View source for Meo (community from Mewat)

=The Meos Of Mewat=

'' India Harmony ''  VOLUME - 1 : ISSUE – 3  APRIL, 2012 

''' Reflections on the State & its Citizens ''' 

By Shri Virendra Dayal

The Meos of Mewat are a proud and valiant
people: Rajput by descent, Muslim by faith, syncretic by custom, tradition and
inclination.In many respects, they are a
remarkable example of the composite culture of
our exceptional country. They have contributed
bravely to its history and faced its vicissitudes and
tragedies with fortitude.
[[File: The Meos are a pastoral community.png| The Meos are a pastoral community|frame|500px]] 
It therefore came as an unpleasant surprise when,
in September 2011, media reports proclaimedwith
more zeal than discretion- that a “communal
riot” had broken out in the Gopalgarh area of
Bharatpur district, Rajasthan. The initial reports
went on to add that the conflict had pitted
“Muslim Meos” against “Hindu Gujjars” and that
many deaths had occurred in the ensuing violence.

Subsequent reports and enquiriesdiffered radically
from the initial reports. They suggested that, in
fact, there had been no “communal riot”; there
had, over the preceding days, been the revival of a
long-standing dispute between the Meos and
Gujjars about a plot of land, a matter that was on
the verge of being settled peacefully; provocateurs
had entered the scene and fuelled incendiary
rumors of insult and injury, raising passions all
around; the police, whose judgment and motives
came into question, had responded by opening fire
on a group of Meos, killing nine instantly and
grievously wounding others.

In the face of this outrage and demands for
corrective action by senior political figures and
the public alike, it was learnt in the days that
followed that the State Government had, after
initial hesitation, transferred the District
Magistrate and Superintendent of Police of
Bharatpur, together withthe entire staff of
Gopalagarhthana. It was further learnt that a
judicial enquiry would be instituted, that the State
Government had accepted the need for an
investigation by the CBI and that monetary
compensation-that increasingly banal response of
the State to the deaths and injury caused by its
own agents-had been offered to the families of
the victims.
Better late than never, these corrective measures
were, nevertheless, cold comfort. The entire
incident raised disturbing questions.

Why had a long-standing dispute over a plot of
land been allowed, so unthinkingly, to escalate
into reports-that were false-of a “communal riot”?
Why had the onus of criminality and wrong doing
fallen, so readily, on the Meos? Why had the
police opened fire, singling out the Meos and
causing their deaths?

Here, we need to step back in time and history to
understand the damage that the State, its agentsand
ingrained prejudice- can do to the cause of
harmony.

For centuries, the Meos have exhibited a strong
resistance to domination by others and a
determination to create, evolve and defend an
identity of their own. They made common cause
with the Rajputs of the Doab to fight against
Balban in the 13thcentury. In the 16th century,
their legendary leader, Hasan Khan, died
heroically on the
battlefield of Khanwah,
joining forces with
Ibrahim Lodi and Raja
Sangha against the first
Mughal Emperor, Babur.
The Baburnama records,
with some disbelief, that
the “affections of the
infidel”, whom Babur calls Raja Hasan Khan, “lay
on the side of the natives”. In the 18th century, the
Meosstood against the marauding forces of
Ahmed Shah Abdali.And in 1857, they stood
together withJats, Meenas and Gujjars in fierce
battles against the British in and around Delhi.

[[File: A typical Meo family.png| A typical Meo family|frame|500px]] 

Then came the reprisals: physical, with the
torching and confiscation of their lands and
villages; punitive, with the inclusion of Meos
under the provisions of the Criminal Tribes Act of
1871. That vicious Act, renewed and amended
repeatedly, remained in effect till 1949, when it
was repealed. Under its draconian provisions, a
carefully selected list of ethnic and social
communities of India-many that had defended the
nationalist cause in 1857- were defined as
“habitually criminal”, “addicted to the systematic
commission of non-bailable offences” and
stripped of a range of civil liberties. Unthinkable
as it may now seem, criminality-at least in Indiawas
made hereditary by the British in the late 19th
century.

The consequences were severe, unjust and
prolonged. With this deliberate act of the State,
directed against its own citizens, there followed a
legacy of administrative neglect of the regions and
aspirations of the communities affected by the
Act. At Independence, these numbered 13 million
people belonging to 127 communities, subject to
constant surveillance, search and arrest without
warrant, and other indignities.
[[File: Winds of change Education ushering in a new phase in the life of Meos.png| Winds of change Education ushering in a new phase in the life of Meos|frame|500px]]
 
Independent India sought to do away with the
grievous implications of the Criminal Tribes Act
but its efforts, even ifassumed to be well meaning,
were grossly naïve. In 1952, the “criminal tribes”
were “denotified”, butthebureaucratic change in
nomenclature simply redefined the same groups.
The stigma of criminality remained. Next, though
theCriminal Tribes Act was repealed in
1952,Parliament adopted theHabitual Offenders
Act in the same year. That fed straight into the
accumulated prejudices of the State, its
administrative apparatus and, indeed, of society
more widely.

