Pano (caste)

The Pano (also known as Pan, Buna Pana, and Desua Pana) are a Scheduled caste community of Odisha,^[2] as well as in Bihar, West Bengal and Jharkhand officially.^[3] They speak Odia language.^[4]

The Buna Pano are a part of the Pano.^[5] According to the 2011 Census, 1,205,099 people in Odisha constituting 17.7% of the total SC population, were members of this caste. It was the most populous of the scheduled castes of Odisha.^[1] The Pano have the maximum population in Jajpur district, followed by Kendujhar district and Dhenkanal district, but they constitute the highest proportion (77.9%) of the total SC population in Kandhamal district. In Odisha, 14% of them have middle educational level, about 13% have more. 60.9% of their children in the 5–14 years group were at school. 16.8% of the Pano workers were cultivators, 54.3% agricultural labourers, 4.2% HHI workers and 24.7% other workers. 16.89% of the total population of Kandhamal district are members of a scheduled caste. Most of them are Pano (77.92%).^[6] Kendujhar district has 11.62% members of scheduled castes and among them the major caste groups are the Pano (58.77%).^[7] In 1891, those living in Sitra were called workers in metal, speaking Kui and Odia. Intermarriage to Khonds and Odias was not permitted.^[8]

Panos have several sub-castes: the Odia, who claim a higher social status than the others, Buna, who are weavers, Betra or Raj, basketmakers, bamboo workers, and also perform watchman duties, Baistab, Panos who are Vaishnavites and perform their religious ceremonies, and Patraida, Panos who live alongside the Khondhs.^[9] This last subset is often simply referred to as the Khonda Panos, while the others are collectively referred to as Desa Panos.^[8]

Colonial ethnographers, such as Herbert Hope Risley, theorized they were Dravidians who have been "Hinduized."^[9]

The Pan have a group of totemistic exogamous clans, traced down the father's line. However, this system of exogamy only considers ancestors only a few generations back and in the area, and so only excludes those of the clan in the area. This system of exogamy is followed by tribals throughout central and eastern India and is dubbed "local lines" by anthropologists. However, within this system, Panos ban marriage between someone and their first cousins and paternal uncle.

Pano girls were only married when they became adults.

Those pan (pano) who are good in education, also it was observed that they are good humanist, like they are before in history.

They follows Hinduism and some are Buddhism in cultural practice.

At the turn of the 20th century, the Panos, although nominally Vaishnavites, were practicing animism similar to neighbouring Dravidian tribes. They held in the belief of certain village deities who were to be propitiated to induce fertility or stave off ruin, primarily via animal sacrifice. Their main deity was Pauri Pahari, the god who lived upon the highest of the local hills, and to him they would offer goat sacrifices.

Due to a Presidential Order in 1950, Panos who converted to Christianity could no longer hold SC status. Pano organization Phulbani Kui Janakalyan Samiti, started in 2002, sought to give Panos Scheduled Tribe status due to their knowledge of Kui.^[10] The government soon denied Panos the ST status and hundreds of Pano government employees were fired for falsifying caste certificates. These tensions would culminate in the Kandhamal Riots, when, after the murder of Saraswati which was claimed to be done by Christians,^[a] mobs of tribals and non-tribals attacked Pano settlements and churches throughout Kandhamal.^[10]