Country: India, Bihar

Group: Chamar/Ravidas

Date: Oct 23 2023

Team: Christina Saenz (lead), Alicia Hernandez, Lacey Hurst, Laura Pruett, Ashley Thompson, Amar Hammand

Content Warnings: murder, violence, discrimination

Approximate Time Period: 1850s – present

The Chamar people make up a relatively significant portion of the population in Bihar, India at 5% (Rawat, Ramnarayan S., p. 55) or just under five million people (Sahay, 2019). Chamar is a lower caste traditionally associated with leather working and translates to the term, “abuse” (Tripathi, 2023).

There is significant evidence to support the Chamar caste’s experience with lethal violence. In 1854, George Campbell accused Chamar people of cattle poisoning, tampering the reputation of the Chamar work ethic (Rawat, Ramnarayan S., pg. 9). Campbell instructed a lieutenant, Roshun Ally, to torture Ramdehul Chamar for information regarding a network of cattle poisoners. Ally ended up torturing and killing Ramdehul Chamar when he failed to give any information (Mishra, Pg. 326). More recently, members of the militia group, Ranvir Sena killed eight individuals belonging to lower castes, including the Chamar (Human Rights Watch, 1999). Additionally, in the town of Saharanpur in 2017, upper caste men murdered over fifty individuals belonging to lower castes, among these were the Chamar (BBC News, 2017).

Data Quality: 3/3 The data quality of this caste system was rated a 3 due to the significant amount of credible resources of both multimedia and scholarly articles.

 Sources

  1. BBC News. (June 2017). “Saharanpur: Why Did This Indian Village Erupt into Violence?”, www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-40116754.
  2. Human Rights Watch. (2023)“Broken People.”www.hrw.org/report/1999/03/01/broken-people/caste-violence-against-indias-untouchables.
  3. Mishra, Saurabh. (July/September 2011). Of poisoners, tanners and the british raj redefining chamar identity in colonial north india, 1850–90. The Indian Economic & Social History Review, Volume 48 (3) 326-335. https://doiorg.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/10.1177/001946461104800301
  4. Rawat, Ramnarayan S. (2011). Reconsidering untouchability: chamars and dalit history in north india. Indiana University Press. Retrieved October 13, 2023. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=bz5dKC81O3IC&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=chamar+history&ots=jenL2fm9x8&sig=5FhSgBfZ9Y6L7GMAW6_AKFzc0P0#v=onepage&q&f=false
  5. Sahay, Gaurang. (2019). Substantially Present but Invisible, Excluded and … – Sage Journals.  journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0038022918819357.
  6. Tripathi, Lav. (March 2023). “What Is the History of Chamar Caste in India.” Medium, Medium, 7. lav-dilse.medium.com/what-is-the-history-of-chamar-caste-in-india-917f40ef0fdb.