Training women as Health Workers and resource persons : Ashwini’s Community Health Programme for the tribal communities of Gudalur Valley (Nilgiri) – Tamil Nadu

A health program for the people by the people | For up-to-date information about Ashwini’s Community Health Programme, click here >> The intervention on the Health situation of Adivasis started with the training of tribal women as Health Workers. Tribal women, who were till the other day, considered only as manual workers, suddenly became the … Read more

eJournal | “Folk practitioners are an integral part of one of India’s many local cultures”: New light on a wide spectrum of Traditional Indian Medicine (TIM)

Maarten Bode, “Traditional Indian Medicine (TIM) is not just Ayurveda” in IIAS Newsletter (International Institute for Asian Studies) | No.70 | Spring 2015, p. 47 The manifesto in the Focus section ‘Theorizing Heritage’ (the Newsletter #69) gives me the opportunity to discuss the political nature of narrowing the many forms of contemporary Traditional Indian Medicine … Read more

On the experience of having become an alien among one’s own people: Insiders’ reflections on the value of Santal customs in modern Indian society | West Bengal & Jharkhand

Dr. Boro Baski For the Santals, an Adivasi community in eastern India and Bangladesh, herding is traditionally a way to teach the young generation values and rules. School education is becoming ever more important however, and herding is becoming economically unviable. […] Moreover, they play the flute and sing, and they share stories and incidents … Read more

Cultivating wild varieties of medicinal plants makes tribal communities self-reliant: Increased demand for Ayurveda medicines – Kerala

Giji K. Raman, The Hindu, KATTAPPANA, August 26, 2014 | To view more photos and read the full article, click here >> Murugan, a native of Kammalankudy in the Marayur sandal division, is a happy man. He was selected the best farmer in the forest division for cultivating the largest quantity of ‘kattupadavalam’ (a wild … Read more

The theatrical aspect of traditional dances of India are probably rooted in tribal dances: Pandit Birju Maharaj in “Tribal dances of India”

Tribal dances of India by Robin D Tribhuwan; Preeti R Tribhuwan. New Delhi: Discovery Pub. House, 1999. ISBN 8171414435 (Rs. 2000) From the Foreword by Padma Vibhushan Pandit Birju Maharaj Tribals or adivasis in India, have been the first settlers of the undistributed forests, mountains, and valleys, where in they have developed various domains of socio-cultural life. Music, … Read more