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    A Goddess in the Stones: Travels in India
    A Goddess in the Stones: Travels in India
    A Goddess in the Stones: Travels in India
    Ebook328 pages6 hours

    A Goddess in the Stones: Travels in India

    By Norman Lewis

    3.5/5

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    “An absorbing introduction” to the tribal peoples of India, their ancient traditions, and the remote regions that they inhabit (Kirkus Reviews).
      In the 1990s, the fifty-four million members of India’s tribal colonies accounted for seven percent of the country’s total population—yet very little about them was recorded. Norman Lewis depicts India’s jungles as being endangered by “progress,” and his sense of urgency in recording what he can about the country’s distinct tribes results in a compelling and engaging narrative. From the poetic Muria people whose diet includes monkeys, red ants, and crocodiles, to the tranquil mountain tribes who may be related to the Australian Aborigines, to the naked Mundas people who may shoot, with bow and arrow, anyone who laughs in their direction, Lewis chronicles the unique characteristics of the many tribes that find their way of life increasingly threatened by the encroachment of modernity.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Media
    Release dateJul 30, 2013
    ISBN9781480433281
    A Goddess in the Stones: Travels in India
    Author

    Norman Lewis

    Norman Lewis (1908–2003) was one of the greatest English-language travel writers. He was the author of thirteen novels and fourteen works of nonfiction, including Naples ’44, The Tomb in Seville, and Voices of the Old Sea. Lewis served in the Allied occupation of Italy during World War II, and reported from Mafia-ruled Sicily and Vietnam under French-colonial rule, among other locations. Born in England, he traveled extensively, living in places including London, Wales, Nicaragua, a Spanish fishing village, and the countryside near Rome.

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    Reviews for A Goddess in the Stones

    3.5/5

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    • 4/5
      Travel in the south of India, visiting remote areas and tribal peoples.
    • 4/5
      When people visit India, a country with over 1 billion people, their senses are assaulted by the mass of humanity, smells, colours and sights in a country that is full of life. The religions and spiritually of the country adds to the cacophony of noise as they go about celebrating the living and the dead. People from the Adivasi tribes that made up seven percent of the population of India. These peoples and the places they lived were in constant danger of being swamped by the remainder of India. This is Lewis account of his visit in the 1990’s to find these people and record the things that made them different and distinct.

      Lewis’ journey to see these tribes takes him away from the regular tourist haunts. Heading far from the beaten track to Orissa and Bihar in the north-western part of India, he reaches there at a time of heightened tensions and violence from a caste war. Seeking a local guide Lewis starts to venture into the jungles in search of the tribes that he wants to discover before the modern world subsumes them. He meets the Muria people who survive by eating crocodiles, monkey and insects, a tribe who marry their teenage boys off to older women. There are the Mundas who still hunt with bow and arrow, and who find laughter offensive and a tribe that may be related to Australian Aborigines and the Bonda who wear jewellery passed down from relatives and precious little else.

      His evocative writing style brings alive the assault on the senses that India is, you feel that you are there standing amongst the grime and swirl of people. The writing is detailed without being cumbersome and his ability to draw out the stories from the people of the tribes that he meets lifts this book from good to great. This is the first Norman Lewis book that I have read and it will not be the last.
    • 4/5
      Another good travel book from Norman Lewis. Deals with the region south and east of Calcutta and largely with the tribal populations. Good insights....Finished 30.10.19.

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