Author: Ashok Das Gupta (University
of North Bengal)
Rajbanshi social fold comprising of
both caste and communities constitute 18% of total population of North Bengal,
India. They are in favour of irrigation (small and broad scale), sacred grove,
fencing and lattice, highland and marshland, river basins and valleys, kitchen
garden, etc. They are too good with the complex production systems of crops,
cereals, vegetables, rapeseeds, honey, bamboo, liquor and sugar yielding
varieties, medicinal herbs, fruits, mushrooms, lichen, livestock, fish, crab,
small fish, mud fish, prawn as well as fiber, silk, silk cotton, drinks, areca,
betel and tobacco. They are fond of meat, milk, egg and fish. These flora and
fauna are again source of fuel, fodder, natural dye, and pesticides.
Rajbanshis is traditional life used
to go through barter and reciprocity. Women are involved in preserving fish,
paddy, fruit and milk items. In fish and paddy preservation, they use arum.
Fruits are preserved in dried or as pickles. They do not waste their organic
waste and use them as manure associated with ash, light trap, food-web and
natural insecticides. They have developed crop rotation, legume plants and
mixed cultivation. They still remember shifting cultivation and bush-fallow
cultivation. Further, they have produced complex production systems involving
varieties of flora and fauna (such
as mango-pineapple, areca-betel nut, rice-fish, and duck-snail- fish).
Alternative food sources that
Rajbanshis do not put in priority are toad/frog, eel, snails and boar. They do
not eat cow for religious reasons.
Rajbanshis
Rajbanshi people are living in
agrarian pockets of North Bengal (northern part of West Bengal state, India)
and they might have possessed IKS regarding agriculture and other related
issues. Following Barma (2007), Hindu Rajbanshis are 129,904 in Darjeeling
(also Darjiling) of total individuals 1,609,172; in Siliguri subdivision (also
Shilliguri) of Darjeeling district 119,120 out of 818,581; in Jalpaiguri
811,567 out of 3,401,173; in Koch Bihar (also Cooch Behar) 972,803 out of
2,479,155; in Malda (also Maldah) 144,158 out of 3,290,468; in North Dinajpur
(also Uttar Dinajpur) 405,140 out of 2,441,794 and in South Dinajpur (also
Dakshin Dinajpur) 224,988 out of 1,503,178 and there of total 14,724,940 of
North Bengal, Rajbanshis have a population of 2,688,560 (18.26 %). They might
have good knowledge over traditional agriculture and agro-based biodiversity
management of North Bengal. According to Sen and Ghosh (2008), Rajbanshis are
now placed in the Schedule Caste category in West Bengal. Currently the
Schedule Caste population constitutes 23 per cent of the total population of
West Bengal and there are 59 notified Schedule Caste populations in the state.
The Rajbanshis constitute the largest percentage and number of the Schedule
Caste population in West Bengal (18.40% and nearly 3.4 lakhs, respectively). It
is conjectured that the Rajbanshis have a mixture of Austroasian/Dravidian and
Mongolian elements. In that context their indigenous knowledge is going to be
studied here.
These people have affinity with
forest based tribal groups like Mech, Rabha and Bodo in Sub- Himalayan Bengal
as well as indigenous statehoods laid out by Khen and the Koch. They are
associated with Bengali and Assamese speaking peoples as well as local Nepali,
Adivasi, Bihari and different Hindi speaking groups. They are aware of once
tans-national trade routes and various Diasporas.
And at the same time, many of their
indigenous knowledge (result of informal experimentations, trial-and-error
method, generation-wise intellectual reasoning, local, scattered, oral, and
traditional) could survive because of being culturally embedded. They can
utilize them in a systematic way for earning money through micro-financing.
Rajbanshis in highland areas proceed
towards tea, pineapple, potato, spice (chilly), horticulture (gerbera) besides fruits and vegetables. They in lowland propagate crops like paddy,
jute, flex, aurum and in slopes cane, bamboo, banana, corn, and millet. They
many of theses items preserve along with medicinal plants. Preservation of food
is a sector where Rajbanshi women actively participate.
They are also associated with
ornamental fish production, mushroom cultivation, handlooms, floriculture and
kitchen garden including many medicinal species.
However, traditional agricultural
knowledge system delivers information about reservation of fruits and
vegetables (Lal, Siddappa, and Tandon, 1986). It behaves like a good source of
various fermentation processes (Battcock and Azam-Ali, 1998). It is related to
application of indigenous fermented foods (Steinkraus, 1996). It deals with
manufacture and use of pickles, dry foods, liquor, spices, sun-dried elements,
soil preserved food, concept of fresh food and various types of food taste
(Fellows, 1997). It is again involved in formulation of proper relationship
between traditional knowledge and biodiversity conservation. Actually, farmers
remain no longer passive consumers, but active problem solvers (Warren, 1991).
So, the highest priority is going to be given upon alternative role of IKS
against the high-cost modern crop production system (Davis and Ebbe, 1993). It
could let a low-level external input among the resource-poor agriculturists
living in nature-surrounded remote areas (Haverkort, Reijntjes and Waters-Bayer
1992). It is exclusively related to the traditional non-subsistence symbols and
technologies developed without direct inputs from the formal sector (Chambers
et al 1989, and Gilbert et al 1980). It involves local-level innovation and
their transmission to a wider periphery (Warren in 1991).
At early days, Rajbanshis did not
cultivate paddy varieties throughout the whole year, but only in a specific
season; so cultivation is seasonal and not yearly. They preferred cultivation
in the monsoon season. Rajbanshis of upper portion of North Bengal plains
(condescended with forestry) left the cultivation
ground for a season or a year or several years that they considered good for
maintenance and increase of the productivity. They did not cultivate at single
fixed place overtime; time to time they changed the place of crop-cultivation.
