs Delhi's famous Bird Hospital[11] and some of its oldest temples.

Caste panchayat versus Gram panchayat

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There are different types of panchayats.[4]

Gram panchayat or sabha (village councils) were usually controlled by the elected members of panchayats for maintaining the social order and the resolution of criminal and civil disputes. There were also panchayats for resolving inter-caste conflicts. Gram panchayats were legally formalised under the panchayati raj system as a decentralised grassroot form of local governance.[4]

Caste panchayats (caste councils) have members of particular castes who follow caste-based social norms, rules, religious values and settle conflict among its own members. Each caste, including upper castes and dalits, had own caste panchayat. They repair wells, organise festivals, look after the sick of their castes. These caste panchayats existed as the form of local governance much before the gram panchayats came into being.[4]

Urban caste panchayat

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A 1992 study on twenty different low caste Telugu immigrant communities in Pune, found evolution of caste panchayat of each community into three different types in their new urban setting:

  • Fused caste panchayats: those with characteristics similar to the traditional caste panchayats in villages.
  • Transitional caste panchayats: those where the characteristics of traditional village caste panchayats and modern organisations coexist.
  • Differentiated caste panchayats: those more adopted to the changing modern conditions with diminished traditional characteristics and modern organisational characteristics projected outside.[12]

Responsibilities

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Traditionally, panchayats have adjudicated disputes involving caste members in open meetings. The issues brought before these bodies can include: managing temples and schools, property disputes, marital relations, and breaches of community rules (such as extravagant spending on weddings[13] or the eating, drinking, or killing of certain animals, such as cows). Penalties include monetary fines, offering a feast to the caste members or to Brahmins, or temporary or permanent excommunication from the caste. Pilgrimage and self-humiliation are also occasionally imposed. Physical punishment was levied on occasion but is now uncommon.[2]

When the Evidence Act was passed in 1872,[2] some caste members began to take their cases before civil or criminal courts rather than have them adjudicated by the caste panchayat.[14][15] Nevertheless, these bodies still exist and exert leadership roles within their respective groups.[16][17][18]

Khap

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Main article: Khap

A Khap is a clan, or a group of related clans, mainly among the Jats of western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and some parts of Madhya Pradesh.[19] The term has also been used in other communities.[20] A Khap panchayat is an assembly of Khap elders, and a Sarv Khap (literally, "all Khaps") meeting is an assembly of many Khaps.[21][22] A Khap panchayat is concerned with the affairs of the Khap it represents.[23] It is not affiliated with the democratically elected local assemblies that are also termed panchayat, and has no official government recognition or authority, but it can exert significant social influence within a community.[24] Baliyan Khap, led by the late farmer's leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, is a well-known Jat Khap.[25]

