‘Do Rats Have Rights?’: Among The Bhil and Katkari
"Randhir Khare's essay on his involvement with the Bhils of Jhabua is the one that stands out, not only because of the language, but because it is the widest ranging in its scope it tells the story of how the son of a Bhil shaman flees his village after his father's death, desperately trying to find an Indian identity for himself while turning his back on everything the old man stood for."

"To be a Bhil, he feels, is to be less than human, especially in the context of modern India where attitudes have not changed from those of Tod’s Rajasthan. The essay covers 50 pages, pages in which Khare gives us glimpses of the past of the Bhils, a society that was abused by colonists, historians and politicians simply because it was misunderstood. After all, in a forward-looking country there is no room for communities lost in their anthropological pasts."

"Khare describes his own attitude to the Bhils, developed over several visits, where he comes to realise that their unhygienic erratic ways are actually a live and let live way of life that is based on a respect for the beliefs and customs of others a respect that the tribals are deprived of. He feels that rather than force the Bhil to conform, to leave their old ways behind and become part of the world outside, it is better to record and understand them, to give them back a feeling of 'being wanted, a feeling of belonging'." - © www.sawf.org