[ad_1] The first pot of rice newly harvested during October-November is never eaten straight away in Koraput. Before families gather around the meal, a portion is offered to the village deity. Around five to six months later, the next farming season begins with prayers for rain, while wooden ploughs, cattle and seeds are honoured in … Read more
[ad_1] Jagdish Hansda has faint memories of the village where he grew up. “Back then, there used to be nothing here except us Adivasis, our fields, jungles and wildlife,” said Hansda, who is now in his late seventies. The village, Jhinjirguttu, was in what was then Bihar, and now falls within Jharkhand. “Some Mulvasi communities … Read more
[ad_1] There is an uneasy calm in Kuradiphasa village at the foothills of the Gandhamardhan Hills. “It is the calm before the storm,” says Himanjali Das, who belongs to the indigenous Kondh tribe. Wearing a t-shirt and trousers, a watch strapped to her wrist, the youth leader in her 20s leans on her steel-blue two-wheeler … Read more