Who are the Bhils? Sidebar on India's little known
indigenous people. Sidebar. 550 words. Part 2 of three.
By ANNE McILROY
Southam News
THE NARMADA VALLEY, India For thousands of years
India's tribal people have lived on the banks of river they
worship as the mother god.
They are indigenous people in an ancient land the
Bhils, Bhilalas and other tribals whose lives have depended on a
river that flows from central India to the Arabian Sea. In all
India, there are more than 50 million tribals who aren't part of
the caste system, follow their own religions and speak their own
languages.
``These are our village gods,'' two young Bhil men,
speaking through a translator, say as they brush dry leaves from
three smooth stones.
Hugh Brody, an anthropologist, film-maker and writer
who has worked extensively with many of Canada's native peoples,
says the tribals in the 200 villages along the Narmada river are
not one single culture, but a mosaic.
He has visited many of the villages some two days
walk from the nearest market. He is amazed that in the heart of
one of India's most industrialized states there is completely
non-technical agriculture. Farmers who use only implements they
make themselves, and the power generated by humans and animals.
A visit to one village coincided with a ceremony that
happens once every five years. In the absolute darkness, a shaman
became possessed by a god, which spoke through him with a high
-pitched voice.
``You have a sense of being a long, long way from the
hotel in the city, even though you are not,'' says Brody. Baroda,
the nearest big city is a three-hour drive from some of the
closest villages. Others can take a few days walk from the
nearest road.
The Bhils weave their own houses, and their villages
melt into the hills around them. Houses are bare of furniture,
but usually ave a sleeping loft. In some houses, dried corns and
beans hang from the ceiling, as do huge pinata-like baskets
stuffed with tobacco and chiles.
Some groups wear very few clothes. Those most
influenced by the outside world will often have shorts, shoes,
greased hair and watches.
They make their own liquor from the flowers that grow
in one of the large shade trees, and are picked around 2 a.m.
Each morning begins with the sound of flour being
ground in the darkened huts, usually the responsibility of the
young women in the house.
In many ways, their days and lives follow a pattern set
by their ancestors. This is the time of year when the Narmada
pilgrims, older men and women who discard their belongings to
follow the river from its source to the ocean, walk from village
to village begging food and drink. Many are not tribal people,
but visitors for elsewhere in India.
But for 30 years, the Bhils have lived with the
prospect of a dam that will flood their land and change their
lives forever.
``When all the woman gather together we talk about it,
and all of us think about it all the time. All these years, it
has been a very sad thing we have to face,'' one woman said at a
public meeting with Brody and Tom Berger, a B.C. lawyer who is
reviewing the Narmada project for the World Bank.
``We have lost all happiness.''