ANALYTICAL STUDY ON THE SOCIO – CULTURAL HISTORY AND

EVOLUTION OF THE GOND TRIBES OF INDIA.

ABSTRACT:

The earliest known societies of human history include the tribal societies. The existence
of some of these societies can be located in ancient times through epics and other ancient
literature. As per the data released in 2001 and 1971 census, the Gond tribes constituted
around 11 million and 5.01 million population across the country respectively. Which
clearly shows that the Gond tribes formed one of the largest tribal groups in India. It is
quite imperative to know about one of the most important tribal groups of India which
have had influence on Indian society in some or the other manner. The Gond tribes hold
a large socio-cultural background and significance in Indian history.

The Gonds, being an ethnolinguistic tribal group belonged to the Dravidian family. And
were spread across the states of Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra
Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh. In this context, this paper provides an
intensive study on the social and cultural practices of the Gond tribes which includes
analysis of the formation of Gond families, class and caste system, marriage system and
some of the major cultural practices that have had influence on Indian society. The paper
also discusses about the religious life of the Gonds which include their notable festivals,
concepts of gods and goddesses, and concept of death. Information has also been provided
on the interaction of the Gond tribes with the larger society and the paper also highlights
some of the notable personalities from the Gond tribes, who have contributed towards
the freedom fight, literature and culture of Indian society.

Keywords: the Gond tribes, ethnolinguistic group, Dravidian family, socio cultural
background, religious influence, notable personalities.

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 INTRODUCTION

The earliest known societies of human history include the Tribal societies. Though there
are not much reference to these tribal societies in specific, yet we can find traces of their
existence in epics and ancient scriptures. The tribal groups have often been depicted as
Ashura (demons), Dashyus (robbers), and Banors (monkeys). The 2011 census on tribal
communities shows account of 109 million population of tribals in India, it also attributed
to about 8.6% of the total Indian population. Amongst the total tribal communities in
India, the Gonds form the largest population in middle India.

The Gonds are known to be a primitive tribal community. They were involved largely in
hunting of animal and gathering of food for survival. They incorporated pastoral
occupations for their living and also practiced agriculture. These tribes also developed
trade and commerce in society and largely depended on herbal medicinal practices. All
of these properties constitute to say that they were one of the unique tribes in existence,
with prominent culture and language affiliation on basis of their geographic existence. All
of these unique features merit a better exposure in order to assimilate into the social
mainstream.

To brief on the historical background of the emergence of these tribes, they first emerged
in the regions of middle India’s hilly areas during the 14th and 15th century AD. The tribal
group was further sub divided as the Raj Gonds, Madia Gonds, Dhurve Gonds and
Khatulwar Gonds. The Raj Gonds formed the ruling class among the entire Gond
community.

The Gondwana region in India was ruled by the Gondwana Kingdom. The core area of
the Gondwana region comprises the eastern part of Vidarbha in Maharashtra, the parts
of Garha Kingdom in the north of Madhya Pradesh, and the western part of Chhattisgarh
in Andhra Pradesh. The wider Gondwana region also includes parts of north Telangana,
west Odisha and south Uttar Pradesh.

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In the beginning, the Gondwana kingdom was divided into four major kingdoms. The
northern part of Gondwana was known as Garha Katanga (or Garha Mandla) kingdom
of Jabalpur, the southern part was Chanda kingdom of Chandrapur, the western part
was known as Kherla kingdom of Betul, and in the sixteenth century, the Deogarh
kingdom of Nagpur (or Deogarhwara) emerged as a powerful kingdom.

The history of the Gonds dates back to the 14th century, when they were mentioned in
the Muslim chronicles of the period. Between the 14th and 18th centuries, the area was
ruled by the powerful Gond dynasty, which, during the Mughal period, remained
independent or were tributary chieftains. When the Gonds fell to Marathas in 18th
century, most of the Gondwana fell into the hands of Bhonsle Rajas in Nagpur and the
Nizams in Hyderabad. A large number of Gonds hid in the inhospitable highlands and
turned into tribal banditry. From 1818 to 1853, the major part of the area fell to the
British. In a few minor states, the Gond Rajas ruled until the independence of India in
1947.

Jadurai was the first Gond King. He deposed the Rajput king Kalchuri and took control
of Garha mandla kingdom (1300-1789 AD) from the Rajputs. King Jatba (1590-1796 AD)
founded the second Gond kingdom of Deorhar. About the same time as Deorhar, the
kingdom of Kherla (1500-1751 AD) came into being. The first king of Kherla was Rai
(Narsingh-Rai), who had a bitter rivalry with the Rajput rulers and the Muslim rulers of
his area who attacked his fort because of its location. The kingdom of Chanda (1200-1751
AD), which was a contemporary of Kherla and Deorhar kingdoms, produced some great
rulers who developed great irrigation systems and introduced the first well defined
revenue system among Gond kingdoms.

