Mythologies of the Raji Tribes

Raji tribe is the smallest tribal group of Uttarakhand. The Raji are known as Vanrawat and they live in the forests around Askot in southern Pithoragarh. Raji also claims a matriarchal culture with women as the head of their community. The Rajis have their own dialect which is quite different from the neighboring tribal and non-tribal communities. However, they can speak and converse in the Kumaoni-Pahari dialect as well as the broken Hindi language. Their wedding rituals are simple, without brahmins or priests. With the acceleration of development and communication with the outside world, Raji have struggled to maintain a way of life that they values greatly.

Raji Tribe has confined themselves to Pithoragarh district. The villages inhabited by them are Jamtadi, Altadi, Kuttakanyal, Madanpuri, Kimkhola, Bhaktirawa, Ganagaon, Ciphalthara and Khirdwari. They are of the non Aryan affinity. Other common names for them are Banrawats, Ban-Manus and Cave dwellers. Like several other tribes, these Raji tribes have got addiction towards all types of alcohols. Apart from this, the Raji tribes have also developed tastes for several 'wild fruits' and 'tree roots'. The way these Raji tribes use to deck up is unique thereby enhancing their beauty to some extent. Exquisite jewelleries that these Raji females wear also are quite large and heavy. However, as a recent phenomenon, few of these Raji tribes dress in the similar fashion like that of a people belong to a non tribal community. Artistic fervor of these Raji tribes is nicely depicted in various art forms. For children beautiful handbags are prepared which have demand in the local markets as well as that of the whole of the country. Most of these Raji tribes have built their settlements in the interior regions of the forests. It is only natural that these Raji tribes have taken up the profession of gatherers. Instances are found where one can see many of these tribes collect honey from the bee hives. In the present world they have resorted to agriculture and labour. However their dependence on forest produce has not ceased completely. They grow cereal crops. They also do fishing and hunting. They are also known for making agricultural tools. Position of women in Raji tribal community is held high. Rajis do not marry amongst themselves. No child marriage takes place amongst them. Widow Remarriage and divorce are not common among them. They have a patriarchal and patrilineal system. The oldest man is the head of the family. These Raji tribes converse with each and other in a language of the same name. They follow Hinduism. They also worship Hindu deities, Bhagvati, Nanda Devi. They also worship all aspects of Nature. They are considered as the most primitive tribe of Uttar Pradesh.

The Raji people are a community found in Uttarakhand, India and some parts of western Nepal. As of 2001, the Raji people are classified as a Scheduled Tribe under the Indian government's reservation program of positive discrimination. They call themselves Bot Tho. Others also call them Forest Raji (Ban Raji) and Forest Rawat (Ban Rawat). They traditionally hunt for a living, especially porcupine and bats, and dig wild yams (Dioscorea spp.) and other forest foods. Some families have a trade agreement with local traders (Bhotiya) to sell their handmade wooden bowls while others have branched out into carpentry, selling other woodenwares such as plowshares and house building planks. Raji women have also been employed as rock crushers for construction projects. Households who were forcibly settled by the Government of India in the last generation mostly have subsistence-size garden plots and a few cattle as well. Raji speak a Tibeto-Burman language which they call Bat-Kha among communities in the Pithoragarh region and Bot-Kha in the Champawat region of Uttarakhand. It is classified by linguists as Rawat (ISO 639-3 jnl; Glottocode Rawa1264). It is in the same language sub-group with the languages named Raji spoken in Nepal (ISO 639-3 rji; Glottocode Raji1240) and Raute (ISO 639-3 rau; Glottocode Raut1239) which is also spoken in Nepal. The three languages are currently classified in their own Sino-Tibetan language sub-group called Raji-Raute. This language sub-group shows some affinity to areal Mahakiranti group Himalayish languages such as Kham Magar and Dhut Magar. The Central Bureau of Statistics of Nepal classifies the Raji as a subgroup within the broader social group of Mountain/Hill Janajati. At the time of the 2011 Nepal census, 4,235 people (0.0% of the population of Nepal) were Raji.

The Raji tribe can be found living in the remote mountains of Uttarakhand along the Indo-Nepal border. Their number is put at 1075, comprising 249 households. They are spread in the five blocks of Dharchula, Kanalichhina and Didihat of Pithoragarh, Champawat and Khatima in Udham Singh Nagar. The tribe members are surviving under several adverse conditions that have been brought out by a recent landmark study carried out by Association for Rural Planning and Action (ARPAN), a Pithoragarh based organisation. Access to basic amenities like health, education and transport remains a big challenge that is reflected in a high school dropout rate, poor housing, low economic status and poor access to the government schemes.

The Raji tribe is a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group (PVTG) dwelling majorly in the eastern part of the Pithoragarh district of Uttarakhand. It was in 1957, that the Raji people were declared a Scheduled Tribe along with four other tribes; Tharu, Buksa, Jaunsari, and Bhotiya. The Raji tribe due to their prolonged exclusion; in 1975 they were listed under the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group erstwhile known as Particularly Tribal Group (PTG). The Raji tribe was brought into the light by the then commissioner deputed in Kumaon G.W Trail in 1823. This tribe in the vernacular dialect is known as ‘Van-Rawat’, ‘Vankanhaiya’ (Crooke, 1896); ‘Vankhaniya’, ‘Banraut’, ‘Vanmanush.’ The smallest tribal group in Uttarakhand was erstwhile the hunter-gatherers; now they busy themselves with subsistence-agricultural activities, labor-intensive jobs, carpentry, etc. Anthropologically they belong to the Tibeto- Burman family which originally had a nomadic lifestyle but now they have settled around the Kali River, running between India and Nepal.

Raji people are also called "Banrawats," "Ben-Manus" and "cave dwellers." They are a scheduled tribe. The Raji tribe lives in the Pithoragarh region of Uttar Pradesh in India. Raji people enjoy eating wild fruits and tree roots. The Raji women wear large and heavy jewelry that is admired. Not many Raji dress in the customary tribal way. They are very artistic, and make handbags to sell in the markets of India. Most Raji people live in the interior forest regions. They work as gatherers, collecting honey from bee hives, fishing, hunting, and in agriculture, growing their cereal crops, hunting, and fishing. They also make and sell farming tools. Women have a respected position among Raji people. They do not marry within their group, and there are no child marriages. The oldest man is the leader of the family. They speak within their tribe in the Raji language, although Hindi and Urdu are also spoken in Uttar Pradesh. This is important, because written, audio, and visual Bible resources exist in these languages. Raji are the smallest tribe in Uttar Pradesh.