MYTHOLOGIES OF THE LODHA TRIBES

Lodha tribes are one of Schedule Tribes and PVTGs of India, primarily living in West Bengal and Odisha. Lodhas of West Bengal mostly live the Paschim Medinipur and Jhargham districts. A section of the Lodha has converted to Islam, and formed a distinct community called the Lodha Muslims. Lodha means piece of flesh named after their ancestor. Lodhas have been in the focus of anthropologists and social activists. During the early period of their rule, the British government in India oppressed the tribal people of Jungle Mahals, who were traditionally dependent upon the forests for a living. They had revolted but were ruthlessly suppressed. Having been deprived of their livelihood and without any alternatives, they took to criminal ways of life and were subsequently branded a criminal tribe. They should properly be labelled as uprooted rebels. Lodha titles are Nayek, Mallick, Digar, Sardar, Bhokta, Kotal, Dandapat, Bhunya etc. These titles were also used by the Sabars. One of the most important research on the Lodhas was done by a Calcutta University faculty, Professor Prabodh Kumar Bhowmick. Much later, researchers from the Department of Anthropology at Vidyasagar University have done empirical studies on the development scenario of the Lodha tribe in Mendinpur district who were by that time declared as a ‘Primitive Tribal Group’ (PTG) by the Government of India.

At one time grouped under the draconian Criminal Tribes Act by the British, the Lodha trace their origins to the Savaras of the Hindu puranas. The name Lodha is derived from the word Lubdhaka meaning trapper. Basically hunter-gatherers they used to rely on the sale of kendu and siali leaf cups and plates, tussar cocoons, resin and honey for a livelihood. Traditionally, breeding of tassar moths and the collection of their cocoons was the main income generating activity of the Lodha. Fish and tortoise are their main game. Shifting and settled agriculture was also practiced and recently many Lodha have engaged in agricultural labor, rope making and construction work besides taking up any small business or work that will earn them money.

Lalbazar’s dwellers – Lodhas – who are identified by the Central Government as a denotified tribe, and are similar to the Sabar tribe of West Bengal had historically been forest product collectors, farmers and daily wage workers. But, as their artistically painted houses draw many tourists to their village, they have turned to other creative endeavours like making katumkutum dolls, Katha art as well as eco-painting to earn a living. In 2014, when Kolkata based artist, Mrinal Mandal wandered into Lalbazar, he recalls that it looked like any other tribal settlement, with thatched roofed mud houses. “There were about 80 inhabitants, who made little money from daily labour jobs, and farming. At the time, I was mesmerized by the natural beauty of the place. It was isolated and cosy, with a single road leading up to it, and nothing but forests surrounding it. I had thought that it would serve as a wonderful retreat or studio for urban artists,” he said.

Lodha tribes are mainly hunters by profession and they live in close association with forest ecosystem and environment to supplement their daily requirement of food. They depend on the forest economy by hunting animals like lizards, toads, snakes and different types of birds. They collect jungle produce like Babui-grass tubers, roots and nuts. Their regular meal consists of flesh of small animals, fish collected from rivers, birds, eggs, wild fruits and roots. However, their main dietary content is animal flesh and birds for which they kill lots of birds and animals daily. This causes a great loss in biodiversity. Nutritional status can be calculated by dietary, anthropometric, biochemical and clinical methods. As per the statistics, Chronic Energy or hunger Deficiency (CED) among the Lodhas in West Bengal is 45.2%. They are facing extreme nutritional stress that may have severe health consequences pertaining to morbidity and mortality. To reduce the rate of CED among the Lodha tribe, an urgent proactive nutritional supplementation and intervention is required. This dismal health condition in this tribal community is due to various reasons like poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy, lack of safe drinking water etc.

A de-notified tribe, now classified as a particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG), Lodhas were falsely accused of making a living out of robbery by British colonial masters, a stigma that continued in the years after India achieved independent. As a result, the tribe was forced out of the mainstream, living a secluded life. Some elements in the community took to crime in the absence of any other opportunity. Now with government support, the tribal children have started getting educated, the youth have started mingling with other communities through sports and taking up jobs, in a step towards joining the mainstream.

