On the Future of Indigenous Traditions - Munin

systems of the Adivasis used for their social administration and management of their
resources. These traditional customary practices or laws of the Adivasi peoples exist
and it is functional and relevant in today’s context which we will be exploring in the
following chapters.
In this context, however, the first question that comes to mind is; when there is a
modern parliamentary democratic institution, why and how should a traditional
customary institution be brought into the discussion or even thought of it to be as its
substitute (at least for their own governance)? While discussing with many of my
associates within the university and also in my field work, people commented that by
choosing this topic, I am turning backwards by going into the traditional customary
practice of governance. My emphasis in this thesis is not to look at the customary
system or customary laws from an essentialist point of view, but to search in it for
those feature that has given it the polities of democratic functioning, an egalitarian
approach in their communitarian way of life including the inclusiveness of other
communities with them as its main components, and merits and usages today. The
general impression however, on the contrary about those factors which have
contributed to it’s negative viewing of this system (discussed in the later part) in
which it is considered to being primitive in the face of modern state, therefore, many
Adivasis have refrained to identify themselves with it.
1.1.3. Adivasi and non-Adivasi orientations: different rules
The customary laws of the Adivasi communities are different from those of the non-
Adivasi societies. Adivasis may be seen more as a community with a collective
approach, both in relation to themselves and their livelihood resources. For the non-
Adivasis, individual specialisation or as individuals being a part of specialised
occupational groups forms the basis of their society. Thus, the individual interrelation
among the non-Adivasi society could rather be seen in connection to the
larger society to whom their services or occupations are aimed.
The common forests and the lands which Adivasis have collectively use form the
basis of their customary system. The customary system/ laws are thus those accepted
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