Adivasi writing is something of a contradiction in terms: the literary traditions of adivasis (an umbrella term that designates original inhabitants, indigenous peoples, and tribal communities in the Indian subcontinent) have largely been oral. Furthermore, the displacement and destitution-driven disappearance of adivasi communities whose lifestyle and survival were contingent upon their environment, and their increasing assimilation into mainstream agrarian or urban communities, have meant that these oral traditions have often fallen into disuse.