All of these historical backgrounds provide immense knowledge about the emergence and
rule of the Gond kingdom. The paper however will further make analysis on the socio-
cultural aspects of the Gond tribes, their religious practices, and their interaction with
society.

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 1) SOCIAL LIFE OF THE GOND TRIBES:

The Gond social institutions have been developed here in relation to the functional
elements of the social organizations, which have both vertical and horizontal aspects. The
social organization deals mainly with the large-scale grouping of people. Social
organization has often been understood as synonymous with social structure. The Gond
community was large and widespread. It was divided into a number of sections which
varied in character. These sections were generally endogamous and were composed of
clans that were organized into exogamous phrases within them.

Gond society can be divided into a number of exogamous patrilineal units called sagas.
According to Gond mythology, all sagas used to live in one village, but eventually moved
out and formed their own villages. The names of the ancestral villages are kept alive in
culture and are sometimes identified with current locations. The number of ancestors is
the symbol of each saga. On many ceremonies and ritual occasions the number of animals,
men, deeds, or objects involved corresponds to the number of the sagas. Sagas exist
mostly in the realm of ritual and have little political or organizational importance. The
most obvious manifestation of saga awareness is the worship of person, although this is
mainly at clan level. All followers of the same person view themselves as related, so any
marriage or sexual relationship between them is prohibited by Gond law. The term soira
is used to refer to the part of a saga whose members can be married. subdivided within a
saga is the patrilineal unit, or clan. The number of clans in a given saga.

A) FORMATION OF THE GOND FAMILY:

The family was the smallest social group. A Gond family was a unilateral social
group consisting mostly of parents and their children both male and female. Only
unmarried daughters were considered family members. In the recent past, the

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 joint family system has been rapidly disappearing and an individual family system
has replaced it. The Gonds use the term “pari” to describe their group. The Gond
clan is a unilateral group made up of family members who all share the same clan
name. The clan is patrilineal and a man passes the clan name to his children. A
woman keeps her father's clan-name until she is married. However, a married
woman is not considered a member of her father's clan. It is only the male who
automatically takes over the patronymic at birth, keeps it until death and passes
it on to his children. This is a permanent feature of the Gond community.

B) CLASS AND CASTE DIVISION OF THE GONDS

There were many class and caste groups called by different names among the
Gonds. A person was born into both a class and a caste, and a person was
considered to belong to his or her father's class or caste. The segmentary character
of the tribe has declined significantly in the light of the caste-system. Today, the
Gonds have a high regard for caste, and claim their place as equal to the higher
castes of the country. They also follow the rules of commonality and social isolation
with other ethnic groups.

C) MARRIAGE SYSTEM OF THE GONDS

In the traditional Gond society, there were different types of marriages, such as
Regular, Lamsena, Lamhade Marmi, Service, Kotavalda, Ata sata, Exchange, etc.
Marriage was not allowed between blood relatives, and apart from the wishes of
the boy and girl, consent from the father and mother was very important. In the
Raj Gonds, ruling Gonds, marriages were performed according to Hindu customs.
In the common Gond society, the marriage ceremonies were performed by a doshi,
or Baiga. The bride's price was also an important factor in the marriage system.
Widow marriage was also allowed in Gond society. Their marriage systems were
pro-women, and the methods of remarriage and divorce are not complicated but
simple and straightforward. The Gond society used to be polygamous, but this is
no longer the case. Nowadays, the Gond consider monogamy to be the best form
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 of marriage, and resort to polygamy in unavoidable circumstances. The Gonds
now distance themselves from the practices of capture, intrusion, elopement, etc.,
and consider themselves anti-socials, and admire marriage by proper means.

D) STATUS OF WOMEN IN GOND SOCIETIES

In a traditional Gond society, women's place was almost equal to men's. They lived
their lives side by side, with the man doing all the work, including earning a living.
Most domestic work was done around her. She took care of the children, raised
livestock, cooked meals. In all important matters in the family, husband would
consult his wife and would often listen to her point of view. Women were not
allowed to participate in certain rituals. Despite this, Gond women held a high
position in society because they played an important role in the production and
reproduction process. Today, their position is deteriorating as a result of
globalisation.

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 RELIGIOUS BACKGROUND OF GOND TRIBES

The Gonds have traditionally been polytheistic and believe in animism and Nature
worship. Their religion is deeply ingrained in them and continues to play a crucial role
in forming them into a compact social unit by conditioning the various human
behaviour’s, habits, activities, feelings and philosophy. However, their religion has been
influenced by the socio-religion complex of Hindustanism and has been changing in the
light of.

