Egalitarian culture leaves Adivasi youth unprepared for competition: On the challenge of balancing tradition and modernity

Santal worriesBy Boro Baski, D+C 13/05/2013, Print Edition no. 6 2013 The young generation of India’s tribal communities is struggling with different problems than the college-educated urban youth that is presented in the media. Our author is from a Santal village and knows the challenges. In recent years India has seen an enormous amount of … Read more

Motivated to preserve, activate and enjoy, propagate and develop Santal tribal culture – West Bengal

Excerpt from “Ghosaldanga Adibasi Seva Sangha – Did it make a difference?” by Martin Kämpchen [Lecture held at Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, in a seminar on 12th February 2012 evaluating the work of  the Ghosaldanga Adibasi Seva Sangha on the occasion of its Silver Jubilee Celebrations. For more information see www.dorfentwicklung-indien.de.] […] I tell you this in order … Read more

eBook | “Santals Celebrate the Seasons: Six Murals by Sanyasi Lohar and his team” – West Bengal

The Santal village Bishnubati is situated about 8 km from Santiniketan and Sriniketan, the abodes which Rabindranath Tagore made famous. Since almost 30 years Bishnubati and its neighbouring Santal village Ghosaldanga have made a singularly vigorous effort to develop their potential in the fields of agriculture, economic uplift, and especially of education and culture. Sanyasi … Read more

Fashion – tradition and modernity

Indian tribal fashion has existed since the primordial existence of tribals who had first laid their footsteps in the subcontinent. […] Today, however tribal fashion in India has taken on a fresh meaning, looking towards the Western culture, with much broader and pan-Indian aspects to be proud about. People of the Indian metropolitans, with swanky … Read more

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