Paliyans
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 […]
Paliyans Unaware of Welfare
The chief executive of the Dindigul District in India’s Tamil Nadu took a lengthy trek into a remote Paliyan village on January 23 to listen to the people discuss their issues. According to an article in The Hindu, Collector T. G. Vinay hiked nearly 14 kilometers into the village of Moongilpallam in the forested Kodaikanal […]
Flowers for the Paliyans
Peter Gardner describes the ways the Paliyans employ “a tranquilizer,” a flower that angry individuals crush and press to their foreheads to dissipate anger. In a 1966 journal article, the anthropologist, reviewing several approaches they use for social control, mentions that they use the flowers of sirupani pu, or “laughing flower,” for help in preserving […]
Slow Progress for a Paliyan Village
Indian officials are distributing certificates that grant the Paliyans permission to use their forests—and in the process gaining publicity in The Hindu, one of India’s premier newspapers. According to an article in the paper on April 12th, T.G. Vinay, the District Collector (a high-ranking official) for the Dindigul District of Tamil Nadu, held a special […]