They called it jhum cultivation where the bush and trees of the selected area
were cut off to let them rotten or burn with fire and then they planted there
the crops. In that way, the slash-and-burn type of cultivation in late winter
when soil was covered with deciduous leaves of shorea and teak freed the ground
full of ash and under clear sky with pleasant sunshine of spring from harmful
insects. Light raining of late winter and temperature fall in night made the
ash fertile and seeds were spread unevenly in summer or at the time monsoon
launched the Himalayan terrains and Sub-Himalayan valleys. This system did not
fit in those regions of the lower plains where both the population size and the
expectation from the cultivation were larger and higher. In the present day,
jhum cultivation has become quite invalid, but still ash is used as both forms
of manure and pesticide. Rajbanshis have improved jhum cultivation with
introduction of wooden plough and applied the technique of sowing the saplings
rather than the seeds with help of a digging stick. Later, Rajbanshis have
started preferring crop cultivation basically in the flood prone areas. They
have generally classified the soil type into three: danga (highland), nichu
(lowland) and jola (marshy land). There is complete absence of farm houses and
no option of equity investment in the agriculture sector by big capitalists.
Land distribution has so far progressed here and small to middle scale peasants
have become the land owners and the rest in the quasi-unorganized sector of
landless labors, share croppers and other agriculture oriented jobs, old to
new. The earthen boundaries of these landscapes are called the aal and used by
the cultivators to go into the field.
Danga is preferred for vegetable
cultivation, production of wheat and marua, habitation and
kitchen garden, bamboo propagation,
sacred groove and grazing. The nichu land is considered appropriate for rice
cultivation. In winter, the Rajbanshis at the nichu land cultivate several
types of vegetable along with makoi (corn) on the sloppy landscape; whereas
propagate wheat on the danga region. The lowland areas are used for production
of pulses and mustered (along with other rapeseeds like rai and tisi). Pulses
are of different varieties: maskalai, thakurkalai, pea, gram, moog and khesari.
Jola region is good for jute, water hyacinth and arum, while the slopes for the
ferns. Sandy river bed in foothill areas is good for spices, watermelon, poppy,
cardamom, ginger, garlic, and tejpata as well.
Categorization of Agricultural
and related production systems by the Rajbanshis of North Bengal
1. Protection of healthy variety of
crops growing in nature, domestication of wild varieties, natural variety of
high yielding crops, indigenous way of producing hybrids with high nutrition
level, retention of soil fertility and soil classification, concept of upland,
lowland and marshy land;
2. Application of degradable
ethno-toxicants, cutting, pruning, tissue culture and cloning, seed storage,
seed treatment in the nursery to provide healthy seedlings and saplings;
3. Land preparation, seed collection,
seed treatment, nursery, leveling and tillage, slash and burn, fallow
practices, mono-cropping, poly-cropping, alley cropping, mixed cropping,
inter-cropping, side cropping, fencing, crop rotation, kitchen garden and
horticulture, traditional classification of soil and land, irrigation, manure
preparation, pre-sowing practices like weeding and manuring,
pest controlling measurement, transplantation of seedling and sapling, sowing,
cutting and pruning, disease control, weather indication, observation,
post-sowing weeding and manuring, irrigation and drenching, removal of excess
water, complex cultivation systems and biodiversity management, inclusion of
friendly biome within the agro-based ecosystem, harvesting, technologies to
have more yield and multiple harvesting, thrashing and extracting, winnowing,
stock raining and food preservation, traditional tools and techniques, division
of labour and so forth; application of organic manure,
application of eco-friendly microbes and vectors, natural way of paste and herb
control: use of larvae, insects, birds, fish, ants, white ants and earth warm;
4. Classification of soil types,
classification of cultivation ground, symbiosis and nitrification,
fishing-cum-paddy cultivation, techniques involved in shifting cultivation and
step cultivation, fallow cultivation, seasonal cultivation, yearly cultivation,
annual and biennial cultivation, flowering in the first year of a biennial
crop;
5. Identification of certain species
on trees or in soil causing severe herm to the crop production, weeds used in
removal of pests and other harmful organisms, earth-warm in maintenance of soil
fertility (vermicompost);
6. Roles of women, seed and sapling
selection, crop selection, seed germination, crop sowing, protection of ripen
crops from rat, insect, bird and bat;
7. Crop harvesting, crop thrashing,
grain storing, preservation of the crop, fish, food, fruit, fruit pulp and so on, pressed and
puffer rice, alcoholism, fermentation of rice or fruit juice, palm juice, debt
juice and production of unsaturated sweet cakes, types of pickle, prickles in
mustard oil or as stored in dried condition, use of dry neem leaves as
preservatives, use of sun beam in preservation, use of dry soil as
preservative, use of the straw stalks for fertilizing the soil, use of straws
in mushroom cultivation, burning of straws in the post-harvest period on the
cultivation ground, light trap, weed management, use of dry soil (of rat house)
as preservative;
8. Mushroom cultivation, mushroom
varieties;
9. Use of algae and lichen in cookery,
classification of bamboo;
10. Use of bamboo in every aspect of
life from drinking water in a glass made of bamboo to house construction,
techniques involved in bamboo cultivation, bamboo parts as food, fodder and
pickle, bamboo and myth, flowering in bamboo and natural indications;
11. Use of lichens, mushrooms and fern
in cookery, dye production, wax formation and medicinal purposes;
12. Floriculture, use of pots, environmental
influence, low-cost greenhouse manufacture, nursery and water shade, use of
organic manure, cutting and pruning in horticulture, garden eco-system, shade
trees, fish manure and bone dust, soil types and stones, soil sterilization,
fencing, use of roots, rhizomes, shoot, bark, lattice, leaf, bud,
inflorescence, flower, anther, nectar, fruit, seeds in various purposes,
pitcher plants, extraction of essence from the flower, lemon grass production;
13. Honey collection, protection of
the nectar yielding flowering trees favored by the honey bees, role of honey
bees in ecosystem and maintenance of food web, use of honey in food as medicine
and for health protection, use of wax, use of birds in searching out the honey
nest;
14. Animal husbandry and poultry,
construction of the shade, suppy of fodder, breeding, grazing, milk products
and card, indigenous techniques for increasing milk production, protection of
the cattle from leaches, protection of poultry from bird eating animals,
veterinary and control of disease in the domestic plant species, animals and
birds, use of animal produce, skins, wool, bones; supply of food (meat, egg,
milk), source of manure, fuel collection;
15. Spice cultivation;
16. Vegetable cultivation;
17. Ethno-fishery, pond selection,
protection of pond ecosystem, liming the soil for controlling the water pH
level, careful observation of fishes in the cold foggy winter, especially
regulating the water temperature in the pond, proper physical activity and
regular feeding, disease treatment, fertility control, various techniques of
fishing, fishing in the streams, fishing in the rivers, fishing under the
waterfalls, fishing in the marshy land, fishing in the paddy field, fishes as
good source of manure, fishing of fishes with extra-respiratory organ, group
fishing, quick fishing in emergency, use of ethno-toxic elements in fishing,
preserved fish products, fishes in maintenance of the health
condition and nutrition level,
superfluity and fish feed, cultivation of prawns, crabs, colored fishes, insect
and mosquito eating fishes as well as hybrids, use of fishes in controlling
mosquito larvae; control over snake, rat and frog; concept about water
pollution and the role of pond water as the carrier of diseases in fishes,
cattle and human and related disease cycle;
18. Sericulture, selection of trees
for sericulture, cocoons and production and storage of silk fibers;
19. Lime production, relation between
lime production and snail consumption system; frog eating and related belief;
20, Pulse cultivation, production of
sun-dried preserved pulse cakes;
21. Medicinal weeds;
22. Alternative crop production like
floriculture, bamboo and cane production, shola production, silk production,
rubber production, lac production, wood production, fiber production, lemon
grass production, fodder production, coloured fish production, mushroom
production, and so forth. Pineapple, maize, babycorn, fragrant rice, tobacco,
new type of vegetables and fruit varieties can be mentioned here.
