World of the Bizarre

Village in India is dominated by weird names

By T.K. Randall
February 29, 2016

Image: Leaf Forest
Credit: Den Vish / CC BY-SA 4.0 (adapted) The village, which can be found in India's Karnataka region, is home to the Hakki Pikki tribal community who have taken to naming their children after random objects, people and places.

The result is an undeniably baffling assortment of names ranging from Military and Glucose to English, Congress and even High Court. Other peculiar names include One By Two, British, and taking the earlier law-based moniker a little further - Supreme Court.

There are also villagers named after countries such as Japan and America.According to KM Metri from the department of tribal studies at Hampi University, the tribe had originally lived in the forest and used to name their children after natural things around them.

"Following the political turmoil and change in regimes, they got dispersed in different regions of South India," he said. "By the 20th century , the association with crime made the tribe want to hide their identity. They started giving their children weird names like the Pistol, British etc."

"They speak a unique language which doesn't have a script. So their kids don't have an education associated with their culture. And the modern education system doesn't understand them. This is the reason why we see most dropouts in the community . Various Acts, including the Forest Act, have restricted their entry into forests. They are struggling and losing their cultural practices."

Source: Scoop Whoop

Tags: India, Names