Anthropology

“[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

“Kocharethi calls upon us to ethically engage with it, to question our complicity” – First novel by an Adivasi in Kerala

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Source: “Cultures in transformation”, Review by Pramod K. Nayar, The Hindu, 3 April 2011URL: https://www.thehindu.com/books/Cultures-in-transformation/article14669586.eceDate visited: 9 May 2020 A winner of the Kerala Sahitya Akademi, Narayan died on August 16, 2022, at the age of 81 Writings of protest Though Narayan wrote several novels and almost a hundred short stories, his most famous work … Read more

Absence of a dowry-system, divorce by mutual consent, and widow-re-marriage: On the high status of women in Badaga communities (Nilgiri) – Tamil Nadu

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The Badagas are a unique community living mainly in the Nilgiris District in Tamil nadu in South India. They are also the single largest community of the Nilgiris. Though classified backward, a significant factor is the high status of their women says Indu K Malla, a Badaga writer of distinction, in her article ” The myth … Read more

Stories behind the masks – Santhal scroll depicting a VIP visit

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An exhibition in New Delhi that gives a glimpse of diverse storytelling traditions in India. IGNCA lay enveloped in an eerie silence during the mega cultural festival held during the just-concluded Commonwealth Games in the Capital. Security issues are believed to have spoilt the party. However, with ‘Akhyan’, an exhaustive month-long event put together by SNA and … Read more

Usage of ‘tribe’ traceable to colonial census authorities

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The term ‘tribe’, as is widely known, subsumes enormous complexities—both anthropological and historical. However, the British India Censuses used to enumerate tribes as Animists until the 1931 Census, in which they were categorised as those practicing ‘Tribal Religion’. Thus, up to the 1941 Census, the criterion of primitive or tribal religion enabled the British census … Read more

Tribals’ excellent knowledge of the environment, closer to an ideal society – Odisha, Chhattisgarh & Jharkhand

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He is British by birth, but prefers to call himself an Indian. Having lived in this country for three decades now, Felix Padel, the great great grandson of father of evolution Charles Darwin, has closely worked on Adivasis in eastern India. A freelance anthropologist trained at Oxford and Delhi University, Padel has also authored a … Read more