A three day National Seminar on Tribes of India with Special Focus on Karbis of Assam (September 5 to September 7, 2007) was held at University of Delhi, jointly organized by the Department of Modern Indian Languages and Literary Studies, University of Delhi and Karbi Anglong Zila Sakharata Abhijan Samiti. The seminar was inaugurated by Prof Indira Goswami (Mamoni Raisom Goswami) who was also the Chief Guest on the occasion. The seminar was the first that had brought the Karbi people to the centre stage of discussion at the national level. The organizers emphasized that the seminar was a success in another way as well. It was collaboration between two institutions, one operating at the level of higher education in the national capital of Delhi and the other that has been successfully engaged in adult literacy in Karbi Anglong, Assam. Today, Karbi Anglong is among two of the most successful districts in India in the field of adult literacy. It is collaboration of this nature that makes education more meaningful in a country where there is a constant gap between higher education and primary literacy and a gap between the centre and the distant regions of the country. The scholars who participated in the seminar came from various disciplines such as Sociology, History, Anthropology, Social Work, Folklore, Culture Studies, Music and Performing Art and Literature. They came from Universities and research organizations spread all over the country. Another high point of the seminar was the published volume Tribes of India: Culture, Identity and Lore, edited by Dr. P. Pattanaik and Shri Debojit Bora. The volume contained all the papers that were presented during the seminar. The participants were given a copy of the volume during the seminar. The seminar concluded on a positive note, with the participants and guests congratulating the organizing team and on the note that more such collaborative ventures should be initiated to bring into focus areas, people and issues that have been under-studied in academic discourses.
Review of Book: Pattanaik, P. and Bora D. (ed.), 2007. Tribes of India: Culture, Identity and Lore, Guwahati: Angik Publication.
The beautiful cover of the book is matched by its authoritative survey of tribal society in India with a special focus on the Karbi people of Assam. The essays include theoretical expositions on the issue of ‘tribal’ culture and identity as well as on how these categories operate at the functional level. Any concept operates at both ideological and functional level. The essays in the book insightfully bring into focus the dialectics of the twin operations. Some of significant questions that the volume raises are (a) rethinking ‘tribal’ epistemology in India with emphasis on North East India, (b) the concept and politics of ‘tribe’ in India with emphasis on North East India, (c) problems in documenting and preserving ‘tribal’ culture, (d) tradition and social change among tribal women, (e) Social Science disciplines and the problematic of ‘tribal’ study and (f) Tribal people and Art. One noteworthy point in the volume is that it includes several essays on the Karbi people and these essays can be read in the light of the other essays for a better understanding of the Karbi people of Assam. It is to the success of the book that it enables not only an understanding of a people or a region and of the ways to conceptualize them through the existing knowledge paradigms but also the limitations of these knowledge paradigms and possible methods to overcome them. A recommended volume for research scholars.
By Manjeet Baruah, University of Delhi
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