View source for Adivasi

{{Short description|Varied tribal groups in the Indian subcontinent}}
{{About|tribal groups in India|the legal term|Scheduled Tribes}}
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{{Use Indian English|date=March 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020}}
[[File:Kurukh dance of Oraons .jpg|thumb|right|Dance of the [[Kurukh people]], a tribe in eastern India]]

The '''Adivasi''' (also spelled '''Adibasi''') are the heterogeneous tribal groups across the [[Indian subcontinent]].<ref>{{cite book | author=Engin F Isin | title=Citizenship After Orientalism: An Unfinished Project | publisher=Taylor & Francis | year=2015 | isbn=978-1-317-68137-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SI-9CgAAQBAJ | quote=Widely addressed as tribals, Adivasis are heterogeneous groups spread all over the nation having different languages and group identities. | page=213 | access-date=23 March 2023 | archive-date=23 March 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230323185127/https://books.google.com/books?id=SI-9CgAAQBAJ | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last=Isin | first=Engin | title=Citizenship after Orientalism: Transforming Political Theory | publisher=Palgrave Macmillan UK | series=Palgrave Studies in Citizenship Transitions | year=2016 | isbn=978-1-137-47950-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=W4ikCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA202 | quote='Adivasi' literally means 'original inhabitant', and it refers to heterogeneous adivasis  tribal groups living all over the subcontinent. | page=202 | access-date=12 April 2023 | archive-date=23 March 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230323185120/https://books.google.com/books?id=W4ikCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA202 | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="EB_Adivasi"/><ref name="booksandideas"/> 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 recognized as "[[Scheduled Tribes]]" in India and as "[[Ethnic minorities in Bangladesh|Ethnic minorities]]" in Bangladesh.<ref>{{Citation |last=Alles |first=Gregory D. |title=Are Adivasis Indigenous? |date=2017-06-01 |work=Handbook of Indigenous Religion(s) |pages=247–262 |url=https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004346710/B9789004346710_015.xml |access-date=2025-01-26 |publisher=Brill |language=en |doi=10.1163/9789004346710_016 |isbn=978-90-04-34671-0 |quote=In any case, the term ''adivasi'' is a relatively recent one, at most only a century old. Despite its recent origin, however, it is now widely used as a self-designation by many of the people whom the Government of India classes as Scheduled Tribes.|url-access=subscription }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Béteille |first=André |date=1998 |title=The Idea of Indigenous People |journal=Current Anthropology |volume=39 |issue=2 |pages=187–192 |doi=10.1086/204717 |jstor=10.1086/204717 |issn=0011-3204}}</ref><ref name="barnes1995"/><ref name="Forwardpress"/> They constitute approximately 8.6% of India's population (around 104.2 million, according to the [[2011 census of India|2011 Census]])<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/pca/pca_pdf/PCA-CRC-0000.pdf|title=2011 Census Primary Census Abstract|website=Censusindia.gov.in|access-date=11 June 2015|archive-date=5 August 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200805215732/https://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011census/hlo/pca/pca_pdf/PCA-CRC-0000.pdf|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/scs-sts-form-25--of-population-says-census-2011-data/1109988/|title=SCs, STs form 25% of population, says Census 2011 data – Indian Express|website=archive.indianexpress.com|access-date=25 April 2015|archive-date=16 July 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170716023104/http://archive.indianexpress.com/news/scs-sts-form-25--of-population-says-census-2011-data/1109988|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-cpim-demands-reservation-for-scs-sts-in-private-sector-2078034|title=CPI(M) demands reservation for SCs, STs in private sector|date=16 April 2015|website=DNA India|access-date=14 July 2019|archive-date=14 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190714215405/https://www.dnaindia.com/india/report-cpim-demands-reservation-for-scs-sts-in-private-sector-2078034|url-status=live}}</ref> and about 1.1% of Bangladesh's population (roughly 2 million, 2010 estimate).<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Bangladesh – The World Factbook|url=https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/bangladesh/|access-date=2021-07-10|website=Cia.gov|archive-date=30 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210730024842/https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/countries/bangladesh/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Bangladesh {{!}} World Directory of Minorities & Indigenous Peoples|url=https://minorityrights.org/country/bangladesh/|access-date=2021-07-10|website=Minority Rights Group|date=19 June 2015|language=en-GB|archive-date=10 July 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210710151822/https://minorityrights.org/country/bangladesh/|url-status=live}}</ref>

[[File:Women of Paniya community in Kerala .jpg|thumb|[[Paniya people|Paniya]] women in [[Kerala]]]]
[[File:Women in adivasi village, Umaria district, India.jpg|thumb|[[Gondi people|Gondi]] women in [[Umaria district]], India]]

Claiming to be among the original inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent, many present-day Adivasi communities formed during the flourishing period of the [[Indus Valley Civilization]] or after the decline of the IVC, harboring various degrees of ancestry from [[Dravidian peoples|Dravidians]], [[Indo-Aryan peoples|Indo-Aryan]], [[Austroasiatic peoples of South Asia|Austroasiatic]], and [[Tibeto-Burman migration to Indian subcontinent|Tibeto-Burman]] peoples.{{sfn|Reich et al.|2009}}{{sfn|Basu et al.|2016}}{{sfn|Narasimhan|Patterson|et al.|2019}}

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.<ref name="historyCompass">{{Cite journal |title=Adivasi studies: From a historian's perspective |journal=[[History Compass]] |url=https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/hic3.12486 |last=Dasgupta |first=Sangeeta |issue=10 |volume=16 |year=2018 |article-number=e12486 |doi=10.1111/hic3.12486 |access-date=2024-06-07|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

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==Definition and etymology==
''Adivasi'' is the collective term for the tribes of the [[Indian subcontinent]],<ref name="EB_Adivasi">{{cite encyclopaedia|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Adivasi |title=Adivasi |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301205220/https://www.britannica.com/topic/Adivasi |archive-date=1 March 2021 |url-status=live}}</ref> who are claimed to be the [[Indigenous peoples|indigenous people]] of India.<ref name="gandhi1968">{{Citation | title=The Selected Works of Mahatma Gandhi: Satyagraha in South Africa | author=Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi | publisher=Navajivan Publishing House | year=1968 | access-date=2008-11-25 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cApuAAAAMAAJ | quote=... The Adivasis are the original inhabitants ...}}</ref><ref name="loksabha1995">{{Citation | title=Lok Sabha Debates ser.10 Jun 41–42 1995 v.42 no.41-42 | publisher=Lok Sabha Secretariat, Parliament of India | year=1995 | access-date=2008-11-25 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=EaRXAAAAMAAJ | quote=... Adivasis are the aborigines of India ...}}</ref> It refers to "any of various ethnic groups considered to be the original inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent".<ref name="EB_Adivasi"/> The term is broadly analogous to the global usage of "[[Indigenous people|Indigenous]]" and "[[Aboriginal people |Aboriginal]]". In India, although the terms "Tribe" and "Adivasi" are often used interchangeably, they have distinct contextual meanings. "Tribe" refers to a social unit, whereas "Adivasi" means ancient inhabitants. The former is an [[anthropological]] term primarily associated with the social characteristics, while the latter is a [[socio-political]] term associated with the [[Autochthon (ancient Greece)|autochthonous identity]]. 

The use of the term Adivasi as a socio-political construct has been critiqued by scholars for overlooking the historical complexities of indigeneity, including migration, linguistics, anthropology, and archaeology. [[David Hardiman|Hardiman]], for instance, views this as "the idea that Adivasis are autochthonous, or original, inhabitants is {{Not a typo|belied}} by the fact that many such groups are known to have migrated in recorded history into the areas in which they are now found, often displacing existing inhabitants in the process... There have been so many migrations in and out of this region in past centuries that no particular ''[[Jāti|jati]]'' {{bracket|community}} can have genuine grounds for making such a claim."<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hardiman |first=David |url=https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/people/staff_index/dhardiman/coming_of_the_devi.pdf |title=The Coming of the Devi: Adivasi Assertion in Western India |date=1987 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-561957-7 |oclc=17422986 |lccn=87900016 |language=en |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20250304081318/https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/history/people/staff_index/dhardiman/coming_of_the_devi.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2025 |url-status=live |access-date=4 March 2025 }}</ref> The term Adivasi, in fact, is a [[Sanskrit]] word specifically coined in 1930s by the tribal political activists to give a distinct and collective indigenous identity to the tribals, alleging that [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]] and [[Dravidian languages|Dravidian]] [[ethnolinguistic group]]s are not indigenous to the land.<ref name="masani1985">{{Cite book | title=Freedom and Dissent: Essays in Honour of Minoo Masani on His Eightieth Birthday |author1=Minocheher Rustom Masani |author2=Ramaswamy Srinivasan | publisher=Democratic Research Service | year=1985 | access-date=2008-11-25 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=v861AAAAIAAJ | quote= The Adivasis are the original inhabitants of India. That is what Adivasi means: the original inhabitant. They were the people who were there before the [[Dravidians]]. The tribals are the Gonds, the Bhils, the Murias, the Nagas and a hundred more.}}</ref><ref name="barnes1995">{{Citation | title=Indigenous peoples of Asia |author1=Robert Harrison Barnes |author2=Andrew Gray |author3=Benedict Kingsbury | publisher=Association for Asian Studies | year=1995 | access-date=2008-11-25 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-8eBAAAAMAAJ | isbn=978-0-924304-14-9 | quote=The Concept of the Adivāsi: According to the political activists who coined the word in the 1930s, the 'adivāsis' are the original inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent ...}}</ref> The term was initially popularized by tribal activist organizations in present-day [[Jharkhand]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Moodie |first=Megan |url=https://www.bibliovault.org/BV.landing.epl?ISBN=9780226253183 |title=We Were Adivasis |date=2015 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0-226-25304-6 |language=en |doi=10.7208/chicago/9780226253183.001.0001}}</ref> 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]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=De |first=Debasree |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gx1tEAAAQBAJ |title=Gandhi and Adivasis: Tribal Movements in Eastern India (1914-1948) |date=2022-07-07 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-62585-1 |language=en |quote=The term 'Adivasi' was coined in Jharkhand and popularized by the [[Adivasi Mahasabha]]. Thakkar Bapa seized on it and became a major advocate of its use. Gandhi, who then began to apply the term himself, even believed that Thakkar Bapa had coined it. In the late 1920s, Thakkar Bapa had written in Gujarati that the Bhils, Santhals, Gonds, etc., were ''asal vatani'' (original inhabitants) of India.}}</ref><ref name="roundtableindia">{{cite news|url=https://www.roundtableindia.co.in/the-mulniwasi-counter-myth/|title=A tribute to the indigenous people of India|publisher=roundtableindia|date=9 August 2018|access-date=28 September 2022|archive-date=28 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928162528/https://www.roundtableindia.co.in/the-mulniwasi-counter-myth/|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Independence of India|Post-independence]], [[Jaipal Singh Munda]], president of the Jharkhand-based organization '[[Adivasi Mahasabha]]', was elected as an independent member representing tribals in the [[Constituent Assembly of India|Constituent Assembly]]. He advocated for the term 'Adivasi' in place of '[[Scheduled Tribe]]'.<ref name="ghurye1980">{{Cite book | title=The Scheduled Tribes of India | first=G. S. |last=Ghurye |author-link=G. S. Ghurye | publisher=Transaction Publishers | year=1980 |edition=3rd | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9qt2e8xc-M4C | isbn=978-0-87855-692-2 |pages=361–363| quote=I have stated above, while ascertaining the general attitude of Mr. Jaipal Singh to tribal problems, his insistence on the term 'Adivāsi' being used for Schedule Tribes... Sir, myself I claim to an Adivāsi and an original inhabitant of the country as Mr. Jaipal Singh pal... a pseudo-ethno-historical substantiation for the term 'Adivāsi'.}}</ref> However, due to the need for legal connotation, [[Ambedkar]] rejected the use of such general socio-political terms in [[Constitution of India|the Constitution]] by adopting '[[Scheduled Tribe]]' for tribals and 'Scheduled Caste' for untouchables, although he advocated for ''Dalits''.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Behura |first1=Nab Kishore |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gpuRAAAAMAAJ |title=Tribals and the Indian Constitution: Functioning of Fifth Schedule in the State of Orissa |last2=Panigrahi |first2=Nilakantha |date=2006 |publisher=Rawat Publications |isbn=978-81-316-0011-5 |page=7 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=2016-05-18 |title=A phrase that eclipses key histories |url=https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2016/May/18/a-phrase-that-eclipses-key-histories-905009.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201021054231/https://www.newindianexpress.com/opinions/2016/may/18/A-phrase-that-eclipses-key-histories-905009.html |archive-date=21 October 2020 |access-date=2025-01-02 |newspaper=The New Indian Express |language=en }}</ref> 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 {{bracket|''Dalits''}}. Anybody may include anybody in the term 'untouchable' {{bracket|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."

In most [[Indo-Aryan languages]], such as Hindi and Bengali, ''Adivasi'' means "Original Inhabitants,"<ref name="EB_Adivasi"/> Sanskritic derivation from ''ādi'' 'beginning, origin'; and ''vāsin'' 'dweller' (itself from ''vas'' 'to dwell'), thus literally meaning 'beginning inhabitant'.<ref>"Adivasi, n. and adj." OED Online. Oxford University Press, June 2017. Web. 10 September 2017.</ref> Although terms such as ''atavika'', ''vanavāsi'' ("forest dwellers"), or ''girijan'' ("[[mountain people]]")<ref>Elst, Koenraad: (2001)</ref> are also used for the tribes of India, ''adivāsi'' carries the specific meaning of being the original and [[indigenous peoples|autochthonous]] inhabitants of a given region,<ref name="barnes1995"/> and the self-designation of those tribal groups.<ref name="waite2006">{{Citation | title=Embodied Working Lives: Work and Life in Maharashtra, India | author=Louise Waite | publisher=Lexington Books | year=2006 | access-date=2008-11-25 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gLm6WmbFsA0C | isbn=978-0-7391-0876-5 | quote=The scheduled tribes themselves tend to refer to their ethnic grouping as adivāsis, which means 'original inhabitant.' Hardiman continues to argue that the term adivāsi is preferable in India as it evokes a shared history of relative freedom in precolonial times ...}}</ref> However, the use and acceptance of the term Adivasi vary across places, communities, and contexts and do not always carry its original connotation. For instance tribals of [[North East India]] don't use the term Adivasi for themselves, rather prefer the word "Indigenous" or "Tribe". The term Adivāsi applies only to the immigrated [[Tea-garden community of Assam|Tea-tribes]] of Central India origin.<ref name="historyCompass"/> In Bangladesh, Adivasi term is also used to refer tribals of Central India affiliation, although not popularly as India, wherein the tribals have designated as "[[Ethnic minorities in Bangladesh|Ethnic minorities]]" ({{langx|bn|Khudro Nritattik Jonogoshti|label=none|italic=yes}}).<ref name=ILO/> Similarly the term ''Adivasi Janjati'' used in Nepal for hierarchically lowly-status ethnic groups in [[Caste system in Nepal|Nepal's caste system]], having own socio-cultural institutions,<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Toffin |first=Gérard |date=2009 |title=The Janajati/Adivasi Movement in Nepal: Myths and Realities of Indigeneity |journal=Sociological Bulletin |volume=58 |issue=1 |pages=25–42 |doi=10.1177/0038022920090103 |jstor=23620834 |issn=0038-0229}}</ref><ref>{{Cite report |url=https://dhsprogram.com/pubs/pdf/FA58/FA58.pdf |title=Caste, Ethnic and Regional Identity in Nepal: Further Analysis of the 2006 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey Lynn Bennett 
|first1=Dilli Ram |last1=Dahal 
|first2=Pav |last2=Govindasamy 
|date=September 2008}}</ref> although the political context differed historically under the [[Shah dynasty|Shah]] and [[Rana dynasty|Rana]] dynasties.<ref name="dailystar2012">{{cite web|url=https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-256768|title=It's 'Adivasi' not 'Upajati'|date=9 November 2012|website=The Daily Star|access-date=14 July 2019|archive-date=14 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190714215409/https://www.thedailystar.net/news-detail-256768|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="genecampaign">{{cite web |url=http://genecampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Indigenous_knowledge_amongst_the_Tharus_of_the_Terai_Region_of_Uttar_Pradesh.pdf |title=INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AMONGST THE THARUS OF THE TERAI REGION OF UTTAR PRADESH |date=2000 |website=genecampaign.org |access-date=2019-07-14 |archive-date=22 December 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151222102545/http://genecampaign.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/Indigenous_knowledge_amongst_the_Tharus_of_the_Terai_Region_of_Uttar_Pradesh.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> In Sri Lanka, the [[Vedda people]] are referred as Adivasi.{{Citation needed|date=April 2026}}

The [[Constitution of India]] doesn't use the word ''Adivasi'', and directs government officials to not use the word in official work. The notified tribals are designated as [[Scheduled Tribes]] (''Anusuchit Janjati'') in the Constitution.<ref name="Forwardpress">{{cite news|url=https://www.forwardpress.in/2018/10/we-are-scheduled-tribes-not-adivasis/|title=We are 'Scheduled Tribes', not 'Adivasis'|publisher=Forwardpress|date=26 October 2018|access-date=28 September 2022|archive-date=28 September 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220928170408/https://www.forwardpress.in/2018/10/we-are-scheduled-tribes-not-adivasis/|url-status=live}}</ref> The constitution of India grouped these ethnic groups together "as targets for social and economic development". Since that time the tribe of India have been known officially as [[Scheduled Tribes]].<ref name="EB_Adivasi"/> Article 366 (25) defined scheduled tribes as "such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this constitution".<ref>{{Cite web |title=Article 366(25) in Constitution of India |url=https://indiankanoon.org/doc/924700/ |website=indiankanoon}}</ref> But, due to the political leverage associated with tribals in the Constitution of India, the term ''Adivasi'' serves as a consolidating factor both politically and socio-culturally, maintaining its influence in [[public discourse]] as a ''[[status quo]]'', challenging the legally designated, state-specific administrative term [[Scheduled Tribes]].<ref name="Forwardpress"/>

[[Judiciary of India|Judicially]] it remarked that "India is a country of [[Peopling of India|old immigrants]] in which people have been coming in over the last ten thousand years or so{{nbsp}}... who came mainly from the North-West, and to a lesser extent from the North-East{{nbsp}}... At one time it was believed that the Dravidians were the original inhabitants. However, this view has been considerably modified subsequently, and now the generally accepted belief is that the original inhabitants of India were the pre-Dravidian aborigines, i.e. the ancestors of the present tribals or Adivasis (Scheduled Tribes)."<ref name="thehindu2">{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/india-largely-a-country-of-immigrants/article1081343.ece|title=India, largely a country of immigrants&nbsp;– The Hindu|access-date=2017-01-08|newspaper=The Hindu|date=12 January 2011|archive-date=19 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140219103747/http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/india-largely-a-country-of-immigrants/article1081343.ece|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/resources/Supreme-Court-verdict-on-harassment-of-tribal-woman-pdf-version-full-text/article15519632.ece|title=Supreme Court verdict on harassment of tribal woman|newspaper=The Hindu|date=11 January 2011|access-date=23 April 2021|archive-date=23 April 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210423023442/https://www.thehindu.com/news/resources/Supreme-Court-verdict-on-harassment-of-tribal-woman-pdf-version-full-text/article15519632.ece|url-status=live}}{{request quotation|date=January 2025}}</ref><ref>S. Faizi & Priya K. Nair, 2016. "Adivasis: The World's Largest Population of Indigenous People," Development, Palgrave Macmillan; Society for International Development, vol. 59(3), pages 350–353, December.</ref>

But India does not exclusively recognise Adivasis {{Aka}} Tribes {{Aka}} [[Scheduled Tribes]] as indigenous people of India, rather considers all Indians as indigenous to the land.<ref name=RIS>{{citation |first=T. C. |last=James |date=January 2022 |title=International Discussions on Indigenous People and India |work=Research and Information System for Developing Countries |url=https://www.ris.org.in/sites/default/files/Publication/DP%20272%20T%20C%20James%20English.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230103143428/https://www.ris.org.in/sites/default/files/Publication/DP%20272%20T%20C%20James%20English.pdf |archive-date=3 January 2023 |url-status=live |access-date=9 January 2025 }}</ref><ref name=ILO>{{Cite report |first=Rishabh Kumar |last=Dhir |title= Indigenous Peoples in the World of Work in Asia and the Pacific: A Status Report |publisher=International Labour Office 
|location= Geneva|date=1 December 2015 |url=https://www.ilo.org/sites/default/files/wcmsp5/groups/public/%40dgreports/%40gender/documents/publication/wcms_438853.pdf |isbn=978-92-2-129995-0 }}</ref> Thus, India has disagreed or refused at various international forums, when there is uncertain in the concepts of [[indigeneity]] and considered same yardstick across countries for identification. For instance, although India initially ratified the [[International Labour Organization]] (ILO) Convention 107 on [[Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention, 1957]], in 1989, India refused to sign the [[ILO-convention 169|ILO Convention 169]].<ref name="booksandideas">{{Cite journal|url=https://booksandideas.net/Claiming-Indigenousness-in-India.html#nb2%7C|title=Claiming Indigenousness in India|journal=Books & Ideas|date=7 February 2013|last1=Rousseleau|first1=Raphael|access-date=30 September 2022|archive-date=21 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210121020629/https://booksandideas.net/Claiming-Indigenousness-in-India.html#nb2%7C|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2007, considering all Indians as indigenous, India voted for the [[Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples]] in the [[United Nations General Assembly]].<ref name="RIS" /><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Nixon |first=Ngoru |date=2025-01-20 |title=Limits of the adivasi category: Critical notes on writing the 'indigenous' in India |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00194646241307223 |journal=The Indian Economic & Social History Review |volume=62 |language=en |pages=67–99 |doi=10.1177/00194646241307223 |issn=0019-4646|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

==Demographics==
[[File:Percent of scheduled tribes in India-tehsils-census 2011.svg|thumb|Percent of scheduled tribes in India by tehsils by census 2011]]
[[File:2011 Census Scheduled Tribes distribution map India by state and union territory.svg|thumb|Scheduled Tribes distribution map in India by state and union territory according to 2011 Census.<ref name=2011Census/> [[Mizoram]] and [[Lakshadweep]] had the highest % of its population as ST (≈95%), while Punjab and [[Haryana]] had 0%.<ref name=2011Census>{{cite web | url=http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011-Documents/SCST%20Presentation%2028-10-2013.ppt | title=Census of India 2011, Primary Census Abstract, Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes | publisher=Office of the Registrar General & Census Commissioner, Government of India | date=28 October 2013 | access-date=6 October 2018 | archive-date=23 September 2015 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923224617/http://www.censusindia.gov.in/2011-Documents/SCST%20Presentation%2028-10-2013.ppt | url-status=live }} {{PPTlink}}</ref>]]

A substantial number of Adivasi {{aka}} [[tribal communities]] are recognised as [[list of Scheduled Tribes in India|Scheduled Tribe]]s under the [[Constitution of India]]. Those Scheduled Tribes  constitute 8.6% of India's population, while in Bangladesh they are designated as "Ethnic minority" and constitute around 1.1% of Bangladesh's population.<ref name=":0" />

One concentration lies in a belt along the northwest Himalayas: consisting of [[Jammu and Kashmir (union territory)|Jammu and Kashmir]], where are found many semi-nomadic groups, to [[Ladakh]] and northern [[Himachal Pradesh]] and [[Uttarakhand]], where are found Tibeto-Burman groups.

In the northeastern states of [[Arunachal Pradesh]], [[Meghalaya]], [[Mizoram]], and [[Nagaland]], more than 90% of the population is tribal. However, in the remaining northeast states of [[Assam]], [[Manipur]], [[Sikkim]], and [[Tripura]], tribal peoples form between 20 and 30% of the population.

The largest population of tribals lives in a belt stretching from eastern [[Gujarat]] and [[Rajasthan]] in the west all the way to western West Bengal, a region known as the [[India tribal belt|tribal belt]]. These tribes correspond roughly to three regions. The western region, in eastern Gujarat, southeastern Rajasthan, northwestern [[Maharashtra]] as well as western [[Madhya Pradesh]], is dominated by Indo-Aryan speaking tribes like the [[Bhil people|Bhils]]. The central region, covering eastern [[Maharashtra]] and Madhya Pradesh, western and southern Chhattisgarh, northern and eastern Telangana, northern Andhra Pradesh and western Odisha is dominated by Dravidian tribes like the [[Gondi people|Gonds]] and [[Khonds]]. The eastern belt, centred on the Chhota Nagpur Plateau in [[Jharkhand]] and adjacent areas of Chhattisgarh, Odisha and West Bengal, is dominated by [[Munda peoples|Munda]] tribes like the [[Bhumij people|Bhumijs]], [[Ho people|Hos]] and [[Santal people|Santals]]. Roughly 75% of the total tribal population live in this belt, although the tribal population there accounts for only around 10% of the region's total population.
 
Further south, the region near [[Bellary district|Bellary]] in [[Karnataka]] has a large concentration of tribals, mostly Boyas/ [[Valmiki caste|Valmikis]]. Small pockets can be found throughout the rest of South India. By far the largest of these pockets is in found in the region containing the [[Nilgiris district]] of [[Tamil Nadu]], [[Wayanad district]] of [[Kerala]] and nearby hill ranges of [[Chamarajanagar district|Chamarajanagar]] and [[Mysore district|Mysore]] districts of southern [[Karnataka]]. Further south, only small pockets of tribal settlement remain in the Western and Eastern Ghats.

The scheduled tribe population in [[Jharkhand]] constitutes 26.2% of the state.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ranchi/Marginal-fall-in-tribal-population-in-Jharkhand/articleshow/20374392.cms|title=Marginal fall in tribal population in Jharkhand &#124; Ranchi News – Times of India|website=The Times of India|date=June 2013|access-date=14 July 2019|archive-date=26 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190726182136/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ranchi/Marginal-fall-in-tribal-population-in-Jharkhand/articleshow/20374392.cms|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="dailypioneer">{{cite web|url=http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/ranchi/jharkhands-population-rises-sts-numbers-decline.html|publisher=dailypioneer.com|title=Jharkhand's population rises, STs' numbers decline|access-date=2017-01-08|archive-date=11 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150711050129/http://www.dailypioneer.com/state-editions/ranchi/jharkhands-population-rises-sts-numbers-decline.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Tribals in Jharkhand mainly follow [[Sarnaism]], an animistic religion.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://scroll.in/article/754985/in-jharkhands-singhbhum-religion-census-deepens-divide-among-tribals|title=In Jharkhand's Singhbhum, religion census deepens divide among tribals|first=Anumeha|last=Yadav|website=Scroll.in|date=20 September 2015 |access-date=14 July 2019|archive-date=14 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190714215406/https://scroll.in/article/754985/in-jharkhands-singhbhum-religion-census-deepens-divide-among-tribals|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Chhattisgarh]] has also over 80 [[lakh]] scheduled tribe population.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/interview/chhattisgarh-needs-a-tribal-chief-minister/article5168478.ece|title=Chhattisgarh needs a tribal Chief Minister|first=Suvojit|last=Bagchi|date=26 September 2013|newspaper=[[The Hindu]]|access-date=14 July 2019|archive-date=18 October 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018052036/https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/interview/chhattisgarh-needs-a-tribal-chief-minister/article5168478.ece|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="pib">{{cite web|url=http://pib.nic.in/feature/feyr2001/fjun2001/f080620012.html|publisher=pib.nic.in|title=Feature|access-date=2017-01-08|archive-date=17 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150417071927/http://pib.nic.in/feature/feyr2001/fjun2001/f080620012.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/raipur/Population-growth-rate-declines-in-Naxalite-and-tribal-areas-of-Chhattisgarh/articleshow/36010452.cms|title=Population growth rate declines in Naxalite and tribal areas of Chhattisgarh &#124; Raipur News – Times of India|website=The Times of India|date=3 June 2014|access-date=14 July 2019|archive-date=27 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190727105740/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/raipur/Population-growth-rate-declines-in-Naxalite-and-tribal-areas-of-Chhattisgarh/articleshow/36010452.cms|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Assam]] has over 40&nbsp;lakh Adivasis primarily as tea workers.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Why-Assams-adivasis-are-soft-targets/articleshow/45747349.cms|title=Why Assam's adivasis are soft targets &#124; India News – Times of India|website=The Times of India|date=4 January 2015|access-date=14 July 2019|archive-date=26 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190726182138/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Why-Assams-adivasis-are-soft-targets/articleshow/45747349.cms|url-status=live}}</ref> Adivasis in India mainly follow [[Animism]], [[Hinduism]] and [[Christianity]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/adivasi-vs-vanvasi-the-hinduization-of-tribals-in-india/217974|title=Adivasi vs Vanvasi: The Hinduization of Tribals in India|website=Outlookindia.com|date=3 February 2022|access-date=14 July 2019|archive-date=14 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190714215405/https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/adivasi-vs-vanvasi-the-hinduization-of-tribals-in-india/217974|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/in-jharkhand-tribes-bear-the-cross-of-conversion-politics/story-c9nJ9EW2QGY9L7IM0RZhQO.html|title=In Jharkhand, tribes bear the cross of conversion politics|date=1 December 2014|website=Hindustan Times|access-date=14 July 2019|archive-date=14 July 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190714215405/https://www.hindustantimes.com/india/in-jharkhand-tribes-bear-the-cross-of-conversion-politics/story-c9nJ9EW2QGY9L7IM0RZhQO.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="thehindu2"/>

In the case of Bangladesh, most Adivasi groups are found in the [[Chittagong Hill Tracts|Chittagong hill tracks]] along the border with Myanmar, in Sylhet and in the Northwest of Bangladesh. In Sylhet and in the north west you can find groups such as the [[Sauria Paharia people|Sauria Paharia]], [[Kurukh people|Kurukh]], [[Santal people|Santal]], [[Munda people|Munda]] and more, and other groups such as the [[Pnar people|Pnar]], [[Garo people|Garo]], [[Meitei people|Meitei]], [[Bishnupriya Manipuri people|Bishnupriya Manipuri]] and more. In the [[Chittagong Hill Tracts]] you can find variouse [[Tibeto-Burman languages|Tibeto-Burman]] groups such as the [[Marma people|Marma]], [[Chakma people|Chakma]], [[Bawm people|Bawm]], [[Tripuri people|Tripuri]], [[Mizo people|Mizo]], [[Mru people|Mru]], [[Rakhine people|Rakhine]] and more. In Bangladesh most Adivasis are Buddhists who follow the [[Theravada]] school of [[Buddhism]], [[Animism]] and [[Christianity]] are also followed in fact Buddhism has affected Adivasis so much that it has influenced local [[Animism|Animistic]] beliefs of other Adivasis.<ref>{{Cite web |title=World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples - Bangladesh: Adivasis |url=https://www.refworld.org/reference/countryrep/mrgi/2018/en/121723 |access-date=2025-01-07 |website=Refworld |language=en}}</ref>

==History==
{{broader|Peopling of India}}

===Origin===
Though claimed to be the original inhabitants of India, many present-day Adivasi communities formed after the decline of the [[Indus Valley Civilisation]], harboring various degrees of ancestry from ancient [[hunter-gatherers]], [[Indus Valley Civilisation]], [[Indo-Aryan languages|Indo-Aryan]], [[Austroasiatic languages|Austroasiatic]] and [[Tibeto-Burman languages|Tibeto-Burman]] language speakers.{{sfn|Reich et al.|2009}}{{sfn|Basu et al.|2016}} Only tribal people of [[Andaman Islands]] remained isolated for more than 25000 years.{{sfn|Narasimhan|Patterson|et al.|2019}}

[[File:Jarawa statue-2-samudrika museum-andaman-India.jpg|thumb|A Jarawa themed museum, showing casual clothing styles. The Jarawa are one of the indigenous tribes of the Andaman Islands in South Asia]]

===Ancient and medieval period===
According to linguist [[Anvita Abbi]], tribes in India are characterized by distinct lifestyle and are outside of [[Caste system in India|caste system]].<ref name="research gate">{{Cite web|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342833425|title=JOURNAL OF CRITICAL REVIEWS A Study of the Special Features of Nagpuri Language of Jharkhand|publisher=research gate|date=July 2020|access-date=23 September 2022}}</ref> 
Although considered uncivilised and primitive,<ref name="irudayam2004">{{Citation | title=Adivasis Speak Out: Atrocities Against Adivasis in Tamil Nadu |author1=Aloysius Irudayam |author2=Jayshree P. Mangubhai |author3=India Village Reconstruction |author4=Development Project | year=2004 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Books for Change | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MBduAAAAMAAJ | isbn=978-81-87380-78-8 | quote=... uncivilised ... These forests and land territories assume a territorial identity precisely because they are the extension of the Adivasis' collective personality ...}}</ref> Adivasis were usually not held to be intrinsically impure by surrounding populations (usually [[Dravidian peoples|Dravidian]] or [[Indo-Aryan people|Indo-Aryan]]), unlike [[Dalit]]s, who were.{{refn|group=note|Barnes: "Although regarded by some British scholars as inferior to caste Hindus, the status of "adivasis" in practice most often paralleled that of the Hindus [...] In areas where they accounted for a large proportion of the population, adivasis often wielded considerable ritual and political power, being involved in investiture of various kings and rulers throughout central India and Rajasthan [...] In central India there were numerous "adivasi" kingdoms, some of which survived from medieval times to the nineteenth century.<ref name="barnes1995" />}}<ref name="bijoy2003">{{Citation | title=The Adivasis of India&nbsp;– A History of Discrimination, Conflict, and Resistance | author=C.R. Bijoy, Core Committee of the All India Coordinating Forum of Adivasis/Indigenous Peoples | journal=PUCL Bulletin | date=February 2003 | access-date=2008-11-25 | url=http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Dalit-tribal/2003/adivasi.htm | quote=... Adivasis are not, as a general rule, regarded as unclean by caste Hindus in the same way as Dalits are. But they continue to face prejudice (as lesser humans), they are socially distanced and often face violence from society ... | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080616184214/http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Dalit-tribal/2003/adivasi.htm | archive-date=16 June 2008 }}</ref> Thus, the Adivasi origins of [[Valmiki]], who composed the [[Ramayana]], were acknowledged,<ref name="naik1956">{{Citation | title=The Bhils: A Study | author=Thakorlal Bharabhai Naik | year=1956 | access-date=2008-11-25 | publisher=Bharatiya Adimjati Sevak Sangh | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NogcAAAAMAAJ | quote=... Valmiki, from whose pen this great epic had its birth, was himself a Bhil named Valia, according to the traditional accounts of his life ...}}</ref> as were the origins of Adivasi tribes such as the [[Garasia]] and [[Bhilala]], which descended from mixed [[Rajput]] and [[Bhil people|Bhil]] marriages.<ref name="balfour1885">{{Citation | title=The Cyclopædia of India and of Eastern and Southern Asia | author=Edward Balfour | year=1885 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Bernard Quaritch | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hVsIAAAAQAAJ | quote=... In Mewar, the Grasia is of mixed Bhil and Rajput descent, paying tribute to the Rana of Udaipur ...}}</ref><ref name="sinha1995">{{Citation | title=The Bhilala of Malwa | author=R.K. Sinha | year=1995 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Anthropological survey of India | isbn=978-81-85579-08-5 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=c_ltAAAAMAAJ | quote=... the Bhilala are commonly considered to be a mixed group who sprung from the marriage alliances of the immigrant male Rajputs and the Bhil women of the central India ...}}</ref> Unlike the subjugation of the Dalits, the Adivasis often enjoyed autonomy and, depending on region, evolved mixed hunter-gatherer and farming economies, controlling their lands as a joint [[Property|patrimony]] of the tribe.<ref name="irudayam2004" /><ref name="singh2000ds">{{Citation | title=Tribal Beliefs, Practices and Insurrections | author=R. Singh | year=2000 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd. | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MWbenCIeK6oC | isbn=978-81-261-0504-5 | quote=... The Munda Parha was known as 'Manki', while his Oraon counterpart was called 'Parha Raja.' The lands these adivasis occupied were regarded to be the village's patrimony ... The Gond rajas of Chanda and Garha Mandla were not only the hereditary leaders of their Gond subjects, but also held sway over substantial communities of non-tribals who recognized them as their feudal lords ...}}</ref><ref name="gunaji2005">{{Citation | title=Offbeat Tracks in Maharashtra: A Travel Guide | author=Milind Gunaji | year=2005 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Popular Prakashan | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JIjmDLardesC | isbn=978-81-7154-669-5 | quote=... The Navegaon is one of the forests in Maharashtra where the natives of this land still live and earn their livelihood by carrying out age old activities like hunting, gathering forest produce and ancient methods of farming. Beyond the Kamkazari lake is the Dhaavalghat, which is home to Adivasis. They also have a temple here, the shrine of Lord Waghdev ...}}</ref> In some areas, securing Adivasi approval and support was considered crucial by local rulers,<ref name="barnes1995" /><ref name="sinha1987">{{Citation | title=Tribal polities and state systems in pre-colonial eastern and north eastern India | author=Surajit Sinha, Centre for Studies in Social Sciences | year=1987 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=K.P. Bagchi & Co. | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H_S1AAAAIAAJ | isbn=978-81-7074-014-8 | quote=... The way in which and the extent to which tribal support had been crucial in establishing a royal dynasty have been made quite clear ... tribal loyalty, help and support were essential in establishing a ruling family ...}}</ref> and larger Adivasi groups were able to sustain their own kingdoms in central India.<ref name="barnes1995" /> The [[Bhil]], [[Meenas]] and [[Gondi people|Gond]] Rajas of Garha-Mandla and Chanda are examples of an Adivasi aristocracy that ruled in this region, and were "not only the hereditary leaders of their Gond subjects, but also held sway over substantial communities of non-tribals who recognized them as their feudal lords."<ref name="singh2000ds" /><ref name="britannica1910">{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Central Provinces and Berar |volume= 5 | pages = 681&ndash;683; see page 683, first para, lines 4 to 6 |quote=The 16th century saw the establishment of a powerful Gond kingdom by Sangram Sah, who succeeded in 1480 as the 47th of the petty Gond rajas of Garha-Mandla, and extended his dominions so as to include Saugor and Damoh on the Vindhyan plateau, Jubbulpore and Narsinghpur in the Nerbudda valley, and Seoni on the Satpura highlands. }}</ref><ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Chanda |volume= 5 | page= 837 }}</ref>
[[File:Irulas1871.jpg|thumb|Irula men from the Nilgiri Hills in Tamil Nadu, c.1871]]
The historiography of relationships between the Adivasis and the rest of Indian society is patchy. There are references to alliances between Ahom Kings of Brahmaputra valley and the hill Nagas.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Dalit-tribal/2003/adivasi.htm |title=PUCL Bulletin, February 2003 |access-date=27 November 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080616184214/http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Dalit-tribal/2003/adivasi.htm |archive-date=16 June 2008 }}</ref>
This relative autonomy and collective ownership of Adivasi land by Adivasis was severely disrupted by the advent of the [[Mughal Empire|Mughals]] in the early 16th century. Rebellions against Mughal authority include the [[Bhil people|Bhil]] Rebellion of 1632 and the Bhil-Gond Insurrection of 1643<ref>P. 27 ''Madhya Pradesh: Shajapur'' By Madhya Pradesh (India)</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mhaiske |first1=Vinod M. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sbs4DwAAQBAJ&dq=Rebellion+against+Mughal+authority+include+the+Bhil+Rebellion+of+1632+and+the+Bhil-Gond+Insurrection+of+1643&pg=PA6 |title=Forest Tribology And Anthropology |last2=Patil |first2=Vinayak K. |last3=Narkhede |first3=S. S. |date=2016-01-01 |publisher=Scientific Publishers |isbn=978-93-86102-08-9 |language=en}}</ref> which were both pacified by Mughal soldiers. With the advent of the [[Kachwaha Rajputs]] and Mughals into their territory, the Meenas were gradually sidelined and pushed deep into the forests. As a result, historical literature has completely bypassed the Meena tribe. The combined army of Mughals and Bharmal attacked the tribal king Bada Meena and killed him damaging 52 kots and 56 gates. Bada's treasure was shared between Mughals and Bharmal.

