Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 6 of 7Thurston, Edgar
History
Castes and Tribes of Southern India. Vol. 6 of 7
Thurston, Edgar
Caste -- India, South; Ethnology -- India, South; India, South -- Social life and customs; Tribes -- India, South
In a report on his tour through the Savara country in 1863, the Agent
to the Governor of Madras reported as follows. "At Gunapur I heard
great complaints of the thievish habits of the Soura tribes on the
hills dividing Gunapur from Pedda Kimedy. They are not dacoits, but
very expert burglers, if the term can be applied to digging a hole
in the night through a mud wall. If discovered and hard pressed,
they do not hesitate to discharge their arrows, which they do with
unerring aim, and always with fatal result. Three or four murders
have been perpetrated by these people in this way since the country
has been under our management. I arranged with the Superintendent of
Police to station a party of the Armed Reserve in the ghaut leading
to Soura country. One or two cases of seizure and conviction will
suffice to put a check to the crime."
It is recorded, in the Gazetteer of the Vizagapatam district, that
"in 1864 trouble occurred with the Savaras. One of their headmen
having been improperly arrested by the police of Pottasingi, they
effected a rescue, killed the Inspector and four constables, and
burnt down the station-house. The Raja of Jeypore was requested to use
his influence to procure the arrest of the offenders, and eventually
twenty-four were captured, of whom nine were transported for life,
and five were sentenced to death, and hanged at Jalteru, at the foot
of the ghat to Pottasingi. Government presented the Raja with a rifle
and other gifts in acknowledgment of his assistance. The country did
not immediately calm down, however, and, in 1865, a body of police,
who were sent to establish a post in the hills, were attacked,
and forced to beat a retreat down the ghat. A large force was then
assembled, and, after a brief but harassing campaign, the post was
firmly occupied in January, 1866. Three of the ringleaders of this
rising were transported for life. The hill Savaras remained timid
and suspicious for some years afterwards, and, as late as 1874,
the reports mention it as a notable fact that they were beginning to
frequent markets on the plains, and that the low-country people no
longer feared to trust themselves above the ghats."
In 1905, Government approved the following proposals for the
improvement of education among the Savaras and other hill tribes in
the Ganjam and Vizagapatam Agencies, so far as Government schools
are concerned:--
(1) That instruction to the hill tribes should be given orally
through the medium of their own mother tongue, and that, when a Savara
knows both Uriya and Telugu, it would be advantageous to educate him
in Uriya;
(2) That evening classes be opened whenever possible, the buildings in
which they are held being also used for night schools for adults who
should receive oral instruction, and that magic-lantern exhibitions
might be arranged for occasionally, to make the classes attractive;
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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