Socio-Economic Condition of the Gaine (A Case Study of Putalibazar Municipality, Ward No. 9, Lamage, Syangja District)

Abstract

Since ancient period, Nepal has been renowned as a multi-lingual,multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, democratic, sovereign, land-locked kingdom where there is unity in diversity. Since then, Nepal is known as a fusion place of Aryans, who came from the south and Mongolians, who came from the north. In order to safeguard the linguistic, social, economic,political, religious, cultural, historical identities of various castes andethnics of Nepal, appropriate and right kind of studies and researches are today's need. In this thesis, the socio-economic condition of the Gaine, one of the Dalit, of Lamage, Putalibazar Municipality-9, Syangja District has beenstudied. Under this study, different aspects of social (marriage, family,education, health, etc.) and economical (occupation, population,agriculture, business, employment etc.) condition along with women's status, relationships with other castes, socio economic change, etc have been traced out. In this study, sample selection method has been taken as the investigation method under which 16 selected households have been interviewed and the data have been analyzed and presented in the descriptory way. Though this caste(Gaine) is rich in its social and cultural life, its economic condition is poor. Their traditional occupation is singing by playing their musical instrument, the Sarangi, dancing and begging. Their such occupation is getting extinct slowly and gradually.They have beenfound to have sung the songs playing their Srangi during the unification campaign and even during the democratic movements of B.S. 2007, 2017,2036, 2046 and 2063. Their songs can be classified on three categories:songs of bravery, songs influenced by the religious feelings and songs of 5 Look Geet. Their songs have also been found to show the heart-feltfeelings and emotions. The Gaine in Nepal have their settlements scattered all over the five development religons. They are the followers of Hinduism but they don’t use the Brahmin in their religious rituals. Their main Gods and Goddesses are Mahadev, Parvati, Ganesh and Saraswati. They also prayMai Devi, Chandi and Satya Narayan. They follow their traditions and festivals as done by the Hindu. The sources of income of the Gaine are traditional occupation, job,business, wages/labour, fishing, selling the Sarangi, animal husbandry,etc. They have now realized the necessity of the saving from their income. Some economic changes have been seen in them which are thechanges in their occupations, sources of income, methods of fishing,expenditure, saving, etc. Their educational status can't be considered satisfactory. When ill,they go to hospital or to witch-doctors or use local herbs for treatment.Their family structure has also been moving more towards nuclear than joint system. Towards marriage, they have been found to follow theirtraditional system of marrying their maternal uncle's (Mama) daughter but not aunt's-in-law (Bhupu) daughter. Now-a-days they have been building friendly relationships with other castes as well. They have been found to be interested in doing recreational activities, singing and dancing. But as their traditional occupation of singing, dancing and begging doesn't earn enough to fulfill their basic needs, they have beenleaving it. Therefore, their sword-dance done in marriage and Bratabanda,Aarbazo, a musical instrument of male and the Sarangi in some extent are perishing day-by-day. This can lead to the extinction of their cultural identity. 6 The changing trends in fashion due to rapid urbanization,westernization and modernization, the influence of various channels inT.V., radio, etc have put the tones of their Sarangi and songs in shade.The condition of giving up their traditional job has arisen instead of developing it with the changes of time. Their traditional occupation of singing, dancing and begging isn't considered respectable now-a-days and they too have difficulty running their lives with such kind of occupation.Hence, their such occupation has been taking continuity just to show their upcoming generation the identity and token of their ancestors, as the cultural conservation and for the international identity.