Badagas of the Blue Mountains

Independence day

by Bellie Jayaprakash

August fifteenth.
Independence day.
Freedom from occupation of the land
by aliens. Celebrations.

But what about freedom
from exploitation of gender and hunger
from fights over caste and religion
from inequality based on creed and region
India, my great land of legends
when are you going to be really FREE?

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Freedom Struggle in the Nilgiris

Dharmalingam Venugopal

Notwithstanding its remoteness and the influence of the British, the Nilgiris played its due role in the freedom movement. Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to the hills from Jan 31 to Feb 4, 1934 stoked the freedom call. Gandhians like Rev.C.F.Andrews and Marjorie Sykes further encouraged the movement among the locals. The house arrest of Sarat Chandra Bose, brother of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose in 1942 in Coonoor and his address in public meetings influenced many inhabitants of all classes.

Mrs.Anne Besant, George Arundale and B.P.Wadia were interred in Col.Olcott’s house in Ooty from June to September 1917 for their role in Indian Home Rule movement.

The freedom struggle not only touched the most numerous Badagas, it also equally influenced the small community of Todas on the hills, who composed  a remarkable  song to welcome Gandhi to the hills.

O wise man!
The like of you has been neither made nor born!
Who is was that acquired learning first? Mahatma.
Who it was that acquired wisdom first? Mahatma.
Who it was that behaved like a father to all? Mahatma.
Who it was that released all men from fetters? Mahatma.
Who it was that fought with the tiger? Mahatma.
Who  it was that did what he considered right? Mahatma.

Toda songs have both a lyrical component as well as a melodic component. The songs consists of several lines. The essential component of each line is a ‘konh’ which comes from the memory of the senior Todas describing various significant events on the hills.

Dharmalingam Venugopal

[Nilgiri Documentation Centre, Kotagiri]

The Nilgiri district administration’s open mind to consider the positive winds of change among the feuding factions of the Badaga community is praise worthy. However, a lasting solution to the recurring problem and a competent body to take over the YBA Building should take into to account representations from across the Badaga community.

Badagas have always been socially conscious and have been forming various associations and advocacy groups to spread social, cultural, economic and ecological awareness among the community. A federation of all such groups will be the best representative body of the Badagas to manage common community assets like the YBA building and to make representation to  district, state and central administrations on the problems and welfare of the Badaga community.

All registered social, cultural and economic welfare associations including bajan and music groups and modern groups based on websites and social media as well  as documentation centres can form an umbrella organization which may be called All Nilgiris Badagas Union (ANBU ) or GAVA, the equivalent of the word  love in Badaga.

Only such a federation would reflect the glorious traditions of the Badagas together with the high achievements and aspirations of the community spread world over. Such a body will be capable of bringing all the two lakh odd Badagas under its active fold, mobilize enough funds and undertake necessary welfare and developmental activities.

The management can be of two tiers. The traditional leaders or the Parpathis and can be the patrons of the Union whose functioning can be managed by an Executive council  with due representations to the four Nadus and the various eligible associations.  A management consultant can be engaged to frame the criteria of eligibility, functions, laws and bylaws. The Union should be the sole voice to represent the Badaga view to the administration and  mediate in  local issues and disputes.

The YBA building can be managed professionally by a paid Manager and a Accountant, preferably non-Badagas,  to the satisfaction of all groups.

A library and a cultural gallery depicting the history and culture of the Badaga community should be the top priority of the new management.

Mahendra commented on Need for All Nilgiri Badagas Union (ANBU)

Sir, there is no doubt, our community needs a bonding body which can interact with every village. I hope all the seniors and experience elders like you can take up this task by approaching every village. As you have mentioned that Badagas have always been socially conscious and if every house becomes a member for the association then the bargaining power may increase. Badaga words for abbreviation only may give emotional touch for naming the association. beyond this with my limited knowledge, to get social identity, I humbly wish to suggest a celebration every year on a great personality who worked for the up lift meant of our community. District administration may be approached for the celebration and have a statue of such a personality at Coonoor or Ooty. Through my grand father I came to know about one of the great personalities Rao Bahadur Bellie Gowder, the great man who lit the light of education to our community. Like him other great personalities might be there in our community and those personalities can be remembered. Finally we must respect our community ladies for their hard work which helped our community’s development along with education.

