Contents: An Introduction to Tribal Fairs and Festivals, Fairs and Festivals of the Kinnaras of Western Himalaya, Asur Festivals, Festivals of Sauria Paharia, Disuasendra in Santhal Society, Tribal Fairs and Festivals of Rajasthan, Celebration of Life, Fairs and Festivals of the Bhilala Tribe, Tribal Festivals in Maharashtra, Nyokum: The Festival of the Nyishis of Arunachal Pradesh, Tribal Festivals in Kalhandi, Orissa, Influence of Kali Puja Festival on Tribals of West Bengal, Festivals in India: A Theoretical Consideration, Bohada: The Mask Festival of Bharsatmet, Festivals and Fairs of the Nagas, Festivals of Selected Tribes from South India, Vaneshwar Fair, Fairs in Tribal Bihar, Folk Dance in the Season of Fairs and Festivals Amongst Juangs, Gujarat s Tribal Fairs, Toranmal Fir of the Tribals from Satpuda Mountain Ranges, Bhima Shanker Tribal Fair, The Mahalaxmi Fair of Tribals in South Gujarat and Western Maharashtra, Devmogra and Asthamba Fairs.

Presents information on India in over 270 photographs and 44 maps. This book is divided into two major sections: one is about India in general, and the other is about the states in particular. It covers a range of topics from history, political divisions, people, physical features, climate, forests and wildlife, natural resources, and more.

This handbook explores the diversity of religious practice in tribal cultures in India. It looks at the interactive spaces where the religious practices of tribes and other communities have changed and adapted through the years in contemporary India. Tribe as a social category emerged in India during the colonial period; this handbook departs from the conventional approaches to studying ‘tribal religion’ and analyses the intersections of spirituality, rituals, gender and identities within tribal religion through a crosscultural and pan-Indian perspective. Tribes in India follow various religious denominations including Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Christianity, and traditional indigenous faiths. The chapters in this volume provide insights into the cross-cultural religiosity of tribes via ethnographic accounts and the study of animism, life cycle rituals, ancestor worship, shrines and religious institutions, revivalism, religious identities, religious conversion, transcendental religious spaces and the space for gender, identity and politics within religious traditions. It also discusses conflicts, contestations, anxieties within and the politics of religious traditions and identities in India and how tribal communities and the state negotiate with these issues. This and its companion handbook, The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Readings on Tribe and Religions in India: Emerging Negotiations, provide a comprehensive look into the religious life and practices of a very diverse group of tribes in India. This book will be of interest to academics and researchers working in the fields of religion, anthropology, indigenous and tribal studies, social and cultural anthropology, sociology of culture, sociology of religion, development studies, history, political science, folkloristic, and colonialism.