|
Adivasi, AdivasiKaran, Adivasi Culture, Adivasi Life, Jhabua Adivasi, Adivasi History, Adivasi of Jhabua, Jhabua |
|
|
|
|
 |
|
Adivasi
Adivasis is an umbrella term for a heterogeneous set of ethnic and tribal groups believed to be the aboriginal population of India. They comprise a
substantial indigenous minority of the population of India.
Adivasi societies are particularly present in the Indian states of Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh,
Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Mizoram and other north-eastern states, and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Many smaller tribal groups are quite sensitive to
ecological degradation caused by modernization. Both commercial forestry and intensive agriculture have proved destructive to the forests that had endured
Sweden agriculture for many centuries.
Adivasi Life
Officially recognized by the Indian government as "Scheduled Tribes" in the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution of
India, they are often grouped together with scheduled castes in the category "Scheduled Castes and Tribes",
which is eligible for certain affirmative action.
Adivasi History
Adivasi populations suffer disproportionately from India’s modernization. Many depend on India’s forests for
their livelihood, and they have suffered from both the destruction of these forests as well as state efforts
to preserve the forests which often fail to account for the populations that live within them (for instance, b
y preventing them from selling materials they collect from the forest to anyone but the government, keeping
their earnings artificially low). They are increasingly becoming migrant laborers, a process which tears at
the social fabric of their communities. |
|
|
|
The condition of Adivasi populations varies quite considerably from one state to the next. National law gives states considerable power over defining who counts as a “Scheduled Tribe” and who does not. As a result, the same group might be considered a Scheduled Tribe in one state, but not in the neighboring state. This affects what kinds of scholarships, benefits, and affirmative action programs are available to members of that community.
Despite their marginal position, Adivasis have contributed greatly to Indian history and society. Over time, many Adivasi traditions were incorporated into Hinduism and Buddhism.
Adivasi Culture
In various parts of India Adivasis were incorporated into local states.
In some cases they became the ruling families, in others the untouchable lower castes. Some were hired
to fight wars for Indian kings, and under British rule they offered some of the fiercest resistance.
Little is known about the relationship between the Adivasis and non-Adivasi communities during the Hindu
and Muslim rules. There are stray references to wars and alliances between the Rajput kings and tribal
chieftains in middle India and in the North-East between the Ahom Kings of Brahmaputra valley and the hill Nagas.
They are considered to be ati-sudra meaning lower than the untouchable castes. Even today, the upper caste
people refer to these peoples as jangli, a derogatory term meaning "those who are like wild animals" -
uncivilised or sub-humans.
The Adivasis have few food taboos, rather fluid cultural practices and minimal occupational specialization, while on the other hand, the mainstream population of the plains have extensive food taboos, more rigid cultural practices and considerable caste-based occupational specialisation. In the Hindu caste system, the Adivasis have no place. The so-called mainstream society of India has evolved as an agglomeration of thousands of small-scale social groups whose identities within the larger society are preserved by not allowing them to marry outside their social groups.
The subjugated groups became castes forced to perform less desirable menial jobs like sweeping, cleaning of excreta, removal of dead bodies, leather works etc - the untouchables. Some of the earliest small-scale societies dependent on hunting and gathering, and traditional agriculture seem to have remained outside this process of agglomeration. These are the Adivasis of present day.
Their autonomous existence outside the mainstream led to the preservation of their socio-religious and cultural practices, most of them retaining also their distinctive languages. Widow burning, enslavement, occupational differentiation, hierarchical social ordering etc are generally not there. Though there were trade between the Adivasis and the mainstream society, any form of social intercourse was discouraged. Caste India did not consciously attempt to draw them into the orbit of caste society.
But in the process of economic, cultural and ecological change, Adivasis have attached themselves to caste groups in a peripheral manner, and the process of de-tribalisation is a continuous one.
Many of the Hindu communities have absorbed the cultural practices of the Adivasis. Although Hinduism could be seen as one unifying thread running through the country as a whole, it is not homogenous but in reality a conglomeration of centuries old traditions and shaped by several religious and social traditions which are more cultural in their essence (and including elements of Adivasi socio-religious culture).
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|