2019 – Posted in: Daily News

KUI TRIBALS IN ODISHA

For: Preliminary & Mains

Topics covered: All about Kondh tribes in Odisha – Origin, Work, Culture, Religion

The Kui Samaj Samanwaya Samiti, an organization of Kui tribals in south Odisha, has alleged police atrocities on a group of tribal families.

Kui tribals are one of the 18 Kondh tribes in the State list of the Orissa Government.
According to Captain Macpherson (1846), the word Kondh means” mountaineer”, derived from the Telugu word ko or ku, signifying a hill or mountain.
Kondhs speak the Kui and Kuvi languages.
Traditionally hunter-gatherers, they are divided into the hill-dwelling Khonds and plain-dwelling Khonds for census purposes.
These tribals still continue to call themselves as ‘Kui people’ and their hills as ‘kui country’.
Kondhs are a Dravidian-speaking tribal people of India.
At present, the Kondhs are identified as Desia Kondhs, Dongria Kondhs, and Kutia Kondhs.
The kondhs had never come under foreign domination of the Hindus, the British or the Muslims.

Rice is the staple food of the Kondh people.
Besides rice and wheat, people also take ragi, mandia, kandul, maize, mushrooms and various kinds of roots, tubers, and green leaves and vegetables.
Every tribal household generally reserves mango stones, tamarind seeds and jackfruit seeds for eating in the offseason.
Liquor is an important item for every social and religious function and social etiquette demands that guests and visitors are offered liquor.

Kondhs are of religious nature.
The Kondh pantheon consists of innumerable malevolent and benevolent deities.
They offer prayers to their ancestors.
They believe that their ancestors along with the Gods, watch the behaviour of the living generations.
Kondhs observe a number of ceremonies in order to please the Gods and ancestors by offering sacrifices.

Kondhs have no caste system.
They maintain a social distance by an observance called ‘bisa’.
This is strictly observable with regard to cooking, eating and marriage among Kondhs.

The tribe celebrates three principal festivals in a year.
The semi jatra, the mohua jatra and the chawal dhua jatra which stand for eating the new crops of beans, roasted mahua preparations, and new rice respectively.
The notorious practice of human sacrifice, formerly in vogue among the Kondhs, is fully abandoned now, and substituted by buffalo sacrifice.

The Kondhs speak kui.
Kui tribals belongs to the Dravidian group of languages and has considerable resemblance with Telugu, Kanarese and Tamil in grammar.
Kui does not share any commonality with Oriya.
At present, the Government of Orissa is taking a lot of interest to preserve and popularise the Kui language.

Source: The Hindu and several other sources

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