Gondi people

Gond woman in her fields, Madhya Pradesh

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• published: 27 Mar 2014
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A Gond woman tends to her maize fields while banana plants fruit at the periphery of her fields. Gond tribe or Gondi tribe is one of the main tribes of Madhya Pradesh and are found in the Narna village that lies on the fringes of Kanha forest. It is an eco-village where house are built with mud using water and dried chaff. Gond people are a Dravidian people in central India, spread over the states of Madhya Pradesh, eastern Maharashtra (Vidarbha), Chhattisgarh, northern Andhra Pradesh (Telangana), and Western Odisha (majhi or gan community). With over four million people, they are the largest tribe in Central India. They are a designated Scheduled Tribe in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha and West Bengal. Gond or Rajgond are same tribes. The term Raj Gond was widely used in 1950s, but has now become almost obsolete, probably because of the political eclipse of the Gond Rajas. The Gondi language is related to Telugu and other Dravidian languages. About half of Gonds speak Gondi languages while the rest speak Indo-Aryan languages including Hindi. For many years during the British colonial period of India the Gonds were considered to have performed human sacrifices, although this notion was later discredited. Gondwana was conquered in 1564 by Akbar. This State included the regions of Sagar, Damoh, Mandla, Seoni, Narmada Valley and possibly a portion of Bhopal. The state had 53 forts. Dalpat Shah was its ruler. When he died he left behind his widow Durgawati and their infant son Bir Naryan. Durgawati became the Regent. Abul Fazal says that Durgawati ruled her kingdom with wisdom and ability. She delighted in hunting and bringing down wild animals with her own gun.Asaf Khan, the Governor of Kara or Allahabad, was tempted by the wealth of Gondwana. Occasionally he ravaged the borders of the kingdom. Rani Durgwati started negotiations with Akbar for a peaceful settlement and when those negotiation failed, she retaliated by making forays against Bhilsa. Asaf Khan marched toward Gondwana. Durgawati defended her territory bravely, but she was out numbered and defeated in a battle between garh and Mandal in the modern Jabalpur District.Rani Durgawati was wounded and she plunged a dagger into her chest and ended her life to save herself from disgrace. Her kingdom was devastated and a lot of the wealth fell into the hands of the Mughals. Bir Narayn died fighting in the defence of his country. According to V.A.Smith,"Akbar's attack on a princess of a character so noble was mere aggression, wholly unprovoked and devoid of all justifications other than the lust for conquest and plunder." source - Wikipedia This footage is part of the professionally-shot broadcast stock footage archive of Wilderness Films India Ltd., the largest collection of HD imagery from South Asia. The Wilderness Films India collection comprises of tens of thousands of hours of high quality broadcast imagery, mostly shot on HDCAM / SR 1080i High Definition, Alexa, SR, HDV and XDCAM. Write to us for licensing this footage on a broadcast format, for use in your production! We are happy to be commissioned to film for you or else provide you with broadcast crewing and production solutions across South Asia. We pride ourselves in bringing the best of India and South Asia to the world... Reach us at rupindang @ gmail . com and admin@wildfilmsindia.com.