Ganda.--A servile and impure caste of Chota Nagpur and the Uriya
Districts. They numbered 278,000 persons in 1901, resident largely
in Sambalpur and the Uriya States, but since the transfer of this
territory to Bengal, only about 150,000 Gandas remain in the Central
Provinces in Raipur, Bilaspur and Raigarh. In this Province the Gandas
have become a servile caste of village drudges, acting as watchmen,
weavers of coarse cloth and musicians. They are looked on as an impure
caste, and are practically in the same position as the Mehras and
Chamars of other Districts. In Chota Nagpur, however, they are still
in some places recognised as a primitive tribe, [13] being generally
known here as Pan, Pab or Chik. Sir H. Risley suggests that the name
of Ganda may be derived from Gond, and that the Pans may originally
have been an offshoot of that tribe, but no connection between the
Gandas and Gonds has been established in the Central Provinces.