The Gonds

The Gonds with a population of about 8 million constitute the largest tribal group of India. The spatial distribution of Gonds has been shown in Fig. 13.7 They are spread over Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Bihar, and West Bengal. Their main concentration is in forest and hilly areas between the Vidhyans and Satpura. Their physical traits are dark complexion, flat nose, thick lips, straight hair, and short stature. Their language is Gondi which belongs to the Austric family. They live in small villages of 20-30 families and build their houses along the east west street on both sides. Most of them are agricultural labourers or marginal sedentary farmers. Some of them like Dhimar and Kewats are dependent on fishing, while the Rawats are cattle keepers.

The Gonds maintain Ghotals (youth-house). They practice and participate in music and dance. They also provide security to the village in the night. It is like a club, where both unmarried boys and girls sleep in separate apartments at night and carry on love affairs which culminate in matrimonial relationship. Such affairs are kept secret till their marriage materialises. But it is common knowledge that hardly any girl remains virgin before she is locked in nuptial bond. In fact, the pre-marital sex relations are condoned by the community, but after marriage, sexual fidelity is strictly observed by both husband and wife. They practice endogamous marriage. Polygamy is also in use. Divorce is quite common. They believe in the animistic religion and worship their family deity.

The Gonds are hard working, honest and treat theft as a serious crime. They are, however, superstitious and believe in sorcery and black magic.

Among the Bhils marriage is not only universal, but also compulsory and the unmarried men and women are looked down upon by the society. There is ample freedom for marriage; boys and girls can choose their partners and later on get social approbation by the village community. However, the Thakur Bhils of Nimar do not permit such liberty and prefer prior engagement in matrimonial relations.

Divorce can be sought by either party with the consent of the village Panchayat. Child marriage is conspicuous by its absence.

Bhils are animists by nature as reflected in their folk music and art. They believe in rebirth and migration of soul. They stress on good conduct for their salvation, they also believe in evil spirits, ghosts and black magic. The services of Badva (magician) are sought for riddance from disease. They also believe in superstitions. The ladies do a lot of tatooning. They decorate the walls of houses with folk pictorial designs/sketches. They take great interest in dance and music and arrange Nautanki for community celebrations.

The society is basically patriarchal. The families have great reverence for gods and goddesses. They also believe in Hindu gods like Hanuman, Ram, and Shiva besides,‘Baba Deo’ and ‘Ghata Deo’.

They generally live in small hamlets and construct their houses with bamboos. The Bhils make pretentious houses and take care in their maintenance for nuclear families.