Adivasi (a Hindi word that literally means the original inhabitants) is a term for a heterogeneous set of ethnic and tribal groups believed to be the aboriginal population of India. Adivasi societies are present in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Bhutan and other South Asian nations.
Adivasi is officially recognized by the Indian government as “Scheduled Tribes” in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of India, which is eligible for certain affirmative action measures.
More on the names given to/adopted by Adivasi communities, their distinctive customs and histories: jharkhandi.com website >>
Source: Adivasis.com | Jharkhandi.com | Tribal India Group | Scheduled Tribes (ST) of India
Address : http://jharkhandi.com/Adivasi.aspx
Date Visited: Wed Mar 21 2012 10:55:12 GMT+0100 (CET)
Ādivāsi [ādibāsi] may be used in accordance with local conventions; and increasingly so for official purposes (e.g. in “Conserving Tradition and Practices of Adivasi Communities in India” published on NIDM.gov.in); Dr. Ivy Hansdak clarifies:
“Adivasi – 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 and includes all the different indigenous groups of India. The terms ‘indigenous’ and ‘aboriginal’ are not used often as the government claims most groups are indigenous in India. ‘Denotified Tribes’ is only used for those nomadic tribes who were notified as ‘criminal tribes’ during the British Raj [colonial rule]; later they were ‘denotified’ but still bear the stigma.” (emails dated 2020 & 2023)
A Supreme Court judgment projects the historical thesis that India is largely a country of old immigrants and that pre-Dravidian aborigines, ancestors of the present Adivasis, rather than Dravidians, were the original inhabitants of India. – Comment “India, largely a country of immigrants“ Photo © The Hindu | Learn more >>
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See also
- Adverse inclusion | Casteism | Childhood | Rural poverty
- Demographic Status of Scheduled Tribe Population of India (Census figures 2011)
- Denotified Tribes, Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes – Report and Recommendations (Technical Advisory Group)
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