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Diversity and the existence of distinct societies are an essential part of the being of Indian civilisation. The tribes of India are an inseparable part of this diverse fabric of India. The tribal culture of India, its traditions and practices interpenetrate almost all the aspects of Indian culture and civilisation.
Illustration by The Geostrata
Each tribe has a way of life of its own. Each tribe has its way of behaving, thinking, feeling and acting. Each has its customs, traditions, morals, values, and culture. Indian tribal culture has also seen a tremendous merging of cultures within its people. The very peculiarities of each tribal culture reveal that it has a distinctive culture of its own.
The paper sets out to bring into light the diverse literature of the tribes of India and how it forms the threads of unity and belonging with the larger mosaic of Indian culture. The paper also brings into light the numerous challenges it has faced in the face of progress and how literature acts as a shield that protects and preserves.
Literature is a repository of the happenings of the past as well as a vessel for the reconfirmation of their identity and one of most powerful tools for the preservation and expression of a civilization’s identity. Tribal literature is the literature of a search for identity. Tribal literature does not confine itself into a particular genre. Each literary work speaks for the struggles and captures the celebration of their unique culture.
The development of literature and of different art forms in tribal communities predated the emergence of written records. Passed through generations, these oral traditions capture the very essence of the uniqueness of tribal culture. The dissemination of these oral traditions has kept the cultural practices and the history of tribes thriving.
For the tribes of India, literature is a means of self representation and empowerment. Drawing examples from various tribal writings, the paper seeks to bring out how the tribal literature preserves tribal identity.
ORAL TRADITIONS AND STORYTELING
India is known for its diversity and multiplicity of languages. There are more than
1600 languages belong to seven different language families spoken in the country and a large number of them are preserved and sustained in oral forms. The oral tradition of the country is as old as 3500 years, and is still thriving.
There are more unwritten languages in the country than the written ones. These languages are spoken by tribals as well as non-tribals, spoken even today by migrated and marginalized societies.
Until the practice of printing and publishing literary works became well established during the nineteenth century, literature in India existed mostly in oral traditions. The development of literature and of different art forms in tribal communities predated the emergence of written records.
The tribal literary tradition was mainly oral. Tribal literature continues to be produced in hundreds of indigenous languages even today. This oral tradition includes works from scriptures to folksongs and drama. Even after the medium of printing became well established in India, some of the oral traditions have survived. They include epics, plays, songs, stories, narratives, proverbs, and aphorisms.
Most of our oral literature faces the threat of being lost to oblivion because of lack of institutionalised support. The absence of any written form of these languages further aggravates the situation, pushing the traditions into a fear of endangerment. The oral traditions preserve indigenous and traditional knowledge of the society, environment and history.
The oral and tribal literature emote current socio-political thought processes of the societies where they are spoken. Oral literature is a mix of contemporary and current. It is through these oral traditions that has helped us save information on civilizations and human coexistence.
LITERATURE AS A FORM OF RESISTANCE AGAINST COLONISATION AND CULTURAL ASSIMILATION
Resistance literature emphasizes the strength of the Indian voices in a constant battle against the colonial forces. A time of turbulence, the beginning half of the twentieth century witnessed the rise of the Indian independence movement. It brought forth significant figures who defied colonialism and fought for freedom. By creating anti-colonial works, authors used literature as a tool for creating a voice of resistance that signaled the turning tides.
The Santhal Rebellion in the 19th century spread its words of revolution through songs, folklore and oral narratives. Capturing the very essence of the rebellion and the collective rage and determination of Santhals, the oral traditions pass down the history of resistance through different generations and as a celebration of fighters like Sidhu and Kanha Murmu who led the fight.
Each tribal rebellion that happened in colonial India has been immortalized through these oral traditions and folklores. It was through these mediums that the tribals expressed their spirit to ward off the colonial forces from the very root and establish their own identity.
Even today, tribal literature is an expression of their fight for identity and resistance. A celebrated Oriya novelist Gopinath Mohanty through his writing “Paraja" brings into light the anti colonial sentiments among the tribal communities. Through the story of one family, he captured the symbolic representation of the state of the whole tribe, their fight for identity and resources.
