The Bedia are a community in India. They believe that they originally lived on Mohdipahar of Hazaribagh district and have descended from the union of Vedbansi prince with a Munda girl. The other view is that a section of the Kudmis were outcastes and came to be known as the Bedia or Wandering Kudmis.

Origin

The word ''bedia'' is a corrupt form of the

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of North India, northern, Central India, centr ...

word ''behara'', which means a forest dweller. They are a nomadic tribe, that had been notified under the

Criminal Tribes Act Since the 1870s, various pieces of colonial legislation in India during British rule were collectively called the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA), which criminalized entire communities by designating them as habitual criminals. Under these acts, ethn ...

. According to early British scholars, they were one of the many nomadic tribes found in

North India North India is a loosely defined region consisting of the northern part of India. The dominant geographical features of North India are the Indo-Gangetic Plain and the Himalayas, which demarcate the region from the Tibetan Plateau and Centr ...

, and were of the same stock as the

Rajputs Rajput (from Sanskrit ''raja-putra'' 'son of a king') is a large multi-component cluster of castes, kin bodies, and local groups, sharing social status and ideology of genealogical descent originating from the Indian subcontinent. The term Ra ...

. According to their own traditions, they were originally Rajputs, who lost status, after their defeat at the hands of the

Mughals The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the d ...

. The community was connected with some bad works, as well as petty theft. They speak

Awadhi Awadhi (; ), also known as Audhi (), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in northern India and Nepal. It is primarily spoken in the Awadh region of present-day Uttar Pradesh, India. The name ''Awadh'' is connected to Ayodhya, the ancient city, w ...

and are found mainly in the districts of Bahraich, Barabanki,

Basti Basti may refer to: People Surname *Básti, a Hungarian surname Given name *Abderraouf El Basti (born 1947), Tunisian politician *Basti Vaman Shenoy (born 1934), Indian Kolkani activist * Yagi Basti (died 1344), a ruler of Shiraz, Iran *B ...

Agra Agra (, ) is a city on the banks of the Yamuna river in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, about south-east of the national capital New Delhi and 330 km west of the state capital Lucknow. With a population of roughly 1.6 million, Agra is ...

Faizabad Faizabad (Hindustani pronunciation: ɛːzaːbaːd is a city situated near the southern banks of Saryu river in Ayodhya district in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. The area of this Faizabad region is administered by Ayodhya Municipal Co ...

, Gonda and

Kanpur Kanpur or Cawnpore ( /kɑːnˈpʊər/ pronunciation ( help· info)) is an industrial city in the central-western part of the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. Founded in 1207, Kanpur became one of the most important commercial and military station ...

. After independence, they were denotified in 1952, when the Criminal Tribes Act was repealed.People of India Uttar Pradesh Volume XLII Part One edited by A Hasan & J C Das pages 235 to 239 Manohar Publications

Present circumstances

The Bedia who have settled down in West Bengal, are also known as the Bedia Kudmi, Choto Kudmi or San Kudmi. They speak in Kurmali, an Indo-Aryan language, at home and

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the ...

for inter-group communication. The Bengali and

Devanagari Devanagari ( ; , , Sanskrit pronunciation: ), also called Nagari (),Kathleen Kuiper (2010), The Culture of India, New York: The Rosen Publishing Group, , page 83 is a left-to-right abugida (a type of segmental writing system), based on the a ...

scripts are used. The Bedia are divided into three territorial groupings, the Nathotiya, Jogiara, and Gangaparia. Each of these groups is strictly endogamous. There is also a further division between those who still follow their traditional occupation of bad works and those who are now settled agriculturists. They have numbers of exogamous clans such as Pecha (owl), Mahua (Madhuca India), Suia (parrot), Kachhua (tortoise), Chidra (squirrel) etc. Their deity are Bad Pahari and Palcharu. They celebrate festivals such as Jitiya, Sohrai,

Fagun ''Fagun'' is a monthly newspaper published on paper in the Santali language in the Ol Chiki script in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. It is the only newspaper in India that is published in Santali, and has readership across the country. The newspaper was fou ...

, Sarhul. A number of Bedia have given up their nomadic lifestyle, and are now settled agriculturists. However, the majority are mainly sharecroppers and agricultural labourers. They live in multi-caste villages. Each of their settlements contains a formal caste council known as ''biradari

panchayat The Panchayat raj is a political system, originating from the Indian subcontinent, found mainly in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal. It is the oldest system of local government in the Indian subcontinent, and historical menti ...

''. The panchayat resolves most intra-community disputes. These biradari panchayats are each headed by a headman known as a '' Mahato''. The position of the ''chaudhary'' is hereditary, and these families exercise considerable influence over the community. The 2011 Census of India for Uttar Pradesh, where they were classified as a Scheduled Caste under the name ''Beriya'', showed their population as 46,775. In

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . ...

, they are listed as Scheduled Tribe.

References

* {{cite book , author=Devasis , title=Without Prejudice: Epic Tale of a Mumbai Bar Dancer , year=2017 , isbn=978-9385285653 Scheduled Castes of Uttar Pradesh Social groups of West Bengal Social groups of Bihar Social groups of Jharkhand Denotified tribes of India