The Musahar Caste Movement in North Bihar, India, in the 1930s
Subodh Kumar | 19 February 2025
◇ Caste Politics | Indian Politics | Modern Indian History
In 2023, the Musahar leader Bipin Manjhi led a group of Musahars mobilising from Gaya, Bihar, in Eastern India to the country’s capital in New Delhi. They took collective action demanding the prestigious Bharat Ratna (the highest Indian Civilian Award) for their caste icon, Dashrath Manjhee, who, between 1959 and 1981, carved a mountain path from his village, Gehlaur, to the fields beyond. Compelled to action by his wife’s death on the mountain, he used only a hammer and chisel to complete this task. Inspired by Manjhee, the Musahars marched on Delhi, asking for donations as they walked, resting briefly at night. Through this march, the Musahars were able to make demands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, cementing the foot march – Padayatra – as an effective tool for the Musahars to make their demands. This movement has precedence in the history of the Musahar caste politics. The 2023 march seems like a replication of the Padayatra of Saini Musahar in 1936, who organised the Musahars and marched them on a religious pilgrimage to renovate the shrine at Kataiyakhap (Nepal). The mobilisation efforts of both Saini and Bipin Musahar share similarities; namely their organised foot marches, community identity and leadership. [1] In the Musahars Padayatra, we can aim to understand how lower castes in India can and do collectivise to demand social justice.
The Musahars are a low-caste group constituting the third largest population in Bihar, India. In the colonial period, they were extremely marginalised, as they are today. [2] The Musahars’ ways of life were either spent as bonded or landless agricultural labourers in colonial Bihar. [3] Despite their marginalisation, the Musahars mobilised through religious consciousness to build a temple to Dina-Badri in 1936, but their religious pilgrimage turned into political violence with the landlord and the state because the landlord, Rajdhob, claimed that the land belonged to him where the shrine was based and the state saw the Musahars’ pilgrimage as rioters.
Despite the marginalised nature of the caste, the Musahars were able to demonstrate their religious and cultural consciousness by building shrines to their local caste deity—Dina Badri, during the 1930s. The construction of temples dedicated to their local gods demonstrated their capability to mobilise together.
Saini Das aimed to unite the Musahars on religious grounds and emerged as a caste leader and social reformer in Purnia district (north Bihar). The religious mobilisation of the Musahars was strategically developed under the leadership of Saini Das Musahar who became a revered figure among Musahars from 1935 onwards. His immense faith in his caste deity—Dina-Badri, made him a preacher and led him to construct a temple in Purnia (Bathnaha) and renovate one at Kataiyakhap (Nepal). [4] As ancestral caste gods, Dina & Badri became revered figures in the majority Musahar regions in north Bihar. Dina-Badri and their religious commandments purposefully stimulated Saini to build temples providing tangible forms of caste deities that were prevalent among the Musahars of north Bihar.
In mobilising the Musahars, two principal reasons were driving Saini; firstly, his dream of Dina-Badri and secondly, a religious document veiled in mystery (he found it in his pocket whilst asleep). Both were motive enough for him to build the shrines in north Bihar and Nepal and acted as political tools in leading the Musahars.
Saini asked Musahars to wear a Kanthee (a sacred thread around the neck), its sacred thread symbolising the Musahars as genuine religious individuals. Saini further, in an attempt to gain the support of other Musahars not yet part of the movement, instructed the Musahars to undertake Padayatra (foot marches). Musical instruments (Jhal) were used as a tool in this too, alerting passers-by of the marches through song. Finally, meetings and religious preachings were held from village to village as the marches progressed, Saini asked for offerings of donations to the temple’s construction as they went. [5] The Padayatra functioned as a key tool to Musahar’s collective consciousness. As they walked, marched and played music, they inspired and attracted more marchers, gathering under the banner of their collective caste identity. The padayatra culminated in the building of a temple to Dina-Badri. This shared goal of the temple construction motivated the Musahars and gradually evolved into a full mobilisation of the caste.
What initially began as a group of seventy to eighty Musahars grew to more than a thousand through the loud and colourful padayatra. By making intermittent stops overnight in neighbouring villages, the villagers met the marchers and came to respect their cause, deciding to aid them in building the temple of Dina-Badri. [6]
The Musahars’ Padayatra in 1936 is mirrored in the marches of 2023 by playing a similar role in the development of a collective consciousness among contemporary Musahars. By gathering under a collective caste identity and shared faith in Dina-Badri, they called upon a sense of community unity to collectivise on a march and ultimately demand social justice from the prime minister.
In the project of liberating the marginalised castes of India in the 21st century, we can learn from the Musahars. Leadership, foot marches, singing songs, and the vision of temple building helped mobilise the Musahars in Bihar. Showing solidarity in collective identity and amassing as a great unity, the Musahars became visible and minimised their marginality for a short while in local society. Bipin Manjhi’s mobilisation in 2023 has shown that the Musahar identity is still strong and acts as an inspiration to marginalised castes, that in unity, they can make themselves visible, and in their visibility, they can effectively demand consideration.
Subodh Kumar is a PhD candidate at the Department of History, University of Nottingham. His research aims to supplant historic narratives of the caste system by giving agency back to the oppressed Dalit (ex-untouchable) caste.
References
[1] Vivek Kumar Rai, “A Padyatra For ‘Mountain Man’ Manjhi: Bihar’s Musahar Community Seeks Recognition And Dignity”, Outlook, March 2023, pp. 1-12.
[2] “Bihar Jaati Adhaarit Janganana: Bihar Rajya” (2023), p. 11. The total population of the Musahar caste in Bihar is 4035787.
[3] Gyan Prakash, Bonded Histories: Genealogies of Labor Servitude in Colonial India, Cambridge South Asian Studies, no. 44 (Cambridge, New York 1990).
[4] Archer, William G., “Correspondence and Reports on Musahars and the Musahar Movement, 1936: The Background of the Musahar Movement” (1938), Asian and African Studies, The India Office Library and Records Room, London, MSS EUR F236/3,p. 1. See the note on the Musahar movement.
[5] William George Archer, “Correspondence and Reports on Musahars and the Musahar Movement: A Note on The Musahar Movement,” 1938 1936, Asian and African Studies, The British Library, London. P. 4.
[6] Archer, “Correspondence and Reports on Musahars and the Musahar Movement, 1936: The Background of the Musahar Movement”, pp. 17-19.