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Bellie N commented on Need for All Nilgiri Badagas Union (ANBU)

Dear Mr Venugopal, Your article seem very good and productive. If it is implemented our community will be united in alll aspects, and will get good knowledge about our culture and all. But unfortunately there was a Federation of all of our community Associations. The first hurdle started at that stage only. The ego and power fight between the Federation and YBA started and some unnecessary difficulties started there. At one stage all the leaders of Federation and YBA decided to stop the functioning of Federation. OK past is past.

I humbly suggest all our leaders to prefer YBA as our Apex Body for all the Badaga Organizations throught the Nation and Abroad. Any Association started at any place in India and abroad should be affiliated with YBA, and its name should be the same YBA followed by their respective area, like YBA, Coimbatore, YBA, Chennai and so on. As YBA is situated in our Native Nilgiris head Quarters, and all the Naakku Betta people are the members of YBA,, it is obviously the sole Association for our whole community. Of course all the other Associations, out of Nilgiris should be given representation in the Governing committee, and office. i hope it will be a welcome suggestion, I hope.

I welcome other opinion, to get a wide discussion in this matter.

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Dharmalingam Venugopal

[Nilgiri Documentation Centre,Kotagiri]

Hindustan Photo Films was not the first industrial misadventure on the Nilgiri hills. 140 years ago the South India Alpha Gold Mining Company, ‘the biggest venture to date’ was set up for gold prospecting in Gudalur by two Australian coffee planters who had been gold miners earlier.

The New Zealand Herald of 31 March 1875 was agog with excitement. It talked of famous geologists of the day Messer Foote and King having made the project study, the Governor of Madras Lord Hobart himself having inspected the area and ‘experienced diggers’ involved in the project.

As for the quantity of the gold it was said that the, ‘auriferous quartz veins are as rich as are any which have been discovered in California’. The only danger was the , ‘fearfully malarious nature of the climate’.

The East India Company also notified that, ‘should any gold be found, a portion of it would be considered belonging to the government’.
‘Ootacamund, the delightful hitherto recherché sanitarium on the Neilgherries is to be the new busy and bustling Ballarat (a gold mining town in Australia)’ concluded the report and predicted an exodus from ‘Melbourne to Madras’.

However the folly of the whole sordid episode was exposed soon after. As Shyam Rungta says in ‘The Rise of Business Corporations in India 1851-1900’ the whole venture was, ‘founded on incompetence and ended in misfortune’. The average cost of an ounce of gold produced was three times the market price.

The failure of Alpha only added to the speculation. When the gold rush peaked in 1879-81 as many as 41 companies were set up with a capital of over 5 million Pound Sterling in London, Bombay and Madras.
The shares of these companies commanded 50 to 100 percent premium even before any work was started merely on the basis of the cables sent by the ‘mining experts’ one of whom turned out to be a retired circus clown.

From little more than clusters of native huts, ‘gold towns’ of Devala and Pandalur blossomed suddenly into busy mining centres substantial buildings, bungalows, hotels, a store for ‘valuable quartz which was to be extracted’, a saloon and even race course laid out on paddy fields.

When the gold ‘boom’ burst without producing any gold several companies and banks collapsed in London and India. The only people who benefited were the ,’professional promoters, vendors of land, engineers and government of Madras and Mysore and their officers’.
The gold burst left Devala and Pandalur ghost towns, a place which a Times of India reporter had described before the gold rush thus, ‘Nature was undoubtedly in a poetic mood when she conceived and evolved the country, wild and lovely in extreme at one moment suggesting by the impressive grandeur of its mountain masses reminiscences of the Austrian Tyrol, at another recalling the sweet scenary of our own beautiful Wales by the delicate sylvan richness of its wooded valleys’

SONG OF THE HILL-PEOPLE

[In the ‘Song Of The Hill People‘, Smt.Indu K Mallah has beautifully brought out the mindless and meaningless (religious) conversion of hill people especially, Badagas. What used to be an unforgivable act a couple of decades ago, has become a routine affair now. 

I am yet to meet a ‘converted’ Badaga who could give me atleast one convincing reason for the change. I know of many Badagas who say ‘I am a proud HINDU and have no problems in praying/ keeping pictures of other religious deities also in my puja room’. Hats off to these who are true Badagas!!

