About Ho Samaj in india

LOGO OF HO SAMAJ

The HO people are an Austroasiatic Munda ethnic group of India. They call themselves the HO , HODOKO and HODOKO and  HORO, wich means 'HUMAN' in their own language.

Officially , however they are mentioned in different subgroups like kolha, mundari, munda, kol and kolah in Odisha.

They are mostly concerntrated in the Kolhan Region of Jharkhand and Odisha where they constitute around 10.7% and 7.3% of the total Scheduled Tribe population.

The population of HO SAMAJ is about 700,000 in the world. They mostly found in india in some states only , States like Odisha, Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Nepal, Bangladesh.

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The ethnonym "Ho" is derived from the Ho language word hō meaning "human". The name is also applied to their language which is an Austroasiatic language closely related to Mundari. According to Ethnologue, the total number of people speaking the Ho language was 1,040,000 as of 2001.Similar to other Austroasiatic groups in the area, the Ho report varying degrees of multilingualism, also using Hindi and English.

Over 90% of the Ho practice the indigenous religion Sarnaism. The majority of the Ho are involved in agriculture, either as land owners or labourers, while others are engaged in mining. Compared to the rest of India, the Ho have a low literacy rate and a low rate of school enrollment. The government of Jharkhand has recently approved measures to help increase enrollment and literacy among children.

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A pure cultural dance oh Ho Samaj 

Ho village life revolves around five main parab or festivals. The most important festival, Mage Parab, takes place in the late winter month of Magha and marks the completion of the agricultural cycle.[24] It is a week-long celebration held to honor Singbonga, the creator god. Other lesser bonga (spirits) are also honored throughout the week. Baa Parab, the festival of flowers held in mid-spring, celebrates the yearly blossoming of the sacred Sal trees. Sohrai or Gaumara is the most important agricultural festival, the date of which usually coincides with the nationwide festivities in the fall. It is a village wide celebration with music and dancing held in honor of the cattle used in cultivation. During the ceremonies, the cows are painted with a flour and dye mix, anointed with oil and prayed over after a black chicken is sacrificed to an image of the cattle bonga. Baba Hermutu is the ceremonial first sowing. The date is set each year in the early spring by the deurior priest pahan who also officiates the three-day ceremony by praying and commencing his first sowing of the year. Jomnama Parab is held in late fall before the first harvest is eaten to thank the spirits for a trouble-free harvest.

Dance is important to Adivasi culture in general and for the Ho, it is more than simply a means of entertainment. Their songs are generally accompanied by dances which change with the seasons. Songs and distinctively choreographed dance are integral parts of Ho culture and art, as well as important parts of their traditional festivals, especially Mage Parab. Most villages have a dedicated dancing ground, called akhra, usually consisting of a cleared space of hard ground under a spreading tree. Dances are organised on a staggered basis in the villages so that other villagers can participate. Traditional Ho music incorporates native instruments including a dama (drum), dholak, dumeng (mandar), and the rutu (flute).

Almost half the population is engaged in cultivation and another one third also work as land-less agricultural labourers.The Hos, along with Santals, Oraons and Mundas, are comparatively more advanced, and have taken to settled cultivation as their mode of life.

The discovery of iron ore in Ho territory opened the way for the first iron ore mine in India at

Pansira Buru in 1901. Over the years iron ore mining spread out in the area. Many Hos are engaged in mining work but that does not add up to any sizeable percentage. However, small, well planned mining towns dotting the territory have brought the Ho people in close touch with the good and bad aspects of urbanization. Some of the prominent mining towns in the area are Chiria, Gua, Noamundi and Kiriburu.