“Adivasi [Adibasi] – which is derived from Sanskrit – is applied to the dark-skinned or Austro-Asiatic indigenous groups of India (usually those from Eastern India). It is a commonly-used term in Jharkhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha. It is also used by the local Mongoloid tribes of North Eastern India for the migrant workers who were brought in as indentured labourers to work in tea plantations during the colonial period. ‘Tribal’ is a very broad term in the English language, as we all know, and includes all the different indigenous groups of India.” – Santali poet, scholar and translator Ivy Imogene Hansdak (email dated 27 March 2020)
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=23032
How the education work began – an introduction Kadichankolli, 1991 – The first ‘school’ begins in this village. The teacher, Raji, is from the village. The medium of instruction is `Bettakurumba’. One would wonder what the significance of this is. The Gudalur Block has as many as eleven residential schools exclusively for the tribals, called … Read more
Source: “Chasing dreams with art” by Jitha Karthikeyan, The New Indian Express, 20 July 2023URL: https://www.newindianexpress.com/cities/chennai/2023/jul/20/chasing-dreams-with-art-2596489.htmlDate Visited: 4 October 2023
Learn from M.S. Swaminathan – a world renowned scientist (1925-2023) – how biological diversity contributes to public health, people’s livelihood and environmental security in addition to food security: his call on Indian citizens to use and share resources in a more sustainable and equitable manner; outlining the long journey from the 1992 Earth Summit to a … Read more
We met adivasis who had been persecuted by the Naxalites, and other adivasis who had been tormented by the Salwa Judum vigilantes [i.e. “a strange, not to say bizarre, example of bipartisan co-operation“]. The situation of the community was poignantly captured by one tribal, who said […] “placed between the Maoists and the vigilantes, we … Read more
One of many broken agreements was that children were to be educated “whenever the Indians of the reserve shall desire it” in schools on the reserves. But rather than instruction being optional for those bands who desired it, as agreed, the state abducted Indigenous children and forcibly confined them in residential schools far from their … Read more