The Devi Movement

THE DEVI MOVEMENT

On November 9th 1922 about 2000 adivasis congregated near Khampur, near Surat (south Gujarat). They were coming from six different villages. The gathering was motivated by meeting and listening to the teaching of a new goddess of great power known as Salabai. This Devi expressed her demands though the months of spirit mediums who, during the meetings, were in a state of trance. They pronounced the commands of the Devi: "Stop drinking liquor and beer; stop eating meat and fish; live a clean and simple life; Men should take a bath twice a day; women should take a bath thrice a day; have nothing to do with Parsi." During the meeting, a little girl, dressed as the Devi, received offering of coins before her. In the following days the Devi cult spread rapidly all over the Surat area as it was believed that whoever failed to obey the Devi would suffer misfortune and perhaps become mad or die. By the end of November the Devi cult had spread over a very large area including part of Maharashtra. In the same time some new commands of the Devi began to be heard. Salabai was telling the adivasis to take vows in Gandhi's name, to wear khado cloths and to attend nationalist schools. The Devi effect started to be felt soon: liquor and beer drinking had, to a large extent, stopped and there was a marked improvement in the material conditions of the adivasis. The people did not require to borrow from money-lenders to pay the land revenue installments, they reduced their ceremonial expenses, their general appearance as well as their home appearance improved. The Devi movement in south Gujarat was similar with the adivasis movement in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century which occurred in other parts of India. All these movements had as scope to give up drinks, meat, fish. One such movement occurred in 1921 among the Bhumiji. A rumor was spread among them that a new king had appeared on earth who was the incarnation of God himself. The movement spread very fast, people disposed of chickens and goats in any way they could. In the following years there was a bumper crop which convinced the adivasis that their action had been correct. Three or four years later the name of the king was revealed of being that of Gandhi Mahatma. Many people believed that the Devi movement had occurred among the adivasis long before Gandhi appeared on the scene.These previous movements had as a main scope to change the way of life of the adivasis and to integrate them into the Indian society. They were isolated in their culture and religion. It was only as result of the extension of state power into the hills and forest in the nineteenth century that their way of life began to change. Before the Devi movement large transfer of land from the adivasis to the shahukars took place. Before the land-tax settlement of the second half of the nineteenth century the shahukars did not own land in adivasis villages. The adivasis practice shifting cultivation, and as they did not own a particular plot of land it was not possible for the shahukars to take land as security for debts. As soon as the adivasis were given legal ownership of fixed plots of land the shahukars began to appropriate it through loans. The largest transfer of land took place during the severe famine of 1899-1900. It was estimated that between 1895 and 1913, 42% of the land in Baroda Taluka had changed hands through sales and mortgages, from adivasis to shahukars; by 1913 the adivasis, who made up 75% of the population of the regions called talukas, owned only 12% of the land.