Anthropology beats economics: How people in flood-prone region help each other: The Case study of Odisha | Radhakanta Barik

Wondering at by looking at the poor people in a flood prone Island of Cuttack district survived with difficulties and worked for making their children educated. This helped their children to get educated who got the jobs in the state sector. This brought them out of poverty trap and debt trap forever.

Key words: kinship, fictive kinship, clan and education

Introduction:

Involvement of peasantry in the national movement made them aware of value of education. The state like Odisha had no other opportunities such as business and industry where they could have been absorbed. Agriculture was highly crisis ridden during the colonial period. High rent and oppressive Zamindar and Muqdam class made their life miserable. Furthermore regular natural calamity like drought famine and flood pushed the economy to subsistence economy. They used to live in a classical sense that peasant production is equal to consumption. With the rise of population their hope making them settled in agriculture got disappeared. Their involvement in national movement made them aware of the imminent abolition of Zamindari and Muqdam. This created hope in their hearts and that their surplus which was getting appropriated by the landlords would be left with them. The landowning peasantry cutting across the castes decided to put their male children into education. In 1940 before Independence many middle and high schools came up in the market areas. They used to go weekly or monthly market for selling and buying some goods which made them aware of the coming up the schools. Furthermore they thought of Independence means a lot of jobs in the state sector which made them into an aspirational class. For educating their children in High schools either they had to keep them in the school hostels or keeping them in nearby relative’s home. As their relatives were confined in their locality and they searched for fictive kinship networks. In any way it incurred some expenditure which the middle and poorer peasantry could not bear. This was the time that they got the support from the kinship network for getting some help in realizing the educational cost. Activation of kinship created a hope to educate their children. Many turned into debt for educating their children. During the crisis time kinship got activated like the house caught fire or families suffered from flood and drought situation. Here a new situation arose that children of their relatives went for higher education and they owed to their relatives to provide some financial succor to them meet their needs. This aspirational class to some extent tried to fulfill their aspirations for educating their children.

This area we are taking case study is an island economy of twenty two villages and which used to face regular flood. They had very little surplus or no surplus. They created a strategy to fulfill their own aspirations. Suppose the family had five brothers then they decided to educate one when four used to work on the field. Except the educated families those invested in the education of girls but others only in their male children. The whole area till 1970 there were three educated girls. Two up to matriculation and one upto graduation.This area had two Middle Schools built just before Independence. That helped them to send their children from primary schools to Middle Schools. Each village had primary school. For educating in these two middle schools many parents decided to keep their boy in a relative’s house sometimes not direct relative’s house. A lot of planning was required in peasant family for educating their children in either middle school or High school. As the economy based on barter system they decided to go for selling their products in the market to get money to send to their children learning in High school. It was a bold decision and a lot of experiment was going on in the first two decades after Independence for educating their children. They did not prefer their girls.

Nehru’s Tryst with Destiny:

Peasantry in Odisha creatively used Nehru’s statement ’Tryst with Destiny’ at the time of Independence that they could make their destiny by investing in education of their children which can make them junior partners of the Independent state. Peasantry feels that they cannot be part of the new state. As their landholding was limited who could not aspire to be class partners of the state. Only by making their children educated them can be part of state administration if not state power. This perception of the state made them aware of the value of education. Majority of people of the area had some education from the primary schools which have been functioning for years. In some villages of the area there have been schools for more than hundred years. That education to make them aware of their knowledge needs which can help them to manage their land vs state. Complicated land relations existed during the colonial period. Unless they were careful they might lose their property. This made them aware of land records which helped them to confront the landlords and state both during the colonial period. Arithmetic and literature both shaped their personality. Arithmetic helps them calculate for their everyday needs in the marketplace or sell their products in the market. Literature provides them to keep them enlightened and have a discussion and debate over some issues where they could help in reciting the stanzas from the Bhagvata in managing their everyday life.

