A chaupal or chopal, is a community building or space in the rural areas of North India

North India

North India, known natively as Uttar Bhārat or Shumālī Hindustān , is a loosely defined region in the northern part of India. The exact meaning of the term varies by usage...

 and Pakistan

Pakistan

Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...

. 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

Neem

Azadirachta indica is a tree in the mahogany family Meliaceae. It is one of two species in the genus Azadirachta, and is native to India growing in tropical and semi-tropical regions. Its fruits and seeds are the source of neem oil...

, banyan

Banyan

A banyan is a fig that starts its life as an epiphyte when its seeds germinate in the cracks and crevices on a host tree...

 or pipal fig

Sacred Fig

The Sacred Fig, Ficus religiosa, or Bo-Tree , Peepal is a species of banyan fig native to India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, southwest China and Indochina...

 tree. In larger villages, the chaupal may be an elaborate structure that also doubles as a community guesthouse (or mehmaan khana

Mehmaan khana

A Mehmaan Khana, is a drawing room where guests are entertained in many houses in North India, Bangladesh and Pakistan. Alternative names that are used include Hujra and Baithak. These rooms were a typical feature of many Mughal era havelis palaces and mansions in the region...

).

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

Exogamy

Exogamy is a social arrangement where marriage is allowed only outside of a social group. The social groups define the scope and extent of exogamy, and the rules and enforcement mechanisms that ensure its continuity. In social studies, exogamy is viewed as a combination of two related aspects:...

, 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.

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

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." 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.