“The whole body of writings on the tribes has been marked by i) Orientalist stereotyping ii) nationalism, because of which they were largely misrepresentations.” – Joseph Bara, on the need to critique the existing narratives and knowledge systems about the tribals in India, Report on the National Conference “Tribes In Transition-II: Reaffirming Indigenous Identity Through Narrative” (2017)
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=23050
The first report on minority rights, made public in late August 1947, provided for reservation for Untouchables only. Muslims were denied the right, which in the circumstances was to be expected. However, one member [of the Constituent Assembly of India] regretted that ‘the most needy, the most deserving group of adibasis [tribals] has been completely … Read more
To listen, find “Manasamangal” on the Travelling Archive website, then click the play button (“Listen to a song from this session”) Visit the Travelling Archive website for a larger map and to view more images. The four recordings in this session come from an ongoing project on Manasamangal or the Song Cycle of the Snake Goddess, Manasa, which we have … Read more
Scholars, historians and anthropologists came together to felicitate Dr. Tarun Chhabra on his definitive work on the Toda tribe The 150 year old Nilgiri library witnessed the launch of a definitive volume, The Toda Landscape Explorations in cultural ecology. It is a labour of passion, by Dr. Tarun Chhabra, and is co-published by Orient Black … Read more
“They were unable to maintain the city; resources were scarce” – Anindya Sarkar in his article on Dholavira, “the fifth largest site of the Indus Valley Civilization” yet lesser known, asking “Why?” “We face an increasingly unknown world: a changing climate regime and shrinking of the biosphere unlike anything any human community has experienced since the dawn … Read more
The dramatically adverse ratio between India’s rural population and the institutions of higher education relegates the entire rural population to the category of ‘educationally disadvantaged’. […] In democracies all over the world, electoral politics inevitably envelopes public institutions, and the social or ethical imperatives quickly get subsumed within the political dynamics. The policy of reservations … Read more