Mallaah

[1] In the Indian state of Bihar, the term Nishad includes the Mallaah and refers to communities whose traditional occupation centred on rivers.

A folk etymology has Mallaah as a term used to describe someone who rode a boat from the Arabic word Mallah (ملاح) which means "to move its wing like a bird".

The attempts of Nishad Sabhas to do so with their Ekta Sammelans and other ways of sensitization and mobilisation of a common member of the community was later spearheaded by political parties based on the ideology of Hindutva.

In 1990s when Lal Krishna Advani was organising his Ram Rath Yatra to garner the support of Hindus all over India for the establishment of Ram Temple at a disputed site in Ayodhya, Mulayam Singh Yadav's government took serious steps to prevent the Karsewaks (volunteers of the Temple movement) in a bid to stop the communal clashes in the state.

[3] According to social historian Badri Narayan Tiwari: Apart from transporting Karsewaks to Ayodhya, nearly 20,000 Nishad living on the bank of river Saryu and Ghagra also went to Ayodhya to work as volunteers in the construction of Ram Mandir.The wooing of Mallaah community in 1990s by the Hindutva ideologue was resented by other political parties who mobilised the community through the tale of Eklavya who in his devotion to his Guru Dronacharya sacrificed his finger though earlier he was ill-treated by him and his request for learning archery from him was denied by the Guru because of his low ritual status.

[4] However according to Badri Narayan, the ideology of Ram Rajya, an idyllic time of the past when lower and upper caste lived together in harmony was just invoked to counter the politics of Dalit mobilisation based on the report of Mandal Commission which sought reservation in the government jobs and educational institutions for socially and economically backward communities.

These organised crimes were kidnapping, Timber logging, forcibly taking contract for public works, automobile theft and smuggling which were the prerogative of the criminals belonging to upper castes earlier as they required linkage with the politicians and backup from the ruling regime as high capital inflow is involved.

In the regime of Rashtriya Janata Dal led government these criminals from backward castes specially Mallaah and Yadav turned several areas of Bihar into their base and organised high value crimes.

Scholars like Buchanan and Crooke also consider this behaviour to be inherent in their nature which halted their attempts to sanskritize and seek high status.

Lalu as a Chief Minister frequently visited the SC hamlets of the state and sensitise the lower caste feeling against repression.

This period saw representation of many lower castes including Mallaah in local level politics who now acquired the post of "Mukhia" (village headman) at many places.

The walking out of Sahani led Vikassheel Insaan Party out of National Democratic Alliance was due to alleged betrayal of Bihar government under Nitish Kumar to grant Scheduled Tribe status to Mallaah caste.

[15] In neighbouring Punjab, the Mallaah are found mainly in the districts of Muzaffargarh, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rajanpur, Uch Sharief and Layyah, and said to be by origin Jhinwar.