Rajbanshi kitchen garden and
altervative way of pest control
Rajbanshis believe that prune plants
give good production, but have lower longevity than the plants from fertilized
seeds. They store the seeds or bulbs of good varieties in dried condition for
the next year growth. When available, they try to generate a new plant from a
cut stem or rhizome or leaf or root or the bulb. In nursery, they generate
seeds and develop saplings in refined, shrub free, dried, stone free, nourished
and fine soil beneath a thatched shade or plastic. The saplings are separated
from each other and each of them is placed at somewhat piled soil so that the
side channels could drain off the excess water effectively. In vegetable cultivation,
Rajbanshis often apply an inversed funnel of the sticks for each creeper in the
kitchen garden. They also use a common lattice. In pots, they sometimes grow
more than one plant, maintain a balance between them and use wooden or bamboo
stick to make them erect. In the garden, an ecosystem of its own is also
developed there and its proper maintenance could help in controlling the pastes
and weeds there. Parallel to application of ash and other bio-toxicants as a
protective measure from disease as well as cow dung, bone dust, rotten leaf,
compost, mustard and neem cakes, and water emulsion of ash as the manure; the
food web in the garden has itself a potentiality in disease prevention.
The heat generating from ash pile or
the rotten vegetables, leaves and weed is actually helpful in incubation of
grass snakes. Grass snakes are often found to warm up their body in the sun
beams of summer near such culverts of the dry canals or boulder piles providing
a quick passage into the darkness of hidden place rock shelter. These snakes do
not harm man and help in controlling the population of frogs and rats in the
garden. Rat is also good meal for cats. Birds like crow are also fond of frog
and rat. Again the frogs are helpful in controlling the over increase of insects.
The same work is done also by domesticated varieties of hen. Many other birds
are involved in the
same work; they hop upon the carpet
of shed leaves; in this way, they search the hidden insects beneath these dry
leaves and eat up them. Birds are there to clean up the superfluity and other
dirt. In the monsoons, the situation has been little bit altered. The birds
have built their nests with the materials like leaf fibers, dry branches and
leaf. Some birds weave the leaves to form their nests. Some prepare their nests
inside the corner of the house. Some do it in the coconut tree with the help of
paddy straw or hey and the nest looks like an inverted lamp. Birds often catch
the male firefly and fix them in a small piece of cow dung in their nest that
provides light in the night. Sound of cricket is a common thing in the villages
of North Bengal. It increases with quietness of the dark night. The stagnant
water of rains is good for rapid growth of mosquito larvae, tadpole, larvae
eating small fishes and diving beetles that prefer to eat the tadpoles. These
small fishes are again consumed by fish eater small birds. However, the food
chain in this ecosystem inside water is chiefly originated from rotten leaves
acting as a good source of tadpole and larvae food. In mud; crab, prawn and
fishes with extra-respiratory organs are also found in large number. Snakes are
also found in the tiny water streams. The snake number is again controlled by
the domestic mongoose. Lizard, leech, green leech, fly, ant, spider, ant-like
eight feet spider, big spiders without any net formation, large garden snails,
apple snails, earth warm and centipede are other components of the garden. Ants
are also of several types: very small red ants, small red ants, small tiny red
ants, small black ants, small tiny black ants, big black ants, very big black
ants and wood dwelling black-red ants (kath pipra). Size and shape of the
colony, aggressiveness and action of the folic acid are different in case of
these ants. Black ants often cut off green leaf and take the pieces to their
holes where they use them in construction of chambers and propagate fungus.
These fungus they feed some another minute delicate white insects (whom they
bind up with mild fibers coming out of their mouth).
