Gondi people - WikiHQ

The Gondi (Gōṇḍī, ) or Gond people, who refer to themselves as "Kōītōr" (Kōī, Kōītōr, ), are an ethnolinguistic group in India. Their native language, Gondi, belongs to the Dravidian family. They are spread over the states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, and Odisha. They are classified as a Scheduled Tribe for the purpose of India's system of reservation.

The Gond have formed many kingdoms of historical significance. Gondwana was the ruling kingdom in the Gondwana region of India. This includes the eastern part of the Vidarbha of Maharashtra. The Garha Kingdom includes the parts of Madhya Pradesh immediately to the north of it and parts of western Chhattisgarh. The wider region extends beyond these, also including parts of northern Telangana, western Odisha, and southern Uttar Pradesh.

Gondi is claimed to be related to the Telugu language. The 2011 Census of India recorded about 2.4 million speakers of Gondi as a macrolanguage and 2.91 million speakers of languages within the Gondi subgroup, including languages such as Maria (also known as Maadiya Gond). Many Gonds also speak regionally dominant languages such as Hindi, Marathi, Odia, and Telugu.

According to the 1971 census, the Gondi population was 5,653,422. By 1991, this had increased to 7,300,998, Gondi people, at the behest of the Chhattisgarh government, formed the Salwa Judum, an armed militant group, to fight the Naxalite insurgency. This was disbanded by order of the Supreme Court of India on 5 July 2011, however.

Etymology

The origin of the name Gond, used by outsiders, is still uncertain. Some believe the word to derive from the Dravidian kond, meaning hill, similar to the Khonds of Odisha or Konda-Doras of Andhra. The word gonda/gunda/gundar is used throughout South Asia to mean a thug and is said to be derived from this word.

Another theory, according to Vol. 3 of the Worldmark Encyclopedia of Cultures and Daily Life, is that the name was given to them by the Mughal dynasty of the 16th–18th centuries. It was the Mughals who first used the term "Gond", meaning "hill people", to refer to the group.

The Gonds call themselves Koitur (Kōītōr) or Koi (Kōī), which also has no definitive origin but is perhaps related to kō, meaning "mountain", other ethnonyms like Kui, Kuvi, Koya and Kubi (Konda endonym) are also said to be from it.

History

thumb|Percentage of Gondi tribes by districts in the 2011 census

The origins of the Gonds is unclear. Some researchers have claimed that the Gonds were a collection of disparate tribes that adopted a proto-Gondi language as a mother tongue from a class of rulers, originally speaking various pre-Dravidian languages. While there is an affinity between Gonds and Munda peoples, researchers point to a more complex event involving language shift through a Dravidian linguistic expansion, rather than a recent event of Gondi replacing a North Munda language, hence supporting distinct origins for these two groups.

R. V. Russell believed the Gonds came into Gondwana from the south: up the Godavari into Vidarbha, from there up the Indravati into Bastar, and up the Wardha and Wainganga into the Satpura Range. The remaining Gond zamindaris were absorbed into the Indian union upon independence.

During colonial rule, the Gonds were marginalised by colonial forest management practices. The Bastar rebellion of 1910, better known in the tribal belt as the bhumkal, was a partly successful armed struggle against colonial forest policy that denied the Madia and Muria Gonds of Bastar, along with other tribes in the region, access to the forest for their livelihoods. In the early 1920s, Komaram Bheem, a Gond leader from Adilabad in Hyderabad state, rebelled against the Nizam and sought a separate Gond raj. It was he who coined the well-known slogan jal, jangal, jameen ("water, forest, land") that has symbolised Adivasi movements since independence.

In 1916, Gondi intellectuals from various parts of Gondwana formed the Gond Mahasabha to protect Gondi culture from increasing outside influence. The organisation held meetings in 1931 and 1934 to discuss ways to preserve Gond culture from manipulation by outsiders, social norms the Gonds should have, and solidarity between the Gonds of different parts of Gondwana. Starting in the 1940s, various Gond leaders agitated for a separate state that would encompass the erstwhile territory of Gondwana, especially tribal areas of eastern Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Vidharbha, and Adilabad. The demand reached its peak in the early 1950s, when Heera Singh founded the Bharatiya Gondwana Sangh to agitate for statehood. Singh held many meetings throughout Gondwana and could mobilise 100,000 people between 1962 and 1963, but his movement had died down by the late 1960s and was never taken seriously by the Indian authorities. Other methods of agitation, including petitions and demands by various Gond organisations, were ignored by the state. In the 1990s, Heera Singh Markam and Kausalya Porte founded the Gondwana Ganatantra Party to fight for statehood. The Gond are also known as the Raj Gond. The term was widely used in the 1950s but has now become almost obsolete, probably because of the political eclipse of the Gond rajas.

