Ho people

This article is about the Austroasiatic ethnic group of India. For the Tibeto-Burman people also known as Ho of China, Vietnam and Laos, see Hani people.

Ho
Ho tribe woman in traditional attire.
Total population
c. 2.9 million[a] (2011)
Regions with significant populations
 India
              Jharkhand928,289[1]
              Odisha705,618[1]
              West Bengal23,483[1]
              Bihar715[1]
Languages
Ho language
Religion
Related ethnic groups
Odisha population figures include Kol, Kolah & Larko-Kol who although listed as a separate Scheduled Tribe, are another name for the Hos.[2]

The Ho people are an Austroasiatic Munda ethnic group of India. They are mostly concentrated in the Kolhan region of Jharkhand and northern Odisha where they constitute around 10.7% and 7.3% of the total Scheduled Tribe population respectively, as of 2011 .[3] With a population of approximately 700,000 in the state in 2001, the Ho are the fourth most numerous Scheduled tribe in Jharkhand after the Santals, Kurukhs, and Mundas.[4] Ho also inhabit adjacent areas in the neighbouring states of Odisha, West Bengal and Bihar bringing the total to 806,921 as of 2001.[3][5][6] They also live in Bangladesh and Nepal.[7]

According to Ethnologue, the total number of people speaking the Ho language was 1,040,000 as of 2001.[8] Similar to other Austroasiatic groups in the area, the Ho report varying degrees of multilingualism, also using Hindi and English.[9]

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 enrolment. The government of Jharkhand has recently approved measures to help increase enrolment and literacy among children.[10][11][12]

  1. ^ a b c d e "ST-14 Scheduled Tribe Population By Religious Community". Census of India. Ministry of Home Affairs, India. Retrieved 15 October 2017.
  2. ^ Kolha (PDF). Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Research and Training Institute, Odisha. 2018. ISBN 978-93-80705-56-9. Archived (PDF) from the original on 21 September 2024.
  3. ^ a b "Census of India Website : Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, India".
  4. ^ "Jharkhand: Data Highlights the Scheduled Tribes" (PDF). Census of India 2001. Census Commission of India. Retrieved 6 March 2008.
  5. ^ "Scheduled Tribals" (PDF). tribal.nic.in. Retrieved 30 June 2019.
  6. ^ "High hopes for Ho". The Times of India. 19 July 2011. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  7. ^ "Journeying together with Ho tribes in Odisha". 16 February 2015.
  8. ^ "Ho: A Language of India". Ethnologue. SIL International. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  9. ^ Mohan, Shailendra (2013). "20" (PDF). In Hashnain, Imtiaz; Bagga-Gupta, Sangeeta; Mohan, Shailendra (eds.). Linguistic Identity and Language Preferences Among the Austro-Asiatic Language Speakers of Jharkhand. United Kingdom: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 286–303. ISBN 9781443847162. Retrieved 9 October 2017.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference indiaex was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Cite error: The named reference elib was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  12. ^ Cite error: The named reference ndtv was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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