Bhil or Bheel is an ethnic group in western India. They speak the Bhil languages, a subgroup of the Western Zone of the Indo-Aryan languages. As of 2013, Bhils were the largest tribal group also known as Adivasi in India.
Bansi Kaul was an Indian theatre director and the founder of Rang Vidushak, a theatre group in Bhopal. He was a recipient of the Padma Shri, India's fourth highest civilian honor, in 2014, and the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 1995. Some of his notable plays included Aala Afsar, Kahan Kabir, and Sidhi Dar Sidhi urf Tukke pe Tukka. He was a designer and associate show director for the 2010 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony and also the art director for the 1986 and 1987 Khajuraho Festival.
Narayan Shridhar Bendre, was a 20th-century Indian artist and one of the founder members of Baroda Group Narayan Shridhar Bendre was born in Indore. He made a name for himself as a landscape artist. In 1992 he was awarded the Padma Bhushan.
Jagdish Swaminathan popularly known as J. Swaminathan was an Indian artist, painter, poet and writer. He played a role in the establishment of the Bharat Bhawan, a multi-art complex in Bhopal, in 1982, and served as the director of its Roopankar Art Museum till 1990. He discovered Jangarh Singh Shyam, a Gond tribal artist of Madhya Pradesh. He was a member of the Communist Party of India.
Sachida Nagdev was an Indian painter based in central Indian town of Bhopal.
There are 46 recognized Scheduled Tribes in Madhya Pradesh, India, three of which have been identified as 'Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PTGs)(formerly known as 'Special Primitive Tribal Groups'). The population of Scheduled Tribals (ST) is 21.1% of the state population, according to the 2011 census. Bounded by the Narmada River to the north and the Godavari River to the southeast, tribal peoples occupy the slopes of the region's mountains.
Prahlad Singh Tipaniya is an Indian folk singer who performs Kabir bhajans in the Malwi folk style from Madhya Pradesh.
Mahasundari Devi was an Indian artist and Madhubani painter. She was awarded the Tulsi Samman by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 1995, and in 2011 she received the Padma Shri award from the Government of India.
Laxminarayan Payodhi is an Indian poet, storywriter, novelist, playwright, critic, editor, and researcher.
Jangarh Singh Shyam (1962–2001) was a pioneering contemporary Indian artist credited with being the creator of a new school of Indian art called Jangarh Kalam. His work has been exhibited widely the world over including Bhopal, Delhi, Tokyo and New York. His most notable exhibitions include the Magiciens de la terre in Paris (1989) and Other Masters curated by Jyotindra Jain at the Crafts Museum, New Delhi (1998). His 1988 piece Landscape with Spider sold for $31,250 at Sotheby's, New York, in 2010—a first for an adivasi artist. Jangarh had also painted the interiors of the Legislative Assembly of Madhya Pradesh, the Vidhan Bhavan, and the dome of Bhopal's Bharat Bhavan—one of the most prestigious museums of tribal and contemporary Indian art. He was among the first Gond artists to use paper and canvas for his paintings, thereby inaugurating what is now known as Jangarh Kalam.
Venkat Raman Singh Shyam is a contemporary Indian artist who works with murals, etchings, mixed media and animation. Venkat has travelled extensively and exhibited his work in India and the world over. He was awarded the Rajya Hasta Shilpa Puraskar by the Government of Madhya Pradesh in 2002. He was also the coordinator for an animated film on a Gond folktale made by Tara Douglas which won the Tallest Story Competition Trophy at the Inverness Film Festival, Scotland, in 2007.
Bhajju Shyam is an Indian artist, belonging to the Gond-Pardhaan community of Madhya Pradesh. He was awarded India's fourth highest civilian award the Padma Shri in 2018.
Waman Thakre is an Indian photographer and a former deputy director at the Directorate of Panchayat and Social Service of the Government of Madhya Pradesh. He is a Fellow of the Royal Photographic Society and the Photographic Society of America and is a recipient of the Shikhar Award of the MP State government. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian honour of the Padma Shri, in 2007, for his contributions to Arts.
Durga Bai Vyam is an Indian artist. She is one of the foremost female artists based in Bhopal working in the Gond tradition of Tribal Art. Most of Durga's work is rooted in her birthplace, Barbaspur, a village in the Mandla district of Madhya Pradesh.
Lado Bai is a tribal artist from the Bhil tribe of Madhya Pradesh. Her work has been showcased in various exhibitions in India, France and the UK.
Vibha Dadheech is a noted Indian classical dancer in the Kathak dance form. She began learning Kathak from Raigarh Court dancer Pt. Firtu Maharaj, and later in Guru Shishya Parampara from Padma Shri Pt. Shambhu Maharaj as a ganda bandh shagird, living and learning at her guru’s home. She is also the senior-most disciple and wife of Padma Shri Dr. Pt. Puru Dadheech. Together they founded the prestigious Natavari Kathak Nritya Academy, Indore. Currently, Dr Vibha Dadheech is serving as Professor Emeritus at world’s first dedicated Kathak Research centre at the Sri Sri University, The Sri Sri Centre for Advanced Research in Kathak. Dr Vibha Dadheech have contributed significantly in reviving the ancient Bhakti Nartan of the Temple era of Kathak. Her highly acclaimed researches are considered pioneers in connecting ancient treatises and their knowledge to traditional gharanedari styles.
Japani Shyam is one of 14 Indian Gond artist who took forward the Gond tribal art form.
Nankusia Shyam is a Gond artists who carry forward Janagarh Kalam — the new school of Gond art created by her husband Jangarh Singh Shyam (1962–2001).
Ram Sahay Panday is a Rai dancer from Sagar in the Indian State of Madhya Pradesh. The Rai dance was traditionally associated with the Bedia community which itself was associated with flesh trade. In spite of the fact that he was not a member of the community, he devoted his whole life to the practice and performance of the Rai dance and to secure acceptance and respectability to the dance form. His untiring efforts helped obtain national and international recognition to this dance form.
Jodhaiya Bai Baiga is an Indian fine artist. She is Baiga and lives in Lorha village, in Umaria district, Madhya Pradesh. She has two sons and a daughter. She used to earn money by selling cowdung, firewood and nuts from the forest.
