Konda Reddi Tribe

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About Konda Reddi Tribe:

Konda Reddis is a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Group inhabiting the banks of the river Godavari in Andhra Pradesh.
Language: They speak Telugu with a unique accent.
Religion: The primary religion practiced by the Konda Reddi is Folk Hinduism, characterized by local traditions and cults of local deities worshiped at the community level.
Family and Marriage:
- The family is patriarchal and patrilocal. Monogamy is a rule, but polygamous families are also found.
- Marriage by negotiations, by love and elopement, by service, by capture, and by exchange are socially accepted ways of acquiring mates.
Political Organization:
- They have their own institution of social control called ‘Kula Panchayat’.
- Each village has a traditional headman called ‘Pedda Kapu’.
- The office of the headman is hereditary, and the headman is also the Pujari (priest) of the village deities.
Livelihood: They are primarily shifting cultivators and largely depend on flora and fauna of forest for their livelihood. They cultivate largely jowar, which is their staple food.
The Konda Reddi tribe’s way of life largely revolves around the cow, which is a source of sustenance for them.
The traditional houses of the Konda Reddis have retained their unique architectural look over the centuries.
These tribal people are aggressive in the cultivation of commercial crops such as cashew, niger, chilli and cotton under Podu cultivation method,
The tribe has adopted a unique circular-shaped architecture for housing. The houses, built with circular mud walls and thatched roofs, resemble the Bhunga architecture of Gujarat’s Kachchh region.

Q1: What is Shifting cultivation?

It is an agricultural system in which plots of land are cultivated temporarily, then abandoned and allowed to revert to their natural vegetation while the cultivator moves on to another plot.

Source: Jaladam Valley, home to the Konda Reddi tribe, offers a glimpse into a centuries-old way of life