Karbi utsav photo

Karbi Utsav 2010 photo

Karbi Dehal Utsav photo

Photo of the Utsav

Karbi Dehal Rongker utsav photo

Delhi University Student visit Karbi Village

SUMMER CAME, exams ended. It’s time to be home. At last a relief from the scorching heat of Delhi. Back to Guwahati, we decided to do an internship under sSTEP, an NGO located at Japorigog. Thereby we got the opportunity to study a tribal society and examine its response towards urbanization. How far has been the effect of urbanization on the way of living of the tribal people was the core of our focus. The Northeast is a homogenous blend of numerous tribes which counts around 150. We picked up the Karbi tribe and took Pamohi village as the case study of our research. Pamohi is a village, still under the Green Belt, located in the outskirts of Guwahati city. There are about 100 families in the village and the population is a balanced mixture of both Bodos and Karbis.Pamohi, thousand years ago was a dense jungle inhabited by wild animals like elephants, tigers, etc and the famous wetland Deepor Beel, where migratory birds from all over come in winters, is located in the vicinity of the village. The tribal folk originally resided in the hills surrounding Pamohi, most of the population being engaged in jhum cultivation. In course of time, being influenced by plain land cultivation, they came down and settled in the plains, and this move for farming in the plains gave Pamohi its name where pam, an Assamese word means ‘farm’.Karbis are broadly categorized as Inghi’s, Ingti’s, Terang’s, Timung’s and Teron’s; Inghis being the highest in the hierarchy. All these branches are again subdivided into various sub-branches, with their main language being Karbi. The Karbi society is mainly patriarchal where descent is traced from the father’s side. Traditionally, joint family system was a characteristic feature of the Karbis where the seniormost male member was considered the head of the family. The case study, however, revealed a shift from joint family structure to nuclear family and to our satisfaction no women subjugation was observed.The main source of livelihood of these people is agricultural activities. With urbanization, people started taking up different occupations in the secondary and tertiary sectors, notable among which is urban informal labour. Over the last few years, a drastic change has been noticed in the development process of Guwahati city, the effect of which is prominently apparent on Pamohi. Land selling by the natives to rich land owners of the city has become an issue. The problematic part of this issue is that land is being sold at a very cheap rate where the local brokers play the part of convincing the indigenous people. The traditional housing pattern of the Karbis are short bamboo huts polished with mud and a thatched roof, with only one roof as the main entrance and no window. But it came as a surprise when only a very few such houses were seen in the village; today all the houses are concrete houses.Karbis are scattered all over the Northeast and dressing too varies from region to region. The customary Karbi outfit for females of the Kamrup district is called peni mekhela but in other regions, it is the peni pecock. The Karbi men wear the choi or chola with dhoti. Nowadays due to acculturation and assimilation with other cultures, specially the Assamese, dressing too has undergone a change. Women now wear mekhela chadar and men are seen in shirts and trousers.This tribe is basically non-vegetarian and prefers different kinds of herbs, fish and meat. O-akerang (dry fish), tomang (grinded dry fish with wild yam), mehekpaat (a wild herb), rupisuad (a sour herb), hingru (yam), etc are some popular food items; although boiled food was relished earlier, oily and spicy food has now gained popularity amongst the young generation. Juguli or sor (homemade wine) is an important drink which is not only used in day to day life but also in each and every ritual.Hinduism is the religion practised by the Karbis, though a very small percentage of people have baptized themselves as Christians. There is no idol worship as such but stone worship is widely prevalent. Tamulong or Buragohain (Lord Shiva), Jilimi (goddess Parvati) and Boliya are their main gods along with other nature gods like sun, water, earth, wind, snake, etc. It would not be wrong to say that a negligible percentage of the population still believe in magic and witchcraft. The Zohang, the Deuhal and the Baat pujas are the three important festivals during the year. Talking about religion, the major focus reflects upon the Borghar which is their sacred domain. The Borghar is divided into two rooms separated by the Nungpe, a holy pole which has several significance in the rites, rituals, practices and believes of the Karbis.The Nungpe is the stem of the Dangori tree. Several norms are followed while cutting the tree in the forest. Juguli and beetle-nut are offered and it is taken care that the tree falls in the southern direction without any noise. Thereafter, the tree is respectfully carried by the people with utmost care so that it does not touch the ground. After fixing the pole in the Borghar, four roosters are sacrificed. Tangtik or a bag of grains is kept in the other room. The significance of the Borghar and the Nungpe is still intact despite owing to the forces of urbanization. The birth of a child follows performance of certain rites like sacrificing roosters in front of the Nungpe, cutting a small lock of the newborn’s hair, making the newborn taste a little drop of Juguli and giving a name. As these people started mingling with the Assamese society certain rituals like namakaran and annaprasanna gained importance. Likewise, puberty ceremony is increasingly becoming popular although this custom was never equivalent in the older times.Exogamy is the rule of marriage. Though it is a patriarchal society, marriage with the mother’s brother’s daughter was a preferred marriage which is still prevalent to an extent amongst a handful of people. Marriage by force was also practised. However, with modernization, this too has eroded and a thick population is deadly against the marriage with mother’s brother’s daughter and considers it as an incest taboo. No practice of dowry exists among the Karbis except a few marriage presentations.With the death of a person, the corpse was traditionally buried but nowadays they have taken to burning of the deceased person. A tupula (a small offering) of rice and Juguli are offered to the person who died and the kith and kin are supposed to be on a diet of boiled vegetarian food for about ten days, and after that there is a ceremony called Khar chuwa. This ceremony marks the end of the mourning period and fish and meat along with Juguli again is offered to the soul and others feast so as to get back to their day-to-day lives. In the face of modernization, education plays a pivotal role. A very positive attitude towards education, though at a slow pace has brought about remarkable changes in the village of Pamohi. The literacy rate of girls is higher than that of boys and Parijat Academy a school for the underprivileged children of Pamohi and nearby villages, can be considered as the hallmark for this change. Uttam Teron, the founder of Parijat Academy, deserves kudos for doing his bit in lifting the educational standard of the villgae children. The shift from tradition to modernity has been immense in every sphere — starting from dress, food, rituals to norms, beliefs and most importantly, in the overall outlook of the tribe. Should it be considered as a positive meltdown of change or is it a compromise with the original tribal identity? The reasons may be many: the attraction to the city glamour, acculturation and poor economic condition of the people being the most significant among all. In fact, change is indispensable but a disproportionate change in terms of the loss and gain is a matter of concern when a completely hybrid identity emerges with edges from neither here nor there after a particular point of the journey.This loss of Karbi identity should be pondered upon and efforts made so that via a balanced growth of tradition and modernity and mass awareness and realization the roots of the Karbis should be preserved before it gets completely uprooted.Bipanchi Dutta, Bitopi Dutta, Meenakshi Bujarbaruah

Welcome

Welcome to

18th Annual Central Karbi Dehal Rongker Utsav

Date: 15,16,17 February 2010

Venue: DhalbamaP.O. Garchuk, Guwahati-781035, Assam, India

Email: dkarbi@yahoo.com

Phone: 9706505712