Hello everyone,

We’re happy to announce that r/Tribes_of_India is launching its own Substack.

We’re still a small community, but we want to start building a space where we can go beyond short posts and discussions and make room for long-form writing, research, and detailed discussions on Adivasi and Indigenous communities in India. The Substack is our attempt to build that space.

From now on, articles, essays, research-based pieces, book reviews, and other long-form writing from the subreddit will be published on our Substack.

And importantly, the Substack will be completely free to access. There will be no paywall or paid subscription required to read the articles.

How will it work?

Substack → Full articles and essays

The complete article or essay will be published on the Substack, allowing us to go into greater detail, include sources and references, and properly develop an argument without being limited by the format of a Reddit post.

Reddit → Slides and carousels

Whenever we publish a major article or essay, we’ll also create a slide/carousel summarising the piece and post it here on the subreddit. The carousel will cover the main arguments, historical context, and important points, while the full article will be available on the Substack for those who want to read further.

This way, Reddit can remain a space for discussion and debate, while the Substack becomes an archive for more detailed and substantial writing.

Want to contribute?

We also want the Substack to be a space for the community itself, rather than something written only by the moderators.

If you have an article, essay, research piece, field experience, book review, interview, or other substantial writing related to Adivasi/Indigenous communities in India, you can submit it to us for consideration.

If you’d like to contribute, send the article/draft to the moderators through modmail along with a short introduction to the piece. The mod team will review submissions before publication.

We’ll make sure contributors receive proper credit for their work. When a community submission is published, the original writer will be credited as a co-publisher of the article on Substack, alongside the Tribes of India publication.

We’re especially interested in work that brings attention to histories, movements, cultures, lived experiences, land and labour struggles, politics, literature, art, religion, and contemporary issues concerning Adivasi and Indigenous communities.

We hope this can eventually become a small but useful archive of writing by and for people interested in these subjects.

Substack: https://substack.com/@tribesofindia

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to and participated in this community so far. We’re looking forward to building this next part of r/Tribes_of_India with you.

— The r/Tribes_of_India Mod Team

On 25 December 1968, 44 Dalits, including 16 women and 23 children, were burnt alive in Keezhvenmani, Tamil Nadu, after agricultural labourers organised under the red flag.

What began as a demand for an extra half measure of paddy in the oppressive conditions of the feudal agrarian order saw tenant farmers and pannaiyals organise through the Kisan Sabha.

The landlord class controlled local institutions and wielded considerable political and administrative power, while organised Dalit workers faced harassment and repression.

As the workers organised and began winning small concessions, the confrontation with the landlords intensified. On the night of 25 December, attackers surrounded a hut where women, children and elderly people had taken shelter, and burnt them alive.

Gopalakrishna Naidu, who was accused of being behind the massacre, was initially convicted along with others. The trial court sentenced those convicted to 10 years imprisonment. In 1975, however, the Madras High Court overturned the convictions and acquitted Naidu.

58 years later, the question of caste, class and justice remains painfully relevant.

Keezhvenmani was not simply a massacre of 44 people. It was an attempt to crush an organised movement of Dalit agricultural labourers who had dared to demand a greater share of the harvest their labour produced.

Remember Keezhvenmani. Remember the 44.

>AI disclaimer: Some of the text in this carousel was generated with AI and subsequently edited by me. The graphic design/artwork is my own.

Made this poster for International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples (9 August).

Designed entirely in Inkscape.

Against colonialism. Against imperialism. Against exploitation. For Indigenous sovereignty and liberation.

>AI-Generated Content: The images and artwork used in this poster are AI-generated and are intended for illustrative purposes only.

The struggle over Adivasi identity is not merely a debate about religion—it is also a struggle over land, constitutional rights, political representation, and historical memory.

This carousel summarises Brinda Karat's article "The Majoritarian Shadow Over Adivasi Identity, Faith" (The Hindu, 31 May 2026). It aims to present the article's core arguments in an accessible format while encouraging readers to engage with the complete piece.

Read here for free - https://www.pressreader.com/india/the-hindu-kochi-9ww8/20260601/281741276087728

>Disclaimer: This carousel was created with the assistance of AI to improve readability and presentation. All arguments, quotations, and factual claims are based on Brinda Karat's article "The Majoritarian Shadow Over Adivasi Identity, Faith" (The Hindu, 31 May 2026). Readers are encouraged to read the original article for full context.

Inspired by u/IcyConcern01

Following up on our previous discussion surrounding Ken Betwa river linking project and the questions of whose land and whose development, we’ll be getting into the history of violence created by these development projects in India.

We invite you to the screening of Development Flows From The Barrel of the Gun.

Using case studies of three separate development projects in late 90s and early 2000s, the film documents how state machinery has always operated on behalf of the capitalist class using the principles of violence and theft.

Join us this Friday for an online screening of 'Discussion from the Barrel of the Gun'.

🗓️ Date: 7th Aug, Friday

⏳️Time: 7-9 PM

📍Happening online on Gmeet

🔗 Register here: tinyurl.com/pcfevents

Admissions to this college were based on NEET scores, and 42 out of the total 50 seats were secured by Muslim students on merit. Only 8 were secured by Hindus.

Our so called meritdhari Hindus couldn't digest this, so they got the college shut down.