Coping, holding up, getting through, surviving, managing, carrying on and their synonyms are the instinctive verbs I’m ambushed with when asked about our publishing venture adivaani’s well-being in the wake of Covid-19. The assumptions and predictions that my tiny outfit has to have been upended by this crisis are reflexive. The pressure to admit that things have gone askew for my enterprise is such that admitting otherwise would be bizarre.
A new interview with our Executive Director. Find it in The Telegraph:
a. In the website of the newspaper:
My life. My telling, In my voice
b. Or get the pdf of it as it was published:
Pilgrimage is bearing witness—to an intangible presence in places or objects we call sacred. It is an interaction with that which is marked as hallowed. The goal of pilgrimage is to establish a connection, a union with that presence.
With these words I opened a presentation in Nicosia, Cyprus, in December, 2016. They are in many ways a reflection of the pilgrimage I’m on with adivaani, bearing witness to a presence I experience everyday, with every interaction, every creation, with my brethren and collaborators, borne out of a collective memory and history and shared heritage.
A pilgrimage for us is then a celebration of life and all that sustains it; and most of it may not even require arduous travel or movement outside of our immediate surroundings.
Our work at adivaani is manifested from this aura emanating from the love of my people and forms the bedrock of what we do and believe in.
Mid 2017 marked 5 years of our being and despite still being the same small operation when we started off, working from the same space—home, not being able to scale up, we’re in no way discouraged or disheartened; if anything we’re just as resolute when we first began, if not more to keep doing, exploring and blaze the trail.
We thank you for your kindness and continued support thus far and hope the relationship we’ve formed will grow in strength.
Highlights from the time gone by:
Catalogues attract catalogues—who knew? We had just finished Mark Elliot’s exhibition catalogue—Another India: Explorations and Expressions of Indigenous South Asia, when Alpa Shah, who’d been to the exhibition contacted us to collaborate on another one. The London School of Economics, Department of Anthropology and the School of Oriental and African Studies, SOAS, at the University of London were planning an exhibition dealing with the exclusion dalits and Adivasis suffer under the neoliberal economic policies applied in India. With the scholars behind the project approaching adivaani our newest title in our imprint One of Us came to life — Behind the Indian Boom: Inequality and Resistance at the heart of economic growth.
In this volume, our readers can explore the powerful collection of images displayed at the Brunei Gallery of SOAS, that tell the stories of everyday, backbreaking labour that our peoples engage in to survive in this country. These images are testimonies of Adivasis and Dalits living with rights denied, identities, culture and languages undermined.
So please, grab a copy at our usual online platforms and bookstores too or buy it directly from us with at Instamojo.
Here’s a little treat—a preview of the introductory paragraphs of the book:
Much has been made of the boom currently taking place in India. One of the world’s fastest growing economies, it is predicted that by the middle of the century India will be one of the two largest, alongside China, leaving the West behind. But what does this growth look like for the people on whose land and labour it is based?
Although India is now home to more than a hundred billionaires, around 800 million people still survive on less than two dollars a day, and eight Indian states have more poor people than twenty-six of Africa’s poorest countries put together. It could be said that while the wealth of the West is founded on colonising other countries, the extreme wealth of a small minority in India is based on colonising parts of its own country and its people. Since the 1990s, when India liberalised its economy, foreign corporations have also been investing in India, benefiting from and also exploiting its resources and its cheap labour.
BEHIND THE INDIAN BOOM travels across the country to meet some of its Dalits and Adivasis—its low caste and tribal communities—historically stigmatised
as ‘untouchable’ and ‘wild’, in order to understand the roles they play in the Indian and the wider global economy. Despite India’s significant economic growth, these tribal and low caste communities remain at the bottom of its social and economic hierarchies. Though economists have said that some advances have been made in the reduction of absolute levels of poverty, they have also shown that some groups have fared much worse than others and that income and wealth inequality is increasing in India. Adivasis and Dalits are some of the people who have gained the least from growth in India and, as this visual essay shows, millions have lost out because of it. They are a source of cheap labour from which much of the world economy benefits, and some of the lands on which they have traditionally lived for generations are today important crucibles of global industry. Dalits and Adivasis count for more than 200 million and 100 million people respectively; that is a staggering one in twenty-five people in the world. Their situation also reveals insights into the conditions of other oppressed people across the globe.
