Koeri

The Koeri (or Koiry or Koiri) are an Indian caste, found largely in Bihar, whose traditional occupation was as cultivators. An official report of 1941 admired them as being the "most advanced" cultivators in Bihar and said that "Simple in habits, thrifty to a degree and a master in the art of market-gardening, the Koeri is amongst the best of the tillers of the soil to be found anywhere in India."[1]

For the village in Estonia, see Koeri, Estonia.

Economy

The community was at the heart of the Indian opium trade, which had its main base in Bihar and for many years was regulated and exploited by the British East India Company via an agency in Patna. Carl Trocki believes that "Opium cultivators were not free agents" and describes the coercion and financial arrangements that were involved in order to achieve production, which included restricting land to that product even when grain was needed due to famine. Although profitable to the Company, it was often not so for the peasant producer, and

Only one particular caste, the Koeris, managed to carry on the cultivation with some degree of efficiency. They were able to do this because they could employ their wives and children to help out with the tasks of opium production."[2]

Other groups involved in opium production had to hire labour but the Koeris cut costs by utilising that available within their own family.[2]

Post land reforms

The middle peasants like koeris benefitted the most from land reform policies of Indian government.Faced with the land ceiling laws and communist pressure in 1970s upper caste landlords resorted to selling off their lands.In most of the cases the buyer would be from koeri, kurmi or yadav caste. These peasants worked upon their land with fine skills and thus made their holdings more productive.The upper caste in contrast were unable to do so and they seemed to be satisfied with the price they got for their land.The increased urbanization among forward caste created a category of new landlords in countryside as these three middle castes hardly sell their land , rather they looked upon the opportunity to buy more.[3]

This phenomenon ensued the upward mobility of middle peasant caste,while this mobility in Yadavas was towards both big peasants and lanlords, in koeris the vertical mobility was exclusively towards landlords.[4]The rise of the caste like koeri, kurmi and yadav and fall from the power of forward castes was characterized by growing assertiveness among these middle peasants who now acted as zamindars, whom they once condemned.[5]

"Frankel" in 1989 observed that 95% of upper caste and 36% of middle peasant castes like koeri and yadav belonged to rich peasant cum landlord class.This class was characterized by aversion to manual labour. However, some koeris and Yadavas who held comparatively less land to provide subsistence to them also worked as agricultural labourers though bulk of agricultural labourers belonged to dalit castes.According to him the bulk of middle and poor peasantry belonged to caste like koeris and Yadavas, this class worked in their own fields but considered it below their dignity to work upon the fields of others.[6] However, the transition towards upper edge of social hierarchy was not unbated as , in their socio-economic progress the koeris just like the other middle level castes in north India ,were facing double edged confrontation from the upper caste who were supporters of the status quo as well as from the dalits and lowest caste who now began assertive for their own rights.All this made the middle castes agressive.[7]

The tussle with upper caste landlords lead to attraction towards naxalism.This was witnessed in Ekwaari village , bhojpur district where Master Jagdish Mahto, a koeri teacher began leading the maoists and organised the murders of upper caste landlords after he was beaten up by Bhumihars for supporting CPI in 1967 elections.Mahto also set up a paper in arrah called "Harijanistan". After Mahto was killed in 1971 , the communist uprising in bhojpur faded away.[8][9]

Later, a section of upper strata of koeris and other middle peasant caste were also seen voicing their support for militant organisation Ranvir Sena.This section had benefitted the most from land reforms and thus became ruthless towards the Dalits.[10]

Distribution

Between 1872 and 1921 the Koeris represented approximately 7% of the population in Saran district, according to tabulated data prepared by Anand Yang. Yang also notes their involvement in tenanted landholdings around the period 1893–1901: the Koeris worked around 9% of the total cultivated area of the district, which was 1% less than the Ahirs, although the latter represented around 5% more of the population.[11]

The are also distributed in Samastipur district of bihar.In this district koeri caste is notorious for their criminal affairs and represents most of the total ten legislative assembly seats falling in this district. [12]In a study conducted in 1991, in villages of Buxar district of southwestern Bihar ,koeris were one of the largest landholding caste. [13]Further, another study conducted in some selected villages of rural bihar revealed koeris performing the function of purohit and a significant number of houses were seen availing the service of the purohits of koeri caste. [14]

Martial tradition

The kshatriya reform movement in middle peasant castes which took place during 1890s turned the rural Bihar into an arena of conflict.William pinch claims that caste like koeries; kurmi and yadav joined British Indian Army in large numbers.The "kshatriyatva" or essence of being kshatriya lead to aggressiveness among these caste which led to formation of many caste armies resulting in intercaste conflict.[15]

