The Tribes of Odisha
August 9 is International Day of the World's Indigenous People

S Balakrishnan *

Perhaps India owes much of its rich cultural heritage (both tangible such as arts & crafts and intangible such as folklore, tradition, language, etc.) to its indigenous people, the tribal population, the Sons of the Soil. Among all the states of India, Odisha is said to have the largest number of tribal groups - as many as 62! Tribal population-wise also Odisha ranks third in the country (2011 census).

It was my bad luck that I could not visit the tribal belt of Odisha during my three year stint there (1980-83). I very much wanted to see in person their colourful and unique way of life but with a pittance of salary this never materialized.

The monthly gross salary that the Central Government job gave me then was just around 900 rupees, i.e., Rs. 30 for every day! The tribal belt is far away from Cuttack where I lived - a minimum of 200 kms to a maximum of 600 kms distance away.

With the poor transport services of those days such long distance travel was unthinkable. But looking back I regret having really missed a golden chance; my YMCA room-mate Jacob Oommen was the sales representative of MRF tyres.

He used to travel widely to all the nooks & corners of Orissa for canvassing. I could have easily hitch-hiked on his Bullet and visited the tribal areas. Really stupid of me to have missed this free trip!

A long wait later, in the year 2018, I had the chance to see the lifestyle of all the Odisha tribes at one place – at the Tribal Mela in Bhubaneswar. But it was only a sample of each tribe’s house and garden with their implements, utensils, handloom and handicrafts, food stalls, forest produce, etc. Something is better than nothing at all, I convinced myself.

But the mela was too over crowded with pushing & jostling. It was surprising that Odisha people themselves were so keen to visit the Tribal Mela. But at the same time it was funny to see people mostly buying just brooms (jhadu) and nothing else at the mela! We could not wait for the Tribal artistes to perform because we were tired of the day’s travel from the Buddhist sites of Lalitagiri-Ratnagiri-Udyagiri.

Adding to this was my wife’s stubbornness in not permitting me to buy any tribal handicraft but only click them. A consolation is an elephant lamp stand bought in 1983. It is a ‘dokhra’ tribal handicraft that I bought for 60 rupees.

Remember, 60 rupees was my two days salary then. But now the elephant lamp stand could be worth 1000s of rupees. Yet, I would not part with this favourite collection even for a few lakhs. Did you say a crore? Oh, then let me think over.

Tired and upset because of the heavy crowd, we returned to our Home Stay lodging. I felt we should have visited it during day time and not in the evening, but our tight schedule did not permit a re-visit.

It was an excellent job of replicating tribal dwellings! Odisha’s tribal belt is spread in the undivided Koraput district (which now is divided into four districts), plus the districts of Keonjhar, Mayurbhanja and Sundergarh. The tribes mostly live in the Eastern Ghat hill range that runs in north-south direction.

As per 2011 census, Odisha’s tribal population is 95,90,756; of this males count 47,27,732 and females 48,63,024. They constitute 22.85% of Odisha’s total population. Literacy rate among the tribals is 52.24%. Names of some tribal groups might sound strange to us – Bonda/Banda, Chenchu, Dal, Gond, Ho (this sounds like a N-E tribe!), Holva, Juang, Kol, Munda, Omanatya, Oraon, Santal, Paroja, Saora, Koya, and so on.

Odisha Tourism Development Corporation (OTDC) organizes a specialized tour to explore the unique culture of different tribes of Odisha; it is a long tour of 15 days & 14 nights. What I missed in 1980s, I hope to avail in 2020s. Or is it just a foolish dream of an old crank?

On 23 December 1994, the United Nations General Assembly decided, in its resolution 49/214, that the Day of the World’s Indigenous People shall be observed on 9 August every year. The date marks the day of the first meeting, in 1982, of the UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations.