Question

Imagine that you are watching the Republic Day parade on TV with a friend and she remarks- "Look at those tribal people. They look so exotic and they seem to be dancing all the time."
List three things that you would tell her about the lives of Adivasis in India.

Answer 1

Hint: Adivasi is a collective term for Indian subcontinent tribes who are considered indigenous to the areas where they live, whether as foragers or tribalistic sedentary societies. Several tribal peoples revolted against British during the British rule of India.

Complete answer:
Despite being considered India's first inhabitants, many modern-day Adivasi groups arose after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilisation, with varying degrees of ancestry from ancient hunter-gatherers, Iranian farmers, Indo-Aryan, and Austroasiatic and Tibeto-Burman language speakers.

The following are the three things I would tell a friend about the Adivasis in India:
- People seem to know quite little about the complexities of Adivasis' lives, despite the fact that their lives are actually very rich.
- They are typically depicted in stereotypical ways, wearing brightly coloured outfits, wearing headgear, and dancing.
- Adivasis are often misunderstood as exotic, primitive, backward, and immune to development. They have very different traditions and educational systems than we do. They have a stronger bond with mother nature than we do, and they are still there to protect it.

Note: The Government at the Centre has classified Scheduled Tribe communities that are more segregated from the broader population and retain a distinct cultural identity as "Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups" (PVTGs), formerly known as Primitive Tribal Groups.