===British period (c. 1857 – 1947)===
During the period of [[British Raj|British rule]], the colonial administration encroached upon the ''adivasi'' tribal system, which led to widespread resentment against the British among the tribesmen. The tribesmen frequently supported rebellions or rebelled themselves, while their ''raja'' looked negatively upon the British administrative innovations.<ref>P. 219 ''Calcutta Review'' By University of Calcutta, 1964</ref> Beginning in the 18th century, the [[British Raj|British]] added to the consolidation of feudalism in India, first under the [[Jagir]]dari system and then under the [[zamindar]]i system.<ref name="chatterjee2001">{{Citation | title=A Time for Tea: Women, Labor, and Post/colonial Politics on an Indian Plantation | author=[[Piya Chatterjee]] | year=2001 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Duke University Press | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ldw2lX7u-HsC | isbn=978-0-8223-2674-8 | quote=... Among the Munda, customary forms of land tenure known as khuntkatti stipulated that land belonged communally to the village, and customary rights of cultivation, branched from corporate ownership. Because of Mughal incursions, non-Jharkhandis began to dominate the agrarian landscape, and the finely wrought system of customary sharing of labor, produce and occupancy began to crumble. The process of dispossession and land alienation, in motion since the mid-eighteenth century, was given impetus by British policies that established both zamindari and ryotwari systems of land revenue administration. Colonial efforts toward efficient revenue collection hinged on determining legally who had proprietal rights to the land ...}}</ref> Beginning with the [[Permanent Settlement]] imposed by the British in Bengal and Bihar, which later became the template for a deepening of feudalism throughout India, the older social and economic system in the country began to alter radically.<ref name="vanderheyden2005">{{Citation | title=Mission und macht im Wandel politischer Orientierungen: Europäische Missionsgesellschaften in politischen Spannungsfeldern in Afrika und Asien zwischen 1800 und 1945 |author1=Ulrich van der Heyden |author2=Holger Stoecker | year=2005 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=N7JfoaVbMGgC | isbn=978-3-515-08423-9 | quote=... The permanent settlement Act had an adverse effect upon the fate of the Adivasis for, 'the land which the aboriginals had rested from the jungle and cultivated as free men from generation was, by a stroke of pen, declared to be the property of the Raja (king) and the Jagirdars.' The alien became the Zamindars (Landlords) while the sons of the soil got reduced to mere tenants. Now, it was the turn of the Jagirdars-turned-Zamindars who further started leasing out land to the newcomers, who again started encroaching Adivasi land. The [[land grabbing]] thus went on unabated. By the year 1832 about 6,411 Adivasi villages were alienated in this process ...}}</ref><ref name="ralhan2002">{{Citation | title=Encyclopaedia of Political Parties | author=O.P. Ralhan | year=2002 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd. | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_1gQS3LOafAC | isbn=978-81-7488-865-5 | quote=... The Permanent Settlement was 'nothing short of the confiscation of [[raiyat]] lands in favor of the zamindars.' ... Marx says '... in Bengal as in Madras and Bombay, under the zamindari as under the ryotwari, the raiyats who form 11/12ths of the whole Indian population have been wretchedly pauperised.' To this may be added the inroads made by the Company's Government upon the village community of the tribals (the Santhals, Kols, Khasias etc.) ... There was a wholesale destruction of 'the national tradition.' Marx observes: 'England has broken down the entire framework of Indian society ... }}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Land, both forest areas belonging to adivasis and settled farmland belonging to non-adivasi peasants, was rapidly made the legal property of British-designated zamindars (landlords), who in turn moved to extract the maximum economic benefit possible from their newfound property and subjects.<ref name="kelkar1991">{{Citation | title=Gender and Tribe: Women, Land and Forests in Jharkhand |author1=Govind Kelkar |author2=Dev Nathan | year=1991 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Kali for Women | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cTluAAAAMAAJ | isbn=978-1-85649-035-1 | quote=... of the features of the adivasi land systems. These laws also showed that British colonial rule had passed on to a new stage of exploitation ... Forests were the property of the zamindar or the state ...}}</ref> Adivasi lands sometimes experienced an influx of non-local settlers, often brought from far away (as in the case of Muslims and Sikhs brought to Kol territory)<ref name="hunter1877">{{Citation | title=A Statistical Account of Bengal |author1=William Wilson Hunter |author2=Hermann Michael Kisch |author3=Andrew Wallace Mackie |author4=Charles James O'Donnell |author5=Herbert Hope Risley | year=1877 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Trübner | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R2MOAAAAQAAJ | quote=... The Kol insurrection of 1831, though, no doubt, only the bursting forth of a fire that had long been smouldering, was fanned into flame by the following episode:- The brother of the Maharaja, who was the holder of one of the maintenance grants which comprised Sonpur, a pargana in the southern portion of the estate, gave farms of some of the villages over the heads of the Mankis and Mundas, to certain Muhammadans, Sikhs and others, who has obtained his favour ... not only was the Manki dispossessed, but two of his sisters were seduced or ravished by these hated foreigners ... one of them ..., it was said, had abducted and dishonoured the Munda's wife ...}}</ref> by the zamindars to better exploit local land, forest and labour.<ref name="chatterjee2001" /><ref name="vanderheyden2005" /> Deprived of the forests and resources they traditionally depended on and sometimes coerced to pay taxes, many adivasis were forced to borrow at [[Usury|usurious]] rates from moneylenders, often the zamindars themselves.<ref name="barik2006">{{Citation | title=Land and Caste Politics in Bihar | author=Radhakanta Barik | year=2006 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Shipra Publications | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lGNuAAAAMAAJ | isbn=978-81-7541-305-4 | quote=... As usually the zamindars were the moneylenders, they could pressurize the tenants to concede to high rent ...}}</ref><ref name="sinha2005">{{Citation | title=Restless Mothers and Turbulent Daughters: Situating Tribes in Gender Studies | author=Shashank Shekhar Sinha | year=2005 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Stree | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NzoqAAAAYAAJ | isbn=978-81-85604-73-2 | quote=... In addition, many tribals were forced to pay private taxes ...}}</ref> When they were unable to pay, that forced them to become [[Debt bondage|bonded labourers]] for the zamindars.<ref name="epw1974">{{Citation | title=Economic and Political Weekly | date=1974|volume= V.9|series= No.6-8 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Sameeksha Trust | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DQUoAAAAMAAJ | quote=... The Adivasis spend their life-times working for the landlord-moneylenders and, in some cases, even their children are forced to work for considerable parts of their lives to pay off debts ...}}</ref> Often, far from paying off the principal of their debt, they were unable even to offset the compounding interest, and this was made the justification for their children working for the zamindar after the death of the initial borrower.<ref name="epw1974" /> In the case of the Andamanese adivasis, their [[protective isolation]] changed with the establishment of a British colonial presence on the islands. Lacking immunity against common [[Infection|infectious diseases]] of the Eurasian mainland, the large Jarawa habitats on the southeastern regions of South Andaman Island experienced a massive population decline due to disease within four years of the establishment of a colonial presence on the island in 1789.<ref name="venkateswar2004">{{Citation | title=Development and Ethnocide: Colonial Practices in the Andaman Islands | author=Sita Venkateswar | publisher=IWGIA | year=2004 | isbn=978-87-91563-04-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XFETVExNUYgC | quote=... As I have suggested previously, it is probable that some disease was introduced among the coastal groups by Lieutenant Colebrooke and Blair's first settlement in 1789, resulting in a marked reduction of their population. The four years that the British occupied their initial site on the south-east of South Andaman were sufficient to have decimated the coastal populations of the groups referred to as Jarawa by the Aka-bea-da ...}}</ref><ref name="cavalli-sforza1995">{{Citation | title=The Great Human Diasporas: The History of Diversity and Evolution |author1=Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza |author2=Francesco Cavalli-Sforza | publisher=Basic Books | year=1995 | isbn=978-0-201-44231-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ApuuiwUkEZ0C | quote=... Contact with whites, and the British in particular, has virtually destroyed them. Illness, alcohol, and the will of the colonials all played their part; the British governor of the time mentions in his diary that he received instructions to destroy them with alcohol and opium. He succeeded completely with one group. The others reacted violently ...}}</ref>

Land dispossession by the ''zamindars'' or interference by the colonial government resulted in a number of Adivasi revolts in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, such as the [[Bhumij rebellion]] of 1832-1833 and Santal hul (or [[Santhal rebellion]]) of 1855–56.<ref name="judge1992">{{Citation | title=Insurrection to Agitation: The Naxalite Movement in Punjab | author=Paramjit S. Judge | year=1992 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Popular Prakashan | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HvYpVtBXw5kC | isbn=978-81-7154-527-8 | quote=... The [[Santhal rebellion|Santhal insurrection]] in 1855–56 was a consequence of the establishment of the permanent Zamindari Settlement introduced by the British in 1793 as a result of which the Santhals had been dispossessed of the land that they had been cultivating for centuries. Zamindars, moneylenders, traders and government officials exploited them ruthlessly. The consequence was a violent revolt by the Santhals which could only be suppressed by the army ...}}</ref> Although these were suppressed by the governing British authority (the [[East India Company]] prior to 1858, and the British government after 1858), partial restoration of privileges to adivasi elites (e.g. to ''Mankis'', the leaders of [[Munda people|Munda tribes]]) and some leniency in levels of taxation resulted in relative calm in the region, despite continuing and widespread dispossession from the late nineteenth century onwards.<ref name="hunter1877" /><ref name="tiss1956">{{Citation | title=The Indian Journal of Social Work | date=1956|volume= v.59 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Department of Publications, Tata Institute of Social Sciences | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=q0c0AAAAIAAJ | quote=... Revolts rose with unfailing regularity and were suppressed with treachery, brute force, tact, cooption and some reforms ...}}</ref> The economic deprivation, in some cases, triggered internal adivasi migrations within India that would continue for another century, including as labour for the emerging tea plantations in [[Assam]].<ref name="moxham2003">{{Citation | title=Tea | author=Roy Moxham | year=2003 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Carroll & Graf Publishers | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FAiHU5JSYwwC | isbn=978-0-7867-1227-4 | quote=... many of the labourers came from Chota Nagpur District ... home to the Adivasis, the most popular workers with the planters&nbsp;– the '1st class jungley.' As one of the planters, David Crole, observed: 'planters, in a rough and ready way, judge the worth of a coolie by the darkness of the skin.' In the last two decades of the nineteenth century 350,000 coolies went from Chota Nagpur to Assam ...}}</ref>

====Participation in Indian independence movement====

There were tribal reform and rebellion movements during the period of the [[British Empire]], some of which also participated in the Indian independence movement or attacked mission posts.<ref>HEUZE, Gérard: Où Va l'Inde Moderne? L'Harmattan, Paris 1993. A. Tirkey: "Evangelization among the Uraons", Indian Missiological Review, June 1997, esp. p. 30-32. Elst 2001</ref> There were several Adivasis in the [[Indian independence movement]] including Birsa Munda, Dharindhar Bhyuan, Laxman Naik, Jantya Bhil, Bangaru Devi and Rehma Vasave, Mangri Oraon.

During the period of British rule, India saw the [[Tribal revolts in India before Indian independence|rebellions]] of several then [[Other Backward Class|backward castes]], mainly tribal peoples that revolted against British rule. These were:
* Halba rebellion (1774–79)<ref>{{cite book|title=आदिवासी बस्तर का बृहद् इतिहास: Bastara ke Cālukya aura Girijana|year=2007|page=173|publisher=BR Publishing|isbn=978-81-7646-540-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YVtuAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>
* [[Chakma people|Chakma]] rebellion (1776–1787)<ref>Page 63 ''[https://openlibrary.org/works/OL3724279W/Tagore_without_illusions Tagore Without Illusions] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220806171923/https://openlibrary.org/works/OL3724279W/Tagore_without_illusions |date=6 August 2022 }}'' by Hitendra Mitra</ref>
* [[Chuar Rebellion|Chuar rebellion]] in [[Bengal]] (1795–1809)<ref>Sameeksha Trust, P. 1229 ''Economic and Political Weekly''</ref>
* [[Bhopalpatnam]] Struggle (1795)
* Khurda Rebellion in [[Odisha]] (1817)<ref>[http://orissagov.nic.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/august-2007/engpdf/Page1-11.pdf P. 4 "Freedom Movement in Khurda"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071129141833/http://orissagov.nic.in/e-magazine/Orissareview/august-2007/engpdf/Page1-11.pdf |date=29 November 2007 }} Dr. Atul Chandra Pradhan</ref>
* Bhil rebellion (1822–1857)<ref>P. 111 ''The Freedom Struggle in Hyderabad: A Connected Account'' By Hyderabad (India : State)</ref>
* Ho-Munda Revolt(1816–1837)<ref>''Tribal struggle of Singhbhum''</ref>
* Paralkot rebellion (1825)
* [[Kol uprising|Kol rebellion]] (1831–32)
* [[Bhumij rebellion]] (1832–33)
* Khond rebellion (1836)
* Tarapur rebellion (1842–54)
* Maria rebellion (1842–63)
*  [[Santhal rebellion]] (1856–57)
* Bhil rebellion, begun by [[Tatya Tope]] in Banswara (1858)<ref>P. 32 ''Social and Political Awakening Among the Tribals of Rajasthan'' By Gopi Nath Sharma</ref>
* [[Koli people|Koli]] revolt (1859)
* Great Kuki Invasion of 1860s
* Gond rebellion, begun by [[Ramji Gond]] in Adilabad (1860)<ref>P. 420 ''Who's who of Freedom Struggle in Andhra Pradesh'' By Sarojini Regani</ref>
* Muria rebellion (1876)
* Rani rebellion (1878–82)
* Bhumkal (1910)
* [[Kuki Rebellion of 1917–1919|Kuki Rebellion]] (1917–19)
* [[Rampa Rebellion of 1879]], Vizagapatnam (now Visakhapatnam district)
* [[Rampa Rebellion of 1922|Rampa Rebellion (1922–1924)]], Visakhapatnam district
* [[Munda rebellion]] (1899 - 1900)<ref>{{cite web | url=https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Munda_Rebellion | title=Munda Rebellion - Banglapedia | access-date=6 August 2022 | archive-date=6 August 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220806172045/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Munda_Rebellion | url-status=live }}</ref>

== Adivasi group ==
{{See also|List of Scheduled Tribes in India}}
There are more than 700 tribal groups in India. The major [[Scheduled Tribes]] (Adivasi) are;
{{div col|colwidth=12em}}
* [[Andamanese peoples|Andamanese]]
* [[Apatani people|Apatanis]]
* [[Asur people|Asurs]]
* [[Baiga tribe|Baigas]]
* [[Bhils]] 
* [[Bhotiya]]s
* [[Bhumij people|Bhumijs]]
* [[Birhors]]
* [[Bodos]]
* [[Chakmas]]
* [[Chero]]s
* [[Deori people|Deoris]]
* [[Dhodia]]s
* [[Garo people|Garos]]
* [[Gonds]]
* [[Ho people|Ho]]
* [[Irulas]]
* [[Jarawas (Andaman Islands)|Jarawas]]
* [[Kharia people|Kharias]]
* [[Khasis]]
* [[Kota people (India)|Kotas]]
* [[Koya (tribe)|Koyas]]
* [[Kukis]]
* [[Marmas]]
* [[Meenas]]
* [[Mizo people|Mizos]]
* [[Mundas]]
* [[Naga people|Nagas]]
* [[Nicobarese people|Nicobarese]]
* [[Onge]]s
* [[Oraons]]
* [[Rabha people|Rabhas]]
* [[Khelma people|Sakachep/Khelmas]]
* [[Santhals]]
* [[Sentinelese]]
* [[Tharu people|Tharus]]
* [[Todas]]
* [[Tripuri people|Tripuri]]
* [[Yenadis]]
* [[Warli]]s
{{div col end}}

== Language ==
Tribal languages can be categorised into five linguistic groupings, namely [[Andamanese languages|Andamanese]]; [[Austroasiatic languages|Austro-Asiatic]]; [[Dravidian language|Dravidian]]; [[Indo-Aryan language|Indo-Aryan]]; and [[Sino-Tibetan languages|Sino-Tibetan]].<ref name="bucket">{{Cite news|url=https://www.wordsinthebucket.com/indian-tribal-languages-1|title=TRIBAL LANGUAGES IN INDIA – INTRODUCTION (1/4)|website=Wordsinthebucket.com|date=7 April 2015|access-date=24 September 2019|archive-date=24 September 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190924051948/https://www.wordsinthebucket.com/indian-tribal-languages-1}}</ref>

