PROBASHI- A Cultural News Magazine Volume 2 Issue 2 | Page 14

Probashi-Cover Story
with the Jarawa tribe. The first
friendly contact with the Jarawa’s
had been made in 1975 by a joint
team from the Anthropological
Survey of India and the ANI
Administration.
Since
then
systematic contacts were made by
administration, who took bananas,
coconuts etc as gifts. However
there were instances of hostile
reactions from the tribe, and
authorities had banned inclusion of
women in contact parties. In 1991
when Madhumala went; she was
the first woman from outside to
visit the Jarawas. As a precaution
Madhumala remained in the motor
boat while the men went ashore to
meet the tribe. Seeing Madhumala,
the Jarawa women began to
gesture her to come ashore with
the shout “Milale Chera” (friend
come here), and started an
impromptu dance to express their
joy on seeing a woman in the
contact team. This unexpected
welcome from the Jarawa women
for Madhumala prompted the team
leader to send for the life boat to
bring Madhumala ashore. As the
boat neared the shore, five Jarawa
men climbed on to the boat and sat
across Madhumala looking at her
with curiosity. Heart beating hard,
Madhumala
maintained
her
composure. Other members of the
contact team were not sure how to
react; a wrong move could have
been disastrous. It was at this
juncture that a Jarawa woman
climbed onto the boat and sat
besides Madhumala. The Jarawa
woman gestured to the five men
that the visitor like her was a
woman.
Madhumala at that
moment embraced the woman
which signified a gesture of
friendship. No anthropology text
book ever taught this, this came
from experience, empathy and the

Creating Anthropological History

sense of self preservation. The
Jarawa woman was thrilled at this
gesture and made all the five
Jarawa men to lie down on the
floor of the boat as admonished
children.
On landing on the shore, other
Jarawa
women
surrounded
Madhumala and started examining
her skin texture and long hair with
their fingers.
The inspection
involved pinching and scratching
which had to be endured to earn
lasting friendship. Satisfied the
women offered Madhumala a
herbal hair band and arm amulets
as a token of acceptance in the
community.
Initial initiation ceremony over and
Madhumala getting a friendly
welcome, she became a regular
visitor to the Jarawa territory. Her
physical anthropological research
with the Jarawas was mainly
through
observation.
No
sophisticated instruments could be
used since the Jarawa had the
propensity of claiming things which
Madhumala brought as their own,
including the pencils which
Madhumala used for taking notes.
An interesting bond developed,
and the Jarawa women would keep
the Jarawa men at bay and keep
Madhumala safe. She would be
invited to the Jarawa huts, play
with the children, share their food
and sometimes also asked to lend
hand with the household chores.
Madhumala also became the
resident doctor and would apply
ointments to the injuries that the
Jarawas would get inflicted with
during their forays into the jungle
for hunting and gathering. Despite
her requests the administration
refused to give Madhumala
permission for night stay with the
Jarawas. The visits revealed to
12

Madhumala about the Jarawas as
much as it revea