Practice: Bengali to English Translation - 2 | WBCS Preparation: All Subjects - WBCS (West Bengal) PDF Download

Barbers[Napits] are known as paramaniks, is an occupational Hindu caste traditionally engaged in hair cutting. In olden times, the napit was a social institution. On the occasions of births and marriages of Hindu families, a napit used to perform some rituals.

Muslim families also engaged napits for the ceremonial shaving of the heads of the new-born babies. Napits shave the heads of Hindu males after obsequies. Traditionally, in rural markets, a napit has a fixed shop where people visit to have haircuts, to cut their nails and to have small surgeries done. He was paid for these services either in cash or in kind. In the long past, payment was generally made in kind. The system of exchange between service and kind was called Jajmani. The village people paid him in crops at harvest time in exchange of the services that they received from the napit throughout the year.

The napits were well known for their cleverness, sense of humour, and penchant for gossiping and story telling. Inter-family and inter-village information was normally obtained through the napits. The village people invariably engaged napits to carry the news of births of male children. And, for the good news that they served, they received gifts.

 Many hold the opinion that the first napit of Bengal was the son of a ksatriya father and a shudra mother. Many others say that it was a person engaged by shiva for cutting his wife’s nails. Napits are divided into several sub-castes, such as Anarpuria, Bamanbane, Barendra, Radhi, Mahmudabaz, Saptagram, Satgharia, and Khotta. Unlike many other lower castes, napits are not considered as untouchables. Even a brahman can take water from the hand of a napit. Most napits are Vaishnavas. They employ Brahmans as priests. Napits burn their dead bodies and perform shraddha in the orthodox fashion on the thirty-first day of death. Their rules regarding diet are the same as those followed by most respectable Hindus. Vaishnava napits do not eat meat, but as a rule, they eat fish.

Barbers belong to different categories in cities. In urban areas there are saloons for men and women and the workers in these saloons are skilled hands, use modern equipment for hair cutting, and come from all religions. They have higher incomes than their rural counterparts. The urban barbers play no other role than hair cutting and hair dressing and sometimes, messaging the head, neck and hands of customers. Hair dressing and messaging are not in vogue in the rural areas. The institution of napit is now almost extinct. Now any one can take to the profession as a business and leave it any time for other jobs. In older times, massaging was also a job of the napit. Massaging is also there in the saloon, a hair dressing place. But it is more a specialization than a caste job as of the past.

When Bengal was conquered by Bakhtiar Khalji at the beginning of the 13th century, the rulers merely changed the rate of land revenue from one-sixth to one-fifth or one fourth of the produce, payable either in cash or in kind. Customary rights of landowners to transfer the land in any manner they liked, were not interfered with in case of those tenants who used to pay rent. But those who paid a share of the produce of the land cultivated by them as rent or revenue, had no such right to transfer the land. However, such land was heritable by the heirs of such tenants and could be cultivated by such heirs on the same terms and conditions as their predecessors enjoyed. Those who paid rent or revenue in cash were personally liable for the same, and could be sued for the recovery of arrears of dues, but could not be evicted from their land for non-payment of revenue. Only wastelands were given as jagir or ayma to royal officers in lieu of their salary, and to religious and learned persons for their maintenance. Whoever brought under cultivation any wasteland became owner of the same, subject to payment of rent or revenue assessed.
In course of time, when the power of the grampradhanas (village heads) was substantially curtailed, many of them were turned into local talukdars. These talukdars used to collect revenue from the cultivators at the rate assessed by the government and paid the same to superior landlords also known as zamindars, although they got a share of the collection as their remuneration. The government could lease out the khas lands on fixed revenue to others. The lessees of such lands could themselves cultivate the same or get the same cultivated through bargadars (sharecroppers) who had no rights to the land beyond getting half of the produce. Government grantees such as jagirdars and aymadars could, in their turn, also lease out their land to others on a rental basis, but they could not disturb possession of the cultivators whose land was included in their respective grant except realizing rent from them.
During Mughal rule, the land revenue system was systematised and consolidated by assessing the land revenue of the entire country at the rate of one-third of the produce. Revenue was then assessed by government officers known as amins, who also settled land disputes. Such officers used to assess revenue with the help of the kanungo, who knew the customs and regulations regarding land. Karkuns preserved records regarding land surveys and land revenue assessment and chowdhuris represented the inhabitants of the pargana, also called mahal or mukaddam. Patwaris or village accountants and other survey officers surveyed each and every plot of land on the basis of average production and market price of the produce for the previous ten years. Cultivators known as raiyats could pay revenue either in cash or kind, but cash payment was preferred. Zamindars, jagirdars or government rent collectors such as amils, sikdars, amalguzars or croris were prohibited from realising any additional amount known as abwab other than the assessed revenue from the raiyats. Those persons, as well as jagirdars and aymadars, could neither evict the raiyats from their land nor bring the land to their khas possession or let it out to others. Only when raiyats went elsewhere leaving their land, or when there was no male person in the family to cultivate the land, could the land be settled with others. Zamindars, jagirdars or aymadars were not proprietors of the land under their control. They could only collect revenue from the cultivating raiyats at government assessed rates. Zamindari right was hereditary but ijaradari, jagirdari or aymadari rights were neither hereditary nor transferable. Later, aymadari was made heritable. Zamindars or ijaradars got a share of their collection of land revenue as their remuneration and collection cost.
Permanent settlers of villages who themselves cultivated lands of their own village or through others were known as khudkast raiyats. They had to pay revenue at the customary rate of their pargana called nirikh, or at the rate mentioned in the patta or lease deed executed in their favour. If they paid the revenue fixed for their land, they could not be evicted, and could possess their lands from generation to generation. They also could not abandon their land at their sweet will. Those who cultivated the land of the village where they did not live, were known as paikast raiyats and could pay rent on a contract basis. But they had no right to continue in possession and were merely tenants-at-will, and could be denied the right to cultivate the land any time after harvesting was over. Such raiyats could also abandon such land at their sweet will. Zamindars, jagirdars, chowdhuries and talukdars could get land in their khas possession cultivated through bargadars or agricultural labourers who had no rights on such land except to get a half share of the produce or wages for their labour.