For instance, a person who had the job of separating husk from the wheat crop post-harvest got the moniker ‘bhoot’ since the husk often used to stick to his body, giving him a ghost-like appearance.
Another person who used to fight with others viciously, got the tag of ‘bichchoo’ (scorpion) and his descendants still continue to be identified by this tag. A few other examples include chidia (bird), gappad (gossip monger) and ghoda (horse) clans. In local parlance, these clans are referred to as ‘bounk’.
“Villages in the region are caste-based. For instance, everyone in Bijrol village is a Tomar and there are so many names common here that it becomes difficult to identify people having similar names. That’s where ‘bounk’ is useful. The system helps villagers remember their ancestors and identify as a clan,” said Amit Rai Jain, a Baghpat resident and member of the Culture and History Association, an organisation comprising historians of western UP.
Binay ‘Bhoot’, a resident of Binoli village who belongs to the Tomar caste, says that their clan names may have come from “things that happened 500 years ago but we are so used to the tag that the meaning doesn’t matter any longer.” “It’s our identity now and we are proud of it,”he said.
Mange Ram, a Bavli village resident reveals why his bounk name is ‘kirariya’ (a village name for Rock Agama, a species of redhead lizard). “I heard from my elders that one of our ancestors, some 350 years ago, had developed a strange fever after which his face became reddish and he got the nickname ‘kirariya’. We’ve around 50 families today bearing the same bounk,” he said.
Gaurav Singh, village head of Bavli, also identifies himself with his bounk ‘rangila’. “The term might sound offensive with a negative connotation on the character of a person but no one feels bad about it,” Singh said.
While Bavli is more about insects and reptiles, nearby Kirthal village boasts of its ‘heers’, ‘ranjhas’ and even ‘majnus’. These characters find mention in the centuries-old folk love stories.
“Maybe our ancestors were more romantic than we are,” laughs Sudhir Chauhan from ‘ranjha bounk’.
“Frankly speaking, we do not know where it came from. I tried to find out and the history goes back to 6 or 7 centuries and now it’s part of our lives. When someone outside of the village teases us, we simply laugh it off. I was asked once ‘where is your heer?’ and I had replied ‘
filhaal
to gharwali hai, heer ka to pata nahi
(as of now I have a wife, don’t know where ‘heer’ is),” added Chauhan.
The bounk system is not confined to Baghpat alone. Some of the other districts of western UP share the system too. Bijnor bounks are more about strength and power. For instance, a village in the area houses many ‘saand (bulls) bounk’. “Our family used to be physically very strong and most men were above six feet in height and ate a lot. No wonder, we were given the ‘saand’ nickname and today our clan has dozens of families,” said Vineet Kumar from Fazalpur village in Bijnor.
Then there is a ‘gunde’ bounk in Madhusudanpur village. “Our elders employed strongarm tactics and would often subjugate the locals, hence the term ‘gunda’ (criminal). Though there are no criminals amongst us, we’re still addressed by the term,” said Dharmender Singh, a villager.
The bounk system is not just confined to a particular caste or religion. Almost all residents in Shamli district’s Kaziwara locality have ‘zinda’ as their bounk. “Our elders say that one of our ancestors was full of life which is called ‘zinda dil’ in Urdu and ever since ‘zinda’ is used to identify the clan,” said Mohd Nadeem, a local.
Historians believe the system evolved out of a need for identification. “It is quite evident that the bounk system is a self-evolved phenomenon that took centuries to develop. In the absence of Aadhaar cards or any other unique identification, it was indigenously developed over a period of time in a rustic manner,” said Amit Pathak, author of ‘1857 – Living History’ and fellow at Centre for Armed Forces Historical Research.
“The bounk is not documented anywhere in govt records but continues to thrive even in the modern era. The uniqueness in the funny names of the bounk arose out of a need to keep identities separate,” he added.