The Tussle Between Tribal and Hindu Gods
Channel: VideoVolunteers
Date: 2017-03-22

The indigenous Kondhs of Odisha face obstacles in continuing with their age-old worship rituals because they involve animal sacrifice.
In Bolangir district of Odisha, Matkhai is one of the deities of the indigenous Kondh people. On the day of the Mathkai festival, the Kondh people found their way to the shrine barred by police forces. The administration had imposed an edict (under the Indian Penal Code Section 144) preventing the assembly of more than four people.Finally, the administration relented and the Kondhs were allowed to conduct their rituals but with one important omission -- they were banned from making animal sacrifices.

The beginning of disruption of the Kondh’s way of worship began with the construction of a Hindu temple in the Mathkai shrine. “Earlier our forefathers used to conduct the rituals of worship. Today that has been taken over by the non-adivasis”, says Nimai Bhoi, priest of Mathkhai.The Hindus claim that Mathkai represents the Hindu gods Shiva and Durga. The day of the Kondh festival in October happened to coincide with the the Hindu festival of Dashami. According to Nimai, the priest of Mathkai, the police said that the Kondhs could sacrifice animals on any other day but were not allowed to do so on this particular day in order to preserve the sanctity of the Hindu rituals. Platoons of police were posted to quell any untoward incident and they kept making announcements that the adivasis maintain peace and respect the rights of the Hindu worshippers. Ironical, given that the Hindus were disrupting the Kondh worship. The Kondhs traditional weaponry, used in sacrifice and displayed as part of the festival procession were also not allowed on pretext that it might be seen as a violent gesture. In fact, when Nimai entered the temple to make offering of the ‘sukha’ (dry food offering as opposed to sacrifices), a police personnel carried his axe behind him. 

The Kondhs are recognised as scheduled tribes, part of the 8.6% of the population in India who are indigenous and whose right to cultural and religious identity is under threat. This is despite constitutional safeguards under Article 25 and 29 that guarantee the freedom to practise any religion and protect the right of minorities to preserve their culture. Further, the Fifth Schedule lays down rules about land belonging to the adivasis. While a lot is written about land grabs in Adivasi (tribal) areas, the threat of cultural appropriation hardly ever makes headlines.

This video was made by a Video Volunteers Community Correspondent. Community Correspondents come from marginalised communities in India and produce videos on unreported stories. These stories are ’news by those who live it.’  they give the hyperlocal context to global human rights and development challenges. See more such videos at www.videovolunteers.org. Take action for a more just global media by sharing their videos and joining in their call for change.