Question: consider the following statements
i) Tharu lives mostly live in Terai lowlands around amid Shivaliks and lower Himalayas in Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Bihar.
ii) According to the 2011 census, the Scheduled Tribe population in Uttar Pradesh was more than 11 lakh; this number is estimated to have crossed 20 lakh now.
iii) Tharu tribes mourn Diwali festival.
Which the above are correct
a) i
b) ii
c) iii
d) all of them
Answer: (d)
Context
- The Uttar Pradesh government has recently embarked upon a scheme to take the unique culture of its ethnic Tharu tribe across the world. The intention is to put Tharu villages on the tourism map, and to create jobs and bring economic independence to the tribal population.
Facts
- The state government is working to connect Tharu villages in the districts of Balrampur, Bahraich, Lakhimpur and Pilibhit bordering Nepal, with the home stay scheme of the UP Forest Department.
- In the scheme tourist will be provided home stay at the houses of Tharu people in their villages.
- People will experience food, culture, artifacts and hospitality of Tharu people.
- The Uttar Pradesh Forest Corporation will train the Tharu people to communicate effectively with visitors, and encourage villagers to acquaint them with aspects of safety and cleanliness, and with the rules of the forest.
Who are Tharu people ?
- The Tharus live in both India and Nepal. In the Indian terai, they live mostly in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar.
- They speak various dialects of Tharu, a language of the Indo-Aryan subgroup, and variants of Hindi, Urdu, and Awadhi. In central Nepal, they speak a variant of Bhojpuri, while in eastern Nepal they speak a variant of Maithili.
- Tharu worship Lord Shiva as Mahadev and call their deity as ‘Narayan’.
- Tharu women have stronger property rights as compared to women in other part of north India.
By – Kameshwar Shukla