Sacred groves: Traditional practice and modern ecology

Sacred groves are maintained by many tribal communities across India like the Santals and tribal communities in the Nilgiri mountain range of Tamil Nadu, adjoining Wayanad District, and the Kaani community Kanyakumari region on both sides of the border between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Some of their ancestral forests, sacred streams and mountains are now … Read more

Did the Indus Valley Civilisation script remain “elusive because no one has attempted to study the script using Gondi symbols and language”? – Karnataka

New findings raise an old question: Do South Indians belong to the Indus Valley Civilisation? Around two kilometres away from the famous Vittala Temple in Hampi, Karnataka, [a]round 10 years ago, KM Metry, a Kannada University professor of Tribal Studies who was researching instances of human-bear conflict in the area and visiting sites in search … Read more

Evidence suggesting a Gondi-Harappan link (Indus Valley civilisation, 2500 B.C.–1750 BC): Pictographs deciphered with the help of a proto Dravidian tribal language – Karnataka

The sentence emerged after a set of 19 pictographs from a cave in Hampi were deciphered using root morphemes of Gondi language, considered by many eminent linguists as a proto Dravidian language. Eleven of the Hampi pictographs resemble those of the civilisation, according to Dr. K.M. Metry, Head and Dean, Social Sciences, Kannada University, Hampi; … Read more

Video | “The Vibrant Bhils”: Tradition and change in one of India’s most ancient tribal communities – Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan & Maharashtra

A film directed by Raj Bendre and sponsored by the Madhya Pradesh State Planning Commission | Published on Feb 14, 2014

“A mine of information” that questions earlier writings on tribals, colonial history and the effects of globalization: Book review – Jharkhand and Bihar

A plateau accounting for half of the country’s mineral wealth comprising coal, iron-ore, copper, bauxite, chromite, dolomite, limestone, manganese and mica in erstwhile Chotanagpur area deserves to be studied in depth not only for the minerals but for its human endeavour to liberate itself from exploitation by greedy industrialists and insensitive rulers, be it colonialists … Read more