The Stranger and the Sage

The Musahars, now known as the Mahadalit community, migrated from the Chota Nagpur region to the plains of Bihar. Despite settling there for centuries, they struggle to find their place within the Hindu caste system and are labelled ‘perpetual wanderers’ and ‘unfit for development’. This chapter examines their anachronistic relationship with the caste system, shaped by their migration and tribal roots, and interrogates the different connotations of being a ‘stranger’ despite long-term settlement. Mainstream development discourse posits that Musahars often internalise the stereotypes imposed on them. Living on the precipice of unpredictability and with limited resources has necessitated Musahars to adopt coping mechanisms; this cannot be conflated with accepting their socially constructed identity. Despite enduring othering, marginalisation, dehumanisation and abandonment for generations, they continue to assert their cultural agency. For instance, in Munger, Musahars have constructed a temple in honour of their ancestress, Mata Sabari, visited by all castes. Drawing insights from an ethnographic study conducted in the Tetiya Bambar block of the Munger district in Bihar, this chapter argues that the survival of Musahars in the face of all challenges, as well as their attempt to elevate their social position by dedicating a temple to Mata Sabari, constitutes an embodied expression of dissent.