Globalizing the Tribal Culture, Landscapes and Customary Practices Through Indigenous Tourism

The world today is focusing on the concept of inclusivity and holistic development. The indigenous communities are at the edge of it to ensure the integrated growth of man and nature. They are critical for fostering well-being of humankind through sustainable practices. India is home to 104.2 million indigenous people of the world and the second largest indigenous territory after China. These indigenous people are rich in their rituals, customary practices and their age-old knowledge systems. They have passed on their knowledge from one generation to another for ages orally; however, lack of documentation has resulted in their cultural loss. It includes various cultural elements such as dance, music, painting, fairs, festivals, storytelling, puppetry and so on. Especially, in the era of globalization, when the cultural homogenization is taking place at a faster pace due to the effect of digitalization and modernization, the traditional artefacts of tribes are vanishing quickly. This research article thus tries to document various unique cultural footprints of tribes from different parts of the country. The article particularly focuses on the scope and role of indigenous tourism, which plays an important role in familiarizing various cultural regimes to tribal landscapes and enhances the process of glocalization, that is, global to local. This can further boost the tribal economy as well as acquaint tribal material culture to the world.