The Goddet or town-crier of the Santhals of Shahpur Chaumukh, almost 300km east of Patna, was to go house-to-house, calling men for a meeting on Wednesday night, before the vote next morning.
Manjhis - village headmen from the three tolas - were to lead the men to a football field at the dead of night. Only Santhals would be allowed near the field, lookouts in place to warn against Dikus - intruders.
The Naeke, or priest, would confer with the men of standing in the village - the most successful farmer, the best hunter, the one who brings the best gossip, the highest goal scorer and the elders. He would then ask the gathered Santhals: "We have decided to support X for the election. Do you have anything to say?"
After a fierce debate - laced with cuss words - over several bottles of hooch, the Naeke would declare the symbol that the 1,000-odd Santhals from the village should press on the voting machines.
Cases of tuberculosis and kala azar or visceral leishmaniasis abound in this settlement. The diseases worsen with the consumption of jaggery-based hooch made in homes here. However, more pressing issues - like "naam rakhna" (retaining one's name) - would be on the agenda for the night.
Seeing this reporter's bewilderment, the Santhals produce ration and voter identity cards where Santhali surnames of their wives and children - like Baskey, Murmu or Hansda - have been replaced with the generic Devi, Kumar or Kumari. They fear the Santhals will lose their tribal status a few generations hence. "We have only 1 per cent reservation in government jobs. How will my grandchildren get the tribal quota if their name is Kumar," asked Raghunandan Murmu, a rice and maize cultivator.
Sabina Hansda, member of a local women's self-help group, explained: "When we go to get ration cards, the sarkari babus write what they want. They shout at us if we ask questions. Two out of three households here have this problem in their documents."
Schoolteacher Deolal Marandi said the traditional Santhal leadership failed to get names entered correctly and women have recently started insisting on accuracy at the panchayat. "The government officers say that since we are Hindus we must name our kids like other Hindus. But we are Santhals. Hindu practices like sacrificing animals to Durga and Kali started here only recently but we want to maintain our heritage and names," he said.
According to the 2011 census, tribals account for 1.3 per cent of Bihar's population. Two of the 243 Assembly seats are reserved for Scheduled Tribes. The Santhals of Shahpur Chaumukh say while all major parties have come for campaigning in the area, the political discourse was mostly a monologue. "We go to see helicopters of leaders land during rallies. Our politics ended there. We saw no adivasis in the campaign teams and nobody spoke Santhali. We understand Hindi, but we are never asked what we want. Visiting politicians are often surprised to know that Santhals live here," Kanhu Baskey, who farms a bigha of rice, told The Telegraph.
The village traditionally voted Congress until teachers began turning up at the local
primary school a decade ago, after which they began voting for the JDU. Nowadays, boys are sent for private tuitions - considered better than the school. Most
students at the government and a church-run school in the village are girls. This time, most villagers said, it is a tie between the JDU and the BJP.
"Lalu Prasad reduced our reservation from 10 to 1 per cent (in 2001 after the bifurcation of Bihar). We like Nitish, but this time he has befriended Lalu. BJP people came and spoke to us but we are unhappy with Modi because dal (pulses) is so expensive and we only know how to grow rice, wheat and maize," said Suryanarayan Hansda, one of the few Santhals owning more than three bighas of land.
Of Shahpur Chaumukh's population of 10,676, Santhals number 1,631. The village falls under the Bihariganj constituency in Madhepura district.
Rajputs are dominant in the village and are engaged in a legal battle with the Santhals over land for decades. This has thankfully not turned violent, perhaps because of the hooch diplomacy practiced here - Santhals brew it, others buy it.
After the police detained a man recently for illegally brewing liquor - commerically sold as Daaru No. 1 (concentrated) and No. 2 (diluted) here, the men are tightlipped about the trade. Reena Baskey, whom the village women praise for preventing her husband Kishore from consuming or brewing daaru, leaked the recipe to The Telegraph.
"You mix jaggery in water with herbs that help ferment it and leave it for two days.
Then you decant it into a cauldron and add the white tablets that come in packets with ICC written on them, sold on the
sly in shops that sell sugar in wholesale. To that you add mihidana (not the famed sweet from Burdwan, but some industrial product to make the hooch stronger) pellets, commercially called 'Punjabi'. You then distil this solution," she said.
No. 1 and No. 2 sell at Rs 100 and Rs 50 for 750ml each, respectively. "No. 1 ke saamne hamara nahi chalta," said lactating mother Munni Hansda. "The men decide who to vote for after drinking. Why should I listen to them?"
Madhepura voted on Nov. 5