The Gonds believed in many gods and goddesses, and it was very rare to come across
any representation of Gond gods. One of the peculiarities of Gond gods is that they
always die and are reborn. Due to contact, observing, imitation and imitation of
religious ideas and emotions of Hindus caste people, Gonds have appropriately
assimilated the teachings of Hindu religion – on Dharma and Karma, transmission of
soul and its rebirth, existence of swarga and narka in the divine kingdom, Punrika
merit and papa sin, cult of shudh and ashudh with their traditional beliefs and beliefs.

The Gonds' concept of death was based on the idea that death was an important event
in the cycle of birth, life, and death. Initially, the Gonds only practiced burial, but as
time went on, the ruling classes began to practice cremation, and from then on, both the
burial and the cremation were practiced. The funeral rites were more related to the
soul's passage to the realm of spirits. The soul had the same status in the underworld as

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it did on earth, and it had the same desire to possess the things it owned here. So, it was
common practice to offer worldly possessions of people inside or on top of graves when
they died, and to remember them on festive occasions. The Gonds believed that the dead
had special rights over uncertain deaths. According to Gond mythology, the deceased
were very interested in things that happened to the living. They wanted to maintain
contact with the dead, and they wanted to help minimize the difficulties of the living and
help the crops thrive.

2) CULTURAL PRACTICES OF THE GOND TRIBES:

As part of the process of social formation, the Gonds developed their own culture
without much interaction with the other cultures. Their culture was very simple
and was passed down from one generation to the next through the means of oral
tradition.

A) CLOTHING AND ORNAMENTS OF THE GONDS

The men of Gond society wear dhotis that reach to the knees, a vest and a shawl
over their shoulders and a turban on their heads. They wear silver bangles
around their wrists, bangles being a symbol of luck, a locket around their necks
and earrings. The women wear six-to-eight-yard saris that reach to the knee
and are tied with belt. Women loved jewellery. Jewellery was not only
decorative but also protective devices. Women tattooed their bodies as well.
Tattooing was seen as true jewellery that stayed with the woman even after
death and was believed to please the Gods.

B) FOOD PRACTICES OF THE GONDS

The food habits of ordinary Gond were relatively homogeneous. They were
accustomed to eating three meals a day. The method of cooking a meal was to
fry, boil, bake and roast. Millet gruel boiled in water was their staple food.

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 Millet broth or millet juice was also a common dish. In times of famine,
mahuwa dried flowers were added to the millet gruel. They ate meat and ate
any kind of animal except totem animal. Due to prohibitory forest laws
prohibiting explorations in the forest in search of food, the Gonds developed
their agricultural skills and moved into labouring jobs. Frequent contact with
market centres and with other cultural groups has also affected their food
habits. Thus, there is constant change in food habits, culinary art, meal pattern
and stimulants. The culinary art of the Gond has been slightly reformed. The
use of edible oils and spices has increased significantly compared to the past.

C) GOND ART AND CRAFTS

The Gond people were masters of arts and crafts, and they were masters of
beautiful wall paintings, floral designs, geometric designs, stylistic figures,
plants and animals, and personal decoration. These were the values of the
Gond culture worth preserving. Geometric and symbolic designs on the walls
and doors, comb, tobacco-case, were carved thousands of years ago, dating
back to the Indus valley civilization. Colourful drawing on the walls is fast
disappearing due to urban influences. Today, the walls are adorned with
framed and unframed images of Hindu gods and goddesses, state leaders, film
stars, animals, and birds, which are bought from weekly markets and towns.

D) GONDI LANGUAGE

Gondi is the lingua franca of the Indian subcontinent. It is spoken by about

five million people in six states of India: Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra,
Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Gondi was the mother
tongue of the Gondi people. Gondi belongs to the Indo Dravidian (Dravidian)
family of languages. Inter group communication of the Gonds was exclusively
in their mother tongue. However, when they interacted with outsiders, they
used mixed colloquial Hindi also known as Chhattisgarhi. Gondi only lingers
as a legacy of the elder Gonds.

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 Gondi is the mother tongue of the Gonds. It belongs to the Dravidian family of
languages and is closely related to Tamil and Kannada. Clearly, the Gonds are
not physically related to the Dravidian-speaking peoples of India, thus at some
time they must have abandoned an earlier language in favour of Gondi. There
is, however, no evidence of what this language might have been. It is the Gondi
language, as much as anything else, that lends a sense of cultural uniformity to
the diverse tribal groups that make up the Gonds. Even so, many Gonds are
bilingual or trilingual, speaking Hindi, Marathi, or Telugu as well as
their mother tongue. Some Gond groups have totally abandoned Gondi and
speak the language or dialect common in their locality.

