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Learn more- In this episode, director/narrator Malle concentrates on small pockets of people he has discovered with unique ways of life but that are endangered due to external pressures. First, he shows footage of the Bondo tribe, which eats and sacrifices cattle, refuses education, vaccination, and the paying of taxes. They are being forced deep into the forests because the government is taking their land for reforesting. The women make brooms, and selling them at the market is their only contact with the outside world and only source of income. The women marry younger husbands, and they can't marry partners from their own village. Divorce is common, and settled with the gifting of goats; there is no writing; no last names; babies are named according to the day they're born (i.e., Monday, Tuesday). In another village, a communist activist is shown, trying to organize the peasants: His attempts are difficult due to distance, illiteracy and language. Money lenders, the government and landowners thwart their every move. A rare church is shown, in Kerala, which has the greatest Christian population. Most of the rare conversions are at the opposite ends of the caste hierarchy: Brahmans and Untouchables. A young Syriac priest is interviewed; he states they date back from when the Apostle St. Thomas came to Cranganore in 52 AD, that they support the Congress Party and are vehemently anti-Communist. Jews are shown at a Cochin synagogue; they have dwindled from about 300 to 100; since they never intermarry, sterility is a problem, and many emigrate to Israel. Simon Coder, a community leader and shopkeeper, says India is the only place that Jews have never been persecuted. An ashram, or religious community, in Pondicherry, a former French trading post, is examined. Sri Aurobindo, the founder, died in 1950 and his tomb is the religion's focal point. The ashram's now led by an old Frenchwoman simply called 'the Mother'. She refuses to be filmed but allowed Malle to record her stating her and the ashram's philosophy. Ambu, the ashram's hatha ('persistence') yoga master, states the physical benefits of yoga and gives a demonstration of his asanas (daily exercises). It's one of the eight parts that he practices, with others including breath control, self-restraint and meditation. Their highly-regarded school is shown, as well as the start of their pet project, 'Auroville', the 'city for the man of the future'. The episode is concluded with the Toda tribe from the Nilgiri mountains. There is no school; they learn from nature. Marriage is determined from birth; since there are more men than women, it's common for a girl to be married to several brothers from the same family. There is free love, and since there's no way to tell who fathered a child, the eldest brother is considered the legal father. They are pastoral people who have no wars, weapons, laws, leaders or hierarchy; all men take turns being the priest, and there is a council of elders to settle rare disagreements. But again, this group of 800 is endangered by the government taking their land; thus, their days are also numbered.
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