Abstract
Given the region’s long history of civilization, a claim that India is home to 25% of the world’s present-day and recent hunter-gatherers seems both unlikely and counterintuitive. Research on seven South Indian foraging cultures reveals, however, that three accommodating aspects of Hindu culture may have served to protect them from assimilation pressure until the twentieth century. First, because they are a source of valued forest trade goods, they can be viewed as yet another occupational specialist group within the larger system. Second, unlike true aliens, they are considered to be kindred peoples who need merely to give lip service to Hindu notions of propriety. Third, due to several of their practices, they are seen as being pure by analogy with simple, forest-dwelling Hindu ascetics. Accepted and valued by Hindus for what they are, there has been minimal pressure to draw the hunter-gatherers into the larger society as any other kind of specialist.
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