who are adivasis ? Name some places where adivasis are found.
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Adivasis – the term literally means ‘original inhabitants’
– are communities who lived, and often continue to live,
in close association with forests. Around 8 per cent of
India’s population is Adivasi and many of India’s most
important mining and industrial centres are located in
Adivasi areas – Jamshedpur, Rourkela, Bokaro and Bhilai
among others. Adivasis are not a homogeneous
population: there are over 500 different Adivasi groups in
India. Adivasis are particularly numerous in states like
Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa,
Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, West
Bengal and in the north-eastern states of Arunachal
Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland
and Tripura. A state like Orissa is home to more than 60
different tribal groups. Adivasi societies are also most
distinctive because there is often very little hierarchy
among them. This makes them radically different from
communities organised around principles of jati-varna
(caste) or those that were ruled by kings.
Adivasis practise a range of tribal religions that are different
from Islam, Hinduism and Christianity. These often involve
the worship of ancestors, village and nature spirits, the last
associated with and residing in various sites in the landscape
– ‘mountain-spirits’, ‘river-spirits’, ‘animal-spirits’, etc. The
village spirits are often worshipped at specific sacred groves
within the village boundary while the ancestral ones are
usually worshipped at home. Additionally, Adivasis have
always been influenced by different surrounding religions
like Shakta, Buddhist, Vaishnav, Bhakti and Christianity.
Simultaneously, Adivasi religions themselves have
influenced dominant religions of the empires around them, for example, the Jagannath cult of Orissa and Shakti and
Tantric traditions in Bengal and Assam. During the
nineteenth century, substantial numbers of Adivasis
converted to Christianity, which has emerged as a very
important religion in modern Adivasi history.
Adivasis have their own languages (most of them radically
different from and possibly as old as Sanskrit), which have
often deeply influenced the formation of ‘mainstream’ Indian
languages, like Bengali. Santhali has the largest number of
speakers and has a significant body of publications including
magazines on the internet or in e-zines.
Adivasis and Stereotyping
In India, we usually ‘showcase’ Adivasi communities in
particular ways. Thus, during school functions or other
official events or in books and movies, Adivasis are
invariably portrayed in very stereotypical ways – in
colourful costumes, headgear and through their dancing.
Besides this, we seem to know very little about the realities
of their lives. This often wrongly leads to people believing
that they are exotic, primitive and backward. Often
Adivasis are blamed for their lack of advancement as they
are believed to be resistant to change or new ideas. You
will remember that you read in Class VI book how
stereotyping particular communities can lead to people
discriminating against such groups.
Adivasis and Development
As you have already read in your history textbook, forests
were absolutely crucial to the development of all empires
and settled civilisations in India. Metal ores like iron and
copper, and gold and silver, coal and diamonds, invaluable
timber, most medicinal herbs and animal products (wax,
lac, honey) and animals themselves (elephants, the mainstay
of imperial armies), all came from the forests. In addition,
the continuation of life depended heavily on forests, that
help recharge many of India’s rivers and, as is becoming
clearer now, crucial to the availability and quality of our air and water. Forests covered the major part of our country
till the nineteenth century and the Adivasis had a deep
knowledge of, access to, as well as control over most of these
vast tracts at least till the middle of the nineteenth century.
This meant that they were not ruled by large states and
empires. Instead, often empires heavily depended on
Adivasis for the crucial access to forest resources.
This is radically contrary to our image of Adivasis today as
somewhat marginal and powerless communities. In the pre-
colonial world, they were traditionally ranged hunter-
gatherers and nomads and lived by shifting agriculture and
also cultivating in one place. Although these remain, for
the past 200 years Adivasis have been increasingly forced –
through economic changes, forest policies and political
force applied by the State and private industry – to migrate
to lives as workers in plantations, at construction sites, in
industries and as domestic workers. For the first time in
history, they do not control or have much direct access to
the forest territories.
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