GhaasMora..
One more opportunity to go closer to the Tribal comunity in Odisha..I always love these Kondhs..one has a lot to learn from them, for that matter from any of the tribals, there will be so much to learn..
equanimity- is so easily on practice; nature loving; living in harmony with nature/forest; uncultivated food; foraging; using moderation even in small things -like they will never cut a tree for fire wood sake, it will only come from fallen n dried ones; they would cooly walk miles;so many such fantastic values..blended and etched in lives so well..
once we were talking with them and i found how easy the community living for them was..they all live in a 'together world'..their settlements/villages are always unique and similar..they live in continuous houses like ow houses..one has to be in 'touch' with the other.. so a govt scheme for construction of houses for the poorhad a problem as it wud be disbured only if each one had walls around and was 'individual'.. these people wud never have houses that are separate!! anyways this was later averted by the odisha govt..and its not that all of them wanted to construct concrete houses..till a few years back it wud all be well doused beautiful mud houses in row.even now one can witness that in most places..
if a couple of women go foraging in to the forest (for leaves, fruits, tuberss or such like) when they come back they place them all in the village centre..not take them home..so any one who wants it, shud go to the centre and pick up..even if it is the kids of the people who went foraging to the forest, the kids will not have any special treatment but will have to be 'normal' and go to the common center and pick up..
such a beautiful community living..there are more such stories.. some so evolved- about how they will have 'dates' and finalise on their life partner and how there is women equality so easily blended in to their lives..
their food practises were one of the best with 60-70% coming from the forest.. most of the tribes were nomadic and so used to long walks and thus so fit.. they wud grow millets and many local fauna..there were so many greens that they wud harvest, all uncultivated- what the other world wud call 'weeds'..they knew the safe n nutritious mushrooms..a balanced diet from nature, almost..a meat eating community that they are, they rear cattle but never consumed milk for they thought it was for the calves and not them..sustainability, commonsense and ecology was so easily embedded in thoughts n action..
Their 'season' always started with the seed fest, where the seeds are the gods..like the hills are the gods for them (not like us, gods in the hills!!) there shall be no commerce.. each one brings 'all' the seeds in their command, they are put up for display and puja is offered and then distributed..exchange is the only mode..such a beauty.. and only after this 'beej parab' do they start their agri season..a community that didnt know of the chemicals nor used them.. was so much natural in their living..
the last two have been disturbed very bad now..the PDS brought in rice and many of them have fallen for this grain and we can even say they are addicted..so the result? millets are not been grown as they wud be nor consumed like before. if they grow millets they take them and go 'down' to the towns and exchange for rice..thus slowly letting life style diseases too to come to their communities..
the other one is the crop pattern and chemicals that come in..mindless!!
but before that we shud see how lack of greed was..a few years back we were sitting with them.. we were posing so many questions to the Bejouni (priestess-always a woman, who takes most decisions). we were trying to understand the distribution of land for agri amongst the community, even asking what was the effect of demonitisation on them.. they all laughed it off, saying none of them ever possesed a bigger note.. why (there was no need!!)and so just no effect of the 'demon' on them..
each Kutumb as they call it (theirs is always about kutumb and decisions n discussions at kutumb level, that settles all) distributes land for agriculture after the seed fest! yes, there is no individual land holding..so where is the chance of greed??or accumulation?
to understand it more i asked a few more questions(ofcourse thru the translator for they all speak a language called 'kuyi').. i asked the bejouni if she will give what ever she is asked for? i had earier asked them what all they have in their house (which is a beutiful small mud house but very small..functional though. ) just to get an understanding of what all grains get stored and how much they keep..so pulling out from that i asked her if she will give me 10 kgs of toor? she said yes, then i asked if she will give me 25kgs (i knew that is what she had in total) and she said yes..and the yes comes with so much ease n conviction, mind u..
then i asked what if i asked 40 kgs (knowing fully well she didnt have that much) she said yes, i was startled..i asked how can u- with such glee that i have cornered her!
she cooly said, yes i shall give, i will take the rest from her or her or him pointing at the neighbours.. bcos if u need it, you need it.. we shall give u that..some how..
thats so casual..its such a beauty.. to see how things flow in their daily day to day life..
similarly on their 'allocation' of land..