{{div col|colwidth=10em}}
*[[Arakanese language|Arakanese]]
*[[Bawm language|Bawm]]
* [[Bhil language|Bhil]]
* [[Bhotiyas of Uttarakhand|Bhotiya]]
* [[Bhumij language|Bhumij]]
* [[Bodo language|Bodo]]
* [[Bonda language|Bonda]]
*[[Chakma language|Chakma]]
* [[Chenchu language|Chenchu]]
* [[Dhodia language|Dhodia]]
* [[Gamit language|Gamit]]
* [[Garo language|Garo]]
* [[Gondi language|Gondi]]
* [[Gujari language|Gujari]]
* [[Halbi language|Halbi]]
* [[Hodi language|Ho]]
* [[Irula language|Irula]]
* [[Jaunsari language|Jaunsari]]
* [[Karbi language|Karbi]]
* [[Khasi language|Khasi]]
* [[Koch language|Koch]]
* [[Koda language|Koda]]
* [[Kokborok language|Kokborok]]
* [[Koya language|Koya]]
* [[Aka-Kora language|Kora]]
* [[Kui language (India)|Kui]]
* [[Kuki language|Kuki]]
* [[Kurukh language|Kurukh]]
* [[Mavchi language|Mavchi]]
* [[Mizo language|Mizo]]
* [[Mundari language|Mundari]]
*[[Pangkhu language|Pangkhu]]
* [[Paniya language|Paniya]]
* [[Pnar language|Pnar]]
* [[Rathwi Bareli language|Rathwa]]
* [[Sak language|Sak]]
* [[Santali language|Santali]]
* [[Shö language|Shö]]
* [[Tharu language|Tharu]]
* [[Varli language|Varli]]
* [[Vasavi language|Vasavi]]
{{div col end}}

== Literature ==
Adivasi literature is the literature composed by the tribals of the Indian subcontinent. It is composed in more than 100 languages. The tradition of tribal literature includes oral literature and written literature in tribal languages and non-tribal languages. The basic feature of tribal literature is the presence of tribal philosophy in it. Prominent tribal writers include [[Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar]], [[Nirmala Putul]], [[Vahru Sonawane]], [[Temsula Ao]], [[Mamang Dai]], [[Narayan (writer)|Narayan]], [[Rose Kerketta]], [[Ram Dayal Munda]], [[Vandana Tete]], [[Anuj Lugun]] etc.

== Religion ==
{{Main|Tribal religions in India}}

In the [[Census of India]] from 1871 to 1941, tribal people and their religions were described in several ways: Forest tribe (1891); animist (1901); tribal animist (1911); hill and forest tribe (1921); primitive tribe (1931); and tribes (1941). However, since the census of 1951, the tribal population has been recorded separately, for each denomination. Some Adivasis have been converted to [[Christianity in India|Christianity]] starting with British period and after independence. During the last two decades Adivasi from [[Odisha]], Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand have converted to [[Protestantism]], as a result of increased presence of missionaries.
[[File:எலி பிடிக்கும் இருளர் படம் 3.JPG|thumb|Irula man and woman.]]
Adivasi beliefs vary by tribe, and are usually different from the [[historical Vedic religion]], with its [[monism|monistic]] underpinnings, Indo-European deities (who are often [[cognates]] of ancient Iranian, Greek and Roman deities, e.g. [[Mitra (Vedic)|Mitra]]/[[Mithra]]/[[Mithras]]), lack of [[Idolatry|idol worship]] and lack of a concept of [[reincarnation]].<ref name="scudiere1997">{{Citation | title=Aspects of Death and Bereavement Among Indian Hindus and American Christians: A Survey and Cross-cultural Comparison | author=Todd Scudiere | publisher=University of Wisconsin&nbsp;– Madison | year=1997 | access-date=2008-11-25 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gQVlAAAAMAAJ | quote=... the Vedic Aryan was not particularly eager to enter heaven, he was too much this-worldly oriented. A notion of reincarnation was not introduced until later. However, there was a concept of a universal force&nbsp;– an idea of an underlying monistic reality that was later called Brahman ...}}</ref> Tribals have their own distinct religions based in [[nature worship]]; {{citation needed span|most tribals (more than 89%) identify as Hindus and follow the Hindu religion,|date=June 2025}} some (5.53%) have embraced Christianity due to proselytisation by Christian Missionaries albeit not without social and cultural conflicts between their tribal roots and the newly adopted Christian traditions, and some tribals, mainly in Lakshadweep are Muslims and are believed to have embraced Islam during the 14th century; other tribals (4.19%) follow their distinct religion.<ref>Vinay N. Patel. Religious Conversion among Tribes of India : Reflections from Sociology. Int. J. Ad. Social Sciences. 2017; 5(1):01-04. doi: 10.5958/2454-2679.2017.00001.9</ref>{{verify source|date=June 2025}} Conversion of tribals to Christianity has been a growing phenomenon from the days of the British rule.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://defendingforb.org/en/india/religious-freedom-and-tribal-rights-in-india/#_edn5 | title=Defending FoRB - Religious Freedom and Tribal Rights in India }}</ref><ref name="indianexpress.com">Zeeshan Shaikh, Christian, Muslim tribals fastest growing demographic groups: Census dept, THE INDIAN EXPRESS (April 15, 2016, 04:00 PM), https://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-news-india/christian-muslim-tribals-fastest-growing-demographic-groups-census-dept-2754838/</ref> Christians have been jailed due to accusations of "[[forced conversions]]" of tribals.<ref>Nirmala Carvalho, Sixteen Christians arrested for 'forced conversions' of tribals in Jharkhand, ASIANEWS.IT (October 07, 2018, 05:08 PM), http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Sixteen-Christians-arrested-for-'forced-conversions'-of-tribals-in-Jharkhand-44395.html</ref><ref>Anuja Jaiswal, 7 Christian preachers jailed for 'forcible' conversion bid in UP, THE TIMES OF INDIA, (December 06, 2017, 08:51 AM), http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/61940544.cms</ref> Conversion to Islam is a growing phenomenon in recent times.<ref name="indianexpress.com"/> Tribals in the [[Dang district]], having their own distinct religions based in [[nature worship]], are being [[proselytising|proselytised]] to Hinduism, by [[Hindutva]] ideological groups such as the [[BJP]] & the [[Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP)]].<ref>{{cite web | url=https://indianculturalforum.in/2016/10/14/untold-story-of-hindukaran-proselytisation-of-adivasi-tribal-in-dang-a-report | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171031050133/https://indianculturalforum.in/2016/10/14/untold-story-of-hindukaran-proselytisation-of-adivasi-tribal-in-dang-a-report | archive-date=31 October 2017 | title=Untold Story of Hindukaran (Proselytisation) of ADIVASI (TRIBAL) in DANG: A Report – Indian Cultural Forum | date=14 October 2016 }}</ref> Tribal [[ancestor worship]]pers in the [[Nilgiris]], have raised objections to be being labelled as Hindu, Muslim, or Christian.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ancestor-worshipping-nilgiris-tribes-ask-why-they-should-identify-as-hindu-christian-or-muslim-in-census/article66928327.ece | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230603190806/https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/ancestor-worshipping-nilgiris-tribes-ask-why-they-should-identify-as-hindu-christian-or-muslim-in-census/article66928327.ece | archive-date=3 June 2023 | title=Ancestor-worshipping Nilgiris tribes ask why they should identify as Hindu, Christian or Muslim in Census - the Hindu | website=[[The Hindu]] | date=3 June 2023 | last1=Premkumar | first1=Rohan }}</ref>

===Animism===
{{Main|Animism}}

[[Animism]] (from [[Latin]] ''animus, -i'' "[[Soul (spirit)|soul]], [[life]]") is the [[worldview]] that non-human entities (animals, plants, and inanimate objects or phenomena) possess a spiritual essence. The ''Encyclopaedia of Religion and Society'' estimates that 1–5% of India's population is animist.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/Animism.htm|title=Content Pages of the Encyclopedia of Religion and Social Science|website=hirr.hartsem.edu|access-date=30 October 2014|archive-date=11 October 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131011220116/http://hirr.hartsem.edu/ency/Animism.htm|url-status=live}}</ref> India's government recognises that India's indigenous subscribe to pre-Hindu animist-based religions.<ref name="bbc">{{cite news|url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5019582.stm|publisher=BBC News|title=BBC NEWS &#124; World &#124; Europe &#124; Indigenous people 'worst-off world over'|access-date=2017-01-08|archive-date=28 May 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090528050650/http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/5019582.stm#graph|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="google">{{cite book|title=Racism Against Indigenous Peoples|author1=Chakma, S.|author2=Jensen, M.|author3=International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs|date=2001|publisher=IWGIA|isbn=978-87-90730-46-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f7EPoTyUvfkC&pg=PA196|page=196|access-date=2017-01-08}}</ref>

Animism is used in the [[anthropology of religion]] as a term for the belief system of some [[indigenous people|indigenous tribal peoples]],<ref>{{cite book|title=Ritual and Belief: Readings in the Anthropology of Religion|first=David|last=Hicks|publisher=[[Rowman Altamira]]|edition=3|year=2010|page=359|quote=Tylor's notion of animism—for him the first religion—included the assumption that early ''Homo sapiens'' had invested animals and plants with souls&nbsp;...}}</ref> especially prior to the development of organised religion.<ref>{{cite web|title=Animism|publisher=ELMAR Project (University of Cumbria)|date=1998–99|others=Contributed by Helen James; coordinated by Dr. Elliott Shaw with assistance from Ian Favell|url=http://www.philtar.ac.uk/encyclopedia/seasia/animism.html|access-date=30 October 2014|archive-date=10 January 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150110074502/http://www.philtar.ac.uk/encyclopedia/seasia/animism.html|url-status=live}}</ref> Although each culture has its own different mythologies and rituals, "animism" is said to describe the most common, foundational thread of indigenous peoples' "spiritual" or "supernatural" perspectives. The animistic perspective is so fundamental, mundane, everyday and taken-for-granted that most animistic indigenous people do not even have a word in their languages that corresponds to "animism" (or even "religion");<ref>{{cite web|title=Native American Religious and Cultural Freedom: An Introductory Essay|work=The Pluralism Project|publisher=President and Fellows of Harvard College and Diana Eck|year=2005|url=http://www.pluralism.org/reports/view/176|access-date=30 October 2014|archive-date=23 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141223045117/http://www.pluralism.org/reports/view/176|url-status=live}}</ref> the term is an [[Emic and etic|anthropological construct]] rather than one designated by the people themselves.

====Donyi-Polo====
{{Main|Donyi-Polo}}

Donyi-Polo is the designation given to the [[indigenous religion]]s, of [[animism|animistic]] and [[shamanism|shamanic]] type, of the [[Tani languages|Tani]], from [[Arunachal Pradesh]], in northeastern India.<ref>Rikam, 2005. p. 117</ref><ref>Mibang, Chaudhuri, 2004. p. 47</ref> The name "Donyi-Polo" means "Sun-Moon".<ref>Dalmia, Sadana, 2012. pp. 44–45</ref>

====Sarnaism====
{{Main|Sarnaism}}

[[Sarnaism]] or Sarna<ref>Minahan, 2012. p. 236</ref><ref>Sachchidananda, 1980. p. 235</ref><ref>Srivastava, 2007.</ref> (local languages: ''Sarna Dhorom'', meaning "religion of the holy woods") defines the indigenous religions of the Adivasi populations of the states of Central-[[East India]], such as the [[Munda people|Munda]], the [[Ho people|Ho]], the [[Santal people|Santali]], the [[Kurukh people|Khuruk]], and the others. The Munda, Ho, Santhal and Oraon tribe followed the Sarna religion,<ref name="indiatimes">{{cite web|url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/ranchi/ST-panel-for-independent-religion-status-to-Sarna/articleshow/7433842.cms|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130804145116/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-02-06/ranchi/28362611_1_tribal-population-religion-sarna|url-status=live|archive-date=2013-08-04|work=[[The Times of India]]|title= ST panel for independent religion status to Sarna |date=6 February 2011 |access-date=2017-01-08}}</ref> where Sarna means sacred grove. Their religion is based on the oral traditions passed from generation-to-generation. It involves worship of village deity, Sun and Moon.

