Jacinta Kerketta wrote:
(Sorry about the poor but I hope mostly understandable English translation, done by a computer...)
An evening event was held at University of Sussex, England. Sandhya Kerketta, an explorer of Kharia community born here in Simdega district of Jharkhand, took all the responsibility of organizing the event.
During this time, the seekers of this university studying different tribal communities of India and some tribal areas of the North East kept their studies. Some tribal researchers from India were also connected online with their studies. The first pro. Vineeta Damodaran, Prof. Felix Padel, Prof. Menon Ganguly put his words on. People from UK, Italy, India and other countries joined online to listen to this program. The seekers answered different questions.
There was a question. Do India's Tribals/Tribals have their own history, faith or are they Hindus from the beginning?
Nope. Tribals are not Hindus from the beginning. They have their own languages and culture. The word religion arrived much later, along with organized religion. There is a different way in "religion" lifestyle, mentioned in the reader tradition. Just like Christianity, other religions have been adopted by some tribals. The entry of organized religions has changed some things within both the society. As the influence of Christianity, the words used for feminine power within the Uraon tribes have gradually turned into a term used for male power. Similarly another religion has raised the belief of tribals on feminine power in their religion. Tribals have gone to Islam and Hinduism as well as Christianity but they are not Hindu from the beginning.
Dr Joy Prafull Lakda from TISS, Mumbai said this. [Lakda is an Oraon (Adivasi) name.]
Soumya Ranjan, a researcher studying on the identity, struggle and history of Kondh tribals in Orissa, answered a question that the archives we try to understand India's tribals, it itself is very colonial mentality Ready to go This is why tribals cannot be understood without abandoning prejudices and willing to learn from a new perspective.
David Chinlalian, a researcher at Sussex University from Manipur, North East, said that the tribals of the North East have always struggled for their separate territory. With people entering there from all sides different tribes struggling to protect their language-culture, identity. Except the question of who came first and who came after within the country, problems can be solved by respecting different communities, their different identities, specialities, their language-culture and learning from each other.
After this long session this day ended with recitation of poems.
Date: 21.10.2022
University of Sussex, England