Facts About The Ho People in India

Facts About The Ho People in India

Sergei   September 22, 2017   Comment  

The Ho are a tribal people who, along with their close neighbors the Munda, inhabit the Chota Nagpur plateau of southern Bihar state, India. They speak the Mundari language and number about 1.14 million (2000 est.).

The Ho consider themselves the aboriginal inhabitants of present-day Singhbhum, the southernmost district of Bihar. Some Ho are still forest dwellers, relying partly on hunting and gathering for subsistence; most, however, cultivate rice, cereals, and legumes.

The Ho have also become increasingly involved in the local cash economy, working as laborers in factories and mines. Their traditional religion involves spirit worship and divination.

In the 19th century the Ho fought fiercely for their freedom from British control. They resisted incursions in Singhbhum by Hindu and Muslim settlers as well. This resistance resulted in the establishment of a protected area for them, in which outsiders were legally excluded from obtaining land.

Partly because of the existence of this area, the Ho have been able to retain some of their cultural autonomy, although major changes have occurred under the impact of Christianity and industrialization.

Naga People, Who Are They? | Naga Facts

Naga People, Who Are They? | Naga Facts

Sergei   September 22, 2017   Comment  

Naga is the name given a number of tribes occupying the Naga hills on the borders of India and Burma (now Myanmar). These tribes speak related Tibeto-Burman languages (see Sino-Tibetan languages); their populations totaled nearly 1.5 million in the 1990s.

The traditional economy of the Naga depended on shifting cultivation, although a few groups also practiced irrigated rice cultivation on hill terraces. The Naga trace descent in the male line, and relations between various lineages were traditionally ordered in terms of complex rules concerning marriage. Alongside such marital relations, feuds also existed between lineages and often involved the practice of head-hunting.

Between 1865 and 1880 the Naga hills were taken over by the British, and practices such as head-hunting were banned. Since then the traditional culture of the Naga has been in decline, and most of the Naga have converted to Christianity, particularly to the Baptist church.

In recent years the Naga have been involved in various attempts to gain independence from Indian rule, and a series of military uprisings have occurred. In response to these pressures, the Indian government established the state of Nagaland in 1963.

Demands for the creation of an independent Naga nation continued, however, and talks between the Indian government and the main separatist group, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), have made little progress.

In 2003, after Burmese soldiers destroyed the headquarters of a breakaway NSCN group in the Patkai mountains, India sealed the border between Myanmar and the states of Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh to prevent the rebels from entering India.

Naga in northern Manipur state have frequently resorted to violence in their quest for the integration into Nagaland of four districts inhabited mostly by Naga tribes; their demands have been rejected by the federal government.