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(I have used the terms 'orthodox* and 'less orthodox' here to distinguish between Telugus who belong to the Telugu socidte and the Telugu temple and those who attend the temple but belong to the Arya Samaj societe, not

because such a distinction exists overtly, but because the choice between one or the other seems to indicate a more or less orthodox way of thinking)*

This overlapping is perhaps partly due to the internal make-up of the

groups. Ethnic separation between Telugus and North Indians has not

solidified to such an extent that they are prevented from following

in general the same religious practices. The pujass or prayers held

every Friday in the temple are held for both groups, and the deities worshipped in the temple, Ram, Krishna, Vishnu, Lakshmi, Shiva and Hanuman, are all sanskritic deities who can be worshipped by any

Hindu. Special pujas are held for Shivratri, Shankranti, Ram and

Krishna Naomi, and during the month of partasi (September/October),

during which the Telugus hold fasts. There is thus no feeling that

the North Indians and Telugus have separate religions as such, only that they occasionally have different ceremonies and pray in a

different language. This is consistent with the idea that the

difference at this level remains purely substantive and does not engendersolid separations between the two groups in all spheres of

religious or social life. Boundaries have not yet emerged from the

sense of difference between the two groups, and for this reason, adherence to societes and temple attendance are also reflective of

this lack of compartmentalisation.

The village thus seems to lag behind the trends present at higher

levels of society, where the groups are far more strongly differentiated

and boundaries 'have become more defined and sharply marked. Since

there are vertical links throughout the society which act as channels of communication between members of each ethnic group, it is

predictable that these trends will eventually reach Trois Boutiques as

well. In fact, they have already started to do so in various ways, for

instance in the recent appearance of youth clubs with exclusive Telugu or exclusive North Indians membership, and with the adherence of Telugus

to higher-level associations. It will take some time for these trends

to become clearer and more actively separative, since a lot will depend on one group's impingement on the other, and it is this reactive element

which eventually leads to the crystallisation of boundaries. What is

more Important is that, so far, Telugus and North Indians have not seen

the Village Council committee, there have always been Telugus as well as North Indians to represent the population, and in this aspect of formal organisation too, there is no opposition of these two groups as

yet. The opposition, where it appears, is between Hindus and Creoles,

as we shall see in the next section.

(ii) Village Council and factions

In order to understand the functioning of the Village Council in Trois Boutiques, w e must go back to the neighbourhood groups and see how they emerge as factions with competing interest which become formalised

within the Village Council. In order that a form of grouping should

become factionalised, there must be distinct privileges and interests involved, and in Trois Boutiques, these interests are linked, as I have pointed out earlier, with the spatial outlay of the village in the form of hamlets, and with the solidarity of the neighbourhood

group (see map no.2 p. U ) .

These hamlets, Beau-Fond, Carreau., Lapaille and Trois Boutiques are usually those that benefit the most from the Village Council, because

the leaders come from those hamlets, and their population has more manipulative power, in terms of votes and neighbourly pressure over

the leaders, than people from more remote hamlets. The factionalisation

of the Village Council is thus concentrated in these hamlets which have

polarised,in Village Council matters, into two neighbourhoods. Beau

Fond contains, as I mentioned earlier, slightly more prosperous villagers than the other hamlets, and the main shop in the village, the Village Hall itself, the Village Market (so far unoperative) and the newly- built Community Centre can all be found in Beau Fond and in the lovrer

part of Trois Boutiques hamlet, adjacent to Beau Fond. Carreau Lapaille

is further from the main road, part of it contiguous to Beau Fond, and

part to Trois Boutiques hamlet. The latter in turn spreads out for

about half a mile along the main road to L 7Escalier village, so that

its upper part is quite far from Beau Fond. The fact that most

amenities are concentrated in Beau Fond means that people from the lower part of Trois Boutiques, from part of Carreau Lapaille and from Beau Fond itself have easy access to them, while the others have to walk

quite a long way to make use of them. Further, there is the feeling

that the Beau Fond people are being given more favours than the others,

and it would have been more fair to place the various amenities in different areas so that each area could have access to at least one

of them. This is the real cause of the resentment of the people, and

this has led to a conflict between those with access to the amenities, or the lower part of central Trois Boutiques, and those who do not, the upper part of the village, which are simply called en-bas (lower) and

ta-haut (upper) by the people.

