SINGBONGA Calling BIRSA MUNDA: Where Do You Stand Amidst Global Recession and BLACK COUP in America as Italian Sonia Gandhi made it clear that that Li

SINGBONGA Calling BIRSA MUNDA: Where Do You Stand Amidst Global Recession and BLACK COUP in America as Italian Sonia Gandhi made it clear that that Liberalisation must be Pursued quoting Indira Gandhi and her EX Ally the LEFT Adopts Destructive Deindustrilisation Measures Branding Tribal Resistance as Maoist as OBAMA Makes White Hillary Clinton Secretary of State and Indian Dalitology happens to be QUITE DETATCHED from Aboriginal Indigenous Suffereings in the same way as the Mainstream Masses are!


Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 109

Palash Biswas




BBC News
Bush issues Apec free trade call
BBC News - 1 hour ago
US President George W Bush has urged Asia-Pacific leaders to rely on "the power of free markets" to solve the current global financial crisis.
Bush staunchly defends free trade AFP
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guardian.co.uk
Vision of Indira, Manmohan helped withstand meltdown: Cong
Times of India - 2 hours ago
22 Nov 2008, 2051 hrs IST, PTI NEW DELHI: A day after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi dwelled on the strong fundamentals of the Indian economy, Congress hailed the vision of both the leaders and former Prime Minister ...
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Pakistan ready for South Asian non-nuclear treaty
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New Delhi (IANS): Signalling a radical departure from Pakistan's nuclear doctrine, President Asif Ali Zardari Saturday said his country will never be the first to use nuclear weapons and expressed readiness to accept a South Asian Non-Nuclear Treaty.
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Two killed in firing by security forces
Times of India - 8 hours ago
22 Nov 2008, 1522 hrs IST, PTI SRINAGAR: Two persons were killed and five others injured when security forces allegedly opened fire at anti-election protesters in Jammu and Kashmir's Baramulla town today, official sources said.
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No compromise with Maoists: Buddhadeb




Baruipur (WB), Nov 22 (PTI) Dubbing Maoists operating from neighbouring Jharkhand as 'cowards', West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today said that his government would not compromise with them as they were killing cops, CPI(M) workers and even health workers in the state.
"We will not make any compromise with the Maoists. They are trying to create unrest in the state. We will counter them," Bhattacharjee told a public meeting here.

"They even killed a nurse who was going in an ambulance in Belpahari area in West Midnapore. Had Mao Tse Dong been alive, he would have been ashamed of what they have been doing in his name," he said.

He said that the leadership in Jharkhand was demanding West Midnapore, Bankura and Purulia districts from West Bengal and Maoists were trying to take advantage of it.

Referring to the agitation by the tribals at Lalgarh in West Midnapore, Bhattacharjee said, "Maoists were trying to involve them, but they will not succeed. The tribal people are with us. I asked the district administration to talk to them." PTI

Buddhadeb ready for talks with tribal leaders
Hindu - 2 hours ago
Kolkata/Midnapore (WB) (PTI): With the district administration having failed to bring the tribals agitating against 'police excesses' in Lalgarh of West Midnapore for talks, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday expressed his intention of ...
Maoists are cowards, says Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee Times of India
No compromise with Maoists: Buddhadeb Press Trust of India
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Sify
India to recover fastest among global economies: CB Bhave
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CB Bhave, Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), said he has no answer as to when the markets will bottom out.
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No regulation of air fares: Patel
Economic Times - 3 hours ago
NEW DELHI: Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel on Saturday said the government was not considering any regulatory mechanism for fixing air fares, which would remain "totally deregulated".
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Patel calls for fare cuts, but airlines see no room domain-B
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A-Star to contribute half of Maruti's export target
Hindu - 3 hours ago
Coimbatore (PTI): A-Star, the world strategic model from the stable of car market leader, Maruti Suzuki Ltd, would contribute half of the company's export target of two lakh units by 2010-11, a senior company executive said on Saturday.
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Singbonga
The chief god, as well as the creator-god and sun-god, of the Mundas, a people from the federate states Bihar and Orissa of eastern India. Among the Ho people he is called Sirma Thakur ('Lord of the Heaven'). He is venerated with sacrifices of white goats and cocks.
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/s/singbonga.html

Celestial phenomena as objects of worship or veneration » The sun » The sun and moon as a divine pair
A sun god is often related to a moon goddess as one member of a divine pair (in the place of heaven and earth as “world parents”). A sun-moon god exists among the Munda in India (Singbonga); a sun-moon (earth) pair, partially seen as bisexual, exists in eastern Indonesia; and Nyambe (the sun) among the Lozi in Zambia is represented as united with the moon goddess as the ruling pair.
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/406588/nature-worship/38288/The-sun-and-moon-as-a-divine-pair

Something’s got to give
For Obama, there is no escape from making hard choices
It is now pointless to speculate whether, in case the American economy was not in such a shambles, Barack Obama could have smashed the colour barrier. More pertinent is to attempt to measure the intensity of expectations the American nation nurtures ... | Read..
http://www.telegraphindia.com/section/opinion/index.jsp

Had I been born in a family affliated to the Ruling Hegemony, it would have been quite impossible for me to be detached from the FREEsenSEX India ruled by Washington slaves!

The Metro, URBAN and SUBURBAN Media is suffering from Maoist Phobia. Every tribal movement is being branded as maoist!

I have visited Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Manipur and have been shocked by the ABSENCE of any kind or brand of Communism, Marxism or Maoism!Where are the Maoists in Narmada valley? Where they have their dens in Tamilnadu and kerala? In Gujarat and Rajsthan? In UP and bihar, the most innocent tribes, BUKSA and Tharu reside and their population decreased. May they be termed as maoist? Nafre India and a stringe of NGOs, Dalit Panchayats in Karnataka have their base in Tribal population, are they Maoist?

Have all the Tribals become committed to Maoism in so called Maoist corridor?

As far as my knowledge is concerned , despite deindustrialisation, displacement and destruction, the BULK of the Tribal popoulation still stays with the Ruling Hegemony. Thus, it sustains itself! Had all the tribals gone to the Maoist way, there would not be any trace of neither the Ruling Hegeony nor its several organs including Media, MNCs, Retail Chain, India Incs, Builders, Promoters and Land Mafia!

Tell me, what had been the Ideology of the Insurrections and pesasant movements during colonial Rule led by aboriginal people and betrayed by the so called Brahaminical CIVIL Society!

What was the Ideology of BIRSA Munda?

What had been behind HUL and ULGUNAN? Santhal Revolt?

Rather this claim exposes a pthetic picture of our Polity and political system where every democratic institution including the Constitution are being MASSACRED daily! We have no space for Expression and depend so much so on Blog writing!


In West Bengal and elsewhere, the indigenous people are the DECLARED ENEMY of the STATE! They must be repressed! They must be disciplined! They must be crushed for ever.As if MANUSMRITI was not enough! Apartheid is never enough! We have to breathe in AFPSA Emergency Culture. Thanks to the Heralding Parliamentary Elections that despite branding the resisting tribals in Lalgarh, the Ruling Marxist Hegemony seems to use some restrain. I watched live telecast of PRESS BRIEF by the Left Front Chair man Biman Basu day long. I personally respect MR basu for integrity and honesty.He never joined any other school than the Marxist one. He claimed that the tribals are far BETTER in the state of West Bengal than those miserables in JHARKHAND. Buddhdeb described the Maoists as COWARDS. Basu described the plight of tribals under Congress Rule before Marxist came to power. He did not fail to put on some Nostalgia and graphic details of Food habits and Food Insecurity amongst the poor lot. He was full of HUMOUR while he narrated the RAT EATING experience in a tribal family and while he disclosed his failure to attend an invitation from a tribal to eat Chicken and Rice at his home under Marxist Rule. I praise Mr Biman basu being so accurate. He is perhaps the worthiest man to be the Party Mouth Piece!

Last day, we heard from the Washington planted Prime minister that, neverthless, the India maintains Eight percent growth rate despite Global recession!

While Chettiar Chidambarm is cornored in a peculiar position to accept that, yes, it is happening in India! We might not escape the adverse impact of Globalisation.

The Italian supremo of Ruling Coaliation UPA in the Centre, Mrs sonia gandhi thanked her late Mother in Law, Mrs Indira Gandhi that India escaped the GLOOM of Global finacial crisis!

We all supported full heartedly BARRACK Obama! We were waiting for Martin Luther King`s dream true, never knowing exactly how BLACK happens to be the President Elect of United states Of America! We may get some hints from his appointments in the new white House team. For Example, Sonal sah is in the team despite her known links to RSS and VHP! He has selected one time rival, the White Woman HILLARY Clinton as the Foreign secretary replacing Balck Woman
darling CONDY! The Black people in the white house CONDY or Colin Powel, never mind are never known to be any different from War Monger George Bush. Let us see how different would be BLACK BARRACK OBAMA!

But in West bengal, it is simply SINGBONGA Calling reminiscent of Munda insurrection led by Birsa Munda or Santhal Insurrection led by Sidu and Kanho!

As the Midnapore West district administration refuses to concede the demands of the Police Santras Birodhi Public Committee (PSBPC) or solve the Lalgarh imbroglio, a parallel administration is springing up in the district.The PSBPC is forming "Gram Committees" (GC) in the villages of Belpahari, Binpur, Lalgarh, Jamboni, Salboni, Goaltore and adjoining blocks as have already been functioning in Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh by the Maoists.The PSBC today announced the formation of 65 GCs in Belpahari block, with more coming up soon, each comprising 10 members, five men and five women

Ilanded in Jharkhand as a professional journalist way back in 1980.

AK Roy led the Jharkhand Movement along with Shibu Soren and Binod Bihari Mahato. Everyone involved with the Grand Trio pursued Parliamentary Politics. We have come to know now the Results!

Pashupati Mahato had been closely associated with Jharkhand Movement as much as ram Dayal Munda had been. Our friends Bir Bharat Talwar and Manmohan Pathak used to publish SHALPATRA dealing with Jharkhandi Identity and Nationality. Late Maheshwar, Poet madan kashyap and me were associated to publish little mags ABHIVYAKTI and SHRAMIK Solidiarity! Later, Bir Bharat talwar shifted himself to JNU. Manmohan Pathak, Madan Kashyap, Shrinarayan sameer, Prabhakar Singh, Prof. BB Sharma and me regrouped to publish another little mag KATAR.

Are we satisfied with the affairs of Jharkhand?

Snthali Poet NIRMALA Putul in her interview published in the recent issue of ARAVALI UDGHOSH has expressed shock and disillusionment. She did not fail to express her dissatisfaction with graphic details. I found every imput in her interview which I myself saw during my stay in Jharkhand, everywhere in Ranchi, Dhanbad, Jharia, Bokaro, Palamu, hazaribagh, Giridih and santhal Pargana! Nothing has changed. We see our brothers and sisters working in every corner of the country displaced and ejected out of Home land. This is Parliamentary Politics that the ROBINHOOD of Jharkhand Shibu Soren, the Disam Guru happens to be the Chief Minister of the state, transformed almost in a HELL. We witnessed the disintegration of Jharkhand Identity, Nationality and Movement, the Parliamntary transition of SHIBU SOREN, the opportunism of Suraj Mandal and the Realisationof the age old Dream, separate Jharkhand state.

I have also visited the secret dens of Shibu soren in TUNDI Forest.

The Disillusionment is similar in West Bengal. We were overwhelmed by Kallol movement led by Utpal Dutta. We witnessed TEBHAGA, Land reforms and Rural Development resulting in cruel negligence of Metro Kolkat which paved the Political way of Post Modern Fire brand, yet another Brahmin leader MS Mamata Bannerjee!

I landed in Jharkhand reading Mahashweta Debi in her novels like ARANYER ADHIKAR, AGNIGARBHO< HAZAR CHURASSEER MAA, Chotti MUNDA O TAR TEER, AKLATO KAURAB. but i landed in Kolkata way back in 1991, with FULL BLOOM Marxist Rule under Comrade Jyoti Basu. Even until 2003, I used to have personal contacts with Left Front Ministers, MPs, MLAs and LCs. Most of the Intellectuals and civil society supported. What happened during this period that we despise any association with CPIM and Marxist Hegemony?

What about the DISILLUSIONMENT dear Comrade BIMANDA? You must have read at least the lesson of Self Criticism and all about Leftist and Rightist Deviation, and revisionism what you used to quote so often during soviet Regime and CPI used to be out of the Front!


Somewhere in the hoary past, Sing Bonga (the Supreme Deity) made the world and put man on it. Then he made the sun and bade it to ride the sky without ever setting. The sun obeyed Sing Bonga and shone all the time. It was alone too, without moon and stars for company.


Sing Bonga created man from the dust of the ground, but they soon grew wicked and lazy, would not wash, and spent all their time dancing and singing. Sing Bonga regretted creating them and resolved to destroy them by flood. He sent a stream of fire-water (Sengle-Daa) from heaven, and all people died save a brother and sister who had hidden beneath a tiril tree (hence tiril wood is black and charred today). God thought better of his deed and created the snake Lurbing to stop the fiery rain. This snake held up the showers by puffing up its soul into the shape of a rainbow. Now Mundas associate the rainbow with Lurbing destroying the rain.

Koteshwar Rao alias Kishanjee, a senior Maoist leader from Andra Pradesh, has set up a base in Lalgarh, the hotspot of the tribal agitation in West Bengal’s Midnapore (West) district, the state’s ruling Left Front (LF) said Saturday. Dubbing the Maoists as “unholy forces” opposed to development, LF chairman Biman Bose alleged that a conspiracy was on to bifurcate or trifurcate the state.

However, he admitted there was a lot of scope for development in the state’s tribal belt comprising Bankura, Midnapore West and Purulia districts.

“I can’t say there is no poverty or scarcity there. The state government has to step up welfare activities, make arrangements for drinking water and power,” Bose told reporters after a meeting of the LF partners.

We believe you, Biman da! You denied AMLASOLE. Then a state minister UPEN KISKU had been sent to solace the agitating tribals there. So much time is spent. But there is no food, no water, no job in the Tribal villages! What ever they have, their land, their livelihood and their life, your governmnet tries its best to hand over to some Zindal or Some salem! Why?

Why Kishanjeeroams in and around your bases freely while our Comrades feel so unsafe in their strongest bases? Why?

Why Kishanjee or maoist squad leader Sabita get shelter and support and you happen to be alienated?

I have visited most of West Bengal tribal areas but I am unable to support your claim that Tribals are far better in West bengal than in Jharkhand! In Jharkhand , there happens NEVER any Hegemony to dictate the TRIBALS! What about in Bengal? The Party behaves like regimented Gestapo here. The LC is more powerful than any DM or SP! Why? The Tribals, SCs, OBCs or Minorities in West Bengal are never allowed to feel FREE! Why?

Why should SHIBU SOREN whom you quote so much so, emerge more Powerful than a Marxist Governement?

Who allowed the Subvertive forces to be engaged in a state wide PLOT to divide Bengal once again? What about your Ideology, Organisation, Police, administration and Development claims?

Despite your claims of Intimacy , do you, in fact, understand the Tribal Psyche which never depends on any party or Ideology in Resistance?

Do you Marxists respect their autonomy, socil fabrics and indigenous Economy ?Nothing seems to be working right for the CPI(M) in West Bengal. Just when the party began readying for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections, three consecutive blows of Lalgarh, Darjeeling and the Tapasi Malik verdict have virtually pushed the party against the wall! Why did you allow this?

Why the Government is defunct as well as Police and Administration? Why the Alimusddin street is not that powerful as it happened during the lifetim of Promod Dasgupta and Anil Biswas?

Why IPTA has no role to play?
Why do you have to block Mahashweta Debi, Shaoli Mitra, Taslima Nasreen or Shatabdi Roy?

Why you don`t have anyone supporting you except Mrinal Sen and Saumitra Chattrejee? Just search into your conscience, we all were with you only several years back? Have all of us become Maoist, Trinamuli, Rightist and subvertive?

Just see this analysis by DNA, a mainstream English Daily committed to your agenda of LPG:

“The Tapasi Malik judgement will to a great extent weaken the CPI(M)’s new-found weapon in the form of a non-political Save Singur Nano Committee, which has been agitating against Mamata since the Nano pullout. Rather, Mamata will use the Tapasi Malik judgement as a medium to justify her movement against Singur land acquisition for Nano,” a senior political analyst said.

But the CPI(M) is not yielding yet. The party has decided to brand the CBI investigations into the Tapasi case a politically-motivated conspiracy against the West Bengal government and the Left Front. The CPI(M)’s dyed-in-the-wool central committee member and peasant activist Benoy Konar seems to have taken the lead in this counter-attack move.

According to him, the CBI was, from the very beginning, playing the role of a political conspirator in the Tapasi Malik case. “The CBI has joined hands with the opposition forces to deliberate humiliate the West Bengal government and Left Front. Even the report submitted to the court by CBI in the case was malicious,” Konar said.

Two other issues the CPI(M) is finding difficult to handle right now are the Maoist menace at Lalgarh and renewed agitation at Darjeeling by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM). With both Lalgarh and Darjeeling becoming virtually out of bounds for the state administration, the CPI(M) and the Left Front are finding it extremely difficult to begin preparing for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections.


Political analysts feel the Tapasi Malik verdict, convicting two CPI(M) leaders, would take the wind out of the CPI(M)’s plan to go to town with Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee’s anti-Nano and anti-industry image
http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1206290

The Bhumijas revere the sun under the name of sing Bonga and Dharam, both of them are considered to be their supreme deities.

Sing bonga or Dharmesh is the chief deity of the Oraon. Political Organisation : The head of the village community is called "Mahato" . ...

All pervading is the presence of the sun-wheel symbol that represents the spirit of Sing Bonga who is worshipped by some Santal as the supreme deity. ...

Sirma Thakoor, or Sing Bonga,. the creator, destroyed them, some say by water and others say by fire.

