MADIA GOND

Scholars believe Gonds settled in Gondwana, now known as eastern MadhyaPradesh, between the ninth and thirteenth centuriesAD. Muslim writers describe a rise of Gond states after the fourteenth century. Gond dynasties ruled in four kingdoms (Garha-Mandla, Deogarh, Chanda, and Kherla) in central India between the sixteenth and mid-eighteenth centuries.

Maratha power swept into Gond land in the 1740s. They overthrew Gondrajas(princes) and seized most of their territory. Some Gondzamindaris(estates) survived until recently. However, Gonds are similar to many tribal groups today in that they face severe economic hardships. Although some Gond groups own a great deal of land, others are classified as Scheduled Tribes, which means they need special social and economic help.

FOLKLORE

Hereditary bards and professional storytellers called Pardhans tell stories about Gond legends and myths. This makes for a rich oral tradition. In these stories, it is said that when Gond gods were born, their mother abandoned them. The goddess Parvati rescued them, but her consort Sri Shambhu Mahadeo (Shiva) kept them captive in a cave. Pahandi Kapar Lingal, a Gond hero, who received help from the goddess Jangu Bai, rescued them from the cave. They came out of the cave in four groups, thus laying the foundations of the basic fourfold division of Gond society. Lingal also is responsible for creating a Gond kinship system and establishing a group of great Gond gods.

RITES OF PASSAGE

Gonds protect pregnant women against spells and evil influences, and perform several rituals after a baby is born. A mother's brother generally names a baby boy, while the father's sister names a girl. Children grow up as part of a family, clan, andphratry(one of the four main divisions of Gond society), and gradually learn the ways of their people. Both boys and girls help guard family crops from birds and monkeys. Males undergo a ritual shaving of the beard, mustache, and eyebrows as a sign of adulthood. Girls are considered full-grown at their first menstruation.

Gonds cremate or bury their dead. Children, unmarried persons, and individuals dying an inauspicious death (for instance, in an epidemic) are buried without much ceremony. Gonds believe humans have a life force and a spirit. On death, the life force is reincarnated into another earthly existence, but the spirit remains in the other world. Gonds perform death rituals to help the spirit move into the other world and to ease its acceptance by other clan spirits. This rite, known askarun, must be done to fulfill an obligation to the deceased. Memorial pillars honor the dead. Gonds believe ancestral Spirits watch over the living, punish offenders, and guard Gond communities.

LIVING CONDITIONS

Each Gond village has a headman (known by local names such asmukhia, mahji,orpatel) and a village council(panchayat)chosen by the villagers. The council consists of the headman, priest, village watchman, and four or five elders. It helps keep the village running smoothly and upholds Gond customs. Villages also have service castes such as Ahir (cowherds), Agaria (blacksmiths), Dhulia (drummers), and Pardhan (bards and singers).

A typical Gond village has several hamlets. Each consists of homesteads that house extended families. Houses are usually built of mud and thatch. They consist of a living room, kitchen, veranda, a special room for women to use while menstruating, and a shrine for clan gods.

Gond houses contain cots and a few wooden stools; mats are used for sitting and sleeping.

FOOD

The staples of the Gond diet are two millets known askodoandkutki. These are either boiled to a broth or cooked to a dry cereal. Broth is preferred for the first two meals of the day and the dry cereal is eaten at night, often with vegetables. Vegetables are either grown in gardens or collected from forests along with roots and tubers. Honey is also gathered from forests.

Rice is a luxury item that Gonds enjoy during feasts and festivals. Most Gonds like meat. Animals sacrificed at ceremonies are eagerly consumed, and animals hunted in the forest supplement the diet. Gonds must abstain from the flesh of animals that are their clan totems.

Gonds grow tobacco for smoking and for celebrations make liquor from the mahua tree.

EDUCATION

Literacy (percentage of the population who can read and write) among Gonds varies from just over 25 percent in Maharashtra to less than 15 percent in Madhya Pradesh. Among females in Madhya Pradesh, it drops to about 4 percent. Few children attend school regularly, and girls rarely continue past primary school.

SOCIAL PROBLEMS

Gonds face problems typical of tribal peoples throughout South Asia and much of the world. They suffer exploitation and discrimination, and often are forced to live on less productive lands in remote areas. They are experiencing increasing pressure on their land, a rise in the number of landless laborers, and high levels of poverty. Lack of education and low levels of literacy further reduce economic opportunity. The social institutions of the Gonds have been undertaken here in relation to functional aspects of the social organizations having both vertical and horizontal dimensions. The social organization primarily deals with the significant grouping of individuals. Social organization usually has been taken as synonym for social structure. The Gond community was a vast and widely spread. It was divided into number of sections which differed in their nature. These sections were ordinarily endogamous and consisted of clans that were grouped into exogamous phratries within them.

GOND WOMEN

Status of Gond Women In a Gond customary society, the place of a woman was practically that of equality with the other sex. She lived her

life shoulder to shoulder with the male sharing in all work, including earning of a livelihood. Most of the domestic work centred round her. She looked after the children, reared livestock, cooked food for the family. In all the major issues in the family, the husband consulted his wife and often honoured her opinions.  A woman was excluded from certain ritual observances. Despite all these, the Gond woman enjoyed a respectable status in the society because she played an important role both in production and reproduction process. However, in present days her position is deteriorating with the changing globalised circumstances.

C. Concept of Death The Gonds had their own concept of death. The funeral rites were part of the metaphysical significance that the death occupied an important occurrence in the birth-life-death cycle. Initially the burial was only practiced by the Gonds, however the ruling classes had started cremation and since then both burial and cremation practiced.  The funeral rites related more to the passage of the soul to the world of spirits. However, there were special rights for uncertain deaths that occurred in Gond society. Among the Gond mythology, the dead were believed to be greatly interested in the affairs of the living. There was a keen desire to maintain contact and to solicit the presence of the dead to minimize the difficulties of the living, and to help to bring rain and aid the crops to thrive. In the underworld the soul, enjoyed the same status as they were on the earth and led the same desire for thing they owned here.  Therefore, it was customary to offer worldly possession of man either inside or on the top of graveyard when a person died. He was also remembered on festive occasions. Thus the Gonds believed in life after death.

Hitherto it has become customary to assume safely that the interaction led by the urbanization, modernization, Hinduism, etc, after independence has resulted in a great deal of change in the traditional life of the Gonds. In urban areas now it is difficult to distinguish between the Gonds and the non-Gonds at social gatherings. The Gonds have suitably accommodated a number of things in their household articles, human attires, food habits and personal hygiene‟s. Their endeavour to adapt new has made significant changes in their traditions, customs, values, and religious beliefs and rites, in the light of the Hindu way of life. Once upon a time the Gonds were the most cultured community. However, many of them are living in poverty today. They have lost their royalty to paramount powers. They were good looking, happy and hearty and regular in their habits. Though financially not very sound but they managed their affairs without getting indebted. They observed perfect gender equality and attempted to keep their tribe widow free. No highhandness is found in their behaviour. They were docile, modest, honest and painstaking. Loyalty to their tribe, traditions, systems, organizations is praiseworthy and worth to be followed by elite class. Still the Gonds posses the same spirit and truthfulness as it was in the past. What great tribute would be given to these tribes?