Local Lives and Global Goals: Assessing the Gonds of Uttar Pradesh in India through an Anthropological Restudy

Abstract

This study examines long-term continuity and change among the Gonds of Sonbhadra, Uttar Pradesh, through an anthropological restudy of a historically documented ethnographic setting. It combines archival re-reading with qualitative fieldwork undertaken in 2023–24 across six villages in Dudhi, Myorpur, Babhani, Chopan, and Robertsganj blocks. The study covered 120 Gond households and drew on semi-structured interviews, participant observation, household surveys, life histories, and informal discussions with community members and local stakeholders. The findings indicate a marked transition from forest-based subsistence and agriculture towards wage labour, seasonal migration, and informal employment associated with mining, construction, and industrial activity. Displacement, restricted forest access, ecological degradation, and insecure land rights have weakened earlier livelihood systems and altered human–environment relations. Kinship, clan identity, ritual practices, Karma dance, and oral traditions remain important sources of social cohesion, although marriage practices, consumption, and intergenerational knowledge transmission are changing. Gond women show increased participation in wage labour, Self-Help Groups, and local mobilisation, while continuing to bear substantial domestic responsibilities. Implementation gaps in forest-rights governance and the uneven local relevance of the Sustainable Development Goals remain significant. The restudy demonstrates that Gond life is characterised by simultaneous continuity, adaptation, vulnerability, and cultural resilience, underscoring the importance of participatory and context-sensitive development planning.