The Ray Of Identity, On The Way To Transition

" The words and voices of this ethnographic writing are of the konra tribal community under studied and exactly represented through the narrator without any kind of manipulation. The privacy of all the people who have been part of this ethnographic documentation was strictly maintained. All the data were collected during the academic fieldwork within a specific short time period and somewhere were supported by the trusted secondary resources."

 

Konra Tribal Community

The pure glimpse of the rising sun, the babblement of the Kopai river and a hope to start another journey  begins  each and every day of the Konra people living in the Dangapara village, situated under the Bolpur subdivision and Birbhum district, West Bengal, India. Although , the exact time of their migration to this particular land could not be ascertained by them but it was revealed that a group of people were induced to come to Birbhum for their subsistence from Ranchi, under the state of Jharkhand ,as migrant labours as they were well- known for their traditional skills in various earth works such as cutting soil, digging tanks and agricultural labouring. Later many of them started settling here far from the main district area, at the kopai river basin, which was the great source of water and  agricultural need among the villagers. Now they are living by managing their own traditional identity and within their own hamlet “Konrapara” with 37 households along with other 4 caste and tribal hamlets in the Dangapara village. 

 

The Konra, a Dravidian ethnic group found mainly in many districts of Odisha, Jharkhand and West Bengal. They are also known as Kuda, Kura, Kaora, Khaira, Khayra, Dhangar and Dhanger and many more in view of different places. There is a great deal of controversy regarding the ethnic and linguistic affiliation and the history of migration of this tribal community. Although it is speculated that they are an off shoot of Munda tribe. The authorities of different census operations since the time of Risley, were somewhat perplexed in placing the Konra either in the tribal or in the caste category. In 1931 census, over 90 per cent of the Konra were returned as Hindus and the rest were following their tribal religion. In 1951 the Konras were recorded as a scheduled caste. But in 1961 census, they were again listed as a member of the scheduled tribal groups. In spite of having  more than 1.5 lakh of population in the state, it is still the least known and one of the least studied tribal population in West Bengal. The tribe's name Konra and its alternate spellings are possibly originated from Mundari word "Khoda" which means “digging the earth” and this is what their journey starts with….

Tradition With Transition

The growth of modern society and rapidly  changing  communication and behavioural process is actually rising the inner conflict between the heart and mind among the konras of Dangapara village. They  are sustaining and managing their traditional way of life through their language, music , dance forms  and subsistence pattern but also having great influence on their traditional own way of life in terms of their material culture and rituals by the practices of other hindu castes living with them in the village. A peaceful coexistence with the higher caste socities living within the village can be seen many times but they are socially in the margin of exclusion  along with ignorance and discriminations as well.   

Konra language have their own specific dialect but does not have any written form of script so they used to right in Bengali script. Coupland in his study on 1911, proposed that the original Konra dialect is quite akin to the Mundari language in all essential points, which was also accepted by Grierson in his later study. But During 1951 census out of 43 thousand Koras of the state of West Bengal, only 630 Koras had declared Mundari Kora as their mother tongue and this gives an idea of the impact of regional language on them (Das: 1964). And so on in the case of other social cultural aspects of this people, many regional influence made changes to their own lifestyle.

They have their own way of singing and dancing to entertain  people comes from outside of the area and in occasional calling which is a partial source of their earning and community satisfaction. They do write poems and songs with konra dialect but Bengali scripting as they did not have their own script. They have their signature dance steps  which actually differs them from the Santals, their neighbourhood community.

Most of these people does not have their own land. They do serve as labours under the mahajans or landlords  of their village and have their own way of managing livelihood with them. In spite of having critical losses in terms of their service they provide to the landlords they still engaged themselves with the earth in forms of either agriculture,  agricultural labours, day labour or by serving in the brickfields as seasonally. Few of the female members go outside for seasonal labouring or other services but male members do if they have opportunity. Most of the female members do engage themselves with agricultural labouring and holding various household services. Apart from that, most of them have cows, goats and chickens as a source of their sustenance and extra earnings. The literacy rate of these people are not that much satisfied but most of them are willing to send their children to schools but that is also like a part of joke in their life.   

From the very morning  parents go out for their own businesses, childrens don’t have any one to push them or inspire them for learning and going to school. Although most of the konra families are within nuclear to middle size family but where,  there is a girl of little more age than other children, all the responsibilities lies to her shoulder. Small girl Childs do every required household work as they are already habituated to do all the work and also to look after her sisters and brothers, they does not have that much time to go to school, if they go, who will take care of their siblings. Boys also do help their fathers and mothers for their works and even do engage in child labour if they have opportunity to receive even a little amount of money, which actually diverts a young mind from educational interest.

Konras have borrowed many material cultural aspects and ritual practices from their neighbouring Hindu caste groups and having coexistence with them in terms of festivals and other occasions. Their houses are traditional in type includes some brick-built houses and mostly mud made and thatched with straw. Their household materials include Plate, Bowl, Pipkin, Cookingspud, Glass, Saucepan, Pail, Mug, Busket, Kula, Mud-made oven ,Knife, Pitcher, Rice Pot, Seater, Jug and many more. Plough, Hoe, Big Knife, Crowbar, Axe, Hand tractor, Hand Hoe and Ladder are their agricultural implements. They use Fishing trap(Bar), Fishing Net, Angling, Catapult, Fishing huck, Bow and Arrow for fishing and fowling purposes and only Madol and Nagra as their musical instruments.

