This is a snapshot of an exotic tribe thriving in the inaccessible hilly regions of Malkangiri, Orissa. The tribe is called Bonda poraja (not alu bonda J; poraja, if I am not wrong, is the bastardized form of praja). In India, of all tribes, only two are known to not wear any clothing – The Onge tribe of Andamans, and the Bonda tribe.

The Bonda tribe is now slowly being pulled into the mainstream because of the efforts of many social welfare organizations. They are now semi clothed and are trickling into the social mainstream though reluctantly, but still maintaining their unique social practices.

These people have been recently exposed to the culture outside their hilly abodes and are on the way to acceptable state of being civilized. I have noticed that by far, most of the tribes are morally chaste (no moral turpitude), clean at heart with no prejudices.

Sadly, this tribe is on the verge of extinction as they practice an unusual form of family planning. Females do not indulge in carnal desires till their baby has weaned. That’s rather surprising in today’s world of “Laloo”dom.

A few more interesting snippets about them:

1. Bondas follow matriarchy!!! !!!! !!!!
2. Men pay dowry at the time of marriage
3. Girl selects the boy she wants to marry (usually 5 years younger to her)
4. Widow marriage is prevalent and is socially acceptable.
5. Women can separate from their spouse and she has full liberty to remarry.

Awesome to know that they are ahead of us in terms of gender bias!

Taboo spawns inquisitive and restless minds. And that’s what education has been able to achieve – inquisitiveness and restless not in the pursuits of science/something worthwhile, but for the Material and the tabooed.