Tuesday, March 14, 2006
Life in Bastar
After a quarter of a century I am moving around the heartland of India. And this time my association is a true association in the sense that I am spending some time with the people here. Trying to find out the progress India made during last 25 years.
Daily I am traveling some 80 odd kilometers on a borrowed two-wheeler. I had to borrow the two-wheeler as I needed a conveyance of my own and hiring a cab would have definitely given me some importance to the local populace but I would have missed the opportunity to move around with them freely.
Presently I have camped in a village called Badlaband some 30 kms from Jagdalpur. Jagdalpur is the headquarter of Bastar District. Geographically it is situated in the southern part of Chhattisgarh state bordering Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, and Maharashtra.
The history of Bastar dates back to the Ramayana period. This is the Dandakaranya through which Lord Rama has passed during his period of exile. Bastar was a princely state during Britsih Period and was merged with Indian union on 1948.
70% of the population belongs to tribals. Presently it is the hot belt of Naxalite movement. Its strategic geographical location makes it ideal position for hideout of the extremists.
My memory of any tribal area is etched with picture of tribal girls in-group walking down the road with baskets on their heads. This is the scene I have seen 30 years back and also seen in innumerable paintings of village artists. Till date nothing has changed at least in this area.
Anywhere I went I saw the same scene. There is an 8 km. Stretch of jungle road between ASNA and Badlaband. Whenever I passed the forest there were always women in the forest picking up firewood and dry leaves. At morning, while I used to drive out of the city, the common scene was the group of women walking to the city for search of work. On the road they are there as laborers in road repairing work. They used to be the main bread earner for their family and looks like they remain so. You always find roadside shanties where women selling ‘Tadi’ – country liquor made of out of rice. After all these apparently nothing have changed, the populace remains same as they used to be. Their lifestyle also remains same.
Daily I am traveling some 80 odd kilometers on a borrowed two-wheeler. I had to borrow the two-wheeler as I needed a conveyance of my own and hiring a cab would have definitely given me some importance to the local populace but I would have missed the opportunity to move around with them freely.
Presently I have camped in a village called Badlaband some 30 kms from Jagdalpur. Jagdalpur is the headquarter of Bastar District. Geographically it is situated in the southern part of Chhattisgarh state bordering Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, and Maharashtra.
The history of Bastar dates back to the Ramayana period. This is the Dandakaranya through which Lord Rama has passed during his period of exile. Bastar was a princely state during Britsih Period and was merged with Indian union on 1948.
70% of the population belongs to tribals. Presently it is the hot belt of Naxalite movement. Its strategic geographical location makes it ideal position for hideout of the extremists.
My memory of any tribal area is etched with picture of tribal girls in-group walking down the road with baskets on their heads. This is the scene I have seen 30 years back and also seen in innumerable paintings of village artists. Till date nothing has changed at least in this area.
Anywhere I went I saw the same scene. There is an 8 km. Stretch of jungle road between ASNA and Badlaband. Whenever I passed the forest there were always women in the forest picking up firewood and dry leaves. At morning, while I used to drive out of the city, the common scene was the group of women walking to the city for search of work. On the road they are there as laborers in road repairing work. They used to be the main bread earner for their family and looks like they remain so. You always find roadside shanties where women selling ‘Tadi’ – country liquor made of out of rice. After all these apparently nothing have changed, the populace remains same as they used to be. Their lifestyle also remains same.
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