The book “Adivasi Astitva aur Jharkhand Asmitake” by Ramdayal Munda, a renowned linguist scholar from Chhotanagpur, belonging to the Munda tribe, is a collection of six essays that discusses questions around Adivasi identity, culture, religion, politics, language and industrialisation, in the context of Jharkhand as well as other parts of the country.
Munda attempts to contextualize Adivasi history through Sanskrit texts, such as the Upanishads, Ramayana and Mahabharata and discuss the historical transformation of Jharkhand through various stages and the contemporary issues faced by Adivasi communities.
Munda highlights various aspects of Adivasi identity in Jharkhand, the symbiotic relationship between culture and nature, their caste- and class-less existence, their co-dependent economy based on collective resources.
With the changes in the economic structure of society, the tribes find cultural preservation difficult in the face of globalization. Literature has emerged as a powerful medium of expression for sustainable development. Advocating for tribal identity and economic progress to go hand in hand and finding representation in public policy to make a change where it is necessary.
REPRESENTATION OF GENDER ROLES WITH TRIBAL LITERATURE
The tribal literature also contains the strong and assertive voices of Adivasi women against various forms of violence and articulate their views on Adivasi society at large. The poems and stories in the books put forward empowering narratives, grounded in the lived experiences of Adivasi writers.
These works reflect on the violence against and exploitation of Adivasi women. Through the writings, the author moves through various aspects of Adivasi life in villages and provides a critical Adivasi perspective on the modern development model and the erosion of cultural and communitarian roots.
The poet Kerketta uses metaphors from the forest and nature to depict the deep relationships Adivasi communities have with these. She mentions the long history of resistance since the Santal Rebellion in the nineteenth century.
Her portrayal of the community is not written as a victim’s narrative but an empowering story of survival and resistance. The simplicity of her language and the depth of her critical worldview resonate with many young Adivasis who are experiencing a similar crisis in their ancestral homelands.
The theme of the conflict with the ideals of modernity is of recurring nature present in the tribal literature. It is a reflection of the dilemma of these tribes who find themselves stuck between a twin path of preserving their ancestral knowledge and the ways of life while also adapting to the new norms of modernity.
The narratives include topics such as the displacement of tribes from their traditional lands, their loss of natural resources and the breakdown of traditional community structures, as an effort to bring into light the disruption caused in the social and cultural fabric of the indigenous tribes with the coming up of modernisation and globalisation.
Numerous tribal literature draws its essence from the tradition of tribal uprisings, consequently the language and geography of those uprisings also assume significance. The original writings of the tribal authors are in their indigenous languages. The Tribal literature in Hindi is greatly influenced by the rich literary tradition of indigenous languages. But there is a need for the translation of vernacular Adivasi literature into English.
The Koitur community, which is made up of fourteen million people, has not had a single book published in English so far, although there are many writers who have published in Hindi, Marathi and Telugu.
There are also books by Adivasi writers written in other vernacular languages including Gujarati, Bengali, Odia, Malayalam and Kannada as well as their own indigenous languages, such as Gondi, Kurukh, Santali, Ho and Bhili. Most of this writing in vernacular languages can mainly be found in jatras and annual gatherings of various Adivasi organizations.
The tribals' voices find an artistic expression through the mediums of cave architecture, paintings and poetry. For example, the Sohrai and Khovar painting of Jharkhand. The Khovar paintings depict the marriage rituals among the tribes while the art in Sohrai paintings is matriarchal in its depiction which is insightful to the social fabric of the tribes. The tribes have found their canvas in various mediums of expression.
The definition of tribal literature does not restrict itself to the boundaries of paper, rather a cultivation of oral, written and visual storytelling with recurring themes of resistance, nature, spirituality and cultural preservation.
It is vital for tribal literature to break the barriers of translation in order to survive the contemporary challenges, to tell the tales of its heroic existence throughout centuries for the generations to come.
BY DEEPIKA GUPTA
TEAM GEOSTRATA
Such a beautiful illustration!! Literally captures the essence of the whole piece!