The Adivasi People – The Original People of India

The term Adivasi derives from the Hindi word ‘adi‘ which means of earliest times or from the beginning and ‘vasi‘ meaning inhabitant or resident. The Adivasi are the original people of India – they are known to be the first people who inhabited India.

Adivasis have been living in India from as early as 2000 BCE. Researchers at the University of Huddersfield found out that Adivasis arrived in the Indian sub-continent region during the great human migration from Africa and later spreads over the Indian sub-continent: India, Nepal, Bangladesh and in the Andaman Islands. Nearly 90% of Adivasis live in rural areas.

To back up this claim, scientists used genetic evidence from people living in present day India and the India Subcontinent. The results revealed the Indian population originated from three separate waves of migration from Africa, Iran and Central Asia over a period of 50,000 years. Adivasis arrived from Africa, most especially Nigeria, Chad, Kenya and Egypt, more than 50,000 years ago – these ancient signatures are most clearly seen in the mitochondrial DNA, which tracks the female line of descent to the continent of Africa.