A walk through the land of the Bhils

1 1 Introduction

1.1 A walk through the land of the Bhils

The Bhils, the second largest tribal group of India, are found in western India, specifically southern Rajasthan, western Madhya Pradesh, eastern Gujarat and northern Maharashtra. The region is forested and includes the Aravali, Vindhya and Satpuda mountain ranges. The Tapti, Narmada and Mahi are the important rivers that water the region. According to the 1991 census, the number of mother tongue speakers of all Bhili language varieties combined was 5.5 million. There was a time when education was inaccessible for the Bhils, but now there are many educated people from the community in government services. Nonetheless, most interior villages still do not have full access to the benefits of education. Quoting Gupta and Dutta, Singh 1994:122 describes the physical appearance of Bhils as follows: “Bhils in general are below medium or short-statured in height, tend to have a round head shape and have a round or oblong facial profile with a relatively broad nose form.” Maggard et al 1998:6 describes the village settlement of Bhils as follows: “Bhils generally live in non-clustered villages, with houses spaced at some distance from one another with fields surrounding them. A typical Bhil village having a few hundred residents can occupy an area of a few square kilometres. The distance between the houses is said to lessen the hostility between neighbours. The family structure among the Bhils is generally nuclear, and when a son marries he begins a new family unit.” The language of the Bhils is classified in the Indo-Aryan family. The old Bhili language is thought to have a Munda or Dravidian element; Grierson asserts a non-Indo-Aryan element in Bhili languages, though that is not thoroughly established. The Bhili language forms a dialectical network from southern Rajasthan to northwest Maharashtra and from eastern Gujarat to southwest Madhya Pradesh. Other than Bhili, Grierson 1907:5–6 lists twenty-six additional names of separate dialects that have their own individual identity. Maggard et al 1998:11 lists seven major distinct varieties of Bhili. 1 However, there are a number of Bhili dialects that are very different in intelligibility. The introductory chapter by Maggard et al. is an essential reader in order to have an overall understanding about the Bhils and their language varieties. It is not unusual for any homogeneous or especially heterogeneous group that spreads across a large geographical area to have a multiplicity of names. This is true among the Bhils, who have many groups, subgroups and clans. The term Bhil or Bhili is used mainly in two ways in this report. In the restricted sense, Bhil refers to those groups who call themselves Bhils or who claim to be speaking Bhili e.g., Noiras or Dungra Bhils. In the larger sense, Bhil is a cover term for different tribal groups with enough superficial resemblance in their way of life to cause them to be grouped together. The government follows this broader classification, which includes even those who do not accept themselves as Bhils or claim to be speaking a Bhili variety. 2 Unless otherwise specified, the term Bhil or Bhili carries the restricted sense throughout this report. 1 Jhabua Bhili variety, Wagdi variety, BhilodiBhili and Patelia of Gujarat together, Bhilali, Rathwi Bareli and Rathwi Pauri together, Rathawi of Gujarat and Dungra Bhili are the seven distinct varieties identified in the research. 2 For example, though Pauras are classified as Bhils in government records, they hardly identify themselves as Bhils and always count themselves superior to other Bhils.

1.2 Noiras