PHANTOM INDIA Reflections on a Journey
In order to film these women gathering fodder,
we drove a whole day over nearly impassable roads
and hiked six hours up a mountain.
ItS like traveling back in time.
These women belong to the Bondo tribe,
descendants of /ndia s earliest inhabitants.
About 15000 Bondo are divided into a few hundred villages
perched at 4, 000 feet in the forest at the tip of the state of Orissa.
The Bondo are one of the many aboriginal peoples who've survived until today,
conserving their way of life and ancestral religion.
The waves of invaders, and in particular the Aryans,
gradually forced them into the most inaccessible mountains
with the poorest soil in central India.
The men still hunt with bow and arrow and are extraordinarily skilled
But game has become scarce.
The bow also serves as defense against the numerous bears living in the forest
The Bondo language has nothing in common with other Indian languages-
The women and children stand before us with no hint of surprise.
They 're used to intruders- This village, Mudu/xjoada,
has the privilege of being the Bondo administrative center,
privilege manifest in the presence of a police station, a school
and an Infirmary.
I in? told the Bondo refuse to send their children to the government school,
and indeed, ifs almost deserted
They also refuse to be vaccinated, though ifs mandatory in India,
and the community is ravaged by smallpox
The women wear an impressive number of neck/aces,
which weigh on their chests.
Once made of copper, the neck/aces are now mass-produced in brass
and sold at the market.
The women weave brightly colored cloth,
which they wear /ow on their buttocks like tiny loincloths-
That and neck/aces are their only apparel.
The Bondo ignore Indian taboos on cattle.
They slaughter cows, eat their flesh,
and sacrifice them for religious ceremonies.
Near the village,
these dreary buildings are the police station, the school,
and a shack for the tax collector.
On his annual visit, he often finds the village empty.
The Bondo refuse to pa y taxes
and hide in the forest.
The next day, we hiked five mi/es through the forest
to move away from the police
and visit another village, Kisampada.
This time our arrival provokes a slight panic.
The women and children hide in their huts.
The men of the village are away, except these two,
who are building a mud-and- wattle house
using a technique similar to African poto-poto houses-
Many of the aboriginal tribes of /ndia are famous
for their dormitories.
In these buildings, set apart from the rest,
boys and girls mix with total sexual freedom before marriage.
The dormitories also serve as a matchmaking service,
a kind of club where they get to know each other
before choosing a spouse.
I ask where the dormitory is in this village.
I'm told there isn't one anymore, that it was tom down,
and anyway, ifs not marrying season-
Anglo-Indian Puritanism has left its mark here too.
We met the leader of the village,
an old man who speaks a little Oriya, the language of the plains.
He explains that life has become very difi7cu/t for the villagers
since the Direction of Water and Forests appropriated their /and for reforesting.
Now the y 're forced deep into the forest, miles awa y,
to secretly burn trees to create clearings in which to plant crops-
The main occupation of Bondo women is making brooms.
They sell these brooms each week at the market.
Ifs their only means of trade,
their only business with the outside world.
I'm struck by the sadness in many of their faces.
Life seems extremely hard here.
Poverty is everywhere in India,
but among these forgotten populations that are s/o w/y disappearing,
it's heart-breaking.
On this monolithic platform, now fallen out of use,
rituals were celebrated,
as well as animal sacrifice.
Bondo mythology is very complicated
with a supreme god, who is the sun,
and the worship of protective earth spirits.
They bum their dead like the Hindus.
Every Sunday, the Bondo villagers descend the mountain
to g0 to the local market held in Mundigudal.
It's their only point of contact with what we call civilization-
At the entrance to the market, they pa y a kind of tax
Government employees take some brooms from each woman's bundle,
but not without arguments and endless discussions.
It seems t0 be a new tax which the Bondo fiercely protest'.
Then the women deliver their brooms to merchants,
who sell them as far away as Calcutta.
The price is set in advance." one rupee for 10 brooms.
It takes almost an hour to make a broom,
which means they earn 70 cent/mes for a full dayS work.
But ifs the Bondos ' only means of obtaining rupees-
The Bondo women don't hold on to their money for long.
They use it to buy neck/aces-
They take their time, try them on, and discuss them.
To us, all the neck/aces seem the same,
but to the Bondo women, the y 're all difierenz'.
One of the characteristics of Bondo society
is that the women are older than their husbands.
Generally, a 20-year-old girl will marry a 14-year-old.
Marriage follows strict exogamous rules-
ifs forbidden to take a husband from your own village-
Divorce isn't a rare occurrence.
