In the tribal belt of Udaipur, Banswara, and Dungarpur in the southernmost tip of Rajasthan, small signboards dot the dusty highways which lead into settlements of the Bhil Adivasi people. The signboards, mostly painted by hand and often featuring a drawing of the 16th century tribal icon, Rana Punja Bhil, mark the people in the settlements as belonging to the “Adivasi Parivar”.
“The Adivasi Parivar is what we call the larger ideology under which we are trying to awaken the conscience of our people here,” says Amit Kharadi, 27, a worker of the Bharat Adivasi Party, which was formed by MLA Rajkumar Roat in September 2023. As he drives his white SUV across rural Udaipur, Kharadi points to home after home with the signboard. “We are not putting these up and neither do we tell them to. The people here have started doing it themselves in the last few years,” he says.
