Adivasi or Vanvasi

Tribal India and the Politics of Hindutva

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‘An extremely important and timely book’ — Nandini Sundar, Professor Department of Sociology, Delhi University.

Akhil Bhartiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, popularly known as Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram or VKA is the tribal wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). As the largest tribal organization in the country, it works in many areas of Kerala, Jharkhand and the North-east of India. Till the late 1970s, VKA’s work was limited to a few districts of Chhattisgarh (then Madhya Pradesh), Jharkhand (then Bihar), and Odisha but it has gradually and continuously expanded its footprint in different parts of the country.

It is noteworthy that from its inception VKA focused on spreading Hindu values by organizing religious rituals in tribal areas and working in the area of education and hostels. It has tirelessly worked to provide medical help to the tribals from the mid-1960s. However, after the late 1970s, it started to work in different aspects of tribal communities’ lives. By the 1990s, it also formally began to raise questions related to the rights of tribal communities over forest land and its resources.

Exploring its genesis, historical journey, the nature of ideological discourse, and various functions of the VKA, this book opens a window to the contribution of an organization, which largely remained untold and therefore unknown. Deeply researched and evocative, Adivasi or Vanavasi would immensely interest anyone interested to understand modern India’s history, politics and changing landscape of Indian society.