Adivasi

The Adivasi (also spelled Adibasi) are the heterogeneous tribal groups across the Indian subcontinent. The term Adivasi, a 20th-century construct meaning "ancient inhabitants", is now widely used as a self-designation by many of the communities who are officially recognised as "Scheduled Tribes" in India and as "Ethnic minorities" in Bangladesh. They constitute approximately 8.6% of India's population (around 104.2 million, according to the 2011 Census) and about 1.1% of Bangladesh's population (roughly 2 million, 2010 estimate). Claiming to be among the original inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent, many present-day Adivasi communities formed during the flourishing period of the Indus Valley Civilisation or after its decline, harbouring various degrees of ancestry from Dravidians, Indo-Aryan, Austroasiatic, and Tibeto-Burman peoples. Adivasi studies is a new scholarly field, drawing upon archaeology, anthropology, agrarian history, environmental history, subaltern studies, indigenous studies, aboriginal studies, and developmental economics. It adds debates that are specific to the Indian context.