Anthropology saves them:

In such a critical moment peasantry found the help of anthropology rather than economics. Kinship got reactivated at the time of Independence and they decided to help each other. The community got motivated to start schools just before Independence. The National movement turned into a movement for enlightenment. These communities decided to go for middle schools and the island of twenty-two villages had no middle school but they started functioning during 1940s just before Independence. Seven to eight villages gave community support for starting these schools. They appointed teachers from outside and some educated persons from the locality got appointed. The students who abandoned their studies for cultivation to herding the cows after their primary schools and returned back to study. It was a great experiment for the villagers. These schools functioned as beacon light for these villages. Community felt as responsible for educating their children. Perhaps for the first time they thought beyond their rice field. This thinking is a great moment in rural history. The whole social space got mobilized to educate their children.

Resource mobilization:

In this paper we investigate the way resources get mobilized by the peasant society for educating children. Peasant society here is a better concept as there were poor and middle and labouring people can be placed in peasant society. As the area did not have rich peasant at all. Wealth of peasant family was measured by local people in terms of family size vs land holding. If the size is small then they are a little better up. In their perception when a rich family gets disintegrated then many families gain. Furthermore, size is important rather than the amount of land. Education got delivered in monetary sense whereas peasant society used to run in a barter system. While keeping their children in the hostel which demanded payment in cash per month. Peasant society confronted educational system. Though the expenditure in Musffosil school used to be just Rs 20 in 1950s and Rs 30 in 1960s. But lack of resources of an average peasant family haunted them but they had a strong will to educate their children. The question arises as to how they manage with meager resources for educating their children.

They made strategies to cope with new situation. They planned by reinventing the social and cultural resources under their command. Their kinship and fictive kinship and clan all three got reinvented by themselves to invest in their children’s education. (Bailey, F G 2001 )Here clans may be spread to the whole locality but they are limited to their own village . Kinship spreads to the locality and fictive kinship can be widespread over some regions. All these work in a positive sense to educate their children. The clan is a stratified one. The kinship is also stratified. Some out of kinship with the backing of their wealth went to the city to educate themselves and got big job. They did not support their own kinship network. They worked as closure of class. But others with small wealth and middle and small farmers worked out a strategy to meet the unusual demands without going to professional money lenders. They used to pay loan at the interest of twenty five percentages. They did not transact the small amount such as twenty or thirty rupees. They approached their own relatives who were better off and ready to spend some money for their relative’s child. Either without interest or with marginal interest they were ready to pay them. They created a dependence structure with the selected relative to borrow money whenever required. (Ferguson 2013) The second category of people paid their relatives as when their requirements arose not always. There was rich among the clan who made mutual agreement in such a manner by which their relatives did not face unnecessarily harassment.

We are going to examine some case studies.

Case studies would help us to explain the dynamics of the help peasantry receive from their relatives. (Lockwood, P. 2023)

Case Study 1: Family of two brothers whose father was a school teacher in an informal school. They got inspired by their teacher father to educate their own children. These two brothers having eight children was a big family. They belong to Chasa Khandayat a cultivating family. They decided to educate all. Their first son after passing out from middle school with a merit scholarship went to Alanahat High school which used to exist in the market area across the river. He was kept in the hostel. His scholarship was Rs 15 and another extra amount of Rs 15 they required. As big family with limited land there was hardly any surplus in the whole year. In their planning all brothers needed to be educated. They approach their clan person who had surplus. They made an agreement of taking loan when money was required but he demanded collateral of their landed property. They agreed to it as they were part of the same clan. If conflict would arise they could hold a meeting among clan members who could force him to return back their land. They had to give their own land as collateral. Took money on loan without interest. It was a wise decision as all brothers got educated. While they continued higher education after passing out from school. All their six acres of land remained as the collateral under the custody of the rich person belonging to their clan. After a decade they all passed out and got jobs in the state sector and they returned their money and land got returned back. There was no hitch as the clan people held a meeting to decide the fate of their collateral land. They put moral pressure on the rich person to pay back their land after receiving money. He wanted to avoid confrontation with their clan people and decided to return back their land.

The case study 2 A family with little more money but the family had the same land for last seven generations. They belonged to Chasa Khandayat family. They did not want to sell their land nor to approach the money lender but they decided to approach a rich person in their extended kinship who lived in the next village. They did not require money during school education but during college education. Admission usually takes place in the colleges during the month of July. That was the rainy season when peasant class does not have any source of additional income. As this was the sowing time they required to invest in labour for ploughing and seedling and planting the seedlings. All these required some money which they somehow managed but not admission fee for their college going children. They went to their rich relative and suggested him to pay money for their children’s college education partially and they would pay back once the rabi crops got harvested. This was a gentlemans agreement. This worked out well.