The rivalry of the two neighbourhoods on the basis of different

privileges has led the people to follow two political leaders. By

coincidence - or perhaps not so fortuitously after all - the leaders of each neighbourhood are first cousins, whom we shall name Ram and

Lakshraan. The en~has leader, Ram is slightly older than his cousin,

the "la-haut leader, Lakshman, and has been a leader and a member

of the Village Council for a longer period. He is resolutely pro-

Government and his followers are thus seen as being for the Goverment

as well. Lakshman is younger and apparently more hot-headed than Ram

and described by his enemies as being a trouble-maker. He was

originally a member of the National Opposition Party, but split from it later on to run independently for the general elections in 1976. He was not elected, but he gained quite a number of followers from

la-haut, and when he fought for the Village Council elections, he was elected President and his followers were also elected as a majority

on the Executive Committee. Ram came back on to the committee as a

nominated member, along with two of his followers. (The executive

committee is made up of twelve members, nine elected and three

nominated). Since then, most decisions on the Village Council have

seen the constant opposition of the two factions, divided on the basis of (a) neighbourhood allegiance, (b) leadership and (c) political

affiliation to a national party. The en-bas population say that

Lakshman w o n the elections through the intimidating manoeuvres of his

henchmen Ctappeurs) and the Itx-haut population say that Ram is a

protege of the Trois Boutiques MP and of the Government, which was why he was nominated on the Village Council even though he had not been

elected. Recently, protests were expressed over the installation of

the public phone-booth in Lakshman's yard, and over the transfer of

The polarisation and opposition of the two factions is constant and

repeatedly expressed in Village Council matters. Indeed, the emnity

of the two cousins is expressed at each meeting in most strong terms, and it is to be wondered whether it is not in fact a show rather than a real hostility, since their opposed leadership has in fact succeeded in securing considerable privileges to their family.

Although there are elections every three years, which are fought very much like general elections, there is a change of chairmanship every year, in order to give each ethnic group the opportunity to chair the

Council Committee. This applies only to Hindus in general and to

Creoles, for North Indians and Telugus are not considered as separate

groups. However, there is an implicit rule that there must be at

least two Telugus on the Village Council in order to defend the interests

of the Telugus. The President of the Telugu society is an elected

member, belonging to Lakshman*s party. This year, a member of the

1 General Population1', or Creole, was supposed to obtain the chairmanship.

Under the cover of factional itfrangiing, however, a very clever device

was used in order to avoid giving the chairmanship to a Creole. At the

general meeting where a Creole chairman was supposed to be voted in amiably, Lakshman proposed a young man, Francis, from Le Bouchon as the

next chairman. His candidature was at first accepted, but the Secretary

of the Village Councils’ Board, who was there to supervise the meeting, remarked that Francis had not attended meetings for over six months, and that he was therefore not entitled to sit for chairmanship, and should

even be eradicated from the Committee on grounds of absence. Lakshman

objected that if there had been any cause for complaint, someone should have proposed a vote of censure, and since nobody had complained, they

could not now object to Francis’ candidature. Ram and his group started

to argue that someone who had not shown the slightest interest in the running of the Village Council could not be elected as Chairman, and the three ’nominees’ including Ram, duly raised a vote of censure against

F rancis. This led to another case of verbal assault between the two

cousins, until the Secretary of the Board said that he could not take any decision, not being advised over the matter, and suggested that they

should postpone the voting. The majority faction then decided to walk

out and to discuss the matter outside, and they all went out of the room.

After about ten. minutes, they came back and said that, since there was such adamant opposition against Francis from the nominees, they had decided to withdraw his candidature and submit that of another

member, called Karan, from Carreau Accacia. This was accepted, and

Karan was voted in as the Chairman. Another Creole was voted in as vice-chairman, which was intended to safeguard the Creoles’ feelings.

(Why the latter had not b e e n proposed as a replacement for Francis,

instead of Karan is significant in the light of the whole strategy).

A member of the ta-haut faction then said aloud to Francis; "when

you go back to Le Bouchon, tell the people there that we did everything we could to get you elected,but because of the nominees’ objections, you were not elected".

The strategy involved in this election is both ingenious and interesting. First, because of the previous riots between Hindus and Creoles, the Hindus of Trois Boutiques would never accept a Creole as Village Council Chairman; secondly because of the principle of ethnic equality, a Creole should be given the chance to become Chairman; third, it was in the interest of the majority faction to preserve the allegiance of the

Creoles because their votes also counted at the Village Council elections These were conflicting considerations which had somehow to be resolved. The strategy of the elected party was thus to choose a Creole who was not eligible as Chairman, who would not be aware of the regulations, and who would have enough confidence in the faction not to doubt its

motives. It was predictable (or perhaps previously arranged between

the two cousins) that the nominees would object to Francis’ candidature, and a Hindu could then be voted in without damaging the reputation of

the majority faction from the Creoles’ point of view. Fjventually, no

one could accuse anyone on the Committee of ethnic discrimination, since the objection to Francis’ candidature was purely on legal grounds.

Thus, although factional wrangling is given overt expression in the

Village Council, a far more insidious kind of manipulation simultaneously

takes place in an underhand way. The opposition of Hindus and Creoles

is far stronger than any factional separation among the Hindus themselves and it is evident that the opposition of the two cousins and that of

the

ta-haut

and

en-bas

parts of Trois Boutiques does not override

Chairman, it is probable that both neighbourhoods would cohere in their protests, and Ram and Lakshman would become the butt of their resentment

for letting a Creole be elected. Thus, even if Ram played the ’b a d ’

role as a nominee, the result was profitable to him as well. In fact,

Lakshman himself is well aware of the amount of manipulation and what

he himself calls ’brainwashing’ that go with political activities.

