The Coming of the Devi: Adivasi Assertion in Western India - Tapa dura

In 1922 the Adivasis of Western India were commanded by a goddess - or Devi - to change their established way of life. Their collective efforts to obey this goddess quickly brought them into conflict with the locally dominant class of landlords and liquor dealers. What began as a religious movement was thus transformed into a struggle for Adivasi assertion. In this book, David Hardiman argues that the study of such struggles can throw much light on the important themes of the religiosity of peasant consciousness, the transmission of political messages amongst the peasantry, the transition to capitalism in rural India, the continuing struggle by the peasantry against both feudal and bourgeois hegemony, and the nature of the Indian nationalist movement at village level.