Leaves from the Jungle: Life in a Gond Village

Leaves from the Jungle is the diary of Verrier Elwin’s life in the Gond village of Karanjia between 1932 and 1936. Combining the anthropologist’s powers of observation with his own humour and consummate skills as a reconteur, Elwin captures Gond life in all its gaiety and vivacity. The diary provides a colourful account of the Gonds’ relationship with the forest, and exposes with charming irreverence the threat posed to this relationship by colonial forest laws. Leaves from the Jungle is a celebration of tribal life. It resonates with the author’s belief that the ‘primitive has a real message for our sophisticated modern world which is once again threatened with disintegration as a result of its passion for possessions and the lack of love’. Ramachandra Guha’s introduction to this volume provides a scholarly appreciation of Leaves from the Jungle, while simultaneously evaluating the significance of this diary for Elwin’s more strictly anthropological works