Demon, Man and the Beast

*This story is based on current situation of Adivasi Tribal people in India – Amogh*

I was travelling through the green forests, farms and amusing breezes to the Hemalkasa village in Gadchiroli district, by a private transport. This district has been declared as adivasi district, due to forty per cent population of adivasi tribe people in this district. The word ‘Adi-vasi’ means ‘original inhabitants’ as they are residing in Indian subcontinent for thousands of years. These people are honest and simple. The adivasi area has least cases of murder, theft and domestic violence as compared to other parts of India. Sexual assaults or abuses never happen in this area. Police says if out of some personal rifts a murder takes place, they don’t have to go and search for the murderer; the murderer himself comes and surrenders for the crime.

Adivasi people are very artistic and very expert in music, making of musical instruments, craftsmanship, carvings and making hunting weaponry. Their doors and walls of the homes are full of carvings and paintings. They make colors from rice, leaves, flowers and fruits which they acquire from forest. They have a group dance they call as ‘Rela’ where men and women both participate, signifying male and female equality. Drummers take the central place and others form a ring around them. There is a particular pattern in which they hold each other to form a ring. They place right hand on the shoulder of the person at right and left hand in the waist of the person at left. Every person in the round ring sings the songs which is mainly admiration of the nature around them. They perform this dance mainly when there is harvest of the crops, some auspicious full moons, child births and marriages. They perform this dance throughout the year except in rainy season.

Their culture is prodigious like the mountains, deep like the rivers and beautiful like the bio diversity found here. The Chinese Buddhist monk, traveler and explorer Hsuan Tsang has described the richness and prosperity at an adivasi fort Manikgarh in his scripts. There are mainly three adivasi tribes in Gadchiroli district. The north zone has Pradhan tribe, south zone has Madia Tribe and almost everywhere there is Gond tribe. Six centuries ago a Gond king constructed many temples with mesmerizingly beautiful architecture by Gond adivasi workers. There is a little difference in their language, dressing and rituals otherwise they have all the same life style.

They mainly worship nature. ‘Persa Pen’ is their highest god, which they believe has the essence in everything living and non-living around. They eat fruits only when they ripe and fall down to ground. They worship every unexplained force in nature like lightening, fire, sky, earth, river, mountains, sun, moon, and animals like snake, scorpion and tigers. They offer animal flesh, toddy and other intoxicants in the prayers. They believe in Tantra – Mantra. They also worship the adivasi freedom fighter and martyr named Birsa Munda whom they treat like a God.

Tattooing is seen as auspicious for women and tattoos can be seen on their lower legs, arms and faces. Women use ornaments made of animal nails, tooth, hoofs, beads, bamboo, wood obtained from forest. The women wear a long cloth which they wrap around their waist and upper body, which is topped by a blouse. Men wear simple attire as compared to women. They wear a white cloth on their head like turban and a long white cloth wrapped around their legs and tied on waist they call as ‘Dhoti’.

Everything useful at home is made from wood or bamboo. Different pots for keeping fish and grains, compartments for hens and also hats are made from bamboo. They use bottle gourds for carrying and keeping water, milk or other liquids like alcohol. Animal traps, hunting tools like axe, spear, bow and arrow are also made from wood and bamboo. They make musical instruments from mud, wood, animal skin, bamboo and bottle gourd. They are very expert in drums and pipes.

Marriages and child births are celebrated with great joy here. Generally a marriage takes three to five days. Bride and her relatives come to grooms village for marriage. They also bring food, clothes and gifts with them. There is no concept of dowry, in fact if bride is poor to carry the expenses of marriage the groom comes forward to help her. On the first day they worship the pavilion in which the marriage is going to take place. They put a wood piece of Mahua tree in the center of the pavilion and carve the names of bride and groom over it. They also carve sun and moon and other auspicious objects on the wood piece. Then they offer their prayers. The marriage takes place on the second day where the bride and grooms interchange the garlands of flowers and all the relatives cheer them. The third to fifth day is of celebration where people perform Rela dance and delicious food is served to everyone.

