How Aarey’s Warli tribe, Cuffe Parade’s Gor Banjara community celebrate Diwali

On a warm afternoon in Aarey Milk Colonyrsquos Khambachapada farmer Vanita Thakre recalls a childhood memory of carving a diya out of mud alongside other miniature kitchen utensils or bhatukli Her neighbour Jaya Davde sits beside her as Jayarsquos young son snacks on chakli But neither diyas nor farsan will feature in the Diwali celebrations of this Warli communityldquoThis festival is the most significant for us and we donrsquot consume any food that is not first blessed by our gods Diwali is tied to the harvest of rice grains ragi and vegetables such as chawli cowpea beans It marks the start of the season when we begin eating produce like kand air potato tubers ridge gourd and pumpkinrdquo Thakre explainsThe Warlis of Aarey have long taken in pride in lsquotavshirsquo cucumbers which are consumed mainly during Diwali as part of sweet and savoury dishes PicNimesh DaveAt the other end of the city in Cuffe Paradersquos sprawling Ambedkar Nagar women of the Gor Banjara community are excited about lsquoDawalirsquo Artist and academic Shiva Gor who was born and raised in Beedrsquos Parli Vaijnath city clarifies that the name of the festival isnrsquot spelt conventionally simply because of a difference in pronunciation and accent Itrsquos associated rituals also vary from that of the larger Hindu community says the artist who works out of Mumbai and Delhi ldquoOur festivities are premised on the gor cultural codes and value systems Dawali celebrations are deeply connected to nature and the change of seasons Lakshmi Puja and idol worship were not part of our ritualsrdquo he saysEmbedded in their indigenous context the Warli and Banjara communities look forward to this time of the year for reasons far different from the urbane population It is a reminder of their interdependent relationship with the environment and the cherished values of generosity and collective progress These tribal communities treasure their cultural practices even as exposure to mainstream culture may be altering how they celebrate DiwaliDiwali celebrations at the Warli pada commence with poojas at the Gaondevi and Waghoba shrines with male community members offering food to be blessed and an animal sacrifice PicsNimesh DaveJyoti Dalvi moved to the Warli pada in Aarey from her parentsrsquo home in Bhiwandi after marriage The 35yearold vividly describes prayers being offered in her inlawsrsquo lush green paddy fields each year ldquoIn the four Dalvi households in this corner of the forest the families come together holding produce such as chawlimdashgrown in their fieldsmdashin their handsrdquo she says ldquoWe use a long cucumber called tavshi in Marathi to make a sweet the outer covering is made of rice flour prepared by grinding the navin tandul fresh rice grains and the stuffing comprises grated cucumber and jaggery This sweet is then wrapped in the leaves of the vegetables we grow and eatand steamedrdquoThis ginormous variety of cucumbermdashthree feet long and weighing nearly two kgsmdashholds a place of pride in Warli households Thakre who is in her 40s says that when she was a child kakdis were displayed on either side of the entrance of their homes in the village after they were harvested Now the residents of Khambachapada donrsquot grow them buying them instead at their local market or importing them from padas in Gorai and DahanuThis sweet alongside the freshlyharvested produce is taken to the local Gaondevi Temple by the male members of the village to be offered to and blessed by Gaondevi and Waghoba a wild cat tigerleopard deity worshipped by many of Maharashtrarsquos tribes including the Warlis ldquoShendoor sindoor is applied to the rock figures at the temple as the men perform a pooja in the late hours of the nightrdquo Thakre says ldquoA lone chicken or goat is left behind in the forest as a sacrifice to appease Waghoba while meat is also cooked and distributed in the padardquoThe moment families most look forward to comes next As the blessed food is brought home elders and children feed each othermdashundoing the notion that only mothers must cook or that parents solely are responsible for the entire householdrsquos sustenanceThe Warlisrsquo lives and festivals are so interconnected to the forest that any environmental change has dire consequences say farmers Vanita Thakre and Jaya Davde PicNimesh DavePictures of Goddess Lakshmi Lord Krishnamdasheven Sai Babamdashnow find a place at the Gaondevi Temple where the Warli deities are crags carved from the mountain side painted generously with sindoor Photographer researcher and conservationist Sanjiv Valsan who works closely with the Warlis says that the community has not always worshipped these deities the pictures were placed by settlers who arrived laterldquoIt would be interesting to know what the original forgotten tribal sacred stories were behind the Adivasi rituals and what the name of the festival was before settlers brought in the lsquoDeepavalirsquo namerdquo says the founder of the Waghoba Habitat Foundation ldquoItrsquos also an interesting coincidence that the date of the animist Adivasi ritualsmdashbased on forest spirit deitiesmdashoverlaps with the Hindu Diwali which is about stories and deities that arenrsquot part of the Adivasi religionrdquoThakre and Davde excitedly talk about a stew called ghurkol