Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Civil Society Action against Language Death and Cultural Oppression: Evidence and Lessons from India – Bhil Language and Culture

Mae'r cynnwys hwn ar gael yn Saesneg yn unig.

This briefing is from the project ‘Indigenous Peoples’ Rights and Civil Society Action against Language Death and Cultural Oppression: Evidence and Lessons from India’ funded by the Academy of Medical Sciences. The research explores the issues, challenges and lessons that emerge from civil society action to support indigenous languages and cultures. Specifically, we focus on two Indigenous Peoples, the Bhil in Rajasthan and the Irula tribes of Kerala. The Bhils are one of the oldest tribes in India and speak a language of Indo-Aryan origin. Irula are the second largest tribe in Kerala. They live in the Attappady region of Palakkad District. The Irula language is an independent Southern Dravidian language that is akin to Tamil. In this non-technical briefing, we focus on the Bhil and draw on the findings of fieldwork, including workshops held in 2024-25 with indigenous peoples, civil society organizations (CSOs) and academics in India and set out some of the emerging findings from the research. Our second publication (Non-Technical Briefing Paper No.2) discusses the contemporary situation of the Irula Peoples.