BEHIND THE INDIAN BOOM draws on material collected by researchers affiliated with the London School of Economics, Department of Anthropology, Programme of Research on Inequality and Poverty. It also includes the work of local journalists and activists. The social anthropologists involved have lived for several years, sometimes decades with the people whose lives they are documenting. The aim is to give a sense of the everyday struggles that Adivasis and Dalits go through
to survive in the contemporary economy, and also their fight back against the situations they find themselves in.
The exhibition Another India: Explorations and Expressions of Indigenous South Asia, opened on the 7 March 2017 and will continue until April 2018 at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (MAA), Cambridge University.
Curated by Dr. Mark Elliot, this exhibition “explores the tangled histories of artefacts from indigenous populations in India and how they came to be in the collections in Cambridge.”
The assemblage being exhibited is a combination of artefacts, paintings and photographs from MAA’s collection, many of which have never been exhibited before, and artworks by contemporary artists from the Indigenous and Adivasi communities represented.
We’re happy to announce that the catalogue from the ongoing exhibition—which is a remarkable account of the objects, the people who made them and who collected them and their complex legacies, is now available for sale at adivaani’s regular distribution channels.
2016 has been the most engaging year for us by far; so much so that we weren’t able to reach out to you regularly. Our sincerest apologies for that!
January opened with the news that I was selected as Asia Foundation Development Fellow 2016—an opportunity that has been such an enriching experience, where I have been able to explore new geographical terrain, test my capabilities and hone my skills.
January also had adivaani travelling to the Jaipur Literature Festival, where I spoke at three sessions (one at the Jaipur Book Mark) engaging new audience with Adivasi literature and those who produce it.
In March adivaani in collaboration with Dr. Mark Elliott, Senior Curator for Anthropology, Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, University of Cambridge organised a workshop with Adivasi sculptors and artisans in preparation for an exhibition in 2017; where the participating artists could respond to the existing collection from 19th century Adivasi India and contribute with their own artworks.
All along we were working on four books. The first was Jacinta Kerketta’s bi-lingual (Hindi-English) poetry book Angor and its German version Glüt; which were released in May, first in Ranchi and then in Germany. I had the opportunity to speak on Santali Literature at the annual India Literature Forum, Germany before heading on a cross-country tour along with Jacinta, presenting both books at events at universities, bookstores and cultural hubs.
In September, Ngaire Gardner’s book Illustrated Pursuits: W. S. Sherwill in India 1834–1861 was published; a collection of drawings, published articles and maps by Walter Stanhope Sherwill, who spent a total twenty-seven years in India as Revenue Surveyor.
Gardner is the great-great-granddaughter of Sherwill and when she proposed the book to us, we knew little of Sherwill except that the iconic drawing of Sidhu Murmu in jail, one of the brothers famous for leading the Santal Rebellion 1855–57, was in all probability drawn by him. That and his other works showcased my people and their locales from a hundred and fifty years ago and that was incentive enough to produce that book.
Then the first week of October had us gather at Gangpur College of Social Work-Sundargarh, Odisha for the Second National Congress (Jatra) organised by the Tribal Intellectual Collective India and several co-hosts (including adivaani). We launched volume 3 of the Tribal and Adivasi Studies Series—Social Work in India, edited by bodhi s. r.
This year adivaani also got its 12AA (tax exemptions certificate) and 80G (50% tax exemption for donors from India) consolidating it’s legal status as a non-profit.
As the year comes to a close, we are only grateful for the year that’s been. We appreciate everyone who has stood by us, sustained us and celebrated every milestone big and small with us.
As we step into the New Year, we look forward to another eventful year and we hope you’d share this journey with us. More books and more projects are in the pipeline for 2017.
We have had a year long running online fundraising campaign that flows into next year as well. Do mark your support on Generosity or contact us for a domestic donation.
We thank you for your solidarity, always.
Best wishes,
adivaani was registered as a Trust with the Additional Registrar of Assurances in Kolkata, West Bengal on July 19, 2012. Our Registration number is 4326.
adivaani is registered u/s 12AA (1)(b)(i) of the Income Tax Act 1961, and has the following tax exemptions:~ Approval under section 80G (5)(iv) of the Income Tax Act,1961 (50% exemption).
