UMALO

Girls and Women's Human Rights...?

The Bhil girls and women are by nature artistic.The have excessive love or infatuation for singing, dancing, giggling, eloping, romanticising everything in the Bhil social and cultural setting. The art, in a Hindu society is performed and enjoyed by few and selected, in the tribal societies performed and enjoyed by all. What a privilege.This creates a positive, lovely and romantic atmosphere in the Bhil country rarely seen in the world. It is also attractive and lovely to the tourists from India and abroad.That is why the festivals like Bhagoria, marriages, fairs, market places, gal, gad, etc are so unique, socially and culturally enhanced round the year even at the time of hunger and droughts. The Bhil girls and women take everything with smile.

As such there is an in built psychic mechanism in the body, mind and emotions of Bhil girls and women folks to respond everything in a romantic and positive way. In a way they take leisure, work, studies, singing, dancing, market places, road side works, harvesting, speaking, sharing, narrating, filling of water on the village wells or at the hand pump sites and everything as an unavoidable expression of Bhil romance, intensely happy moments, idealized for its purity and beauty in their tribal habitats, exciting, sentimental, nostalgic quality, etc. One way it is uniquely Bhil cultural characteristic of the Bhil girls and women. Thus the tribal atmosphere turns out to be excessively beautiful and romantic, pervading even all the negative areas of life to respond them in positive and calm manner.

On the other side, one can say this is hindrance in the areas where the protection of girls and women's rights are primly to be respected and self-discipline is needed. In such moments and situations girls especially are exploited. That is why their self-esteem is low. Government has come out with strong legal provisions to protect them. Yet on the social levels much more remains to be done by the society itself and not by outsiders or NGO's who have not so far respected tribal cultures and promoted them, except for the economic gains. Because persons and people of sophisticated cultures are making lots of due and undue interferences with the Bhil culture and at the end Bhils and the Bhil culture suffers and is going down. Everything is turning towards the advantages of the non tribals since 60 years.

At the work sites, studies, at the time of festivals, when excessive love and romance is socially and culturally displayed, naturally or spontaneously exhibited, etc. This way the desired goals are not achieved in these fields. The non tribal seven like missionaries have misunderstood and negatively coloured and projected the tribal cultures since they are socially and culturaly prejudiced. Others have taken a times undue advantages of the spontaneous and innocent responses of the tribal girls and women and at the end tarnished their image. At the costs of Umalo Bhil society and culture has suffered its image in the hands of the non tribals. Even those who have taken advantage of them look down.

In the Bhil culture anything excessive of this type is taken as Umalo, a socially and culturally generated, inherited and promoted Bhil value having negative and positive implications. When the girls are filled of Umalo no one can control them. What is Umalo...? One needs to understand correctly and guide them properly and creatively which is absent, without negatively attributing the Bhil girls and women as the Indian missionaries have done in the past and present, even imposing their value system and cultural characteristics. This is one of the important factor why culture could not grow and take a proper shape. A great harm done to the non tribal cultures like the Bhils by the non tribals. Whereas the Bhil girls and women are more innocent, honest and naive than non tribals. Negatively looking at the Bhil culture , the outsiders even though they may be Indian missionaries, have spoiled outlook of the Bhils towards their own culture. Foreign Missionaries had healthy outlook towards the Bhil culture.

What is Umalo then...? Umalo is socially, culturally, geographically, animated, generated pure and simple thought, and inherited cultural behaviour among the girls and women of the Bhil society . It needs to be properly understood and not culturally coloured by their their own cultural prejudices which the non tribals have done and are doing now.

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