From these white insects, they receive some milk like substance. Ants also act
like scavengers. Small bird, honey bee, wasp and hornet are there to suck up
the nectar. Wasp lays its egg inside the body of caterpillar and the wasp
larvae take the nourishment from the body fluid of the latter. Butterfly
larvae, living on green leaves, are also eaten up the bees as good source of
protein and therefore a regulation on the huge quantity of the green leaves
eaten up by these caterpillars has been restrained. Bees are again eaten up by
the bee- eater birds and some spiders. Ants often eat up these larvae and
insect eggs; but generally fail in battle with ant like spider. Spiders also
hunt the caterpillars and the bees. Black small ants are fond of sweet taste
and often found in the dry calyx region of guava fruit. They produce a specific
smell on the guava fruit. Birds like parrot often eat up the guava and other
fruits. Sometimes, monkeys come down from the hills for the sake of food and
fruit; they are highly attracted by the sweet smell of the bel fruit, but do
not acquire the knowledge of how to break up the hard fruit coat and eat the
inner portion; they detach these fruits and fall them to the ground. Snails are
good reason for destruction of leaves and plants in the garden. These snails
are often eaten up by birds that bring them up in the sky and from there, fall
down them lower on hard ground so as to break the shell up. At night, when the
snails come out of their shells; cats, night birds and porcupine eat their
juicy soft muscular body parts. Green snakes are also found occasionally and
they are very poisonous. Flower beds are also favorite target of the weed
plants with deep and interconnected roots ranging from various types of grasses
to Compositeae plants; the seeds are found to be gliding in the air through
parachute mechanism and spread to a larger area. But of them bind weeds are the
most aggressive and basically grow near the marsh land, canals and in the
jungles seen from the road side, attractive for their beautiful colorful
flowers. Root Maggots, Wireworms, Cutworms and others are some harmful
pastes in the ground; but they could be controlled by the ants, white ants,
earth warm and other ground dwellers; they make the soil soft and sun soak.
Garden is always filled up with shade shifting its place with time, sweet smell
of flower in breezing wind, colored flowers and decorative ornamental leaves as
well as charming songs of chanting birds. Sound of crow and hen after the long
dark night announces rising up of the sun. Big snail shells are found on the
ground empty as their soft body part protrudes the dew-wet soft soil. Sweet
smell of the night blooming white flowers immobilizes the clear air. And then
the daily activity of human and the diurnal biotic elements of the garden
ecosystem begin their daily work. Drip irrigation is very useful in summer to
prevent the pot plants for dying from dryness. From the hole at the bottom of a
hanged earthen round bottom pot, drops of filtered water are poured on the
leaves, stem and soil; for filtration, a piece of cloth is generally used.
Preserving food and preservation
techniques used by the Rajbanshis
vFish preservation: Washing,
cutting, and sun-drying are performed one by one; dry fishes are then dusted
and mixed up with paste of arum leaf base and finally, round hand-made fish
balls are prepared. In dried fish production, with the cleaned fishes,
Rajbanshis donot mix up salt before keeping them under the sunbeam on dry soil.
They even donot treat these fishes with turmeric or warm them on any tawa
(plate) on stove. In other places, salt and turmeric are used. There the
proportion of salt and turmeric depends upon the nature of the fish variety. In
some cases, fishes are often stored under the dried soil. But here, fishes (washed
and cut) are often but simply sun dried and then dusted to form fish balls with
the help of sticky extract from black arum leaf base; these balls are generally
prepared in monsoons or post-monsoon period; these balls are
cooked as curry or consumed in fried condition. Fish balls are generally termed as sidal.
vPickle production: Green mango,
carambola, tamarind, pine apple and plum could be stored as pickle. Sweet
fruits (even banana) could be fermented and stored as tari, juice of palm and
date or rice alcohol for long. Alcohol is produced from rice, malt, and millet.
These stuffs have to be fermented at cold place in earthern or wooden pots or
bucket with water. Foam comes out and alcohol is produced.
vPreparation of Gur [the unsaturated
sweet solid fragranced crystal of date-palm juice]: Experienced peoples are
engaged in collection of the juice under some supervision. Or they on their own
responsibility could collect the sweet juice coming out of the cut channels in
the trunk portion into the earthen pot bound tightly with rope at the cut
portion. This collection is specifically done in winter season. In very early
morning the pots filled up with fresh date juice. After this collection
process; the juice is heated in a pottery on earthen stove; with the help of
dried date leaves, this mixture is continuously serrated in mild flame for long
time under thorough observation; and ultimately, the mixture is poured on a
clothed pot to let it be cool down and form a sweet hard cake. The juice
gradually starts loosing its moisture, becomes crystallized and saturated with
a specific taste. Lack of experience regarding preparation of this gur can
bring bitterness in it. It is a day long process under the bright sun in the
clear sky and only at the late afternoon, the cluster is poured off and
throughout the night kept for cooling. Here, the dried debt leaves are often
used as the fuel. Actually the Rajbanshis do not prepare sweet milk items
themselves, but depend on the Bengali sweet makers. Gur for them
is right alternative of milk made sweets. This is also used to give sweetness in milk
products.
vTari preparation: Tari is produced
from freshly taken juice of palm in the same process as the date-palm juice is
collected. The fresh juice is kept freely to be fermented and the alcoholic
substance of Tari is thus produced. Palm fruits are available in the season of
spring. Fruit is crush to get in the fibrous pulp of it which is then extracted
by hand into juice. This yellow juice with milk and even cocomut or coconut
milk is consumer as mixture. Sometimes, this juice mixture is heated to make it
a condenced texture. That is called as taal kheer. This emulsion is often fried
in cooking oil and these small pancakes or boras are kept air tight in jar.
vVapa preparation [rice cake]: Some
Rajbanshi women make a delicious dish with rice dust. This is called as the
Vapa Pitha which is nothing but one type of soft fluffy rice cake. On a dice
with a single hole placed at the mouth of a Handi (earthen pot) on fire
(earthen stove) with boiling water inside, they put the rice dust (prepared in
husking machine) packed in a piece for two to three minutes. In this way, the
dust is baked on steam and turns into the pancake. This is then served with a
small crystal of gur. The Vapa used to be prepared at night time or early
morning and the women preparing it would go out to barter their produce in
exchange of some rice. They use this rice to produce Vapa again for the next
day from the collected rice and the extra rice left aside would feed her
family. One kind of distribution, barter and cash transaction has been
developed. Regular supply of food to the less prosperous or non-agriculturist
families is there beyond the periphery of modern cash system and monetary
economy. Now, this seasonal food item for late spring and winter is largely produced in post-harvest leisure
time from husked rice. Thrashing, winnowing, stock eaising, husking and rice
cake preparation are general works of the womenfolk. Rice cakes are now sold in
market through monetary transaction.
vRice grain preparation: Rajbanshis
either keep the coated rice in water for the whole night or heat in regulated
flame to some extent; both types are then husked to get uncoated rice grains.
