Although the Government of India and especially the Ministry of HRD can create an academic environment conducive to application-oriented research, it cannot force its agenda on the research academies and bodies, sincere and dedicated professionals. Many of them want to help the smaller communities solve their problems in the sectors of health, education, preservation and promotion of cultural heritage and related social problems. The materials produced have to be sensitive to the legitimate needs of the individuals and communities with which they work. This is exactly what is being done by Bhasha, Baroda. Earlier, CIIL collaborated with them in bringing out pictorial glossaries and other materials in a large number of Bhili dialects.
Among the books being published, the importance of a dictionary is undeniable. With the advent of literature, words acquired new meanings as well as usage. To help readers to have an entry into the world of unknown words, the publication of dictionaries is essential. Since many tribal regional languages have started producing literature these days, an introduction to all of them from Gujarat is very useful. Similarly, orality keeps the debate on in literary circles, and to that extent the work on Manda oral literature is particularly welcome. The last of these is a treatise by Professor Khubchandani, who has been at the forefront of tribal studies for the last fifty years, and is an untiring crusader for the tribal cause. In that respect, his work on Human Ecology is extremely important.
What are the challenges for a Tribal Languages researcher in India? In many cases, the tribal habitats are inaccessible and almost one-third of them still live below the poverty line. Consequently, hunger and prolonged fight with day-to-day adversities take precedence over education as effects of development are either lacking or are sub-standard. Abject poverty of these people compounds the problem. And yet, they are creative and culturally sensitive, and may even turn out to be more civilised than the so-called civil society. The situation has vastly improved after "Tribal Affairs' received a special focus and a special ministry was set up and the sectoral programmes, such as health, education, poverty alleviation, women & child development etc., are looked after by the concerned Central Ministry that continues to administer its programmes.
For many decades now tribal communities in independent India have been at the receiving end of 'development'. There has been a growing feeling, particularly among the adivasis, that various programmes of development generally upsetting their lifestyles have not been as effective in terms of their societal and cultural upliftment. Adivasi communities continue to be made easy targets of exploitation through 'mainstream' interventions in the name of development; they have only been "robbed of their songs, their dances, their festivals and their laughter".
Tribal society is not as stagnant as has been perceived by many social scientists. The present study is a compendium of the author's earlier work (1992), which focused on specific socio-cultural indicators namely literacy and urbanisation, signifying the directions of continuity and change among Indian tribals. In the pervasive climate of development, configurations of traditional and modernising milieus are bound to affect one another. This enquiry addresses the developmental crisis in the larger framework of human ecology; on how the indigenous peoples, rooted to the soil, respond to such phenomena.
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