Bastar art and the Hindu-isation of the tribal myth – Chhattisgarh

Niranjan Mahawar, 75 [in 2012], is a self-taught ethnologist of Chhattisgarh. He spent almost five decades in southern Chhattisgarh to study the life and art of the Bastar tribes. […] Today, Mahawar — who was made famous in a series of interviews by the writer Dom Moraes — is considered an authoritative voice on central … Read more

Tribal Politics – adivasi culture, language, and religion in Encyclopedia of India

Tribal Politics The “tribal” peoples or adivasis of India, according to the 2001 census, constitute roughly 8.1 percent of the country’s population, some 83,6 million people, classified under 461 different communities. They occupy a belt stretching from the Bhil regions of western India through the Gond districts of central India, to Jharkhand and Bengal, where … Read more

“Real history is created by ordinary people”: Mahashweta Devi (1926-2016), a writer who became a voice of marginalised communities

Mahashweta Devi, a writer who became a voice of marginalised communities Mahashweta Devi was not just an onlooker, but a responsible representative of the downtrodden and the ignored population of India She always believed that the real history is created by ordinary people. For her, the endless source of inspiration for writing used to lie … Read more

Video | “Our values, farming, song and dances”: Tribal and indigenous peoples’ education must be rooted in the people’s own land, language and culture – Survival International

Factory Schools: crimes against children from Survival International on Vimeo. Two million tribal and indigenous children are in Factory Schools today. Lives are destroyed and families are torn apart as the children are intentionally alienated from their community and stripped of their identity. – Campaign to put indigenous education under indigenous control >>