====Other tribal animist====
Animist hunter gatherer [[Kattunayakan|Nayaka people]] of Nilgiri hills of South India.<ref name="google2">{{cite book|title=The Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature: K&nbsp;– Z.|date=2005|volume=2|publisher=Thoemmes Continuum|isbn=978-1-84371-138-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4L7UAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA82|page=82|access-date=2017-01-08}}</ref>

Animism is the traditional religion of [[Nicobarese people]]; their religion is marked by the dominance and interplay with spirit worship, witch doctors and animal sacrifice.<ref name="google3">{{cite book|title=Andaman and Nicobar Tribes Restudied: Encounters and Concerns|author=Mann, R.S.|date=2005|publisher=Mittal Publications|isbn=978-81-8324-010-9|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FPX6wiuZ3ikC&pg=PA204|page=204|access-date=2017-01-08}}</ref>

===Hinduism===

====Adivasi roots of modern Hinduism====
Some historians and anthropologists assert that many Hindu practices might have been adopted from Adivasi culture.<ref name="sardesai1986">{{Citation | title=Progress and Conservatism in Ancient India | author=S.G. Sardesai | publisher=People's Publishing House | year=1986 | isbn=978-81-7007-021-4 | access-date=2008-11-25 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kscNAAAAIAAJ | quote=... The centre of Rig Vedic religion was the Yajna, the sacrificial fire. ... There is no Atma, no Brahma, no Moksha, no idol worship in the Rig Veda ...}}</ref><ref name="tiwari2002">{{Citation | title=Tribal Roots of Hinduism | author=Shiv Kumar Tiwari | publisher=Sarup & Sons | year=2002| access-date=2008-12-12 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=n0gwfmPFTLgC | isbn=978-81-7625-299-7}}</ref><ref name="singh1985">{{Citation | title=Tribal Society in India: An Anthropo-historical Perspective | author=Kumar Suresh Singh | publisher=Manohar | year=1985 | isbn=978-81-85054-05-6 | access-date=2008-12-12 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WIAiAAAAMAAJ | quote=... Shiva was a 'tribal deity' to begin with and forest-dwelling communities, including those who have ceased to be tribals and those who are tribals today ...}}</ref> This also includes the sacred status of certain animals such as [[monkey]]s, cows, [[fish]] (matsya), [[Peafowl|peacocks]], cobras ([[Nāga|nagas]]) and [[elephant]]s and plants such as the [[sacred fig]] (''pipal''), [[Ocimum tenuiflorum]] (''tulsi'') and [[Azadirachta indica]] (''neem''), which may once have held totemic importance for certain adivasi tribes.<ref name="tiwari2002" />

====Adivasi saints====
A ''sant'' is an Indian holy man, and a title of a devotee or ascetic, especially in north and east India. Generally, a holy or saintly person is referred to as a mahatma, paramahamsa, or swami, or given the prefix Sri or Srila before their name. The term is sometimes misrepresented in English as "[[Hindu saint]]", although "sant" is unrelated to "saint".{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}
* Sant Dhira or [[Kannappa Nayanar]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.shaivam.org/nakanna1.html |title=Devoted to God Shiva – An abode for Hindu God Shiva on the Internet |publisher=Shaivam.org |access-date=2019-07-14 |archive-date=3 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071203091842/http://www.shaivam.org/nakanna1.html |url-status=live }}</ref> one of 63 Nayanar Shaivite sants, a hunter from whom Lord Shiva gladly accepted food offerings. It is said that he poured water from his mouth on the Shivlingam and offered the Lord swine flesh.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.divinelifesociety.org/graphics/ebooks/swami_sivanandaji/downnload/all_about_hinduism.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080102233739/http://www.divinelifesociety.org/graphics/ebooks/swami_sivanandaji/downnload/all_about_hinduism.html |archive-date=2008-01-02 |title=All About Hinduism |access-date=2019-07-14}}</ref>
* Sant Dhudhalinath, Gujarati, a 17th or 18th-century devotee (P. 4, ''The Story of Historic People of India-The Kolis'')
* Sant Gurudev Kalicharan Brahma or Guru Brahma, a Bodo who founded the Brahma Dharma aimed against Christian missionaries and colonialists. The Brahma Dharma movement sought to unite peoples of all religions to worship God together and survives even today.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}
* Sant Kalu Dev, Punjab, related with Fishermen community [[Nishadha]]{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}
* Sant Kubera, ethnic Gujarati, taught for over 35 years and had 20,000 followers in his time.<ref>P. 269 ''Brāhmanism and Hindūism, Or, Religious Thought and Life in India: As Based on the Veda and Other Sacred Books of the Hindūs (Google eBook)'' by Sir Monier Monier-Williams</ref>
* Sant [[Thirumangai Alvar|Tirumangai Alvar]], [[Kallar, Trivandrum|Kallar]], composed the six Vedangas in beautiful Tamil verse<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.srivaishnavan.com/tomcat/thiruppa2.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080504053609/http://www.srivaishnavan.com/tomcat/thiruppa2.htm |archive-date=2008-05-04 |title=Srivaishnavism |access-date=2019-07-14}}</ref>
* Saint Kalean Guru (Kalean Murmu) is the most beloved person among Santal Tribes community who was widely popular 'Nagam Guru' Guru of Early Histories in fourteen century by the references of their forefathers.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}

====Sages====
* Bhakta [[Shabari]], a [[Nishadha]] woman who offered Shri Rama and Shri Laxmana her half-eaten [[Ziziphus mauritiana|ber]] fruit, which they gratefully accepted when they were searching for [[Sita|Shri Sita Devi]] in the forest.

====Maharishis====
* Maharshi Matanga, Matanga Bhil, Guru of Bhakta Shabari. In fact, Chandalas are often addressed as 'Matanga 'in passages like Varaha Purana 1.139.91

====Avatars====
* Kirata&nbsp;– the form of Lord Shiva as a hunter. It is mentioned in the [[Mahabharata]]. The Karppillikkavu Sree Mahadeva Temple, Kerala adores Lord Shiva in this avatar and is known to be one of the oldest surviving temples in Bharat.{{citation needed|date=February 2025}}
* Vettakkorumakan, the son of Lord Kirata.
* Kaladutaka or 'Vaikunthanatha', Kallar (robber), avatar of Lord Vishnu.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hindubooks.org/temples/tamilnadu/srivaikuntam/page3.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304103825/http://www.hindubooks.org/temples/tamilnadu/srivaikuntam/page3.htm |archive-date=2016-03-04 |title=Temples & Legends of Tamilnadu/Srivakuntam – (page3) |access-date=2019-07-14}}</ref>

====Other tribals and Hinduism====
Some Hindus do not believe that Indian tribals are close to the romantic ideal of the ancient [[wikt:silvan|silvan]] culture<ref>Thomas Parkhill: The Forest Setting in Hindu Epics.</ref> of the Vedic people. [[Madhav Sadashiv Golwalkar]] said:
{{Blockquote|The tribals "can be given [[Upanayana|yajñopavîta]] (...) They should be given equal rights and footings in the matter of religious rights, in temple worship, in the study of Vedas, and in general, in all our social and religious affairs. This is the only right solution for all the problems of casteism found nowadays in our Hindu society."<ref>M.S. Golwalkar: Bunch of Thoughts, p.479.</ref>}}

At the [[Lingaraja Temple]] in [[Bhubaneswar]], there are [[Brahmin]] and Badu (tribal) priests. The Badus have the most intimate contact with the deity of the temple, and only they can bathe and adorn it.<ref>JAIN, Girilal: The Hindu Phenomenon. UBSPD, Delhi 1994.</ref><ref>Eschmann, Kulke and Tripathi, eds.: Cult of Jagannath, p.97. Elst 2001</ref>

The Bhils are mentioned in the [[Mahabharata]]. [[Ekalavya]] considered [[Dronacharya|Darona]] as his guru, and he had the honour to be invited to [[Yudhishthira]]'s [[Rajasuya]] [[Yajna]] at [[Indraprastha]].<ref>Mahabharata (I.31–54) (II.37.47; II.44.21) Elst 2001</ref> Indian tribals were also part of royal armies in the [[Ramayana]] and in the [[Arthashastra]].<ref>Kautilya: The Arthashastra 9:2:13-20, Penguin edition, p. 685. Elst 2001</ref>

[[Shabari]] was a Bhil woman who offered [[Rama]] and [[Lakshmana]] [[Ziziphus mauritiana|jujubes]] when they were searching for [[Sita]] in the forest. Matanga, a Bhil, became a Brahmana.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JJFeDwAAQBAJ&q=matanga&pg=PA39|title=Community Development: Rural, Urban and A Tribal Perspective|page=39|publisher=FSP Media|author=Laveena D Mello|year=2018}}</ref>

====Brahmanization and Rajputization====
[[Bhangya Bhukya]] notes that during the final years of the [[British Raj]], while education introduced Westernization in the hilly areas of central India, the regions also parallelly underwent the [[Sanskritisation|Hinduization]] and [[Rajputization]] processes. The [[Gond people]] and their chiefs started doing the "caste–Hindu practices" and frequently claimed the "[[Rajput]], and thus [[kshatriya]] status". The British government used to support these claims as they viewed the adivasi society to be less civilized than the caste society and believed that adivasi peoples' association with the castes would make the adivasis "more civilized and sober" and "easier for the colonial state to control". Bhukya also points out that central India's "Raj Gond families" had already adopted the religious and social traditions of the Rajputs before the British Raj in India, and there were "matrimonial relations" between a number of Gond and Rajput Rajas. However, the British governments' policies of offering "''[[zamindari]]'' rights, village headships and ''patelships''" fueled the process.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=[[Modern Asian Studies]] |volume=47 |number=1 |date=January 2013 |page=309 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |editor1-first=Joya |editor1-last=Chatterji |editor2-first=Norbert |editor2-last=Peabody |editor1-link=Joya Chatterji |title=The Subordination of the Sovereigns: Colonialism and the Gond Rajas in Central India, 1818–1948 |first=Bhangya |last=Bhukya |doi=10.1017/S0026749X12000728 |jstor=23359786|s2cid=145095937 }}</ref>

According to Patit Paban Mishra, "the 'ksatriyaization' of tribal rulers and their surroundings, resulted in the Hinduization of tribal areas".<ref>{{cite journal |journal=Proceedings of the Indian History Congress |volume=58 |year=1997 |page=805 |publisher=[[Indian History Congress]] |title=Critique of Indianization Theory |first=Patit Paban |last=Mishra |jstor=44144025}}</ref>

===Demands for a separate religious code===
Some Adivasi organisations have demanded that a distinct religious code be listed for Adivasis in the 2011 census of India. The All India Adivasi Conference was held on 1 and 2 January 2011 at Burnpur, Asansol, West Bengal. 750 delegates were present from all parts of India and cast their votes for Religion code as follows: [[Sari Dhorom]]&nbsp;– 632, [[Sarnaism|Sarna]]&nbsp;– 51, [[Kherwalism]]&nbsp;– 14 and Other Religions&nbsp;– 03. [[Census of India]].<ref>[http://in.news.yahoo.com/43/20100224/812/tnl-tribals-appeal-for-separate-religion.html] {{dead link|date=December 2017|bot=InternetArchiveBot|fix-attempted=yes}}</ref>

==Education==
{{See also|Education in India}}
Tribal communities in India are the least educationally developed. First generation learners have to face social, psychological and cultural barriers to get education. This has been one of the reasons for poor performance of tribal students in schools.<ref name="ssa.nic.in">{{cite web|url=http://ssa.nic.in/research-studies-docs/education_tribal_children.pdf/view|title=Education of Tribal Children in India&nbsp;— Portal|access-date=2017-01-08|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170404082640/http://ssa.nic.in/research-studies-docs/education_tribal_children.pdf/view|archive-date=4 April 2017}}</ref> Poor literacy rate since independence has resulted in absence of tribals in academia and higher education. The literacy rate for STs has gone up from 8.5% (male&nbsp;– 13.8%, female&nbsp;– 3.2%) in 1961 to 29.6% (male&nbsp;– 40.6%, female&nbsp;– 18.2%) in 1991 and to 40% (male&nbsp;– 59%, female&nbsp;– 37%) in 1999–2000.<ref name="ssa.nic.in"/> States with large proportion of STs like Mizoram, Nagaland and Meghalaya have high literacy rate while states with large number of tribals like Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh have low tribal literacy rate.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000120281 |title=Education of Indian Scheduled Tribes: a study of community schools in the district of Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh |last=Sujatha |first=K |date=2000 |website=unesdoc.unesco.org |access-date=2019-07-14 |archive-date=14 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190714220126/https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000120281 |url-status=live }}</ref> Tribal students have very high drop-out rates during school education.<ref name="newindianexpress">{{cite web|url=http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/School-Dropout-Rate-Among-Tribals-Remains-High/2014/05/03/article2203265.ece|publisher=newindianexpress.com|title=School Dropout Rate Among Tribals Remains High- The New Indian Express|access-date=2017-01-08|archive-date=7 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307095943/http://www.newindianexpress.com/states/kerala/School-Dropout-Rate-Among-Tribals-Remains-High/2014/05/03/article2203265.ece}}</ref>

Extending the system of primary education into tribal areas and reserving places for needing them, they say, to work in the fields. On the other hand, in those parts of the northeast where tribes have generally been spared the wholesale onslaught of outsiders, schooling has helped tribal people to secure political and economic benefits. The education system there has provided a corps of highly trained tribal members in the professions and high-ranking administrative posts. tribal children in middle and high schools and higher education institutions are central to government policy, but efforts to improve a tribe's educational status have had mixed results. Recruitment of qualified teachers and determination of the appropriate language of instruction also remain troublesome. Commission after commission on the "language question" has called for instruction, at least at the primary level, in the students' native language. In some regions, tribal children entering school must begin by learning the official regional language, often one completely unrelated to their tribal language.

Many tribal schools are plagued by high drop-out rates. Children attend for the first three to four years of primary school and gain a smattering of knowledge, only to lapse into illiteracy later. Few who enter continue up to the tenth grade; of those who do, few manage to finish high school. Therefore, very few are eligible to attend institutions of higher education, where the high rate of attrition continues. Members of agrarian tribes like the Gonds often are reluctant to send their children to school,

An academy for teaching and preserving Adivasi languages and culture was established in 1999 by the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre. The Adivasi Academy is located at Tejgadh in Gujarat.

==Economy==
{{More citations needed section|date=January 2026}}
Most tribes are concentrated in heavily forested areas that combine inaccessibility with limited political or economic significance. Historically, the economy of most tribes was subsistence agriculture or hunting and gathering. Tribal members traded with outsiders for the few necessities they lacked, such as [[salt]] and [[iron]]. A few local Hindu craftsmen might provide such items as cooking utensils.

In the early 20th century, however, large areas fell into the hands of non-tribals, on account of improved transportation and communications. Around 1900, many regions were opened by the British government to settlement through a scheme by which inward migrants received ownership of land free in return for cultivating it. For tribal people, however, land was often viewed as a common resource, free to whoever needed it. By the time tribals accepted the necessity of obtaining formal land titles, they had lost the opportunity to lay claim to lands that might rightfully have been considered theirs. The colonial and post-independence regimes belatedly realised the necessity of protecting tribals from the predations of outsiders and prohibited the sale of tribal lands. Although an important loophole in the form of land leases was left open, tribes made some gains in the mid-twentieth century, and some land was returned to tribal peoples despite obstruction by local police and land officials.

In the 1970s, tribal peoples came again under intense land pressure, especially in central India. Migration into tribal lands increased dramatically, as tribal people lost the titles to their lands in many ways&nbsp;– lease, forfeiture from debts, or bribery of land registry officials. Other non-tribals simply squatted or even lobbied governments to classify them as tribal to allow them to compete with the formerly established tribes. In any case, many tribal members became landless labourers in the 1960s and 1970s, and regions that a few years earlier had been the exclusive domain of tribes had an increasingly mixed population of tribals and non-tribals. Government efforts to evict nontribal members from illegal occupation have proceeded slowly; when evictions occur at all, those ejected are usually members of poor, lower castes.