His father had been an active opponent of Creoles during the riots, and he feels that he has to face a harder task in obtaining the votes of

the Creoles because of this. He must therefore be particularly careful

in not hurting their feelings while preserving the allegiance of the Hindus.

The Village Council can be seen as an arena where leadership is fought over and factionalisation is overtly expressed; it is ineffectual as far as social change or concrete improvements are concerned, first because the leaders are not only manipulators, but are also subjected

to the manipulation of their neighbours, kin, friends and qualite, and second because the allowance they obtain in order to run the Village

Council is about 33 cents per head per year. As a form of formal

organisation, it expresses very well the different types of allegiances

and rivalries that exist in the village. The present leaders are not

figures of prestige, but are recruited mainly from a labouring background,

apart from Lakshman who is moderately educated. This makes them even

more open to manipulation, since people feel that they owe them a debt for having been elected to the Village Council.

The factions can be seen as being opposed

011

several grounds,

(neighbourhood, leadership, political affiliation), but they are temporary ones, and other allegiances on grounds of occupation, status etc. may

form and dissolve at different times within the Village Council. There

is thus no permanent polarisation at this level, in particular because the leaders themselves are aware of the manipulative power inherent in the interplay of several allegiances, and are constantly using them to

win over different sections of the population. Here too, there is the

management of o n e ’s social personality, overt in the case of neighbourhood affiliation, labouring affiliation and political affiliation, and covert in the case of ethnic membership.

CONCLUSION

In this chapter, I have looked at Trois Boutiques village and tried to identify the various orders of solidarity that exist at the informal level, and the bases of organisation that emerge at the formal level. One of the primary areas of solidarity is the labouring sphere, since 90% of the working population in Trois Boutiques is engaged in

agricultural occupations, primarily as labourers. I have used C.

Jayawardena’s analysis of solidarity and conflict in a Guianese plantation as a comparative viewpoint, and attempted to show that the form of

"comradeship" that exists between labourers is more based on a

transactional element than on a principle of sharing. There is an

idiom of equality which governs their relationships, and within which differences of status and attempts at mobility are still articulated

without disrupting the overall "ideology". In the same way, neighbourhood

solidarity can be seen as a form of solidarity that governs a large part

of social relations in the village. It is expressed in terms of pseudo­

kinship and non-personnel behaviour, and is sustained by the overall balance between the gestures and cooperative acts accomplished by each neighbour, and which are aimed at preserving a feeling of equality and

solidarity between the neighbours. Whenever this balance is disrupted,

conflict may occur, and when there is an alleged superiority of one neighbour over the other, this conflict may become either a form of

control, obliging the ’superior9 neighbour to engage in acts of reparation and denial of his superiority, or else result in the estrangement of the neighbours, one of them adopting personnel behaviour.

These forms of solidarity can be seen as non-moral and non-enduring ones,

enforced by a set of norms in the bounded arena where they operate. The

labouring sphere is delineated by an occupation/status boundary, and the motivations of the labourers are geared towards maintaining all the others within these boundaries while endeavouring to achieve their own

mobility. In the same way, the neighbourhood group is a spatial boundary

which can be factionalised where different interests are involved, and the Village Council in particular is an arena where neighbourhood based

factions are seen to emerge and are overtly expressed. However, these

allegiances are neither stable nor permanent enough to lead to the emergence of actual groups at other levels of society, and they are not

profound enough to become translated as orders of identification. They do not succeed in preventing ethnicity from being expressed in the villagesalthough its expression is generally coverts muted, and

informal at this level. This is basically because ethnicity in its

9qualitative9 aspect belongs to a different order from the other types of solidarity, and can be seen more as an ascriptive sense of kind,

similar in nature to kinship, than as an organisational feature. It

is at the root of endogamy, (although the differences of qualite between the groups can be seen as more or less distancing, therefore making certain types of inter-group marriages less objectionable than others), and marriage becomes a primary perpetuating element, with each group adhering to different components of identity in its marriage choices. In Trois Boutiques, marriage links serve to extend qualite links to other nearby villages in an informal form of ethnic recruitment and

organisation. Qualite also prescribes the duty of help in times of

crisis, when the conflict or the problem involved are too private and

too deep to involve any non-qualite people. It then displaces the

overt function of neighbourly cooperation and emerges as a stronger bond than the former, operating at an underlying level.

As an order of identification, it is seen by the villagers as an intense

substantive link symbolised by common blood. The ideological notions

of kinship and blood are constantly used as attributes to the notion of

In document STEPHANIE LUCUMÍ CARABALÍ (página 48-53)