The Parahiya are a

Hindu Hindus (; ) are people who religiously adhere to Hinduism.Jeffery D. Long (2007), A Vision for Hinduism, IB Tauris, , pages 35–37 Historically, the term has also been used as a geographical, cultural, and later religious identifier for ...

caste Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultura ...

found in the state of

Uttar Pradesh Uttar Pradesh (; , 'Northern Province') is a state in northern India. With over 200 million inhabitants, it is the most populated state in India as well as the most populous country subdivision in the world. It was established in 1950 ...

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 Central ...

Origin

The name ''Parahiya'' is said to mean in the

Gondi language Gondi () is a South-Central Dravidian language, spoken by about three million Gondi people, chiefly in the Indian states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and by small minorities in neighbouring states. Al ...

''the burners of the forest'' because they practice

slash and burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed vegeta ...

agriculture. According to other traditions, the name is corruption of the word ''Paharia'', which in

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

means a hill dweller. They are one of a number of tribal communities such as the

Panika The Panika are a Hindu community found in the Indian states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh. Traditionally they are weaver. They are also known as Panka and Panikar. Etymology They used to made Pankha(fan). ...

that occupy the foothills of the

Vindhya The Vindhya Range (also known as Vindhyachal) () is a complex, discontinuous chain of mountain ridges, hill ranges, highlands and plateau escarpments in west-central India. Technically, the Vindhyas do not form a single mountain range in the ...

mountains. The community speak a dialect of Hindi.People of India Uttar Pradesh Volume XLII Part Three edited by A Hasan & J C Das page 1120 to 1124 Manohar Publications

Present circumstances

The habitat of most of the Parhiya is the hilly, undulating and extremely forested southern part of

Sonbhadra district Sonbhadra or ''Sonebhadra'' is the second largest district by area of Uttar Pradesh after Lakhimpur Kheri. It is the only district in India which borders four states, namely Madhya Pradesh to the west, Chhattishgarh to the south, Jharkhand in th ...

, at the foot of the Vindhya mountains. They are

endogamous Endogamy is the practice of marrying within a specific social group, religious denomination, caste, or ethnic group, rejecting those from others as unsuitable for marriage or other close personal relationships. Endogamy is common in many cultu ...

and divided into a number of

exogamous Exogamy is the social norm of marrying outside one's social group. The group defines the scope and extent of exogamy, and the rules and enforcement mechanisms that ensure its continuity. One form of exogamy is dual exogamy, in which two groups c ...

clans known as kuris, of which the main ones are the Bengeha, Bhaloa, Bhania, Bhusan, Gohawa, Gurgur, Monnoor and Sira. Although they are Hindu, they also have a number of their own tribal deities such as Jawalamukhi Devi and Dharti Mata. The Parahiya depend on the forest for their subsistence. They are small landholding community. Hunting and gathering forest produce is an important source of their income. They collect roots, tubers, fruits, lacs and leaves, which they sell at the local market. They no longer engage in hunting as settled cultivation is now their occupation. The

Government of Uttar Pradesh The Government of Uttar Pradesh (ISO: Uttar Pradesh Sarkār; often abbreviated as GoUP) is the subnational government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh with the governor as its appointed constitutional head of the state by the President of I ...

had classified them as a

Scheduled Caste The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

but by 2007, they were one of several groups that it had redesignated as

Scheduled Tribes The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

. As of 2017, this designation applies only in

, as it also did at the time of the

2011 Census of India The 2011 Census of India or the 15th Indian Census was conducted in two phases, house listing and population enumeration. The House listing phase began on 1 April 2010 and involved the collection of information about all buildings. Information ...

when the Parahiya Scheduled Caste population in Uttar Pradesh was 2446.

References

{{Tribes of Uttar Pradesh Scheduled Castes of Uttar Pradesh Indian castes Scheduled Tribes of Uttar Pradesh