Hansi at the Crossroads: Caste, Power and the Political Economy of Social Conflict in Haryana

-Ramphal Kataria

From Jajmani to Jat Agitation: Social Fragmentation in a Haryana-a case study of Hansi

Abstract

This paper examines the socio-economic and political contradictions shaping the social order of Hansi, a historic sub-division in Hisar district of Haryana, up to May 2012. Drawing upon historical trajectories from medieval rule to colonial administration and post-Independence transformations, it analyses how caste hierarchies, agrarian change, political mediation, and extra-constitutional institutions interact to produce persistent social conflict. The paper situates episodes of caste violence, governance failure, and moral erosion—most notably during the Jat reservation agitation—within a broader political economy of rural Haryana. It argues that the coexistence of constitutional modernity with feudal social relations generates a dualistic social logic, marked by opportunism, selective morality, and chronic instability.

Introduction

The social milieu of Hansi in Haryana is constituted by overlapping socio-economic transitions, political contestations, and deeply embedded social taboos. These forces do not operate in isolation; rather, they intersect to generate a structure of contradictions that shape everyday social relations, governance practices, and collective mobilisations.These contradictions had become starkly visible in the form of caste violence, criminalised political agitations, erosion of institutional authority, and a steady decline in normative moral frameworks.

This paper offers a sociological and historical examination of these contradictions, drawing upon administrative experience, local histories, and observed social processes. It locates contemporary conflicts within longer processes of state formation, agrarian restructuring, and political mediation, arguing that Hansi represents a microcosm of the tensions characterising much of rural Haryana during this period. Rather than treating episodes of unrest as aberrations, the paper reads them as outcomes of structurally produced inequalities and unresolved social transformations.

Historical Layers and the Making of Hansi

Hansi’s historical evolution reflects its strategic and political significance in north India. Competing historical accounts attribute its founding variously to Asha Ram Jat, King Anangpal Tomar, or the lineage of Prithviraj Chauhan, whose fort remains a prominent landmark. The Dargah Char Qutub—associated with four Sufi saints between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries—attests to prolonged Muslim rule and cultural influence. The construction of Barsi Gate by Alauddin Khilji further situates Hansi within medieval networks of power.

Colonial intervention added another layer. Following its annexation by the East India Company in 1802, Hansi briefly functioned as a district headquarters. Colonel James Skinner, granted the jagir of Hansi after the Bharatpur campaign, left enduring material and administrative imprints, including Sheikhpura Kothi and extensive landholdings recorded in revenue documents.The property registered in his name still exists and is popularly known as ‘Mem Ka Baag’ on NH-10, and it has been inherited by his descendants. Post-Partition displacement in 1947, when many original inhabitants migrated to Pakistan, fractured existing social arrangements and facilitated the reconstitution of hierarchies under altered demographic conditions.

Agrarian Change and the Crisis of Village Society

Hansi sub-division comprised two tehsils, one sub-tehsil, three development blocks, two municipalities, and ninety-three villages. Despite improvements in physical infrastructure, electrification, road connectivity, and access to markets, village society remained deeply structured by caste and land ownership. Jats, as dominant landholders, exercised economic, social, and political control, while non-farming castes experienced declining livelihoods following the collapse of the jajmani system.

The disintegration of the jajmani system dismantled economic interdependence without eroding caste hierarchies. Mechanisation, state-supported procurement systems, and changing cropping patterns reduced demand for traditional caste-based services, rendering many non-farming communities economically redundant while socially subordinate. Migration to towns and casual labour provided partial relief but did not compensate for the loss of stable livelihoods. This structural contradiction produced new forms of exclusion, including social boycotts, denial of access to agricultural land, and restrictions on participation in village life, thereby intensifying caste antagonisms.

Caste Conflict and Social Fragmentation

Village society continues to invoke the idiom of “36 biradari,” but this rhetorical unity conceals deep fractures. Caste contradictions have fragmented social relations, often erupting into violence. The Mirchpur incident of 2010 exemplified how entrenched hierarchies, combined with administrative inertia, could culminate in collective brutality.

The Jat reservation movement further polarised village society. While framed as a demand for affirmative action, the agitation exacerbated mistrust between Jats and non-Jats, reinforcing perceptions of exclusion and dominance. Outwardly cohesive villages thus remained internally fractured, creating a volatile social environment prone to sudden escalation.

Panchayati Raj and the Limits of Constitutional Reform

The introduction of Panchayati Raj institutions under the 73rd Constitutional Amendment sought to democratise rural governance through reservations for women and Scheduled Castes. In practice, these reforms collided with entrenched social power. Women sarpanches frequently functioned as proxies for male relatives, while Scheduled Caste-led panchayats operated under the patronage of dominant castes.