However, most of the tribes acknowledge the sing Bonga or the Supreme.Sing-bonga A self-created god who alone or with Oteborom, created the earth, animals, vegetation, and mankind and who among most was identified with the sun ... Nagpur worship Nind-bonga as the Moon, in conjunction with Sing-bonga, ... who is worshipped by women, and considered to be the wife of Sing-bonga.Sing bonga is the principal deity of the Karmali and Pahan is their religious priest and head. Their deities are Grambonga, Dihwar bonga, Nagbona, ...The most popular Gods of Santhals are called – Singbonga and Thakur. ... Their main God is “Singbonga”. Their place of worship is called “Sarna” and place ...




One day Sing Bonga came down to earth and saw a man sitting by a dug up field. “When did you dig this field?” asked Sing Bonga. “I dug it today,” said the man.




“And those other fields?”

“Today.”

“And when did you build the hut that you live in?”

“Today, of course, Work or rest, I do everything today because there is no other time except today.”




Sing Bonga saw that man’s life on earth was one perpetual day. This would never do. Man needed a definite time for work and a definite time for rest or else he’d wear himself out working all the time.




Sing Bonga promptly sent for the sun and told him, “Hereafter you will shine for some time and hide for some time. When you shine, man will know it’s time to work. When you hide, he’ll know it’s time to rest.” The sun bowed and began to follow the new pattern.




Some time later Sing Bonga visited the earth again. “Are you happy now?” he asked the man. “Very happy,” replied the man, making obeisance to Sing Bonga. “But I have one problem. When I go out at night to chase away wild animals from my fields, it’s too dark to see. I often fall and hurt myself.”




Sing Bonga looked at the lush forest of ‘sal’ trees surrounding the man’s fields. The trees would make the night blacker still. Man sure needed a little light to guide him after dark. And that is why Sing Bonga made the moon and stars and set them to shine after the sun was gone from the sky.

Well it is never never late.

Buddhadeb ready for talks with tribal leaders

Kolkata/Midnapore (WB) (PTI): With the district administration having failed to bring the tribals agitating against 'police excesses' in Lalgarh of West Midnapore for talks, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee on Saturday expressed his intention of meeting tribal leaders.

Bhattacharjee, who attended a Left Front meeting in the Metropolis, said he would visit Lalgarh to meet the aggrieved tribals, if necessary, Water Investigation minister Nandagopal Bhattacharjee told reporters.

Admitting that there tribals were deprived, the chief minister called for steps to improve facilities like water supply and hospitals in the area and said that he would personally monitor it.

Bhattacharjee also told the meeting that Maoist leaders from outside the state had infiltrated into Lalgarh and were stockpiling arms and efforts should be made to isolate them.

Home Secretary Asok Mohan Chakraborty told reporters, "In keeping with a directive of the chief minister, district officials are trying to resolve the problem through dialogue.

The administration believes that the matter can be settled through dialogue."

Asked to comment on the demand by Janagan Police Nirjatan Pratirodh Committee leaders, spearheading the current stir, that talks be held publicly at Dalilpur in Lalgarh, Chakraborty said, "We will not hold the meeting under instructions from them. The meeting will have to be held in a government office."

On the reported statement by CPI (Maoist) state secretary Kanchan that the state government was trying to isolate his outfit from the people, Chakraborty said, "We are neither trying to unify or isolate anyone." West Midnapore District Magistrate N S Nigam had a meeting with Chakraborty, but it was not immediately known what was discussed.

At Midnapore, the agitators decided to boycott the Lalgarh police from tomorrow. Blockades continued at Jamboni, Binpur and Belpahari, while the metalled road at Chakadoba was dug up, police said. Sources said processions were taken out by the tribals demanding the release of two persons, Ramkrishna Murmu and Premananda Murmu, who were arrested four months ago at the instruction of a local Maoist leader, Madan Mahato.

The tribals have been on the warpath after the police raids following the November 2 mine blast at Salboni in the district during which Union ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Jitindra Prasada and the chief minister escaped narrowly.
http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200811222240.htm

ET Headline
No manipulations in Indian mkts: SEBI chief

22 Nov 2008, 2211 hrs IST, IANS




There is no evidence so far that any bear cartel is operating in the markets, C B Bhave said. Weekly Gainers: BSE Group(A, B), NSE | Losers: BSE Group(A, B), NSE


China offers help to Obama's rescue plan
Indian shares to be among first to recover: SEBI
Citigroup may replace CEO Vikram Pandit as shares dive

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22 Nov 2008, 2211 hrs IST

US President George W. Bush said here on Saturday that the governments of industrialized nations "have to keep their promises to the developing world" even in times of crisis.

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Koteshwar Rao alias Kishanjee, a senior Maoist leader from Andra Pradesh, has set up a base in Lalgarh, the hotspot of the tribal agitation in West Bengal’s Midnapore (West) district, the state’s ruling Left Front (LF) said Saturday.



Dubbing the Maoists as ‘unholy forces’ opposed to development, LF chairman Biman Bose alleged that a conspiracy was on to bifurcate or trifurcate the state.

However, he admitted there was a lot of scope for development in the state’s tribal belt comprising Bankura, Midnapore West and Purulia districts.

‘I can’t say there is no poverty or scarcity there. The state government has to step up welfare activities, make arrangements for drinking water and power,’ Bose told reporters after a meeting of the LF partners.

‘A conspiracy is on to bifurcate or trifurcate our state. I don’t know whether the unrest will continue till next year’s Lok Sabha elections,’ Bose said, hinting the agitation was aimed at serving the political interests of the state’s opposition parties.

Ridiculing claims from some quarters that the agitation was a Santhal rebellion, Bose said: ‘If that is so, then why is Kishanjee there? Why is Sasadhar Mahato, who is not a Santhal, there?’

He said, Kanchan , the state committee secretary of the outlawed Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), was also camping in Lalgarh to fuel the agitation.

Bose, also the state secretary of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), said the LF would organise an intensive and extensive campaign in various districts urging the people to foil the conspiracy to break the state.

But singing a different tune, senior leader of LF constituent Forward Bloc Ashok Ghosh said the Maoists were not involved in the Lalgarh agitation.

‘It is the result of years of neglect. The state government should identify the grey areas and carry out development,’ said Ghosh.

Another LF constituent Communist Party of India (CPI) said tribal issues, a history of neglect and involvement of Maoists had fanned the West Midnapore trouble.

To a query, CPI leader Nandgopal Bhattacharya said Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee would visit Lalgarh, if needed, to hold discussions.

An LF leader said the chief minister told the meeting the government was in favour of finding a political solution to the stalemate through a dialogue. The government, opposed to the use of force, was treading cautiously.

The chief minister told the LF leaders that NGOs working there were being pressurised by the Maoists to incite the tribals.

The government and the LF would distribute handbills in the tribal areas underlying the development activities the government proposed to launch there.

Trouble erupted at Lalgarh after the district police arrested some school students and allegedly heckled tribal women after a landmine blast targeted the convoy of Chief Minister Bhattacharjee and central ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Jitin Prasada near Bhadutala Nov 2.

The tribals dug up metalled roads and placed big tree trunks across them, virtually cutting off the trouble-prone zone from the rest of the district.

Leaders of various tribal groups, some of which are suspected to have links with the Maoists, are protesting for over a week against the alleged police action on the local people.

The tribals also demanded a public apology from the police for the alleged excesses committed against them during the course of investigation into the landmine blast.

The agitation by a section of the local tribal population against alleged police excesses that has cut off certain areas from the rest of West Bengal’s Paschim Medinipur district will continue till the demands placed before the local authorities are met, according to its leaders on Friday.

This was announced at a meeting of tribal leaders who addressed a congregation of local villagers, some armed with axes, at Dalilpur in the Lalgarh area where the first protests had been raised a fortnight ago.

Fresh roadblocks have been set up in the Lalgarh area and its surroundings by the protestors, who are demanding that police camps from the area be withdrawn and the tribals arrested in connexion with the IED blast that narrowly missed Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s convoy on November 2 be released.

The State government will soon be apprising the Centre of the developments in Paschim Medinipur district.

State’s Home Secretary Ashok Mohan Chakravarty, submitted to Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, a report on the situation in the district.

“Leaflets and posters with statements of Maoists supporting the tribal agitation definitely proves their hand behind all this but we are yet to pinpoint any outfit,” Mr. Chakravarty said here.

It was also decided at the meeting of tribal leaders at Dalilpur that discussions with the local authorities on the demands of the protestors could be held only there and at no other venue.

An invitation to the administration for talks at Dalilpur was turned down on Wednesday.

Ruling out talks with the protestors there Mr. Chakravarty said that the convention was that discussions with the State officials were held only in government offices. The administration was open to the idea of talks but convention would have to be respected.

The State committee of the Communist Party of India (Maoists) has come out in the open in support of the protests.

The situation, district officials say, has turned more complex because local tribal leaders seem to be losing control of the villagers.

Moreover, there were so many such local leaders that the administration was hard put to determine who it should sit with for talks that could pave the way for the restoration of normality in the region, a senior district official told The Hindu over phone from Jhargram, the sub-divisional headquarters.


Express News Service reports:

A year ago, CAG report had exposed the state of development in tribal areas
Express News Service
Posted: Nov 21, 2008 at 0251 hrs IST

Kolkata, November 20 While the tribal-dominated areas in the western part of the state are still under siege, the actual picture of the development process in these areas was presented a year ago in the CAG report of 2006-2007.
The report said the tribal students in the state were deprived of scholarships, funds and hostel accommodation. “Our government has been in power for over 30 years and a lot of work has been done for the development of tribals. But yes, definitely we need to do more,” said Minister of state for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Deblina Hembram.

The CAG report says that in primary education, the state registered a dropout rate of 52 per cent among SCs and STs in the period between 2001 and 2006. The Centre had provided a non-recurring grant of Rs 14.50 crore for Ekalavya model residential schools, but only 366 students had enrolled between Classes VI to X against a total capacity of 600. Only 45 out of 800 schools in Burdwan submitted applications for scholarships due to a lack of initiative on the part of the school authorities.

The report points out that from 2001 to 2006, against a budget of Rs 1.43 crore allotted for pre-matric scholarship, only 30 per cent was paid to SC/ST students. In the six districts that were examined a total of 1,993 students were deprived of scholarships as funds were not released. “In the case of pre-matric scholarships, the state did not conduct any survey to identify school-going children of families traditionally engaged in occupations like scavenging, flaying and tanning,” says the report.

Till date, the government does not have a database for storing information about the scheme. Further, out of 97 blocks and 31 municipalities in the six districts surveyed, scholarships were paid to students of only 12 blocks and 20 municipalities during 2001 to 2006.

In the case of post-matric scholarships, 29,000 students were deprived while 74, 000 students were paid scholarships after 12-22 months of submission of applications.

Coaching and pre-examination coaching schemes were also never implemented for the benefit of tribal students. “In Purulia, no coaching centre was set up due to non selection of schools, though Rs 6.84 lakh was allotted to the district welfare officer during 2002-2004,” the report adds.

The state received Rs 7.50 crore from the Centre in 1990-2006 for the construction of 72 central hostels. Though 63 hostels had been constructed, many of them were used as residential accommodation for administrative officers.
http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/a-year-ago-cag-report-had-exposed-the-state-of-development-in-tribal-areas/388698/

Bhattacharjee optimistic on West Bengal’s industrialisation

November 22nd, 2008 - 8:53 pm ICT by IANS -
Kolkata, Nov 22 (IANS) Global auto major Tata Motors’ exit from Singur has not lowered West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s spirits and he remains bullish on the state’s industrial prospects.”The foodgrain productivity in the state has gone up substantially due to the good work done by the farmers but only farming will not serve the purpose of the state and the people. We need industres and factories in the state to prosper,” Bhattacharjee said at a rally in Baruipur in South 24 Parganas district Saturday.

He said many national and international projects were lined up in the state and sought the cooperation of the people for implementing them.

“There are many projects lined up for Baruipur. We are planning to set up a deep sea port here and to construct many national educational institution over here,” he said.

“There’s no future for the poor people of the state without us. We have to do lot of things for the state with the help of people,” Bhattacharjee added.

Accusing opposition parties of retarding the economic growth of the state, he said they were impeding the state’s industrialisation.

“There is 13.5 million acre of cultivable land in West Bengal. If I give land to all the industrialists who have approached us, then also I will be only giving them a total 100 thousand acres only,” Bhattacharjee claimed.

He said it was high time the state started concentrating on industrialisation.

Criticising the opposition, Bhattacharjee reiterated that the state government would set up an industry at the land vacated by Tata Motors at Singur.

He also rued the absence of auto component units in the state, which was a major stumbling block for the state in attracting auto companies.
http://www.thaindian.com/newsportal/politics/bhattacharjee-optimistic-on-west-bengals-industrialisation_100122366.html

Buddhadeb to meet tribal agitators if necessary

Kolkata, Nov 22: West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee would visit Lalgarh in West Midnapore district, where the tribals are agitating against 'police excesses' by blockading the area, to reach out to them.

Water Investigation Minister Nandagopal Bhattacharjee told reporters in Kolkata on Saturday after a Left Front meeting that the Chief Minister, if necessary, would visit Lalgarh to meet the aggrieved tribals.

Another LF leader said that Bhattacherjee told the meeting that he would visit Lalgarh.

The leader who preferred anonymity said that the chief minister who gave a briefing about administrative steps declared he wanted a resolution of the stalemate through dialogue.

LF chairman Biman Bose, however, said that it was not decided when the chief minister would go to Lalgarh, which is at the centre of the tribal agitation that sparked off after police raids following the November 2 mine blast at Salboni in the district.

Bose, the CPI (M) state secretary, described the turmoil in West Midnapore and adjoining Bankura district as part of a 'conspiracy' by forces within and outside the country to break up West Bengal.

Bose, however, said that the Front at this juncture was against the use of force.

"We have asked the administration to have patience and accelerate the process of dialogue with the agitating tribal leaders," he said.
http://www.zeenews.com/states/2008-11-22/485643news.html

Lalgarh, Singur to figure in Assembly

KOLKATA, Nov. 21: The Speaker, Mr Hasim Abdul Halim, today said he would allow discussions on Adivasi unrest at Lalgarh and Tata's departure from their small car project in Singur in the Assembly winter session starting from 24 November which will continue till 5 December.
"Opposition can also bring No-confidence Motion against the government but they will have to intimate us as soon as the house reopens because it takes at least 10 days to go through the formalities before admitting the motion,'' he said.
The Speaker had arranged an all-party meeting where Trinamul Congress Cossipore MLA Mr Tarak Bandopadhayay reportedly stated that his party and its ally, Suci, will together move a no-confidence motion against the government.
The Speaker also said that about five to six Bills will be tabled in this session. n SNS

Parallel rule, as elsewhere

Shyam Sundar Roy
MIDNAPORE, Nov. 21: As the Midnapore West district administration refuses to concede to the demands of the Police Santras Birodhi Public Committee (PSBPC) or solve the Lalgarh imbroglio, a parallel administration is springing up in the district.
The PSBPC is forming “Gram Committees” (GCs) in the villages of Belpahari, Binpur, Lalgarh, Jamboni, Salboni, Goaltore and adjoining blocks, akin to those run in Andhra Pradesh and Chhatisgarh by Maoists.
The PSBC today announced the formation of 65 GCs in Belpahari block, with more coming up soon, each comprising 10 members, five men and five women. A decision in this regard was taken at a meeting of the CPI (Maoist) at a meeting in Laljal, Belpahari, yesterday.
Over 85 GCs have been formed in Lalgarh block while those in other blocks will be formed gradually.
The whip of these GCs would act in governance of the villages where no development activities will be allowed to be undertaken by the government without their clearance, however lofty be the packages as hinted by the state government. Neither police nor the district administrative officials would be allowed to enter the villages without the permission of the GC to their “free zone” thus formed on the lines of those made in Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the announcement stated.
In a bid to run the parallel administration through GCs, their long-cherished goal, the PSBPC united the rural folk through prolonged mass movement over their one-point agenda ~ “police terror”. Blueprint of this parallel administration through GCs was tactfully made through systematic blockade by rampant digging up roads and dumping tree trunks on communication networks to stonewall the entry of police and the administrative officials into the villages for days together.
Hence, it is clear that the days ahead will be tough ones for the administration to implement government programmes by overcoming the great challenge thrown by the PSBPC and the GCs. Meanwhile, Jhargram, Lalgarh, Belpahari, Binpur and Jamboni blocks remained cut off for the 17th consecutive day today as police did not venture in to meet leaders of PSBPC at Dalilpur Chowk, a remote village in Lalgarh block.
Meeting not held
The all-important meeting between the district administration and PSBPC leaders to discuss the 11-point charter put forward by the latter could not be held today following a tug-of-war between the two sides over the venue, dashing hopes to end the 17-day-long stalemate over the Lalgarh issue.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=232239

India will sustain a growth rate of eight per cent despite the adverse impact of the global financial crisis, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Friday.
"We have the ability to sustain a growth rate of about eight per cent. And we will do so," he said at a conference in New Delhi.

Exuding confidence that India had the "resources and the wisdom to grapple and deal" with the crisis, Singh said all instruments of public policy -- monetary, fiscal, public investment and exchange rate -- "will be deployed" to tackle it.

On the other hand,Prescribing caution in wake of the global economic downturn, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi made it clear that that liberalisation must be pursued but should be done with caution and not at the cost of social justice. To the surprise of all present at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit in New Delhi, Sonia justified Indira Gandhi’s decision to nationalise banks in the late 60s and pointed out that it’s because our banks are controlled that they have been relatively safe from the global financial crisis.
Every day proves that it was right (nationalisation). We are now able to weather this storm,” Sonia stressed to the discomfort of many present, who are votaries of freer economy.

Sonia however hastened to add that there was no need to panic, as the days of red tape were not going to be back any time soon.

“It is too early to say the economic crisis is contained. We believe in an open and not unregulated economy. There is no need for India to get back to the era of controls,” she said.