Adivaani and the Tribal Intellectual Collective India is proud to present its second title from the Tribal and Adivasi Studies series—Social Work in India, Edited by bodhi s. r.
bodhi. s. r sums up the book for us: ‘This specific volume of the TAS series attempts to unravel key constitutive elements of perspectives from within in Tribal and Adivasi Studies. This being a subject area not sufficiently explored by scholars and whose myriad questions remain definitively unanswered to this day, both in academia and within progressive activist scholarship. Evidences to assert and augment propositions related to unraveling this distinct methodological position have been sourced from a practice discipline–social work. Discursive in nature and drawing extensively from the experiences of those who have directly engaged in critical and strategic practice in Tribal/Adivasi empowerment, this volume; also an act in epistemological reconstruction, envisages asserting and achieving greater depth and clarity of the said perspective in the identified subject domain’.
We released the book at the Second National Congress in Bihaband, Orissa on 6th October 2016 at the inaugural session of the three-day jatra.
Here are some snapshots from the book release, the congress and the tribal and adivasi students, scholars and postgraduate students who attended the event.
Almost two years ago adivaani received the proposal for Illustrated Pursuits: a collection of drawings, published articles and maps by Walter Stanhope Sherwill, who spent a total twenty-seven years in India since he first arrived as a young man in 1834 to work for the British East India Company. He served as an ensign, Assistant Revenue Surveyor, Revenue Surveyor of what was then known as the Bengal Presidency. He held positions of Lieutenant; Captain—a position he held until 1859 when he became Major Sherwill. On his retirement in 1861 he was given the title Honourable Lieutenant Colonel.
When Ngaire Gardner, the author, a retired school teacher who taught History of Art, Classical Studies, Visual Arts, Design and Photography and also great-great-granddaughter of Sherwill contacted us; we knew little of Sherwill except that the iconic drawing of Sidhu Murmu in jail, one of the brothers famous for leading the Santal Rebellion 1855-57, was in all probability drawn by him.
‘Hot Wells and Springs in the bed and on the banks of the Bum Buklesir Nullah – Zillah Beerbhoom’; W. S. Sherwill, 1851; Indian ink on paper; © Dunedin Public Art Gallery; 40.8 x 27 cm.
That image has been in circulation and used by Santals and Adivasis for years now to represent and assert our identity rights and self-determination.
What are the odds that an Adivasi publisher comes in contact with Sherwill’s descendant and has access to more material that serves as the only window to the life and times of our people over a century and half ago. Well, it happened and Illustrated Pursuits came to life.
‘The Great Tree embedded Gun, at Moorshedabad’; W. S. Sherwill, 1850; Indian ink on paper; © Dunedin Public Art Gallery; 41 x 27 cm.
Sherwill’s “Notes Upon a Tour of the Rajmahal Hills” (1851) and “Notes Upon a Tour of the Sikkim Himilayahs” (1852), both published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal and included in this book, give us a glimpse of the tribal people and their customs in those regions. Actually, Sherwill’s work does reflect British colonial positions and this book will help us engage with those thought patterns and approaches.
We did not want to pass up the prospect of having this historical material, curated in one place and made available to the descendants of Sidhu and Kanhu Murmu and the others who have been represented in Sherwill’s drawing.
Ngaire Gardner sums up the intention of the book: ‘the consequences of British colonial attitudes to the land, resources and indigenous population of India continue to reverberate today and readers will inevitably bring their own perspectives to Sherwill’s images and words. My aim has been to share the material he has left behind and to allow readers to form their own opinions of his legacy’ .
Ngaire Gardner
The book, from our imprint ONE of US, is now available for you to read. Go ahead and grab your copy.
Our authors and readers make adivaani what it is…they are the fuel and passion that keeps our work going.
As proud as we are to announce our first poetry book; the poet and her brilliance far surpass everything we stand for.
Do join us at the launch of Jacinta Kerketta’s first collection of bi-lingual poems in Hindi and English: Angor on Friday, the 20th of May, 2016 in Ranchi, Jharkhand.
