Irula, also known as Iruliga'','' are a Dravidian ethnic group inhabiting the Indian states of

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a state in southern India. It is the tenth largest Indian state by area and the sixth largest by population. Its capital and largest city is Chennai. Tamil Nadu is the home of the Tamil people, whose Tamil language ...

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

and

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

. A

scheduled tribe The Scheduled Castes (SCs) and Scheduled Tribes (STs) are officially designated groups of people and among the most disadvantaged socio-economic groups in India. The terms are recognized in the Constitution of India and the groups are designa ...

, their population in this region is estimated at around 200,000 people.World Bank grant to improve standard of living for rat-catchers
/ref>
/ref> People of Irula ethnicity are called ''Irular'', and speak Irula, which belongs to the Dravidian family.

Etymology

''Irular'' means "dark people" in Tamil and Malayalam, from the root word ''irul'', meaning "darkness." Thurston speculated that it either referred to the darkness of the jungles which they inhabited or their dark skin complexion.

Distribution

The tribe numbers around 200,000 spread across three states: 189,621 in Tamil Nadu, 23,721 in Kerala and 10,259 in Karnataka. Those in Karnataka are named Iruligas. The Irulas are mainly concentrated in northern Tamil Nadu: in a wedge extending from

Krishnagiri Krishnagiri () is a city in the state of Tamil Nadu, India, and it serves as the administrative headquarters of Krishnagiri District formed in 2004. It is located at the bottom of Krishnadevaraya Hills, and the town is fully surrounded by hill ...

and

Dharmapuri Dharmapuri is a special grade town in the north western part of Tamil Nadu, India. It serves as the administrative headquarters of Dharmapuri district which is the first district created in Tamil Nadu after the independence of India by spli ...

districts in the west to

Ariyalur Ariyalur () is a town and district headquarters of Ariyalur district in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu and is rich in limestone, surrounded with seven cement factories and two sugar factories. The town is located at a distance of from th ...

and

Cuddalore Cuddalore, also spelt as Kadalur (), is the city and headquarters of the Cuddalore District in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Situated south of Chennai, Cuddalore was an important port during the British Raj. While the early history of Cudda ...

districts in the south and Tiruvallur district in the north. Small populations live in Coimbatore and

Nilgiris The Nilgiri Mountains form part of the Western Ghats in northwestern Tamil Nadu, Southern Karnataka, and eastern Kerala in India. They are located at the trijunction of three states and connect the Western Ghats with the Eastern Ghats. At le ...

districts and were classified by Thurston as a different population. In Kerala, the Irulas are in Palakkad district, while in Karnataka they are concentrated in

Ramanagara Ramanagara is a city in the Indian state of Karnataka. It is also the headquarters of Ramanagara district. It is approximately 50 kilometres from Bangalore. There are buses and trains as public transportations which approximately takes 90 minute ...

and

Bangalore Bangalore (), List of renamed places in India, officially Bengaluru (), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan area, metropolitan population of a ...

districts.

Genetics

A study by Yelmen et al (2019) found that the Irula were the closest likely proxy for the indigenous 'AASI', or Ancient Ancestral South Indian, one of the presumed founder and autochthonous original Indian populations. They showed a closer fit when modelled than alternatives that have been suggested such as the

Onge The Onge (also Önge, Ongee, and Öñge) are an Andamanese ethnic group, indigenous to the Andaman Islands in Southeast Asia at the Bay of Bengal, currently administered by India. They are traditionally hunter-gatherers and fishers, but al ...

or East Asians.

Language

The Irula speak the

Irula language Irula is a Dravidian language spoken by the Irulas who inhabit the area of the Nilgiri mountains, in the states of Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Karnataka, India. It is closely related to Tamil. It is written in the Tamil script. Origins The langu ...

, a

Dravidian language The Dravidian languages (or sometimes Dravidic) are a family of languages spoken by 250 million people, mainly in southern India, north-east Sri Lanka, and south-west Pakistan. Since the colonial era, there have been small but significant imm ...

that is closely related to

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

Economy

Traditionally, the main occupation of the Irulas has been

snake Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more j ...

, rat catching and

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

collection. They also work as labourers (

coolie A coolie (also spelled koelie, kuli, khuli, khulie, cooli, cooly, or quli) is a term for a low-wage labourer, typically of South Asian or East Asian descent. The word ''coolie'' was first popularized in the 16th century by European traders acros ...

s) in the fields of the

landlords A landlord is the owner of a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate which is rented or leased to an individual or business, who is called a tenant (also a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). When a juristic person is in this position, t ...

during the sowing and harvesting seasons or in the rice mills. Fishing and cattle farm is also a major occupation. Rats destroy a quarter of the grain grown on

-area farms annually. To combat this pest, Irula men use a traditional earthen pot fumigation method. Smoke is blown through their mouths, which leads to severe respiratory and heart problems. In January 2017, Masi Sadaiyan and Vadivel Gopal from the Irula tribe of

were brought in, along with two translators, to work with detection dogs to track down and capture invasive

Burmese pythons The Burmese python (''Python bivittatus'') is one of the largest species of snakes. It is native to a large area of Southeast Asia and is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Until 2009, it was considered a subspecies of the Indian python ...

Key Largo Key Largo ( es, Cayo Largo) is an island in the upper Florida Keys archipelago and is the largest section of the keys, at long. It is one of the northernmost of the Florida Keys in Monroe County, and the northernmost of the keys connected by ...

, Florida. The Irula men and their translators were paid $70,000 by the State of

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, and captured 14 pythons in less than two weeks.

Caste Discrimination

Irula people face severe discrimination and harassment from other castes and numerous such cases are reported every year. * In 2020, a girl named Dhanalaxmi was assaulted and barred from getting a Scheduled Tribe certificate by

Vanniyar The Vanniyar, also spelled Vanniya, formerly known as the Palli, are a Dravidian community or '' jāti'' found in the northern part of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. From the 19th century, peasant castes typically classified under Shudra ca ...

community in her village. * In Dharmapuri, Irula people were trashed and urinated upon by a mob who were infuriated by the marriage between a Irula man and a

woman.

Police Atrocities

Irula people have been continuously harassed and abused by Tamil Nadu State Police for decades. Some of the well-known and recently happened events are: * Athiyur Vijaya Rape (1993) * Thirukoyilur mass rape (2011) * Abduction by Alangiyam Tripur Police Station (2021) *Four Fake theft cases foisted against 14-year-old Irula Boy in Virudhachalam Police Station (2022).

References

External links

* * *
"Building a better Rat Trap: Technological Innovation, Human Capital and the Irular" - Economic Research Paper about the Irula

"Irular: The Seekers of light" - Article by G. S. Unnikrishnan Nair in ''Kerala Calling'' March 2014
{dead link, date=January 2018 , bot=InternetArchiveBot , fix-attempted=yes Tamil society Social groups of India Scheduled Tribes of Kerala Scheduled Tribes of Tamil Nadu