Paliyans
Officials Visit a Paliyan Community
The chief executive officer of the Theni District in India’s Tamil Nadu state visited a Paliyan colony on July 24, asked numerous good questions, and made some promises of help from the district government. The unusual aspect of Collector K. V. Muralidharam’s visit was that two of India’s major newspapers, The Hindu and the Times […]
The Paliyans Have Ration Cards
The Times of India reported recently that the District Collector for the Madurai District was investigating reports of the illegal mortgaging of ration cards in a local Paliyan community. The official, S. Aneesh Sekhar, visited the Paliyans at the Alagammalpuram Colony, located about 60 km. from Madurai City, and explained the laws prohibiting such activities. […]
The Paliyans Cherish Voting
The Paliyans are proud to vote in elections according to a news story posted in this website nearly seven years ago. It appears from a report in The Hindu on April 6 as if they are still just as committed to voting. A Paliyan community near Shenbagathoppu asked officials to establish a voting place for […]
Games Played by the Paliyans
With so much focus in the media lately on the continuing grim news about the pandemic, it is good to read about peaceful people such as the Paliyans who thrive on having fun. On Thursday last week, S. Ramarajan posted in his blog a description of six different games that are—or at least used to […]
Paliyans Given Government Assistance in India
Government officials have recently gone out of their way to be friendly and helpful to the residents of a Paliyan village in the forest of South India. A news story in The Hindu on October 5 provided details. The setting for the story is the village of Kalaimaan Nagar, located near the Karuppanadhi Dam in […]
Paliyan Blog Posts
Two posts were published last week on a blog from India that focuses on news about the Adivasi, the traditional tribal societies. Both were written by S. Ramarajan, who was the founder of the blog and is a member of the Paliyan society, the subject of both stories last week. The first post, “The Story […]
Gandhi and the Paliyans
On October 2, India celebrated the 150th birthday of Mohandas Gandhi. The leader of the movement for India’s independence from the UK, Gandhi also advocated active peaceful actions such as marches and sit-ins as a nonviolent way for oppressed peoples to gain their rights. Numerous media outlets around the world celebrated the birthday with critical […]
Progressive Paliyans
The participants in a three-day program designed to provide awareness of the Paliyan people came away from the event last week cherishing a strong admiration for the peaceful tribal society. The Times of India published a news story on Monday last week about the three-day educational and cultural event held in Pannaikadu village, a Paliyan […]
The Paliyan Need for Documents
The Paliyans living in the forests of the Sirumalai Hills in Tamil Nadu are missing out on all sorts of government benefits due to their not having the necessary identification documents. A reporter, A. Shrikumar, described the ways these lacks of identity cards have affected the people for a story in The Hindu on Wednesday […]
Paliyans Gathering Honey
Two women fled the Indian mega-city of Bengaluru for the rural life in Kodaikanal four years ago because they had been impressed by the Paliyans and their ways of harvesting wild honey. The story of the two women and the forest-cherishing spirit of the Paliyans impressed a reporter from the South Indian paper the Deccan […]
