13 From C. Bates (ed.), Beyond Representations: colonial and postcolonial constructions of Indian identity (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006) Chapter 2. Human Sacrifice in Colonial Central India: Myth, Agency and Representation Crispin Bates The sanguinary nature of early contacts with the tribals, or adivasis, of central India did not bode well for their future reputation. The first expedition into Bastar by Captain Blunt, in 1795, was attacked and expelled from the country, from which experience may be traced some of the more fearful accounts of the savagery of tribal Gonds. 1 The already established reputations of the predatory Bhils of Gujarat and the rebellious Santhals and Kols of Bihar also served to colour the expectations of early travellers in central India. Hindu informants often reported the adivasis to be practitioners of human sacrifice and this was widely believed, although no evidence of this was ever uncovered. 2 The density of the jungle and the prevalence of malaria made any expedition into the interior something to be greatly feared. The first such attempt, that of Alexander Elliot and four other officers, who endeavoured to march a route from Cuttack to Nagpur and thence to Hoshangabad between August 11th and December 9th 1778, ended in the death of Elliot and three of the other four. Only Thomas actually made it to Hoshangabad, and on the return journey was considerably harassed by tigers, robbers and 'a treacherous Naig [sic]'. 3 In later expeditions, however, expectations were not always confirmed. The large number of Hindus, including Rajputs and 'agricultural Brahmins' resident in Chhattisgarh and the surrounding tracts was noted with surprise, and the customs and practices of the Gonds were discovered to be not always as bizarre as previously described. One expedition of the early 1830's reported: It has been suspected by many that the Gonds do not scruple to perform human sacrifices and devour the flesh, but the Hindoo inhabitants whom we questioned exonerated them from the charge of cannibalism. The Gonds whom we met with, far from showing any symptoms of cannibalism, even abstain from beef. The lower classes have no objections to other kinds of animal food, although the chiefs and better sort of folk have adopted the prejudices of the Hindu in this respect. 4 Richard Jenkins, in his report on the Nagpur territories, formed the impression that while the wildest of the Gonds, the Murias of Bastar, engaged in human sacrifice, the majority of