Jacinta’s Angor–meaning Ember in the local Adivasi dialect–has been translated into German, Glut (Hindi-German) in collaboration with Draupadi-Verlag and Jacinta and Ruby will embark on a tour to Germany soon after, promoting both books.
We invite you to come over and interact with Jacinta and hear her recite some of her poems.
Venue: Dr. Camil Bulcke Hall,
St. Xavier’s College. Purulia Road
Time: 15:30 hrs.
Hope to see you all there.
Where: Stall 205, Nagarik Mancha
Venue: Milan Mela, Kolkata. (Near E. M. Bypass, Science City)
Dates: January 26th, 2016 – February 7th, 2016
Time: Everyday from 12 PM – 8 PM
1. Jaipur BookMark, Thursday, January 21, 2016
Time: 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm
Session No.: 2 (Main Stage)
Session Name: An Indian Reader
Speakers: Nirmal Kanti Bhattacharjee, Rita Kothari, Jerry Pinto, Shailesh Bharatwasi and Ruby Hembrom in conversation with Manisha Chaudhry
2. Jaipur Literature Festival, Saturday, January 23, 2016
Time: 3:45 pm to 4:45 pm
Session No.: 98 (Baithak)
Session Name: Adivaani: The Indigenous Literature of India
Speakers: Hari Ram Meena, Ruby Hembrom and Peter Anderson in conversation with Mohini Gupta
3. Jaipur Literature Festival, Saturday, January 23, 2016
Time: 5:15 pm to 6:15 pm
Session No.: 103 (Mughal Tent)
Session Name: A Room of One’s Own
Speakers: Ila Arab Mehta, Anuradha Roy, Ira Pande, Alka Saraogi, Ruby Hembrom in conversation with Anjum Hasan, introduced by Namita Gokhale.
In the past we’ve received manuscripts and proposals from Non-Adivasi authors, activists, scholars and researchers who wished to publish with us and we turned them down as a policy as we were creating a niche space for ourselves and they’d anyway have better chances to be published by established, mainstream publishers.
Three years on we realized that there were some Non-Adivasi’s who’ve been so closely associated with us and our issues; who’ve build trusting relationships with us that their voices were important to include to create the larger documentation, adivaani database. After much deliberation we decide to start One of Us to include such narratives.
One of Us is a celebration of outsider-insider collaborations, associations and relationships. adivaani wouldn’t be what it is without such collaborations and neither would our Adivasi movements and struggles.
Samar Bosu Mullick’s Sylvan Tales: Stories from the Munda country is the first title under One of Us; traversing through Munda terrain picking up sights, sounds, smells and flavours from it.
Samar Bosu Mullick (centre) at the official release of Sylvan Tales: Stories from the Munda country in Ranchi on the 24th of October, 2015.
Samar (Sanjay) Bosu Mullick has been engaged in the Adivasi struggle for identity, autonomy and rights to resources since 1968. This collection of 14 stories is embedded on facts that he as an activist encountered during the last 45 years of his being among the characters of the stories.
Do pick up the book and read on to savour the stories.
Earlier this year adivaani and the Tribal Intellectual Collective India’s paths crossed. Conversations turned to collaborations and the plans to co-host their First National Congress, in Shillong in September 2015 were consolidated. Not only that; ideas to produce books together were also explored and formalized. The first product from this association is a series: Tribal and Adivasi Studies: Perspectives from Within.
Adivaani and Tribal Intellectual Collective India is very proud to present its first title of that series: Identities and their struggles in North East (volume 2).
We very fittingly released the book at the First National Congress in Shillong on the 18th September, 2015 at the inaugural session of the two day event.
Here are some snapshots from the book release, the congress and the tribal and adivasi scholars and postgraduate students…
From left to right: Dr. Alex Akhup (Editor of the volume), Prof. Virginius Xaxa (Convener, Tribal Intellectual Collective India), Prof. Bipin Jojo (Member, Editorial Board, Journal of Tribal Intellectual Collective India), John F. Kharshiing (Chairman, Grand Council of Chiefs, Meghalaya), Ruby Hembrom, (Director, adivaani), Prof. Xavier Mao (Department of Philosophy, NEHU, Shillong). Photo by John Minz.
