Girls and Women's Human Rights...?
The
Bhil girls and women are by nature artistic.The have excessive love or infatuation for singing, dancing, giggling, eloping, romanticising everything in the
Bhil social and cultural setting.
The art, in a Hindu society is performed and enjoyed by few and
selected, in the tribal societies performed and enjoyed by all. What a
privilege.This creates a positive, lovely and romantic atmosphere in
the
Bhil country rarely seen in the world. It is also attractive and lovely to the tourists from India and abroad.That is why the
festivals like Bhagoria,
marriages, fairs, market places, gal, gad,
etc are so unique, socially and culturally enhanced round the year even
at the time of hunger and droughts. The Bhil girls and women take
everything with smile.
As such there is an in built psychic
mechanism in the body, mind and emotions of Bhil girls and women folks
to respond everything in a romantic and positive way. In a way they
take leisure, work, studies, singing, dancing, market places, road side
works, harvesting, speaking, sharing, narrating, filling of water on
the village wells or at the hand pump sites and everything as an
unavoidable expression of Bhil romance, intensely happy moments,
idealized for its purity and beauty in their tribal habitats, exciting,
sentimental, nostalgic quality, etc. One way it is uniquely
Bhil cultural characteristic of the Bhil girls and women.
Thus the tribal atmosphere turns out to be excessively beautiful and
romantic, pervading even all the negative areas of life to respond them
in positive and calm manner.
On the other side, one can say this is hindrance in the areas where the protection of girls and
women's rights
are primly to be respected and self-discipline is needed. In such
moments and situations girls especially are exploited. That is why
their self-esteem is low. Government has come out with strong legal
provisions to protect them. Yet on the social levels much more remains
to be done by the society itself and not by outsiders or NGO's who have
not so far
respected tribal cultures
and promoted them, except for the economic gains. Because persons and
people of sophisticated cultures are making lots of due and undue
interferences with the Bhil culture and at the end
Bhils and the Bhil culture suffers and is going down. Everything is turning towards the advantages of the non tribals since 60 years.
At the work sites, studies, at the time of festivals, when excessive
love and romance is socially and culturally displayed, naturally or
spontaneously exhibited, etc. This way the desired goals are not
achieved in these fields. The non tribal seven like missionaries have
misunderstood and negatively coloured and projected the
tribal cultures since they are socially and culturaly prejudiced.
Others have taken a times undue advantages of the spontaneous and
innocent responses of the tribal girls and women and at the end
tarnished their image. At the costs of
Umalo Bhil society and culture has suffered its image in the hands of the non tribals. Even those who have taken advantage of them look down.
In the
Bhil culture
anything excessive of this type is taken as Umalo, a socially and
culturally generated, inherited and promoted Bhil value having negative
and positive implications. When the girls are filled of Umalo no one
can control them. What is Umalo...? One needs to understand correctly
and guide them properly and creatively which is absent, without
negatively attributing the Bhil girls and women as the Indian
missionaries have done in the past and present, even imposing their
value system and cultural characteristics. This is one of the important
factor why culture could not grow and take a proper shape. A
great harm done to the non tribal cultures like the Bhils by the non tribals.
Whereas the Bhil girls and women are more innocent, honest and naive
than non tribals. Negatively looking at the Bhil culture , the
outsiders even though they may be Indian missionaries, have spoiled
outlook of the Bhils towards their own culture. Foreign
Missionaries had healthy outlook towards the Bhil culture.
What is Umalo then...?
Umalo is socially, culturally, geographically, animated, generated pure and simple thought,
and inherited cultural behaviour among the girls and women of the Bhil
society . It needs to be properly understood and not culturally
coloured by their their own cultural prejudices which the non tribals
have done and are doing now.