_Bhuiya, Bhuinhar, Bhumia._ [360]--The name of a very important tribe
of Chota Nagpur, Bengal and Orissa. The Bhuiyas numbered more than
22,000 persons in the Central Provinces in 1911, being mainly found
in the Sarguja and Jashpur States. In Bengal and Bihar the Bhuiyas
proper count about half a million persons, while the Musahar and
Khandait castes, both of whom are mainly derived from the Bhuiyas,
total together well over a million.
The name Bhuiya means 'Lord of the soil,' or 'Belonging to the soil,'
and is a Sanskrit derivative. The tribe have completely forgotten
their original name, and adopted this designation conferred on them
by the immigrant Aryans. The term Bhuiya, however, is also employed
by other tribes and by some Hindus as a title for landholders, being
practically equivalent to zamindar. And hence a certain confusion
arises, and classes or individuals may have the name of Bhuiya without
belonging to the tribe at all. "In most parts of Chota Nagpur,"
Sir H. Risley says, "there is a well-known distinction between a
Bhuiya by tribe and a Bhuiya by title. The Bhuiyas of Bonai and
Keonjhar described by Colonel Dalton belong to the former category;
the Bhuiya Mundas and Oraons to the latter. The distinction will be
made somewhat clearer if it is explained that every 'tribal Bhuiya'
will as a matter of course describe himself as Bhuiya, while a member
of another tribe will only do so if he is speaking with reference to
a question of land, or desires for some special reason to lay stress
on his status as a landholder or agriculturist."
We further find in Bengal and Benares a caste of landholders known as
Bhuinhar or Babhan, who are generally considered as a somewhat mixed
and inferior group of Brahman and Rajput origin. Both Sir H. Risley
and Mr. Crooke adopt this view and deny any connection between the
Bhuinhars and the Bhuiya tribes. Babhan appears to be a corrupt form
of Brahman. Mr. Mazumdar, however, states that Bhuiya is never used in
Bengali as an equivalent for zamindar or landholder, and he considers
that the Bhuinhars and also the Barah Bhuiyas, a well-known group of
twelve landholders of Eastern Bengal and Assam, belonged to the Bhuiya
tribe. He adduces from Sir E. Gait's _History of Assam_ the fact that
the Chutias and Bhuiyas were dominant in that country prior to its
conquest by the Ahoms in the thirteenth century, and considers that
these Chutias gave their name to Chutia or Chota Nagpur. I am unable
to express any opinion on Mr. Mazumdar's argument, and it is also
unnecessary as the question does not concern the Central Provinces.