Adivasi Culture

Anthropologist and Adivasi activist, Verrier Elwin, wrote a poem in 1964 on the Kuttia Kond tribe of Orissa that suggests high levels of material poverty:

“They have no treasure as the world counts gain,

Some starving cattle; a small bin of grain

Torn scraps of dirty cloth; a string of beads,

A mat, a broken bed, a pot of seeds,

A basketful of roots, a little meat,

The bows and arrows and a wooden seat,

Is all their low-roofed hovels boast of store

Such is the sad accounting of the poor”

Culture and tradition play a big role in the development of any community. This is especially true of marginalized rural communities such as India’s Adivasi tribes.

“The survival of this diverse tribal culture, ethos and way of life is increasingly

under threat in a liberalized and globalised economy. Intensive and concurrent

research is, therefore, required, both at macro and micro levels, to understand the impact of development activities on tribals, the problems faced, behavioral

practices and patterns, standards of living, coping mechanisms, etc. so as to provide crucial inputs for framing of the policy the relation between the socioeconomic development of the adivasis and the preservation of their culture is an importance issue.