Organisation

In the interwar years, during a period when there was a general movement among various castes to seek upliftment of their status, there was also at least one journal being published for the Koeri community, the Kashbala Kshatriya Mitra.[16]

Subdivisions

Communities related to the Koeri in North India include the Maurya, Kushwaha, Mahto and Kachhi.[17]

Politics

In the heyday of British Raj; koeris aligned with kurmis and yadavs to form a caste coalition cum political party called Triveni Sangh.The actual date of formation of triveni sangh is disputed among the scholars.This caste coalition fared badly against Congress and faced considerable challenge from Congress's backward class federation.Though politically it was not able to left a significant mark it remained successful in eradicating the practice of begar.[18][19]

The period of 1960s witnessed improvement in fortune of backward castes in politics with a significant growth seen in the number of backward caste MLAs in Bihar legislative assembly. In 1970s, with the defining slogan of social justice koeris rose to prominence in politics of Bihar under the leadership of Jagdeo Prasad.However this achievement was short lived and their representation was gradually lost to other backward castes after the death of Jagdeo Prasad.[20]This period also witnessed Satish Prasad Singh, a lesser known koeri leader to become the chief minister of Bihar for merely a week after fall of Mahamaya Prasad Sinha government.He led a coalition of Shoshit Samaj Dal party of Jagdeo Prasad and the Congress. [21][22]

In 1977, the Karpoori Thakur government of Bihar introduced the affirmative action called quota in government jobs and universities.While the lower backward castes were assigned 12% reservation only 8% was earmarked for landowning castes like koeri ,kurmi and yadavs ; provided that being a Nai by caste, thakur was aware of robust economic position and agressiveness of these castes who were many a times seen bullying the Harijans and lower backwards.[23]

In later years, the koeris remained in a muted position for a long period in politics or played a secondary role while the yadav centric politics of laloo yadav flourished in Bihar.However,after the formation of Samta Party(now Janata Dal (United)) by Nitish Kumar ,they voted en masse for Samta and its alliance provided the fact that political parties in bihar are also identified with caste colours and Samta party was considered as the party of koeri-kurmi community.[24][25]

The parting of ways between Koeris and kurmis and the movement of koeris away from JD(U) was witnessed after the formation of Rashtriya Lok Samta Party by Upendra Kushwaha, who commanded a huge support among members of koeri castes.The Bharatiya Janata Party tagged with kushwaha in 2014 elections in hope of getting the support of koeri caste who earlier voted for Nitish Kumar and Janata Dal (United).[26]However,the quitting of BJP and alliance by Upendra Kushwaha left the koeri politics in bihar in dilemma. [27]This rift between koeris and kurmis was orchestrated by rise of influential koeri leaders like Mahendra singh and Shakuni Chaudhry while kushwaha remaining the tallest leader of the community in bihar.[28]