prepared using fresh produce and meat and slow cooked over a wood fire The Warlisrsquo livesmdashand the way they celebrate the festivalmdashare so interconnected to the forest that any environmental change has dire consequences Davde who must work on her familyrsquos rice fields by herself in the absence of male relatives fears close encounters with leopards at night and that has put a pause on the cropQuestions about what the women wear on Diwalimdashsareesmdashand the timing of the harvests all lead to reflections on how the forest continues to give and give to the Warlis ldquoSome of the tubers we plant weigh above 10 kgs and can feed entire families no fancy equipment or fertiliser is needed to grow them Just patience and the resolve to dig them out of the earthrdquo Thakre says ldquoForaging from the forests and its water bodies has fed generations of our families Irsquom certain that our children too will continue to honour it for many Diwalis to comerdquoCowrie shells fall from a bag as Jamalibai Chauhan tries to retrieve a traditional ghagra from it in her pocketsized home in Ambedkar Nagar She holds it up to showcase the shells mirrors and coloured threads used to embellish it Chauhan who is in her 50s is shy to pose in the outfit unless she can wear the makeup and jewellery that goes with itA resident of the Banjara basti Chauhan and others like Monibai 50 trace their lineage to Karnatakarsquos Wadi village in Kalaburagi district She describes the big draw of Dawali celebrations in this corner of Cuffe Parademdashan energetic dance performed by young women in the evening which brings the entire basti together ldquoOnce the girls have put on the lehenga and dupatta they wear nose pins necklaces and earrings They also attach a chotla braid and bun hair extension to their hair before they can go off to dancerdquo Chauhan delights in the descriptionRites like the dance performance vary across Banjara subcommunities A ritual that seems to tie these subcommunities together is lsquomera mangnarsquo which involves women who are of marriageable age or hoping to marry soon ldquoOn Kalimavas all sources of lights are turned off even the stoves and chulhas used to cook food The women hold pantis diyas in their hands and walk to the houses in the neighbourhood making wishes and demands for the people who live there as well as the animals domesticated and kept by themrdquo Shiva Gor explainsAnother key ritual is agjhadbagjhad wherein the abandoned nest of a bird is brought from the forest and burnt the Banjaras believe that they will be rid of the blindness caused by six sins such as greed and lust through itGor adds that the prayers are called dhapkaar and offered to onersquos ancestors instead of a god dhap means footprint in the Banjara language The coexistence of humans with nature is central to their beliefs defining how rites like godan navan and the telling stories under the poriya tara Venus are performedFor the Banjaras Dawali is focused on sanmaan respect and honour and hawaman the seasons and weather The artist notes that during this festival as well as on Holi the women of the community play key rolesRamu a father of four notes that some households in the basti now make puran poli karanji and puris as part of the Dawali spreads Banjara staples over the years have been mutton dishes tarkaari and jowar rotis ldquoMany of the customs from mainstream society have been incorporated into Dawali and knowledge about the original rituals is slowly fadingrdquo Gor rues He recalls that lapsi rice vegetables and meat would be made in his parentsrsquo home during the festivalDeepa Pawar founder and director of the womenled Anubhuti Trust and a prominent voice from the nomadic Ghisadi community says the original values that tribal and nomadic festivals were based on are being impacted by spendingmdashand consumptionmdashoriented aspirational nature of mainstream celebrations ldquoThese attributes were never part of Adivasi culturerdquo she says ldquoa walk through padas will tell you that tribals donrsquot consume as many resources or spend as much money on festivities Their conception of happiness and celebration is rather straightforward it is centred on sharing rather than materialism The origin of festivals even the names of their deities are often rooted in nature and the dependence of their livelihoods on natural resourcesrdquoPawar adds that these festivals are typically premised on the celebration and protection of natural resources and the environmentmdasheven the prayers offered on these days convey this focus Referring to Bali Pratipada the Nomadic and Denotified Tribes activist points out that asuras and asura kingsmdashwhich is how Adivasis were viewedmdashare largely perceived as negative and evilrdquo Often these characters are lsquokilledrsquo or lsquoslainrsquo by the lsquorighteousrsquo Tribals were the first indigenous people of India yet their culture is considered dirty or backward The notion of slaying asura kings doesnrsquot exist in Adivasi culturerdquo she saysIf the environment they reside in drastically changes the tribalsrsquo ability to celebrate their festivals and take forward traditions itself is affected ldquoThe panic that arises from climate change and global warmingmdashthat Adivasis themselves have not contributed tomdashis real because of how sacred nature is to themrdquo Pawar concludes