Improved communications, roads with motorised traffic, and more frequent government intervention figured in the increased contact that tribal peoples had with outsiders. Commercial highways and cash crops frequently drew non-tribal people into remote areas. By the 1960s and 1970s, the resident nontribal shopkeeper was a permanent feature of many tribal villages. Since shopkeepers often sell goods on credit (demanding high interest), many tribal members have been drawn deeply into debt or mortgaged their land. Merchants also encourage tribals to grow cash crops (such as [[cotton]] or [[castor-oil]] plants), which increases tribal dependence on the market for necessities. Indebtedness is so extensive that although such transactions are illegal, traders sometimes 'sell' their debtors to other merchants, much like [[indenture]]d [[peon]]s.

The final blow for some tribes has come when non-tribals, through political jockeying, have managed to gain legal tribal status, that is, to be listed as a Scheduled Tribe.

Tribes in the [[Himalayas|Himalayan]] foothills have not been as hard-pressed by the intrusions of non-tribal. Historically, their political status was always distinct from the rest of India. Until the British colonial period, there was little effective control by any of the empires centred in peninsular India; the region was populated by autonomous feuding tribes. The British, in efforts to protect the sensitive northeast frontier, followed a policy dubbed the "Inner Line"; non-tribal people were allowed into the areas only with special permission. Post-colonial governments have continued the policy, protecting the Himalayan tribes as part of the strategy to secure the border with China.

===Ecological threats===
[[File:Women in tribal village, Umaria district, India.jpg|thumb|Women in a tribal (Gond adivasi) village, Umaria district, India. Picture taken during a meeting organised by Ekta Parishad about land rights, the main grievance of the Adivasi people.]]
Many smaller tribal groups are quite sensitive to ecological degradation caused by modernisation. Both commercial forestry and intensive agriculture have proved destructive to the forests that had endured [[shifting cultivation|swidden agriculture]] for many centuries.<ref>Acharya, Deepak and Shrivastava Anshu (2008): ''Indigenous Herbal Medicines: Tribal Formulations and Traditional Herbal Practices,'' Aavishkar Publishers Distributor, Jaipur- India. {{ISBN|978-81-7910-252-7}}. pp 440</ref> Adivasis in central part of India have been victims of the [[Salwa Judum]] campaign by the Government against the [[Naxalite]] insurgency.<ref>[[Salwa Judum]]{{Circular reference|date=September 2015}}</ref><ref name="thehindu">{{cite news|url=http://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/theatre/bringing-rural-realities-on-stage-in-urban-india/article7592193.ece?homepage=true|title=Bringing rural realities on stage in urban India|newspaper=The Hindu|date=29 August 2015|last1=Rashid|first1=Omar|access-date=29 August 2015|archive-date=28 September 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210928234025/https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/theatre/bringing-rural-realities-on-stage-in-urban-india/article7592193.ece?homepage=true|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="achrweb">{{cite web|url=http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2006/117-06.htm|publisher=achrweb.org|title=Asian Centre for Human Rights|access-date=2017-01-08|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20080721200330/http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2006/117-06.htm|archive-date=21 July 2008}}</ref>

Government policies on forest reserves have affected tribal peoples profoundly. Government efforts to reserve forests have precipitated armed (if futile) resistance on the part of the tribal peoples involved. Intensive exploitation of forests has often meant allowing outsiders to cut large areas of trees (while the original tribal inhabitants were restricted from cutting), and ultimately replacing mixed forests capable of sustaining tribal life with single-product plantations. Non-tribals have frequently bribed local officials to secure the effective use of reserved forest lands.

The northern tribes have thus been sheltered from the kind of exploitation that those elsewhere in South Asia have suffered. In [[Arunachal Pradesh]] (formerly part of the [[North-East Frontier Agency]]), for example, tribal members control commerce and most lower-level administrative posts. Government construction projects in the region have provided tribes with a significant source of cash. Some tribes have made rapid progress through the education system (the role of early missionaries was significant in this regard). Instruction was begun in Assamese but was eventually changed to Hindi; by the early 1980s, English was taught at most levels. Northeastern tribal people have thus enjoyed a certain
measure of social mobility.

The continuing economic alienation and exploitation of many adivasis was highlighted as a "systematic failure" by the [[Prime Minister of India|Indian prime minister]] [[Manmohan Singh]] in a 2009 conference of [[Chief Ministers of India|chief ministers]] of [[State of India|all 29 Indian states]], where he also cited this as a major cause of the [[Naxalite]] unrest that has affected areas such as the [[Red Corridor]].<ref>{{cite news| url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-11-04/india/28079244_1_tribals-traditional-rights-land-acquisition | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811050613/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-11-04/india/28079244_1_tribals-traditional-rights-land-acquisition | archive-date=11 August 2011 | work=[[The Times of India]] | title=PM's snub to Maoists: Guns don't ensure development of tribals | date=4 November 2009}}</ref><ref>{{cite news | url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8343193.stm | work=BBC News | title=Indian PM reaches out to tribes | date=4 November 2009 | access-date=2010-04-23 | archive-date=8 November 2009 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091108125418/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/8343193.stm | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-01-16/india/28113430_1_indigenous-peoples-traditional-knowledge-human-rights | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811050618/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2010-01-16/india/28113430_1_indigenous-peoples-traditional-knowledge-human-rights | archive-date=11 August 2011 | first1=Rukmini | last1=Shrinivasan | work=[[The Times of India]] | title=Tribals make poor progress, stay at bottom of heap | date=16 January 2010}}</ref><ref name="tribuneindia">{{cite web|url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20091105/main2.htm|publisher=tribuneindia.com|title=The Tribune, Chandigarh, India&nbsp;– Main News|access-date=2017-01-08|archive-date=5 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110605230654/http://www.tribuneindia.com/2009/20091105/main2.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article42968.ece | location=Chennai, India | work=The Hindu | first=Aarti | last=Dhar | title=Sustained economic activity not possible under shadow of gun: PM | date=4 November 2009}}</ref>

==Issue and politics==

[[File:Great Andamanese scarification pattern 2 - 1901.jpg|right|thumb|[[Scarification]], a traditional symbol of [[Great Andamanese]] tribal identity (1901 photo)]]
The criteria presently followed for specification of a community as a Scheduled Tribe are : (i) indications of primitive traits, (ii) distinctive culture, (iii) geographical isolation, (iv) shyness of contact with the community at large, and (v) backwardness.

Population complexities, and the controversies surrounding ethnicity and language in India, sometimes make the official recognition of groups as Adivasis (by way of inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes list) political and contentious. However, regardless of their language family affiliations, Australoid and Negrito groups that have survived as distinct forest, mountain or island-dwelling tribes in India and are often classified as Adivasi.<ref name="minahan1996">{{Citation | title=Nations Without States: A Historical Dictionary of Contemporary National Movements | author=James Minahan and [[Leonard W. Doob]] | year=1996 | access-date=2008-11-25 | isbn=978-0-313-28354-3 | publisher=Greenwood Press | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2yFnAAAAMAAJ | quote=... The Adivasi tribes encompass the pre-Dravidian holdovers from ancient India ...}}</ref> The relatively autonomous tribal groups of Northeastern India (including Khasis, [[Apatani people|Apatani]] and [[Naga people|Nagas]]), who are mostly Austro-Asiatic or Tibeto-Burman speakers, are also considered to be tribals: this area comprises 7.5% of India's land area but 20% of its tribal population.<ref name="singh2005">{{Citation | title=India |author1=Sarina Singh |author2=Joe Bindloss |author3=Paul Clammer |author4=Janine Eberle | year=2005 | access-date=2008-11-25 | isbn=978-1-74059-694-7 | publisher=Lonely Planet | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fk8FQa2ZSFQC | quote=... Although the northeast states make up just 7.5% of the geographical area of India, the region is home to 20% of India's tribal people. The following are the main tribes ... Nagas ... Monpas ... Apatani & Adi ... Khasi ...}}</ref> However, not all autonomous northeastern groups are considered tribals; for instance, the Tibeto-Burman-speaking [[Meitei people|Meitei]] of Manipur were once tribal but, having been settled for many centuries, are caste Hindus.<ref name="singh1988js">{{Citation | title=Religion and Culture of Manipur | author=Moirangthem Kirti Singh | year=1988 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Manas Publications | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=doQeAAAAMAAJ | isbn=978-81-7049-021-0 | quote=... The Meiteis began to think that root cause of their present unrest was their contact with the Mayangs, the outsider from the rest of India in matters of trade, commerce, religious belief and the designation of the Meiteis as caste Hindus in the Constitution of India. The policy of reservations for the scheduled castes and tribes in key posts began to play havoc ...}}</ref>

It is also difficult, for a given social grouping, to definitively decide whether it is a "caste" or a "tribe". A combination of internal social organisation, relationship with other groups, self-classification and perception by other groups has to be taken into account to make a categorisation, which is at best inexact and open to doubt.<ref name="raigobi1972">{{Citation | title=Man | publisher=Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland | date=1972|volume= v.7 | access-date=2008-11-26 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ou8rAAAAMAAJ | quote=... Nor, for that matter, does a traits approach to drawing distinctions between tribe and caste lead to any meaningful interpretation of social or civilizational processes. Social boundaries must be defined in each case (community or regional society) with reference to the modes of social classification, on the one hand, and processes of social interaction, on the other. It is in their inability to relate these two aspects of the social phenomenon through a model of social reality that most behavioural exercises come to grief ...}}</ref> These categorisations have been diffused for thousands of years, and even ancient formulators of caste-discriminatory legal codes (which usually only applied to settled populations, and not Adivasis) were unable to come up with clean distinctions.<ref name="chattopadhyaya1959">{{Citation | title=Lōkayata: A Study in Ancient Indian Materialism | author=Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya | publisher=People's Publishing House | year=1959 | isbn=978-81-7007-006-1 | access-date=2008-11-26 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AJccAAAAMAAJ | quote=... Even the authors of our traditional law-codes and other works did not know whether to call a particular group of backward people a caste or a tribe ...}}</ref>

===Demands for tribal classification===
The additional difficulty in deciding whether a group meets the criteria to be Adivasi or not are the aspirational movements created by the federal and state benefits, including job and educational reservations, enjoyed by groups listed as scheduled tribes (STs).<ref name="goldmann1984">{{Citation | title=From Independence to Statehood: Managing Ethnic Conflict in Five African and Asian States |author1=Robert Goldmann |author2=A. Jeyaratnam Wilson | year=1984 | access-date =2008-11-26 | publisher=Pinter | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DVwiAAAAMAAJ | isbn=978-0-86187-354-8 | quote=... Because the question of what groups are to be given preferences is constitutionally and politically open, the demand for preferences becomes a device for political mobilisation. Politicians can mobilise members of their caste, religious or linguistic community around the demand for inclusion on the list of those to be given preferences ... As preferences were extended to backward castes, and as more benefits were given to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, the 'forward' castes have ...}}</ref> In Manipur, Meitei commentators have pointed to the lack of scheduled tribe status as a key economic disadvantage for Meiteis competing for jobs against groups that are classified as scheduled tribes.<ref name="singh1988js" /> In Assam, [[Rajbongshi people|Rajbongshi]] representatives have demanded scheduled tribe status as well.<ref name="prakash2006">{{Citation | title=Encyclopaedia of North-east India, Vol# 2 | author=Col. Ved Prakash | year=2006 | access-date=2008-11-26 | publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Distributors | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z-5T8kpi5tkC | isbn=978-81-269-0704-5 | quote=... An angry mob of Koch-Rajbongshis (KRs) ransacked 4-8-03 the BJP office, Guwahati, demanding ST status for the KRs ... the KRs have been demanding the ST status for long, and the Bodos are stoutly opposed to it ...}}</ref> In Rajasthan, the [[Gujjar]] community has demanded ST status, even blockading the national capital of [[Delhi]] to press their demand.<ref name="toi2008hsfs">{{Citation | title=Gujjars enforce blockade; Delhi tense | date=29 May 2008 | access-date=2008-11-26 | url=http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2008-05-29/india/27747126_1_gujjar-protesters-maharashtra-sampark-kranti-aya-nagar | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121022111927/http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2008-05-29/india/27747126_1_gujjar-protesters-maharashtra-sampark-kranti-aya-nagar | archive-date=22 October 2012 | newspaper=[[The Times of India]] | quote=... Gujjars on Thursday blocked road and rail traffic in the capital and adjoining areas as part of their 'NCR rasta roko' agitation ... The NCR agitation, called by All India Gujjar Mahasabha, is in support of the community's demand for Scheduled Tribe status in Rajasthan ...}}</ref> However, the Government of Rajasthan declined the Gujjars' demand, stating the Gujjars are treated as upper caste and are by no means a tribe.<ref>{{Cite web |title=rajasthan-government-denies-st-status-to-gujjars |website=Merinews.com |url=http://www.merinews.com/article/rajasthan-government-denies-st-status-to-gujjars/128672.shtml |access-date=9 January 2011 |archive-date=5 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121005044859/http://www.merinews.com/article/rajasthan-government-denies-st-status-to-gujjars/128672.shtml |url-status=live }}</ref> In several cases, these claims to tribalhood are disputed by tribes who are already listed in the schedule and fear economic losses if more powerful groups are recognised as scheduled tribes; for instance, the Rajbongshi demand faces resistance from the [[Bodo people|Bodo]] tribe,<ref name="prakash2006" /> and the [[Meenas|Meena]] tribe has vigorously opposed Gujjar aspirations to be recognised as a scheduled tribe.<ref name="rediff2007jhgfd">{{Cite news | title=What the Meena-Gujjar conflict is about | newspaper=Rediff | date=1 June 2007 | access-date=2008-11-26 | url=http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/jun/01raj4.htm | quote=... Rajasthan is sitting on a potential caste war between the Gujjars and Meenas with the former demanding their entry into the Schedule Tribes list while the Meenas are looking to keep their turf intact by resisting any tampering with the ST quota ... | archive-date=7 September 2008 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080907055028/http://www.rediff.com/news/2007/jun/01raj4.htm | url-status=live }}</ref>