From the calumny of criminality it was a short
step to the innuendo of communalism. The 1920's
saw a peasant uprising by Meos against the
revenue policies of the rulers of Bharatpur and
Alwar and the succeeding years witnessed the
growing influence in Mewat of the
TablighiJamaat, founded by Maulana Muhammad
Ilyas, on the one hand, and reformist Hindu
organizations, on the other. It was easy, in such
circumstances, to misrepresent the positions of the
Meo community on matters of faith, custom and
politics. The lead up to Partition was thus fraught
with tension: communal riots erupted, large-scale
killings occurred and substantial numbers of Meos
headed for Pakistan. It was then that Mahatma
Gandhi, together with thenationalistMeo leader,
Chowdhry Yasin Khan, stood at the crossroads of
Ghaseda village in Gurgaon district, urging the
Meos to return to their homes and to trust
independent India, a call that they heeded. That
call and pledge are still remembered by the Meos,
with deep emotion.

History lends itself to diverse interpretations. That
is both its charm and danger.
Inter-communal relations, in particular, can be
seen as a record of perpetual conflict and a
struggle for dominance, or they can be seen as the
strivings of groups and communities, each proud
of its identity, to understand and accommodate the
other, to live in harmony and to forge a common
future of shared goals and values.

In recent years there have, fortunately, been
studies of considerable depth and originality that
have opened the way to a greater understanding of
our diverse communities, including the Meos.
Drawing on the remarkable oral traditions of the
Meo community, for instance, these studies paint
a portrait of the Meos far removed from the
stereotypes that have caused them harm.

They point, instead, to a history that is uniquely
syncretic. Muslim by faith, the message of Islam
came to the Meos with the earliest Sufi saints.
Concurrently,their cultural identity and
customshave remained imbued both by Islam and
by the Hinduism of their Rajput origins and their
links with Jats, Gujjars and Meenas.Their social
structures are built around 'gotras' and 'palas';
marriage within the 'gotra' and between cousins is
taboo. Marriage ceremonies and inheritance laws
often have elements that are both Muslim and
Hindu andRajasthaniMeos still combine names
characteristic of both communities. But most of
all, as Professor Shail Mayaram observes, the
mythic traditions of the Meos, expressed in their
oral tradition, span both lslam and Hinduism,
defining the unique identity that they have
evolved for themselves. Illustrative of this, is the
celebrated, constantly adapted,Meo rendering of
the Mahabharata, “Panduunkakara”, sung by their
balladeers, the “Mirasis”, themselves Muslim.

The years since Independence have seen the Meos
striving to overcome the discriminatory legacies
of the past. Their agricultural lands were often of
poorer quality than that of their neighbors, their
irrigation facilities inferior; their infrastructure of
roads, hospitals and schools fell behind that of
adjoining areas and the negative effects were
evident in their standards of health, in women and
child mortality, and literacy rates-especially of
women-that were among the lowest in India.

[[File: mawat.png| mawat|frame|500px]] 

All of that is now in the process of being reversed,
the State and society making amends. Greater
attention is being paid to the development needs
of Mewat from the level of the Planning
Commission to that of the district and village;
numerous non-governmental organizations are
active in the field; there has been a steady increase
in educational institutions both private and
governmental, secular and denominational, though
resistance persists in certain circles to modern
education for girls; recruitment of Meos to
governmental jobs, including the police, appears
to be increasing; the economic boom in
neighboring Gurgaon and Faridabad is having its
own powerful effect, simultaneously raising
economic possibilities and societal anxieties. The
values of land have soared, but so have land
disputes and the fear of dispossession by more
powerful groups and interests.

The processes of development are never entirely
comfortable and they can quickly be reversed by
acts of violence and the disruption of communal
harmony. Speaking with Meo elders recently the
question was asked “What would you most like
for your community?” The answer was instant:
“Education, education, education!” Yes, indeed.
And the same could be hoped for the State and its
agents. They need to be educated in the history
and culture of the peoples they serve,for education
is the basis of understanding, and understanding
of respect. For only then will it be ensured that
tragedies such as occurred in Bharatpur last
September will never ever again be allowed to
detract from Gandhiji's pledge, made on the
crossroads of Ghaseda in 1947.