Book Description

While most of the earlier scholarship of the Meo community has focused on the community’s troubled histories, their backwardness and unusual social and religious configuration; this research—conducted over a span of five years—shines a light upon modern Meos in the twenty-first century, and their embracing of mobile technology to leapfrog into the future. With special attention given to Meo youth and women, this work engages with the lived-experience of these actors delving into their aspirations, challenges and self-devised solutions as they negotiate the structures of tradition and patriarchy. The Meo community—saddled with high levels of illiteracy and marginalization— inhabits the Mewat area of North-West India nestled between Delhi, Agra and Jaipur. Their spoken language is Mewati and there are multiple conjectures put forth about their origin and continual migrations throughout history before finally settling in Mewat. Practitioners of Islam, the Meos, at the same time, observe Hindu social practices such as division into Pals and Gotras with clearly laid-down exogamous rules. Historically this has rendered the Meos as an enigma to outsiders, and as a problem for the reigning political state, from the Delhi Sultanate to the British colonizers, contributing to their marginalized status. As an oral society, the traditional Meo medium was that of the mirasi—folklore tellers and bards—who would sing about Meo valor in the face of state authority. So deeply entrenched in tradition and alterity, how do Meos then tread and engage with modern techno-centric new media? The answer to such an inquiry is not simple or straightforward. While over 90% of Meos owned a mobile phone as of 2016, different audience segments provide different narratives, and leverage the technology in different ways. College students use their mobile phones to access different social media platforms and opportunities for employment and higher education; truck drivers on the other hand use their mobiles to remain in touch with their families when out on long distance driving assignments. Meanwhile married women and young girls while not allowed to own a phone, nonetheless find ways of gaining access to the technology. With the use of new media, Bollywood consumption is on the rise, and one sees changes in sartorial choices, ideas on grooming and marriage and social life in general. So much so, the traditional profession of the mirasi has now become defunct. Present-day Meo society is experiencing a change at multiple levels which is a complex negotiation between traditional and modern. And in this twenty first-century story—empowered by technology— rather than being a ‘victim’ the Meo emerges as a ‘hero’.