On India’s position vis-à-vis the world in the current scenario she said, “India is not immune to the contagion. Some say our economy is decoupled, but that has been clearly proved wrong. While the domestic market remains our engine; we like it or not…we are all interconnected.”

She, however, exuded confidence that the global financial contagion would provide new opportunities for the future.

Airing apprehensions that the financial crisis would affect the “most vulnerable” sections of society, she said, “They (poor) who had nothing to do with “fancy” financial instruments and had to contend with a hard day's work.”

“Should they become victims of a few bankers greed?”, she asked adding, “It is our duty to ensure what action we must take for them.”

Bringing home the point, Sonia added that growth is not always about per capita income. Every thing should be done to protect the poor.


Noting that the global economy was going through "choppy waters", the Prime Minister said "we can and we will survive this crisis".

Replying to questions after delivering the inaugural address at the Leadership Summit, Singh said the government had "anticipated the global slowdown" and taken measures in the budget.

Observing that the global economy was passing through a "deep crisis", the economist-turned-politician said "we cannot pretend that we are not affected by it.

"The crisis was not made in our country but elsewhere. ... Due to the interdependency (of the world economies), we are in the same boat," the Prime Minister said.

Noting that global problems required global solutions, he said there was a need for a global safety net.

Indian property prices to fall further


2008-11-21 [19:37:44 hrs]

Indian property prices are likely to fall by a quarter in the coming year as the global economic crisis saps homebuyer confidence, adding to the problems of capital-strapped developers.


A property market boom has been waning for a year, with land prices already falling about 15 percent from a mid-2007 peak, although forced sales have been rare. But consultants and investors at the MIPIM Asia conference in Hong Kong this week predicted tougher times ahead.

"We're expecting a horrible 2009," said Anshul Jain, chief executive for property services firm DTZ in India.

"Prices have already shown signs of coming off, and chinks in the armour are surfacing."

Indian property prices doubled in the two years after the country eased rules in early 2005 on inward investment in the construction industry, sparking interest in home-building among foreign funds.

Developers, sometimes in league with funds run by the likes of Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Merrill Lynch, snapped up land.

The bigger firms, such as DLF Ltd and Parsvnath Developers Ltd, launched huge initial public offerings to fund new townships in a country where little housing had been built for 50 years.

But the sharp rise in prices, coupled with interest rate hikes designed to calm inflation in the booming economy, slowed home sales. And the global crisis has added to the gloom, with residential transactions down by half from a year ago.

"We could see a 20 or 25 percent price correction," said Anurag Mathur, joint India managing director at consultants Cushman and Wakefield. "There's a lot of pressure. Whether we reach distressed sales, only time will tell."




Indian exports likely slumped an annual 12 percent in October as demand braked in major markets hit by the credit crisis, and the
government may extend interest subsidies and offer other tax breaks to struggling firms.

Trade Secretary G.K. Pillai, citing provisional data, said exports fell to $12.8 billion in October, a drop of 12.3 percent from $14.6 a year earlier, underlining how hard it will be to meet a $200 billion export target for the 2008/09 fiscal year. "We are considering a stimulus package for exporters. This is being discussed. We hope to present the recommendations to the prime minister's committee next week," Pillai told a business conference.

Industry bodies representing the textiles and chemicals sectors, leather product manufacturers and information technology companies have presented their wishlists to the trade secretary. Indian textile firms, which export half of their produce, mostly to United States, Europe and Japan, have been among the worst hit by the global downturn with the top 50 companies posting an aggregate loss in the September quarter.

The textile ministry estimates firms may shed a further 500,000 jobs in the next five months, Pillai said, adding to industry estimates of 700,000 lost since June. D.K. Nair, the secretary general of Confederation of Indian Textiles Industry, said his members needed urgent help as they were battling rising raw material costs, a lack of bank credit and a demand slump in key overseas markets.

"The idea should be to increase liquidity to the textile industry," Nair said. Pillai said export growth in the April-October period stood at 21 percent, 10 percentage points below the figure a month earlier, and falling behind the fiscal year target for expansion of 25 percent.

A marathon meeting of senior trade officials of key members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will begin in Geneva early next week to
pave way for a mini-ministerial next month aimed at locking-in the progress made in the on-going Doha round under the regime of US President George Bush.

Protecting poor farmers and its infant industrial sectors from indiscriminate liberalisation is likely to be on top of India’s agenda in the crucial meet.

In the mini-ministerial meeting in December, which is to follow the senior officials meeting, trade ministers are expected to make this year’s last effort to agree on rules for dismantling tariff and subsidy barriers in agriculture and industrial goods (Nama) in a bid to give a substantial push to the ongoing Doha round towards completion.

Speaking to ET, a government official, who did not wish to be identified said this meeting would be important as it would be the Bush government’s last chance to contribute to the round. “If there is an agreement on agriculture and Nama in December, it could be locked in, and the discussions on other areas could proceed under the Barack Obama government,” the official said.

Although trade ministers participating in the mini-ministerial meeting in July this year in Geneva failed to arrive at a deal on agriculture and Nama, there were several gains which were made.

“There are lots of things on the table which are a definite improvement over how things are at present. If we do not reach an agreement in December, we would lose an important opportunity to take up offers such as the one made by the US to reduce its bound farm subsidies to $14 billion from more that $40 billion at present,” the official added.

Saontals


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Saontals, an ethnic group in Bangladesh. Mainly living in the Himalayan sub-mountain region in different districts of Rajshahi division. Their principal homeis in radha (in West Bengal), the forests of adjacent Bihar (Jhadkhand) and Orissa, and Chhota Nagpur. The British government assigned a special territory for their living and named it Saontal Pargana. It is difficult to definitely say when and why they settled in the East Bengal region. But the census of 1881 shows that there were Saontal settlements in the districts of pabna, jessore, khulna and even in chittagong. A survey of the Saontal population of present Bangladesh area conducted in 1941 recorded their number as 829,025. The censuses organised after the Partition of Bengal (1947) did not count Saontals as a separate group of people, and consequently, their exact number in East Pakistan could not be determined. According to an estimate made by Christian missionaries in the 1980s, the Saontal population in northern Bangladesh was over one hundred thousand. According to the 1991 census, the Saontal population was over two hundred thousand.

Historical Background:


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Saontals are the descendants of Austric-speaking Proto-Australoid race. Their complexion is dark, height medium, hair black and curled, and lips heavy. mundas, oraons, paharias and some other ethnic groups have a good deal of similarity with the long-headed, broad-nosed Saontals in physical features, language and culture. Similarity is also there in their village panchayet administration, in social values, and their characteristic love for dance, singing and music. Saontals and related aborigines are among the earliest settlers of the subcontinent and are acknowledged as the progenitors and maintainers of agricultural production system and agro-based culture.

Socio Economic Aspects:


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Livelihood: Saontals live a poor life. They are compelled to sell their labour at a very low price in tea gardens or elsewhere. Besides, they dig soil, carry loads, or engage themselves in similar works of day labourers. They are accustomed to hard work.

Social System:


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Rituals: Although the chief god of Saontals is the god of the sun (Sing Bonga, in their language), the god of mountain – Marang Budu is also dignified enough to have become a village-god. Saontals believe that soul is immortal and that supernatural soul (Bonga) determines worldly good and evil. Bonga occupies an important place in their daily worship. Probably that is why house-deity Abe-Bonga is quite a mighty god. Influence of folk Hindu deities is also visible in their religious ceremonies. In fact, Saontal men and women are animistic nature-worshippers, but again they acknowledge Thakurjiu as Creator. Idol-worship is not a part of their religious practices.

Festivals: Saontals are fond of festivities. Like Bangalis, they also have 'thirteen festivals in twelve months' ie, many festive occasions around the year. Their year starts with the month of Falgun (roughly, 15 February-15 March). Almost each month or season has a festival or fiesta celebrated with the pomp of dances, songs and music. The Shialsei festival of Saontals takes place in the New Year month of Falgun, Bongabongi occurs in Chaitra, Home in Baishakh, Dibi in Ashwin, and Sohrai at the end of Paush. Sohrai is a kind of national festival for Saontals celebrated with great pomp on the last day of Paush (around 16 January). To express gratitude to the god of crops is also a part of this festival. It turns splendid with dance, songs, music and pleasant beauty of flowers along with food and drinks. Probably its greatest attraction is the chorus dance of Saontal girls. Another important ceremony of Saontals is called Baha or the festival of blossoms. The purpose of this festival at the beginning of spring is to welcome and offer greetings to the beautiful blossoming of colourful flowers. It is also characterised with an overflow of dancing, singing and music.

The Spring Festival of Saontals provide young men and women an opportunity to exchange hearts. The hub of such exchange of hearts or choosing one's partner is the akhra (sort of club) just as the dhumkadia of Oraons. In the Saontal society, there is no bar against young couples' premarital free-mixing. But in their married life, breach of faith is indeed rare. Divorce is allowed in their community. Paying the bride a dowry is still in vogue but the amount is usually very small. Both widows and divorced women have the right to remarry.

Family Structure: Domination of the male is more prominent in the Saontal society although, the role of women in the family is by no means insignificant. Saontal women rather take a leading role in earning livelihood or in farming work. The houses of Saontals are small but their yards are very clean. Artwork on earthen walls of the house is an evidence of Saontal women's liking for beauty and of their artistic mind. furniture in the house is very simple reflecting their plain lifestyle.

Social Structure: The Saontal society is still ruled by traditional Panchayet system and the village headman enjoys special dignity in the society. The community's division into twelve gotras (clans) is still found among Saontals. In common practice, marriage between a man and a woman of the same gotra is prohibited. But these regulations are not so effective today.

Lifestyle: Like their simple, plain and candid way of life, their dress is also very simple. Women wear short, coarse but colourful sari, fix flowers on their heads and hair-buns, and make themselves graceful with simple ornaments. Men wear dhutis or gamchhas (indigenous towels). Well-to-do and educated Saontals wear modern dress. Skilful workers as they are, Saontal women, especially young girls are by nature very beauty-conscious. Saontal men and women wear tattoos on their bodies.

Principal food items of Saontals are rice, fish and vegetables. They eat crabs, pork, chicken, beef and the meet of squirrels. Jute spinach (nalita) is one of their favourite food items. Eggs of ducks, chicken, birds, and turtles are delicacy in their menu. Liquor distilled from putrefied rice called hadia (or pachai) is their favourite drink. They are also accustomed to distill liquor at home from mahua or palmyra syrup. These drinks are indispensable in their festive ceremonies. Saontal women are skilled in making different kinds of cakes.

The Saontal language (Saontali) belongs to the family of Austric languages. Saontali has profound similarity with Kole and Mundari languages. Today most Saontals of Bangladesh speak both Bangla and Saontali. Also many Bangla words are now adopted in Saontali. There is no written Saontali literature, but the rich heritage of folk songs and folk tales of Saontals is acknowledged by all. Just like the fact that Saontals have a language but no alphabet, they have a religion but no canonical scripture. In the terribly poverty-stricken life of Saontals, Christian missionary work of social welfare and, along with that, preaching of the message of spiritual peace accelerated their conversion to christianity. On the other hand, as a result of financial aid from NGOs, desire for receiving modern education is growing among Saontals, but poverty is a great obstacle. The Saontal community has not been able to free themselves from the rule and exploitation of landowners and moneylenders. Saontals took active part in the tebhaga Movement that took place during the period between 1946 and 1950.

Saontals cremate their dead bodies. But today, many of them bury the dead in graves. When an inhabitant of a village dies, the village headman's duty is to present himself at the place of the departed and arrange for the last rites with due respect. The custom of holding a sraddha (obsequies) ceremony later at a convenient time is also in practice in the Saontal community. [Ahmad Rafiq]

[Source: Banglapedia]
http://www.saontalvoice.org/about_saontal_community.html

World Culture Encyclopedia :: South Asia :: Munda
Munda
Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. Hinduism is an influence, though the Munda are not among the main guardians of Hindu traditions as followed by the Brahmans. The great deity, as protector and judge—sometimes identified with the sun (e.g., Kharia Dharam, Remo Singi-Arke, the Singbonga of the Munda, Santal, etc.), sometimes depicted as a "diluted version" of Hindu gods (e.g., Mahadeo, Bhagwan)—should normally be distinguished from the creator (Munda Haram, Santal Marang Buru), especially since the former typically destroyed men through fire or flood in order to recreate them whole and pure; sometimes, however, the two deities are linked rather like the different incarnations of Hindu gods. There are in all tribes numerous spirits (called bonga in Chota Nagpur), both benevolent and malevolent. They include agricultural gods and goddesses, spirits of trees, hills, forests, the village, village boundaries, ancestral spirits (especially malevolent if uncared for or allowed to wander rather than being "brought back" to the hearth after their funeral), other household and lineage deities (some secret), clan deities, deities associated with snakes, tigers, monkeys, and other wild animals, the ghosts of women dead in childbirth or Pregnancy, the ghosts of suicides or people killed by tigers, and shamans' tutelaries. Christians are in a minority in most tribes, though their proportion approaches 50 percent among the Kharia. There are hardly any Muslims.



Religious Practitioners. Most tribes have both priests, concerned with village rituals and life-crisis rites, and shamans, concerned with illness, malevolent spirits, divining the fate of the dead, divining reincarnation, etc. Usually there is one of each to every village, though only the priest, not the shaman, sits on the village panchayat. Unlike the priests, whose offices are basically hereditary in the male line, shamans "emerge" by demonstrating their powers, becoming possessed, etc. Sometimes priests and shamans come from different tribes. Some shamans are female, but no priests. In most tribes domestic ritual is performed by male household heads.

Ceremonies. The most important life-cycle rites are those concerned with birth, marriage, and death. Initiation and puberty are usually much less marked, if at all, and it is marriage, if not parenthood, which really makes one a full adult Member of the tribe, with the right to sit on the panchayat, etc. There are also numerous agricultural rites (fertility, sowing, transplanting, harvesting), as well as rites to promote success in the hunt (usually in March), to safeguard the village against disease and other misfortune, to honor the supreme deity and clan deities, etc. Tribals often imitate, or take part in, local Hindu festivals.

Arts. On the whole, the Munda are not renowned for artistic expression, though there are some exceptions, such as the wood carvings of the Kharia and Sora and the wall paintings of the Gadaba and Sora, mostly done for a ritual purpose.

Medicine. Illness is attributed to the actions of malevolent spirits, who may be ancestors who have not been sufficiently appeased, or to the temporary withdrawal of soul substance from the body, etc. Shamans are frequently called in to divine the cause, often with the aid of their tutelary spirits, and to effect a cure through the sacrifice of a fowl, goat, or other animal.



Death and Afterlife. There is no particular delay in disposing of the dead. Whether cremation or burial is followed depends on the tribe; the inauspicious dead (accidents, suicides, very young infants, etc.) are usually disposed of in a different manner from "normal" deaths; they are buried where cremation is the norm or buried with the opposite orientation from a normal burial. The person generally has at least two souls, sometimes more (e.g., a Juang has five). One is linked to the personality of the deceased and has to be "brought back" from the funeral ground to join the ancestors behind the domestic hearth. The other—commonly called jiv, really another term for "soul substance"—is usually reincarnated in a same-sex agnatic descendant, preferably a grandchild related in the direct line, though sometimes it is a collateral ascendant who is reincarnated, especially if there are several siblings. A person is usually given the name of the ancestor deemed to have been reincarnated in him or her.
http://www.everyculture.com/South-Asia/Munda-Religion-and-Expressive-Culture.html

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights > I'India: violations of tribal peoples' land...
I'India: violations of tribal peoples' land rights continue in Nagarnarndia: Torture and sexual exploitation of a 14 year-old Dalit girl OPEN LETTER TO ATAL BIHARI VAJPAYEE
PRIME MIMISTER OF INDIA


Geneva, July 17th 2002


Mr. Prime Minister,

The International Secretariat of OMCT would like to bring your attention to the situation prevailing in Nagarnar, in the Bastar district of the Indian State of Chhattisgarh. Despite an urgent appeal released on March 15, 2002 - following violent attacks that took place from March 8th to March 11th 2002 which involved beatings and arrests carried out by police forces on the tribal peoples of Nagarnar - no changes occurred with regard to the situation of the tribal peoples. Indeed, OMCT is worried that the current situation presents the same features as four months ago. While tribal peoples are still submitted to pressure from the authorities maintaining a general atmosphere of fear, no compensations have been provided to victims for the violations of their rights and spoliation of their land, and those responsible from the violations have not been brought to justice, as highlighted by the Report released on July 9 2002 by the Indian People’s Tribunal on Environment and Human Rights (IPT). This report presents the results of an investigation conducted in April 2002 in the village of Nagarnar by a panel of independent investigators headed by Justice S.N. Bhargava. A report of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), which visited Bastar between March 12-14 2002 is also expected.

The conflict between the peoples of Nagarnar, the majority of whom are tribal peoples, and the National Mineral Development Cooperation (NMDC) and district administration, supported by the State government, originates in the acquisition of land for the instalment of a steel plant by NMDC in the area surrounding the villages of Nagarnar, Kasturi, Amaguda and Maganpura. The IPT’s Report, along with OMCT’s urgent appeal IND150302.ESCR highlighted that the process of land acquisition that started in May 2001, was carried out in violation of national laws and international human right law and alienated tribal people’s rights over their land, while their fields are their only source of employment and subsistence. As a consequence, the tribal peoples opposed this process through peaceful means to which police forces responded violently. Indeed, since the intervention of the NMDC in the area, one observes a cycle of violence in which the violations of the economic, social and cultural rights of the tribal peoples by the NMDC and the district administration cause tribal people to resist peacefully, which leads to violence being perpetrated by police forces on tribal peoples.

