Are Banjaras Hindus? The Story Behind Hindutva's Efforts to 'Hinduise' Them

RSS recently organised a six-day Mahakumbha of the Banjara community in Maharashtra's Jalgaon district.

(Photo: Altered by Chetan Bhakuni/ The Quint)

The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) organised a six-day Mahakumbha mela of the Banjara community on 25 January 2023 in Godri village in Jalgaon district of Maharashtra. The Mahakumbha was a mega event drawing Banjaras from neighbouring states and was addressed by top RSS and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, including Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde, deputy chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

Of course, this event aimed to woo the Banjaras into the BJP, given the upcoming elections in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Telangana and Chhattisgarh. The Banjara concentration is very high in these states and would influence a quarter of the Legislative Assembly seats there. But the Sangh Parivar is not just concerned with converting Banjaras into BJP voters, but also converting them into Hinduism.

The RSS and its sister organisations have been working among the Banjaras and other nomadic communities for a long period, basically organising Hindu festivals and propagating Hinduism among them.

Banjaras and Their Religion

In the Mahakumbha, a senior RSS leader told the Banjaras that they should register themselves as Hindus in the upcoming census enumeration. This raises the question – what is the religion of the Banjaras?

As a historian of the Banjara community, I can certainly say that Banjaras are not Hindus in any way.

It is not just the Banjaras, but many communities are forcefully enumerated as Hindus in the census. Sometimes the communities are not even aware of their inclusion in the Hindu fold. Of late, communities are realising the danger of forced inclusion into Hinduism and they are resisting such religious denominations and making counterclaims, often claiming their own belief system as a religion like Gondi Dharma, Sarna Dharma, Banjara Dharam, etc.

The whole mess around religion was created by the British colonial rulers. The Hindu religion and Hindi language were mainly created by the colonial administration and colonial anthropology in the 19th century. What is called Hinduism today is basically Brahmanism, as it was constructed on the foundation of Brahmanical Sanskrit texts. As part of the national movement, the diverse local traditions of the communities were roped into it through manufactured texts and oral stories, and the census commissioners were pressurised to enumerate diverse caste and tribal communities as Hindus.

The tribal communities were enumerated as Animists or under other religious denominations till the 1931 census, but afterwards, irrespective of their religious claims, they were included in the Hindu fold.

The Banajaras’ social fabric is primarily founded on the anti-Brahmin tradition. The Banjaras, who are called by different names in different regions such as Lambada, Labhan, Sugali, Charan, Multani, Mathura, etc, formed into a caravanner community during the medieval period who transported foodgrains on backed bullocks.

Although the main group of the community comes from Charan, Bhil, Bhat and other tribal communities of North-Western India, many lower caste members who resisted caste practices in the village had joined the Banjaras. Thus, the Banjara community is not a homogeneous community, but over the period, they evolved their own language, dress code, belief system, and social norms.

Their language belongs to the Bhili family, which is a Dravidian language spoken by the North-Western tribes of India, but like Chattisghadi, it is heavily influenced by the Indo-Aryan language.

One should also look at their mythological origin stories, which relate their origin to Dravidian culture. Most of the Banjaras claim their origin from Vali and Sugriva, the two tribal kings of south India mentioned in the Ramayana, and some also claim their origin from Mota and Mola, two cattle breeders under Lord Krishna of Mahabharata. Interestingly the Banjaras of Karnataka and further deep south claim their origin from Jambava, from whom the south Indian Dalits trace their origin. These stories are mythological and connected with larger Hindu puranic literature, but they clearly say that Banjaras come from a tribal, pastoral, and Dalit caste fabric. These castes and communities were never part of the Brahmanic religion and culture. The tribal and pastoral communities are indeed living outside the caste-village society in resistance to Brahmanism.

Resisting Brahmanism

The Banjara folklore constitutes many anti-Brahman elements. There are many stories and songs in the community abusing and resisting Brahmanism. During their traditional marriage, a Banjara is made to act as a Brahman, and the women folk will beat him with broomsticks, slippers and spit on him. The act is supposed to be light-hearted fun but constitutes strong elements of anti-Brahmanism.

