Centuries-old barter mela sidesteps inflation, builds new bridges of communal harmony
PHOTOS : ANJANA DUTTA
By Ratnadip Choudhury
Delhi, Jan 29 : Over the past five decades, Thaneswar Ingti gets to meet his friend Dhanidhar Amsong only once a year.
Dhanidhar treks down the hills of Meghalaya to the plains of neighouring Morigoan in Assam, carrying huge quantities of home-grown items that he had been exchanging over the years with Thaneswar’s fish, sweets, rice powder and rice cakes. Thansewar and his friend are among those thousands of people from different indigenous tribes of the northeast, particularly from Assam and Meghalaya, who gather for three days in a year, without fail, at the nondescript village of Dayang Belguri in Assam’s Morigaon district, where a community fair believed to have started in the 15th century is still keeping alive world’s oldest trade system – the barter system. Popularly called Joon Beel Mela (joon means moon and beel means wetland, as the fair is held beside a large natural water body shaped like a crescent moon) the fair has been a melting pot of ethnicity with people from different communities of the hills of the northeast meeting the dwellers of the vast plains, exchanging their goods only through barter and strengthening the bond of ethnic bonhomie.
“My friend Dhanidhar, like other hill people, brings for us items that we cannot grow in the plains due to flood and erosion. We get to stock our essentials and need not pay for this. Since they do not get fresh fish and sweets, we catch fish for them and prepare indigenous sweets and exchange with them. There is no money involved, no profit and loss equations, its all about trust and love,” says Thaneswar as he helps Dhanidhar pack up his sacks.
This fair is a legacy of Gova Raja, the Tiwa community king who started this fair where the ground rules of getting any item is that there is no use of money, only barter.
The fair serves purposes beyond trade. The northeast had recently witnessed fierce communal clashes between the Garo and Rabha communities. Moreover, high inflation had hit the poor people of the remote villages like never before. So the barter-driven Joon Beel Mela came as a huge respite. People from different tribes – Rabha, Garo, Tiwa, Karbi, Mishing – enjoyed rubbing shoulders with each others as they participated in cock fight contests and community fishing. For most of these tribes, it is the only chance they get the pile up their year’s stock.
“The price rise has also hit us from the remote villages as we do not have sufficient money to get to the cities and buy required items. The transport, staying and shopping have all become so expensive but here the story has remained the same for decades. I have been coming to this fair since childhood. I have seen my parents exchange goods through barter in this fair. After marriage I have kept the tradition going. It’s also about meeting our friends from the hills. I need not think about inflation at least for three days,” says Rita Rabha.
It’s not just the rural folk who find the mela a boon. This time around the mela also saw a lot of people reaching there with home-cooked food from the cities of Assam to exchange for the hill onions the tribals of Meghalaya bring each year.
“I never thought that in this busy city life that we have I will actually have to buy jungle onions on barter, but the price rise has got us back to ancient traditions,” says Bhabesh Kalita, who came from Guwahati. This one-of-its-kind fair has remained confined to the northeast. “Days ahead of the fair, members of Tiwa, Karbi, Khasi and Jaintia tribes come down from the neighbouring hills with various products. They stay together in fairs, build new relations and exchange their products… Many people across the globe who these day teleshop or book products online might not even be able to think of it. The exchange of goods leads to exchange of ideas and feelings,” says senior journalist Mukut Medhi, who has covered the fair on numerous occasions.
Exchange of ginger, bamboo shoots, turmeric, pumpkin, medicinal herbs, dried fish and indigenous sweets takes place in the backdrop of songs and dancing. The Tiwa Raja inaugurates the fair and also collects tax from the tribals as it used to be decades ago. The Assam government has also chipped in to promote the unique fair. It now gives annual royal allowance for the 19 customary kings from different communities under the erstwhile Gova kingdom of Assam. “This is happening spontaneously. It is so cold here yet the people have come here because this event is all about trust. The old trade systems might not be pertinent these days but the fact remains that here you can see there is no fight over any deal because money is not involved. We wish to carry on the legacy for generations to come,” says Jor Singh Bordoloi, the secretary of the fair organising committee from the Tiwa community.
With traditions getting lost in the rat race of globalisation, the Joon Beel Mela stands as a pointer to how ancient social orders still hold good and keep people knitted together.
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