Bauri Of Bhubaneswar

Abstract

Among the 93 Scheduled Castes in the State of Odisha the Bauris are one. They are numerically a large scheduled caste community found in several districts of Odisha with different occupations and surnames. The present work is the result of two years field work (1965-67) in the temple town Bhubaneswar in the former undivided district of Puri (now under Khordha district). Prior to independence, this caste group lived in separate wards away from the clean caste dwellings as they were considered a polluting caste. They worked as laterite stone cutters, plough servants, domestic agricultural servants, construction, labours and wood cutters. They had their own caste panchayat headed by their traditional caste leaders who handled their customary affairs and enforced social control. The Bauri residents in the old town of Bhubaneswar in 1940 illiterates. Their children were not allowed to attend public schools in the town. With the growth of the new township for the State Capital in 1948, came new occupations which diminished their pursuit of traditional occupations. New Policies and regulations framed by the National Government after independence for the development of the scheduled castes, tribes, and other backward classes also helped the Bauris to improve their socio-economic condition. With the construction of the new state capital soon after independence, the Bauris took up many new trades. Some them became mason, shop keeper, civil servants, rickshaw puller and orchestral musicians etc. Better wages and increased income brought radical changes in their day to day life. Changes in food habits and dress were also marked. The modern education and altered economy resulted in marked changes among youths. The present study examines the urbanization processes among the Bauris residing in the conservative temple town Bhubaneswar.This study is largely descriptive and focuses on the changes that are occurring in this caste group due to the forces of both growing urbanization and modernization, since the establishment of the new State Capital of Orissa, two miles to the north of the old town. This is not a systematic and complete ethnography of the Bauris but a treatment of those areas of their lives that have undergone changes.