Dongria Kondh Peoples of India

Dongria Kondh Peoples of India

The Dongria Kondh tribe are among the few truly primitive cultures remaining in the world. The Dongria Kondh live in the plateaus of Niyamgiri hill country in India. Their natural environment is surrounded by dense forests and in fact their name is derived from the world "Dongar" (means "hill slopes"), according to a book that offers detailed information on tribal education in India (Nanjunda, et al., 2008, p. 285). This paper will review cultural and anthropological information about the Dongria Kondh, and will also detail the recent controversy surrounding an attempt by the British company Vedanta to develop a mine in Dongria Kondh territory. The very existence of the Dongria Kondh people has been threatened by the mining proposal, but the latest information is that Vedanta has been prohibited from exploiting the environment in Dongria Kondh territory.

The Dongria Kondh -- history, culture, environment

The Dongria Kondh live in the state of Orissa, situated in the eastern portion of India near the coastline of the Bay of Bengal. The altitude where they reside ranges from 1,000 feet above sea level to about 4,970, according to an essay in Nanjunda's book by Akshaya K. Kanungo. The dense forestation around the tribe consists of Teak wood, Mohua and Kendu species and Mango, Kanungo explains (p. 286). The Dongria Kondh have a subsistence economy based mainly on hunting and gathering, and on what Kanungo calls "shifting cultivation" (p. 286). The Dongria Kondh people are the descendents of the "Proto-Australois racial stock" with "considerable Mongolois admixture," Kanungo explains.

The Dongria Kondh are known to researchers as "skilled horticulturists" and indeed they understand soil conditions and they raise fruit crops "of high commercial value," Kanungo writes (p 287). There is ample fresh water in the Dongria Kondh communities, as streams flow down from the mountains all year around. They are experts at growing papaya, bananas, jackfruit, and pineapple, and the quality of their ginger and turmeric is considered to have the "highest demand in the state" (Kanungo, p. 287). The typical village is a "cluster of (low thatched-roof) houses arranged in two rows and in each row the houses are continuous in a linear fashion" (Mohanty, 2002, p. 232). Between the two rows of houses is the main street in the village, Mohanty explains.

The Dongria Kondh families are made up of two kinds of arrangements: one family structure is polygynous, with a man and two or more "co-wives" and their children in one building, Mohanty writes. The other family structure is a "group formed by the remarriage of a widow or widower having children by a former marriage," Mohanty goes on (p. 232). The villages are organized as territorial clan groups and each clan has four functional groups, Mohanty explains: mondal, bismajhi, jani and punja (p. 232). The punja people in the village work the orchards (bananas, pineapples, turmeric) and also tend the cereal growing (Mohanty, p. 232).

Unfortunately, at the time this essay was written, the Dongria Kondh had little or no marketing acumen and hence they sell their high quality produce to middlemen and as a result they "…often get very low price…and all the profit is usurped by the middlemen" (p. 287). Other crops they grow successfully include: maize, ganja, ragi, and grams, Kanungo points out. They also gather natural forest produce such as Sal leaf, the seeds of Karanja, Kendu leaf, Siali creepers and Mohua (Kanungo, p. 288).

The Dongria Kondh are not teetotalers at all, Kanungo writes. They drink liquor "very often" that is distilled from Moha, Sago palm juice and date palm juice. They raise cattle (pigs, cows, buffalo, goat) and birds. They get their nutritional protein from the animals they raise but "most importantly these animals and birds are sacrificed" when a person in the village is sick, Kanungo explains. Indeed, when a family member falls sick, that condition is believed to have been because of the "wrath of spirits" or "ghosts" that may be angry that some kind of norm or value in the village has been violated. So, sickness is not necessarily a natural event, but rather it is, they believe, caused by someone's violation of cultural rules or norms. On page 288 Kanungo explains that the world of the Dongria Kondh is "full of mysteries governed by deities, spirits, and ghosts; both benevolent and malevolent."

