In some parts of Uttar Pradesh, Dalit laborers were paid “gobarha,” meaning “grain from cow dung,” for agricultural work.
New Delhi—Imagine a poor laborer who has toiled all day in the scorching sun—sweating in the fields, harvesting crops, driving oxen to separate the grain from the chaff. His back is bent, his palms are chapped, but there is a small hope in his eyes that perhaps today he will receive some worthy reward for his hard work. Exhausted, he goes to his master to ask for his wages, hoping that perhaps today his children will have a full meal. But what does his master give him?
Not money, not clean grain, but a bag full of gobarha—the very grain sifted from oxen dung. The same grains that passed through the stomachs of animals were now placed in the bag of this laborer, so that he could grind them into flour and make bread for his family. This is the story of Gobarha—a practice that symbolizes the inhumanity of the untouchables and the cruelty of the Hindu social system, as described by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in his writings. This is a truth that shakes the heart and brings us to the depths of the oppression that the untouchables endured for centuries.
Dr. Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar’s Writings and Speeches, Volume 5, Chapter 4, poignantly describes the harsh realities faced by the untouchables (Dalits) in India’s caste-dominated society, with the practice of Gobarha emerging as a prominent symbol of their inhumanity.
The practice of Gobarha highlights the systematic oppression of the untouchables under the Hindu social system. It explains how this degrading practice reflects the economic, social, and cultural marginalization of the untouchables, keeping them outsiders in the so-called “village republic.”
Villages Divided
Ambedkar described the then Indian village as a divided society, divided into two parts:
- Touchable: Upper-caste Hindus who lived within the village and held economic and social power.
- Untouchable: A marginalized minority group forced to live in separate settlements outside the village and treated as “hereditary bonded labour.”
A strict code of conduct enforced by the touchables governed every aspect of the untouchables’ lives, criminalizing even dignified actions, such as:
- Acquiring wealth (e.g., land or livestock).
- Building houses with tiled roofs.
- Wearing clean clothes, shoes, or gold jewelry.
- Giving children respectable names or speaking a cultured language.
Violation of these rules invited punishments ranging from social ostracism to violence, ensuring the oppression of the untouchables.
Ambedkar calls the Indian village a “republic of the negated,” in which there is no place for democracy, equality, liberty, or fraternity. It is a “republic of the touchables, by the touchables, and for the touchables,” where the untouchables are deprived of rights and are reduced to mere service and subservience.
Gobarha: A Symbol of Inhumanity
In parts of Uttar Pradesh, untouchables were given “gobarha,” meaning “dung grain,” for agricultural work. During the harvest season (March or April), oxen tread on the threshing floor to separate the grain from the chaff, consuming some of the grain and chaff. The next day, the partially digested grain is extracted from their dung, sieved, and given to untouchable laborers as their wages. These laborers turn this grain into flour and make bread, a result of their compulsion.
Ambedkarite thinkers point out that gobarha was not merely a form of payment, but a deliberate insult. It symbolized the denial of dignified labor and food to untouchables, forcing them to survive on the remains left by animals. Ambedkar’s documentation of this practice underscores the cruelty of the caste system, where the labor of untouchables is so undervalued that even their livelihoods become degrading.
Economic Exclusion and the Role of Gobarha
In an agrarian society, land ownership is key to economic stability, but untouchables were systematically denied this due to:
- Financial constraints: Most did not have the means to purchase land.
- Social resistance: Upper-caste Hindus opposed attempts by untouchables to purchase land, seeing it as a challenge to their superiority and often punished such “courage.”
- Legal barriers: In areas like Punjab, laws such as the Land Alienation Act explicitly prohibited untouchables from purchasing land.
As a result, untouchables were forced to become landless laborers, dependent on touchable farmers for work. Lacking bargaining power, they were forced to accept minimal wages—often in the form of commodities like cow dung—or face starvation and violence.
Gobarha symbolized the economic exploitation of the untouchables: it was not valuable labor, but a byproduct of animal waste, reflecting the disdain of the touchables for untouchable labor.
The process of extracting, sifting, and converting cow dung into food is laborious and degrading, further deepening their inferiority.
This practice, prevalent in regions like Uttar Pradesh, reflected the widespread denial of fair compensation, forcing untouchables to exist on the margins of human dignity.
The Right to Beg: A Parallel Livelihood Mechanism
Baba Saheb writes that when agricultural work is unavailable (outside the harvest season), untouchables rely on precarious means of subsistence:
- Selling grass and firewood: Collected from forests, often requiring bribes to forest guards, and sold in towns where touchable buyers collude to drive down prices.
- Statutory begging: In many villages, untouchables have the “right” to beg for food from touchable homes. This is not charity, but a systematic practice that ties untouchable families to specific touchable families, akin to medieval slavery. Ambedkar points out that even in government jobs, the “value” of the food begged is taken into account when determining untouchables’ wages. Like cow dung, begging also increases dependency and dehumanization, trapping untouchables in a cycle of survival at the mercy of touchables.
The Village Republic: An Empire of Exploitation
Ambedkar calls the Indian village a “republic of the negation,” in which there is no place for democracy, equality, freedom, or fraternity. It is a “republic of the touchables, by the touchables, and for the touchables,” where the untouchables are deprived of rights and are reduced to mere service and subservience. Cowsheds and alms are the cornerstones of this exploitative system, designed to keep the untouchables “outside the Hindu community.”
The caste system’s “inevitable law of karma” establishes the untouchables as inferior, regardless of their individual merit. A touchable, no matter how poor or uneducated, is always superior to an untouchable, no matter how wealthy or capable. Cowsheds, as wage labor, reflect this unchanging hierarchy, where even livelihood serves as a reminder of their humiliating status.
Geetha Sunil Pillai
Courtesy: Hindi News