The sales table
Ruby speaking at the Plenary of the Tribal Intellectual Collective India National Congress
The participants…
Our children’s book on the Santal Rebellion of 1855-57 Disaibon Hul wins the Printed Children’s Book of the Year at the Publishing Next Industry Awards 2015. To everyone who helped make the book and everyone who has read it, our heartfelt gratitude. Congratulations Saheb Ram Tudu and many thanks to CDC Printers for bringing alive the vision of the book on paper and Sarini and the Tribal Cultural Heritage in India Foundation for support in realizing the project. Here’s the link to the jury for the awards.
A few months ago Manchi Pustakam, Secunderabad acquired the Telugu rights to our illustrated books on the Santal creation stories.
We are pleased to share that the books are out and can be bought at Kinige. Click on the images to have a look:
In another installment on the works by Dr. Ram Dayal Munda, we are happy to present a bi-lingual volume (English and Roman Mundari) co-authored by Ratan Singh Manki.
Sosobonga, the prayer of the Soso tree, is the ultimate expression of love and respect for our Mother Earth within the Munda and the Asur peoples.
Orally narrated the epic aims not only to present how human life came into existence but also introduces us to a story in search of equilibrium and the restoring actions of reciprocity among humans—between themselves and other beings.
We hope that our readers will have a deeper understanding of Adivasi cultures and through the simple and poetic passages of the book, love this ancient, yet always fresh ritual of fertility, sharing and living within the boundaries of nature.
But, hush, the priest is about to start telling the story. He is passing his right hand over the rice in the winnowing fan resting on his lap… grab your copy and follow his voice.
We are happy to share that adivaani now has another platform where our books can be purchased.
Happy Reading!
The first edition of Adivasi PICKLE has formally and successfully come to an end.
Becoming Me by Rejina Marandi was released on Saturday, the 25th of October, 2014 at the author’s hometown in Assam.
The event was a celebration of stories, storytelling and storytellers soaked in Adivasi flavours.
The Forest Guest House Campus, Srirampur, Santal Colony, Kokrajhar District was the venue and the open air setting amidst trees made for an event befitting Adivasis’ love for nature. Sadri and Santali music played through the sound systems setting the stage for festivity.
Guests—family, friends, dignitaries, activists, journalists, well-wishers arrived from all corners of Assam, some even taking a train journey to share in Rejina’s grand day. Welcomed in traditional ways by washing of feet and being gifted a panchi; we felt at home.
Rejina looked lovely in her traditional Santali clothes. It was such a proud moment to unwrap her books from the panchi that held them together and unveil it to everyone present.
She says Becoming Me is her part of the effort to transform oral tradition to the written form. “Today’s Present is tomorrow’s History. So, let each one of us start sharing our part of the story in the written form”, she said.
adivaani thanks ASSU (All Santal Student’s Union), ASSAA (All Adivasi Students’ Association of Assam), Wilson Hansda and Rejina Marandi for putting this book release event together so beautifully and everyone who addressed the gathering and attended it.
Congratulations once again to Rejina Marandi! May our stories travel far and wide.
Click on any of the photographs to view the entire gallery.
Just to share with you that Ruby Hembrom, adivaani’s founding director and storyteller is on her way to attend the Frankfurt Book Fair—the biggest confluence of the publishing world. She’s traveling as a guest of the Visitors Program of the Federal Republic of Germany.
This is an exciting time for adivaani—for such a young publishing venture to partake of and experience this event.
Our gratitude to everyone at the German Consulate in Kolkata for extending this invite to us.
This book is a timely affirmation of Indigenous together with environmental issues. Dancing on our turtle’s back refers to the continent of America, and implicitly Mother Earth, as the turtle we dance on.
Because we belong to the land—a special introductory section for the Indian edition makes clear what Indigenous peoples worldwide have in common, alongside an infinite array of differences—for one, an environmental consciousness in the face of ‘State-facilitated environmental devastation’; for another, a history of Resistance and Resurgence, ‘reclaiming and reoccupying our homelands’. In Canada, the indigenous movement known as ‘Idle No More’ has created potent political waves recently, reversing past takeovers. In India we still witnesses the opposite—thousands of Indigenous communities attempting, often against massive odds, just to hold onto their lands against a mass wave of corporate invasions.
