Country: Bihar, India
Group: Dhanuk
Date: Oct 22 2023
Name: Isabelle Kolnacki (lead), Cheyenne Barron, Nicole Cavallin, Ariana Jackson
Content Warnings: Slavery
Approximate Time Period: 1800-1900
The Dhanuks are a scheduled caste in Bihar often engaged inagricultural and domestic jobs, including manufacturing bamboo baskets. There is evidence of Dhanuk people in Bihar have been subjected to forced labor. In the 19th century, under British rule, many people from the Dhanuk caste worked in agricultural and domestic forced labor. Dhanuks had the ability to work both indoors and outdoors due to their caste being seen as pure even if it was low. This also allowed for the possibility that masters would give Dhanuk slaves a small allowance. However, this did not give them independence (Dhar, 1973). Another aspect of forced labor experienced by Dhanuks is Khawases; this is the voluntary submission to someone wealthy to receive protection and support in exchange for work (Dhar, 1973). This allowed some independence, but still kept the Dhanuks dependent on the upper castes.
Nearing the end of the century, many slaves were able to escape the system and find work in industry or commerce. These jobs however, were low-paying and did not allow for economic and social mobility (Chattopadhyay, 2018). The data quality for this group is a three due to the significant amount of scholarly and unbiased coverage.
Sources
- Chattopadhyay, A. K. (2018, January). Slavery in the bengal presidency under East India Company rule, 1772-1843. eprints.soas.ac.uk. https://eprints.soas.ac.uk/33956/
- Dhar, H. (1973, July 28). Agricultural servitude in Bengal presidency around 1800 – JSTOR. JSTOR.org. https://www.jstor.org/stable/pdf/4362899.pdf