Factionalism aligned with political parties further paralysed local governance. Rival groups within villages routinely obstructed development schemes, diverting administrative attention from implementation to conflict resolution. Municipal politics mirrored these dynamics, revealing the limited penetration of constitutional norms into everyday political practice.

State, Administration, and Popular Mobilisation

Despite Haryana’s relatively robust provision of public services, relations between citizens and the administration remained adversarial. Formal mechanisms such as petitions, representations, and consultations were routinely bypassed in favour of road blockades, gheraos, and collective coercion. Such practices reflected both a historical culture of resistance and the instrumental use of disruption as an effective bargaining strategy in dealings with the state.

A critical social factor was underemployment among rural men. Seasonal agriculture and declining labour requirements produced idle male populations susceptible to mobilisation by caste groups, political intermediaries, and informal pressure networks. Public spaces such as roads, markets, and government offices increasingly became arenas of assertion rather than deliberation. Post-harvest periods witnessed surges in administrative confrontations, placing chronic strain on state institutions and normalising crisis governance as a routine administrative condition.

Family, Gender, and Property Relations

Legal reforms granting women inheritance rights failed to translate into substantive control over property. Women were routinely compelled to relinquish land shares to male kin. Rising land values, influenced by regional real estate dynamics, intensified family conflicts and produced new coercive practices. Unmarried women were increasingly forced to transfer property shares prior to marriage, pre-empting future claims.

Simultaneously, the growing use of wills to disinherit daughters hollowed out statutory gender equality. These practices reinforced patriarchal control while formally adhering to legal frameworks, revealing the limits of rights-based reform in the absence of social transformation.

Moral Economy and Instrumental Ethics

Economic incentives increasingly displaced moral restraint. The routine submission of false affidavits to access welfare benefits such as BPL cards, old-age pensions, and housing plots became socially normalised. These practices were rarely perceived as wrongdoing; rather, they were justified as necessary strategies to secure a share of state resources.

The selection of Anganwadi workers exposed the depth of ethical erosion. Remarried women falsely claimed widowhood to secure employment, often with the active support of family members and community networks. During official inquiries, some women denied existing marriages altogether, attributing children to illicit relations. This coexistence of hyper-moralism—enforced through khap diktats—and instrumental immorality reflects a fractured moral economy in which norms were selectively invoked to police sexuality and marriage, particularly of women, while economic opportunism faced little social sanction.

Politics, Intermediaries, and Criminalisation

Grassroots politics in Hansi was mediated by informal power brokers who acted as conduits between politicians, criminals, and the administration. These intermediaries effectively established a parallel governance structure, undermining formal authority. Large villages, often exceeding 10,000 inhabitants, functioned as reservoirs of criminal networks.

Political agitations frequently provided opportunities for criminal elements to assert control under the guise of popular movements. This convergence of crime and politics had become an entrenched feature of the region’s public life.

Law, Order, and the Jat Reservation Agitation

The Jat reservation agitation marked the culmination of these contradictions. In early 2012, prolonged railway blockades severed Hisar district from the rest of Haryana, paralysing economic and social life. Criminal elements dominated the agitation, resisting negotiations and engaging in armed confrontation with security forces.

The use of death as political spectacle, administrative paralysis, and the emergence of zones effectively beyond state control underscored the fragility of law and order. These events revealed how social movements, in the absence of accountable leadership, could devolve into coercive and destructive episodes.

Khap Panchayats and Extra-Constitutional Authority

Khap panchayats continued to exercise significant influence, particularly on issues of marriage and honour. Their opposition to inter-caste and same-gotra marriages translated into honour killings, disproportionately targeting women. Political parties, wary of electoral repercussions, often avoided confronting khap authority, lending tacit legitimacy to extra-constitutional practices.

Khap-led mobilisations followed a recurring pattern: initiation without accountability and withdrawal without resolution. Leaders issued diktats resembling moral edicts, disregarding constitutional legality and individual rights.

Conclusion: Dualism as Social Logic

Hansi exemplified a social order governed by dualism. Constitutional rights coexisted with feudal practices, democratic institutions with extra-legal authority, and economic rationality with moral absolutism. Social taboos were selectively suspended for material gain and rigidly enforced to preserve hierarchy. Opportunism, rather than ideology or ethics, emerged as the dominant guiding principle shaping individual and collective action.

These contradictions did not merely disrupt governance; they actively produced a volatile social order in which conflict became routine and reform remained superficial. The persistence of caste domination, patriarchal control over property, criminalised political mediation, and the endurance of khap authority point to the limits of formal institutional change in the absence of deeper social transformation. Understanding Hansi, therefore, requires a structural analysis of how history, caste, economy, and politics intersect to manufacture instability in contemporary rural Haryana—a pattern with implications extending well beyond this single sub-division.