There is no such thing as external labour.. they all put in labour in each others land...one day they are in yours to sow/weed/harvest.. next day in mine and so on..
what to grow is also colectively decided..
so when i asked her, what if some one wants 10 acres of the 100 to be distributed among all? she said they wud gladly give.. what if its 50? she said yes, we wud still give.. what if some one asked 100.. she laughed and said we wud happily give..
why? its bcos all harvest is for the community.. so if one wanted to cultivate in huge tract of land, it means one is ready to slog for all.. so where will "my" "mine" "my land" etc and the greed/accumulation come in?? hmm..
such a beauty, as I told u few paras above, has been disturbed :-( irreversibly..
by the 'developed world'..these agents of greed (and pesticides & seeds..) come here looking for newer 'markets' sow greed and sell dreams..
These agents come with bt cotton seeds along with weedicide n other chemicals as a 'package', give them on loan and then deduct it in the harvest..the weedicide sold illegally is glyphosate and the seeds are Bt cotton which is also illegal in Odisha..but its happening so easily, far n wide..slowly eroding the crops, seasons, soil and livelihoods..as much as lives..
the Glyphosate, the known carcinogen, killer of not just weeds but lives n livelihoods, killer of soil, air and water, killer of their economics too..is in..and is being called "ghaas mora" by them..
without knowing what it is, what is its ill effect on them and on their pristine nature..
the Greed is such a thing.. a community that used moderation in everything.. that wud not cut branches or trees even for their firewood, which wud not harvest everything but leave for the other species, that wud not aggregate & accumulate, that wud not even eat the fruits it foraged in the forests but share with all, that didnot even bother about how many acres was held or distributed, is being disturbed..irreversibly.. but our mainstream with its dream and greed..and its making inroads.. now they are in to debts..they are screwing up their lands and ecology..just a couple of years and its effects are telling..and many elders in the community are concerned..
we are told by the people working on health that there has been a rise in life style diseases in these tribal hamlets, which was never the case for ages..
Time to act... for the govt..for the NGOs working there.. for the tribals themselves.
after all ghaas mora will not kill just the ghaas but everything including them..
now u know why i hear ghaasmora even in my sleep? pch..a beautiful community slowly destroying itself..in the pristine and forests there in the hills that they consider as their gods..where they wudnt allow mindless mining for they say u cant cut the breasts of the mother instead of just sucking milk..
but some how ghaasmora is making inroads..
can we stop it? will they stop it??
or is another of the sad glyphosate story unfolding here too??
ghaasmoraaaaaaa....isnt it submora?
equanimity- is so easily on practice; nature loving; living in harmony with nature/forest; uncultivated food; foraging; using moderation even in small things -like they will never cut a tree for fire wood sake, it will only come from fallen n dried ones; they would cooly walk miles;so many such fantastic values..blended and etched in lives so well..
once we were talking with them and i found how easy the community living for them was..they all live in a 'together world'..their settlements/villages are always unique and similar..they live in continuous houses like ow houses..one has to be in 'touch' with the other.. so a govt scheme for construction of houses for the poorhad a problem as it wud be disbured only if each one had walls around and was 'individual'.. these people wud never have houses that are separate!! anyways this was later averted by the odisha govt..and its not that all of them wanted to construct concrete houses..till a few years back it wud all be well doused beautiful mud houses in row.even now one can witness that in most places..
if a couple of women go foraging in to the forest (for leaves, fruits, tuberss or such like) when they come back they place them all in the village centre..not take them home..so any one who wants it, shud go to the centre and pick up..even if it is the kids of the people who went foraging to the forest, the kids will not have any special treatment but will have to be 'normal' and go to the common center and pick up..
such a beautiful community living..there are more such stories.. some so evolved- about how they will have 'dates' and finalise on their life partner and how there is women equality so easily blended in to their lives..
their food practises were one of the best with 60-70% coming from the forest.. most of the tribes were nomadic and so used to long walks and thus so fit.. they wud grow millets and many local fauna..there were so many greens that they wud harvest, all uncultivated- what the other world wud call 'weeds'..they knew the safe n nutritious mushrooms..a balanced diet from nature, almost..a meat eating community that they are, they rear cattle but never consumed milk for they thought it was for the calves and not them..sustainability, commonsense and ecology was so easily embedded in thoughts n action..
