Deccan Gondula Charitra

About This Book

This is a history of the Gond dynasty of the erstwhile Chanda region of Deccan India. Arguing that the ‘periphery’—the adivasis (or the indigenous peoples)—have their roots in the ‘centre’, the author demonstrates how the British colonial government in India created an administrative divide between the plains and the hills, thus stereotyping hill and forest communities as isolated, primitive, barbaric and uncivilized. \nThis book examines the evolution of Gond society over a prolonged period—from Mughal rule to the colonial era—with an interdisciplinary approach that uses both oral narratives and folklore along with archival sources. In doing so, it challenges the isolationist and assimilationist perceptions about adivasi society and asserts that the ‘difference’ imagined and articulated by the Gonds was deeply rooted in self-rule and self-determinism.