Page 2 - LN- Std 8 - civics - Chap 6 - Subtopic - 1

 Around 8% of India’s population is Adivasi.

 Many of India’s mining and industrial centres are located in Adivasi
areas – Jamshedpur, Rourkela, Bokaro, Bhilai.

 There are 500 different Adivasi groups in India.

 They are particularly numerous in states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand,
Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh,

West Bengal, and in the North East – Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur,

Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.
 Orissa had 60 different tribal groups.

 There is very little hierarchy among them.

 Adivasis practice a range of tribal religions.
 They worships ancestors, village and nature spirits – mountain spirits, river

spirits are worshipped in specific sacred groves within the village boundary.

 Ancestral spirits are worshipped at home.
 They have been influenced by different surrounding religious line Shaka,

Buddhist, Vaishnav, Bhakti and Christianity.

 Adivasi religion has also influenced dominant religions of empires around
them.

Example – The Jagannath Cult of Odisha
The Shakti and Tantric traditions of Bengal and Assam

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 During the 19 century many Adivasis converted to Christianity.
 Adivasi language is possibly as old as Sanskrit.
 Adivasi language has influenced mainstream Indian languages like Bengali,

Santhali etc.