/f a husband leaves his wife, he sends his in-laws a goat.
/f the wife leaves, her new husband gives her ex three goats.
The Bondo don't have writing.
They don't have last names either.
They're all cal/ed Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday,
according t0 their day of birth,
which, ob vious/x isn't easy on tax collectors or policemen-
At this market, barter is a common method of exchange.
These Bondo women brought some rice, as well as brooms,
and trade it for peppers.
The Bondo are under increasing pressure from the people of the plains.
They have great trouble adapting to modern life,
desperately refusing t0 become integrated
They want t0 be left alone in the mountains,
to live as the y always have-
Many Indian government olficia/s despise then? and consider then? savages-
They want to force the women to wear saris,
close the remaining dormitories, and forbid the slaughter of cows.
The B0nd0s' days are numbered.
Many have begun leaving the mountains to join the working masses-
They find jobs building roads, like these men,
or as field hands.
They blend into the anonymous masses
and lose their customs and identity.
They dress like Indians and become outcastes
at the lowest level of society.
We left the Bondo.
In a nearby village, a red flag flies above a house.
It's the home of a Communist activist
who's trying to politicize- the region's tribal populations-
He explains how difiicu/t his task is
due to the distances, illiteracy, and especially the language barrier."
Each tribe speaks its own language.
He says the tribes were robbed not only by the Direction of Water and Forests,
but also by landowners from the plains,
who take advantage of the tribes ' lack of land deeds-
The tribes are also trapped by moneylenders,
who end up seizing their lands.
A law was recently passed
returning some uncultivated government land to the tribes,
but it hasn 't been enforced.
The Communists try to organize them-
There hasn't been any trouble here yet,
but in nearby Andhra Pradesh,
there are violent clashes between tribes and farmers.
The police, in the name of the law - the landowners ' law -
reestablish order by means of massive arrests.
In India, we 're always surprised to come across a church-
There are many in K era/a.
It's the only state with a large Christian minority.
Despite a long history of evange/ization,
ifs obvious that Christianity failed in India-
The Portuguese, fanatic converters, had little impact here,
despite St. Francis Xaviers visit t0 Goa.
The English, too clever to attack Hinduism,
se Vere/y limited missionary efio/fs at conversion.
The rare conversions occurred at the extreme ends of the caste system."
among Brahmans and Untouchables.
Indians who become Christians don't give up the caste hierarchies-
Until the beginning of the century, a church in Madras
was divided its entire length by a wall
so Catholics of the higher castes could worship
without being tainted by the Catholic Untouchables.
Indian Christians are fanatical believers,
but they seemed uncomfortable, as if laboring under an inferiority comp/ex
in relation to both Hindus and Europeans,
as if tom between two cultures, their identity lost.
This is a young Syriac Christian priest.
According to tradition, the Syriac church of Kera/a was founded
by St. Thomas the Apostle when he landed at Crangahore in 52 A.D.
and converted many Brahmans.
The Christians of Kera/a, violently anti-Communist,
loyally support the Congress Party.
There are also Jews in India.
Not many, about a hundred, living near their synagogue
in a district in the city of Cochin.
We spoke with Simon Coder,
community leader and prosperous shopkeeper in the city.
“We've been here for the last 1, .900 years or more.
We're supposed to have come to Cochin even before the destruction of the Temple.
We were never persecuted here,
except by the Portuguese. ”
India is the only country in the world that never persecuted the Jews.
“My fathers family came here about 200 years ago
from Baghdad.
My mothers family is supposed to have come from Spain after the Inquisition. ”
The Jews play an important role in the oizj/s economy.
They like to sa y that the maharajah of Cochin
once had a militia of Jewish soldiers.
“I'm too old and too poor to go to Israel.
I'm 76 years old. ”
"The community's always been small, about 300.
Now there are less than a hundred of us.
We get along well with the Indians, but we never intermarry. ”
The community keeps to itself and all the Jews here are more or less related
“We 're very happy here.
Our only prob/em is that the community is disappearing.
Families no longer have many children,
and many have lefi for Israel or are planning to go-
I might go, but only if the Indian government
allows us to take out our money. ”
There's something degenerate and sickly about them-
In this country where all races have mixed,
the pure bloodline jealously guarded by this tiny community
leads to sterility.
In Pond/cherry, a former French trading outpost',
the entire downtown is painted a uniform white and gray.
These buildings belong to the ashram,
a religious community that's growing ceaselessly.
lts spiritual leader is a French woman whee now very old
and who's simply cal/ed "the Mother. ”
She lives in retreat, and we weren't able to film her
but only record her voice.