Lodha means a piece of fish named after their ancestor. It a small tribe having a total population of 8905 as per census 2011. They are mainly found in the Suliapada and Morda Blocks of Mayurbhanj district. They claim that they are the descendants of Zara Sabara who are the only worshipers of Lord Jagannath and till today they have been performing important role in the religio-cultural norms of Jagannath temple. So it is justified to say that the Jagannath cult of Odisha is interwoven with the tribal religion especially the Lodha community. Based on these beliefs the Lodha regard themselves superior in social status than any other tribes in Odisha. It is therefore they identify themselves as Lodha Sabara. The Lodhas belong to the North Munda group speaking Mundari language as their mother tongue. By virtue of their long association and contact with the Hindi neighbours, they have forgotten their Mundari speech. Now they are speaking a dialect which is mixture of Bengali, Odia and Mundari. Lodhas have been in the focus of anthropologists and social activists. If any that revolted against the British in India first, it was the tribal’s and the Lodha communities who were on the front ranking. They were ruthlessly suppressed by the British and branded by them as criminals. It is sad to note that the Govt. of India, even after independence continues to brand them as criminal tribe instead of honouring them for the revolt they had pioneered against the foreign invaders. In India Lodhas are known as criminal tribe until the revocation of the Criminal Tribal Act 1962. Such attempt of the Govt. in free India left the Lodhas having no alternatives to earn their bread as they have no landed property. So the Lodhas are forced to become pretty thieves and earn their bread by stealing. As a result they are not accepted in the society to live with dignity.

The Lodha are an agricultural community. Some claim their descent from Lav, the son of Lord Rama. Most of them live in central India. Besides cultivation, they raise cattle, work as agricultural laborers and make ropes. In some areas, the girls are tattooed at an early age on the chin and forehand. The Lodha are moderately educated. The Lodha people practice Hinduism, the ancient religion of India. Hinduism is a catch-all phrase for the local religions of South Asia, so it is very diverse. At the popular level, Hindus worship and serve the gods of the Hindu pantheon. They visit Hindu temples and offer prayers, food, flowers, and incense to their gods in hopes of gaining protection and benefits. They do not have a personal or familial relationship with their gods like Christians or Jews. There are other Hindus who are much more philosophical, especially among the Brahmins. Almost all Hindus participate in yearly celebrations like Holi, the festival of colors and the start of spring / Diwali, the festival of lights / Navratri, the celebration of autumn / and Rama Navami, Rama’s birthday.

The Lodhas are now treated as one of the denotified communities by the Central Government. In West Bengal, Lodhas are mainly concentrated in the districts of Paschim (West) Medinipur and Purba (East) Medinipur. In the pre-Independence period they were treated as a Criminal Tribe till the revocation of the Criminal Tribes Act in 1952. In the first Census of India after Independence, the Lodhas were recorded as a scheduled caste and their total population was returned to be 8,346 only in West Bengal (Mitra 1953: 89). According to the Census of 1951 the Lodhas were found to be distributed in the districts of Burdwan, Birbhum, Bankura, Midnapore, Hooghly, Howrah, 24 Parganas, Calcutta, Murshidabad and Jalpaiguri. In 1951, they were not found in the North Bengal districts like Nadia, Maldah, West Dinajpur, Darjeeling and Cooch Behar. In the same Census the total number of Lodhas in erstwhile Midnapore was 7040, that is 84.35 percent of the then total population of Lodhas in West Bengal. The Lodhas of Midnapore are said to be identical with Savars and Sahars but in Orissa they are different. They marry young but they do not practice widow remarriage or divorce. Their traditional occupation is collection of jungle produce, but in Midnapore they also work as agricultural labourers and firewood collectors and sellers (Ibid: 77). The Census of 1981 shows that the total population of the Lodhas including the Kharias and the Kherias of West Bengal was 53,718. The Lodhas were concentrated in erstwhile Midnapore District and their total number according to the Census of 1981 was 16,534. Besides West Bengal, they are also found in the Mayurbhanj and Baleswar districts of Orissa, Originally, they inhabited hilly rugged terrains covered with jungle. Their mother tongue is Lodha, which is close to Savara, an Austro-Asiatic language. They are fluent in Bengali. Traditionally, they were forest dwellers but now they have started cultivation either as owners of land or as agricultural labourers and are also engaged in hunting and fishing. More than 80 percent of them follow Hinduism with traditional belief in spirits and nature.