The case study 3: Trading family with a little land and they lived on small commerce which helped them to survive with little income. Their son got into study of Architecture where the financial requirement was a little more. Their father’s income they could pay them every month but some months they faced financial stringency which resulted in depending on their sister’s business in a far-off village. This helped him become an architect.

Case study 4: He belongs to SC who went for schooling in Alanahat High School. Their brothers were wage earners and they succeeded in giving a portion of their income to educate him. For higher studies, they could not sustain. Sometimes they depended on the landlord on whose land they work as the share-croppers. They borrow some money at a critical time.

Case study 5: He belongs to Dalit labouring family but his brothers were all working people. Decided to educate their brother. He went to Alanahat High School and stayed in hostel. Whenever additional money was required, they depended on a relative who had better income from land and fish business. This dependence helped him to be an engineer. After getting the job he returned back the loan to his relative.

Case study 6: He belonged to Dalit family having some acres of land. He studied in the local Middle School and High school which started in 1970. He turned into an engineer and the neighboring village made a social boycott of him and he was forced to leave the village with his brother’s family forever.

Case study 7: He studied in a local middle and high school as a son of a daily wager and his father had to go to different villages to work. With their income they educated his son for matriculation. His mother worked as husking rice for which she earns some rice which could sustain their livelihoods. Sometimes they depended on their brother-in-law who works as a mason.

Case study 8: He studied at the Alanahat High School and approached the Head Master who was a kind person, who allowed him to stay in the hostel where his meals were borne by other students belonging to well to do families.

Case study 9: It is a Brahmin family. Here to educate him his father went to the city to work as a cook in the college hostel where the child started staying and went to Ranihat High school and after passing out he went to college for two years. The family lived in the village and went on sharing cropping their land and some income they had doing puja in the temple. They educated their son and his father sometimes went on begging during festival time to the richer families in the city.

The case study 10:

The family decided to send one out of five brothers to do schooling in Alanahat High school and others worked in the field. This is another strategy to educate one of them who would come back and help the family after getting the job. With the start of High School in the village all of them went to study after a lapse of some years working on land with their parents.

The face of the area got changed with the opening of two High schools in the locality in 1970 where all poor and rich and girls and boys went for schooling. At least most of them completed schooling and searched for the jobs in the state. We took some case studies to explain the strategy of the village people to come out of the poverty trap.

All of them studied upto school and some went to college located in the city of Cuttack. It is an interesting development took place. There was a wireman in Electricity Department in Ravenshaw College. He had one room Two meals cooked there and in the year 2002 a meal of rice and dalama costing Rs2. IT helped in educating many some turned into doctor, engineer and graduates. In one account their number went up 250 who got educated by staying here.

Conclusion:

A flood-prone area of twenty-two villages suffered from income insecurity. Every year flood comes in the month of July and August which beneficial to farming people. But the year flood comes in the month of September and October which destroys the whole standing rice and keeps them in debt trap for survival. They all depend on Rabi crops and earn little money by selling it.
As failure of rice forces those to buy rice in exchange of pulses specifically. They collectively decided to invest in education for coming out of poverty trap and debt trap. They created a strategy among their kinship to help each other to educate their children and they succeeded. Till 1970 there were no High schools in the area which came up afterwards. This benefited the children to educate themselves and got jobs in the state sector. Hundreds of families came out of poverty trap by getting jobs in the state sector.

References:

• Lockwood, P. 2023 "He who relies on relatives and friends die poor: Class Closure and strategies of civility in peri-urban Kenya", in Journal of Royal Anthropology Institute, vol.29 issue 2.
• Bailey, F G 2001 Strategy and Spoils: A social anthropology of Politics. Rutledge.
• Ferguson, J 2013 "Declaration of Dependence: Labour, Personhood and Welfare in Southern Africa", in Journal of Royal Anthropology Institute, 19