Beyond Cultural Aphasia

A Conversation with Ganesh Devy on Indian Adivasis

Abstract

Ganesh N. Devy is a renowned literary critic and activist for the human and cultural rights of Adivasis in India. He is the founder director of the Bhasha Research and Publication Center and Adivasi Academy at Tejgadh (Gujarat) established to create a unique educational environment for tribal communities. He led the People’s Linguistic Survey of India in 2010, which has researched and documented 780 living Indian languages. Formerly professor of English at the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, among his many academic assignments, he has held fellowships at Leeds, Yale and Jawaharlal Nerhu Universities. He has been awarded several Prizes and Awards for his works and researches and in recognition of his work for the conservation of the history, languages and cultures of denotified and nomadic tribes (DNTs). Along with Laxman Gaikwad and Mahasweta Devi, he is one of the founders of ‘The Denotified and Nomadic Tribes Rights Action Group’. He returned his Sahitya Akademi Award in October 2015 as a mark of protest against intolerance towards differences of opinion and in solidarity with other writers who see a threat to Indian democracy and secularism. He is taking part in the Dakshinayan movement that has sprung up through a collective desire to forge a new solidarity between cinema, theatre, literature and the arts in defense of freedom of expression and the dignity and spirituality of the human. What follows is a conversation on the main issues concerning the condition of Adivasis in India today.