Life With Tribals
Aseemanand moved in 1988 to the Andaman and Nicobar islands to work with the local office of Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram. Sources confirmed that Swami Aseemanand had constructed a few hut type Temples and in some remote areas installed the idols of ‘Lord Hanuman’, perhaps as per the belief that the tribals worshipped the monkey god. “One such temple still could be seen in a village near Miletilek of South Andaman,” said a person who knew Swami Aseemanand very closely in Andamans.
In 1993, he came to the headquarters of VKA in Jaspurnagar in Chattisgarh state. After two years, Aseemanand was sent to Dangs district of Gujarat to work with tribals in the area. Local tribals told him that the Ramayana era mythological character 'Shabari' used to live in those forests which influenced Aseemanand to build a Shabari temple there. Under the aegis of the RSS, in February 2006 the Shabari Kumbh was organised in Subir village. According to Manini Chatterjee of Indian Express, the Shabari Kumbh was part of the "RSS offensive against Christian missionaries and an attempt to establish Hindutva in this adivasi-dominated district".
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