Road Map for Deep Dive

Theme 1:

My Family & Community History, including the history of my larger kinship group. This will involve the participant to:

  • Provide a description of where your family is presently situated, as well as where it came from;
  • Do you live in a nuclear or joint family? If nuclear, how and why the joint family broke up?
  • Conduct recorded interviews with family and community elders;
  • Collect Vanshavali (family tree) of your family, if any;
  • Document origins of family names;
  • Explore historical records, if any;
  • Document family legends i.e. narratives about exceptional ancestors of the family. You need not check for rationally or scientific verification etc. of the descriptions. Legends should be treated as legends;
  • The decision-making process in the family;
  • Provide us a character sketch of the authority figure in the joint or extended family who is consensually respected by all—could be an old grandmother, bua, elder brother, mother or father;
  • Document how intra-family and inter-family disputes were/are resolved;
  • Provide an account of the legends related to kuldevi or kul devata, if any;
  • Describe life cycle rituals that are still being observed and those that have been abandoned;
  • Provide descriptions and photographs of old family possessions, including old utensils, clothes, ancient manuscripts, if any– and whatever else is treasured by the family as an ancestral memory;
  • Document misleading narratives and misrepresentation of the community by outsiders and counter them through an insider’s perspective;
  • Provide copies of genealogy registers maintained by pandas in Haridwar or other regional genealogy keepers;
  • Provide copies of Jaati Puranas which were traditionally preserved—either orally or in writing in almost every regional language of India. These genealogies record the self-view of each jati about its origins, descent and hereditary occupation, including the very important life-cycle rituals, it is expected to perform. For example, the Nai jati ( community of barbers), did not just act as hairdressers but also as match-makers for communities high and low. The jati purana of Paswans records the martial functions they performed as soldiers and commanders in the armies of Rajwadas in pre-British India. When the British forced native rulers to disband their armies, the social status of Paswans rapidly declined, as did that of sthapatis, farmers, weavers, kumhars, lohars, and countless other jatis But today, the Paswans cling proudly to the Scheduled Caste status and blame the Hindu society for having discriminated against them.
  • The pauranic texts and vanshavalis  often contain valuable insights into the forces that caused upward or downward mobility for various jatis through different phases of history.If we put together those histories, we will get a far more genuine “subaltern” view of history and society, than the one practised by scholars of “Subaltern Studies” based in elite universities of the world.

Theme 2:

The History of My Village or Town, including urbanised villages that have been made part of the larger urban centres: This essay will also involve original research for each participant will need to:

  • Interview family and community elders who have witnessed the process of change in their lifetime and carry memories of stories told by their parents, grandparents etc;
  • Consult archival records, including Sarkari records, District Gazetteers etc;
  • The process through which your village underwent urbanisation. Was it organic or state-induced, as for example, through the – forcible acquisition of agricultural land by the government; How did the community respond to the Sarkari acquisition? How did the community adjust and rebuilt its life. Did they stay together or got dispersed?
  • The changing demographic composition of the village or township;
  • Inter-community relations and traditional institutions of conflict resolution;
  • Do traditional institutions of your village or town still survive in some form?
  • The historical significance, if any, of your village or town, including popular memories of the rulers of that area;
  • Does your town or village have any historical sites, including ancient temples?
  • Provide an account of uniquely local festivals, if any;
  • The upward and downward mobility of various communities inhabiting your village or town;
  • Environmental history of your village or town;
  • The positive or negative contributions of kings, mukhiyas, village elders etc. to your village or town,
  • Memories of traditional systems like jajmani, baaraa balutedaar etc.
  • Unique products of your village, town or region.
  • Patterns of out-migration/ in-migration from the village or town and how it has changed the character of the place for good or worse;
  • If your family has left the ancestral village/town, do you still maintain contact with your native place?

The above-mentioned points are just pointers and guidelines for the ‘Deep Dive’. Essay writers may even ignore our guidelines and come up with a fresh road map that is more appropriate for their ‘Deep Dive’. But we expect each essay writer to describe the sources she/he has used. These sources should be verifiable.

In short, we expect each competitor to apply her/his mind and be creative in digging out authentic facts of their own family/kula/village or town itihasa!