Chaupal (public space)

A chaupal (Hindi-Urdu: चौपाल or چوپال), or chopal, is a community building or space in the rural areas of North India and Pakistan.^[1] It is the hub of community life in villages, especially for male inhabitants. In smaller villages, a chaupal can be a simple raised platform that is shaded by a large tree, typically a neem, banyan or pipal fig tree. In larger villages, the chaupal may be an elaborate structure that also doubles as a community guesthouse (or mehmaan khana).^[2][3]

Indian and Pakistani panchayats (village administrative bodies) usually function and hold hearings in the village chaupal. Indian villages have a strong social norm of village exogamy, and the chaupal is often also the site where the groom's party are received and hosted when "a daughter of the village" is married.^[1][2]

Chaupals are constructed and maintained using community funds, sometimes collected in the village using community donations (known as चन्दा, چندا, chanda).^[2]

The notion of chaupal in popular culture

Although chaupals are fundamentally a feature of rural life, in the popular perception a chaupal is any place where people "sit and discuss their problems, celebrate their pleasures, share the pains of an individual, family or a particular group, sort out their disputes." It is "a sacred place of secular nature" that "guarantees freedom of speech and expression to everybody."^[4] Television talk shows, online websites and forums affiliated with the region sometimes attempt to mirror that atmosphere of free conversation and social engagement by including the term "chaupal" in their names.^[5]

References

1. ^ ^{a b} S.K. Chandhoke, Nature and structure of rural habitations, Concept Publishing Company, 1990, ISBN 9788170222538, http://books.google.com/books?id=fFCpBzD0gjAC, "... Chaupal plays a very important role in the village life ... at the intersection of the two main streets ... a banyan or pipal tree ... panchayat are held at the chaupal ... Villagers sit at the chaupal, smoke, play cards and do other things ... barat/janet which comes from the boy's village is lodged at the chaupal ..." 
2. ^ ^{a b c} Meredeth Turshen, Briavel Holcomb, Women's lives and public policy: the international experience, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1993, ISBN 9780275945237, http://books.google.com/books?id=HGtHQWAfvEoC, "... This common fund sustained certain aspects of the social life of the village; it had formerly paid for the upkeep of the chaupal or guest house in which villagers offered hospitality to visitors, passersby, and, most important, for events such as the wedding of a daughter of the village ..." 
3. ^ B. S. Saini, The social & economic history of the Punjab, 1901-1939, including Haryana & Himachal Pradesh, Ess Ess Publications, 1975, http://books.google.com/books?id=zPkEAAAAMAAJ, "... the public well, which served as a meeting place of the womenfolk during day-time and the Chaupal, a local guest house, where the villagers gathered in the evening to while away time in smoking and gossip ..." 
4. ^ International Organization For Migration, Migration, Development and Poverty Reduction in Asia, Academic Foundation, 2008, ISBN 9788171885732, http://books.google.com/books?id=ID22_OqPfSMC, "... sit and discuss their problems, celebrate their pleasures, share the pains of an individual, family or a particular group, sort out their disputes ... a sacred place of secular nature ... guarantees freedom of speech and expression to everybody ..." 
5. ^ Nagy K. Hanna, Enabling Enterprise Transformation: Business and Grassroots Innovation for the Knowledge Economy, Springer, 2009, ISBN 9781441915078, http://books.google.com/books?id=hkOfLFqFGVIC, "... The e-Choupal initiative began by deploying ICT to reengineer procurement of soya ..."