Felix Padel at the release of our first two books at the World Delhi Book Fair, February 2013
Felix Padel is an Anthropologist and the author of The Sacrifice of Human Being: British Rule & the Konds of Orissa (1995, 2000), Sacrificing People: Invasions of a Tribal Landscape (1995, 2010), Out of This Earth: East India Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel (2010 with Samarendra Das) and Ecology, Economy: Quest for a Socially Informed Connection (2013 with Ajay Dandekar & Jeemol Unni ) and several articles emphasizing the wider significance of Indigenous issues.
adivaani has taken its archiving work to include documentary films now. Banam Raja is our first production exploring Adivasi musical traditions.
At the end of the day, Santals return to music to become whole again. They bring out their instruments into the courtyard and music, lyrics and song turn into stars in the night sky. Our musical traditions are millennial.
The banam is a stringed instrument. Banams are the lutes and the fiddles of the Santal people. They are made from locally available material–wood, vegetables and animal hide. The most common banams still made and played by Santals are the Dhodro Banam, the Reta Banam and the Phentor Banam.
This video is a tribute to our artists, who have kept our culture alive through generations.
During the process of filming we were able to record some songs by Santal musicians. Here’s a sample of their joy and pride in music—unrehearsed and performed in natural surroundings.
I believe not everyone is meant to do just one thing in life, I certainly am not. My 8 years of work experience in the Legal field, the Service Industry, the Social Development Sector and the Learning, Research, Development and Instructional Designing field bears testimony to this fact.
My education, training, skills and career define only part of who I am; my identity as a tribal, a Santal, is fundamental to my being and that completes who I am.
But is that enough? Life for me is about fulfilling one’s potential. In the many ways I’ve redefined who I am; the adivaani dream has made me come alive all over again. So what is the adivaani story?
2nd of April, 2012 found me trading four months of my life to learning a new skill. I attended a course on publishing to explore the possibilities of what I could do with my love for Language, the written word and stories. The course would just be an extension of what I was already doing.
In the first month there I met many fascinating storytellers in batch mates and resource persons from the publishing world and heard lots of stories firsthand. And two stories I heard planted an idea in my head that finally made me see why I was at the course.
Listening to Urvashi Butalia and S. Anand’s stories of what their publishing houses embodied got me thinking. While their story unfolded bit by bit I was bothered by a thought: both of them were sharing specific issue related stories through books that were important to be told, but there were some stories that still needed to be told–the Adivasi stories. Even the list of publishing experts we were to meet; had no Adivasi representation and that got me more concerned. Were we not important enough to be included or were we non-existent in the publishing world (this was not true as we do publish in our native regional languages).
I was consumed by the burning desire for ‘our’ stories to be out there. Who would tell them? Soon enough I saw I wanted to tell them. But I didn’t know how. I didn’t write and I had no plan, but all I knew was that the tribal voice had to be heard; the authentic Adivasi story had to be told.
That idea and the possibilities of what could happen through it filled my waking and sleeping hours. The more I thought and talked about it, it became clear how I had been living a half-life until then.
Next to come is the christening story. We need a name I thought; I don’t want to keep calling it an idea anymore.
In a mock exercise at the school we were to draw up publishing house ideas and I absolutely loved the name ‘Inkdia’ and the logo that one team came up with. So I walk up to the leader of the team, Shyamal, and ask him if the name is copy right, ‘yes’, he says. Shyamal directs me to Luis, who coined ‘Inkdia’ and designed the logo, with whom until then I had not had a real conversation. I shared my idea with him and won over a collaborator. He said he’d help with the logo, and that was just the start of his additions to my big idea. Soon we has Boski on board to work with the logo and our first few illustrated books. I was fortunate to have found my best collaborators in the course.
But I still didn’t have a name.
A little dejected I sit through the session, toying with ideas for names. I try playing around with letters around the word tribal and Adivasi and Voilá! the name as if by magic appears: adivaani, the Adivasi voice.
That’s how an idea became adivaani and adivaani became the fuel that keeps the dreamer and storyteller in me alive.
adivaani 