===Endogamy, exogamy and ethnogenesis===
Part of the challenge is that the [[endogamy|endogamous]] nature of tribes is also conformed to by the vast majority of Hindu castes. Indeed, many historians and anthropologists believe that caste endogamy reflects the once-tribal origins of the various groups who now constitute the settled Hindu castes.<ref name="rajawat2003">{{Citation | title=Scheduled Castes in India: a Comprehensive Study | author=Mamta Rajawat | publisher=Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd. | year=2003 | access-date=2008-11-26 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p2wbt1QDTEgC | isbn=978-81-261-1339-2 | quote=... endogamy is basic to the morphology of caste but for its origin and sustenance one has to see beyond ... D.D. Kosambi says that the fusion of tribal elements into society at large lies at the foundation of the caste system; Irfan Habib concurs, suggesting that when tribal people were absorbed they brought with them their endogamous customs ... }}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Another defining feature of caste Hindu society, which is often used to contrast them with Muslim and other social groupings, is lineage/clan (or ''[[gotra]]'') and village [[exogamy]].<ref name="khan2005">{{Citation | title=Social Development in Twenty First Century | author=Mohammad Abbas Khan | publisher=Anmol Publications Pvt. Ltd. | year=2005 | access-date=2008-11-26 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1nQZzWJDzjAC | isbn=978-81-261-2130-4 | quote=... in North India, high caste Hindus regard the village as an exogamous unit. Girls born within the village are called 'village daughters' and they do not cover their faces before local men, whereas girls who come into the village by marriage do so ... With Christians and Muslims, the elementary or nuclear family is the exogamous unit. Outside of it marriages are possible ... Lineage exogamy also exists among the Muslim Gujjars of Jammu and Kashmir ... }}{{Dead link|date=August 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref name="weekes1984">{{Citation | title=Muslim Peoples: A World Ethnographic Survey | author=Richard V. Weekes | publisher=Greenwood Press | year=1984 | access-date=2008-11-26 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aVdIAAAAMAAJ | isbn=978-0-313-24640-1 | quote=... The preference for in-marriage produces the reticulated kinship system characteristic of Punjabi Muslim society, as opposed to Hindu lineage exogamy and preference for marriage outside one's natal village ...}}</ref> However, these in-marriage taboos are also held ubiquitously among tribal groups, and do not serve as reliable differentiating markers between caste and tribe.<ref name="vidyarthi2004">{{Citation | title=South Asian Culture: An Anthropological Perspective | author=Lalita Prasad Vidyarthi | publisher=Oriental Publishers & Distributors | year=2004 | isbn=978-0-88386-851-5 | access-date=2008-11-26 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HwUNAAAAIAAJ | quote=... The tribal communities, by and large, also practise clan exogamy, which means marrying outside the totemic division of a tribe ...}}</ref><ref name="pfeffer1982">{{Citation | title=Status and Affinity in Middle India | author=Georg Pfeffer | author-link=Georg Pfeffer | publisher=F. Steiner | year=1982 | access-date=2008-11-26 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=S_G1AAAAIAAJ | isbn=978-3-515-03913-0 | quote=... [[Verrier Elwin|Elwin]] documents the strict observance of this rule: Out of 300 marriages recorded, not a single one broke the rule of village exogamy ...}}</ref><ref name="sharma2004lds">{{Citation | title=Indian Society, Institutions and Change: Institutions and Change | author=Rajendra K. Sharma | publisher=Atlantic Publishers & Distributors | year=2004 | access-date=2008-11-26 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jBOh24IJ9t8C | isbn=978-81-7156-665-5 | quote=... Among many Indian tribes it is the recognized custom to marry outside the village. This restriction is prevalent in the Munda and other tribes of Chhota Nagpur of Madhya Pradesh ... the Naga tribe of Assam is divided into Khels. Khel is the name given to the residents of the particular place, and people of one Khel cannot marry each other ...}}</ref> Again, this could be an ancient import from tribal society into settled Hindu castes.<ref name="ferreira1965">{{Citation | title=Totemism in India | author=John Vincent Ferreira | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1965 | access-date=2008-11-26 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u7EwAAAAMAAJ | quote=... there is every reason to believe that the inspiration leading to the formation of exogamous gotras came from the aborigines ...}}</ref> Tribes such as the Muslim Gujjars of Kashmir and the [[Kalash people|Kalash]] of Pakistan observe these exogamous traditions in common with caste Hindus and non-Kashmiri adivasis, though their surrounding Muslim populations do not.<ref name="khan2005" /><ref name="bock2000">{{Citation | title=Culture, Creation, and Procreation: Concepts of Kinship in South Asian Practice |author1=Monika Böck |author2=Aparna Rao | publisher=Berghahn Books | year=2000 | access-date=2008-11-26 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6HZ-UXaU9y0C | isbn=978-1-57181-912-3 | quote=... Kalasha kinship is indeed orchestrated through a rigorous system of patrilineal descent defined by lineage exogamy ... Lineage exogamy thus distinguishes Kalasha descent groups as discretely bounded corporations, in contrast to the nonexogamous 'sliding lineages' (Bacon 1956) of surrounding Muslims ...}}</ref>

Tribals are not part of the caste system,<ref>{{cite news | url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4071703.stm | work=BBC News | title=Plight of India's tribal peoples | date=10 December 2004 | access-date=2010-04-23 | archive-date=7 January 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120107035133/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4071703.stm | url-status=live }}</ref> Some anthropologists, however, draw a distinction between tribes who have continued to be tribal and tribes that have been absorbed into caste society in terms of the breakdown of tribal (and therefore caste) boundaries, and the proliferation of new mixed caste groups. In other words, ethnogenesis (the construction of new ethnic identities) in tribes occurs through a fission process (where groups splinter-off as new tribes, which preserves endogamy), whereas with settled castes it usually occurs through intermixture (in violation of strict endogamy).<ref name="trautmann1997">{{Citation | title=Aryans and British India | author=Thomas R. Trautmann | publisher=University of California Press | year=1997 | access-date=2008-11-26 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fu5h2T7dZFEC | isbn=978-0-520-20546-8 | quote=...The radiating, segmentary character of the underlying genealogical figure requires that the specifications be unilineal ... we have in the Dharmasastra doctrine of jatis a theory of ethnogenesis through intermixture or marriage of persons of different varnas, and secondary and tertiary intermixtures of the original ones, leading to a multitude of units, rather than the radiating segmentary structure of ethnogenesis by fission or descent ...}}</ref>

Tribals and are often regarded as constituting egalitarian societies. However, many scholars argue that the claim that tribals are an egalitarian society in contrast to a caste-based society is a part of a larger political agenda by some to maximise any differences from tribal and urban societies. According to scholar [[Koenraad Elst]], caste practices and social taboos among Indian tribals date back to antiquity:
{{Blockquote|The Munda tribals not only practise tribal [[endogamy]] and [[wikt:commensality|commensality]], but also observe a [[jâti]] division within the tribe, buttressed by notions of social pollution, a mythological explanation and harsh punishments.}}

===Other criteria===
Unlike castes, which form part of a complex and interrelated local economic exchange system, tribes tend to form self-sufficient economic units. For most tribal people, land-use rights traditionally derive simply from tribal membership. Tribal society tends to the egalitarian, with its [[leadership]] based on ties of kinship and personality rather than on hereditary status. Tribes typically consist of [[segmentary lineage]]s whose extended families provide the basis for social organisation and control. Tribal religion recognises no authority outside the tribe.

Any of these criteria may not apply in specific instances. Language does not always give an accurate indicator of tribal or caste status. Especially in regions of mixed population, many tribal groups have lost their original languages and simply speak local or regional languages. In parts of Assam—an area historically divided between warring tribes and villages—increased contact among villagers began during the colonial period, and has accelerated since independence in 1947. A [[pidgin]] [[Assamese language|Assamese]] developed, whereas educated tribal members learnt [[Hindi]] and, in the late twentieth century, English.

Self-identification and group loyalty do not provide unfailing markers of tribal identity either. In the case of stratified tribes, the loyalties of clan, kin, and family may well predominate over those of tribe. In addition, tribes cannot always be viewed as people living apart; the degree of isolation of various tribes has varied tremendously. The [[Gondi people|Gonds]], [[Santal]]s, and [[Bhil]]s traditionally have dominated the regions in which they have lived. Moreover, tribal society is not always more egalitarian than the rest of the rural populace; some of the larger tribes, such as the Gonds, are highly stratified.

The apparently wide fluctuation in estimates of South Asia's tribal population through the twentieth century gives a sense of how unclear the distinction between tribal and nontribal can be. India's 1931 census enumerated 22&nbsp;million tribal people, in 1941 only 10&nbsp;million were counted, but by 1961 some 30&nbsp;million and in 1991 nearly 68&nbsp;million tribal members were included. The differences among the figures reflect changing census criteria and the economic incentives individuals have to maintain or reject classification as a tribal member.

These gyrations of census data serve to underline the complex relationship between caste and tribe. Although, in theory, these terms represent different ways of life and ideal types, in reality, they stand for a continuum of social groups. In areas of substantial contact between tribes and castes, social and cultural pressures have often tended to move tribes in the direction of becoming castes over a period of years. Tribal peoples with ambitions for social advancement in Indian society at large have tried to gain the classification of caste for their tribes. On occasion, an entire tribe or part of a tribe joined a Hindu sect and thus entered the [[Caste system in India|caste system]] ''en masse''. If a specific tribe engaged in practices that Hindus deemed polluting, the tribe's status when it was assimilated into the caste hierarchy would be affected.

===Constitutional safeguards for Scheduled Tribes===
A number of constitutional and juridical safeguards for Adivasi have been encoded.{{refn|group=note|'''Educational & Cultural Safeguards'''
* The Hindu Marriage Act is not applicable to the members of the Scheduled Tribe as per Section 2(2) of the Hindu Marriage Act. If that be so, the directions issued by the Family Court under Section 9 of the Hindu Marriage Act is not applicable to the appellant."
* Art. 15(4) – Special provisions for advancement of other backward classes (which includes STs);
* Art. 29 – Protection of Interests of Minorities (which includes STs);
* Art. 46 – The State shall promote, with special care, the educational and economic interests of the weaker sections of the people, and in particular, of the Scheduled Castes, and the Scheduled Tribes, and shall protect them from social injustice and all forms of exploitation,
* Art. 350 – Right to conserve distinct Language, Script or Culture;
* Art. 350 – Instruction in Mother Tongue.

;Social Safeguard
* Art. 23 – Prohibition of traffic in human beings and beggar and other similar form of forced labour
* Art. 24 – Forbidding Child Labour.

;Economic Safeguards
* Art.244 – Clause(1) Provisions of Fifth Schedule shall apply to the administration & control of the Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes in any State other than the states of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura which are covered under Sixth Schedule, under Clause * (2) of this Article.
* Art. 275 – Grants in-Aid to specified States (STs &SAs) covered under Fifth and Sixth Schedules of the Constitution.

;Political Safeguards
* Art.164 (1) – Provides for Tribal Affairs Ministers in Bihar, MP and Orissa
* Art. 330 – Reservation of seats for STs in Lok Sabha
* Art. 332 – Reservation of seats for STs in State Legislatures
* Art. 334 – 10 years period for reservation (amended several times to extend the period)
* Art. 243 – Reservation of seats in Panchayats
* Art. 371 – Special provisions in respect of NE States and Sikkim
* Fifth and Sixth schedules of Indian constitution

;Safeguards under Various laws
* The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act,1989 and the Rules 1995 framed there under.
* Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act 1976 (in respect of Scheduled Tribes);
* The Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act1986;
* States Acts & Regulations concerning alienation & restoration of land belonging to STs;
Forest Conservation Act 1980; [[The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006|Forests Right's Act 2006]];
* Panchayatiraj (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996;
* Minimum Wages Act 1948.}}

===Particularly vulnerable tribal groups===
The Scheduled Tribe groups who were identified as more isolated from the wider community and who maintain a distinctive cultural identity have been categorised as "[[Particularly vulnerable tribal group|Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups]]" (PVTGs) previously known as Primitive Tribal Groups by the Government at the centre. So far 75 tribal communities have been identified as 'particularly vulnerable tribal groups' in 18 States and UT of [[Andaman & Nicobar Islands]] of India. These hunting, food-gathering, and some agricultural communities have been identified as less acculturated tribes among the tribal population groups and in need of special programmes for their sustainable development. The tribes are awakening and demanding their rights for special reservation quota for them.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sci.tech-archive.net/pdf/Archive/sci.anthropology.paleo/2006-06/msg00409.pdf |title=New Book: ''Anthropology of Primitive Tribes in India'' |access-date=26 February 2009 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20090226073900/http://sci.tech-archive.net/pdf/Archive/sci.anthropology.paleo/2006-06/msg00409.pdf |archive-date=26 February 2009 }}</ref>

==Notable people==
{{See also|List of Adivasis}}

==See also==
{{div col|colwidth=22em}}
<!-- * [[Adivasi Literature]] --> 
* [[Chakma people|Chakma]]
* [[C. K. Janu]]
* [[Chhotanagpur Front]]
* [[Chhotanagpur Plateau Praja Parishad]]
* [[Eklavya Model Residential School]]
* [[Great Andamanese]]
* [[Hanumappa Sudarshan]]
* [[India tribal belt]]
* [[Jarawa people (Andaman Islands)]]
* [[Krantikari Mukti Morcha]]
* [[Kumar Suresh Singh]]
* [[List of indigenous peoples#South Asia|List of indigenous peoples of South Asia]]
* [[List of Scheduled Tribes in India]]
* [[Patalkot, Madhya Pradesh|Patalkot]]
* [[Shompen people]]
* [[Tribal religions in India]]
{{div col end}}

==Notes==
{{reflist|group=note}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==Sources==
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* {{citation | last1=Reich | first1=David | year=2009 | last2=Thangaraj| first2=Kumarasamy| last3=Patterson| first3=Nick | last4=Price| first4=Alkes L.| last5=Singh| first5=Lalji| title=Reconstructing Indian population history| journal=Nature| volume=461| issue=7263| pages=489–494| issn=0028-0836 | doi=10.1038/nature08365 | pmid=19779445 | pmc=2842210 | bibcode= 2009Natur.461..489R | ref={{sfnref|Reich et al.|2009}} }}
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{{Refend}}
{{Country study|country=India|section=Tribes|abbr=in}}

==External links==
{{Sister project links|auto=yes}}

{{Social issues in India}} 
{{Caste in India}} 
{{Discrimination}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Adivasi| ]]
[[Category:Indigenous peoples of South Asia]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Bangladesh]]
[[Category:Scheduled Tribes of India]]
[[Category:Discrimination in India]]
[[Category:Caste-related violence in India]]
[[Category:Political terminology in India]]