 Badagas have been a very closely knit community. Let not “religion” divide them – Wg Cdr JP]

It was indeed a very pleasant surprise that on 24th, July 2014, this website had 552 hits. On a single day.

Best ever in the existence of

www.badaga.co – ‘Badagas of the Blue Mountains’

I am deeply humbled and thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Proud to be an Indian : Proud to be a Badaga.

Wing Commander Bellie Jayaprakash [ bjaypee@gmail.com]

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A language takes thousands of years to develop and to to be in ‘circulation’ it needs to be actively spoken. But to survive, it needs a script that can be easily and effectively used. Badaga language (படக பாஷை), spoken by a few lakhs of people called Badagas belonging to the Nilgiris in South India, is an unique language that can stand on its own merit and has stood the test of time.

Sadly, there is ‘deep corruption’ of this beautiful ‘bashe’ by the unmindful and unscientific mixing of Tamil and English by Badagas themselves who think that conversing in Tamil or English is more fashionable.

Attempts have been made by a few to develop a Badaga Script, notably by Anandhan Raju, Kadasolai Yogesh Raj and Karimora Saravana Raju [tough not related, the name Raju is coincidental]. Anandhan Raju, first published his ‘fully developed‘ script in this website and it can be easily accessed and downloded. See Badaga Script page

Though Tamil and English scripts has been used to ‘reflect’ full sentences/stories/ballads etc of Badaga, a couple of hundred years back, it comes as a surprise to learn that in the late 1800s, Kannada script was been used by German Missionaries, who were desperate to convert the natives to Christianity. They published a few chapters of Bible in Badaga

Vinodh Rajan, who is a PhD student in Computer Science at the University of St Andrews, Scotland writes to say, “I am more interesting in writing systems of minority languages and I came across Badaga. I was researching the net and I found that Badaga used a modified Tamil with “:” sign to denote b,d,g etc  which are absent in Tamil as in ப:ட:க:. I then stumbled upon documents where Badaga was written in Kannada script”. I find the use of ‘CHANDRA BINDU’, a (Sanskrit) Vedic character.

 Proposal to encode Kannada Sign Spacing Candrabindu

Vinodh Rajan [vrs3@st-andrews.ac.uk]

Introduction

The Badaga language is a minority language in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is spoken by approximately 400 000 people around the Nilgiris district in Tamil Nadu. It is closely related to the Kannada language. However, Badaga does not have any script of its own. At present, it is commonly written using the Tamil script. Recently, there have been attempts to create a separate Badaga script [1].

In the late 19th century, the Christian missionaries attempted to use the Kannada script to write Badaga (perhaps due the language’s similarity to Kannada). Several New Testament gospel books were translated into Badaga and published using the Kannada script [2] [3].

Badaga Orthography in Kannada Script

Badaga when written with Kannada orthography seems to use only un-aspirated consonants. It also uses subjoined Kannada LLLA, which probably represents the retroflex vowels unique to the Badaga language.

But the most interesting is the use of a spacing Candrabindu character, which probably represents nasalization.

(Sample Text from the Gospel of Luke in Badaga Language)

māḍu, yēkāṁdale yeṁgū yeṁga tappugāraruga buṭṭaneyō ; innu eṁgḻuva
sōdanega sētade kēḍoṁda tappisu, eṁdu hḻēgivi enna .

[Read his full article]

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Here is an interesting article about how the vesti -dhoti- mundu has been the traditional dress of Badagas. Obviously, the recent incident of a High Court Judge not being allowed entry to the Cricket Club at Chennai because he was wearing a Vesti/Dhoti, has triggered the author to write this article.

Mitchi Hethay

Incidentally, in the olden days, the ONLY dress for Badagas, both men and women, has been the ‘MUNDU’ – a longish handwoven white sheet, a wrap around. While a smaller piece of white cloth, the size of a towel, called ‘PATTU’ is used by the women to cover the head, the men used a thinner version – ‘Mallu’ as their turban – mallu ‘MANDARAY’. Both genders use another longer piece, usually same as the MUNDU, to cover the upper body. – Wg Cdr JP

Dhoti and the Badagas

By Venugopal Dharmalingam

There may be more to the humble dhoti than what the ‘English’ Clubs may think. Dhoties have been the traditional dress of not only the hot tropical plains of Tamil Nadu but also that of its cold hills like the Nilgiris.

