“Our vital traditions are being lost. They are bing ‘modernized’.” – A tribal mother’s concerns (interviewed for Survival International) in “Factory Schools: Destroying Indigenous People in the Name of Education” (accessed 28 March 2021)
https://www.survivalinternational.org/about/factoryschools
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=34514
I cannot give you my forest is a documentary directed and produced by filmmakers- Nandan Saxena and Kavita Bahl. It has received the National Film Award for Best Environment Film in 2014. Filmed in the forests of Odisha, ‘I cannot give you my forest’ is a window into the lives of the Kondh ‘adivasis’. The … Read more
This essay was first published in the Economic and Political Weekly (August 11, 2007) under the title, “Adivasis, Naxalites, And Indian Democracy” and is republished here with the author’s permission as it – unfortunately – remains as relevant today. […] On 13th December 1946, Jawaharlal Nehru moved the Objectives Resolution in the Constituent Assembly of … Read more
3. Sustainable resource use and forest conservation by the Kaani indigenous community of Kanyakumari forests in the Western Ghats, India (Ch. 3, pp. 37-55) in: “Knowing our Lands and Resources: Indigenous and Local Knowledge and Practices related to Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services in Asia” by Madhav Karki, Rosemary Hill, Dayuan Xue, William Alangui, Kaoru Ichikawa … Read more
“The great diversity of music in India is a direct manifestation of the diversity and fragmentation of the population in terms of race, religion, language, and other aspects of culture. Yet the distinction between tribal music and folk music is not always clearly defined.” – N.A. Jairazbhoy To illustrate the above observation, namely “The distinction between … Read more
Santali is not a dead language in the first place so it does not need to be “revived”! I have grown up in Santal Parganas where people speak Santali in their homes, in the marketplace, attend church service in Santali (in the Lutheran churches) and sing hymns in Santali. […] Finally, the Santals of Santal … Read more