Yanadi
Rats: A Feast for the Gods
A news story last week about the rat-catching proclivities of the Yanadi prompts the reader to wonder just why they persist in their periodic pursuit of these destructive animals. According to older news reports, they are well paid by neighboring farmers for destroying rats, and they no longer rely on hunting them as a major […]
Medicinal Plants of the Yanadi [journal article review]
Recent research on medicinal plant preparations and their uses by a Yanadi community in southeastern India provides insights into their traditions and the efforts to preserve them. Nataru Savithramma and four colleagues published an article a few months ago that describes the medicinal plants used by Yanadi healers in Chandragiri and Gopolapuram, villages in the […]
Yanadi Workers and Freed Slaves
A Yanadi community that contributes to the welfare of a small city, and another that was recently freed from slavery, were both the subjects of news stories last week. The focus of the first report was on the hard work of the people and the conclusion of the other was on the gratitude of the […]
Yanadi Enjoy Life on the Beach
Yanadi living along the coast of Andhra Pradesh in southeastern India benefit from the forests on one side and the sea on the other. An article in The Hindu last week briefly described the lives of those fishing people. The reporter for The Hindu, T. Appala Naidu, visited some Yanadi families living in the Nagayalanka […]
Life in an Indian Slum
According to a recent news report, the waste pickers in the city of Guntur, in coastal Andhra Pradesh, live in grim conditions right inside the city dump. The story was first published in mid-September and the Global Alliance of Waste Pickers website subsequently provided a link to it. The story is reminiscent, on a much […]
Yanadi Prohibited from Entering the Forest
Officials in the Chittoor District of Andhra Pradesh have used the smuggling of red sanders trees as an excuse to prohibit local Yanadi from entering the forests to harvest non-timber resources. Many news sources have described the extensive violence that has been occurring in recent months between the police and large gangs of tree smugglers […]
Yanadi Economic Tragedies and Successes
The economic situations of two separate groups of Yanadi were described in starkly differing terms last week, as one community has been suffering extreme privation while the other is beginning to prosper. A news report in The Hindu described a group of 16 bonded Yanadi laborers, people who, with their families, had been held in […]
Yanadi Woman Advocates Human Rights
Tupakula Munemma, the young Yanadi woman who made a big impression in India during an election campaign rally in Hyderabad in 2008, is back in the news again. Ms. Munemma gave a speech at a political convention in the fall of 2008; then she ran for a seat in the state legislature of Andhra Pradesh […]
Violence in a Yanadi Community
Changes occur in all societies, and while many of the peaceful peoples have been able to retain some—or most—of their nonviolent values and practices, very few of them remain static. One of the purposes of these weekly news columns is to trace the changes that do occur, even if events are sometimes less than “peaceful.” […]
Police Remove Yanadi before Modi Visit
The new Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, visited his nation’s space facility in Andhra Pradesh on Monday last week, June 30th, to watch the launch of a rocket that put five satellites into orbit. After the successful launch, the Prime Minister addressed the staff at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on Sriharikota Island. He […]
