How to cope with climate change, government interventions and the demands of companies? “We support farmers”: A tribal self-help organization’s experience with organic orchards – West Bengal

The Green Revolution has changed life in Indian villages, but the main beneficiaries were the landlords. Daily labourers remain poor and marginalised. The limits of using ever more fertiliser and pesticides are becoming apparent. Many farmers are confused because extension services want them to re-consider practices they were told to abandon not that long ago. A … Read more

Rabindranath Tagore – pioneer in rural education

A most important truth, which we are apt to forget, is that a teacher can never truly teach unless he is still learning himself. A lamp can never light another lamp unless it continues to burn its own flame. – Rabindranath Tagore quoted in Santiniketan (1961, p. 28) India celebrated the 150th birth anniversary of Rabindranath … Read more

The Lambani: A pan-Indian tribal community of many names and “known for its colourful dress” – Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Orissa & West Bengal

LAMBANIS: ORIGIN AND SOCIO CULTURAL PROFILEBy Dr. K. Ramalingareddy ORIGIN OF LAMBANIS India is a land of castes and tribes. According to an estimate there arc about 427 tribal groups in the Country (Roy Burman, 1971:2). The Anthropological Survey (1967) has estimated the number at 314 considering a number of tribes to be the constituents … Read more

Kondh Adivasis farmers known for their sophisticated practices of agro-forestry: Koraput region, “one of the world’s great biodiversity hotspots” – Odisha

Interview | Daricha Foundation traces the roots of folk and tribal arts – West Bengal

Interview with Daricha Foundation’s founder Ratnaboli Bose If one of the scenes that you remember from Satyajit Ray’s Agantuk is where Mamata Shankar serves goyna bodi to Utpal Dutt, then you could be a friend of Daricha, a one-stop knowledge portal aimed at documenting, promoting and disseminating Bengal’s folk and tribal culture. Conceived by Ratnaboli … Read more