It never happens the same way twice.
Generally, it happens when we least expect it.
And ifs usually.--
when we've surrendered
our so-ca/led kno w/edge,
our can victions,
and abandoned all hope
that we enter a state where we 're able to receive it.
The ashram S founder, Sri Aurobindo,
died in 1.950.
He was not cremated but buried,
as is customary in India for very holy people.
Aurobihdoe tomb is the center of the ashram S spiritual life.
His followers come at all hours to pray and meditate.
Revelation is always present.
Ifs always here-
We 're the ones who don't let it in.
Know/edge is always present.
Enlightenment is always present', floating above everything,
ready to be received.
Ifs only because we 're so completely blinded
by everything we think we know and want to do
that we can't receive it.
But at the moment we surrender, for whatever reason,
it makes us
a bit passive and open,
and that's when we receive it.
They come from all over the world and all say the same thing."
“I was seeking, and here I found. ”
“I worked in the hotel industry as a chef
I was in a dozen countries in Europe.
Then I went to Australia, where I spent 13 years-
I oouldn 't settle down- I was looking for something.
I needed an inner life, and that's how I came here-
I'm home here, really home.
I in? happy. I found the answers to the questions of m y life- ”
“/ left Italy in 1.964 without a specific destination.
I'd read verses of the Bhagavad Gita that really impressed me,
and I'd also noticed the transformation
on people's faces when the y returned from India-
Their faces were calm, not stressed like typical Europeans.
I 'd intended to tra ve/ through India up to the Himalayas-
But after a few days of travel, I arrived here
and found what I was looking for. ”
“I was brought up in Sweden- Not very much religion - the y 're Protestants-
I had practically no religious background.
God was not a living presence. That didn't exist there.
I didn't know I had a soul.
Essentially, it was questions."
'Who am I? Why am / like this?
Why is the world the way it is?'
lcina/lx I got to the essential."
'Why am / here? ls there a reason for life?”
“God had given me everything a man could wish for."
prestige, money, good family, health.
I was president of a number of companies and industries,
yet I wasn't satisfied.
Something was missing. I needed a goal in life-
When / read Aurobindok book, Synthesis of Yoga,
it opened m y eyes, not only to problems I was already aware 01f
but to many others I 'd never thought of
/ts answers were so complete that / had no questions left
I didn't waste a minute coming here to devote myself
to the highest ideal to be found today. ”
Members who wish to do a solitary retreat
stay in this beautiful building constructed by a Japanese follower.
They live in solitary cells and spend several hours each day
in meditation.
The ashram has a school with 700 students.
The children are allowed to freely choose
the subjects they study.
This very highly regarded school receives students from across /ndia.
Joining the ashram doesn't mean withdrawing from the war/d.
On the contrary, believers are encouraged to lead an active life
and to exercise every day.
The ashram is very active and very prosperous.
The numerous believers who've come t0 live here
brought their fortunes with them.
With this money, they set up workshops, a modern printing press,
stores and a farm,
all run by qualified European technicians
belonging to the ashram-
Today its the largest business in Pond/cherry.
The Indian government has exempted them from taxes.
Disciples here lead a comfortable but austere life.
They must practice celibacy and must not drink or smoke.
Sometimes these rules can be bent.
Every evening, the elderly disciples, those who do ofiice work,
come to exercise with an instructor.
The oldest is 85 years old.
“We believe in evolution.
A day will come when the human body will undergo a transformation.
Transcending the limits of reason,
the new man will achieve, through inner enlightenment',
a state of superconsciousness
that will set him free, and all of humanity too. ”
Ambu is the ashrams hatha yoga master.
He allowed us to film his daily exercises, the asanas-
The asanas are merely one of eight successive degrees of hatha yoga,
which also include breath control
self-restraint and meditation.
Ambu is over 60 years old.
“A10, I don't practice every da y, because I in? lazy.
But I should practice an hour a day.
'Hatha ' means persistence. ”
More than the spiritual dimension of hatha yoga,
Ambu stresses its physical benefits.
It stead/es the nerves, purifies the system,
and relieves rheumatism and sciatica.
The ashram has a large project."
to build A uro ville, a city for the man of the future,
a few miles from Pond/cherry.
This ideal city is still in the planning stages.
The site was inaugurated by solemnly placing in this monument
a bit of earth from every part of the globe.
",4 uro ville is open to all.
Everyone who seeks a better life, who wants to work for world unity,
regardless of their race, religion, nationality, or caste.
No one will lack for anything nor have to work for a living.
Everyone will do the work they enjoy.