References

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  1. ^ Mullick, Rohit; Raaj, Neelam (9 September 2007). "Panchayats turn into kangaroo courts". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 13 September 2016.
  2. ^ a b c "Panchayat Indian caste government". Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Archived from the original on 2 April 2016. Retrieved 22 March 2016.
  3. ^ [1] Archived 20 October 2015 at the Wayback Machine Justice, Human Rights and Premchand’s Panch Parmeshwar By CHARANJEET KAUR | 9 Dec 2012]
  4. ^ a b c d Smita Mishra Panda, 2008, Engendering Governance Institutions: State, Market and Civil Society Archived 7 December 2023 at the Wayback Machine, p119-.
  5. ^ Ram Raz (1836). "On the Introduction of Trial by Jury". Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society: 244–257.
  6. ^ Bayly, C. A. (2007). "Rammohan Roy and the advent of constitutional liberalism in India, 1800–30". Modern Intellectual History. 4 (1): 25–41. doi:10.1017/S1479244306001028. ISSN 1479-2443. S2CID 145404296. Archived from the original on 7 December 2023. Retrieved 24 December 2019.
  7. ^ Wadia, Sorab P. N. (1897). The Institution of Trial by Jury in India. Printed at the Fort Print. Press. p. 26. panchayat.
  8. ^ [2] Rhetoric and Ritual in Colonial India: The Shaping of a Public Culture in Surat City, 1852-1928, Douglas E. Haynes, University of California Press, 1991, p. 77-79]
  9. ^ [3] Archived 7 December 2023 at the Wayback Machine Short Ethnographical History of Aror Bans [panchayat]: According to the Questions, Issue 2 Volume 756 of Tract (India Office Library) Virajananda Press, 1888]
  10. ^ Crooke, W (1907). Natives of northern India.(Native races of the Brit. empire). p. 70. Archived from the original on 7 December 2023. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  11. ^ "A Jain hospital exclusively for birds". www.merinews.com. Archived from the original on 11 December 2008. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  12. ^ Kumaran, K.P. (1992). Migration settlement and ethnic associations. New Delhi: Concept Pub. Co. pp. 56–90. ISBN 9788170223900. Archived from the original on 7 December 2023. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  13. ^ "Jain Panchayat Frames Regulations to Check Lavish Weddings". The New Indian Express. Archived from the original on 17 April 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  14. ^ Panchayat: Indian caste government (article 9374468), Encyclopædia Britannica, about "caste panchayats"
  15. ^ Randeria, Shalini (2006). Civil society: Berlin perspectives, Chapter 9, "Entangled histories: Civil society, caste solidarities and legal pluralism in post-colonial India". Bergahn Books. pp. 213–226. ISBN 184545-064-7. Archived from the original on 7 December 2023. Retrieved 28 November 2021.
  16. ^ Kumar, Vijay (1989). Scheduled caste panchayat pradhans in India: A study of western Uttar Pradesh. Ajanta. p. 183. ISBN 8120202627. Archived from the original on 15 June 2013.
  17. ^ Dube, SC (1955). India's Villages (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 14 June 2013.
  18. ^ Robert, Hayden (1984). "A Note on Caste Panchayats and Government Courts in India : Different Kinds of Stages for Different Kinds of Performances" (PDF). The Journal of Legal Pluralism and Unofficial Law. 16 (22): 43–52. doi:10.1080/07329113.1984.10756282. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 June 2015.
  19. ^ संवाददाता, अतुल संगर बीबीसी; दिल्ली. "क्या है खाप पंचायत, क्यों है उसका दबदबा?". BBC News हिंदी. Archived from the original on 21 July 2018. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  20. ^ अब उतपति श्रावकनु के, षांप गोत की जेम |
    भई सु पोथिनु देषि करि, वरनन है कवि तेम ||६८२||
    आगैं तो श्रावक सवै, एकमेक ही होत |
    लगे चलन विपरीति तव, थापे षांप अरु गोत ||६८३||
    थपी वहैतरि षांप ऐ, गांम नगर के नांम |
    जैसैं पोथनु मैं लषी, सो वरनी अभिराम ||६८४||
    Describes the 84 Jain communities, Buddhi-Vilas, Bakhtaram Sah, Samvat 1827, (1770 AD)
  21. ^ "Haryana's biggest khap panchayat scripts history, allows inter-caste marriages - Times of India". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 13 February 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2019.
  22. ^ "The Jats of Northern India Their Traditional Political System—II, M C Pradhan, Economic and Political Weekly, 18 December 1965" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  23. ^ "खाप पंचायतों का हृदय परिवर्तन!". SamayLive. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
  24. ^ Kaur, Ravinder (5 June 2010). "Khap panchayats, sex ratio and female agency | Ravinder Kaur". Academia.edu. Archived from the original on 25 June 2023. Retrieved 31 March 2013.
  25. ^ "Muzaffarnagar riots: A Jat family protected 70 Muslims in Fugna village". India Today. 14 September 2013. Archived from the original on 12 February 2019. Retrieved 12 February 2019.

Further reading

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