“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
[…] “Santhal children are compelled to leave behind the culture they grew up in , whenever they go in for modern education and learning the rudiments of the three r’s. It results in their loss of confidence, and utter confusion as regards their identity. We felt it was important that they studied in the Santhali … Read more
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
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
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
Read the full article and view a series of photographs here >> Did my car slow down on its own near a house made of karvi sticks? Or did the muscle memory of my legs press on the brake ever so lightly? Whatever be the case, I had halted at the house of Anusuyabai, my host in … Read more