Mythologies of the Janajati/Adivasi Tribes

The Adivasi (also spelled Adibasi) are the heterogeneous tribal groups across the Indian subcontinent. The term Adivasi, a 20th-century construct meaning "ancient inhabitants", is now widely used as a self-designation by many of the communities who are officially recognised as "Scheduled Tribes" in India and as "Ethnic minorities" in Bangladesh. They constitute approximately 8.6% of India's population (around 104.2 million, according to the 2011 Census)and about 1.1% of Bangladesh's population (roughly 2 million, 2010 estimate). Gondi women in Umaria district, IndiaClaiming to be among the original inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent, many present-day Adivasi communities formed during the flourishing period of the Indus Valley Civilisation or after its decline, harbouring various degrees of ancestry from Dravidians, Indo-Aryan, Austroasiatic, and Tibeto-Burman peoples. Adivasi studies is a new scholarly field, drawing upon archaeology, anthropology, agrarian history, environmental history, subaltern studies, indigenous studies, aboriginal studies, and developmental economics. It adds debates that are specific to the Indian context. The term Adivasi is a Sanskrit word specifically coined in 1930s by tribal political activists to give a distinct and collective indigenous identity to tribal people, alleging that Indo-Aryan and Dravidian ethnolinguistic groups are not indigenous to the land. The term was initially popularised by tribal activist organisations in present-day Jharkhand. Later, Thakkar Bapa used the word to advocate for a pan-Indian reference to the inhabitants of forests, a usage that was later adopted, although not popularly by Gandhi. Post-independence, Jaipal Singh Munda, president of the Jharkhand-based organisation 'Adivasi Mahasabha', was elected as an independent member representing tribal people in the Constituent Assembly. He advocated for the term 'Adivasi' in place of 'Scheduled Tribe'. However, due to the need for legal connotation, Ambedkar rejected the use of such general socio-political terms in the Constitution by adopting 'Scheduled Tribe' for tribal people and 'Scheduled Caste' for untouchables, although he advocated for Dalits. Ambedkar, responding to Munda's advocacy for 'Adivasi', clarified: "why I substituted the word "scheduled" for the word "aboriginal" the explanation is ... the word 'scheduled tribe' has a fixed meaning, because it enumerates the tribes ... the word 'Adibasi' is really a general term which has no specific legal de jure connotation, something like the Untouchables [Dalits]. Anybody may include anybody in the term 'untouchable' [and Adibasi]. ... by this Constitution, we are conferring certain privileges, certain rights on these Adibasis. In order that, if the matter was taken to a court of law there should be a precise definition as to who are these Adibasis, it was decided to invent, so to say, another category or another term to be called 'Scheduled tribes' and to enumerate the Adibasis under that head."

The nomenclature "Tribal, " "Scheduled Tribe, " "Indigenous" and "Adivasi" (adi meaning first and vasis meaning inhabitants), are used both distinctively and interchangeably to speak of Indigenous India, with each term bearing its own etymologies. With neither the use of "Indigenous" or "Adivasi" officially recognized, "tribal" or "ST" becomes a functional catch-all term to refer to India’s Indigenous population. The self-given term "Adivasi" conveys a sense of empowerment, augmented by self-identification and solidarity with indigenous people’s movement across the world. Being Adivasi is not about suffering alone, but about the resilience emerging from it, and a celebration of ancestral approaches to life. Although India’s Scheduled Tribes account for less than 9% of the country’s population, they represent an astonishingly rich and varied cultural mosaic. Far from being a homogenous category, Adivasi communities differ from one another in language, belief systems, lifestyles, and in their histories of contact with mainstream society. They maintain worldviews and cosmologies that stand entirely outside of Hinduism and the caste system, while others have experienced varying degrees of assimilation and influence. Diversity in terms of demographic composition plays out across regions, too. India’s central, eastern and western states, including Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, and West Bengal are home to more than 55% of the country’s tribal population. Large groups like the Gonds, Bhils, Santals, Mundas, Oraons, and Meenas each number in the millions, while others, such as the Birhor, Asur, and the Indigenous peoples of the Andaman Islands, count fewer than 200 people. Linguistically, Adivasi India is nothing short of kaleidoscopic. While most of India speaks Indo-European languages, only a tiny fraction of tribal peoples do, mostly among the Bhils and Halbis. Instead, Adivasi communities speak a wide range of tongues: from Dravidian languages (like those spoken by the Gond, Khond, Koya, Oraon and Toda peoples), to Sino-Tibetan languages in the Himalayas and northeast, and Austro-Asiatic languages like those of the Santal, Munda, Kharia and Ho.

Before setting foot in Adivasi regions, engage with their cultural expressions. Learn a few words of greeting or expressing gratitude, including the right ways to pronounce and address the community. Take time to read about its history, political struggles and culture from Adivasi voices. Adivasi writers, such as Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, and filmmakers, like Biju Toppo, provide insight that enables responsible travel. Adivasi communities have faced centuries of displacement and erasure and the land tells that story. Recognize that the presence of police, surveillance or military in these areas is often a reflection of deeper historical injustices. Indigenous communities here are navigating the incursion of extractive development and militarization. To meet Adivasi India is to understand that there have always been many Indias, and some of them speak not in Hindi or English, but in Santali, Gondi, Ho, Kui, Warli, Naga and Khasi. This is not the India of postcard clichés, it is the India that pulses underneath, and it is speaking through rivers and drums, tattoos and metaphors, protests and poems.