In this respect, we would like to recall to your attention the following facts. After the NMDC applied for land acquisition to the district administration in May 2001, a notice was sent to the tribal peoples, as a part of the Statutory obligation of consultation with the concerned Gram Sabhas. However, many local people did not get the notice. Nonetheless, consultation meetings were held on June 11 and 13 2001. The tribal peoples present in the meetings unanimously rejected the proposal of land acquisition, because their economic interests would have been adversely affected. However, the Collector Ms. Richa Sharma issued a press statement in High Way Channel stating that the villagers agreed to the construction of the steel plant. According to IPT’s report, it is also alleged that the district administration manipulated records of the meeting, forging and replacing the minutes book. The act of fabrication to the effect of cheating by a public servant is an offence punishable under Section 1666, 167, 192.218, 415, 418 of the Indian Penal Code. Therefore, on August 2 and 31 2001, villagers complained to the National Commission for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes (NCSS), which ruled that the acquisition of land was carried out in violation of the Constitution, of the Land Acquisition Act, and of the National Guidelines (1974) for the construction of industries in Scheduled Areas. On October 1 2001, the NCSS called for a detailed report on the forgery incident from the local administration. It is alleged that repressive measures against tribal people started soon after.

Indeed, illegal arrest and detention of the acknowledged local leaders Mr. Satyanaryan Sethia, Samson Kashyap, and Duryodhan, took place on October 23 2001. Moreover, on the same day and without warning, the police charged with lathi and teargas on about 100 women who were sitting in protest. Some of them were beaten and injured. The day after, other peaceful activists opposing the plant construction were arrested and the police shot, injuring 45 persons, most of them women. These women have been falsely charged with attempt to murder, conspiracy or arms act. According to the report, after leaders were finally released, the entire incident has been totally denied by the administration.

Finally, on December 12 2001, the NCSS ordered recommendations in favour of the tribal peoples. It was held inter alia that land acquisition was ab initio null and void, that criminal offences had been committed, whose responsibility could be disowned by the Collector and Chief Executive NMDC, and that the entire process should be redone. Nevertheless, on January 31, 2002, NMDC officials with the help of the Sub-Divisional Officer in the Collectorate Office (SDO) A.K Toppo made a surprise attempt to start the construction of a boundary wall, totally ignoring the recommendations.

On March 2 2002, a joint Gram Sabha meeting was held with 3,504 persons including 2,002 women. Resolutions were passed stating that people are not against the steel plant, but put ten conditions to the administration on the basis of which they would decide whether their land could be acquired or not. These conditions included the provision of an adequate compensation package to all the people and safeguards against privatisation. Despite the Collector and I.G. conceded nine of the ten demands on March 9 2002, the local administration broke the tribal peoples’ attempt to put a peaceful end to the conflict before the promises could be put down on paper. Indeed, the administration launched attacks on the village from March 8th to March 11th 2002, hunting for those who refused to accept compensation cheques, forcibly offered by the police.

As reported in OMCT’s urgent appeal IND150302.ESCR, the violence involved beatings and arbitrary mass arrests carried out by hundreds of policemen on the tribal peoples of Nagarnar, including disabled, old and infirm people. The police forces broke into houses, taking away valuables and beating up men, women and children. Over 250 persons were put in jail, including 100 women, some of them pregnant or lactating. People who were not arrested fled the village with terror. From March 12 2002 onwards, pressure to accept compensation cheques have been mounting, and many people have accepted cheques to avoid being arrested. IPT reports that since then a reign of terror has been let loose on the local people.

Besides, on March 11 2002, the construction of a boundary wall was initiated, which constitutes a violation under the clause (c) of sub-section III of section 2 of the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Notification. Indeed, no construction activity shall commence without first obtaining environmental clearance from the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF). According to a MoEF circular No.J-21011/8/98-IA, units that fail to comply with these directions shall be proceeded against under the Environmental Protection Act of 1986. Several environmental concerns are actually raised by the setting up of a steel plant in the area: the presence of the Kanger Ghati National Park within a 25 km periphery distance, the proximity of a reserved forest with good Sal growth, the issue of water availability and the fact that the proposed plant would be the first full-scale commercial use of a new iron waste processing technology whose consequences on the environment are untested. These consequences are all the more worrying since their land constitutes the only source of employment and subsistence of the tribal peoples.

Thus, while the local people follow democratic means of redress and protest, the administration and the police act in an undemocratic and unlawful manner. The State tries to break resistance through repression and terror, arrests being timed to prevent the community from mobilising and to allow the construction of the wall. In this respect, the officials and NMDC officials are liable for prosecution under the Indian Penal Code, the Land Acquisition Act of 1894, the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act of 1989, the Panchayati Raj (Extension to Schedule Areas) Act of 1996, the Schedule V of the Constitution and the 1974 Guidelines for setting up industries in Schedule Areas.

Therefore, OMCT expects that your government will urgently re-establish tribal peoples in their rights, and notably restart the democratic process subverted by manipulations and the use of force by the district administration that resulted in violations of national law and international human rights law. In this regard, immediate steps should be taken in order to halt the work on the plant with immediate effect, and to review the environmental and socio-economic costs of the project, notably by applying for environmental clearance without delay.

Moreover, OMCT hopes that your Excellency will take all necessary measures to guarantee adequate reparation to all victims and their families, to review the charges under which people have been arrested and drop the false accusations, and to restore all seized properties to their lawful owners without delay.

OMCT also urges your Excellency to take measures to guarantee an immediate investigation into the circumstances of these events, identify those responsible, bring them before a civil competent and impartial tribunal and apply the penal, civil and/or administrative sanctions provided by the law.

Finally, OMCT hopes that your government will take all steps necessary to guarantee respect for economic, social and cultural rights of the people in the Nagarnar area in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards and in particular the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the ILO Convention No. 169, and it will continue to closely monitor the situation.

We thank you in advance for your careful consideration of this matter, and remain,

Sincerely yours,


Eric Sottas
Director
http://www.omct.org/index.php?id=SCR&lang=eng&articleSet=Events&articleId=2162

Pages from the history of India and the sub-continent



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Adivasi Contributions to Indian Culture and Civilization

Adivasi traditions and practices pervade all aspects of Indian culture and civilization, yet this awareness is often lacking in popular consciousness, and the extent and import of Adivasi contributions to Indian philosophy, language and custom have often gone unrecognized, or been underrated by historians and social scientists.

Although popular myths about Buddhism have obscured the original source and inspiration for it's humanist doctrine, it is to India's ancient tribal (or Adivasi) societies that Gautam Buddha looked for a model for the kind of society he wished to advocate. Repulsed by how greed for private property was instrumental in causing poverty, social exploitation and unending warfare - he saw hope for human society in the tribal republics that had not yet come under the sway of authoritarian rule and caste discrimination. The early Buddhist Sanghas were modelled on the tribal pattern of social interaction that stressed gender equality, and respect for all members. Members of the Sanghas sought to emulate their egalitarian outlook and democratic functioning

At that time, the tribal republics retained many aspects of social equality that can still be found in some Adivasi societies that have somehow escaped the ill-effects of commercial plunder and exploitation. Adivasi society was built on a foundation of equality with respect for all life forms including plants and trees. There was a deep recognition of mutual dependence in nature and human society. People were given respect and status according to their contribution to social needs but only while they were performing that particular function. A priest could be treated with great respect during a religious ceremony or a doctor revered during a medical consultation, but once such duties had been performed, the priest or doctor became equal to everyone else. The possession of highly valued skills or knowledge did not lead to a permanent rise in status. This meant that no individual or small group could engage in overlordship of any kind, or enjoy hereditary rights.

Such a value-system was sustainable as long as the Adivasi community was non-acquisitive and all the products of society were shared. Although division of labor did take place, the work of society was performed on a cooperative and co-equal basis - without prejudice or disrespect for any form of work.

It was the simplicity, the love of nature, the absence of coveting the goods and wealth of others, and the social harmony of tribal society that attracted Gautam Buddha, and had a profound impact on the ethical core of his teachings.

(To this day, sharing is a vital and integral part of the philosophy of the Mullakurumba Adivasis of South India. When the Mullakurumbas go hunting a share is given to every family in the village, even those who may be absent, sick or cannot participate for any other reason. An extra portion is added for any guest in the village and even a non-tribal passersby will be offered a share. Not sharing is something they find difficult to comprehend.)



Nevertheless, tribal societies were under constant pressure as the money economy grew and made traditional forms of barter less difficult to sustain. In matters of trade, the Adivasis followed a highly evolved system of honour. All agreements that they entered into were honoured, often the entire tribe chipping in to honor an agreement made by an individual member of the tribe. Individual dishonesty or deceit were punished severely by the tribe. An individual who acted in a manner that violated the honor of the tribe faced potential banishment and family members lost the right to participate in community events during the period of punishment. But often, tribal integrity was undermined because the non-tribals who traded with the Adivasis reneged on their promises and took advantage of the sincerity and honesty of most members of the tribe.

Tribal societies came under stress due to several factors. The extension of commerce, military incursions on tribal land, and the resettling of Brahmins amidst tribal populations had an impact, as did ideological coercion or persuasion to attract key members of the tribe into "mainstream" Hindu society. This led to many tribal communities becoming integrated into Hindu society as jatis (or castes) while others who resisted were pushed into the hilly or forested areas, or remote tracks that had not yet been settled. In the worst case, defeated Adivasi tribes were pushed to the margins of settled society and became discriminated as outcastes and "untouchables".

But spontaneous differentiation within tribal societies also took place over time, which propelled these now unequal tribal communities into integrating into Hindu society without external violence or coercion. In Central India, ruling dynasties emerged from within the ranks of tribal society.

In any case, the end result was that throughout India, tribal deities and customs, creation myths and a variety of religious rites and ceremonies came to absorbed into the broad stream of "Hindu" society. In the Adivasi traditions, ancestor worship, worship of fertility gods and goddesses (as well as male and female fertility symbols), totemic worship - all played a role. And they all found their way into the practice of what is now considered Hinduism. The widespread Indian practice of keeping 'vratas', i.e. fasting for wish-fulfillment or moral cleansing also has Adivasi origins

Mahashweta Devi has shown that both Shiva and Kali have tribal origins as do Krishna and Ganesh. In the 8th century, the tribal forest goddess or harvest goddess was absorbed and adapted as Siva's wife. Ganesh owes it's origins to a powerful tribe of elephant trainers whose incorporation into Hindu society was achieved through the deification of their elephant totem. In his study of Brahmin lineages in Maharashtra, Kosambi points to how many Brahmin gotras (such as Kashyapa) arose from tribal totems such as Kachhapa (tortoise). In Rajasthan, Rajput rulers recognised the Adivasi Bhil chiefs as allies and Bhils acquired a central role in some Rajput coronation ceremonies.

India's regional languages such as Oriya, Marathi or Bengali developed as a result of the fusion of tribal languages with Sanskrit or Pali and virtually all the Indian languages have incorporated words from the vocabulary of Adivasi languages.

Adivasis who developed an intimate knowledge of various plants and their medicinal uses played an invaluable role in the development of Ayurvedic medicines. In a recent study, the All India Coordinated Research Project credits Adivasi communities with the knowledge of 9000 plant species - 7500 used for human healing and veterinary health care. Dental care products like datun, roots and condiments like turmeric used in cooking and ointments are also Adivasi discoveries, as are many fruit trees and vines. Ayurvedic cures for arthritis and night blindness owe their origin to Adivasi knowledge.

Adivasis also played an important role in the development of agricultural practices - such as rotational cropping, fertility maintenance through alternating the cultivation of grains with leaving land fallow or using it for pasture. Adivasis of Orissa were instrumental in developing a variety of strains of rice.

Adivasi musical instruments such as the bansuri (flute) and dhol (drum), folk-tales, dances and seasonal celebrations also found their way into Indian traditions as did their art and metallurgical skills.

In India's central belt, Adivasi communities rose to considerable prominence and developed their own ruling clans. The earliest Gond kingdom appears to date from the 10th C and the Gond Rajas were able to maintain a relatively independent existence until the 18th C., although they were compelled to offer nominal allegiance to the Mughal empire. The Garha-Mandla kingdom in the north extended control over most of the upper Narmada valley and the adjacent forest areas. The Deogarh-Nagpur kingdom dominated much of the upper Wainganga valley, while Chanda-Sirpur in the south consisted of territory around Wardha and the confluences of the Wainganga with the Penganga.

Jabalpur was one of the major centers of the Garha-Mandla kingdom and like other major dynastic capitals had a large fort and palace. Temples and palaces with extremely fine carvings and erotic sculptures came up throughout the Gond kingdoms. The Gond ruling clans enjoyed close ties with the Chandella ruling clans and both dynasties attempted to maintain their independence from Mughal rule through tactical alliances. Rani Durgavati of Jabalpur (of Chandella-Gond heritage) acquired a reputation of legendary proportions when she died in battle defending against Mughal incursions. The city of Nagpur was founded by a Gond Raja in the early 18th century.

Adivasis and the Freedom Movement

As soon as the British took over Eastern India tribal revolts broke out to challenge alien rule. In the early years of colonization, no other community in India offered such heroic resistance to British rule or faced such tragic consequences as did the numerous Adivasi communities of now Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh, Orissa and Bengal. In 1772, the Paharia revolt broke out which was followed by a five year uprising led by Tilka Manjhi who was hanged in Bhagalpur in 1785. The Tamar and Munda revolts followed. In the next two decades, revolts took place in Singhbhum, Gumla, Birbhum, Bankura, Manbhoom and Palamau, followed by the great Kol Risings of 1832 and the Khewar and Bhumij revolts (1832-34). In 1855, the Santhals waged war against the permanent settlement of Lord Cornwallis, and a year later, numerous adivasi leaders played key roles in the 1857 war of independence.

But the defeat of 1858 only intensified British exploitation of national wealth and resources. A forest regulation passed in 1865 empowered the British government to declare any land covered with trees or brushwood as government forest and to make rules to manage it under terms of it's own choosing. The act made no provision regarding the rights of the Adivasi users. A more comprehensive Indian Forest Act was passed in 1878, which imposed severe restrictions upon Adivasi rights over forest land and produce in the protected and reserved forests. The act radically changed the nature of the traditional common property of the Adivasi communities and made it state property.

As punishment for Adivasi resistance to British rule, "The Criminal Tribes Act" was passed by the British Government in 1871 arbitrarily stigmatizing groups such as the Adivasis (who were perceived as most hostile to British interests) as congenital criminals.

Adivasi uprisings in the Jharkhand belt were quelled by the British through massive deployment of troops across the region. The Kherwar uprising and the Birsa Munda movement were the most important of the late-18th century struggles against British rule and their local agents. The long struggle led by Birsa Munda was directed at British policies that allowed the zamindars (landowners) and money-lenders to harshly exploit the Adivasis. In 1914 Jatra Oraon started what is called the Tana Movement (which drew the participation of over 25,500 Adivasis). The Tana movement joined the nation-wide Satyagrah Movement in 1920 and stopped the payment of land-taxes to the colonial Government.

During British rule, several revolts also took place in Orissa which naturally drew participation from the Adivasis. The significant ones included the Paik Rebellion of 1817, the Ghumsar uprisings of 1836-1856, and the Sambhalpur revolt of 1857-1864.

In the hill tribal tracts of Andhra Pradesh a revolt broke out in August 1922. Led by Alluri Ramachandra Raju (better known as Sitarama Raju), the Adivasis of the Andhra hills succeeded in drawing the British into a full-scale guerrilla war. Unable to cope, the British brought in the Malabar Special Force to crush it and only prevailed when Alluri Raju died.

As the freedom movement widened, it drew Adivasis into all aspects of the struggle. Many landless and deeply oppressed Adivasis joined in with upper-caste freedom fighters expecting that the defeat of the British would usher in a new democratic era.

Unfortunately, even fifty years after independence, Dalits and Adivasis have benefited least from the advent of freedom. Although independence has brought widespread gains for the vast majority of the Indian population, Dalits and Adivasis have often been left out, and new problems have arisen for the nation's Adivasi populations. With the tripling of the population since 1947, pressures on land resources, especially demands on forested tracks, mines and water resources have played havoc on the lives of the Adivasis. A disproportionate number of Adivasis have been displaced from their traditional lands while many have seen access to traditional resources undercut by forest mafias and corrupt officials who have signed irregular commercial leases that conflict with rights granted to the Adivasis by the Indian constitution.




It remains to be seen if the the grant of statehood for Jharkhand and Chhatisgarh ameliorates the conditions for India's Adivasis. However, it is imperative that all Adivasi districts receive special attention from the Central government in terms of investment in schools, research institutes, participatory forest management and preservation schemes, non-polluting industries, and opportunities for the Adivasi communities to document and preserve their rich heritage. Adivasis must have special access to educational, cultural and economic opportunities so as to reverse the effects of colonization and earlier injustices experienced by the Adivasi communities.

At the same time, the country can learn much from the beauty of Adivasi social practices, their culture of sharing and respect for all - their deep humility and love of nature - and most of all - their deep devotion to social equality and civic harmony.


Notes


Abhishek Sheetal from the Munda tribe in Jharkhand wrote to us emphasizing how traditionally tribal societies valued gender equality, respect for nature and equality of all trades. This Munda fable is particularly illustrative:


There was a king who lost a war with Munda tribals. He sent a messenger to the king of Mundas. The messenger looked around but could not find the king or his palace. He asked one farmer as to where to find the king. The farmer replied, "He was here a while ago, let me see (he looks around)....Oh there he is (pointing to a man plowing his fields with his bullocks)... He is working there."



References:

1. What is Living and What is Dead in Indian Philosophy - Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya
1b. Stcherbasky: Buddhist Logic (New York, 1962), Papers of Stcherbasky - (Calcutta - 1969,71)

2. The Indian Historical Review, Vol. 16:1,2 Baidyanath Saraswati's review of P.K Maity, Folk-Rituals of Eastern India

3. Bulletins of the ICHR (Indian Council of Historical Research)

4. Studies in the History of Science in India (Edited by Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya)

5. Adivasi: A symbiotic Bond - Mari and Stan Thekaekara (Hindu Folio, July 16, 2000)

Note: The term Adivasi has been used broadly to represent those classified as Scheduled Tribe under the Indian constitution. Roughly speaking, the term translates as aboriginal or native people (or native dwellers).

