The Gondi Tribe

The Gondi (Gondi), sometimes known as Gond or Koitur, are a Dravidian ethnic group. They are one of India’s most powerful groups. Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, and Odisha are among the states where they can be found. For the purposes of India’s positive discrimination system, they are classified as a Scheduled Tribe. Their population was 5.01 million in 1971, according to the census.

The origin of the term ‘Gond,’ which was coined by outsiders to refer to the tribe, is unknown. Some say the term derives from konda, which means hill, in the same way that the Odisha Khonds do.

The Gonds call themselves Koitur, which colonial historians assumed was related in some manner to the Khond self-designation Kui. This had risen to 9.3 million by the 1991 census, and over 11 million by the 2001 census. They have been witnesses to the Naxalite–Maoist insurrection in India’s central region for decades.

Gondi people created the Salwa Judum, an armed militant organisation to fight the Naxalite insurgency, at the insistence of the Chhattisgarh government and at the cost of corporate sponsorships nonetheless, the Salwa Judum was abolished by Supreme Court decision on 5 July 2011.