kagadpatra | documents_ 🌱

we returned to pen city by the afternoon itself because we had to get the train for mumbai. we met ms vaishali in the office, the general secretary of the ankur trust. she briefed us about the work of their organization. meanwhile, she said that the katkari adivasi community is still not sufficiently literate. they are unaware of their rights and powers as the 'indian citizens.' the katkari have been staying and working on this land for centuries. still, they do not have recognition and ownership of land. so the organization is working on getting ownership of their tenancy land. most families don't have essential documents like electoral cards and ration card. according to her, there is a need to build a movement of katkari adivasi so that they could claim their rights more assertively and 'rightfully.'

taking note of this discussion, we had a meeting with our supervisor in the institute about civil society and its approach towards adivasis. i found familiar in both discussions that there was an essentialization of civil society towards adivasi from the outsiders. it indirectly separated the Adivasi from the concept of civil society, which i found problematic being in the discussion. the second thing we discussed in class was studying tribes and their culture. we are bound to use pluralism as a method of understanding communities. if we look at social aspects, there cannot be one society, social work, or indigenous society. it needs to make all the words plural to differentiate the social issues across the concepts. so there will be societies, social works, etc. one must not essentialize an idea taken from outside, especially regarding tribe culture. otherwise, it may alter the distinctness of adivasi cultures.

📑 in the mountains of sahyadri_
🖋 @dnyanesh_____

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