Interrogating Bhakti within the Bhil Adivasi Communities of Western India

This presentation makes an intervention in the study of *bhakti* (devotion) from the perspective of the Adivasis, the indigenous communities of India also classified as the “Scheduled Tribes.” This examination focuses on the study of the religious songs of the Bhils, i.e., the Adivasi communities of the Sabarkantha district of north Gujarat. Using archival and ethnographic data, this paper argues for the recognition of Adivasi tribal religions as a site for uncovering subaltern modes of *bhakti*. The paper includes the first-ever English translations of religious songs found in Bhili, an Adivasi language spoken in the hilly borderlands of Gujarat. The author presents a sample of four *bhajans* (devotional songs) sung by the Bhils in various ritual contexts, two of which were gathered during the author's ethnographic fieldwork spanning ten months over three visits and two others collected by Bhagwandas Patel, a scholar of Gujarati and Bhil literature at the Gujarat University in Ahmedabad.