in
northern India, where the sweeper castes--the Chuhra in the Punjab, the
Bhangi in the United Provinces and the Dom in Bengal--are all of them
of great numerical strength. With these castes only a small proportion
are employed on scavengers' work and the rest are labourers like
the Chamars and Mahars of the Central Provinces. The present sweeper
caste is made up of diverse elements, and the name Mehtar, generally
applied to it, is a title meaning a prince or leader. Its application
to the caste, the most abject and despised in the Hindu community,
is perhaps partly ironical; but all the low castes have honorific
titles, which are used as a method of address either from ordinary
politeness or by those requiring some service, on the principle, as
the Hindus say, that you may call an ass your uncle if you want him to
do something for you. The regular caste of sweepers in northern India
are the Bhangis, whose name is derived by Mr. Crooke from the Sanskrit
_bhanga,_ hemp, in allusion to the drunken habits of the caste. In
support of this derivation he advances the Beria custom of calling
their leaders Bhangi or hemp-drinker as a title of honour. [226] In
Mr. Greeven's account also, Lalbeg, the patron saint of the sweepers,
is described as intoxicated with the hemp drug on two occasions. [227]
Mr. Bhimbhai Kirparam suggests [228] that Bhangia means broken, and
is applied to the sweepers because they split bamboos. In Kaira,
he states, the regular trade of the Bhangias is the plaiting of
baskets and other articles of split bamboo, and in that part of
Gujarat if a Koli is asked to split a bamboo he will say, 'Am I to
do Bhangia's work?' The derivation from the hemp-plant is, however,
the more probable. In the Punjab, sweepers are known as Chuhra, and
this, name has been derived from their business of collecting and
sweeping up scraps (_chura-jharna_) Similarly, in Bombay they are
known as Olganas or scrap-eaters. The Bengal name Hari is supposed
to come from _haddi_, a bone; the Hari is the bone-gatherer, and was
familiar to early settlers of Calcutta under the quaint designation
of the 'harry-wench,' [229] In the Central Provinces sections of the
Ghasia, Mahar and Dom castes will do sweepers' work, and are therefore
amalgamated with the Mehtars. The caste is thus of mixed constitution,
and also forms a refuge for persons expelled from their own societies
for social offences. But though called by different names, the
sweepe