Appreciate the massive scale of India's tribal populations and their profound two-way interaction with mainstream Hindu traditions.
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Hook about the sheer population size of Indian tribes.
According to official figures, in 2011 India had 705 distinct tribes amounting to a population of about 104 million people. That is more than the combined populations of Australia and the United Kingdom together!
Definition of tribe, janjati, and the history of biased anthropology.
Anthropologists typically define a tribe as a group of families or clans that share a tradition of common descent, a culture, and a language. They generally live as a close-knit community under a chief and hold no private property.
Visual of the Toda tribe and Nilgiri hills.
For the Toda people, over thirty peaks in the Nilgiris are residences of deities, so sacred they avoid pointing at them with a finger.
Mutual enrichment between tribal and Hindu traditions.
There has been a constant, natural interaction between folk, tribal, and Hindu traditions for thousands of years. Deities, concepts, legends, and rituals are freely exchanged in both directions.
For instance, the famous deity Jagannath, worshipped at Puri (Odisha), was originally a tribal deity. This is also true for various forms of the mother-goddess worshipped across India.
MCQ on tribal deities and interaction.
According to sociologist André Béteille, which statement best describes the historical relationship between Hinduism and tribal religions?