The Adis of the Times in a Constant Struggle for Survival: A Study of Adi Life and Worldview through Changing Select Novels of Mamang Dai

Abstract

World-view of a particular community depends on their beliefs and knowledge. Indigenous people across the globe consider nature as their nurturer and themselves to be part of Mother Nature. For them, in nature lies their existence and their faith. The Adis of the rugged terrain of Arunachal Pradesh are no exception to it.  The Adi lands were not visited by foreigners until the early 19^th century and hence, the Adis lived a secluded life for long with their age-old traditions, practices and stories unhindered by any external influence. Upon the advent of the British imperialists and Christian missionaries in the hills, the Adis were gradually exposed to the outside world. With the arrival of an external influence situations began to change. Ancient stories (oral narratives) and story-tellers perished. The indigenous faiths, belief systems, customs and even language faced challenges as the natives of the land began abandoning their ancestral wisdoms for various reasons. The new institutionalised religion had brought in institutionalised education along with it in the Adi lands. These new entrants had promised the ‘progress’ of the inhabitants from their so-called ‘primitivism’ and ‘backwardness’. With time, the followers of native Adi worldview comprehended the need of preserving their unique identity in order to keep up their survival - a phenomenon that Darwin had stated as ‘survival of the fittest’. The Adis who clung onto their nativity in the face of change still survives with a hope of bridging the differences that exist with their ‘progressed’ brethren in someday to come.