Abstract
Growing up in own social environment and keeping a distance from the mainstream society is an important feature of any tribal group, therefore the tribal societies has developed its own cultural milieu, which is completely different from the mainstream culture and society. Recently, an attempt has been made in Indian politics to project the tribals as part of the Hinduism. The Sangh Parivar believes that the tribals are not different from the Hindu society. During the British period a huge number of tribal people were converted to Christianity and other religions. After the independence the Sangh Parivar has started mission Ghar Wapsi (coming home), goal of this mission is to get back the converted tribal people again to Hinduism. The Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (ABVKA) an important member of the Sangh Parivar entrusted to make the mission Ghar Wapsi successful. Mission Ghar Wapsi raises an important question, which is, whether the tribals are part of Hinduism? Hinduism is a caste based religion; the tribals are not any part of this caste system. One the one hand, the tribals is not the part of Hindu caste system, on the other hand the ABVKA under the leadership of the Sangh Parivar projecting the tribals as Hindus, this is creating an identity crisis for the tribals as to which class they actually belong to. This paper highlights this identity problem of the tribal society in the context of West Bengal.
Presenters
Rahul KabirajAssistant Professor, Political Science, Onda Thana Mahavidyalaya, West Bengal, India
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Culture, Ghar Wapsi, Hinduism, Tribals