Some Dalit activists now prefer to also be characterized as Adivasis. Others seek to bring all of India's oppressed groupings under the 'Bahujan Samaj' umbrella. While the term Harijan is largely out of favour, there are some who simply identify with the government designated terms ST (scheduled tribe) and SC (scheduled caste).

Although, districts with large Adivasi populations are to be found almost throughout India, the majority of India's Adivasis hail from Jharkhand, Chhatisgarh and Orissa. Tripura, Arunachal, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland also have large Adivasi populations. There are also districts in Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra and Tamil Nadu with sizeable Adivasi populations.

Also see: Adivasi and other Revolts, Unsung Heroes of the Indian Freedom Struggle

Related Articles:

Buddhist Ethics and Social Criticism

History of Social Relations in India

Key Landmarks in the Indian Freedom Struggle
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Tribal Development in India: What Went Wrong?

By

Pradip Kumar Singh

The development of the tribal population in India has been a major concern of the government, voluntary agencies, NGOs, social reformers, social scientists etc. But even after five decades we are no nearer to the solution of the problem. Rather, things appear to be more muddled than before. Schemes after schemes have been conceived and implemented. Most of them have failed. In most cases the tribal life has worsened. What went wrong? Where did it go wrong? Is our definition of development at fault? Our perception of the problem is erroneous? The programmes we have conceived and implemented are at variance with the target we have set? Do we have a target at all? I think all these have contributed their mite to the muddle. We are unable to find a single statement as regards the strategy of tribal development in India. No policy paper exists on this important subject, though millions of rupees have already been spent in the name of tribal development!

The biggest mistake in the tribal development planning in India has been the clubbing together of all tribes, as if they constitute a homogenous cultural group. Nothing can be farther from the truth. The scheduled tribes (ST) exhibit a whole spectrum of human and cultural evolution – from hunter-gatherer-fisher (foragers) through shifting cultivation, pastoralism, marginal farming, to agriculture based on irrigation. It is naïve to think that they all have similar problems and that same or similar development or welfare schemes will be useful to them all equally.

The problems of the Munda, the Santhal, the Bhil, the Gond or the Mina are not the same as the problem of Birhor, or Chenchu, or Raji. The scheduled tribes of North-East India and Rajasthan are not at the same socio-economic level as those of Jharkhand, or Orissa, or Chattisgarh.

Providing reservation of seats in the Legislatures and Parliament may be beneficial to, say, Santhal, Munda, Oraon, and Ho (to give example from Jharkhand), but it means nothing to the Bedia and other twenty five tribes in the state. Reservation in jobs (say in the central government) has been useful to Mina, Naga, and Khasi, but is meaningless to hundreds of other tribes in the country. The existence of a scheme does not ensure its utility to all. On the other hand, those already ahead and less in need of these provisions do take maximum advantage to the detriment of their poorer tribal brethren. Almost all the special provisions for S T have benefited the settled agriculturist tribes in the country and the rest have languished.

The concept of primitive tribal group (P T G) tried to redress the balance in favour of the weakest section of the tribals. But here again, the lumping together of foragers and swiddeners was a blunder. The two cannot be equated in socio-cultural terms, their problems are not similar. And socio-cultural factors cannot be ignored as has been proved a number of times with the total failure of all development programmes in the fifties and sixties.

Not understanding the crux of the problem has led to a number of blunders already. A lot of time was wasted immediately after independence on whether the tribals should be allowed to “develop in isolation” or they should be “assimilated” with the other advanced section of the population. All the special provisions for the tribes are based on the assumption that all the tribes are equally deprived, equally disadvantaged, and equally poor.

Another problem is the aim or goal of development. What precisely is being sought to achieve? What is the end? When, or upon attainment of what shall we say, yes the target of tribal development has been accomplished? Is it parity with the rest of the population? But which section of the rest? Even among the non-tribals there are many sections which are poorer, more deprived, more exploited than at least the agriculturist tribes. That level is obviously not the target. Is it when all the tribals have a pukka house? Eighty percent people in the country do not have a pukka house. Every tribal family has a govt. job? It is not feasible. Every tribal household has a bike or a TV? Again which TV, Black and White or coloured? Which make of the bike? Indian or Japanese? Or is it a car? Or computer? The point is that it is impossible for the government to provide technological parity. It is impossible for the acts and legislations to provide socio-political parity. And cultural parity is impossible anyway because it shall destroy the separate identity of the tribals. We do not know the target. And that is the crux of the problem. The development planners do not know what they are trying to achieve.

We know that development has not brought contentment in its wake. In fact the tribals have become more miserable as they have “developed”. They have been displaced from their traditional homes and their lands acquired for the construction of industries, roadways, railways, large dams, power stations, mines etc. The effort to provide education on the basis of common curriculum is the worst culprit. They have acquired “knowledge” which is entirely useless in their life. Worse, it has raised their expectations of secure govt. job which they are not getting. The “educated” tribals are misfits in their societies. They are also unfits in the non-tribal society. They are left in the lurch after “education.” They are subject to similar high expectations and lower economic capabilities as the common middle-class in the country. And here lies the source of disenchantment with the whole development process.

In our view the best goal is the achievement of affluence. Here affluence means having more than enough of whatever is required to satisfy consumption needs. This satisfaction of needs may be arranged in the traditional set up itself rather than bringing the needy into the wider ambit of market economy with its own set of needs and desires and competitions which are entirely extraneous to the immediate goal. Thus, providing the foragers the education of biology and environment and setting-up of a forest-based economy is far better than to teach them the history of Ashoka the Great or Archimedes’s principle; and forcing them to become settled agriculturists.

In order to make a viable tribal development programme, therefore, there is an urgent need to reclassify the Indian tribes. This new classification should be based on the techno-economic parameters and relative advancements already achieved in the last fifty years. Programmes/schemes should be prepared for each of the class separately. These programmes should aim at achieving affluence rather than “development.” In this context the following points deserve special attention.

1. The scheme to integrate tribal economy with the rest of the economy and hope for the best (throw up the wall and see if it sticks) has failed and will fail. There is a qualitative, not quantitative, difference between a tribal-rural life and the urban-modern life. It is a quantum jump from one into another and finally culminates in total break with the past. The need is to provide scheme and facilitate opportunity to develop skills commensurate with the techno-environmental conditions of the group being developed. It is neither feasible nor desirable to make every tribal group a part of modern market economy for which they are psychologically not ready.

2. Unemployment is a concept that comes with “development”. In traditional tribal setup nobody is unemployed. The term simply means that a person is unable to get the job he wants. An engineer will not be unemployed if he takes up the job of, say, a clerk. But this job he does not want because he has been trained to do something else which he thinks is higher-ranking and will bring in greater rewards. So he is unemployed until he gets the job of an engineer. By linking a traditional economy with the market economy and by creating degree-linked employment opportunity we have created the problem of unemployment in tribal society. Every degree-holder thinks in terms of govt. service rather than self-employment. This nexus needs to be broken if unemployment in tribal society is to be removed, which can be easily achieved with specific vocational training and a little economic and technical support.

3. Education needs to be revamped. Universal syllabus makes them ill-at-ease, and out of tune with both their traditional culture and modern economy. The tribes should be given the option either to continue in the common degree-based system or to get a vocational training in the traditional occupation immediately after basic literacy at primary or middle school level. This vocational training can be based on the techno-environmental conditions of the tribes and specific to their needs.

4. The forests are the original and permanent abode of the tribals – the two have symbiotic relationship. To a tribal, forest is not only a source of economy, it is also his native place where reside his gods and deities and his dead ancestors. The British, for their own commercial purposes, enacted forest laws and removed these rightful owners from their position as guardians and protectors of forests. Large scale deforestation took place. It is sad that in free India also the same policy, in fact even more stringent policy, is being pursued. The tribals are being made out as destructors of forests. This is entirely baseless. The same people have been living there for thousands of years and the forests were thriving. In just one hundred years we have lost the forests. The tribals live in forests and are the natural protectors. The forest laws only serve to make the ever-watchful people helpless while unscrupulous politicians and bureaucrats are making hay in collusion with contractors. Even for collection of M F P and medicinal plants they have to be beholden to the so-called forest guards and other forest officials. There is an urgent need to restore the forests to the tribals and their right to use the resources of the forests should be recognised. Only then will they be able to combat the illegal deforestation and restore the forests to their original level and at the same time the economic base of the tribal will improve drastically.

As things stand today, there is a marked emphasis in favour of already developed section – the settled agriculturist tribes – at the cost of least developed ones. Everywhere in the country the tribes show a great variation in the economic, social, political, educational, and health spheres. They are also subject to differential treatment from the government, NGOs and social scientists. As a consequence they have differential opportunities of development which affects their probability of survival in the present circumstances – the probabilities and circumstances that are not natural but man-made. It is important, therefore, to reclassify the Indian tribes, and institute new perspective and strategy for tribal development.

2004, Journal of Social Research, Vol 26 I & II, Department of Anthropology, Ranchi
http://www.pksingh.in/tribal_development_in_india.htm





Panchayati Raj and Tribal Development in West Bengal : A Field Study/Md. Ayub Mallick. Kolkata, Minerva Associates, 2004, vii, 242 p., tables, figs., $17. ISBN 81-7715-017-0.

Contents: Preface. Introduction. 1. Socio-economic profiles of Kanksa Block. 2. Socio-economic profiles of the tribes. 3. Tribal development : socio historical phases. 4. Institutionalization of Panchayats. 5. Tribal development and Panchayati Raj. 6. Life situation of the tribes. Conclusion. References.

"The main objective of the present work is the study of development of tribal community under the impact of the new Panchayati Raj dispensation introduced in West Bengal since 1978--how much the community has achieved and how the traditionally backward tribal community has been empowered after the introduction of Panchayati Raj. The objective of the study is to determine how the development and power structure of the tribal community are influenced by the socio-political changes and institutional innovations like the extension of representative democracy at the grassroots level.

What kind of changes has taken place in the study area with the institutionalization of Panchayats and politicization of the tribal people by the left parties ever since 1978? The present study is also intended to analyse other parameters, such as education, health etc.

The tribal people have not been actually empowered through the institutionalization of Panchayats. They are mobilized too much politically, rather socially and economically." (jacket)
http://www.vedamsbooks.com/no36146.htm

Panchayati Raj And Tribal Development In West Bengal: A Field Study
This book studies the development of tribal community under the impact of the new Panchayati Rajdispensation introduced in West Bengal since 1978. It specifically analyses how much the community hasachieved or benefitedafter the introduction of Panchayati Raj. The objective is todetermine how the development and power structure of the tribal community areinfluenced by the socio-political changes and institutional innovations like theextension of representative democracy at the grassroots level; what kind ofchanges have taken place in the study area with the institutionalization ofPanchayats; and politicization of the tribal people by the left parties eversince 1978. The book analyses other parameters, suchas education, health etc. The study shows that the tribals have not beenactually empowered through the institutionalization of the Panchayats. Ratherthan being mobilized socially and economically, the tribals are too politicallyorganised to reap any real benefits from this system of governance.
http://www.flipkart.com/panchayati-raj-tribal-development-west/8177150170-3v23fdejje
Development and Displacement in West Bengal: An Excerpt from a Forthcoming Paper





Koraput, Balangir and Kalahandi (KBK) are the poorest regions of the country comprising mainly of tribals. Agriculture is the main source of livelihood. Still rooted in ancient beliefs the tribals do not make serious attempts to raise their wealth..
CJ: Basant Rath , 26 Jul 2008 Views:590 Comments:0
THE UNDIVIDED districts of Koraput, Balangir and Kalahandi popularly known as KBK is one of the poorest region in the country. The KBK regions have been divided into eight districts, ie Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Rayagada, Balangir, Sonepur, Kalahandi and Nuapada. These eight districts comprise of 14 subdivisions, 37 tehsils, 80 CD blocks, 1437 gram panchayats and 12,104 villages, Almost 75 per cent of the total population is reeling under the poverty line even after 58 years after independence.

The KBK districts account for 19.72 per cent population for over 30.59 per cent geographical area of the state. About 89.89 per cent people of these districts still live in village and remote areas. As per 1991 census about 38.72 per cent people of KBK districts belong to the Scheduled Tribe (ST) and 16.63 per cent of the population belongs to Scheduled Castes (SC) communities. Literacy rates are far below the state as well as national averages. Female literacy is only 24.72 per cent. As per the 1997 census of Below Poverty Line (BPL) families about 72 per cent families live below poverty line. Nuapada ranks as the district with highest number of BPL families of 85.70 per cent and Bolangir ranks as the lowest with 61.06 per cent of BPL families. As per an estimate based on 1999-2000 NSS data 87.14 per cent people in southern Orissa, are below poverty line.

Agriculture is the main source of livelihood. Nearly 80 per cent of the tribal workers earn their living as cultivator and agricultural labourers only 10 per cent of the people work in construction trade and commerce, nine per cent of the people works in mining, quarrying and the rest of the population is engaged in house hold and manufacturing. The traditional occupation was agriculture, hunting and gathering forest products but now they depend on wage labourers. They work as agricultural and casual labours. A few of them have their own agricultural lands.

Basically the tribal people believe in eat, drink, and be merry principle. There is no place for economic competition, due to free availability of land and minor forest produce followed by low population pressure, the competition has not been felt by the tribals.

Tribal economy mainly comprises of subsistence farming, wage earning from forest works and government sponsored programmes. Subsistence farmers grow food crops barely enough to meet their own farm and family requirements. Diffusion of technological changes in agriculture does not take place properly as this is the main constraint.

More than 80 per cent of the total population depends on agriculture; most of the tribals are landless and work as wage earners. Owing to their illiteracy, superstitions and conservative practices, they are deceived and exploited by moneylenders and other non tribals. Tribals who do not have a permanent income live in perpetual poverty. No doubt that the government is implementing a number of projects for the improvement of the socio-economic conditions of tribals, but due to illiteracy, they are unaware of several developments around them.

On the other hand poor irrigation, bad infrastructure has taken a huge toll on agriculture, the main source of livelihood. Unemployment has soared with even seasonal jobs under various schemes becoming scarce. Almost 75 per cent of the total population is reeling under the poverty line even after 58 years after independence.

Most of them do not even get a single meal a day due to acute poverty. Also, per capita availability of land continues to plunge, coming down to 70 per cent. Due to the practice of slash and burn farming locally called Podu, denudation of forest and forcible occupation of their land, they are compelled to go to other places in search of employment.

Want of an organised marketing is a big bottleneck of tribal economy, weekly markets are held in big villages and small villages on roadside but remain defunct for six months in a year. Retail traders and hawkers visit these markets and purchase agricultural and forest produce. In return they sell manufactured items of daily requirements to the local tribals. There is complete absence of profit motivation in the tribals with the result the tribals cannot enter into commercial undertaking in any sale.

In a recent tour to different parts of KBK region revealed that in most of the villages there are several traders and businessman who have found their roots in the shops, also purchase of agricultural and forest products. But to ones surprise none of these are of tribal origin, all are new settlers who have come either from Andhra Pradesh, Haryana, Punjab, West Bengal, or other parts of Orissa. The landless agriculturist are either with zero ownership or ultra marginal ownership of land.

Other Articles by Basant Rath
Responsible parents rewarded
Drought-like situation in Nabarangpur district
Podagada monuments lying in utter neglect
Tribals worship lathis during Dussehra
Orissa govt too lax in tribal welfare works
more >> Rural poverty of ST and SC population is rampant and 75 per cent were found to be land less and living below poverty line. The growth of tribal population and the rise in the burden of agricultural workers on land also made them landless workers. Social values of the tribals play an important obstacles for raising wealth capital and income.

The tribals of KBK region believe in ghosts, ancestors worship and also believe that the fortune of man is controlled by their super natural power. Hence they do not make serious attempts to raise wealth. What ever they produce on their lands 90 per cent of it is consumed as food and drink and seven per cent of the produce is utilised for meeting other expenses, three per cent on clothing. Food, shelter, sex and clothing are the only important wants of the tribal people. These wants are locally satiable without paying any substantial cost. Education, modern medicines and conveyance are still far cry, which could hardly catch the imagination of most of the tribal peoples of KBK region.
http://www.merinews.com/catFull.jsp?articleID=138236

Tribal Development in India/Awadhesh Kumar Singh. New Delhi, Serials Pub., 2008, xxii, 502 p., tables, figs., ISBN 81-8387-198-3.

