An Inverted Pyramid

This book presents an innovative methodological approach to understanding Adivasi history and contemporary life in Middle India. Drawing on fieldwork and local resources that highlight indigenous voices, the authors challenge the persistent scholarly notion inherited from colonial ethnography that Adivasis are peoples without history or perpetual subalterns. By confining Adivasi narratives within pan-Indian, colonial, and missionary frameworks, much existing scholarship has inadvertently overlooked the autonomy and historical agency of Adivasi communities. Drawing on diverse and locally grounded sources including colonial-era Ho vocabulary, district archives, chapbooks, local journals, NGO reports, folk songs, religio-cultural organizations, and social media, this volume retrieves previously unexplored data. Crucially, the work is informed by decades of sustained engagement with knowledgeable Adivasi community members. This volume uncovers little-known details about Adivasis during the pre-colonial period and their dynamic engagement with colonial and post-colonial historical forces, substantiating their claim as historical agents who have maintained autonomy of thought and action over centuries. This nuanced study will be of great interest to scholars and researchers in modern Indian history, sociology, social anthropology, Adivasi and Indigenous studies, politics, and South Asian studies.