Lagma: This Baiga village was displaced from the Kanha National park, Madhya Pradesh in 1969. It became a sanctuary for wild animals and all the local villages and tribal communities had to leave. This is also done as a precautionary measure to stop human interaction with the fast depleting numbers of tigers in the wild. The village elder (Mukhya) organized a dance where many of the villagers participated.
2 comments:
Prashant,
These are not our ancestors. Thinking that they are 'relics of the past' or 'backwards' is wrong and dangerous. It is this kind of thinking that is used to justify pushing Adivasis to 'join the mainstream', which is short-hand for stripping them of all that makes their lives rich, and condemning them to lives of poverty.
Please, when you visit the Baiga, do not see 'ancestors' but brothers and sisters - who are as deserving of their choices, lands and futures as any community.
Definition of ancestor
noun
a person, typically one more remote than a grandparent, from whom one is descended:
They are most certainly my ancestors, this is where I feel I have come from, and I need to respect them for that.
Adivasi means, original inhabitants of the land. They are more than our brothers and sisters, they hold the knowledge of our past. They are our elders.
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