Contents: Preface. Contributors. 1. Towards an anthropology of refugees/Bhaskar Chakrabarti. 2. Nature of dependency of the elderly in Bangladesh: a study of Rajshahi City/A.K.M. Shafiul Islam. 3. Problems and prospects of the religious identity of Saraks/Debashis Bhattacharjee. 4. Sacred folk festivals of Tamil Nadu/S. Simon John. 5. Modeling of age structure and ASDRs for both sexes of Bangladesh/Md. Rafiqul Islam. 6. Impact of globalisation on a tribal community/Samar Kumar Biswas and Somenath Bhattacharjee. 7. Ethno-medicine, indigenous healers and disease healing practices among the Kolam of Adilabad District of Andhra Pradesh/K. Anil Kumar. 8. Nature of Flyash Utilization and its impact on land and people's life: a case study/Ananta Kumar Biswas. 9. Who will be the next victim: the unknown factors behind 'Arsenicosis'/Suchismita Sen Chowdhury. 10. Participation of tribal adolescents in various activities/Raj Pathania, Praveen Kaur and Pawan Pathania. 11. Eco-lexicon in endangered languages of Andaman Islands/M. Sreenathan. 12. The transplanted migrant villagers in the Andaman Islands/Kanchan Mukhopadhyay and Chhanda Mukhopadhyay. 13. Ethnographic account of Andaman and Nicobar Island Tribes/R.P. Mohanty. 14. Development and tribals in Jharkhand/Bulu Imam. 15. Effect of land alienation: a study on a scheduled caste and primitive tribal group/Samar Kumar Biswas and Somenath Bhattacharjee. 16. Demography of Santal and Lodha -- a comparative study in Jhargram, West Bengal/Sudip Datta Banik. 17. Position of women in tribal society of Arunachal Pradesh with special reference to Galo Women/Ram Krishna Mandal. 18. Health status and health practices among the tribals: a case study in Andhra Pradesh/B. Suresh Lal. 19. Fertility and mortality among the Jenu Kurubas-the Scheduled Tribe of Coorg District in Karnataka, India/C.E. Subramanya, K. Rajasekhara Reddy and Chhanda Mukhopadhyay. 20. Contraception practices among a rural community of West Godavari District, Andthra Pradesh, India/G.R. Varma. 21. Life and living of aged disabled in a North Karnataka village/K.C. Tarachand. 22. Dimensions of social change among the Bhils of Rajasthan/Anitha Srivastava. 23. Globalisation and section/Rekha K. Jadhav. 24. Socio-cultural adaptation as a means of survival strategy at Sundarban/Amitabha Sarkar and Samira Dasgupta. 25. The land of myths: an ethnohistorical of an Island of Bangladesh/Nasir Uddin. 26. Some observations on the cultural tourism at Bishnupur/Samira Dasgupta, Rabiranjan Biswas and Gautam K. Mallick. 27. Women police and their views on home duties: a study of North coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh/Ganji Sanjeevayya. 28. Highland Bonda of Orissa: their ethnographic identity and socio-cultural profile/R.P. Mohanty. 29. Looking back: a study of Kaanikarar in Southern Tamil Nadu/S. Simon John. 30. Estimating the fecund ability and average conception wait of women among low contraceptive tribal communities of Southern Ethiopia/Nigatu Regassa. 31. Indirect estimation and mathematical modelling of some demographic parameters of Bangladesh/Md. Rafiqul Islam, Md. Nazrul Islam Mondol, Md. Nurul Islam and Korban Ali. 32. Ethnicity and boundary maintenance among the Saraks of Purulia, West Bengal/Prafulla Chakrabarti and Debashis Bhattacharya. 33. AIDS, as socio-economic turmoil: introspection and policy response/A. Akram Khan and Nazli Bano. 34. An overview of the development for the scheduled programmes castes and scheduled tribes in West Bengal/Sumahan Bandyopadhyay. 35. Women in local self-government: special reference to Karnataka Panchayati Raj Institutions/D. Murahari Naik. 36. Social change and continuity among Hanbar Community/Aruna Hallikeri. Index.

"Tribals in India present a significant degree of cultural and ethnic diversity. They differ in their socio-cultural levels as well as in their behavior patterns. Tribal situation in the country poses peculiar problems of development, not encountered in other areas. The peculiarities can be broadly summed up as geographical, demographic, socio-cultural and exploitative. Tribal development indicates serious challenges to the policy makers, administrators and development activists. The socio-economic forces of modernization and development have no doubt brought some benefits to the people of respective areas but the benefits accrued to them have been largely out weighted by the harm more to them. Development induced displacement, in voluntary migration and resettlement has also cause marginalization of tribals and presented enormous problems to them. The new economic regime has led to privatization and marketization of economy and thus it has been treated as powerful threat to the survival of tribal communities. The socio-cultural change among the tribal communities has no doubt empowered the tribals, however, their cultural identity is under severe stress. The human development indices also demonstrate the backwardness and marginalization of tribal communities in India.

The book throws light on important dimensions of tribal development and social change in India in the context of new policy regime and environment. The book contains 36 papers dealing with different dimensions and aspects of social change and development of tribal communities in India. A few papers also highlight the important issues pertaining to tribal and backward communities of Bangladesh and African countries. The papers mainly deal with the issues of refugees, aging, religious and cultural identity, ethno-medicine and traditional health seeking behaviour, migration, land alienation, demographic change, women health, socio-cultural adaptation, tribal development programmes, ethnicity, etc. This book will be useful in understanding the dynamics of social change and development among tribal communities of India to the policy makers and those who are interested in this field." (jacket)
http://www.vedamsbooks.com/no57813.htm




Concept of Ancient Warming in stories of Indian Tribes of Jharkhand State of India
by Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi
July 06, 2008
In recent years, the scenario of future global environment is haunting the man as the present environmental changes (e.g. global warming) pose considerable danger to his own existence and environment. He is presently struggling to understand as to what will be the nature and extent of these changes in the next hundred years.

Is global warming a recent phenomenon? No it is not. Our planet has passed through several warming phases as proved by different geological evidence. The history of earth's climate, is characterized by change. Times of glaciation on the earth have followed by warm intervals and the duration of years of both cold and warm intervals has varied by several orders of magnitude.

Other than scientific evidences some of the Indian Tribes of Jharkhand State indicate in their Folk stories warming as a measure factor of disaster in ancient times, which killed many people. It is not million years old but it may happened eight thousand to ten thousand years from today. They have no scientific way of presentation. They expressed global warming in the form of Fire Rain, which God showered from Heaven to destroy the evil people.

The Mundas (the ancient tribe of India) are said to have been created by Sing Bonga- the Sun God or supreme deity of the Mundas. Mundas stories of ancient warming relate in a story form: -

"It was long- long before the dawn of the human history. The earth was yet in its infancy. Sing Bonga " the dreaded lord of time" was seated on his throne of gold, engaged in happy converse with his heavenly consort. But the heavenly pair had not long been thus agreeably occupied, when they were disturbed in their dalliance by an intolerable heat, which suddenly surcharged the thin atmosphere of heaven. And just at that moment, there went up from the beasts that roamed the earth below piteous complaints to Sing Bonga's throne on high. "The heat emanating from the iron-smelting furnaces of the Asur tribe (one of the primitive tribe of Jharkhand State)," so ran the complaints," this heat is drying up the streams, the tanks and the pools, and scorching up all the vegetation. We are dying of hunger and thrust. Nor do the birds of the air nor the worms that crawl on the earth find any food to eat or water to drink.

According to historical and anthropological studies, in ancient days Asurs the mighty tribe use to make arms manually by melting rocks rich in iron.

In other popular story: -

"Mankind threw off their allegiance to Sing Bonga. Sing Bonga there upon sent a warning to men on Earth through His servant bird 'Kaua Bhandari' (crow, the steward) and 'Lipi Susari' (Lipi the cook). But men refused to obey Sing Bonga. Enraged at the impious contumacy of man, Sing Bonga showered down on the earth below a terrible rain of fire to destroy mankind".

Here rain of fire can be interpreted as scorching heat at that time which affected human civilization.

In another story when social distinctions were assigned to the various tribes, the Marndis were overlooked. Ambir Singh and Bir Singh, two members of that tribe from Mount Here, were incensed at this slight, and they prayed for fire from heaven to destroy the other tribes. Fire fell and devastated the country, destroying half the population. The home of Ambir Singh and Bir Singh was stone, so they escaped unhurt.

According to Santal tribe of Bengal and Jharkhand: -

" When Pilchu Haram and Pilchu Budhi, the first man and Woman, reached adolescence, fire rain fell for seven days".

In Ho tribe of Jharkhand the myth of destruction of human kind is said to based on the story which tells that the first people became incestuous and un needful of God. Sirma Thakoor, or Sing Bonga, the creator destroyed them by fire.

Throughout the history of different ancient tribes of India there are numerous similar examples of the effect of warming or climate change on the mankind.
http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/67399?print

Tribals invoke god to protect rights
OUR CORRESPONDENT

A dancer performs rituals to invoke Sing Bonga, the tribal god of nature, at Pithoria. Picture by Prashant Mitra
Ranchi, Oct. 17: Tribal bodies today cautioned their leaders to save themselves from the wrath of Sing Bonga ? the tribal god of nature ? for not coming forward to protect their rights and identity from the onslaught of outsiders.

Hundreds of tribals assembled today on the outskirts of the state capital at Jamuari village in Pithoria, where then deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani had laid the foundation stone of a new Ranchi University campus in 2002, to perform the sacred rituals for invoking their deity.

Dancing to the tunes of the nagaras (traditional drums) and carrying traditional weapons, tribals, who had assembled from different parts of Ranchi and adjoining areas, carried with them a goat which they sacrificed before Sing Bonga, seeking his help in protecting the land, culture and identity of tribals of Jharkhand.

Surya Narayan ?Pahan? (tribal priest) pronounced the mantras and after the ritual, he cautioned all tribal leaders who have been keeping silent on basic issues like de-reservation of seats in the panchayat areas and displacement. He warned that since the Sing Bonga has been invoked, the tribal leaders should now save themselves from ?his wrath?.

Not only land and culture, the pahan also invoked the deity for preserving tribal languages and a dwindling population triggered by settlement of outsiders in the scheduled areas in spite of existing central and state laws like the Santhal Parganas Tenancy (SPT) and the Chhotanagpur Tenancy (CNT) Acts.

?We have chosen Jamuari village as a symbol of displacement. The foundation stone of the new Ranchi University campus has been laid here. This means that hundreds of tribals will have to lose their land in the name of development without being compensated by the government,? said Jharkhand Janadhikar Party vice-president Ratan Tirkey.

Though the land earmarked for the new campus happens to be ?gair mazuruwa? (public land), the tribals are opposing the move claiming that tribes have been using the land for their day-to-day business like grazing cattle. The tribals contended that they have a ?natural right? over the land and demanded that the land should be settled in their name.

The tribals also invoked the god to save the Schedule-V areas of the state apprehending ?a conspiracy to reduce the tribal population into a minority in the state?.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051018/asp/jharkhand/story_5366337.asp


B.P. Keshari

Chotanagpur and its Traditional Culture
Chotanagpur along with Santhal Pargana and the adjacent parts of West Bengal, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh, historically known as Jharkhand1, is a step-plateau full of hills, forests and minerals deposits. The indigenous people living in this region are mostly Adivasi’s (Scheduled Tribes) and Sadan’s the non-tribes, living here since centuries2. These people linguistically belong to three major groups—Austro-Asiatic, Dravidian and Nag-Aryan. Munda, Santal, Ho, Kharia, Juang, Bhumij, Birhor, Asur, Korwa etc., belong to the Austro-Asiatic group and the Kurux (Oraon), Malto, Kisan, Khendro etc., to the Dravidian group, Nagpuri (Sadri), Kurmali, Khortha, Panchpargania etc., spoken by the Sadan’s belong to the Nag-Aryan group.

All these people, living in Jharkhand, have their own specialities, religion and customs, somewhat different from each other, but due to a common geographical background and long period of coexistence have historically developed a common cultural identity3 which is very evident in their lifestyle, world view, social values, customs, housing pattern, music, dance, language and literature. Immense love towards nature, fellow-feeling, simplicity, truthfulness, mythical thinking, community life, simple rituals, physical labour, equality, freedom, hunting, dance and music are some of the basic tenets of this culture4.

Jharkhand was an autonomous confederation of these ethnic and culture groups. It had its own administrative pattern known as Munda-Manki system or the Parha-Panchayat system. Elected village heads (Mundas) elected their Mankis or Parha-Rajas who in their turn elected the nominal head or the king of the area. People had common share in land and forest. Land absolutely belonged to the family who reclaimed it. This type of land was known as ‘Khutkati’, ‘Bhuinhari’ or ‘Kodkar’ among the Mundas, Kurux and Sadans respectively. Tax and cash transactions were almost unknown. Barter was prevalent. In time of need, ‘Behri’ (contributions) were collected in kind. On occasions people helped each other with physical labour collectively which was known as ‘Madat’ (help). People were free and happy. Community dance, music and hunting were the sources of recreation. Every tribal village had ‘Akhra’ (Dancing ground), ‘Sarna’ (Scared grove), ‘Giti ora’ or ‘Dhumkuria’ (Youth dormitory) as their cultural centres. At places there were ‘Mahadeo Manda’ and ‘Devi Mandap’ worshipped by the Sadans. Sarhul, Karam, Ind, Jitiya, Dasai, Sohari Phagua, Jatra and Manda were the traditional festivals. People worshipped Dharmesh, Sing Bonga, the Sun, Mahadeo and Parvati besides other local deities such as Buru Bonga (Hill Spirit), Hatu Bonga (Village Spirit) etc. People believed in witchcraft also. Pahan, Baiga or Nayaka was the religious head of the village. Brahman priests were respected mostly by the high caste sadans5.

It is very evident that the tribals did not build sophisticated forts, palaces or temples. But there are relics of extensive ancient monuments of Jain, Baudh and Shaivic traditions scattered throughout the Jharkhand region6. This indicates that the culture of Chotanagpur has passed through many ups and downs. Yet it has survived. This proves its vitality too.

Factors Leading to the Present Crisis
At present the traditional culture of Chotanagpur is passing through a very critical phase. Without caring for its identity, rulers are forcing it to the domain of exploitation. Now, there is a fear that it will not be able to survive long and will face a serious crisis—the crisis of identity and existence. If proper care is not taken promptly, it will face extinction. The main factors that led to this pathetic situation are (a) colonial rule, (b) abrupt uncongenial development plans, (c) land alienation and brutal exploitation, (d) hatred towards the indigenous culture and (e) finance capital and capitalism.

a) Colonial Rule
The process of cultural erosion started when the Mughal army under the command of Shahbaz Khan Turbati penetrated into this region in the year 1585. The Mughals subsequently forced the Maharaja of Chotanagpur and other kings of the area to pay heavy ‘nazarana’ (gift), ‘peshkash’ (fine), and ‘malgujari’ (rent). For example, in 1628 the Maharaja paid an annual rent of Rupees 6,000 to the Mughal Badshah which was enhanced to Rupees 1,36,000 in 1632, and then to Rupees 1,61,000 in 16367. In this situation the Maharaja and the local chiefs were forced to build forts and palaces and to appoint ‘ghatwals’ or ‘digwars’ (frontier guards) to save their territory from further attacks. This ultimately gave rise to ‘jagirdari’ and the feudal system. With this the Islamic religion and the Vaishnavic cult of Rama-bhakti entered into the region. Nirguna bhakti of Kabirdas and Krishna bhakti of Mahaprabhu Chaitanya and Surdas were already prevalent. People accepted these cults with certain modifications. Local colours transformed them to a great extent. In this way, the Islamic and Hindu traditions had their impact on the indigenous people and their culture, but the basic tenets of the Jharkhand culture remained mostly unchanged.
http://www.icrindia.org/?p=107


The Sarna: a case study in natural religion
By Dr. Koenraad Elst

Whatever one might have against the Christian missionaries, one cannot deny their enormous energy in mapping the world's religious landscape, not just by processing secondhand data in their armchairs, but by collecting facts first-hand at the price of great discomfort and sometimes at the risk of their lives. At a later stage, during the implementation of their plans for conversion, the data are sometimes twisted for propaganda purposes (e.g. by labelling the Indian tribals as "monotheist" to distance them from the Hindus and bring them closer to Christianity), but by and large, Christian fact-finding literature about tribal religions is a treasure-trove of authentic information.

Let us consider, for example, the excellent introduction to the religion of the Munda tribals in Chotanagpur by Y. Philip Barjo: "The religious life of the Sarna tribes", Indian Missiological Review, June 1997. The Mundas, along with the Santals, are what is left of an originally much larger and more widely spread Austro-Asiatic population in the Ganga basin. In the plains, they got assimilated into the Indo-Aryan speech community, but in the isolation of the hills of Chotanagpur (southern Bihar, western Orissa, northeastern Madhya Pradesh) they retained their linguistic and cultural identities. The visible mark of their religious identity is the Sarna, the sacred grove where rituals for the gods are performed.

Ethnocentrism and endogamy
Like most tribes worldwide, the Mundas are quite ethnocentric: "The Mundas call themselves Horoko, which means 'men'." (p.43) Just as Ba-ntu means "men", and likewise many other ethnonyms.

The Mundas maintain their tribal identity by prohibiting intermarriage with other tribes: "The tribals of Chotanagpur are an endogamous tribe. They usually do not marry outside the tribal community, because to them the tribe is sacred. The way to salvation is the tribe." (p.43)

Among literate religions, there is one clear parallel, viz. Judaism, which frowns upon intermarriage and has no notion of salvation outside the prospering of the Chosen People. In fact, far from being a unique case, Judaic ethnocentrism, like Munda ethnocentrism, is but the preservation of an attitude which was near-universal at the tribal stage of human development. That is why Christians with their universalism tend to see Jewish ethnocentrism as a "Pagan" element in Judaism (along with Jewish ritualism as opposed to the Christian emphasis on the "spirit"). Conversely, it is also why ethnicist neo-Pagans, of whom some are avowedly racist, tend to show no inclination to anti-Semitism, for they see Judaism as a fellow ethnic religion.

Tribal endogamy explains the Hindu caste system. As Vedic society, an advanced and differentiated society characterized by class (varna) hierarchy, expanded from the Northwest into India's interior, it absorbed ever more tribes but allowed them their distinctive traditions and first of all their defining tradition, viz. their endogamy. This way, endogamous self-contained units or tribes became endogamous segments of Hindu society, or castes.

The supreme God
Christian apologists in India have invested heavily in the proposition that tribals, unlike Hindus, are monotheists, almost-Christians who only need to learn of Jesus: "Sarna spirituality is marked by a strong belief in one God. A careful study of their religious beliefs and ceremonies shows that they believe in a Supreme Being whom they call Singbonga which literally means Sun God." (p.46)

To be sure, "sun god" hardly exonerates the Mundas from the suspicion of Paganism and idolatry. The Inca Athahualpa was killed precisely because he refused to trade in his Sun God for the Christian God and Saviour. The Roman Empire's dominant religion which was replaced and annihilated by Christianity was devoted to the Sun God, Sol Invictus. But modern Christians can explain the anomaly: they will say (like the iconodoulic party in Byzantine said of their icons) that the sun is merely a symbol, an icon which should not be confused with the immaterial divine reality which it represents. And so, Munda Sun worship gets incorporated into the monotheist tradition.

