Who Are the Ho?
The Ho (also Kol or Kolha) are an Austroasiatic tribal people of the Chota Nagpur plateau in eastern India, concentrated in the Singhbhum district of Jharkhand and adjacent areas of Odisha and West Bengal. Numbering approximately 1.5-2 million, they are one of the larger Munda-speaking peoples. They speak Ho, a Munda language closely related to Mundari and Santali. The Ho have maintained distinctive cultural traditions including their own script (Warang Citi), sacred groves, and village governance systems while adapting to modern India's economic and political landscape. Their homeland contains significant mineral wealth, creating ongoing conflicts over land and development.
Warang Citi Script
The Ho possess their own indigenous writing system—Warang Citi—developed by Lako Bodra in the 1950s. This script, consisting of 28 letters, was created to write Ho and preserve cultural materials without dependence on Devanagari or Roman scripts associated with dominant cultures. Warang Citi has been included in Unicode (2014), enabling digital communication. The script remains actively used; Ho textbooks, literature, and newspapers employ it. This is remarkable—few Indian tribal languages have indigenous scripts; most use adapted versions of regional scripts. Warang Citi represents Ho cultural assertion and the broader Indigenous movement to maintain distinct identities against assimilationist pressures.
Sacred Groves
Ho villages maintain jaherthan—sacred groves dedicated to village deities where annual festivals and rituals occur. These forest patches, protected by religious sanction, serve as the spiritual heart of the community. The annual Mage Porob festival, held in the grove during January, involves village-wide participation, ritual sacrifices, and community feasting. The grove cannot be cultivated or logged; trees cannot be cut; certain activities are prohibited. This sacred protection has preserved forest fragments in otherwise deforested landscapes. However, development pressures, mining expansion, and religious conversion threaten sacred groves. Environmental researchers have recognized jaherthan as important biodiversity refuges, connecting indigenous spirituality to conservation goals.
Contemporary Ho
Modern Ho communities face the paradox of living atop mineral wealth while remaining poor. The Singhbhum region contains iron ore, copper, uranium, and other minerals that attract industrial development. Mining operations have displaced Ho villages, polluted water sources, and disrupted traditional livelihoods. Resistance movements including armed Maoist insurgency have operated in the region, with Ho communities caught between state violence and insurgent demands. Meanwhile, education has expanded; Ho intellectuals, teachers, and professionals are increasingly visible. Political consciousness has grown; Ho organizations advocate for land rights, cultural preservation, and autonomous governance. The Ho demonstrate how Adivasi peoples navigate between maintaining distinctive identity and engaging with state systems that have historically marginalized them.
References
- Majumdar, D. N. (1950). The Affairs of a Tribe: A Study in Tribal Dynamics
- Bodra, L. (1993). Ho Grammar
- Deeney, J. (1975). Ho-English Dictionary