Kharia : then and now

The Kharia like the Gond and the Naga comprise three different and distinguishable subsections. This excellent monograph deals with the Hill, Dhelki and Dudh Kharia who may be said to represent the stages of human development from food gathering to food producing.

Since Dalton's work on the Kharia 1866 only three others have written on tribal culture; important among them were T.C. Das (1931) and S.C. Roy (1937).

This re-study under the auspices of the Indian Council of Social Science Research has been taken up at two levels: factual or substantive and methodological. The changes in the cultural pattern of the Kharia have been plotted out in terms of spatial inter-sectional and temporal (from S.C. Roy 1937, T.C. Das 1931) comparisons. Methodologically, the emphasis here is on comparative and critical analyses in contrast to the earlier empirical and descriptive accounts. The field researches were conducted in the typical Kharia villages of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa.

The book presents a dynamic and holistic picture of the Kharia. The development efforts of the Government have drawn some of the Hill Kharia towards resettlement colonies and agriculture. Education, Christianity, industrialization and urbanization have brought about drastic changes among the Dhelki and Dudh Kharia. The one. homogeneous section now reflects tremendous variations even within the same community from a food gathering Kharia family to agricultural and professional families like advocates, administrators, and college teachers. All these unities and advances, persistence and change as well as varied life styles have been described in meticulous detail.

A comprehensive work on a major Indian tribe.