The basic dress of the Badaga men and women, the most numerous social group on the hills, have been the ubiquitous ‘mundu’, as the dhoti is called here. While men use a doubled over single mundu, women use two pieces of the same supplemented by a head cloth. ‘Each person was thus wrapped in a total of 8 to 10 m of cloth’ says Prof. Paul Hockings, the authority on Badaga social history.
He adds, ‘Cloth among the Nilgiri people is one of the commonest items of ceremonial exchange. It is the one most visible aspect of every person when it is worn; it is clearly differentiable according to degree of newness and cleanliness, especially as the favoured colour of Badaga dress is white’.
He further says, ‘Apparel is much more than a cover for the Badaga body; it functions as a symbol of complex and enduring relationships which hold the society together’.
Badagas wove their own cloth in the 19th century before buying them from itinerant Chetti traders since the 20th century. It was made from the fibres of two Nilgiri bushes, hoary basil and harmless nettle. It was said that people of Nanjanad used to specialize in making the cloth. The art of starching clothes to make them stiffer and resistant to rain was also long known to the Badagas.
Even after coming of the British and having close association with them, the Badagas adopted many of their dress but retained the mundu.
In recent times the passion for the white mundu by both men and women has reached new heights. The mundu is given a singular honour on occasions of festivals, funerals and social events. Even the Badaga youth increasingly seem to prefer the mundu to jeans.

The sea of white on the green background of tea plantations on major Badaga festive occasions has become a great cultural sight.

Even at the age of 99 years and ten months, your memory was sharp. You would not only recognise, the relative who had come to see you, but would pleasantly surprise the person by recalling many incidents that were associated with the persons’s parents and grand parents.

You would insist, in typical Badaga style, that the guests be served food. ‘Hittu thindhuttu tha oppadhu – leave only after having a meal’, you would order.

For, major part of your life, you were the unifying force of the family that included your brothers and all children. You were, as most of them would call, a mother-‘awway’.

Unfortunately, you were born in the era when girl children were not considered equals. But you took it all with a smile. Though born as the only ‘princess’ to the Nakkubetta uncrowned king, Rao Bahadur Bellie Maistry, who was probably the richest Badaga during his time [in early 1900s], fate treated you otherwise.

Your steely determination, will power and perseverance is still talked about.

To your eight children, three girls and five boys, you gave everything – the most precious being education.

Four of us are alive today and along with the grand children and great grand children, we remember you ever so fondly, on this day, 13th July, the day you chose to leave this world quietly in your sleep.

We remember you with love and respect, mother!

Appeal for help

Bank account details of Sindhu are given at the end

Received the following email from P.G.Stalin ‘sir, please help the Badaga family suffering in the GH, Coimbatore in nephrology ward. the poor girl is all alone and is taking care of her father. Philanthropic people of our community please help the family. very urgent’

I spoke to the girl SINDHU – 9688031644 who mentioned that she is from HULLATHATTI, near Beraganni and her father’s both kindneys have failed. Her mother has also been operated. Because of the climate and proximity to GH Coimbatore, they have rented a house in Mettupalayam. She is getting about Rs.5000/- per month and there is no other income. She finds it very difficult to take her father for dialysis every week as she is not able to get leave from her work place.

In response –Sivakumar.B, Muckimalai   wrote:- SIR, AS OF NOW, I WANT TO PUT Rs. 200/- PM AS A LITTLE CONTRIBUTION. WHAT IS THE MODE OF PAYMENT?

Dear Sivakumar – it is so nice of you to offer monetary help. We have put in Rs.5000/ – to be handed over to Sindhu. I just spoke to her and understand that she is in the process of opening a bank account. I will let you know the details ASAP.

Update : 4-7-14 : Spoke to Sindhu again and learnt that her father is only 45 years old. Her mother was operated recently but complications have set in as her stomach is filled with water. Sindhu, is the only child

To all those kind hearted souls, pl donate liberally to help a family that needs urgent attention. – Wg Cdr.JP

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Update 10-7-14

Sindhu’s bank account details are :

Bank: CORPORATION BANK
Branch : METTUPALAYAM
IFSC Code: CORP0000016
Account No : 001600101021908
Name : M.SINDHU