Their primitive lifestyle has been the subject of significant anthropological research; they were once "infamous for their pernicious practice of human sacrifice and female infanticide," Kanungo explains on page 286. The research Kanungo refers to was published by a British official ("Mr. Russell") in 1836 in colonial India. After Mr. Russell's discovery, the colonial power, the British, has a "deep concern" and tried to "stamp out the barbarous practices" to restore "peace and order" in that area of India. Clearly, and mercifully, the British were not successful in destroying the Dongria Kondh people.

Kanungo describes their dress in detail; the men wrap a "narrow scarf" around their waist and typically have a rolled cigarette (in a leaf wrap) called a "pika" tucked in a small hair knot in the back of their head (p. 287). Men usually carry an axe on the shoulder and a knife is usually attacked to the waist belt in back. Dongria Kondh women wear what Kanungo calls "a lower garment not long enough to hide their knee"; they "use" their chest with a "small band of cotton" that is tied at the back. Both men and women wear hair-clips, Kanungo continues, and they enjoy piercing their ears and they "love" to wear as many earrings as possible (p. 287).

Their outer apparel for females consists of hand-woven, multi-colored scarves, a traditional item, Kanungo explains (p. 287). Young girls, "maidens," live in a "dormitory"; there is a dormitory in each Dongria Kondh settlement, Kanungo goes on. The girls are given training as to the cultural norms, taboos and values that the Dongria Kondh hold dear; the training is given by an older woman, who is usually a married woman, and she provides the leadership for the dormitory. The maidens learn their lessons orally, Kanungo explains; they learn folklore, proverbs, myths legends and songs, and they sing those songs and dance with boy friends and girl friends "every night" (p. 287). When they reach "marriageable age" (Kanungo doesn't say what age that is) they will have acquired "all the skills and knowledge that are expected from a good ideal wife / woman in their society" (p. 287).

Since the British colonial experiment ended in India in 1950, Indian society has tried to "help" the Dongria Kondh, but the project, called the "Dongria Kondh Development Agency" (DKDA) -- through a scheme called Purchase and Sale Fair-Price Shops (PSFS) -- did not work out well. According information provided in the book Tradition and Development (Sachchidananda, 1998), the government set up the DKDA in order to curb exploitation by local traders and to put a halt to interference by another indigenous tribe called the Domb. The DKDA was also established to check "liquor vending in the hills"; however the main purpose was help the Dongria Kondh market their produce and products (apples, oranges, bananas, etc.) and get a fair price for them. In turn, the Indian government sold supplies to the Dongria Kondh (tobacco, sale, kerosene, cheap clothing and matches) at a "fair price"; a special officer was put in charge of the DKDA but the "negative impacts" far outweighed the positive impacts (Sachchidananda, pp. 79-80).

What happened to make the relationship between the government and the Dongria Kondh go sour? First of all the Domb peoples were upset that the Dongria Kondh received benefits and they (Domb) did not, so they felt "estranged" and responded to rumors that they were to be relocated out of their native habitat by creating "dissension and producing factionalism among the Dongria Kondh" (Sachchidananda, p. 80). When the PSFS scheme was taken over by a marketing officer from the Tribal Development Cooperative Society -- and began to operate more as a business venue than a development center -- things went from bad to worse, according to Sachchidananda on pages 80-81. "Exploitation was rampant" and the benefits that were supposed to be received by the Dongria Kondh wound up ("a large portion of it") was "appropriated by the Domb" (Sachchidananda, p. 81).

