At the outset let me first bow my head before the two great anthropologists and guides; Prof L.K. Mahapatra and Prof N.K. Behura who had been instrumental for me to gather first-hand knowledge on the Bonda Highlanders under the project titled "Model Feasibility Survey in Bonda Hills. Koraput District, for Extensive Terracing and Alternate Land Use Modules for Rehabilitation of the Shifting Cultivators in situ". This project was sponsored by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India in 1991 and intended to find out the in situ rehabilitation possibilities of this hill tribe, that is without shifting them from their hill abode to the foothills or to the plains rather finding out all the possibilities to rehabilitate them scientifically within their homeland keeping the thrust on utilization of the local resources to the optimal extent and thereby enhancing their quality of life (QoL). This thrust was given as the rehabilitation of the hill tribes of the world had failed miserably again and again in many of the action projects and the reasons for this were numerous, but the main ones being their cultural and emotional attachment to their own homeland, seat of their deities, spirits, forests, cremation grounds, water bodies and other such related ones. However, to meet successfully the goal of the project I was engaged in the hill to prepare a holistic ethnographic data base basing on which the action plan could scientifically be prepared and the tribe in question could really get benefit out of it. I spent about a year in the hills ad infinitum with short breaks for I suffered from malaria thrice during my stay over there. However, my stay in the hills had developed an interest in me to find out the reasons of their aggressive behaviour who most often remain drunk and react wrathfully to the outsiders or those who intrude into their land and interfere in their self-respect or go of life. This, in other hand necessitated me to record on the intoxicating beverages that these people used to prepare since generations and consume as per their cultural, social, economic, and situational demands. Now this volume comes to the fore with a view that it could immensely be useful in the world of ethnographic studies of Indian Tribes. This piece of work is my second book on the tribe and the third one is now shaping up its composition.
The book is divided into eight chapters. The first chapter speaks about the role of intoxicating beverages in the life of tribes of different cultures of the world and the second one provides a vivid picture on the community under study. In the next three chapters, viz chapter three, four and five, explanation on the plant exudation, country beer and the spirit that they brew from different fruits and flowers etc have been provided respectively. The next chapter focuses on the availability, utility, commensal rules and preservation of such beverages. In the seventh chapter discussion on the government enforcements and limits on the use of such beverages have been made and the last or the eighth chapter summarizes the text and provides the concluding remarks.
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