Little did the Adivasis in Adilabad and neighbouring districts realise that a record has been created when Deshmukh Durva Shambhudev from Mallapur in Indervelli mandal married Athram Indrani from Chintapally in Tiryani mandal of Kumram Bheem Asifabad district, on Friday. The record is for the longest distance, about 150 km., to separate the villages of the bride and the groom belonging to the Raj Gond tribe.
It is for the first time in the ethos of aboriginal tribes here that the families ‘dared’ to venture out so far away from home to fix the alliance. Normally, the Raj Gonds and Kolams spend their entire lives within a radius of about 25 km of their habitations as their agriculture fields and markets, relations and all other things essential for survival exist within this geographical sphere only.
“Times are changing,” observed Durva Raju, Mallapur village Patel or head man, and Shambhudev’s uncle, as he dwelt upon the subtle changes creeping in. “It is increasingly becoming difficult to find a suitable alliance close to our village if the prospective bride or groom are educated and even more difficult if they are in government employment,” he pointed out.
Shambhudev, who works as junior assistant in the Excise Department at Kagaznagar is the ‘victim’ of the change that his uncle was talking about. He could find suitable match in Indrani because she is a post graduate with a bachelor's degree in Education but only after a five year long wait.
“We had refused the proposal from Indrani's family for four years as we did not want him to get married to a woman so far,” recalled Mallapur elder Pusam Anand Rao. “However, we gave in as it was already too late for Shambhudev,” he explained.
Unless the exigencies of education or employment requires them to do so or their village is located far away from the temple of their clan gods, Raj Gond or Kolam individuals have no business beyond the given geographical limit of 25 kms radius.
The most important components of their relationship with outside world, the money lender, the weekly shandy and the bank are all located within this specified area.
“We do not go beyond that even to cast our votes,” concurred Athram Raju, Kolam elder and ex-sarpanch of Daboli gram panchayat in KB Asifabad district.