The rice produced by water treatment of the paddy grains is little bit thinner
and softer. It is called atop variety. This thin rice is easy to cook, used in
festivals and its dust emulsion is taken for painting the floor with designs.
Rice is again soaked with water and stored in big bamboo thatched baskets. Such
buskets are plastered with dung that in dry condition serve as hard coat. Cow
dung in water emulsion with rice seed coats is a natural pluster that is used
on earthen walls and floors and inner and outer courtyard. Neem leaves in dry condition
are put into these buckets full of rice or paddy to set free from harmful
insects. Neem or Azadirechta is good pesticide.
vTelani preparation [water left
after collecting the boiled rice]: It is used in wash treatment of old clothes.
Rajbanshis also consume the telani with adding some salt in it to taste; they
consider telani as the most important type of nutritious food good for health.
vChalvaja preparation [one type of
fried uncooked non-boiled rice]: Rajbanshis take fried uncooked (non-boiled) rice
with tea in the early morning in their breakfast before getting involved in
their daily work.
vPanta bhat preparation [salted
rice]: The cooked rice or Kaon millet is kept in water throughout the night and
only when the sun appears to arise the Rajbanshis do their breakfast with this
watery rice after putting a pinch of salt in it (called as panta bhat).
vRajbanshis prefer rice cultivation
the most. The rice varieties they have preferred the most are Kukra or
Kukurjali, White or Sada Nunia, Black or Kalo Nunia, Tulaipanji, Swarna,
Kalam, Payejam, Mala, Dharial and so
on. Black Nunia paddy is black in texture and because of that when the crops
are full grown, the field is looking black and the air is filled up with a
special fragrance. Grains of Black Nunia are relatively small, but very much
tasty; it is sold in market in higher price level than the hybrid varieties and
it has a low yield. White Nunia is also there, their seed coat color is as
usual non-black and hence golden. Rajbanshis are concerned about high
nutritious value of Nunia rice. A small quantity of Nunia rice can fill up the belly for
the whole day. A handful of Nunia paddy after decoating the paddy seedcoats
could provide ample amount of cooked rice. Swarna gives a greater yield (about
18-20 mon/ bigha), while the lowest is documented in case of Kalam (8-10 mon/
bigha). But Kalam is the rice with elongated grains of thin size and also good
in taste. Kaon or Kamon is a variety of millet with smallest grain size. Being
extremely minute, Kaon looks like mustard, but it is not any kind of rapeseed.
It is not too tasty as paddy. Mala ripens most quickly. Kaon grows up
reluctantly in the natural environment of North Bengal. Usually the Rajbanshis
eat boiled Kamon or Kaon. It is consumed in hotchpotch (khichuri). It is also
cultivated in the hill areas or at foothill pockets by other ethnic groups.
Kaon and rice varieties are stored in dry condition, sold in market and
consumed by the people.
vAn important variety of paddy,
Dharial, contains grains with pressed shape and therefore used exclusively in
production of the preserved rice products (muri- puffed rice; chira- bitten
rice; khoi- pressed rice).
oPreparation of chira or chura
(bitten rice): Coated rice is here put in water for the whole night or for some
days so that the seed coat would be loosened; then they heat the same in mild
temperature for long but under strict observation; control the flame and
lastly, husk it in husking machine (Chham) with the help of a wooden beam
(gayen) continuously and only then some kind of pressed rice or chura is
produced. This chura is then left to be sun-dried for some
days and in this way could be preserved for a long period. Here, the flame of
fire and time of flaming are both different from that in the preparation of
simple uncoated rice from paddy. The softened seed coat here transforms into
the dust and is used as fodder. The pressed processed rice, chura, is usually
served with card (dahi). Dahi-chura is one of the most delicious food items to
the Rajbanshis.
oPreparation of muri (puffed rice):
Rajbanshis have learnt the preparation procedure of puffed rice, muri, from the
immigrant Bengali and the other Rajbanshi fellows emigrated from Bangladesh
(now well overlapped with one another). Basically, Bangladesh is a rice bowl.
Muri preparation needs an oven. The uncoated and uncooked rice is kept in
salted water for the whole night or two to make it softened and diffuse the
salt particles into the grains. Then on the open-air earthen stove, these rice
particles after this salt treatment in the presence of sand and controlled fire
is baked for several times. These rice particles in the earthen handi (pot)
with heated sand are constantly stirred with jute sticks. In this way, salted
rice becomes heated, softened, aired and puffed. Some people like salted muri
where quantity of the soluble salt applied is higher. After this preparation,
the muri has to be winnowed from dry heated sand by sieve (chaluni) or simply
be shaking the mixture in a koola. This Koola is a semi-circular utensil made
up of thatched bamboo strips with concave floor and deeper
inside. There the muri has to taken atop and be shaken by hand. So, the muri
particles heavier would go to the deeper end and the sand dust and other
unwanted light weight particles to the other outside end.
oPreparation of khoi (pressed rice):
Old paddy is often heated in sand with continuous stirring by jute stick on
high flame and eventually the crunchy soft rice grains are jumped out of the
paddy seed coats. This white colored food item (Khoi) is another form of rice
preservation. This is a type of pop. We can say it as pop-rice.
v Preparation of bori (pulse cake):
Pulse-dust of maskalai or thakurkalai or khesari is preserved after it is
thickly mixed up with water and then sun dried in the form of small cakes over
a white cloth. Sun-drying can continue for three to four days. Pulse is a
winter crop whose cultivation begins at late-spring when temperature is being
decreased and air still contains moisture. It is harvested in autumn and early
summer. Pulse grains are dusted in husking machine. The residue is a good
fodder for cattle and poultry. Pulse is a mitrogen fixing plant. Pulse grain
can be stored for seasons like the rice. Pulse grains can be baked and that is
termed as dalmut. This dalmut is mixed up with bhujia, nuts and coconut and in
tjis way, a dry food chanachur is produced. But, Rajbanshi women are the most
familier with making bodi or bori from pulse dust emulsion. They often add jira
spice and pulp of bottle gourd (chalkumra or panikumra) in the same before
drying them in small cakes.
vPreparation of alu bhaja (potato
chips): Potato chips are also manufactured by the Rajbanshi folk community; for
this, they usually give the sliced potato chips sun-treatment, often make them
salted (salt is a natural preservative) and before frying them in cooking oil,
some even add the dry chips into the vinegar for few minutes so as to make
these crunchy. Potato is growing in large amount in North
Bengal highlands with multiple harvests in the same season. Potato is basically
a winter crop and bulbs are grown underground. Wild potato, airy potato and
spiny potato are also there. Potato can be propagated in mixed cultivation.
