Perna caste

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The Perna are a Hindu caste found mainly in the state of Haryana in India. [1]

Caste form of social stratification characterized by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a lifestyle often including occupation, status in a hierarchy, customary social interaction, and exclusion, existing in various regions including South Asia

Caste is a form of social stratification characterized by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a lifestyle which often includes an occupation, status in a hierarchy, customary social interaction, and exclusion. It is an extreme evolution of a system of legally-entrenched social classes, also endogamous and hereditary, such as that of feudal Europe. Although caste systems exist in various regions, its paradigmatic ethnographic example is the division of Indian society into rigid social groups, with roots in India's ancient history and persisting until today; it is sometimes used as an analogical basis for the study of caste-like social divisions existing outside India. In biology, the term is applied to role stratification in eusocial animals like ants and termites, though the analogy is imperfect as these also involve extremely stratified reproduction.

Haryana State in northern India

Haryana is one of the 29 states in India, located in northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 November 1966 on linguistic as well as on cultural basis. It is ranked 22nd in terms of area with less than 1.4% of India's land area. Chandigarh is the state capital, Faridabad in National Capital Region is the most populous city of the state and Gurugram is a leading financial hub of NCR with major Fortune 500 companies located in it. Haryana has 6 administrative divisions, 22 districts, 72 sub-divisions, 93 revenue tehsils, 50 sub-tehsils, 140 community development blocks, 154 cities and towns, 6,848 villages and 6222 villages panchayats.

Contents

Origin

The Perna were a nomadic tribe, referred to as vagrant by British ethnographers, similar in background to the Nat and Bazigar communities. They were said to be a sub-group of the Dom community. As a semi-nomadic community which was alleged to be involved with prostitution.

United Kingdom Country in Europe

The United Kingdom (UK), officially the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and sometimes referred to as Britain, is a sovereign country located off the north-western coast of the European mainland. The United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland, and many smaller islands. Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state, the Republic of Ireland. Apart from this land border, the United Kingdom is surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, with the North Sea to the east, the English Channel to the south and the Celtic Sea to the south-west, giving it the 12th-longest coastline in the world. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland. With an area of 242,500 square kilometres (93,600 sq mi), the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world. It is also the 22nd-most populous country, with an estimated 66.0 million inhabitants in 2017.

Bazigars are a nomad gipsy-folk of India and Pakistan.

Dom people

The Dom are a people with origins in the Indian subcontinent which through ancient migrations are found scattered across the Middle East, North Africa, Caucasus, Central Asia and still parts of the Indian subcontinent. The traditional language of the Dom is Domari, an endangered Indo-Aryan language, thereby making the Dom an Indo-Aryan ethnic group. They have been associated with another traditionally itinerant ethnic group of Indo-Aryans variously called the Rom/Roma/Romani people : the two groups have been said to have separated from each other or, at least, to share a similar history. Specifically, the ancestors of both the Dom and the Rom/Roma/Romani left the Northern Indian subcontinent sometime between the 6th and 11th century.

Present circumstances

The Perna are now a settled community and provide the bulk of the agricultural labourers in Haryana. A small number have been given land, and form a community of settled agriculturists. A significant number have also started to migrate to the towns and cities of Haryana, where they are employed mainly in the construction industry. Like other Dom groups, their economic condition is precarious. The community has been accorded scheduled caste status. [1] [2]

The Perna are endogamous, and there is no inter marriage with neighbouring Dom groups like the Nat and Bazigar. Like other North Indian Hindu communities, they practice clan and village exogamy. They speak Haryanvi, and are found mainly in the districts of Rohtak, Gurgaon, Faridabad, and Sirsa.[ citation needed ]

North India Group of Northern Indian states

North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indus-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Central Asia.

Exogamy is a social arrangement where marriage is allowed only outside a social group. The social groups define the scope and extent of exogamy, and the rules and enforcement mechanisms that ensure its continuity. In social studies, exogamy is viewed as a combination of two related aspects: biological and cultural. Biological exogamy is marriage of nonblood-related beings, regulated by forms of incest law. A form of exogamy is dual exogamy, in which two groups engage in continual wife exchange. Cultural exogamy is marrying outside a specific cultural group; the opposite being endogamy, marriage within a social group.

Rohtak Municipal Corporation in Haryana, India

Rohtak is a city and the administrative headquarters of the Rohtak district in the Indian state of Haryana. It lies 70 kilometres (43 mi) north west of New Delhi and 250 kilometres (160 mi) south of the state capital Chandigarh on NH 9(old NH 10). Rohtak forms a part of the National Capital Region (NCR), so it can obtain cheap loans for infrastructure development from the NCR Planning Board.

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Domba Ethnic group in India

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References

  1. 1 2 People of India Haryana Volume XXIII edited by M.K Sharma and A.K Bhatia pages 400 to 403 Manohar
  2. ↑ Prabhu, Maya (2016). "The Indian caste where wives are forced into sex work". Al Jazeera English . Retrieved 2016-12-02.
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