Adivasis are practicing organic farming by using tools made of wood, animal skin, and iron. For centuries they are using axe, spear bow – arrow, and catapult for hunting and protection from wild animals. In 1972 a law was made by the government of India for wildlife protection, which not only banned hunting but also banned farming in forest land. This badly affected the life of adivasis as they were completely dependent on these two. The children started to become malnourished, and elders remained sick. It was this time when some adivasis called for a revolt and formed an armed group of people who oppose government policies, they were called Maoists or Naxals. After some years when the situation of naxals escalated government relaxed some of the laws for adivasis, but naxals still exist.

I reached Hemalkasa village and I stepped out of the transport vehicle. Now I started to walk towards the home of my adivasi friend Balsu. Today there is a celebration of twelfth full moon and I was invited to be a part of it. There is going to be Rela dance and a drama.

As I reached Balsu’s house I called him, so he came out and greeted me.

“Hello Suresh how are you? Please come in side!” said Balsu.

I shook hand with Balsu and said, “I am fine. Hope you are doing well!”

I removed my shoes and went inside. I sat on a stool made of bamboo. He offered me a drink made of toddy, water and sugar they call ‘Nira’.

“So let’s go for the celebration,” said Balsu after I finished the drink.

“Ok, let’s go! Thanks for the drink it was really refreshing!” I said.

There is a huge hall made in adivasi villages called as ‘Ghotul’. Ghotul is a place where various festivals are celebrated. It is also used for meetings of men and women of the age of marriage. Different men and women come here and meet each other, if they like each other they decide to stay together till they know each other properly before marriage. After that they take permission from parents and get married. This tradition is not seen anywhere else in India.

When we reached the ghotul, there were people already present in their traditional outfits. The drummers were ready with their drums. And then all the people gathered in the central ground in the ghotul. Drummers started drumming and dancing and others gathered in a ring around them. People started to sing and dance. Their dance comprised mainly of footsteps moved in a specific pattern so that they keep moving anti clock wise around the drummer. Balsu also took part in the dance and I sat beside on a bench so as to witness the sheer pleasure, cheer and happiness of the people who were singing and dancing.

Balsu is the only person highly educated in this adivasi community. Most adivasis drop out early from the schools, but Balsu continued to study and did bachelors in law. If there is any problem with government officials he goes to intervene and helps in legal process. I know him since I came to visit Gadchiroli in my research fellowship for the subject of ‘development in conflict-prone central India.’

In my childhood when in was in seventh, there were eight to ten adivasi families outside my village. They used to have a festival of worshipping their highest god Persa Pen. I used to wonder why we don’t have the same festival. While growing up other people would use sentences like, ‘why are you dressed like an adivasi?’ I came to an impression that adivasi meant backward and illiterate people.

My father passed away when I was in ninth. At that time and after I was fond of history, but my family members forced me to take science subjects to study. After twelfth I wanted to be a journalist, so I used to read a lot about political debates. My family asked me to do a graduation course so as to get a good job, because after my father I was the eldest and hence should bear family responsibility.

So for further two years I went to Nagpur city for doing Diploma in Education. Here if I told anybody that I was from Gadchiroli area, people would think I am stupid and timid. One of my batch mates asked me whether adivasi people use tree leaves after they pass stools. It was that time when I came to know about how people think of adivasis. But I was third topper and was good in debates. I also won them a couple of awards in inter university debate competitions.

After my diploma when I was just nineteen and half, I got a job in government school in Goa with an amazing pay. After a very strong rift with my family members, I resigned from the job and went to Tata Institute for Social Studies for pursuing my higher studies.

It was at this institute that I had a lot of clarity about conceptual ideas, what I had actually seen about adivasi people and what people used to assume about them. This study helped me to get a deeper understanding about adivasis.

My family members were worried about me never earning too much money again. But they never stopped me from working for adivasi people. I joined the group ‘People’s Developmental Front against Relocation.’ Now, I manage to get some money through trainings, lectures, some translation work. And you don’t have to spend so much when you work with people!

For about one and half hour the Rela dance was going on. It finished with high speed beats of the drums, cheer and clapping form everyone. When people dispersed one person out of the performers came ahead and declared that there is going to be a drama with title, ‘Demon, Man and the Beast.’ So Balsu and I sat on the bench available and started to watch the drama as it started.

