Rock art >>
Archaeological evidence
The existence of a unique, preAryan populace with a distinct cultural heritage and evolved literary traits has been fortified by archaeological evidence collected from the discovery of Harappa and Mohenjo-daro in the early 1920s, and further substantiated by the ongoing Keezhadi excavations in Tamil Nadu. With modern day advancements in handling fragile biodegradable material from excavation sites and also high-throughput genomic sequencing, we now understand how the Indian subcontinent was populated through waves of migration.
These studies confirm the historical facts that have seeped into common understanding in Tamil Nadu over the course of the century-old Dravidian Movement. In 2018, the paper titled ‘The Genomic Formation of South and Central Asia’ (co-authored by 92 scientists across a range of disciplines), further confirmed that Aryan migration into the subcontinent between 2000 BCE and 1000 BCE. Published scientific work that followed also established that the Harappans of the Indus Valley Civilisation created an agricultural revolution in the subcontinent and narrowed the period of Aryan migration to 2000 BCE and 1500 BCE.
A theory debunked
Recent scientific findings have conclusively debunked the ‘Out of India Theory’, which is part of the larger narrative suggesting that Dravidians and Aryans are ethnically similar but geographically divided. This has posed serious problems to the supporters of Golwalkar who have recently set out to discover the lost, mystic river Saraswati and to repackage the Indus Valley Civilization as the ‘Saraswati Civilization’ without taking into account research which suggests that the language of Harappans could have been Dravidian/ Proto-Dravidian. As such, C.N. Annadurai (Anna), a stalwart of the Dravidian Movement and a former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, had anticipated such baseless positioning in his book, Arya Mayai (Aryan Illusion). […]
Source: “The Dravidian movement and Aryan illusions” by Manuraj Shunmugasundaram, The Hindu, 23 July 2022
URL: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/lead/the-dravidian-movement-and-aryan-illusions/article65672119.ece
Date Visited: 25 July 2022
“We shall first have to give up this hubris of considering tribes backward. Every tribe has a rich and living cultural tradition and we must respect them.”
Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu on India’s Constitutional obligation to respect their cultural traditions
Gandhian social movement | Constitution >>
“Air is free to all but if it is polluted it harms our health… Next comes water… From now on we must take up the effort to secure water. Councillors are servants of the people and we have a right to question them.” – Mohandas K. Gandhi, Ahmedabad address on 1 January 1918; quoted by his grandson, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, in “On another New Year’s Day: Mahatma Gandhi’s ‘khorak’ a 100 years ago” (The Hindu, 1 January 2018)
Memories of life in a remote Bhil hamlet on the Narmada river >>
“Those displaced, who are the Scheduled Tribes, belong to the Bhil, Bhilala, Pavra, Tadvi, and Vassawa ethnic groups [of] Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra.”
Source: Development and Dispossession in the Narmada Valley >>
Find up-to-date information provided by, for and about Indian authors, researchers, officials, and educators | More search options >>
Search tips: in the search field seen here, type the name of any tribal (Adivasi) community, region, state or language; add keywords of special interest (childhood, language, sacred grove, tribal education, women); consider rights to which Scheduled Tribes are entitled (FRA Forest Rights Act, protection from illegal mining, UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, right to education, Universal Declaration of Human Rights); specify any other issue or news item you want to learn more about (biodiversity, climate change, ecology, economic development, ethnobotany, ethnomedicine, global warming, health, nutrition and malnutrition, rural poverty)
For a list of websites included in a single search, click here. To search Indian periodicals, magazines, web portals and other sources safely, click here. To find publishing details for Shodhganga’s PhD search results, click here >>
Related posts
- Anthropology | Archaeology
- Biodiversity | Ecology and environment
- Crafts and visual arts | Fashion and design
- eBooks, eJournals & reports | eLearning
- eBook | Background guide for education
- Ethnobotany | Hyderabad biodiversity pledge
- Forest dwellers in early India – myths and ecology in historical perspective
- Health and nutrition | Recommendations by the Expert Committee
- History | Indus Valley | Megalithic culture | Rock art
- Misconceptions | “Casteism” and its effect on tribal communities
- Modernity
- Languages and linguistic heritage
- Map | Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups & Endangered languages
- Museum collections – general
- Museum collections – India
- Regions of India
- Revival of traditions
- Storytelling | Success story
- Tribal culture worldwide
- Tribal elders
- Video | “Nations don’t make us human – languages make us human”: Ganesh Devy
Tips for using interactive maps
- toggle to normal view (from reader view) should the interactive map not be displayed by your tablet, smartphone or pc browser
- for details and hyperlinks click on the rectangular button (left on the map’s header)
- scroll and click on one of the markers for information of special interest
- explore India’s tribal cultural heritage with the help of another interactive map >>