He had been a Corporate Executive in the IT industry in India, handling business with top companies, around the world. But now he had decided to give his time and expertise to managing a Centre for the local Tribal Communities, in the depths of Madhya Pradesh. "The tribal people think in terms of 'we' not 'I'......and that is a profound difference between them and us" he explained. "They are not competitive and they don't seek to blame or exploit - they have a collective mind. It's so refreshing, after the Corporate world and I never come away from one of these trips, without feeling renewed"!
The countryside we were driving through was as dry as a bone. We had set off from Vadodara at 7 a.m. and it was a two and a half hour journey. We crossed wide river courses baked by the sun and bleached white, vast expanses of sand. The Monsoon rains arrived in the South of India two days ago, so in another 2 weeks, this would be a changed scene, but this was hard to imagine.
The Tribal Community Centre, had been set up in this arid terrain, at a point where three of India's biggest and driest States meet - Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, at the base of a rocky hill, where there also happened to be ancient cave paintings - so the site must also have been attractive to people thousands of years ago
The main purpose of the Centre was to provide some basic training in health care, education, art and culture and to encourage the local tribal people to maintain their cultural traditions. "There are 1600 languages in India", I was told "....and in Gujarat, alone, there are 45 different languages, each with its own oral tradition, stories and folk lore, some of it passed by word of mouth, all completely different. We are trying to write it all down, so that it is not lost"..
"If there are so many differences in the folklore of all these groups" I asked..."do their stories have anything at all in common?" After some thought, the Executive Director said with a smile....."yes, the triumph of good over evil" !
The Museum at the Centre housed contributions from various tribal groups, which they had brought from the villages and donated to the Centre. There were wooden Deities, carved with crude power, which seemed to have a certain presence, clay pots, robust in shape, the change in angle marked with simple incised patterns, bamboo arrows, woven baskets. No matter how simple the object, the proportions had an innate harmony. These were decorated artifacts - art for art's sake, would not feature in their rural life, for they themselves were the embodiment of art, their simple lives so much a part of nature.
The countryside we were driving through was as dry as a bone. We had set off from Vadodara at 7 a.m. and it was a two and a half hour journey. We crossed wide river courses baked by the sun and bleached white, vast expanses of sand. The Monsoon rains arrived in the South of India two days ago, so in another 2 weeks, this would be a changed scene, but this was hard to imagine.
The Tribal Community Centre, had been set up in this arid terrain, at a point where three of India's biggest and driest States meet - Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, at the base of a rocky hill, where there also happened to be ancient cave paintings - so the site must also have been attractive to people thousands of years ago
The main purpose of the Centre was to provide some basic training in health care, education, art and culture and to encourage the local tribal people to maintain their cultural traditions. "There are 1600 languages in India", I was told "....and in Gujarat, alone, there are 45 different languages, each with its own oral tradition, stories and folk lore, some of it passed by word of mouth, all completely different. We are trying to write it all down, so that it is not lost"..
"If there are so many differences in the folklore of all these groups" I asked..."do their stories have anything at all in common?" After some thought, the Executive Director said with a smile....."yes, the triumph of good over evil" !
The Museum at the Centre housed contributions from various tribal groups, which they had brought from the villages and donated to the Centre. There were wooden Deities, carved with crude power, which seemed to have a certain presence, clay pots, robust in shape, the change in angle marked with simple incised patterns, bamboo arrows, woven baskets. No matter how simple the object, the proportions had an innate harmony. These were decorated artifacts - art for art's sake, would not feature in their rural life, for they themselves were the embodiment of art, their simple lives so much a part of nature.
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