Badagas
 | This article includes a list of references, related reading, or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. (November 2017) |
 Badaga family in the Nilgiri Hills, 1909 | |
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| Badaga |
The Badugas are the peoples living in the Nilgiri district in Tamil Nadu, India. Throughout the district the Badugas live in nearly 400 villages, called Hattis. Baduga people speak the language called "Badugu". The language has no script. Nilgiris was originally a tribal land.[1]
History
Throughout the district the Badugas live in nearly 303 villages, called hattis. Baduga people speak the language called "Badugu". The language has no script. Based on unauthentic interpretation of ballads and stories collected from unverifiable individuals — indicates erroneously with a malicious intent that the Badaga have lived in the area for some four centuries, having mostly migrated during 1565-1617 from a block of villages near Nanjangud in southern Mysore (now Karnataka. Some came later. Supposedly unnamed Badaga elders have regularly recounted these baseless facts as oral history and cannot be relied upon. Though their language is very close to Kannada, it is a mixture of almost all Dravidian languages and yet unique. The migration theory is now totally rejected by educated Badagas,[citation needed] as admittedly the land holdings of the District majorly indicates the Badagas as owners in almost all Taluks of the District.
Culture
Thundu (a white piece of cloth) and Seeley forms an integral part of the attire of the Badugu women.
Badugas marry within their community and follow their own marriage traditions. Their important festival is Devva Habba. Devva Habba provides significant insights into the origin of Badugas. They have certain rules and regulations to be followed in implementing their cultural rituals from the birth of a child and follows through functions like Puberty, Marriage, Naming ceremony, Seventh Month Pregnancy, Housewarming, Festivals and finally Death ceremony.
Festival
Badugas call festivals as "HABBA." Badagas main deities are Hirodaiyya, Jedayaswomi, Kariyabettaraya, Hethai and Ayya. They celebrate Hethai Habba in a grand fashion spread over a month during December–January every year, and the festival is celebrated all over the district. The important festivals are Devva habba, Hethe habba, Sakalathi habba, Uppattuva Habba. They also worship Sun, Nature and Ancestors.
Language
Baduga language is a dialect of Canaries, It was the language of communication of Ancient South Dravidian, say’s Christian Pilot-Raichoor, a French Linguist. It is an evident from her research that the Baduga community was created in the Nilgiris with small local groups in ancient time. LACITO in Paris houses numerous varieties of Baduga stories and songs collected over the past two decades by Pilot-Raichoor.[2]
Education
Several Badaga have become officials in various parts of the Indian Government. Former Lok Sabha MP, the late Smt. Akkamma Devi, was the first Badaga woman to graduate from college and represented the Nilgiri Lok Sabha constituency from 1962 to 1967. Belli Lakshmi Ramakrishnan M.A., was the first Badaga woman post graduate in social work, and went on to be the first woman gazetted officer to serve in the Tamil Nadu State Government Department of Health and Family Welfare.[citation needed]
Scheduled Tribe Status
There is a long-standing demand to restore the status of the Badagas in the list of Scheduled Tribes under the Indian Constitution. The Badagas were on the tribes list during the British Raj, as per the 1931 census. After Independence, Badugas were on the Scheduled Tribe list during the 1951 census, but were later removed."Include Badagas in ST list: Jayalalithaa requests PM". The Hindu. Special Correspondent. 2011-07-30. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 2017-12-08.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: others (link)</
References
- www.badugaa.com
- Gazetteer of India by B.L.Rice, 1877.
- Mysore,Canara and Malabar by Buchanan in 1807
- Madras District Gazateer (The Nilgiris) by W.Francis, 1908
- Mysore,Canara and Malabar by Buchanan in 1807
- Letters on the Climate, inhabitants, Production etc., South India by James Hough, 1826
- Breeks, J.W. (1873), An Account of the Primitive Tribes of the Nilgiris; Nilgiri Manual, vol. i. pp. 218–228; Madras Journ. of Sci. and Lit. vol. viii. pp. 103–105; Madras Museum Bulletin, vol. ii., no. i, pp. 1–7.
- Hockings, P. (1988). Counsel from the ancients, a study of Badaga proverbs, prayers, omens and curses. Berlin and New York: Mouton de Gruyter.
- Hockings, P. (1989). "The cultural ecology of the Nilgiris District" In P. Hockings (Ed.), Blue Mountains: The ethnography and biogeography of a South *Indian region (pp. 360–376). New Delhi and New York: Oxford University Press.
- Hockings, P. (1999). Kindreds of the earth: Badaga household structure and demography. New Delhi and Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
- Hockings, P. (2001). "Mortuary ritual of the Badagas of Southern India". (Fieldiana, Anthropology, n.s., 32.) Chicago: Field Museum of Natural History.