Leaves from the jungle : life in a Gond village
- 2nd ed.
- Delhi Oxford University Press 1992
- 192p.
Inspired by Gandhiji and provided direction by Jamnalal Bajaj, Verrier Elwin (a young Englishman who had come to India as a missionary and was destined to become one of India's greatest pioneering anthropologists), decided in 1932 to settle in Karanjia, a Gond village in the Maikal hills, and devote himself to the welfare of the inhabitants of the area. Leaves from the Jungle is the diary of his life in Karanjia from 1932 to 1936, where he lived in a thatched mud hut, Gond style, built by himself and friends. It is a lively, touching, anecdotal book. In it Elwin combines the anthropologist's powers of observation with his natural humour and consummate skill as a raconteur to provide a colourful account of Gond life and the efforts of the inmates of the Ashram (who included Christians, Hindus, a Brahmin, a Mussalman, Gonds, polytheists, henogamists, monogamists, celebates,... all united'), to improve the quality of Gond life in areas ranging from co-education to dietary habits, prevention of disease to improvement of agriculture, treatment and control of leprosy to introduction of tailoring and carpentry