Narmada, Gujarat •
Sep 15, 2022
Of trees, people and civilisations
In his fifth and final poem in a cluster of five written in Dehwali Bhili, an Adivasi poet takes a hard look at the growing conflicts within an Adivasi identity in a society governed by fancy ideas of development
Poem and Text
Jitendra Vasava
Jitendra Vasava is a poet from Mahupada village in Narmada district of Gujarat, who writes in Dehwali Bhili language. He is the founder president of Adivasi Sahitya Academy (2014), and an editor of Lakhara, a poetry magazine dedicated to tribal voices. He has also published four books on Adivasi oral literature. His doctoral research focused on the cultural and mythological aspects of oral folk tales of the Bhils of Narmada district. The poems by him published on PARI are from his upcoming and first collection of poetry.
Painting
Labani Jangi
Labani Jangi is a 2020 PARI Fellow, and a self-taught painter based in West Bengal's Nadia district. She is working towards a PhD on labour migrations at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata.
Editor
Pratishtha Pandya
Pratishtha Pandya is a Senior Editor at PARI where she leads PARI's creative writing section. She is also a member of the PARIBhasha team and translates and edits stories in Gujarati. Pratishtha is a published poet working in Gujarati and English.
