“Having grown up within the largely oral Khasi community in Meghalaya, whose creative expressions mainly comprised song and “iathoh khana” (storytelling), it puzzled me that, in none of the canonical creative writing textbooks, had I come across a discussion on the influences of oral storytelling on craft.” – Janice Pariat in “Decolonising creative writing: It’s about not conforming to techniques of the western canon” (Scroll.in, 4 July 2021)
https://scroll.in/article/999215/decolonising-creative-writing-its-about-not-conforming-to-techniques-of-the-western-canon
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=3382
Whatever our own cultural background, there are amazing discoveries to be made, for India’s youth just as for scholars and visitors from all over the world! Learn more about – and from – some of India’s tribal communities by Gondi-Harappan link (2500 B.C.–1750 BC) Hampi – KarnatakaPossibly “a revolutionary find” that links the adivasi Gond tribe to the … Read more
“Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home — so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. […] Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look … Read more
MAHASWETA DEVI’S novel The Book of the Hunter (first published in Bengali as Byadhkhanda in 1994), is the latest in Seagull’s excellent ongoing enterprise to bring the powerful oeuvre of the literary activist to a readership well beyond Bengal. One of Devi’s foremost passions has been to document the oral histories of the tribal communities … Read more
Director: Sunanda Bhat | Producer: Songline FilmsGenre: Documentary | Produced In: 2012 | Story Teller’s Country: India Synopsis: The film interweaves contemporary narratives with an ancient tribal creation myth to explore the effects of a rapidly changing landscape on lives and livelihoods. A woman’s concern over the disappearance of medicinal plants from the forest, a farmer’s … Read more
The religion of the Santals, which we see today, represents one of the most ancient religions. […] The Santals are one of the largest homogenous indigenous peoples group in India, numbering more than six million scattered over in the states of Assam, Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and outside India in Nepal, … Read more