We are happy to release Vol. VI No. 2 online. We received good response from contributors from many parts of the globe and after a very prolonged review process the issue is completed. We thank all the contributors for their valuable contribution.
Indigenous literature was selected as the focus area for inviting critical works that would attend to the major issues stemming up from the condition of indigeneity. Of course, the term evokes political nature of the condition following the collective imperial invasion of the modern times. But we wanted to use it as an umbrella term too for allowing broader areas and simultaneously for reducing its political implications. So certain indigenous art forms celebrating basic human emotions and aesthetics principles of life—the properties which defy western theoretical normalization, have been included in the issue.
Documentation of the indigenous life and culture had been started by the colonialist administrators long ago for their special purpose of ‘administration’ and soon it took theoretical turn resulting in certain bipolar theorization and arbitrary policy formation. In the case of India, however, such theoretical turns had occurred long ago with imposition of various cultures on the preceding ones. Much has been said and written on tribal/indigenous culture in India, but unfortunately the bulk of literature follows western critical norms conforming to the principles of the Enlightenment, and little serious effort has been made to look upon the indigenous ways of life in its own right.
One very encouraging trend towards this is to be found with the emerging social media interactions: as the media control is lifted up in the social media platforms, individuals can share documents, ideas, pictures etc which can instantly challenge an established notion quite unexpectedly. Again, as documentation in multimedia form with all its colours and sounds is possible now, it can challenge verbal documentation produced in monologic form and monochromatic reflection. Institutional support too is coming up now in the form of grants, scholarship etc. True interdisciplinary research can start from this polyphonic expression of life in its true colours.