Indian Religions & Cultures

Unit 2: Religious Dimensions of India

14. Indigenous Religions
29 Sep 2021
Three concepts:
§ There are three ways of categorizing religious groups: World religions, new religious movements, and
indigenous religions. This last group is rejected from the world religions category, although they
constitute the majority of the world’s religions. The reasons, according to Carole M. Cusack, are because
they "are typically this-wordly, orally transmitted, non-proselytizing, folk-oriented, expressed in myths
and traditional law, and pluralist” (Cusack, Archaeology and the World Religions Paradigm: The European Neolithic, Religion
and Cultural Imperialism". In Christopher R. Cotter; David G. Robertson (eds.). After World Religions: Reconstructing Religious Studies.
London and New York: Routledge. pp. 153–67

Indigenous people
§ Who are they? 3 aspects: a) they are original inhabitants of the land before conquest by people from
outside their geographical region, b) after conquest they have become marginalized by the conquerors,
c) these people have their own governance styles, have their own socio-cultural institutions.
§ In India, the Scheduled tribes are considered indigenous people. 8.6% of India’s population belong to the
Scheduled Tribes (about 104 million people) (2011 census). The word Adivasi is not constitutional or
official, and it uses the word Scheduled Tribes to denote the tribal communities of India. The tribals are
civilized, educated and cultured, and they have fully developed, refined and distinct languages such as
Gongi, Bhili, Santhali, Bodo, Kuduk and Mundari. They have their own traditional habitats, villages and
cities. They are politically enlightened and have well developed political consciousness, and therefore it
is definitely not right to use the term ‘adivasi’ to them. (https://www.forwardpress.in/2018/10/we-are-scheduled-tribes-
not-adivasis/#:~:text=The%20term%20Adivasi%20is%20neither,large%20section%20of%20the%20population.)

Tribal religions in India

§ ‘Religious slavery’: The tribals used to have a separate column in the census, but not anymore, and so
they are forced to name their religion on one of the seven given on the list. Obviously, the government
wants to count them as Hindus, while they do not want to consider themselves as Hindus.
§ Most of the tribals are under severe pressure of cultural assimilation (the process in which a minority
group or culture is forced or coerced to adopt and follow the values, customs, beliefs, and behaviours of
the majority group).
§ The government agencies have assumed that by default all indigenous people are Hindus. The tribals do
not belong to any formal religion and they are worshippers of their land, forest, seeds, and nature- they
worship these because they nurture human life and provide for it.
§ In the recent decades there has been too much of interference from right wing fundamentalists,
attempting to ‘coopt’ their religions within Hinduism. https://thewire.in/rights/adivasi-religion-recognition-census
Need for a paradigm shift
§ The tribal worship is wrongly termed under ‘religion.’ The term religion was somehow associated with
Christianity and it was made as the reference point. This was a dominant paradigm and other ‘religions’
were placed in comparison with Christianity. Till today, there is a debate if certain ‘world religions’ are
actually religions. This paradigm needs to questioned, especially in the context of indigenous religions.
To equate tribal religions with ‘animism’ is not right, for Tylor (the Primitive Culture (1871)) was looking
at tribal religions through the lens of Christianity and Islam.
§ More specially, there is a need to critically view the hegemonic paradigm of the Hindus. If one
understands the patterns of comparison and evaluation, then we can build a new perspective of
addressing indigenous religions.
§ Fear of not being incorporated into modernity, especially not being given privileges from the
government, etc. should not be reasons to consider one’s traditions as inferior or unworthy, and thereby
comply to the pressures from other religions, and institutions.
§ A much more careful study of our paradigms used is essential for today.