ADIVASI TODA TRIBE

ADIVASI TODA TRIBE The Todas live in small hamlets called munds. The Toda huts, of an oval, pent-shaped construction, are usually 10 feet (3 m) high, 18 feet (5.5 m) long and 9 feet (2.7 m) wide. They are built of bamboo fastened with rattan and thatched. The front and back of the hut are usually made of dressed stones (mostly granite). This unusually small entrance is a means of protection from wild animals. The front portion of the hut is decorated with the Toda art forms, a kind of rock mural painting. Thicker bamboo canes are arched to give the hut its basic bend shape. Thinner bamboo canes are tied close and parallel to each other over this frame. Dried grass is stacked over this as thatch.The forced interaction with civilisation has caused a lot of changes in the lifestyle of the Todas. The Todas used to be a pastoral people but are now increasingly venturing into agriculture and other occupations. Although many Toda have abandoned their traditional distinctive huts for concrete houses, a movement is now afoot to build tradition barrel-vaulted huts and during the last decade forty new huts have been built and many Toda sacred dairies renovated.

Main Features of Tribal Communities

Some important features of tribes in India are:

Tribes are relatively isolated from larger cultural influences, have a rela­tive cultural homogeneity and a simple technology. They believe in spirits, magic and witchcraft. They have their own taboos which prohibit certain actions that are punishable by the community, by the supernatu­ral, or by magical consequences. Large number of the tribes believe in animism, according to which all objects—both animate and inanimate— are permanently or temporarily inhabited by spirits or souls.

Often, an activity is believed to be caused by these spirits. Some spirits are wor­shipped and treated with fear and respect. Some scholars have maintained that animism was the earliest form of religion of the tribes. Many tribes believe in ancestor worship too.

(1) Common name:

Each caste has a distinct name of its own through which it is distinguished from others.

(2) Common territory:

Tribes generally occupy common geographical ar­eas.

(3) Common language:

Members of one tribe speak the same language. Each tribe has its own dialect, if not the script.

(4) Common culture:

Each tribe has prescribed patterns of behaviour and festivals and deities to worship.

(5) Endogamy:

Each tribe has the practice of marrying members within their own tribe.

(6) Political organisation:

All tribes have their own political organisation. They have councils of elders which control members.

(7) As against the national average of 43 per cent, 57 per cent of the tribals are economically active.

(8) As regards the nature of work, against 73 per cent national average, 91 per cent tribal workers are engaged in agriculture. About 3 per cent tribals are engaged in manufacturing (against 11% of general population) and 5 per cent in servicing (tertiary) sectors (against 16% average of general population). About 1 per cent tribals are engaged in forestry and food-gathering.

Some other features of the tribals are: most of them live in isolated terrains; the main sources of their livelihood are agriculture and gathering of forest produce; they do not cultivate for profit; they still largely rely on barter system; they spend a greater part of their earnings on social and religious ceremonies; and a large number of them are illiterate and are vic­timised by unscrupulous forest contractors and moneylenders.