"Adivasi Darshan Aur Sahitya" (Hindi Essay Collection, 2016): Overview
Vikalp Prakashan, Delhi, 2016
In her brief preface to this collection, Vandana Tete describes how the anthology came into being -- most essays were delivered at a conference on "Adivasi Philosophy and Contemporary Adivasi Literature" held in Ranchi (Jharkhand) on June 14-15, 2014.
In her longer introduction ("Adivasi Philosophy and Literature"), Tete also maps out the conditions of emergence for modern and contemporary Adivasi literature, contrasting it to literature "about" Adivasis authored by non-Adivasi writers. She also mentions some emerging Adivasi institutions, including publishing houses like the Pyara Kerketta Foundation in Ranchi and Adivaani Press in Kolkata. She also strongly emphasizes the importance of the oral tradition in Adivasi literature.
This collection explicitly situates Adivasis in South Asia in connection with other indigenous people around the world, including especially indigenous people in the Americas (see our essay on Comparative Indigeneity). One sign of that is the inclusion in the anthology of a Hindi translation of the letter sent by Chief Seattle to President Pierce (1854), included in the volume as "Letter of a Red Indian Tribal Chief." In her introductory chapter, Tete also approvingly cites the indigenous thinker and writer from Canada, Akiwenzie-Damm, as well as Jeannette Armstrong. In his chapter in the anthology, Anuj Lugun also cites the letter from Chief Seattle.
Tete also describes the Kenyan writer Ngugi wa Thiong'o as a "Kenyan indigenous thinker." This designation might seem a bit surprising, but certainly many of Ngugi's ideas about preserving Kenyan language and culture from Anglophone hegemony are applicable to the kinds of concerns associated with Adivasi advocacy and identity ("Adivasiyat"), in this volume as well as elsewhere. Essentially, thinking of Ngugi this way shows the strong overlaps between what we might think of as "decolonial" and "postcolonial" perspectives.
Along the way, Tete approvingly cites several other Adivasi writers, including Vahaur Sonawane, Anuj Lugun, and Padma Shri Mamang Dai, all describing the importance of the oral tradition in Adivasi literature.
Table of Contents (English translation)
Adivasi philosophy and literature
- Vandana Tete 09
The path of our development passes through Adivasi philosophy
- Geetashree Oraon 51
Adivasi life philosophy and literature
- Rose Kerketta 54
The world has to return to Adivasi philosophy
- Gladson Dungdung 61
For creating Adivasi literature we do not need Diku [Outsider] glasses
- Jowakim Topno 68
The criterion of Adivasi literature is Adivasi philosophy
- Ganga Sahay Meena 73
Adivasi philosophy and contemporary Adivasi poems
- Dr. Savitri Badaik 80
Revolt in Adivasi songs
- Remis Kandulna 85
Adivasi philosophy of life in ancestral Mundari songs
- Sam Topno 90
Adivasi poems between tradition and battlefield
- Anuj Lugun 97
Hindi politics and Adivasi
- Walter Bhengra 'Tarun' 107
Adivasi of Sanskrit literature and their contribution to Indian culture
- Dr. Ramdayal Munda 114
Sanskritization and ethnic genocide
- Harold Samson Topno 130
Adivasi literature is that which has Adivasi philosophy
- Krishnamohan Singh Munda 134
Ancestral vision of looking at the outside society
- Vandana Tete 141
For the last six thousand years, we Adivasis are oppressed, are in struggle
- Jaipal Singh Munda 156
Letter of a Red Indian tribal chief 160
You have put not our future but the entire earth at stake
- Roske Martinez 165