Beyond politics, the Bihar caste survey is a revolutionary document.
A public document, the first ever after 1931, allowing for people to stand up and be counted.
We go down to the wire, on what each of the numbers unveiled mean.
Who are the people referred to by percentages in the survey?
Today we look at Noniya (2,498,474).
§
It is believed that Noniyas are the caste group who are inextricably linked to the history of salt and how it thrived in the subcontinent.
Here’s an interesting historical aspect about salt which also highlights its significance.
Illustration: Pariplab Chakraborty
Earlier soldiers were paid in salt instead of money as salary, it is said. Back then agriculture and animal husbandry had developed so much that produce often became surplus. But since salt cultivation was not possible for traditional agriculturalists, they used to work to earn salt. Salt signifies loyalty in some Hindi idioms even today.
Legend has it that soldiers were paid in salt in the Roman civilisation also. It is also claimed that the word soldier itself originates from the Roman word ‘saldare’, which means ‘to give salt’.
However, in our own country, Noniyas are counted among Vaishya communities today. The word Vaishya evokes a kind of business where goods produced through labour are purchased at a lower price and sold at a higher price. However, Noniya are labourers themselves.
The people of Noniya caste produced salt and made it available to people. More than business it was art for them – art which was directly linked to the soil.
Their association with soil is similar to that of farmers who grow grains. Often, in exchange for salt, farmers would give them grains. It is possible that an unjust system imposed the label of baniya – businesspersons – on them, alleging that they take ten pounds of grain for a pinch of salt. But what do people know about the labour they undertook to produce a pinch of salt? The process involved scanning the land for anthills, collecting soil from there and extracting salt from it. Since this soil is also called non, they came to be referred to as noniya.
At some places they are also called lonia. There is also a sub-caste called Noniya Chauhan who according to some are the descendants of Prithviraj Chauhan. While this is unconfirmed information, the fact is that they were master chemical engineers, who made saltpetre, acid and sulfur. The word Lonia is derived from the Sanskrit word for salt – lavan. But socially this group was labelled Shudra. Even though everybody eats the salt they produce, the ‘upper classes’ do not want to share spaces with them.
Salt production is not their only contribution. Like Tilka Manjhi and Sido-Kanho, they led an armed rebellion against the British government that continued for 30 years around 1750. Hajipur, Tirhut, Saran and Purnia of Bihar were the main centres of saltpetre production and they led this rebellion there. However, the British started trading in salt and began persecuting them.
The British had opened a saltpetre factory in Chhapra district of Bihar, which was looted by rebels of the Noniya caste in 1771. The factory was set on fire.
Before Mangal Pandey was Budhu Noniya, who rose up against the British and gave a tough fight. He was born in Karpura village of Begusarai. Legend has it that after his capture by British soldiers, he was killed by being thrown into a cauldron of smoldering salt.
Later, Gandhi also had Mukutdhari Prasad Chauhan as his ally, who hailed from the Noniya caste. Even though Rajkumar Shukla was not as close to Gandhi as Mukutdhari in Champaran in 1917, only Shukla finds mention in historical records. One might ask – is this not evidence of how historiography is influenced by caste discrimination?
The people of Noniya caste are still there and their population in Bihar (according to the caste-based census report of 2022) is 2,498,474. At the government level, they have been included in the extremely backward class. But socially, they are still considered ‘untouchable.’
Translated from Hindi by Naushin Rehman. Read the Hindi original here.
Read earlier parts of the series on the following communities by clicking on their names: Ghasi | Santrash | Madaria | Koeri/Kushwaha | Chaupal | Nai/Hajjaam | Pasi | Rangrez | Chamar | Gorkan | Jutt | Yadav | Kamar | Chik | Bari and Bauri | Dhuniya | Donwar | Sinduria Baniya | Bhathiyara | Dabgar | Kumhar | Amaat | Dhobi | Paswan | Kevat | Bhishti | Bakkho.