E) THE JUDICIARY OF GOND TRIBES

The Gond tribe has a strong belief in the village system, where communities
live like families, sharing joy and sorrow with each other. Each village
inhabited by the tribe had a leader, and a council chosen by the villagers among
themselves. The leader of the village was usually the eldest person who
commanded great respect. The village council was made up of priests and
several elders. They held regular meetings to decide on important matters
related to the village, and decisions were made by consensus.

F) GOTHUL INSTITUTIONS

The traditional Gond institutions instilled discipline and cooperative effort in

the members. It wasn’t just a club to meet boys and girls in the evening, as
some scholars focused on it. It was a centre of learning, and it had a religious
connection to it. When no educational institutions were available to the
community, the Gothul functioned as a training centre. It instilled integrity
and uniqueness in all members of the Gothul. But with the changing times, the
British destroyed the Gothul system because they saw it as a centre for plotting
against them. Today, it has lost its uniqueness and essence.

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 3) NOTABLE PERSONALITIES OF THE GOND TRIBES.

• Komaram Bheem, freedom fighter

• Gunda Dhur, tribal leader
• Ramji Gond, tribal chief
• Asha Gond, skateboarder
• Motiravan Kangali, linguist and author
• Sangram Shah, king of Garha
• Baburao Shedmake, tribal freedom fighter
• Veer Narayan Singh, activist

Komaram bheem (22 October 1901 – 1940) (alternatively known as Kumram bheem)
was a leader of the Gond tribe in Hyderabad state of British India. Together with other
leaders of the tribe, he led a long-term low-intensity rebellion against the Nizams in the
eastern region of the state in the 1930s. This rebellion eventually led to the formation of
Telangana rebellion in 1946. He was killed by the armed police in 1940 and was lionised
as the symbol of rebellion. He is eulogized in the history of Adivasis and Telugu
folklorum. He is considered as a pen-holder in the history of Gond culture. He is
credited with coined the slogan 'Jal’, 'Jangal', and 'Zameen'.

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4) INTERACTION OF THE GONDS WITH THE LARGER
SOCIETY.

The emergence of large states changed the nature of Gond society. Their
basically equal society gradually got divided into unequal social classes.
Brahmanas received land grants from the Gond rajas and became more
influential. The Gond chiefs now wished to be recognised as Rajputs. So,
Aman Das, the Gond raja of Garha Katanga, assumed the title of Sangram
Shah. His son, Dalpat, married princess Durgawati, the daughter of
Salbahan, the Chandel Rajput raja of Mahoba. Later, after the
independence, such groups were given constitutional recognition and the
people who so far remained confined to their own groups, now had to interact
with the larger society for food, shelter, possession of land, education, jobs,
etc. In this aspect there was an interaction between the Gond people and the
society at large.

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 CONCLUSION

This paper on the whole studies the socio cultural aspects of the
Gond tribes. A detailed study on the social interaction of the gond
tribes is brought about in the paper. The cultural aspects show the
kind of beliefs and practices of these tribes and how some them have
been inculcated in the societal practices in the larger society. At a
larger picture this paper aims to bring about attention and
awareness of existence of such tribal groups throughout this diverse
land and to study their evolution, existence and development in
society. The constitution of India also protects the political ,
economic, social and educational rights of such tribal groups in

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 order to safeguard them from social injustice and atrocities against
them.

REFERNCES

1) Report from Scheduled castes and Scheduled Tribes Research and Training
Institute,(SCSTRI), Prof P Pand and T Sahoo, 2012,
https://tribal.nic.in/repository/ViewDoc.aspx?RepositoryNo=TRI28-
08-2017121550&file=Docs/TRI28-08-2017121550.pdf

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2) International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Socio-Cultural History of
the Gond Tribes of Middle India, Shamrao Koreti, Volume 6, No.4, April 2016,
http://www.ijssh.org/vol6/659-B20003.pdf
3) https://egyankosh.ac.in/bitstream/123456789/39143/1/Unit-2.pdf
4) Interdisciplinary Journal of Linguistics, Language shift in Tribal languages: A
case Study of the Gond Tribes, Volume 8, 2015, pgs. 251 – 260, Meraj Ahmed
http://linguistics.uok.edu.in/Files/f6ec3740-422d-4ac1-9f52-
ddfe2cffcb28/Journal/4c0e8d95-45f3-4b96-9147-b67cb4659721.pdf
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