Society

thumb|[[Komaram Bheem statue at the Kumuram Bheem Tribal Museum in Jodeghat]]

Gond society is divided into several exogamous patrilineal units known as sagas. The number depends on the region, with Gonds in the hills of Madhya Pradesh and the northern Nagpur plain having only two and those in the southern Nagpur plain and Adilabad having four. In Adilabad, these Sagas are called Yerwen, Sarwen, Siwen, and Nalwen, and their names refer to the number of ancestors for that saga. In Adilabad, there is a fifth saga, Sarpe saga, which for marriage purposes is linked with Sarwen, although their origin myths are different. According to Gond mythology, all sagas once lived in a single village but soon moved out and established individual villages. The names of these ancestral villages are preserved in culture and sometimes identified with present-day locations. The number of ancestors for each saga is its symbol, and on many ceremonial and ritual occasions, the number of involved animals, people, actions, or objects corresponds to that saga<nowiki/>'s number.

The saga exists mostly in the sphere of ritual and has no real political or organizational significance. The most visible sign of saga consciousness is in the worship of Persa Pen, although this occurs mainly at the clan level. All worshippers of the same Persa pen see themselves as agnatically related, and so any intermarriage or sexual relations between them is forbidden. Gonds use the term soira to refer to sagas whose members they can marry. who had their own local terms for the Sun, Moon, Milky Way, and constellations. Most of these ideas served as the basis for their timekeeping and calendrical activities.

thumb|150px|1928 painting of a Gond woman by [[M. V. Dhurandhar]]

thumb|150px|Gond art

thumb|Saila and Karma dance by Gonds

thumb|Dandari festival of Rajgonds, [[Adilabad]]

The Gondi language is spoken by almost 3 million people, mainly in the southern area of the Gond range. This area encompasses the southeastern districts of Madhya Pradesh, eastern Maharashtra, northern Telganana, and southern Chhattisgarh (mainly in the Bastar division). The language is related to Telugu. In the early 20th century, it was spoken by 1.5 million people, nearly all of whom were bilingual. At present, the language is only spoken by one fifth of Gonds and is dying out, even in its traditional linguistic range.

In Chhattisgarh, women perform the sua dance, which was named after the word for "parrot". It is performed after Diwali to honour Shiva and Parvati, representing the belief that the parrot will bring their sadness to their lovers.

Diwali is a major festival for Adilabad's Gond tribes, which they celebrate with the traditional Gussadi dance, donning peacock-feathered turbans, saffron attire, and joining in festive groups.

The Gondi people have their own version of the Ramayana, known as the Gond Ramayani, derived from oral folk legends. It consists of seven stories with Lakshmana as the protagonist, set after the main events of the Ramayana, where he finds a bride.

Religion

thumb|Traditional Gondi music performance

According to the 2011 census, there were 1,026,344 followers of the "Gondi" religion in India, with the majority residing in Madhya Pradesh (584,884), followed by Chhattisgarh (368,438), Maharashtra (66,857), Uttar Pradesh (3,419), and Jharkhand (2,419). The majority of Gond people still follow their own traditions of nature worship, but like many other tribes in India, their religion has been influenced by Brahminical Hinduism.

Many Gond people practice their own indigenous religion, Koyapunem, while some follow Sarnaism. Pola, Phag, and Dassera are some of their major festivals.

The Gonds worship ancestral deities known as Angadevs, which Brahminical Hindus claim are a representation of the goddess Mahakali. There were seven groups of Angadevs, rescued by Pari Kupar Lingo from the Kachchargardh caves. In one version, there were twenty-eight Angadevs, and in another, there were thirty-three.

In the second version, the Angadevs, or Saga Deva, were the children of the goddess Mata Kali Kankali after she ate a flower given to her by a sage. They were raised in Raitad Jungo's ashram, and while they were playing, they met the gods Shambu and Gaura. Gaura offered them food, but because they were annoyed by the children's mischief, Shambu and Gaura imprisoned them in the Kachchargardh caves. For twelve years, the children relied on a pond and a mythical bird who provided them food to survive. Kali Kankali pleaded to Shambu to release her children, but he rejected her pleas. Raitad Jungo then asked Pari Kupar Lingo to help him free the children, and Pari Kupar Lingo approached the bard Hirasuka Patalir. Patalir played music on his kingri, and the children were filled with strength to push the boulder blocking the caves from the outside world. Patalir was then crushed by the boulder. Ever since, the Kachchargardh caves became a site of pilgrimage, and Kali Kankali became one of the dharmagurus of the Gondi people.

