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Primary Texts and Translations

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Here, we'll curate a collection of primary texts, including translations (for translations understood as still in copyright in India, we will seek permission to post). 

Places to start from the collection below:

Abhay Flavian Xaxa, "I am not your data" -- defiant poem of resistance to external definition and description. Assertion of Adivasi identity
Anuj Lugun, "Adivasi" -- poem expressing deep connection to nature, separate from artifical labels
Anuj Lugun, "Red Indians, Once Again" -- poem comparing the experience of Native American people encountering European settlers to Indian Adivasis.
Nirmala Putul, "Santhal Division" -- poem about the economic and cultural impoverishment of an Adivasi community 
Nirmala Putul, "About Adivasi Girls" -- poem about the tension between authentic folk culture and external misrepresentations
Rose Kerketta, "Fixed Deposit" -- powerful short story about the displacement of Adivasi communities by big dam projects in the name of "development"
Mahadev Toppo, "I am a poet of the forest..." -- ecological poem ("I plant trees and poetry too...") 

Materials available online elsewhere:

Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, "Joga" (English)
Jacinta Kerketta, Profile and Selected Poems 
Five poems by Mamang Dai (English)
Nirmala Putul, "Mountain Child" 
Ushakiran Atram, "Jarwa Women"  (Hindi and English versions of a poem about objectification of Tribal women's bodies)
Ushakiran Atram, "Ravan Was a Gond King" (essay at Caravan)
Mamang Dai, "Gone"

This page has paths:

  1. आदिवासी लेखक: भारत के आदिवासी साहित्य का परिचय Amardeep Singh
  2. Adivasi Writers: An Introduction to India's Indigenous Literature Amardeep Singh

Contents of this path:

  1. Abhay Flavian Xaxa, "I Am Not Your Data" (poem) (2011)
  2. Sushila Samad, "Dedication" (translated poem)
  3. Sushila Samad, "Closed Door" (poem translated from Hindi)
  4. Alice Ekka, "Durgi's Children and Elma's Dreams" (short story translated from Hindi)
  5. Jyoti Lakra, "Korain Duba"
  6. Jyoti Lakra, "The Sal Tree Has Fallen" (translated poem; 2019)
  7. Laxman Gaikwad, "Bandookya" (translated from Marathi & Hindi)
  8. Mahadev Toppo, "I am a poet of the forest..." (poem translated from Hindi)
  9. Joram Yalam Nabam, "Her Name Was Yapi" (short story translated from Hindi)
  10. Narayan, "The Birth of Pravachak" (short story translated from Hindi)
  11. Ushakiran Aatram, "Mother Don't Kill Me in the Womb!" (Poem translated from Hindi)
  12. Jaipal Singh Munda, "Ancestral Song of the Rebellion Led By Birsa Munda"
  13. Haldhar Nag, "Warning" (2020)
  14. Waharu Sonavane, "Stage" (poem)
  15. Sushma Asur, "The Mountain's Home is Gone" (2019)
  16. Walter Bhengra 'Tarun', "Sangi" (translated short story)
  17. Francisca Kujur, "Just Think, Hira" (translated from Hindi)
  18. Francisca Kujur, "Only Questions" (poem translated from Hindi)
  19. Rose Kerketta, "I Will Not Go To the Kindgom of Bhutan" (translated poem; 2019)
  20. Pyari Tuti, "Environment" (translated poem; 2019)
  21. Damyanti Sinku, "Our Jharkhand" (translated poem; 2019)
  22. Shanti Khalkho, "Green Jharkhand" (translated poem; 2019)
  23. Yashoda Murmu, "Primitive Jarawa" (translated poem; 2017)
  24. Jacinta Kerketta, "Can You Return?" (translated poem; 2019)
  25. Jacinta Kerketta, "Jamuni, Stop Yourself from Being Sold" (translated poem; 2019)
  26. Jacinta Kerketta, "Care" (poem translated from Hindi)
  27. Hari Ram Meena, "Untitled Moments" (poem translated from Hindi)
  28. Hari Ram Meena, "Untitled Epigrams - II" (poem translated from Hindi)
  29. Rose Kerketta, "Fixed Deposit" (short story in translation)