Adivasis Resist Hindu Tag in Census Religion Column

Adilabad: Adivasi groups in Adilabad district have begun a campaign urging community members to identify themselves as “ST Indigenous people”, Tribal or Gond in the religion column during the ongoing Census process, citing concerns over preservation of cultural identity and reservation benefits.

The campaign coincides with the start of house listing and housing Census for the National Census 2027. Officials said around 12,000 families in the district have completed self-enumeration so far.

Adivasi organisations have also been demanding that the Centre provide a separate religion column for tribal communities instead of grouping them under Hindu in Census records.

Mangam Visham Rao, state general secretary of Raj Gond Seva Samiti, said they were asking Adivasis to state their identity as Tribal or Indigenous in the religion column when approached by enumerators. He said, “The Supreme Court ruled in 1971 that Adivasis should not be treated as Hindus,” and added that earlier Census exercises had a separate option for Tribal or Indigenous religion.

He said the campaign was also being carried out on social media, urging Adivasis to identify their religion as Gond and language as Gondi. He added that the religion column was not included in the first phase of the Census and may be part of the second phase.

Dr Sagaboina Papa Rao of Adivasis Vidyarthi Sangam and Osmania University JAC said they were appealing to the community to state their identity as “ST indigenous people” and not “ST Hindu”. He said it was necessary to protect identity, culture and reservation benefits.

However, there is no consensus among Adivasi leaders on the terminology to be used in the religion column.

Adilabad collector Rajashi Shah flagged off a ‘Census Walk’ to create awareness about the enumeration process. He said enumerators would cover 1,293 blocks in the district and asked residents who had completed self-enumeration to keep their SE-ID ready to facilitate data collection.