Yes, i2' will be expensive to build, but I in? sure we 'll find the financing,
as I myself am a man of finance- ”
Sri Aurobindo told us - it's the core of his message -
that this evolution is occurring now -
They ire annoying, this rich Indian businessman
who found his road to Damascus, and this pompous Frenchman.
To my mind, all mystical experience is accompanied by a certain anguish,
or at least anxiety.
There s nothing like that here. They've found happiness, their souls are at peace,
and they sincerely believe they'll save the world.
Maybe they're right.
Why are we alive?
Why do human beings exist?
Why does there exist
a feeling of our own imperfection...
that there S something other than what we are
and above all, than what we know?
There's something else to discover and express-
But there are countless paths.
There S a difiereht path for each person.
But we all feel the same thing."
that something exists beyond what we are,
beyond what we know, beyond what we 're capable o/f
something that speaks to us-
So, you'll leave here
and take a memory with you.
Those who wish to know, those who feel the heed,
will always return.
In the Ni/giri mountains, at an altitude of 8, 000 feet,
we found the ideal society."
the Toda tribe.
Today, there are only 800 Toda.
For untold centuries they've lived in these isolated mountains,
where their solitude was undisturbed
until the arrival of the English.
Certain ethnologists claim they're of Sumerian origin.
They 're also said to be descendants of A /exander's soldiers-
But the Toda believe their mother goddess waved a magic wand
and magnificent bufia/o emerged from the river.
Hanging from a bufia/o S tail was a Toda.
No Toda girl is a virgin past the age of 13.
Before puberty, they 're entrusted to an experienced male to learn /0 venrakfng.
These lessons are part of their education,
just like singing and cooking.
Sex is a natural need,
and throughout their lives, the Toda practice free love.
The Toda language has no word for sex.
They use the words “fruit” or “food. ”
Children don't go to school.
Their education comes from their contact with nature.
They often improvise collective poems like this one,
which tells of our arrival in mocking fashion.
Toda houses are made of wood.
The doors are always flush with the ground.
Divided into 16 clans, the Toda are spread
across their vast territory in small hamlets of a few houses.
Marriages are arranged from birth,
but since there are fewer women than men,
it's customary for a girl to marry several brothers of the same family.
Since absolute sexual freedom prevails throughout the tribe,
paternity is impossible to establish-
The oldest brother is the legal father.
A pastoral people, the Toda never wanted to farm-
They're vegetarians, subsisting on milk from their bufia/o,
honey and wild fruits,
and grains grown by neighboring tribes,
whom they allow to cultivate some of their land
The land belongs to the community and cannot be sold.
The Toda have never waged war, never had weapons.
They have no laws, leaders, or hierarchy.
/f a serious disagreement arises between two Toda,
its settled by a council of elders called for the occasion.
The Todas' bufia/o are longhorns, unique in India.
They're sacred and constitute the sole activity
and sole wealth of the tribe.
The Toda consider all other animals impure.
All the men, in turn, serve as priest for a year.
The priest lives alone in the temple.
No one can approach or touch him,
and he must remain eel/bate.
Each temple contains a sacred piece of metal,
which is revered by the clan.
Every time a Toda woman meets a man from the tribe,
she kneels and he touches his feet t0 her forehead
When a Toda dies, he goes neither t0 heaven nor hell.
According to legend, he 'll live forever in a wild valley
that really exists, not far from their territory.
His body and personal belongings are burnt,
and two of his bufia/o are killed for company in his new world.
The Toda have contact with civilization, as this ceremony proves.
Ifs the inauguration of an all-terrain medical van
that will bring modern medicine to the villages-
The Toda improvise a dance for the occasion.
But civilization also means restrictions and encroachment
The English built a mountain resort in the middle of Toda territory,
and it has grown.
Indians have moved there from the plains for the richness of the soil.
Industries have been created,
and the Toda territory shrinks day by day.
This government ofiicia/ explains that the Ofiice of Water and Forest
will annex their grazing grounds to plant terebinth-
It's a death sentence for the Toda-
They'll be forced to abandon their traditional way of life.
The Toda don't make a tragedy of it.
They dance around the medical van
as if to exorcise the civilization it symbolizes.
They've seen many others since the English arrived
They've withstood missionaries, ethnologists, tourists and filmmakers.
But this may be the final stroke.
One might say, “What do 800 Toda matter anyway
in a country of half a billion people ?”
But these 800 Toda are the last remnants of a free society
that never knew war, hunger, prudishness, or injustice.
Translation by LYNN MASSEY for SUBTEXT SUBTITLING