The curious case of Nihali
It lies in the stunning Satpuda range, but not many would stop by Jamod-Jalgaon tehsil in Buldhana district, Maharashtra. Its many shrines attract the pious, but that is no claim to any real fame. However, since the last four months, Professor Shailendra Mohan has taken to visiting the same five villages in the tehsil, and each visit sure feels akin to carrying a talisman. He is most likely to be seen tapping the bent shoulders of local farmers of the Nihal community, hoping to lure them for a chat. At other times, he convinces their wide-eyed children to retell their grandparents’ folktales.

Yankee Modi, a Milang tribeswoman and PhD scholar at the University of Berne in Switzerland, conducts fieldwork on Milang language