Now different drummers started to beat the drum in a slow and specific rhythm, which served as background music. In the beginning a man, woman and a child along with a goat, a hen and a bamboo pot came in front and sat for worshipping the village goddess. They were in their traditional attires and looked like a family. As they were doing their worship of village goddess, the beats of the drum started to become fast and loud.

Then a character entered the stage who wore an animalistic face mask and a long and curved tail. The character starts to make frightening sounds and roam around the family. The family got scared and tried to run away from the character. The character follows them, drives them away from their home and resides at the place of their worship.

The man said in his native language that this is some sort of hungry beast and has driven us out of our home land. 

Suddenly the beats of the drum change they slow down and change in the rhythm. Now another character enters the stage with a human face mask, and covered with a white cloth from top to bottom. There were sleeves and pants in the cloth so that it can make movements with the hands and legs. It comes on the stage and starts to laugh aloud. It moves closer to the family and asks what the problem is. The family was already frightened and asks him who he is and can he help them in getting rid of the beast. The character laughs again and tells the family that he is a demon gifted with special powers and is capable of driving the beast away.

Then the demon approaches the beast and they both circle each other around so as to challenge each other. Then there is a fierce fight between the demon and the beast. Sometimes the beast looks powerful and other times the demon looks powerful. This whole time the beats of the drums keep changing from fast to slow to fast again. Then the beast and the demon both get injuries and they occupy two different ends of the stage.

Demon asks the family to offer him some food, because he is tired and the beast is still not dead. So the family offers them the pot they had. The demon eats the food inside the pot and gets the energy back. Then he attacks the beast again but now the beast also retaliates with equal might. Again there is a fight and both of them get injuries.

For second time the demon asks the family for food, the family offers the demon the hen. After eating the hen the demon goes to fight the beast and the same thing is repeated.

This time the demon asks for the goat. This continues in the same manner but neither the beast dies nor the demands of the demon end.

Lastly the adivasi family pray to their village goddess to appear and destroy both the demon and the beast.

So the third character, a woman dressed like a goddess comes on the stage. With her arrival music of flutes along with the drums start playing in the background. She comes forward and with her spiritual power destroys both demon and the beast. The adivasi family becomes happy and thus the drama ends.

This drama was very near to the actual picture of the adivasi tribe here.

The hungry beast represents the government, which makes laws that affect the adivasi tribes. The government is trying to take the forests for mining and trying to relocate the adivasis. But adivasis are the natives to the land and they will not leave, as forests are everything for them.

On the other hand the demon represents the naxals. It happened that the naxals came and burnt seventy six trucks used in the mining process. No adivasi had to do anything with burning the trucks, but police went town to town and beat random people and arrested innocent ones.

After which the naxals came and killed an adivasi saying that he was a police informer. Later the naxals asked for apology and said that killing the man was a mistake and the man was innocent.

After the incident there were two women missing from the town. When people approached police they refused to take any action. After two days the women came back, and people gathered around them. They alleged that special anti-naxal force men arrested them on suspicion of connection to naxals, and then they sexually assaulted the two women for two days.

Many people from different villages gathered around the police station and asked them to file the complaint and to send the women for medical test. Initially police kept refusing to take action, but after the crowd of people reached around four thousand, they filed the complaint and said they will send the women for medical test. The women again went missing for next day and police said that they have sent them for medical test. After some days there was a report by higher police official that the case was investigated and the medical test came clean. No assault had been happened with the women. They also said that the women are trying to malign the image of the police.

When the two women returned again, they said they were taken in custody and were made to wash their clothes before the medical test.

The adivasis are living with the forests without destroying it. They are living in the balance of nature. But the government and naxals are both trying to own the resources. The adivasis are being stripped of their basic human rights by both the governemrnt and the naxals.

It feels like the so called mainstream has lot to learn from the adivasis and not the other way around. They are the original inhabitants of India and they are being exploited of their resources. They still believe in their mother nature and they believe that they will get their rights back, if they fight legally with the help of people like Balsu.

I have considered the objective of my life to work for adivasis, but it’s not me who started the work. People were working from the beginning itself, I just joined them, learned from them and started working with them.

As the drama ended we started to walk our ways back to home to be ready for a new day with a new challenge!