Singbonga looks a bit like the Biblical Creator-God: "Tribal religions generally believe in one God, in a Supreme Being who goes by such names as the Great Spirit, the Great One, the Creator, the Mighty Spirit (...), etc. Although at times God is identified with the rain, light, dawn, fire, water, hills, the Supreme Being of the tribal people is usually independent of the material or astral world. (...) He has dominion over the entire universe." (p.44)

In character, Singbonga seems to have more in common with the charitable God of the New Testament than with the vindictive one of the Old: "Singbonga is eternal. (...) He is also omniscient and omnipresent. (...) Singbonga of Sarna religion is a gentle god, not a malignant deity. He is an all-pervading benevolent power, ever intent on doing good to humanity." (p.46)

An ethnocentric God
Though all-pervading and benevolent, Singbonga is also an ethnocentric God, like Jahweh: "However, Singbonga's relation with the tribe is not one of individual love, but of an all-embracing tribal love. The tribe is the apple of his eye and yet he keeps himself a little aloof from it. He has no favorites; the pahan [= priest] is no more privileged in his eye than the ordinary villager. The Sarna peoples' allegiance to Singbonga is therefore also tribal, an allegiance to the visible and invisible tribe." (p.47)

The apple of His eye, that is how He sees his favourite people, and this justifies the law of endogamy: "The tribe is the temple of Singbonga and he wants it undefiled. The basic belief that Singbonga created the tribe and that therefore it must be preserved in its integrity justifies in the eyes of the Mundas all the regulations and taboos that bind them in this regard. (...) These include exogamy [between families], endogamy [within the tribe], and monogamy in marriage and conjugal fidelity. Not only the offenders themselves but the entire community is appropriately punished by Singbonga for the non-observance of these great ethical values. This almost exclusively tribe-oriented moral code with little personal conscience to enlighten and guide puts the Munda tribe in a world of its own, self-contained, self-sufficient and turned in upon itself, whose whole existence was tied to traditions with little change in the course of time."

(p.47) "The Sarna people do not have a written code of moral law. Their idea of right and wrong comes from their tradition. Tradition is their measure of truth. Their way to salvation is the tribe.

Hence they must see that they remain in the tribe. For them evil is essentially any offense that would break up their tribal status. There are two kinds of offenses: ethical and tribal. Ethical offenses include all aberrations committed consciously and which harm not so much the individual but others. Singbonga may punish such offenses by causing illness or misfortune to the tribe. (...) The offense against the tribe is the most tragic offense for the Sarna people, because their way to salvation is the tribe and this offense usually excludes them from the tribe." (p.52-53)

So, Singbonga punishes His people if they lapse into disloyalty by breaking the taboo of tribal endogamy, just as Jahweh punished His people for mixing with the Midianites, Amorites and other Pagan nations. It is possible that the depiction of Munda religion by our Christian informer is distorted by his Christian upbringing and Biblical schooling; but it is equally possible that we are faced with a genuine parallel between tribal and Biblical (Old-Testamentic) religion, again concerning their ethnocentrism.

As for the nature of the punishment, it must be entirely this-worldly. This is closer to Old-Testamentic beliefs in God's punishing intervention than to Christian claims of an unverifiable punishment in an unseen afterlife,-- or to Puranic-Hindu beliefs in a punishment in future incarnations: "The punishment is not carried over to the life beyond the grave. The idea of repeated rebirth is borrowed from the Hindu religion." (p.53) When a Christian tries to create distance between Hinduism and Indian tribal religions, we must be on our guard, as this is just what his apologetic and strategic interests require, but it may be true nonetheless. My guess is that the idea of reincarnation is entirely native to the Sarna tribes (as it is to numerous tribal cultures around the world), but that it doesn't have the moralistic dimension so typical of the most popular Hindu variant of the reincarnation doctrine, so that the content of the next life is not seen as determined by a tally of merit and guilt.

Monotheism?
Though Singbonga is the Great God of His Munda people, He is not a jealous God but freely allows the worship of other celestial beings: "The domain of tribal belief also extends to the other supernatural beings which are above mankind but are less than the Supreme Being. They are usually called spirits but at times they are also invoked as 'deities' or 'gods'. Belief in spirits is one of the most important characteristics of tribal religions. In fact the tribal world is a world of spirits." (p.44)

There is a whole hierarchy between the supreme God and ordinary spirits: "Besides the Singbonga the Mundas generally worship a host of other spirits including their own ancestors. But Singbonga occupies the highest position in the hierarchical order of spirits." (p.46) This reminds us of the heavenly hosts filling the heaven between the supreme God and the atmosphere in many religions, such as Catholic theology's hierarchy of angels (archangels, powers, principalities etc.) and the choir of angels and saints forever singing God's praise; or, earlier, of Ahura Mazda's six Immortal Spirits and the numerous Helper-Spirits in Zoroastrianism.

Like in the actual practice of popular Roman Catholicism, where people pray to the Virgin Mary or to a particular saint, Munda worship is less directed to the supreme God than to the host of intermediate beings: "Cult or worship is mostly directed to the spirits and the ancestors." (p.44-45) This was the done thing in many polytheistic religions, e.g. the Pagan Arabs made idols of lesser deities for purposes of worship, but never depicted the supreme God, Allah. The existence of a "supreme God" is not proof of monotheism, but is on the contrary entirely typical of most polytheistic pantheons, just as the existence of one Pole Star does not nullify the concomitant existence of a heavenly host of numerous other stars.

Munda polytheism
For a first introduction to the Munda pantheon: "The spirits of the Mundas are hierarchically ordered. The first in order of dignity comes the Burubonga, Marang Buru or Pat Sarna. This spirit is a mountain-god or the highest hill or rock in the neighbourhood. He is represented by no visible object." (p.48) Like the sun, the mountain is an immediately visible presence and needs no representation. So-called idolatry is a relatively recent development in religious history, e.g. most ancient Indo-European peoples did not use idols or icons in their religious practice.

After the mountain god, "Next in order come the Hatu Bongako or the Village spirits. (...) They are worshipped by the Pahan on behalf of the whole village at specific times in the sacred grove or the Sarna of each village." (p.48)

Then, like in most premodern cultures, comes ancestor-worship: "The third group of spirits in the Munda pantheon are the Ora Bongako or the House-spirits. These are the spirits of the deceased ancestors of each family. They are worshipped in the house-sanctuary called Ading, by the head of every family. Sometimes they are referred to as Haparomko (the ancestral spirits). Ancestor worship finds an important place in the religious belief of the Mundas. They believe that after the death of a person his spirit/shade (roa/umbul) has no house to live in. As an outcast it roams about in the neighborhood of the grave. After an odd number of days, the Umbul-ader (homebringing of the shade) ceremony is performed by which the 'shade' of the deceased is brought into the ading of the house and enshrined there. Henceforth the man's spirit is called no longer umbul but Ora Bonga (House Spirit). This important ceremony is a way of re-introducing the deceased member into the tribe. It is believed that they in turn are the real benefactors of the family or the tribe to which they belong." (p.48; the Umbul-ader ceremony is held on the 7th or 9th day for adults, on the 3rd or 5th for children, p.56)

The Christian reporter will be satisfied at noticing that the ancestors are not strictly worshipped but rather (like the Catholic saints) venerated and asked for their intercession with higher celestial authorities: "They keep in touch with other bongas and pray to Singbonga for the welfare of their household and the tribe. They are remembered and offered their due worship and sacrifice at all important occasions of life." (p.48) More explicitly: "The sacrifice they offer is mostly intercessory" (p.49), and their feasts "all refer to Singbonga as provider and creator of the tribe". (p.49)

Worship of lesser gods is not always devotion, it may be apotropeic rituals to appease malevolent beings: "Besides Singbonga, the Munda pantheon includes a number of other deities and spirits whom they call Bongas. (...) There are both benevolent spirits (Manitabongas) and malevolent spirits (Banitabongas). (...) Accordingly the benevolent spirits are worshipped and the malevolent spirits are only appeased or propitiated." (p.47-48)

The worship of Singbonga is of a different order from that of ancestral and other spirits: "Singbonga, unlike spirits, is worshipped for his own sake. His purity demands that he be offered sacrifices only of things that are white. Hence he is given sacrifices of white goats, white fowls, white gulainchi flowers, white cloth, sugar, milk, etc." (p.47) White is the sacred colour of most Indian tribals, not only of the Mundas but also of the Bhils in the western provinces, and of many others.

Tribal environmentalism
In this account, the Munda tribals are presented as confirming the impression that tribals are ecologists by nature: "The world of any tribal group is stamped with sacredness, religiosity and reverence for nature. (...) This is the view of the Sarna tribal people as well. They are totally involved in the world, they communicate with the spirituality that surrounds them. They love nature, they communicate with it and are attached to it. Nature is their way to the supernatural."

(p.51)

Recently the notion of the environmentalist "noble savage" has taken a battering. It is now known that both the North-American Indians and the Australian Aboriginals have exterminated most large mammalian species in their continent. They had no consciousness of the limitations of nature, so they hunted the mammoth or the two-toed American horse or the giant wombat until the seemingly unlimited supply suddenly dried up. Some Western ecologists glorify the life of hunter-gatherers, but in fact, the hunting-gathering lifestyle is by definition plunder. It is because people in India shifted from hunting-gathering to agriculture early on, thus becoming self-reliant instead of dependent on plunder, that India has preserved most of its large species. Only some of the so-called tribals have not taken this step, but most have; the Mundas practise agriculture.

Otherwise, it is obvious that natural religions not based on books and exclusive revelations are much more immersed in nature. Some Christians have developed this religious feeling for nature as well, e.g. the 19th-century Flemish priest-poet Guido Gezelle, required reading in the schools attended by the Flemish Jesuits active in Chotanagpur. But it will again be obvious that this eco-spirituality came from their hearts rather than from their Biblical studies.

Conclusion
This brief little exercise in comparative religion has necessarily been limited by our choice of source material, viz. a fairly sympathizing account marked by a Christian perspective. Therefore, we have tried to avoid basing our impressions on observations which really provoke questions of whether the observer has been projecting his Christian notions onto his topic, or whether the tribals described may not have recently interiorized notions imparted to them by Christians or by Sanskritic Hindus.

Thus, this story about the punishment of the Asuras (Indo-Iranian term for "lords" or "gods", but from late-Vedic onwards a term for "demons") resembles both the Christian theme of the revolting angels and the Old-Testamentic theme of God punishing his people, and perhaps also the Hindu account of Parashuram killing all the male members of the warrior caste: "The Asurs were like the bad angels who revolted against God. They were greedy iron smelters, who even after repeated warning from Singbonga kept on smelting day and night. Because of their disobedience Singbonga destroyed all the male members of the tribe." (p.55) Has this been borrowed, or does it show that all religions address common themes and consequently develop parallel stories? One hesitates to make the choice.

No such hesitation need stop us from appreciating certain deep and undeniably hoary traits of Sarna religion as discussed in this account: its hierarchically conceived polytheistic pantheon centred around an apex god, Singbonga, so typical of Pagan religions in general though possibly usable as a "preparation" for the Christian variety of monotheism, with its Triune God surrounded by a hierarchy of angels; its cult of the ancestors who get associated with the gods, again following a widespread Pagan pattern, though comparable with how the saints are included in the heavenly sphere by Christian theology; and its ethnic dimension, rather different from Christianity but reminiscent of Judaism along with many Pagan tribal religions.
http://koenraadelst.bharatvani.org/articles/chr/sarna.html





Development Induced Displacement in West Bengal : Some Empirical Data and Policy Implications.
Abhijit Guha
Reader, Dept. of Anthropology
V.U., E-mail: abhijitguh...@rediffmail.com