Banjaras don't approach Brahmans to perform any social and religious ceremonies. A Bhagat, a spiritual person from the community, performs all the ceremonies. No place for a Brahman in their traditional marriage at any level. Naik of the thanda (hamlet) would fix all the dates for performing social and religious ceremonies.

Banjara's belief system is founded on the philosophy of seven goddesses, popularly called Saathi Bhavani. They are worshiped on social and religious occasions, and the Naik of the thanda or bhagat acts as a priest to perform the ceremonies. During the caravan days, an insignia of the Bhavani made of silver or sometimes a one-rupee coin was put on a specially designated bullock and carried along with them. Bhavani was propitiated wherever they camped their tents, hosting dark red and green flags.

From the early 19th-century Seva Bhaya, a bhagat of the Bhavani, also began to worship with a white flag along with the seven Bhavanis. There is no temple culture in the Banjara society. Even after their permanent settlements, often outside the caste-village, a designated place in the thanda is marked as a sacred place hosting dark red, green, and white flags. However, a temple was raised at Pohara Gad in Maharashtra for Seva Bhaya, where he had died. Banjaras treat Pohara as their holy place.

Some Banjaras, besides worshiping their goddesses, go to local Brahmanic temples, Sikh gurdwaras, and Muslim dargahs. A group of Banjaras got in close association with the Balaji temple in Andhra Pradesh in the 18th century, which was by then completely abandoned by the local people. The Banjaras operated their caravan trade for a long period in this region during the Carnatic and Mysore wars, and one of them by the name Hattiram Bawa became a devotee of Balaji while grazing cattle in the Tirupati hills. Hattiram overshadows Balaji soon with his magical power, and after his death, a matta was built in his name by the Banjaras next to Balaji temple. It became a tradition to pay a visit to Hattiram matta among the Banjaras.

The British rulers suddenly discovered the medieval glory of the Balaji temple and wanted to revive it. Seeing the selfless services of the Hattiram matta to the devotees, the British created a trust in 1835 in Hattiram matta’s name to look after the administration of the Balaji temple. All the properties of the Balaji temple were attached to the Hattiram matta. The matta maintained the Balaji temple till the creation of endowment departments in 1925. In other words, what is today Balaji temple was developed by the Hattiram Bawa Matta.

The Banjaras who go to Tirupati first worship Hattiram and then pay a visit to the Balaji temple. But the Banjaras’ association with Balaji was just accidental and cannot be a standard to denominate Banjaras as Hindus. The Lambadas of Telangana celebrate Moharram festival with utmost spirituality, but then we cannot treat them as followers of Islam nor do they claim so. Same with the Sikhism – a considerable number of Banjaras in Maharashtra visit gurdwara in Nanded but it doesn’t form the core of their religious culture.

There has been an attempt by Hindutva organisations to Brahmanise the Banjara goddesses, Hattiram Bawa and Seva Bhaya, by relating them with the Hindu pantheon gods and goddesses. Such attempts indeed threaten the very identity and social fabric of the Banjaras.

In India, particularly, each tribal/Adivasi community is a nation/jati, and it has its own language, culture and religion. Preserving and protecting this cultural wealth from Hindu cultural imperialism is very important for the communities to negotiate with the modern state.

Against this backdrop, one must understand the recent cultural and religious assertions by the tribal/Adivasi and Dalit-Bahujan communities. If Dalit-Bahujan and Adivasi communities start claiming different religious denominations more assertively, it will be a serious challenge to the Hindutva agenda, resulting in a more humane and egalitarian society in India. I am here relying on Newton's third law of motion, which says, "For every action (force), there is an equal and opposite reaction." Therefore the Banjara Dharam gets recognised as a separate religion soon. 

(Bhangya Bhukya is a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow at the Department of South Asia Studies, University of Pennsylvania, United States. He is also the author of 'Subjugated Nomads: The Lambadas Under the Rule of the Nizams'. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)