There are indigenous varities from Bhutan. Potato leaf is also consumed as
vegetable. Potato buds from the bulbs are cut off and stored in dry condition
for the next season. Potato however now in growing throughout the year. Potato
is a perishable product. So, potato can be preserved to some extent in the form
of chips.
v Preservation of pumpkin: Pulp of
pumpkin or bottle gourd is preserved in form of jelly and sauce. They are
extracted, mixed up with water, given a texture of lei, added to sugar, and in
this way, sweet jelly is manufactured. Vinegar is often added to this. Watering
this product brings in a kind of sauce by adding a few squeezed tomato and hot
spices (especially chilli). This emulsion has to be stirred up in a big pot
under constant heating. Sometimes, mildly boiled and softened pieces of pumpkin
are preserved in condenced sugary water emulsion with vinegar and chilli.
Pumpkin cakes are then sun dried. This type of preservation is called murabba.
Excess ripened pumpkin or bottle gourd are actually good for these jelly, sauce
and murabba. Papaya can also be preserved in jelly form.
vPreservation of milk [in the form
of card or dahi]: Card is the most auspicious item for any kind of ceremony. In
order to prepare card, the Rajbanshis keep fresh milk in an earthen pot for
several days in a clean, dust-free, cool dark room (with earthen wall and roof
made by jute sticks and straw acting like a natural cooler or heat resistant
chamber); they could also hang the pot from the beams of the roof; and after
some days, the card is formed due to the activity of the bacteria and then they
pull it down and intake with salt. They do not put any lime extract or sour fruit substance
in it like the Bengalis do. Nor they even heat old milk on mild temperature.
Rajbanshis for the festival purpose mix some more milk within the card and put
sugar on it and stir it continuously while heating; and in this way, sweet card
is prepared. Rajbanshis are not usual with the use of milk, but fond of card.
vPreparation of ghee (unsaturated
fat from milk): Rajbanshis also prepare unsaturated fat from milk called ghee.
They warm the milk and take off the upper creamy layer. This collected creamy
substance is then again stirred vigorously and a sticky matter is developed. This
sticky amount is then warmed up and the upper yellowish unsaturated fatty layer
therefore formed is taken out as ghee.
vPreparation of chhana: Addition of
lime juice or tamarind extract into mildly warm milk reacts with the milk and
forms an easily digestible clumsy clustered white mass, chhana, nutritious and
helpful in cooling the body temperature.
vVarious seed are sun dried and
stored in basket or pot by covering the mouth with cloth. These seeds in many
cases were fried with sand in an earthen pot. In case of bitterness, they are
mildly boiled and again dried. They are winnowed and beaten or grinded to make
their dust. Such treatment we can see with jack fruit seed (kathal), amla
(malaki) fruit without the seed and with a sour taste, tamarind seed (tentul),
corn seeds (makoi), and so forth.
vRapeseeds like sarisha, tishi and
til fruits are first harvested, thrashed and the oil is extracted from them.
The oil is stired in high neck earthen pots with a knob. Such pot is called as
pechi. Oil is used in curry. However, Rajbanshis usually prefer food in boiled
and baked condition. The waste product of the rapeseeds is used as cattle feed
and manure (khol or khoil) served with seed coats (tush) and waste products
after winnowing (bhusi).
vMany vegetables are there that are
pieced into chips, baked in mild heat and then fried in oil. This serves for
preservation for a short period for two to three days. These fried chips are to
be stored air tight.
vPickles: The vegetables and fruits
are here to be cur into pieces and after removal of the seed portion and fruit
coat dried in the sun for a week. Then salt, turmeric, oil, chilli, ginger and
some other spices are added to this. Pickles may be of chilli itself. Plum
(buguri) is often preserved as pickle for whole of the year.
vFruit coats of orange can also be
preserved after sun dry. But this is not a usual practice of the Rajbanshis.
Orange fruit coat can be used in bakery in producing cakes.
vVarious spices like cassia and
curry leaves (tejpata and karipata) are grown up in near the Rajbanshi habitat
and they are simply sun dried. They are put in curry to add taste.
vMango and banana are perishable
fruits with pulp. They are often collected in immature condition. They then put
in a closed kiln underground with alternative layers of dry paddy straw burning
into fume. The system underground is covered up by soil at the top layer. But
there is a whole and from that through a blow pipe air is forcefully passed
into the chamber. In this way, crops are ripened. So, we can preserve our
fruits in green and in time bake them into ripened condition.
vMango pulp: Mango juice is
extracted from ripened fruits and dried under the sun for 2-3 days. A thin
layer is thus formed and on that layer some extra juice is added and sun dried.
This layer after layer formation is a constant and lengthy process. As a
result, a thick layer is produced. This preserved form of mango bar is known as
amsatta. People of Malda in North Bengal where many mango gardens are there are
involved in producing mango bar. Green mangos are converted into pickles.
Mango tree needs cow dung manure not at its base but in circular modes at its
shade. Other organic manure and water are to be added in these circles with
time intervals. In these circles, pineapples are often propagated. Pineapple
juice, pickles and manure are other productions from mango-pineapple system.
Today, Rajbanshis are propagating pineapples in large scale.
vRajbanshis also know preservation
of non-food items like hard shell of fruit coast, jute fiber, jute stick,
bamboo and cane items, wooden crafts, rain teak (shrish), rubber, mulberry,
silk cotton (shimul), silk (tasar), and lac (lacca). They sell the skin of
their dead animals from where leather products have been manufactured. They
know medicinal benefit of so many plants and often stored their dried liaves,
flowers, seeds, fruits, barks and roots with them. Various underground food
substances can be kept for some days without any decaying.
