Tharu Tribe

Tharu Tribe Latest News

The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court recently set aside a district-level committee’s decision to reject the community forest rights claims of the Tharu tribe in Lakhimpur Kheri.

About Tharu Tribe

• The Tharu tribe is one of the indigenous groups living in the Terai plain on the Indo-Nepal border. 
• The Tharu are the largest and oldest ethnic group of the Terai region.
• They live in both India and Nepal.
• In the Indian Terai, they live mostly in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar. 
• In 1967, this tribe was documented as a Scheduled Tribe by the Government of India. 
• Language: They have their own language called Tharu or Tharuhati, a language of the Indo-Aryan subgroup of the Indo-Iranian group of the Indo-European family.
• Economy: Most Tharu practice agriculture, raise cattle, hunt, fish, and collect forest products. 
• Most of their food involves rice, lentils, and vegetables. 
• Tharu traditional homes, known as “Badaghar,” are made with local materials such as mud, wood, and thatch.
• Society:
  • Despite their patrilineal social system, women have property rights greatly exceeding those recognized in Hindu society.
  • Tharu marriages are patrilocal within the tribe.
  • A common feature of the Tharu community is the joint family system of living in long houses.
  • Tharus live in compact villages, usually in the middle of a forest clearing. 
  • The Panchayat system (Local Social Council) is very strong in this tribe; the head of the panchayat is called ‘’Pradhan’’ in the local Tharu language.
• Religion: The Tharu people practice a unique blend of animism, Hinduism, and nature worship.

Source: LAWT

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