Caste and Gender Sensitivities in Biradari Bhoj: A Rite of Wrong

Caste system is a very complex phenomenon for women by which they are being segregated and kept away from social occasion. The segregation indicates towards kinds of male-hierarchies that are exercised through deliberative social occasion like chittha system (male-based managerial system) of biradari bhoj (socio-ritual based community feast) in rural areas of Uttar Pradesh. The root of biradari bhoj can be revealed from ‘Hindu traditions’ in fallowing way. Customarily, in the rina mythology of Hindu dharma, there are four steps; a man is born with debts, which must be paid off before one's death namely dev rina, rishi rina, pitra rina, and atithi rina. Within the pitra rina, there are also four steps: they are antyeshti sanskar, asthi visarjan, shradh, and brahmin bhoj (feast of priest). At present, the last step of pitra rina i.e. birahmin bhoj is celebrated as ‘biradari bhoj’ (a feast for own caste). It is organized by Yadav community as a part of ancestral ritual-worship in which people participate together in the name of having prasada (gracious gift) of lord Jagannath (a popular Hindu deity). It is usually celebrated for two days. On the first day, the native-villagers participate, either a person or all members from every household depending on organiser's economic capacity. Although on the second day, Organizer's own biradaris (community members) are invited. The first day of feast is called ‘kachchi’ while the second day of feast is known as ‘pakki’.

The first objective of this paper is to reveal the organizational structure of biradari bhoj in which caste and gender sensitivities will be examined. The second objective is set to analyze the trend of biradarism (male-based mutual relation) by which female are marginalized in the name of parampra (tradition) and izzat (values) by the codes of conduct of the chaudharis. For ground understanding, ethnographic approach and interview method has been used in which eighty respondents from Yadav community have been interviewed from two villages, namely Tandwa and Rajanpur that are situated in Sultanpur district of Uttar Pradesh.