The staple food of the Konra observed during investigation is rice, which is locally known as ‘Mandi’. Both men and women consume puffed rice or soaked rice in morning. They consume boiled rice with gruels, pulses if possible egg or fishes during lunch hour. Generally they take food thrice in a day. The menu of the dinner includes the repetitions of food items consumed in lunch. Some of the common food items are: julutu (meat curry); hakutu (fish curry); bilitu (egg curry); aarabhaji (green leafy vegetable); tuaa (milk); mandibode (rice liquor); handia (rice beer) etc.

Konra women generally used to wear cotton sarees and for occasions yellow saree with red border having a specific wrapping style and they have fascination of decorating their hair bun and  themselves with light weight silver or golden plated or handcraft jewelleries. Males use to wear loose shirt and pant for generally or occasionally. 

Although early researches reveals that Konras used to believe in Animism and ancestral worship but now they represents themselves as the believers of hindu caste tradition and rituals practices . with the Marang Burur Puja they starts their Bengali new year by performing dance, consuming hand made liquers and ceremonial feast followed by Ura puja, Anna Puja, Kali Puja, Labaan Puja and Home puja in specific month and for specific occasions. Apart from these they performs almost all other festivals followed by the Hindus of the village including durga Puja, Kali Puja, Manasha Puja, Shibaratri , Vai fota and many more.     

' From The Earth, With The Earth '

The seed they have originated from, the identity they have preserved by and the subsistence they are growing through is the Earth, the lifeline of Konra people. They are one of examples of those tribal populations who are still maintaining their traditional lifestyle living far away from their originated place and also trying to grasping the pace of this dynamic modern world with the amalgamation of tradition and modern practices and balancing the coexistence with their neighbours. These people have received many social and environmental possibilities but also many constrains throughout their lifestyle as well.

 

The Gap between development and sustainability

The activity of the village panchayet in the developmental work undoubtably looks very promising and satisfactory but those are not sustained. . Under the Mission Nirmal bangla now all the households have their own lavatory provided through the Sattur gram panchayet. But those are remaining useless. Why? Because the grounded level of this land is having bedrocks for which hand pump needs deep channelling to the deep most level to reach to ground water source. Which was not been done! That’s why after some days of implanting hand pumps they became useless and now they use river and ponds as  sources of water to complete all of their water related affairs and due to increasing water scarcity on the sources most of the villagers still prefer to go to nearby fields for completing morning ablution. Which is really unexpected and unsatisfied for those people who are actually  well aware of cleanliness and maintaining their village.

The development of techno-economic aspects in the village shows some interesting features. Since most of the villagers are agriculturist, many among them were found to use threshing machine, spray machine, insecticides, seeds of high yielding varieties, and use of shallow-pump for irrigation. It was found that they sell the crops in the retail markets in Bolpur, Illambazar etc., at the price fixed up by the government. So the villagers are getting exposure to market economy. But along with this while the mechianary labour is increasing for being easy, beneficial for time, money and  high demand, these people are actually in the stage of crucial fear of losing their own traditional earth workings, which they are specialize of and to take the decision of getting involved to other possible services.

These konra people of dangapara village are really happy to have all the development activities and attempts made by the government but thy are still struggling to make us understand their own environmental, socio-cultural and economic possibilities and limitations.

Most of them have Bellow Poverty Level (BPL) ration cards availing the facilities from nearby ration shops. They have health cards and health facilities to nearest health centre although many of the health workers lack cooperation with them. There is no non-governmental organization (NGO) situated inside the village, however, three Self Help Groups were found  who mainly focus on educational development primarily by providing primary, secondary and higher secondary education for tribal girls. Beside this they also provides mid-day meal, runs pre-primary school, imparts handicraft & other related training, and motivates the resident girls to cultural practices related to songs, dance etc. Their call comes for showing their dance and songs to various ceremonies and functions in Bolpur and outside. But there also their neighbouring Santals do play dominated roles over them and they remains faded and silent.

They  have anganwary school, primary school and library in their village. The educational centres provide pre-primary education; regular health check-up; vaccination and mid-day meal. According to the teachers of those schools most of the konra children does not have any punctuality or a little interest to study or to learn rather they only come to school for enjoyments with friends and having mid-day meal but from the voice of the little students, teachers does not understand them for what they are asking for to make them to understand regarding the lessons nor even their family issues, they does not cooperate to make them understand the subjects like math, science and mostly English for that they are remaining weak and unable to learn those subjects properly.

But these smiling faces hopes to grown older with knowledge and wish to secure a success in their life. Parents are having tensions regarding their children, they don’t want their children to grow like they had with a lot of limitations and constrains. They are struggling to keep their tradition and questioning, 

Will we be allowed to maintain our traditional life if we also want to be a part of the modern world?

 

These people who have originated from earth, serving  people by engaging with earth  and still walking on barefoot is actually forcing us to stand in front of the questions like,

How close we are actually reaching to them in respect to their own environmental and social situation?

Is it really possible for them to strictly maintain and nourish their own traditional way of life in this dynamic social process?

How their preservation will be cherished if they are travelling through under nourishments of their community desires?

And many more….

 

Acknowledgement and My Special Thanks To...

My Parents,

Prof. Sanchita Mistry,Professor and Head of the Department of Anthropology, Sree Chaitanya College, Habra, West Bengal, India.

OUR FIELD SUPERVISORS , 

PROF.PARTHA CHAKRABORTY, Department of Anthropology, Sree Chaitanya College, Habra, West Bengal and

DR. MITHUN DAS, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology and Tribal Studies, Sidho Kanho Birsha University, Purulia, West Bengal

All the Konra children and Konra people including Malati Konra and Namita Konra who were my key informants, Dangapara Village, Birbhum, West bengal.

Thanks to all my peer friends, Bsc. Anthropology Fieldwork, Graduation batch of 2019, Department of Anthropology, Sree Chaitanya College, Habra, West Bengal State University, West bengal.