When the Dongria Kondh began drinking more liquor and thus being incapable to defend their interests in the marketing of their wonderful produce products, the Domb capitalized by slowing infiltrating Dongria Kondh property and "Gradually they captured the Dongria Kondh Market" (Sachchidananda, p. 81). Another project was launched in 1975 and a senior research officer was put in charge -- followed by an agricultural scientists -- but this too, was not successful, and in 1982 the development project was abandoned (Sachchidananda, p. 82). However, in 1982 an "enthusiastic young anthropologist of the Tribal and Harijan Welfare Department was sent to the area and befriended the tribe. Unlike the previous representatives of the Indian government, this person (name not given by Sachchidananda) visited all 52 villages "on foot" and went to the effort to "spend several nights in the interior villages to win the confidence" of the people (p. 82). He introduced plantations that included potato, cabbage, tomato, chilli and brinjal, and helped the Dongria Kondh create irrigation channels from the streams flowing down the mountains (Sachchidananda, p. 83).

The anthropologist also succeeded in resolving feuds and negotiated trades with the Domb so they could enjoy the benefits of fresh fruit and produce without exploiting the Dongria Kondh. According to Sachchidananda on pae 84, among the benefits of having a person who truly understood and cared about the Dongria Kondh and the Domb was that there was a more peaceful interaction between the two indigenous tribes. A "pragmatic rather than mere humanistic approach" certainly aided in solving development and socioeconomic issues as well (Sachchidananda, p. 84).

Vedanta Resources' mining proposal

Meantime, a proposed mining project that was conceived by the Vedanta Resources (of London, UK) -- owned by Indian tycoon Anil Agarwal -- created a major controversy over the last few years. The proposed mine, to extract bauxite (which is a key ingredient in the production of aluminum) would have "an adverse impact on the local Dongria Kondh tribe, which is classified as a primitive tribal group," according to a report in the Economic Times (March 17, 2010). The Niyamgiri mountain region in the state of Orissa is rich in minerals, according to Indian Environmental Minister Jairam Ramesh, who was quoted in the Times' article. At the time this article was written in the Times the Indian government was waiting for a final report from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) on the potential impacts to the Dongria Kondh tribe and other indigenous peoples in the area.

Also having an affect on the decision by the Indian government as to whether to allow Vedanta to proceed with it's mining project is the fact that apparently Vedanta actually started work "without receiving all clearances" (Economic Times). As of March 2010, Vedanta had not responded to those allegations. The government was weighing the decision based on whether or not the Forest Rights Act -- a law giving tribal communities (including the Dongria Kondh) "certain rights over forests where they traditionally reside" -- had been implemented in the state of Orissa, the Times reported. Incidentally, Orissa's state government leaders had sent a "strong letter of support" for the mining project. Quite apart from concern about the Dongria Kondh, the Vedanta mining issue became "embroiled in politics" and that the Congress party (the largest and most progressive political party in India) was opposed to the project.

Moreover, a report by a three-member independent committee had highlighted the adverse impacts the project would have -- including the fact that the mind "…may lead to the destruction of the Dongria Kondh as a [Primitive Tribal Group]" (Economic Times).

The Dongria Kondh people were so concerned about the possibility of bulldozers rumbling into their villages or near their villages to begin the earth moving needed to extract (from an open-cast mine) bauxite that they contacted Oscar-winning Hollywood director James Cameron (Hopkins, 2010, p. 1). Cameron's film "Avatar" was a box office success all over the world. As the plot of Avatar being similar to the dilemma with the Dongria Kondh -- hence the reason for contacting Cameron -- Stephen Corry, head of the charity Survival, is quoted by Hopkins in her article.

"Just as the Na'vi describe the forest of Pandora as 'their everything', for the Dongria Kondh, life and land have always been deeply connected. The fundamental story of Avatar…is being played out today in the hills of Niyamgiri," Corry explained in Hopkins' article. And like the Na'vi, the Dongria Kondh are "also at risk," Corry continues. "Their lands are set to be mined by Vedanta Resources who will stop at nothing to achieve their aims"; the mine will "destroy the forests on which the Dongria Kondh depend and wreck the lives of thousands of other Kondh tribal people living in the area" (Hopkins, p. 2).