The Rang (also Rung) are a Tibeto-Burman ethnic group inhabiting the valleys of Byans, Chaudans and Darma in Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand, India, and in Darchula District, Nepal.^[1] Their homeland lies in the upper Kali (Mahakali) drainage system, straddling the India–Nepal border.^[1] They are also known as Shauka or Rungba by outsiders, though they identify themselves as Rang.^[2]

The Rang speak three closely related and mutually intelligible West Himalayish languages: Byansi, Chaudansi and Darmiya, collectively referred to as Ranglo.^[2][3]

The Rang are sometimes grouped with the Shauka of the Johar valley under the broader label "Bhotiyas of Uttarakhand", but the two communities speak different languages (the Joharis historically spoke Rangkas, and now speak the Johari dialect of the Kumaoni language), inhabit different valleys, and are distinguished in both colonial records and modern ethnography.

Homeland

The Rang homeland comprises three adjacent valleys in the extreme north-east of Pithoragarh district, historically administered as pattis (sub-divisions) of parganah Darma in Kumaon:^[4]

• Byans — the valley of the Kuthi Yankti river and the upper Kali River, containing seven villages on the Indian side (Budhi, Garbyang, Gunji, Nabi, Napalchyu, Rongkong, and Kuti) and two across the border in Nepal (Chhangru and Tinkar).^[5]
• Chaudans — situated between the Kali and Dhauli rivers from their confluence northwards, containing approximately eleven villages.^[6]
• Darma — the valley of the Dhauli (Darma) river, containing fourteen villages.

Before the Gorkha conquest of Kumaon in 1791, the entire Byans region, including Changru and Tinkar, was considered an integral part of Kumaon, distinct from the kingdoms of Doti and Jumla.^[7] After the Anglo-Nepalese War and the Treaty of Sugauli (1816), the Kali River became the international border, dividing the Rang homeland between British India and Nepal.^[8]

The 1911 Almora Gazetteer recorded 1,585 speakers of Byansi, 1,485 of Chaudansi, and 1,761 of Darmiya in the three pattis.^[9]

Languages

The Rang community speaks three kinds of Tibeto-Burman languages - Byangsi, Chaudangsi and Darma.^[3]

History

The Rang languages belong to the West Himalayish branch of the Sino-Tibetan family and are related to the extinct Zhang-Zhung language of western Tibet.^[2] The 1911 Almora Gazetteer recorded one legend — which the Rang themselves "indignantly repudiate" — assigning their origin to a band of Tatars from Timur's army.^[10]

Cross-border identity

Despite nearly two centuries of political division, the Rang have maintained socio-cultural unity across the India–Nepal border.^[1] Ethnographic field work by Katsuo Nawa in 1993–95 documented how citizenship, natal village and residence did not necessarily coincide for Rang individuals. In one case, an Indian civil servant born in a Nepali village maintained a house and ritual roles in his natal village in Nepal, while two of his sons served as Indian civil servants and a third was attempting to enlist in the Nepalese army. The family used two different surnames — one officially recorded in India and the other a clan name indicating their Nepali natal village.^[11]

Nawa noted that such practices partly reflected the fact that the border had traditionally held little meaning for the Rang, but also that individuals made deliberate choices to utilise opportunities provided by states on both sides simultaneously.^[11] The most famous historical example was Gobaria Pandit (also Gobriya Pandit), a wealthy trader from Garbyang in Indian Byans in the early twentieth century, who maintained connections to both the Nepalese and Indian governments.^[11]

The Rang traditionally operated under a system of five mukhiyas (headmen), one from each of five Rang villages in both Nepal and India. All Rang land, whether in Nepal or India, was registered in the names of these five mukhiyas, and land revenue was paid by them to the government in Tibet until approximately 1955.^[12]

Livelihoods

See also

• Ratan Singh Raypa
• Byans
• Chaudans
• Darma Valley
• Kuthi Valley
• Garbyang
• Bhotiyas of Uttarakhand
• Byangsi language
• Chaudangsi language
• Darmiya language
• Kalapani territory

References