“[I]ndigenous people in India also feel the claustrophobic confines of their identity which has been imposed on them by others, be it the colonial administrator, the colonial anthropologist.” – Santali poet, scholar and translator Ivy Imogene Hansdak in “Is tribal identity relevant in today’s world?”, Inaugural Speech, National Conference “Tribes In Transition-II: Reaffirming Indigenous Identity Through Narrative” (2017)
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=23032
The vulnerability of tribal populations to exploitation by minor government officials, as well as moneylenders, landlords, and other agents of vested interests, can largely be traced to their illiteracy and general ignorance of the world outside the narrow confines of their traditional environment. Their inability to cope with the many novel forces impinging nowadays on … Read more
Source: “In Arunachal Pradesh, the Adi community is trying to reviving the traditional anyat millet” by Sanskrita Bharadwaj, Scroll.in, 26 December 2023Address: https://scroll.in/article/1060885/in-arunachal-pradesh-the-adi-community-is-trying-to-reviving-the-traditional-anyat-milletDate Visited: 3 March 2025 The Adi are justly proud of their history. The Himalayan hill tribe’s reputation as fierce warriors, and the inhospitable terrain in which they live, have ensured the survival … Read more
Source: FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS | National Commission for Scheduled TribesAddress: https://www.ncst.nic.in/ Date Visited: 15 September 2021
The film focuses on a moment of hope, the government bringing in the Forest Rights Act (2006) to right ‘historic wrongs’ only to betray that promise, so as to protect predatory developers against these expendable peoples.
Verrier Elwin, the anthropologist and Indologist who lived in Shillong, wrote a collection of 28 poems which was recently unearthed, and published by North East Zonal Cultural Centre (NEZCC), Government of India. The anthropologist, who was not trained, was also an innate poet. Having majored in English literature, Elwin perhaps rediscovered poetry in the hills … Read more