India News | 'Being Adivasi': 7th Volume of 'Rethinking India' Series Released

New Delhi, Nov 22 (PTI) A new book, "Being Adivasi: Existence, Entitlements, Exclusion", explores the views of the Adivasis and the Denotified Communities on the process of development and its clash with their rights.

Published by Penguin Random House India (PRHI), the book was released on Monday.

Also Read | TikTok Owner ByteDance is Shutting Down Edtech Business in India, Says Report.

The seventh volume of "Rethinking India" series is a collection of essays addressing the persistent problems faced by Adivasis and Denotified communities "from questions of their distinct identity, land alienation, indebtedness, and displacement from ancestral lands".

It is co-edited by the late Adivasi rights activist Abhay Xaxa, who passed away due to a heart attack in March last year, and veteran linguist GN Devy.

Also Read | Charanjit Singh Channi Declares War Against Cable Mafia, Punjab CM Fixes Monthly Cable TV Rate at Rs 100.

"I would like to hope that it is received not just as a publication or academic exercise but as a prelude to the change that is now overdue, a change that will bring to the Denotified and Nomadic communities at least some measure of justice and human rights that they expect to get as citizens of a democratic country and to Adivasis the understanding of their distinct identity," writes Padma Shri awardee Devy.

Devy has also authored "Painted Words" (2003), a collection of literature of the Adivasis and the nomadic communities.

According to the publishers, the volume serves not as an academic exercise but, in addressing the larger readership, as a "prelude to the change that will bring to the Adivasis some measure of their rights as citizens of a democratic country".

"The essays in the volume address the persistent problems faced by the Adivasis and Denotified Tribes, from questions of their distinct identity to land alienation, indebtedness and displacement from ancestral lands," they said in a statement.

The PRHI's 'Rethinking India series', in collaboration with the Samruddha Bharat Foundation, aims "to breathe new life and spirit into the cold and self- serving logic of political and administrative processes, linking them to and informing them by grass-roots realities, fact-based research and social experience, and actionable social-scientific knowledge".

Its previous titles, including "Vision for a Nation", "The Minority Conundrum", "Reviving Jobs", "We the People" and "The Shudras", have contributions from over 140 of India's foremost academics, activists and policymakers across party lines.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)