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Caste panchayats, based on caste system in India, are caste-specific juries of elders for villages or higher-level communities in India. They are distinct from in that the latter, as statutory bodies, serve all villagers regardless of caste as a part of the Indian government, although they operate on the same principles. A panchayat could be permanent or temporary.
The term panchayat implies a body of five (Sanskrit: panch) individuals, although the number may vary in practice. The number is kept odd to ensure there is no tie when a decision is made. Panchayat members are appointed by consensus.[1] Justice, Human Rights and Premchand’s Panch Parmeshwar By CHARANJEET KAUR | 9 Dec 2012]
Historical mentions of panchayats include the Parsi Panchayat in 1818, Rhetoric and Ritual in Colonial India: The Shaping of a Public Culture in Surat City, 1852-1928, Douglas E. Haynes, University of California Press, 1991, p. 77-79] the Arora Panchayat at Lahore in 1888,[3] Short Ethnographical History of Aror Bans panchayat: According to the Questions, Issue 2 Volume 756 of Tract (India Office Library) Virajananda Press, 1888] Dalit panchayats in 1907, and the Prachin Agrawal Jain Panchayat of Delhi, founded in the late 19th century, which runs Delhi's famous Bird Hospital and some of its oldest temples.
Gram panchayat or sabha (village councils) were usually controlled by the elected members of panchayats for maintaining the social order and the resolution of criminal and civil disputes. There were also panchayats for resolving inter-caste conflicts. Gram panchayats were legally formalised under the panchayati raj system as a decentralised grassroot form of local governance.Smita Mishra Panda, 2008, Engendering Governance Institutions: State, Market and Civil Society , p119-.
Caste panchayats (caste councils) have members of particular who follow caste-based social norms, rules, religious values and settle conflict among its own members. Each caste, including upper castes and , had own caste panchayat. They repair wells, organise festivals, look after the sick of their castes. These caste panchayats existed as the form of local governance much before the gram panchayats came into being.
When the Evidence Act was passed in 1872, some caste members began to take their cases before civil or criminal courts rather than have them adjudicated by the caste panchayat. Panchayat: Indian caste government (article 9374468), Encyclopædia Britannica, about "caste panchayats" Nevertheless, these bodies still exist and exert leadership roles within their respective groups.
Urban caste panchayat
A 1992 study on twenty different low caste Telugu people immigrant communities in Pune, found evolution of caste panchayat of each community into three different types in their new urban setting:
Responsibilities
Traditionally, panchayats have adjudicated disputes involving caste members in open meetings. The issues brought before these bodies can include: managing temples and schools, property disputes, marital relations, and breaches of community rules (such as extravagant spending on weddings or the eating, drinking, or killing of certain animals, such as cows). Penalties include monetary fines, offering a feast to the caste members or to , or temporary or permanent excommunication from the caste. Pilgrimage and self-humiliation are also occasionally imposed. Physical punishment was levied on occasion but is now uncommon.
Khap
A Khap is a clan, or a group of related clans, mainly among the of western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan, Gujarat and some parts of Madhya Pradesh. The term has also been used in other communities.अब उतपति श्रावकनु के, षांप गोत की जेम |
भई सु पोथिनु देषि करि, वरनन है कवि तेम ||६८२||
आगैं तो श्रावक सवै, एकमेक ही होत |
लगे चलन विपरीति तव, थापे षांप अरु गोत ||६८३||
थपी वहैतरि षांप ऐ, गांम नगर के नांम |
जैसैं पोथनु मैं लषी, सो वरनी अभिराम ||६८४||
Describes the 84 Jain communities, Buddhi-Vilas, Bakhtaram Sah, Samvat 1827, (1770 AD) A Khap panchayat is an assembly of Khap elders, and a Sarv Khap (literally, "all Khaps") meeting is an assembly of many Khaps. A Khap panchayat is concerned with the affairs of the Khap it represents. It is not affiliated with the democratically elected local assemblies that are also termed panchayat, and has no official government recognition or authority, but it can exert significant social influence within a community. Baliyan Khap, led by the late farmer's leader Mahendra Singh Tikait, is a well-known Jat Khap.
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