The Union government’s recent initiative to bring out a translation tool for tribal languages also offers a translated collection of folk tales of the Bhil tribe in Madhya Pradesh. The collection, in Hindi, features stories of inter-caste love, caste discrimination, guru pujan and the celebration of theatre.
In the compilation, titled Anuvad, a recurring theme in several stories appears to be a narrative where casteism is defeated through arguments such as “caste was never a part of Sanatan Dharma”, or “there is no caste in Manusmriti, it was introduced”, and that caste differences should be set aside because “all Hindus are the same”.
