The Gadaba or Gutob people are an ethnic group of eastern

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. They are a designated

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 ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...

and

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

There are 84,689 Gadabas in Odisha and 38,081 in Andhra Pradesh as per the 2011 Indian census. The subgroups of Gadaba are Bada Gadaba, Sana Gadaba, Gutab Gadaba, Farenga Gadaba and Allar Gadaba. Their socioeconomic life is based on farming and daily labour. They are involved in both

Slash-and-burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed vegeta ...

and plow cultivation. They live in permanent villages. They are well known for their tribal dance, the

Dhemsa Dhemsa is a traditional folk dance of tribal people of central India-Southern Odisha and adjacent areas of Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. The dancers form a chain by holding each other by the shoulder and waist and dancing to the tune of tradit ...

. The Gadabas speak Gutob and Ollari, which are Austroasiatic and Dravidian languages respectively. Since the early 1980s the Gadabas have largely been displaced from their villages by the building of hydro-electric dams and the resulting lakes. Gadaba women traditionally wear neck rings which are about 500-700 grams each and can not be removed without the help of a blacksmith. As a part of their tradition, it is only removed after their death. A Gadaba woman traditionally wears a two-piece dress which is very colorful, often striped in red, blue and white, which is woven by the women themselves. The ornaments they wear are not very different from those of other tribes.

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* {{India-ethno-stub Scheduled Tribes of Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Tribes of Odisha

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