Adivaani

Last updated
Adivaani
Founded2012
Headquarters
Kolkata
,
India
Founder Ruby Hembrom
Products Books
URL adivaani.org

Adivaani (stylised as adivaani, in lower case) is a media platform that aims to support indigenous expression and assertion, based in Kolkata, India. It is a publishing, archiving and chronicling outfit of and by India's Adivasi tribes.

Contents

History

After attending a four-month publishing course in 2012, [1] Ruby Hembrom started Adivaani on realising the absence, invisibility, and erasure of tribal representation in media, curriculum, and societal discourse. [2] [3] [4] It was registered as a non-governmental organization on 19 July 2012. [5]

Adivaani is a combination of Sanskrit word 'adi' meaning 'first', 'original', 'ancient' or 'earliest', and 'vaani' meaning 'voice'. Adivaani translates to the 'first voices'. [6] Adivaani is the first publishing outfit of and by indigenous people of India to publish in the English language, [7] Hembrom co-opted two others to collaborate with, [8] [7] one of whom still remains with Adivaani as a volunteer.

Work

Adivaani aims to document and disseminate knowledge systems (tangible and intangible cultural facets) of the Adivasis in multiple languages, including English. Thereby, making indigenous knowledge and history accessible to indigenous communities.

Books

Adivaani's first two books were released at the New Delhi World Book Fair 2013: Gladson Dungdung's Whose Country is it anyway? and, Ruby Hembrom and Boski Jain's We Come from the Geese. Within a year, it had published 19 books, including to anthologies. [9]

Movies

Adivaani made a documentary film on the making and playing of the Santhal lute and fiddle, the banam.

References

  1. ↑ "About the Nominee: Ruby Hembrom". NDTV. 12 February 2016. Retrieved 23 November 2025.
  2. ↑ Chakrabarti, Ajachi (March 21, 2013). "In their own words". Tehelka. Archived from the original on September 23, 2020. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  3. ↑ "adivaani: Documenting The Spirit Of The Adivasis". The Curious Reader. July 24, 2019. Archived from the original on February 26, 2022. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  4. ↑ Mishra, Garima (April 27, 2013). "Lending a Voice". The Indian Express. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  5. ↑ Bhattacharya, Budhaditya (August 30, 2013). "A new voice". The Hindu. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  6. ↑ Mitra, Ipshita (September 6, 2019). "Ruby Hembrom: 'We never needed to write because we were living documents'". The Hindu BusinessLine. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  7. 1 2 Yengkhom, Sumati (December 31, 2013). "Voice of the Santhals". The Times of India. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  8. ↑ Sircar, Sushovan (May 18, 2013). "Adivasi imprints get into print". The Telegraph. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
  9. ↑ Shah, Manasi (June 15, 2013). "Stories of the Santhals, by the Santhals". The Telegraph. Retrieved October 16, 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.