The Lodha people are a tribal/Adivasi people living primarily in the Indian states of West Bengal and Odisha, mostly in the Paschim Medinipur district. A section of the Lodha has converted to Islam, and form a distinct community of Lodha Muslims. Lodha means piece of flesh named after their ancestor. Lodhas have been in the focus of anthropologists and social activists.[3] During the early period of their rule, the British government in India oppressed the tribal people of Jungle Mahals, who were traditionally dependent upon the forests for a living. They had revolted but were ruthlessly suppressed. Having been deprived of their livelihood and without any alternatives, they took to criminal ways of life and were subsequently branded a criminal tribe. They should properly be labelled as uprooted rebels. Lodha titles are Nayek, Mallick, Digar, Sardar, Bhokta, Kotal, Dandapat, Bhunya etc. Based on these beliefs the Lodha regard themselves superior in social status than any other tribes in Odisha. It is therefore they identify themselves as Lodha Sabara. They are declared as a ‘Primitive Tribal Group'(PTG) by the Government of India. They had a literacy rate of 34.8 per cent.

The Lodhas have a very long history of oppression, exploitation, marginalization, and human rights violation since the colonial and post-colonial period by both the dominant native and nation-state actors and other members of the tribal community. They have also been branded as a ‘Criminal Tribe’ from the colonial period. According to Guha, ‘having been deprived of their livelihood and without any alternatives, they took to criminal ways of life. A qualitative study was undertaken among Lodha tribals in the Mayurbhanj district of Odisha to examine how digital media accessibility has affected the social and cultural life of the youths of this tribal community. It also assessed any interrelationship between new media existence and cultural exclusion among the youths. Face-to-face interviews, focus group discussions, and observation methods were applied for accessing and generating information. Five villages with more than 70 percent Lodha population were selected for the study. A stratified random sampling method was used to determine the sample. The results directly link new media consumption and cultural disconnect among the Lodha youths. The young tribals were moving away from their traditional cultural systems into a more urbanized existence that is far removed from the life known to their previous generations.

Lodha tribe is one of the primitive tribes of India, who can be largely found in the state of West Bengal. A total of around 100 families of Lodha tribe can be found in Sundarban islands. They are one of the most backward and aboriginal tribal group in the state West Bengal. As per the government records, the total population of Lodhas in West Bengal is 57012. Among them, 29, 360 are males and 27652 are females. The literacy level of the Lodhas is also comparatively very lower than others. Lodha tribes are mainly hunters by profession and they live in close association with forest ecosystem and environment to supplement their daily requirement of food. They depend on the forest economy by hunting animals like lizards, toads, snakes and different types of birds. They collect jungle produce like Babui-grass tubers, roots and nuts. Their regular meal consists of flesh of small animals, fish collected from rivers, birds, eggs, wild fruits and roots. However, their main dietary content is animal flesh and birds for which they kill lots of birds and animals daily. This causes a great loss in biodiversity.

Lodhas are a denotified tribe, now classified as a particularly vulnerable tribal group (PVTG), Lodhas were falsely accused of making a living out of robbery by British colonial masters, a stigma that continued in the years after India achieved independence. As a result, the tribe was forced out of the mainstream, living a secluded life. Some elements in the community took to crime in the absence of any other opportunity. “While urban India is progressing digitally, rural India is lagging behind. All they need is proper digital training. Our aim is to create more and more rural entrepreneurs who can transact on digital platforms easily. This will help our country become a true Digital India. The government is trying its bit. We, as citizens, need to come forward and try to empower the marginalized communities,” said Suchayan, co-founder and CEO of Advaita Bodhi Foundation.