In news– Odisha has come up with an encyclopedia on tribes documenting their age-old and unique traditions before they get entirely vanished from the circulation.
The encyclopedia on tribes-
- It is an exhaustive work on the various aspects of life, culture and development of 62 Scheduled Tribes and 13 Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) of Odisha.
- Comprising five edited volumes with 3,800 pages, the encyclopedia has 418 research articles covering all ST communities and PVTGs which had been published in the ‘Adivasi’ journal and other publications over the last six decades.
- Five edited volumes of ‘Encyclopedia of Tribes in Odisha’ published by Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Research and Training Institute(SCSTRTI) and Odisha State Tribal Museum.
- Besides the papers contributed by SCSTRTI’s own research personnel, the articles of other research scholars and eminent anthropologists on different aspects of the tribes in Odisha and other states had also found place in this journal.
- The articles have been edited, compiled and republished over a period of last four years by Director of SCSTRTI Prof Akhila Bihari Ota and SC Mohanty, consultant of SCSTRTI.
- Each of the volumes is a fine repository of ethnographic knowledge as well as excellent exposition of pristine tribal culture with its specificity and variety.
- It will be used as a repository for reference by a wide range of readers.
- Odisha happens to be the only State to publish such an encyclopedia.
- As per 2011 census, tribals account for 22.85 percent of the State’s total population.
- Though their numbers as percentage of the total population is higher in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh, Odisha has the most diverse tribal communities found in the country. The state has 62 tribes.
- The Kondha or Kandha is the largest tribe of the state in terms of population. Other tribes of the state are Santhals,Ho People, Saura, and Bonda.
Note:
Established in 1955, the SCSTRTI, the premier and oldest Tribal Research Institute of the country, has studied various aspects of tribes and published informative research articles uninterruptedly in its 61-year-old research journal ‘ADIVASI’.
Source: The Hindu
