Contemporary Indigeneity and Religion in India - Editorial

Abstract

When we talk about contemporary indigeneity and religion in India, we are talking of around 100,000,000 people. This number is still a modest estimate for the more than 600 distinct groups in India, each with its own traditions, history, circumstances, and in some cases languages, that are encompassed by the word “indigenous”. As a small sample, we present local studies of groups of people stretching from Gujarat in the west (see Alles in this volume) through Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha in central-eastern India (see the contributions of Beggiora, Guzy, Nadal and Skoda) to Arunachal Pradesh (see Scheid and Barkataki-Ruscheweyh) and Meghalaya (see Lyngdoh) in the northeast. They are the result of a collaboration between the editors that began in 2011 at the conference of the South and Southeast Asian Association for the Study of Religion and Culture in Thimphu, Bhutan and continues through the Adivasi Religion and Society Network (www.arsnetwork.org).