Korama

During British rule in India, the Korama were classified under the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871, legislation that labeled entire communities as crime prone simply for being born into them, subjecting families to surveillance and severe restrictions. The law was repealed in 1949, and the affected communities, including the Korama, were officially denotified in 1952. Even so, the social stigma took decades to begin fading, still shaping today how they are treated by other castes and communities around them.

Many Korama follow trades passed down through generations: weaving bamboo baskets and mats, tattooing, and fortune telling, an activity tied to the very root of the people’s name. Part of the community today works as day laborers, while another portion has been gaining ground in skilled professions, a sign of growing social mobility amid a history marked by prejudice.

Life revolves around marriage within the group itself, but, unlike customs common among their neighbors, the Korama do not practice unions between cross cousins or between uncle and niece. Boys tend to have more access to schooling than girls, and urban families live alongside relatives who still follow the traditional trades in the countryside or on the outskirts of cities.

Practically all Korama follow Hinduism, and their faith is expressed in customs tied to the people’s own trade, especially in fortune telling practices and the rituals that accompany bamboo work and weaving. Religiosity walks hand in hand with caste identity, reinforcing the community’s place in India’s social hierarchy and also shaping festivals and family rituals throughout the year.

There is no record of a meaningful Christian presence among them, and Christianity is a reality practically absent from the Korama religious horizon, both in practice and in the people’s collective memory, as they remain today among the least reached groups in India.

Most Korama speak Kannada in daily life, a language that has had the complete Bible for almost two centuries, which guarantees access to Scripture in a language they understand well. Even so, the people’s low literacy rate limits how much this access translates into real contact with the biblical text, which reinforces the importance of oral and visual ways of presenting the Scriptures.

Hinduism is deeply intertwined with Korama identity, and the Christian faith has practically no known presence among them. The legacy of social stigma, inherited from the time the people were classified as a criminal tribe under British rule, still weighs on how they are seen by other castes, making access to and trust in any message from outside difficult. Their dispersion into small groups across various regions and languages also makes contact with anyone who already follows Jesus rare.

Overcoming the weight of a past marked by labels imposed from outside is still a living need among the Korama, as is more balanced access to education, especially for girls. The community also needs real opportunities for professional advancement that allow them to leave behind the cycle of informal work and the prejudice inherited from past generations.

In the spiritual realm, the people lack any living testimony of disciples of Jesus in their midst, and the near total absence of local churches means the message of the gospel simply does not reach them through the usual paths.