Alternative sources of food and
non-food items
Lichens, mushrooms, pork, toad, mud
fishes, crabs, and snails are seldom considered as food items during natural
calamities and scarcity/acute food shortage. Snails they cooked with pulses
boiled alive and then suck the juicy portion from inside the shell directly to
the throat. They believed in its high protein value without any the scientific
evidence and strange! They were all correct. They were the Bengalis who at a
time avoided the Rajbanshis for this type of food practice and as a result of
this; they gradually shed off this food item from their meal list. Lizard,
leech, green leech, fly, ant, spider, ant-like eight feet spider, big spiders
without any net formation, large garden snails,
apple snails, earth warm and centipede are other components of the garden.
Ducks control the excess amount of snails in the pond eco-system. Snails are of
three types: apple snails (harmful for the gardening), small snail Nautilus
(consumed by man) and mussel (which is actually not a snail). Triton shell
(shankh) is used as a musical instrument and also ornaments (bangle) are
produced of it. Besides Toad, there are frog and flying frog also in the region
of North Bengal.Often, snail, snail consumption, use
of snail shells for production of lime, use of lime in preparation of ponds for
fishing, consumption of lime either with only tobacco or with betel leaf anf
nut have built a relationship among themselves. The trade of betel nut – betel
leaf – lime – paddy – snail shell – snail through barter system has become very
crucial here. Here, the snail collector, the fishermen, the lime producer, the
paddy grower, betel leaf grower and the betel nut raisers are equally
important. Potters in one hand provide the essential earthen pots and the crop
raisers the straw as fuel source to the lime producer.
Curd that is considered to be a main
element necessary in any religious or social festival of the Rajbanshi
community (cow meat is not taken by the Hindus as it is sacred in Hindu
religion); boar, hen, duck and grey hen are eaten also. The bear (Ursidae sp.),
wild boar (Sus scrofa) and monkeys (Macaca spp.) of different kinds, like
capped langur (Lemuroidac sp.) are found in this area of North Bengal. Fox,
wild dogs, tigers, deer, bison, wild pig and gharial type of fish-eating
crocodile are rapidly decreasing in number or have completely lost from the
bio-diversity of the North Bengal. In nearby forest areas, animals like rabbit,
squirrel, bat, chamchika, rat, mole, deer, macaque, bison, tiger, leopard, wild
cat, wild boar, elephant, wild dog, fox, civet, water cat and black bear could be found. In
old days, beating drums and bugle made up of bison or deer horn are used to
call all the villagers in the common meeting place. Rajbanshis generally avoid
the consumption of tortoise or its egg [probably due to their origin in Kashyap
clan; Kashyap was the name of a Wise Man, literally meaning ‘The Tortoise’ in
Sanskrit. Rajbanshis, during the period of availability of wood, used to
prepare their wooden house on wooden trunks. The ladder (with or without wooden
handled) was also there; it might be temporary or permanent in nature. That
type of housing was basically in order to protect themselves from heavy flood
and dampness in the soil. Many tribal communities of North Bengal are still
living in such houses and they set up piggery under the house. On later days,
pig cultivation was reduced and pigs were fed vegetables and underground foods
like potato and yam. Pork, sheep, and pigeon were also highly favored by them.
These items were actually associated with the blood sacrifice in their
religious ceremonies, other social festivals and various types of
magico-religious performances of the Rajbanshi social fold. Often when a full
grown goat is cut, every family of the village or lineage or among the neighbors,
the meat was served; the major share goes to the actual owner of the goat. That
owner had also the right to sell the skin, bone, horn and head of the goat to
the outside market.
Rajbanshi women in production unit
Rajbanshi women collect fern, yam,
rhizome, knolkhol and aurum as well as leafy vegetables from marshland and
canal areas. Women are involved in fishing in local ditches and small fishes
there along with nadiali fishes in local steams are converted into dried fishes
by just leaving the fish pieces in dry sun beam without using salt or turmeric.
They have invented various techniques for fishing of pond
fishes, river fishes and fishes with extra respiratory organ. Activity of
fishes, fish eating birds, frogs, snakes and ants are natural indicator of
weather to them.
Rajbanshi women are good with
poultry and goat raring, whereas cattle management is mostly managed by male
elders of the family. Duck, goose and swans control the population of snails in
the pond and actually help in fish cultivation; their stool is a good source of
fodder for the fishes. They know about the shrubs like bichhilara controlling
infectious diseases in poultry. They know about the grasses and herbs that
increase the milk productivity of cows. Women are really good will kitchen
garden in uchu or danga or upland places where they propagate vegetables and
spices. Turmeric, zinger, peppercorn, chilly, cardamom, cabbage and broccoli,
cauliflower, mustard, rapeseeds, sunflower, bitter gourd, gourd, potato, sweet
potato, carrot, beat, chal kumra or pani kumra (Pumpkin), lady finger, brinjal,
snake gourd, cane and bamboo, jack fruit and guava, kaon, marua and maize are
the basic items of highland.
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From jute, fibers are collected in
special way. Hollowed jute sticks are used in roof manufacturing of traditional
house. Fibers of jute and flex are raw material of clothe and sitting mattress
(dhokra). Indigenous looms are generally used. Sona and tita are two important
verities. Leaves of later variety are consumed as vegetable for their bitter
taste and medicinal importance. Fibers of the second type are generally used
for making of mattress and such other rough products. The jute sticks are
submerged in stagnant ditches with the help of floating trunks of banana
inflorescence. Then those jutes are washed with clean water of little streams
and easily fibers are extracted leaving the hollow sticks (pat kathi). Both the
products are dried: sticks are used in roof construction: they are
light in weight and capable of air conditioning. They are also good source
fuel. Fibers of sona variety are used in making clothes. Short and harsh fibers
of tita variety are used for rough use. Jute and flex are cultivated during
rainy season in lowlands submerged under flood water. And in late monsoon season
when raining is being reduced, fibers are collected. Jute fibers are hanged at
first and then thread is manufactured. The entire process is called panjipara.
A slate stone chip of 9 inches diameter with a hole at the center is taken and
a bamboo stick is pierced in through that hole. That tool is called as takuri.