References
  1. Jaffrelot, Christophe (2003). India's silent revolution: the rise of the lower castes in North India. London: C. Hurst & Co. p. 197. ISBN 978-1-85065-670-8. Retrieved 29 August 2011.
  2. Trocki, Carl A. (1999). Opium, empire and the global political economy: a study of the Asian opium trade, 1750–1950. Routledge. pp. 64–67. ISBN 978-0-415-19918-6. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
  3. Sinha, A. (2011). Nitish Kumar and the Rise of Bihar. Viking. p. 80,81. ISBN 978-0-670-08459-3. Retrieved 7 April 2015.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  4. Reddy, D. Narasimha (2009). Agrarian Reforms, Land Markets, and Rural Poor. Concept Publishing Company. p. 279. ISBN 8180696049. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  5. Sinha, A. (2011). Nitish Kumar and the Rise of Bihar. Viking. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-670-08459-3. Retrieved 7 April 2015.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  6. Kunnath, George (2018). Rebels From the Mud Houses: Dalits and the Making of the Maoist Revolution ... New york: Taylor and Francis group. p. 31. ISBN 978-1-138-09955-5. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  7. Ram, Nandu (2009). Beyond Ambedkar: Essays on Dalits in India. Har Anand Publications. ISBN 8124114196. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  8. Omvedt, Gail (1993). Reinventing Revolution: New Social Movements and the Socialist Tradition in India. M.E.Sharpe. p. 59. ISBN 0765631768. Retrieved 16 June 2020."Its first mass leader was jagdish mahto, a koeri teacher who had read ambedkar before he discovered marx and started a paper in the town of arrah called Harijanistan("dalit land")
  9. Samaddar, Ranbir (2019). From popular movement to rebellion:The Naxalite dacade. New york: Routledge. p. 317,318. ISBN 978-0-367-13466-2. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  10. Kalpana, Nira-Yuval-Davis (2006). The situated politics of belonging. london: Sage publication. p. 135,136. ISBN 1-4129-2101-5. Retrieved 30 May 2020.
  11. Yang, Anand A. (1989). The limited Raj: agrarian relations in colonial India, Saran District, 1793–1920. University of California Press. p. 45. ISBN 978-0-520-05711-1. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
  12. Thakur, Minni (2010). Women Empowerment Through Panchayati Raj Institutions. Concept Publishing Company. ISBN 8180696804. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  13. N. Jayaram, Partha Nath Mukherji (2019). "Understanding Social Dynamics in South Asia". Springer. p. 88,89. ISBN 9811303878. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  14. Sharma, K. L. (2013). Readings in Indian Sociology: Volume II. India: SAGE Publications. ISBN 8132118723. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  15. kunnath, George (2018). Rebels From the Mud Houses: Dalits and the Making of the Maoist Revolution ... New york: Taylor and Francis group. p. 209,210. ISBN 978-1-138-09955-5. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
  16. Gould, William (2004). Hindu nationalism and the language of politics in late colonial India. Cambridge University Press. p. 31. ISBN 978-0-521-83061-4. Retrieved 4 October 2011.
  17. Hasan, A.; Das, J. C. (eds.). People of India Uttar Pradesh Volume XLII Part Two. Manohar Publications. p. 828.
  18. Jaffrelot, Christophe (2003). India's silent revolution: the rise of the lower castes in North India (Reprinted ed.). C. Hurst & Co. pp. 197–198. ISBN 978-1-85065-670-8.
  19. Kumar, Ashwani (2008). Community Warriors: State, Peasants and Caste Armies in Bihar. Anthem Press. p. 44. ISBN 978-1-84331-709-8.
  20. Kumar, Sanjay (5 June 2018). Post mandal politics in Bihar:Changing electoral patterns. SAGE publication. ISBN 978-93-528-0585-3.CS1 maint: date and year (link)
  21. Political Science Association, Delhi University (1981). Teaching Politics, Volume 6 - Volume 7, Issue 4. Delhi University Political Science Association(Original from the University of Michigan). Retrieved 22 June 2020..^ In 1969 , Bindeshwar Prasad Mandal , a rich landlord Yadav of Saharsa district in manipulating some M . L . A ' s to defect from U . F . Parties to cause the fall of Mahamaya Ministry , asked Satish Prasad Singh a lesser known Koeri leader to head the ministry for a day to facilitate his nomination in the Council for ...
  22. Bijender Kumar Sharma (1989). Political Instability in India. Mittal Publications. pp. 49–. ISBN 978-81-7099-184-7. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  23. Thakur, Baleshwar (2007). City, Society, and Planning: Society. University of Akron. Department of Geography & Planning, Association of American Geographers: Concept Publishing Company. p. 397 ,398. ISBN 8180694607. Retrieved 16 June 2020.
  24. Thakur, Baleshwar (2007). City, Society, and Planning: Society. University of Akron. Department of Geography & Planning, Association of American Geographers: Concept Publishing Company. ISBN 8180694607. Retrieved 16 June 2020..^while samta with its leader Nitish is considered to be the party of koeri-kurmi, Bihar people's party led by Anand Mohan is perceived to be a party having sympathy and support of Rajputs.
  25. Shah, Ghanshyam (2004). Caste and Democratic Politics in India. Orient Blackswan. ISBN 8178240955. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  26. Wallace, Paul (2015). India's 2014 Elections: A Modi-led BJP Sweep. India: SAGE Publications. p. 127,129. ISBN 9351505170. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
  27. "Upendra Kushwaha's exit could undo BJP's carefully planned Bihar caste coalition". theprint.in. Retrieved 28 May 2020.
  28. Ramesh, P. R. (15 October 2015). "The Liberation Struggle of Bihar". Open Magazine. Retrieved 30 April 2020. ^ The real migraine for the JD-U led alliance is the emergence of strong leaders within the NDA who command Kushwaha loyalties as effectively as Ashok Mahto once did for the fight against Bhumihars in the past. Rocking the Grand Alliance’s prospects are Kushwaha leaders such as Upendra Kushwaha, Shakuni Chaudhury and Mahendra Singh.
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