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Coding the Indigenous
While the religious code will undoubtedly create an imagined community by identifying common traits of spirituality among the Scheduled Tribes, challenges are bound to appear due to the presence of Adivasis from other religions as well as the plurality in Adivasi discourse. To overcome this challenge, community leaders will require to create a consensus based on grounded realities.
With the census due in 2021, several demands are being posed by various groups for their separate enumeration and enlisting. While the caste census demanded by backward communities has been an ongoing affair, the inclusion of a separate column on religion for the Scheduled Tribes (STs) has gained momentum in the past few years. In a way, this is nothing more than reintroducing a standard practice in the census that existed during the colonial times but has been discontinued in post-independence India.
Dilemmas of a Headcount
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