Their 'season' always started with the seed fest, where the seeds are the gods..like the hills are the gods for them (not like us, gods in the hills!!) there shall be no commerce.. each one brings 'all' the seeds in their command, they are put up for display and puja is offered and then distributed..exchange is the only mode..such a beauty.. and only after this 'beej parab' do they start their agri season..a community that didnt know of the chemicals nor used them.. was so much natural in their living..
the last two have been disturbed very bad now..the PDS brought in rice and many of them have fallen for this grain and we can even say they are addicted..so the result? millets are not been grown as they wud be nor consumed like before. if they grow millets they take them and go 'down' to the towns and exchange for rice..thus slowly letting life style diseases too to come to their communities..
the other one is the crop pattern and chemicals that come in..mindless!!
but before that we shud see how lack of greed was..a few years back we were sitting with them.. we were posing so many questions to the Bejouni (priestess-always a woman, who takes most decisions). we were trying to understand the distribution of land for agri amongst the community, even asking what was the effect of demonitisation on them.. they all laughed it off, saying none of them ever possesed a bigger note.. why (there was no need!!)and so just no effect of the 'demon' on them..
each Kutumb as they call it (theirs is always about kutumb and decisions n discussions at kutumb level, that settles all) distributes land for agriculture after the seed fest! yes, there is no individual land holding..so where is the chance of greed??or accumulation?
to understand it more i asked a few more questions(ofcourse thru the translator for they all speak a language called 'kuyi').. i asked the bejouni if she will give what ever she is asked for? i had earier asked them what all they have in their house (which is a beutiful small mud house but very small..functional though. ) just to get an understanding of what all grains get stored and how much they keep..so pulling out from that i asked her if she will give me 10 kgs of toor? she said yes, then i asked if she will give me 25kgs (i knew that is what she had in total) and she said yes..and the yes comes with so much ease n conviction, mind u..
then i asked what if i asked 40 kgs (knowing fully well she didnt have that much) she said yes, i was startled..i asked how can u- with such glee that i have cornered her!
she cooly said, yes i shall give, i will take the rest from her or her or him pointing at the neighbours.. bcos if u need it, you need it.. we shall give u that..some how..
thats so casual..its such a beauty.. to see how things flow in their daily day to day life..
similarly on their 'allocation' of land..
There is no such thing as external labour.. they all put in labour in each others land...one day they are in yours to sow/weed/harvest.. next day in mine and so on..
what to grow is also colectively decided..
so when i asked her, what if some one wants 10 acres of the 100 to be distributed among all? she said they wud gladly give.. what if its 50? she said yes, we wud still give.. what if some one asked 100.. she laughed and said we wud happily give..
why? its bcos all harvest is for the community.. so if one wanted to cultivate in huge tract of land, it means one is ready to slog for all.. so where will "my" "mine" "my land" etc and the greed/accumulation come in?? hmm..
such a beauty, as I told u few paras above, has been disturbed :-( irreversibly..
by the 'developed world'..these agents of greed (and pesticides & seeds..) come here looking for newer 'markets' sow greed and sell dreams..
These agents come with bt cotton seeds along with weedicide n other chemicals as a 'package', give them on loan and then deduct it in the harvest..the weedicide sold illegally is glyphosate and the seeds are Bt cotton which is also illegal in Odisha..but its happening so easily, far n wide..slowly eroding the crops, seasons, soil and livelihoods..as much as lives..
the Glyphosate, the known carcinogen, killer of not just weeds but lives n livelihoods, killer of soil, air and water, killer of their economics too..is in..and is being called "ghaas mora" by them..
without knowing what it is, what is its ill effect on them and on their pristine nature..
the Greed is such a thing.. a community that used moderation in everything.. that wud not cut branches or trees even for their firewood, which wud not harvest everything but leave for the other species, that wud not aggregate & accumulate, that wud not even eat the fruits it foraged in the forests but share with all, that didnot even bother about how many acres was held or distributed, is being disturbed..irreversibly.. but our mainstream with its dream and greed..and its making inroads.. now they are in to debts..they are screwing up their lands and ecology..just a couple of years and its effects are telling..and many elders in the community are concerned..
we are told by the people working on health that there has been a rise in life style diseases in these tribal hamlets, which was never the case for ages..
Time to act... for the govt..for the NGOs working there.. for the tribals themselves.
after all ghaas mora will not kill just the ghaas but everything including them..
now u know why i hear ghaasmora even in my sleep? pch..a beautiful community slowly destroying itself..in the pristine and forests there in the hills that they consider as their gods..where they wudnt allow mindless mining for they say u cant cut the breasts of the mother instead of just sucking milk..
but some how ghaasmora is making inroads..
can we stop it? will they stop it??
or is another of the sad glyphosate story unfolding here too??
ghaasmoraaaaaaa....isnt it submora?
posted by Ananthoo @ 9:27 PM
1 Comments:
At April 18, 2020 4:23 AM,
Unknown said…
What a lovely comment about are you happy. No boss I am not. Ananthoo is telling us real pain and what is real happiness and someone just wanted to put advertising as comment.
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