8. Occupation.
The Bharias are usually farmservants and field-labourers, and their services in these capacities are in much request. They are hardy and industrious, and so simple that it is an easy matter for their masters to involve them in perpetual debt, and thus to keep them bound to service from generation to generation. They have no understanding of accounts, and the saying, ‘Pay for the marriage of a Bharia and he is your bond-slave for ever,’ sufficiently explains the methods adopted by their employers and creditors.
[1] This article is compiled from notes taken by Mr. Hira Lāl, Assistant Gazetteer Superintendent in Jubbulpore, and from a paper by Rām Lāl Sharma, schoolmaster, Bilāspur.
[2] Tribes and Castes of the N.W.P., art. Bhar.
[3] C.P. Census Report, 1881, p. 188.
[4] Dhayā means the system of shifting cultivation, which until prohibited was so injurious to the forests.