The Santal are an Austroasiatic-speaking Munda ethnic group of the Indian subcontinent. Santals are the largest tribe in the Jharkhand and West Bengal in terms of population and are also found in the states of Odisha, Bihar, Assam and Tripura. They are the largest ethnic minority in northern Bangladesh's Rajshahi Division and Rangpur Division. They have a sizeable population in Nepal. The Santals speak Santali, the most widely spoken Munda languages of Austroasiatic language family.
The Adivasi are heterogeneous tribal groups across the Indian subcontinent. The term is a Sanskrit word coined in the 1930s by political activists to give the tribal people an indigenous identity by claiming an indigenous origin. The Constitution of India does not use the word Adivasi, instead referring to Scheduled Tribes and Janjati. The government of India does not officially recognise tribes as indigenous people. The country ratified the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 107 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the United Nations (1957) and refused to sign the ILO Convention 169. Most of these groups are included in the Scheduled Tribe category under constitutional provisions in India.
The Munda people are an Austroasiatic-speaking ethnic group of the Indian subcontinent. They speak Mundari as their native language, which belongs to the Munda subgroup of Austroasiatic languages. The Munda are found mainly concentrated in the south and East Chhotanagpur Plateau region of Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal. The Munda also reside in adjacent areas of Madhya Pradesh as well as in portions of Bangladesh, Nepal, and the state of Tripura. They are one of India's largest scheduled tribes. Munda people in Tripura are also known as Mura. In the Kolhan region of Jharkhand the Munda people are often called Tamadia by other communities.
The Kharia are an Austroasiatic tribal ethnic group from east-central India. They originally speak the Kharia language, which belong to Austroasiatic languages. They are sub-divided into three groups known as the Hill Kharia, Delki Kharia and the Dudh Kharia. Amongst them, the Dudh Kharia is the most educated community.
Baba Kartik Oraon was an Indian politician and an Adivasi leader from the Indian National Congress. He also participated in the Indian freedom movement of 1947. Oraon founded the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad organisation.
Swami Agnivesh, was an Indian social activist and the founder of Arya Sabha, a political party based on the principles of Arya Samaj. He also served as a cabinet minister in the state of Haryana. He is best known for his work against bonded labour through the Bonded Labour Liberation Front, which he founded in 1981.
Dayamani Barla is an Indian tribal journalist and activist from the Indian state of Jharkhand. She became notable for her activism in opposing Arcelor Mittal's steel plant in Eastern Jharkhand that tribal activists say would displace forty villages.
Tilka Majhi alias Tilka Murmu Majhi was the first adivasi leader from Santal community, he fought against the destruction of forests and the acquisition of tribal lands which they held as sacred commons. His father's name was Sundara Murmu. Majhi or Manjhi title is the honored title of the village headman or village leading person among Santal tribes since immemorable time. Since, Manjhi plays a crucial role for worship and leading the Santal community and revered as Majhi Baba. He took up arms against the British in the 1784, around 70 years before Mangal Pandey. He organized the adivasis predominantly Santal to form an armed group to fight against the resource grabbing and exploitation of British.
Christians are a religious community residing in the Indian state of Jharkhand. As per 2011 Census of India, 4.3% of people in Jharkhand are Christians. Christians are majority in Simdega district of Jharkhand.
Ram Dayal Munda, known as R. D. Munda, was an Indian scholar and regional music exponent. He was awarded the Padma Shri of the year 2010 for his contribution to the field of art.
Hemant Soren is an Indian politician from Jharkhand, who is currently serving as Chief Minister of Jharkhand since 4 July 2024. He also served as the 5th Chief Minister of Jharkhand from 2019 to 2024 and from 2013 to 2014. He is also the working president of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, a political party in Jharkhand. He represents Barhait constituency in the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly since 2014 and has represented Dumka twice — from 2019 to 2020, and from 2009 to 2014. He was also the Deputy Chief Minister of Jharkhand from 2010 to 2013, Leader of the Opposition, Jharkhand Legislative Assembly from 2014 to 2019 and member of Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand, from 2009 to 2010.
Most of the languages of Bihar, the third most populous state of India, belong to the Bihari subgroup of the Indo-Aryan family. Chief among them are Bhojpuri, spoken in the west of the state, Maithili in the north, Magahi in center around capital Patna and in the south of the state. Maithili has official recognition under the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India. The official language of Bihar is Modern Standard Hindi, with Standard Urdu serving as a second official language in 15 districts.
Kartam Joga, an adivasi leader, serves as a state committee member, technical department and military wing in-charge for the South Bastar division of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist), CPI (Maoist). He was imprisoned in Chhattisgarh on suspicion of participating in the Tarmetla ambush in which 75 members of the Central Reserve Police Force were killed by CPI (Maoist) forces. Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience and described the charges against him as "fabricated". He was acquitted at his trial for lack of evidence.
Gopi Shankar Madurai is an Indian equal rights and Indigenous rights activist. Shankar was one of the youngest, and the first openly intersex and genderqueer statutory authority and one of the candidates to contest in 2016 Tamil Nadu Legislative Assembly election. Shankar is also the founder of Srishti Madurai Student Volunteer Collective. Shankar's work inspired the Madras High Court to direct the Government of Tamil Nadu to order a ban on forced sex-selective surgeries on intersex infants. In December 2017, Shankar was elected to the executive board of ILGA Asia. In August 2020, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment appointed Shankar as the South Regional representative in the National Council for Transgender Persons.Shankar introduced the "others" option in the sex column of application forms for political parties and central universities, including Jawaharlal Nehru University. Shankar was also instrumental in granting civil rights for transgender persons, including pilot licenses for transmen and property inheritance rights for transwomen. Additionally, the Juvenile Justice Committee and POCSO Committee seek Shankar’s advice on issues related to the infancy and childhood of infants and children born with diverse sex characteristics.
Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar is an Indian writer.
The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories is a collection of short stories. The second book by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, it was nominated for The Hindu Literary Prize in 2016 and included by Frontline (magazine) in August 2022 in a list of 25 books “that light up the path to understanding post-Independence Indian literature.” As of April 2021, this book has been translated into Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, and Bengali, while the Malayalam and Austrian German translations are forthcoming.
The Pathalgadi movement was started by tribals in Khunti district of Jharkhand as a resistance movement to assert their rights, including the right to sovereign territory. Pathalgadi literally translates to 'carving a stone'. On these stones orders would be carved by the tribals, orders such as restricting the entry of outsiders.
Stanislaus Lourduswamy, SJ, popularly known as Stan Swamy, was an Indian Catholic priest, a member of the Jesuit order, and a tribal rights activist for several decades. Swamy was the oldest person to be accused of terrorism in India.
Adivaani is a platform that aims to support indigenous expression and assertion, based in Kolkata, India. It is a publishing, archiving and chronicling outfit of and by indigenous people of India's Adivasi Tribes.
Jacinta Kerketta is an Indian Hindi-language journalist, poet and activist. Her poetry and journalism discusses the Adivasi identity of youth, protests against the systemic oppression of Adivasis in India, gender-based violence, especially against women, displacement and questions the state apathy of governance. Forbes India named her one of India's top 20 Self-Made Women list.
