ABSTRACT
Sahnis were one of the largest castes in Dharmnagri Locally, they had a reputation for being competent farmers who liked to grow not only wheat, rice, and sugarcane but also vegetables for market if they had enough land to do so. In Dharmnagri, about three-quarters of the Sahnis owned some land around the village. Among the better off was the extended family of Mahipal, whose mother was first married into Dharmnagri in the late 1930s. Mahipal was the younger of her two sons. After being widowed, Mahipal’s mother was remarried, again in Dharmnagri. There were more children, two daughters and three other sons, of whom Devinder was the second. Like Mahipal and Maya, Devinder and his wife, Durgi, were a couple on whom we have focused since 1982. They were middle peasants, and by the late 1980s, they and their brothers had been able to build kiln-brick homes for their families. In 1982, Maya and Durgi were both preoccupied with small children. By 1990, some of these children were of an age to be married.
