Anthropos 86.1991; 351-365
Clan, Kinship, and Panchayat Justice
among the Jats of Western Uttar Pradesh
Stig Toft Madsen
Abstract. - The Jats see themselves as an egalitarian people.
The caste consists of exogamous clans settled in separate
villages forming a clan territory. Whereas a marriage creates a
ranked relation between two families or local descent groups, it
is supposed to have no effect on the status of the clans which
are equal in rank. A conflict ensues if a clan considers its
status lowered as a result of a marriage. In the case analysed
traditional councils or panchayats were unable to harmonize the
Principles of hierarchy and equality. Yet, the same panchayats
have succeeded in mobilizing farmers demanding economic
benefits from the state, revising the agenda of the panchayats
in the process [India, Jats, caste, clan, hierarchy, equality,
political mobilization]
Stig Toft Madsen, Mag. Scient. (1980), M. A. (1976), studied
Anthropology in Copenhagen and Sociology in Meerut, India;
fieldwork in Uttar Pradesh in 1981-82; Socio-Economist on a
fisheries project in South India in 1987-89 and a consultant
m India and Bangladesh; presently Research Fellow at the
Integrated Human Rights Programme, Institute of Sociology
and Law, Lund University. - Publications include: Ripples on
the Plains: Lawyers, Clients, and Legal Networks in Western
Uttar Pradesh (Folk 1984); contributions to Sydasien (Lund,
Sweden).
Since the appearance in 1967 of Louis Dumont’s
work “Homo Hierarchicus” it has become almost
axiomatic that Hindu caste society is based solely
on hierarchical values. The opposite values of
equality or equivalence have been either over
looked or proved difficult to incorporate into an
analysis based on the premise of overarching hi
erarchy. Yet, Dumont has repeatedly recognized
the existence of equality within traditional Hindu
society: “South Indian kinship presents us with ...
something like an island of equality in an ocean
of caste” (1983: 167).
In the northern parts of India Dumont did not
discover this island of equality within castes. Rath
er, Dumont found that hierarchy had “invaded”
the sphere of kinship to such an extent that “we
cannot speak with any rigour of a ‘kinship sys
tem’ as such” (1966: 106). In Dumont’s opinion
'caste and its hallmark hierarchical status reduce
the function of kinship in social life ... by grafting
themselves on affinal relationships” (110). North
India, he maintained, is characterized by a hyper-
gamous model where notions of superiority and
inferiority leave no room for egalitarian values:
“Although hypergamy is actually in force only in
very few groups, the hypergamous stylisation of
the wife-takers as superior and the wife-givers as
inferiors pervades the whole culture” (102).
While Dumont is right in stating that hierar
chical relations and values are very conspicuous
in North India, this does not mean that values of
equality have no place at all in traditional North
Indian societies.
Through an extended case study this article
will examine how contending clans of the Jat caste,
which places considerable value on equality and
culturally defined notions of brotherhood, dealt
with a particular marriage which was found to
negate these values.
I will show that, on the caste level and, es
pecially, on the clan level, both hierarchical and
egalitarian values need to be considered. I also
want to argue that Dumont is wrong in maintaining
that the kinship sphere is completely subjected to
the hierarchical values of caste. In the case to be
analysed the principle of hierarchy was rooted in
the kinship system: hierarchy threatened the sphere
of caste - not the other way around.
Finally, I will argue that the principle of clan
equality which structures the political-juridical in
stitution of these Jats made the conflict difficult
to solve. The clans are apparently better able to
maintain their equality and democratic ethos when
mobilizing politically against structures which are
outside their moral universe, as for example the
state.
1. Western Uttar Pradesh and the Jats
First I will introduce the caste with which this
article is concerned and the area in which they
live, i.e., the Hindu Jats living in the western parts