The stick is used as liver and by rotating this stick clockwise torque is
created and it actually works as a spinning machine.
Rice is consumed in various ways,
such as, boiled rice with salt, rice with pulses, vegetables and other
non-vegetable items. They stored the rice in dry preserved condition. They
first wet the rice, then fry it hot, and press in chham (husking machine) with
gyin (leaver/handle) manually so that the rice portion comes out from the seed
coat; the seed coat is used both as manure and fodder; whereas the pressed
rice, chura, is served with card which is till the most auspicious item for any
kind of religious ceremony or festival for the Rajbanshis. The community is fond
of card/dahi, and unsaturated fat, i.e.,ghee. Fresh milk from the cow is
immediately kept in earthen pot in cold place and in this way they prepare the
card (goleya dahi). So, dahi-chura was one of the most delicious items for
them. Foktoi is a pulse-like dish prepared from mixture of fried dust of chura
and garlic which is cooked in boiled water with mustered and chilly. They also
prepare vapa, another exclusive rice item with some specific economic attribute
to the Rajbanshi society. Here, they take some rice dust and prepare a soft
watery lye of it, then give shape of disk-like cakes that they cook on
steam one by one. For steaming, they again take a handi (earthen cooker) on
fire with boiling water inside and the vapor coming out of the single pore at
the center of the lid automatically bakes the rice cakes into delicious vapa
cakes. Till now they fry their home-made soft rice and take this fried rice (chal
bhaja) with tea in the early morning. They boil rice in water which is their
main food item (bhat) and also consume the nutritious watery emulsion of the
boiled rice, fen or telani, with garlic. Husked rice in home in chhum-gyin is
only decoated but the nutritious cotyledon part remains attached. Rajbanshis
pour slight water over cooked rice and preserve this for the whole night which
becomes another item (panta bhat) for the breakfast meal. Watery cooked rice
could be further fermented so as to prepare alcoholic substance added with
sucrose and dust of rice coat (kind of fodder). Rajbanshi females used to
engage in preparation of dahi, ghee, chura, muri, salted muri, husked rice and
vapa within homestead whereas the males go to the field and participate in the
process of crop-cultivation. Females generally prepare the vapa at night and
then early in the morning go outside for selling the cakes at the exchange of
other goods- a typical barter system. They collect rice by selling the vapa.
And from these collected rice, they feed their family and again produce the
rice cakes for next day selling. Prosperous families do not let their women to
go into the field, maintain joint-extended families to meet the manual labor
and generally apply day labors on temporary basis.
From the dried straw of the paddy,
the Rajbanshis prepare sitting blocks and cautions, shade their roves, produce
guard rings of round-shaped earthen pottery, and arrange good quality of fodder
and fuel. They use paddy straw on the fishing net with cow dung and
superfluity; it helps
in quick fishing in village ponds.
Airy and hollowed straws in bunches over the roves are good for controlling the
home temperature in both hot summer and cold winter.
The slopes of uplands are often
found covered with ferns of numerous types, some being highly edible and
nutritious. Women are involved in collection of the newly grown leaves which
they cook as their daily vegetable. These Rajbanshi womenfolk have the
capability to use their fingers very swiftly with the very consideration that
the leaves do not have sores. Such capabilities are highly required in tea
gardens so as to collect the young tea leaves with buds. But still now, no one
of Rajbanshi womenfolk is interested in accepting the job of leaf collection in
tea gardens. They prepare delicious dish of fern with young tips of new bamboo
shoots; for the latter, they cover the out-coming shoot from subterranean
rhizome under an earthen pot.
The next most important vegetation
is of bananas. Sweet bananas of chinichampa variety with small and dark spots
on their body are essential in religious ceremonies. Anaji is the green banana
used in curry. Sabri, Madna, Fans and Martaban are some of the sweet varieties.
Banana local variety with seeds, daya kela or bichia kela (bichia= seed;
kela=banana) at the green condition used in medicinal purpose (curing abdominal
diseases and constipation). The banana fruit inflorescence in the good variety
of malvog grows to the optimum level and therefore riches up to the soil. They cook
the banana fruit inflorescence. The ‘trunk’ leaf inflorescence is also cooked
as a food item. They use banana leaves as plates for serving food and also for
packaging of various types. Bichia kela is with medicinal importance: seeds are
curative for worms, a glass of fresh water coming out of a young leaf
inflorescence helps in stomach problems and it is the main item for the preparation of
traditional food item chheka. The filtered water of sun-dried dust of
subterranean rhizome of the plant coming out from the hole at the bottom of
coconut shell provides waxy nature in the vegetables. Small lafa leaves grown
in spring-winter are tastier and with this chheka the dish prepared is called
pelka- it reduces body temperature and prevents the germs and dust to enter
into the lungs through nostrils during thrashing the paddy throughout the
weather-changing season of Hemanta. Sun-dried fresh pieces of local varieties
of small fishes in ponds and streams (shutka) are dusted in chham-gyin with
waxy leaf-base of certain aurum varieties (mann/kala) locally propagated.
Mustered oil, garlic, chilly and turmeric are used to prepare fish-balls from
this waxy fish dust (sidal). Balls are then fermented in tightly closed earthen
pots filled up with chheka dust. After 5/7 days, seal is broken up to release
the balls then baked (autha) or cooked with curry and water of chheka.
For washing the clothes, Rajbanshis
use soda which they produce from the base of the banana tree (this base is the
actual portion from where the leaf inflorescence comes out as “the tree” from
the underground rhizome). They submerge this trunk base for long in water and
when it started to be rotten out, the waxy extract they collected and used as
soda.
Edible soft inflorescence of ferns
(dheki) is a good source of food. Rajbanshis eat non-vegetable items also:
fish, hen, duck and goat are domesticated, bartered and reciprocated. Rajbanshi
women are also aware of agro-forestry, kitchen garden, sacred groove, medicinal
plants and fencing.
Conclusion
This paper deals not only with food
preservation of Rajbanshis of North Bengal, but also the role of their women,
alternative food items and some uniqueness in their production system
(especially use of biodiversity) that they classify in their own and promote from
too much traditional to certain modernity. This is basically a kind of
documentation.
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