Colonial policies

“Tribal population was spread all over India and most of them occupied wild tracts, hilly and forested areas, away from more civilized centers. In 1880 their population was estimated at about seventy million. They had existed for centuries with their own social traditions and beliefs and subsisted on natural resources. They had preserved their near isolation and way of life until the British administration and policies made inroads into their territories.” – Subha Johari in “Tribal Dissatisfaction Under Colonial Economy of 19th Century”
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1040271311
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=11961

Landless Kol tribe forest dwellers: Permission required to plant or use trees such as neem, amla and mahua – Uttar Pradesh

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Though the Kols are anthropologically tribal, they are recognized as a Scheduled Caste in Uttar Pradesh. Not only has this deprived them of their traditional source of living-the forest, it has largely left them dependant and landless, languishing in silica quarries and sand mines. The Kols mainly inhabit the backward Bundelkhand and Baghelkhand regions bordering … Read more

An environment minister’s call for a change in the colonial outlook: “Forests, tribal forest dwellers and life forms living in forests complement one another and are not rivals”

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Forests, tribals and wildlife are not rivals, says [former] environment minister Anil Madhav Dave addressing senior-level forest officers at the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) in Dehradun The meeting of state forest secretaries to develop mitigation measures for faster green clearances for projects in wildlife habitats, which began today, saw the environment minister Anil Madhav Dave … Read more

“Was Narmada valley the centre of human evolution?”: Excavations along one of India’s seven holy rivers

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Was India home to one or more unknown hominin species, fossils of which we have not yet been discovered? And did they interbreed with the pre-existing hominid groups in the region? There is no definitive theory that can answer these questions but archaeologists agree that most of these scenarios are possible. What they also agree … Read more

Adivasi poetry that “expresses unwillingness and disagreement”: Probing into the culture of the ex-tea garden labourers – Assam

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On second day of TLF, session on “Young Tribal Writers; Their Themes, Issues and Challenges was organized.” The session was chaired by Prof. Sivashish Biswas, Assam University, Assam. During the session, five speakers talked about the emerging young writers from the tribal communities. Dr. Jamuna Bini gave some accounts of eminent tribal poets and writers beginning … Read more

A View of Higher Education in India” – public lecture by Prof. Ganesh Devy

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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