A typical Gond reaction to death has been described as one of anger, because they believe death is caused by demons. Gonds usually bury their dead, together with their worldly possessions, but due to partial Hinduization, their kings were occasionally cremated, as per Vedic practices. Hinduization has led to cremation becoming more common.

Koyapunem

The native Gond religion, Koyapunem (meaning "the way of nature"), was founded by Pari Kupar Lingo. It is also known as Gondi Punem, or "the way of the Gondi people". Pari Kupar Lingo is also called Padda Devudu, i.e., Shiva.

In Gond folk tradition, adherents worship a high god known as Baradeo, whose alternate names are Bhagavan, Kupar Lingo, Badadeo, and Persa Pen. Baradeo oversees activities of lesser gods such as clan and village deities as well as ancestors.

Per Gond religious beliefs, their ancestor Rupolang Pahandi Pari Kupar Lingo was born as the son of the chief Pulsheev, during the reign of Sambhu-Gaura, several thousand years ago. Kupar Lingo became the ruler of the Koya race and established the Gondi Punem, a code of conduct and philosophy that the Gondi practice. He gathered thirty-three disciples to teach the Gondi Punem to the distant lands of the koyamooree.

A principle in the Gond religion is munjok, which is non-violence, cooperation, and self-defense. Another part of Gond belief is salla and gangra, which represent action and reaction, superficially similar to the concept of karma in Hinduism. To prevent people from destroying themselves in conflict and discord, they are supposed to live under Phratrial society. Among the beliefs related to Phratrial society are the need to defend the community from enemies, working together and being in harmony with nature, and being allowed to eat animals (but not those representing a totem).

Like village deity worship in South India, Gonds believe their clan and village deities have the capability of possession. A person possessed by the spirit ceases to have any responsibility for their actions. Gonds also believe disease is caused by spirit possession.

Many Gonds worship Ravana, whom they consider to be the tenth of their people, the ancestor-king of one of their four lineages and the eightieth lingo (great teacher). On Dussehra, Gondi inhabitants of Paraswadi in Gadchiroli district carry an image of Ravana riding an elephant in a procession to worship him and "protest" the burning of his effigies.

Gonds venerate plants and animals, especially the saja tree. In some places, death is associated with a (Terminalia elliptica) tree. Stones representing souls of the dead, or , are kept in a at the foot of a saja tree. When there is no specific shrine for the village mother goddess, the saja tree is her abode. In addition, the Penkara, or holy circle of the clan, is under this tree. Gonds in Seoni believe Baradeo lives in a saja tree. The Mahua plant, whose flowers produce a liquor considered purifying, is also revered. In many Gond weddings, the bride and groom circle a post made out of a Mahua tree during the ceremony, and the Gonds of Adilabad perform the first ceremonies of the year when Mahua flowers bloom.

The Government of Uttar Pradesh had classified them as a Scheduled Caste, but by 2007, they were one of several groups that was redesignated as Scheduled Tribes. As of 2017, that tribal designation applies only to certain districts, not the entire state. The 2011 Census of India for Uttar Pradesh showed the Gond population at 21,992.

In popular culture

Gondi people have been portrayed in the 2017 Amit V. Masurkar film Newton and in S.S. Rajamouli's 2022 blockbuster RRR, in which N. T. Rama Rao Jr. plays a fictionalised version of the Gond tribal leader Komaram Bheem.

Some people have speculated that the plot of the 2021 film Skater Girl is based on the life of Gond skateboarder Asha Gond. The film's writer and director, Manjari Makijany, has denied this, however.

Notable people

Komaram Bheem, freedom fighter
Gunda Dhur, tribal leader
Ramji Gond, tribal chief
Asha Gond, skateboarder
Hridayshah, king of Garha
Ajanbahu Jatbasha, founder of the Gonds of Deogarh dynasty
Motiravan Kangali, linguist and author
Kanaka Raju, gusadi dancer
Bakht Buland Shah, Rajgond ruler
Dalpat Shah, 49th ruler of the Garha Kingdom.
Raghunath Shah, freedom fighter
Sangram Shah, king of Garha
Bhajju Shyam, painter
Jangarh Singh Shyam, painter
Venkat Shyam, artist
Chakradhar Singh, raja of Raigarh State
Karunkar Singh, freedom fighter
Nareshchandra Singh, first Scheduled Tribe Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh
Veer Narayan Singh, activist
Durga Bai Vyom, artist

Footnotes

References

External links

This article includes material from the 1995 public domain Library of Congress Country Study on India.