Baiga tribe

Baiga is a tribe found in Madhya Pradesh (population 250,000), Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand states of India. The largest number of Baigas is found in Baiga-chuk in Mandla district and Balaghat district of Madhya Pradesh. They have sub-castes – Bijhwar, Narotia, Bharotiya, Nahar, Rai Bhaina, and Kadh Bhaina. Their population as of Census 2001/2011 was 390,000.

Genetics

A 2010 study by the Anthropological Survey of India and the Texas-based Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research identified seven genomes from 26 isolated "relic tribes" (sic) from the Indian mainland, Baiga being one of them, which share "two synonymous polymorphisms with the M42 haplogroup, which is specific to Australian Aborigines." These were specific mtDNA mutations that are shared exclusively by Australian aborigines and these Indian tribes, and no other known human groupings.

Practice of shifting cultivation

The Baiga tribes practice shifting cultivation in forest areas. They say they never ploughed the Earth, because it would be akin to scratching the breast of their Mother, and they could never ask their Mother to produce food from the same patch of earth time and time again – she would have become weakened. For this reason, Baigas used to lived a semi-nomadic life, and practiced Bewar, or 'dahiya' cultivation  – out of respect, not aggression. These techniques, (also known as 'swidden' agriculture), rather than being a cause of deforestation, have been shown to be effective conservation devices, employed for centuries by tribal peoples. Courageous woodsman and hunters, the Baigas of Central India were reluctant to do work for others. They saw themselves as people of the forest, who could only live on the produce of the forest. It was below the dignity of a Baiga to become a labourer.