One Family, Many Identities

Nusrat Jafri traces a family’s journey across caste, tribe, faith and history, revealing how identity is always layered, inherited and beautifully plural

- YAUVANIKA CHOPRA

Identity in India is rarely linear today — even if one’s parents are from the same area, one’s own life may be shaped by other geographies inhabited for study or work. Language is contentious for this reason, and regionalisms are becoming narrower in an effort to preserve some semblance of easy explanation. But, as Nusrat Jafri’s This Land We Call Home: The Story of a Family, Caste, Conversions, and Modern India points out, we are each composed of pluralisms and each a part of this vibrant country regardless.

Jafri is a cinematographer, and this autobiographical book is rich with visual imagery. It begins with her maternal great-grandparents, Hardayal and Kalyani Singh, rebuilding their lives in Uttar Pradesh in the haunting shadow of their camp being set on fire. Originally from Rajasthan, they belonged to the nomadic Bhantu tribe, which claims Rajput descent from the army of Rana Pratap and through the Raja Sansamal. Persecuted by the British under the Thuggee and Dacoity Suppression Acts between 1836 and 1848 for their Robin Hood looting of the rich, they were seen with even greater suspicion after the Revolt of 1857. By 1871, Bhantus were listed in the Criminal Tribes Act under which Hardayal Singh’s grandfather was exiled to the Kala Pani jail in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Prevailing European 19th-century paranoia about hereditary criminality led to their designation as 'Born Criminals'. Despite being indigenous inhabitants - whose code of faith includes pathar puja to stone deities in front of whom no lie is permitted - Bhantus were stigmatised, and nobody helped when their home was ablaze. The Salvation Army stepped in with food and shelter: “The sick received medical aid; however, what stood out the most for the distressed Bhantus was not the material help, but the respect and empathy they received without discrimination or prejudice!’