General Scenario
The first striking thing one observes in this field is the virtual absence of any empirical and theoretical work on development induced displacement in West Bengal. This of course does not mean that displacement and rehabilitation are non-existent in West Bengal1, which in the pre-Independence period, was the leading state in terms of industrialisation, and where, after Independence, large industries and thermal power plants have been built up displacing many families (including tribals) from their agricultural land and homes. West Bengal has also experienced large-scale mining on the western part of the state bordering Jharkhand. In an article published in 1989, Walter Fernandes and his co-workers, quoting from Government sources, have shown that for the Durgapur Steel Plant in Bardhaman district of West Bengal 6,633.44 hectares of land was acquired, which displaced 11,300 persons, 3.39 percent of whom were tribals (Fernandes et al. 1989). In the same article, Fernandes
quoted another Government source which showed that up to 1983 there were 114 mines (all are coal mines) in West Bengal although he did not give any concrete figure about the total number of displaced persons owing to the acquisition of land for the establishment of mines. Through extrapolation, Fernandes, however, arrived at an estimate of 1,380 displaced persons per mine in India which brings out a figure of 1,57,320 persons in case of West Bengal. In more recent period, particularly since the adoption of a liberalised economic policy by the Central Government, quite a good number of development projects have been launched by the West Bengal Government and many more will be coming up in near future. The building up of a new township near Kolkata and the establishment of industries in the rural areas of West Bengal including a port centered industrial complex at Haldia in the Purba Medinipur district constitute the recent development package of the Government of West
Bengal. For the successful implementation of this development policy large scale acquisition of land has already been taken place in West Bengal, which displaced quite a good number of small and marginal farmers. No published statistics on displaced (DP) and project affected persons (PAP), let alone their caste/tribe affiliation, are available from any official source of Government of West Bengal. Displacement and rehabilitation have not yet entered into the official agenda of the Government of West Bengal like the routinised recording of bargadars (sharecroppers) and the number of landless labourers who have been given land by the Government.
On the other hand, the West Bengal scenario is yet to figure in any substantial manner in the academic literature with respect to land acquisition, development induced displacement and rehabilitation. There exist at least four special volumes of important Indian journals devoted exclusively to displacement and rehabilitation, but none of them contain any case study or policy-oriented paper on West Bengal. These journals are Social Action (Vol. 45, No. 3, 1995, July – Sept.), Lokayan Bulletin (Vol. 11, No. 5, 1995), Economic and Political Weekly (Vol. XXXI, No. 24, June 1996) and Eastern Anthropologist (Vol. 53, Nos. 1-2, January-June 2000).
The same is true about recently published monographs viz., Development Displacement and Rehabilitation edited by Walter Fernandes and Enakshi Ganguly Thukral (1989) The Uprooted (1990) edited by V. Sudarsen and M.A. Kalam and Development Projects and Impoverishment Risks edited by Hari Mohan Mathur and David Marsden (2000). Very recently, Partha Chatterjee, a renowned political scientist, has undertaken a study on resettlement and rehabilitation in West Bengal. His paper, which is still unpublished was presented in a workshop on “Social Development Research” in West Bengal held during 6-7 July 2000 at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Kolkata. In this significant paper, Chatterjee has pointed out that participatory rehabilitation through NGOs has become a “mantra” which is being repeated by the Governments, funding agencies, experts and activists but “little attention has been given to the specific forms of practice through which appropriate and adequate
‘participation’ can be ensured” (Chatterjee 2000). Chatterjee used three cases of displacement and consequent rehabilitation in West Bengal to assess the role of the political parties’ vis-à-vis Government bureaucracy in providing rehabilitation to PAP in West Bengal. His findings on the political processes that centered around the rehabilitation mechanisms of the recent industrialisation in Haldia (1988-91) and the establishment of new township in Rajarhat clearly demonstrated the dominance of the local political society over the Government administration. Quite interestingly, in both the cases, the distribution of rehabilitation benefits was based on a ground-level agreement between the representatives of the ruling and the opposition political parties of West Bengal. The net result of this process was the distribution of a better and quicker rehabilitation package to the project affected families than it would have been made by the usual land acquisition procedure
carried out by the bureaucratic machinery alone. In West Bengal, it was the political society (represented by the political parties) rather than the civil society (represented by the NGOs), which took the role of a mediator between the state and the PAP. Field based empirical accounts of development caused displacement in West Bengal was published for the first time by the author of this article in journals based on a case study in erstwhile Medinipur district (Guha 2004a).
Land Acquisition in West Bengal : Legal Developmental and Policy Dimensions
Land acquisition in West Bengal has a special significance in the context of the pro-peasant land reform policies adopted and implemented by the Left Front Government in West Bengal since it came to power in 1977. Almost all the studies conducted by the researchers on displacement in other states of India did not take into consideration the dampening effects of land acquisition on small peasants and sharecroppers who are the real beneficiaries of land reforms.
Agricultural land is not only a socio-cultural and economic category for the peasants in a rural setting but the rights of the people over such land depend on the functioning of a specific set of legal, administrative and policy apparatus with which a particular state power is endowed in a given period of time. The functioning of the legal, administrative and policy apparatus of the state power do not again operate in a cultural vacuum. The differing and sometimes quite opposing perspectives on issues around development form the cultural context within which the state apparatus functions.
According to the Land Acquisition Act, the state can exercise its right of eminent domain wherein it is the ultimate owner of all land, which it can acquire for public purposes after paying full compensation calculated on the basis of market value. Despite several amendments of the Act after Independence, the two basic principles of land acquisition, viz. (i) public purpose and (ii) compensation on market value, remain unchanged. The various criticisms of Land Acquisition Act in India have also centered around these two cardinal principles. One of the major criticisms of the Land Acquisition Act is that the ex-pression “public purpose” is nowhere defined in the Act and in India the courts do not have the power to decide whether the purpose behind a particular acquisition was a public purpose. The court can only direct the Collector to hear the objections of a person whose land hand been acquired, but the Collector may not always listen to the objections raised by the
legal owner of the land.
The second criticism of the Land Acquisition is anthropological in nature. It says that the calculation of compensation on the basis of market value not only deprives the landowner, but it also hides the various socio-cultural dimensions of land ownership in an agrarian society. Land does not only have a market price at the time of acquisition, but it also serves various social, political and psychological functions to its owner. The ownership of a small piece of land can empower a landless family and increase the status and prestige of that family in the local milieu. A piece of land supports a family for a number of generations, not simply its present members at the time of acquisition. But these important dimensions of land and its ownership in an agricultural society are not considered for calculation of its value while giving compensation to a landloser.
Beside these two criticisms, there are others which grew out of the lengthy discourse and debate carried out by activists, scholars, legal experts and non-governmental organisations on the various shortcomings of this Act. The criticisms are as follows:
1. The Land Acquisition Act only deals with compensation and not rehabilitation of project affected persons whose lands have been acquired. The responsibility of the state towards the affected persons ends with the payment of compensation.
2. The Act considers the payment of compensation to individuals who have legal ownership rights over land. This means that under this Act no compensation is payable to landless labourers, forest land users and forest produce collectors, artisans and shifting hill cultivators because they do not have any legal right over land, although these groups of people are also affected when agricultural and forest lands are acquired for development projects. In West Bengal, the state Government had to make an amendment in the LA Act(it was done in the 1960s) in order to provide compensation to sharecroppers (bargadars), who also suffered loss of livelihood because of acquisition of agricultural land.
3. The Land Acquisition Act only recognises individual property rights, but not community rights over land. As a consequence, the usefructory rights of the tribal and non-tribal communities over common land do not find any place in this law. So when village common lands are acquired, no compensation in any form is provided to the village communities who derive various types of benefits (e.g. cattle grazing, fuelwood collection etc.) from these lands. The Land Acquisition Act does not have any scope for this kind of compensation for loss of common pool resources (CPR). Interestingly, in the vast rural areas of India, privately owned agricultural lands are also used as common grazing lands by the villagers in the post-harvest season. The Land Acquisition Act has no provision to compensate the villagers who may not be the owners of a particular piece of agricultural land but enjoyed usefructory rights of cattle grazing on this land after the harvest of the crops (Guha
2004b).
It has already been discussed in the preceding section that no systematic and comprehensive study on land acquisition in West Bengal exist till today. There is no baseline empirical survey on the nature and extent of land acquired in West Bengal for various development projects, nor is there any research on the specific problems of application of the Central and State Acts on land acquisition in West Bengal. Recently, Walter Fernandes and his team have undertaken a comprehensive macro-level empirical survey (sponsored by the Ministry of Rural Areas and Employment Govt. of India and North-Eastern Social Research Council, a research oriented NGO) on the nature and extent of development induced displacement and rehabilitation in the 16 districts of West Bengal for the period 1951 – 1995. Being one of the research supervisors in the aforesaid research project for the South Bengal districts (Medinipur, Bankura, Purulia and Hughly), it is within the knowledge of the present
author that the results of this survey may be published in future (personal communication Walter Fernandes, 2000).
Since Independence, besides the colonial Land Acquisition Act of 1894, there existed another State Act entitled West Bengal Land (Requisition and Acquisition) Act, 1948. The latter Act is no more applicable in West Bengal since 31 March 1993 by a decision of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly. In fact, when this particular piece of legislation was first enacted in the State Assembly it was stipulated that the Act has to be renewed in the Assembly by a majority decision every five years since this is a very powerful and coercive law. The Government opinion was that the State of West Bengal, which had to receive millions of refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan just after Independence, needed huge amount of land for various developmental purposes. For this reason, the Government was in need of an Act, which was more powerful than the colonial Act in acquiring land from the private owners. By West Bengal Land (Requisition and Acquisition) Act the Government could first
requisition a particular piece of land for which the payment of compensation may not be made before the land take-over while in the earlier LA Act of 1894 the Government could not take possession of any land without payment of compensation. In the absence of any district by district published records on the amount of land acquired by West Bengal Government by the two Land Acquisition Acts it is not possible to make any assessment of the policy directions of the state Government in acquiring land by these two Acts which vary in their basic approach towards the payment of compensation to the project affected people. But the long period (1948 – 1993), that is nearly 45 years, during which the West Bengal Government has kept this powerful Act alive is itself an evidence of its frequent application. In terms of political composition, it should be noted that during this long period both Congress and Left ruled Governments, who were in power, continuously renewed the Requisition
and Acquisition Act of 1948 in the State assembly.
The debates and discussions that took place in the West Bengal Assembly around West Bengal Land (Requisition and Acquisition) Act 1948 revealed certain interesting points which are enumerated below:
1. Without any exception, the political party in power (Congress or Left) invariably justified the extension of Act-II for quicker acquisition of land for various development works.
2. Both the Congress and the Left Parties criticised the oppressive character of the West Bengal Land (Requisition and Acquisition) Act, 1948 whenever they were in opposition although representatives of the parties in the Legislative Assembly went for vote on the bill twice only. It seems that whether the parties would go for vote depended on factors other than the immediate issue at hand.
3. The delay in the payment of compensation seemed to be the most commonly accepted issue which was raised in the Assembly and no substantial improvement seemed to have taken place with regard to the time taken for the payment of compensation.
4. No member ever raised the point that the Government has a moral responsibility for rehabilitation of the displaced persons due to the acquisition of land. It may be noted in this connection that the Report of the Expert Group on Land Acquisition formed by the Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India, which was published in 1967, categorically mentioned rehabilitation of displaced persons as a “moral responsibility” of the Government. Since 1967, no member of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, irrespective of political affiliation, was found to have made use of the aforesaid report of the Expert Committee to demand rehabilitation of displaced persons during debate sessions on Act-II. Incidentally, the report is still available in the Library of the West Bengal Legislative Assembly.
5. It is only the Left Members who have suggested that the rates of compensation for the rich and the poor should also be different but they did not make any move towards the differential payment of compensation through amendments in either Act-I or Act-II since they are in power from 1977.
6. The speech delivered by the Land and Land Reforms Minister of the Left Front in the 103rd session of the Assembly on 23 February 1994 revealed the pace at which the land acquisition process was in operation in West Bengal (15,000 pending cases under Act II). One could easily infer from this the kind of harassment caused to the displaced persons in the districts of West Bengal although no member (belonging to Left or Congress party) spoke on this issue in the Assembly. Every political party seemed to have taken the stand that this harassment of the people of West Bengal caused by land acquisition was an inevitable outcome which has to be shouldered by the poor farmers for the sake of development of the state (W.B. Legislative Assembly Proceedings 1956, 1963, 1967, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1978, 1983, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1994).
http://groups.google.co.in/group/GRASSROOTS-in-action/browse_thread/thread/e89c14ce779df9d4
Govt hits back at Naxalites
Nadeem Ahmed (HindustanTimes.com)
May 9
With the affected states having failed to effectively crush red
extremism on their own, a joint war on Red terror has been mounted
with the Centre playing a pivotal role, particularly in the scenario
of post-December 13 attack on Indian Parliament and India's pledge to
eliminate all forms of extremism.

A stick and carrot policy has been evolved in coordination with all
states concerned.

A Coordination Centre comprising Chief Secretaries and police chiefs
of all the nine naxal-hit states has been established headed by Union
Home Secretary. One of its prime aims is to choke escape routes of
naxalites whose tactics of taking refuge in adjoining states after
committing crimes has been effective over the years.

It annually reviews anti-naxal operations, which include bullets for
radicals and sops for deserters and people in areas of ultra-Leftist
influence. Central government has already agreed to share financial
burden of the war against them.

The latest December 28 meeting of the Coordination Centre reviewed the
situation in affected states of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal,
Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Uttar
Pradesh. It discussed steps needed to prevent fallout of Nepal Maoist
violence in India and counter naxalites' "plans" to strike at
high-profile targets. It was also decided to expedite developmental
works in affected regions.

PWG, MCC banned: The Centre on December 5, 2001 banned People's War
Group and Maoist Communist Centre, the fiercest naxalite outfit in
India, under Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance. "All formations and
front organisations of the CPI (ML) People's War and Maoist Communist
Centre have been declared terrorist organisations under POTO," an
official declaration said.

The ban clubs the duo with other dreaded terrorist groups like
Lashkar-Tayeba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and ULFA besides 20 others,
reflecting the toughest anti-naxalite stand of the Centre in years.

However, since the PWG had already been banned in AP and both PWG and
MCC in Bihar, the efficacy of a nationwide ban is being debated.

The March 6, 2000 meeting of Coordination Centre has decided to
improvise training for security forces engaged against naxalites.
Greater sharing of intelligence between the states, setting up of
joint groups at inspector-general level to facilitate co-ordinated
operations and inter-state movement of troops were other measures
finalised at the meet.

The March 6, 2000 meeting had agreed on the following points:

-Centre will examine and recommend desirability of raising an Indian
Reserve Battalion to fight naxalites.

-Aerial photography of the affected zones will be considered.
-To make available monitoring equipment to intercept naxalites'
wireless messages.
-A development plan will be outlined to rtemove socio-economic causes
of naxalism.
-Inclusion of newer items and newer districts in the scheme for
reimbursement of security-related expenditure (SRE).
-Special training facilities to be made available with assistance of
Intelligence Bureau.
-Studying the proposal to form special inter-state operation groups
against naxalites.

ANDHRA PRADESH

The state, worst hit by naxalism, has been pursuing a multi-pronged
approach to tackle the "menace".

Social Initiative: While its Janmabhoomi programme aims at community
participation by empowering Village Development Committees and Self
Help Groups, authorities are gradually redistributing the land, which
had earlier been "grabbed" by naxalites, among peasants.

Since 1993, the state has been offering attractive rehabilitation
packages to bring naxalites back into the mainstream. More than 3905
naxalites have surrendered and over 1070 rehabilitated at a cost of
over Rs. 10 crores so far.

The state is also utilising Central anti-poverty programme of
Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana in the naxal-infested areas.

The state has also launched the AP Tribal Development Project with the
help of United Nation's International Food and agriculture Development
and the Dutch Government. It has resulted in setting up of 1030
Village Tribal Development Associations, more than 1230 Self-Help
Groups and 467 grain-banks.

Law and Order Problem: Contrary to many socialists, the state
considers Naxalism as a law and order problem. The data that only 433
of 2077 casualties in decade-long ultra-leftist violence in the state
had caste or class orientation backs the state's stand.

In addition to banning PWG in the state and then pushing the Centre to
ban it nation-wide under POTO, the state government had formed a
special anti-naxal Police force called Grey Hounds who were equipped
with modern weaponry and trained in guerrilla warfare.

The Disturbed Areas Act has been put in force in a number of
naxalite-hit districts. Round the clock security is provided to almost
all the key leaders in naxal-hit areas.

Chandrababu Naidu has proposed use of unmanned aerial vehicles to
track naxalite movement. Although Defence Ministry has raised initial
objections, the Centre is considering the proposal.

MADHYA PRADESH

The state government has adopted a blow-hot-blow-cold approach to
tackle naxalism.

The state government in July 2000 decided to constitute a Hawk Force
on the lines of Gray Hounds of AP and to give the members of this
force 70 per cent of their basic pay as Naxalite Operation Risk
Allowance.

In May 2000, the state decided to give police officers in
Naxalite-affected areas the powers of executive magistrates. The state
assembly passed the MP Special Areas Security Bill 2000 on Nov 27,
2000. It has also decided to send its police officials to AP Police
Academy for special training.

Besides taking steps to arm the forces with modern weapons and using
helicopters to monitor naxal movement during elections, it has
proposed to build 2,700 km of roads in the naxal-affected areas at a
cost of Rs 201 crores. It has also launched a Jan Jagran Abhiyan to
wean tribals out of naxalite influence.

CHHATTISGARH

The newly-created predominantly tribal state has got naxalism in
legacy from its parent state Madhya Pradesh. Almost all its 16
districts, including the densely forested Bastar, have PWG presence.

Special Task Force has been pressed into service in all 16 districts
of the state. It has decided to raise two new battalions of police.
Village Courts have been established in a bid to counter the 'people's
court' conducted by Naxalites.

A minor forest produce costs and prices committee has been set up to
recommend minimum support prices for all minor forest produce except
tendu leaves to check exploitation of tribals.

BIHAR

The large-scale poverty, caste and class struggles, "criminal politics
and bad administration" have more or less failed all the anti-naxalite
measures. In vast areas of abject poverty, these factors have in fact
strengthened PWG and MCC -- the most dreaded ultra-leftist forces in
the state. Caste armies like Ranvir Sena and continued revenge
killings have compounded the problem.

Experts say, in some cases the anti-naxalism measures have actually
helped Red ultras. Operation Siddharth, Jawahar Rozgar Yojna and
Minimum Needs Programme aimed at providing relief to oppressed classes
had just the opposite effect due to "bad governance".

To make it worse, the state police are inadequately equipped to
counter ultras' modern firepower.

JHARKHAND

It has launched an exercise to identify areas where landowners had
been reportedly evicted by some naxalite outfits. Officials say naxal
groups are allegedly forcing villagers to cultivate "occupied land"
and take up arms. The government intends to takeover all the
naxal-occupied agricultural land and distribute it among villagers.
However, the state police are poorly equipped. The state plans to
modernise the police set-up and raise two additional battalions.

ORISSA

Orissa has put Rs 20-crore proposal to the Centre to tackle naxalism.
According to an action plan, Orissa police will be trained in jungle
warfare by its counterparts in Andhra Pradesh.

The state is raising Indian Reserve Battalion and Eighth Battalion to
fight Naxals. While Orissa will bear the cost of raising Eighth
Battalion, Centre and State will share the cost of Indian Reserve
Battalion.

The State Government has also devised an inter-state co-ordination
mechanism to deal with the problem. Orissa part of common war zone.

MAHARASHTRA

Both Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have urged the Centre to amend the
Forest Conservation Act so as to remove legal hurdles for laying new
roads and starting development projects in tribal-dominated areas.

WEST BENGAL

Comprehensive land reforms in West Bengal under the Left Front
government has taken away much of rationale for the ultra-leftist
movement in the state. However, many an ultra-leftist still have their
roots there.
http://groups.google.co.in/group/soc.culture.tamil/browse_thread/thread/473aec1bc23fc219
Economic constraints of tribal development in KBK




Indigenous Peoples in India

Terms used
While the government of India refers to indigenous peoples as "Scheduled Tribes", Adivasi has become the popular term for India's indigenous or tribal peoples. It is a Sanskrit word meaning "original people". Contrary to the official government position, this term reflects the widely recognised fact that the people in question are the earliest known settlers on the Indian subcontinent and North-East India. The indigenous or tribal peoples of India's north-eastern region (the seven states Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura) do not call themselves, nor are they normally referred to in literature, as Adivasi in spite of the fact that the meaning of the term very much applies to the respective people. Representatives of these peoples prefer to use the English term "indigenous peoples".

Population
In the 2001 census, 84.33 million persons were classified as members of Scheduled Tribes, corresponding to 8.2% of the total population. The census lists 461 groups recognised as tribes, while estimates of the number of tribes living in India reach up to 635. While the number of members of the largest tribes, such as the Gonds, Santals, Oraon, Bhils or Nagas go into the millions others, such as the Onge or the Great Andamanese, are on the brink of extinction.

The majority of the indigenous and tribal peoples live in an almost contiguous belt stretching from Gujarat in the west to the seven states in the north-east, with the highest concentration in the central region, where more than 50% of the tribal people live. The highest ethnic diversity among the indigenous and tribal population is in the north-eastern region, where 220 distinct groups have been identified. They comprise approximately 12% of the total indigenous population of India.

Livelihood
India's tribal people are among the poorest in the country. The "Scheduled Tribes" have the highest poverty rate of the three categories of people officially distinguished. A 1991 census showed that 52.17% of them live below the poverty line. Among the Scheduled Castes this figure is 48.14% and among other people 31.29% (the overall figure for India given in the same survey is 37.09%). This dismal situation is reflected in the health and nutritional status of tribal villagers. Especially where access to forest products to supplement their diet and to provide additional cash income is no longer possible – either because the forests have been destroyed or their rights of access are being denied – under-nourishment and malnutrition is widespread.

Most of India's indigenous peoples have been forest dwellers for centuries. Traditionally, forests met most of their fodder, food, medicinal and other needs. A long process of turning forest areas into a source of revenue and timber, and exploitation of the mineral resources, has led to deforestation, loss of livelihood and displacement of indigenous peoples. The vast majority of the labour force among scheduled tribes is engaged in the agricultural sector (the figure for all India is 66.84%). This means that almost nine-tenths of tribal families rely on natural resources for their livelihood. The majority of these are engaged in permanent agriculture but shifting cultivation still forms the mainstay of the domestic economy in many upland areas, particularly in the north-east. A few small groups in Central and South India and on the Andaman Islands live almost entirely from hunting, gathering and fishing.

Since tribal communities have been forced off most of the fertile plains they previously inhabited, the majority of tribal farmers cultivate marginal land, using rather extensive methods. Above all, irrigation is absent from most areas, the extensive rice terraces of some indigenous peoples, for example some Naga tribes in the north-east, being the exception.

Forests have always, and for almost all tribal societies, been of vital importance for their livelihood. Shifting cultivators have tapped the regenerative forces of natural forest succession on fallow land, wild animals are hunted and represent an indispensable source of protein. Forest plants are gathered for food, fuel, medicine, spices, ornaments, dye etc., many of which are sold and represent the main source of cash for tribal villagers.

Some tribal communities in Central India have become professional specialists, providing other tribal communities with artisanal products such as baskets, woven textiles, iron tools etc. A small but rapidly growing number are employed as industrial labourers.

The status and situation of indigenous and tribal women
The status of tribal women is markedly better than that in the Hindu caste society. Women play an important role in the domestic economy of tribal societies, they are usually allowed to move freely, and have the right to choose their marriage partners or at least have a large say in this (it is always, at the very least, a family affair). Divorce is usually possible and much easier, and tribal widows – unlike their Hindu sisters – have no problem in remarrying. But, again, these are generalisations and there are indigenous societies in which child and forced marriages are common. In many tribal societies, paying a bride price is part of the marriage arrangement. This stands in contrast to the dowry practice in Hindu society, which means that the birth of a baby girl represents a heavy economic burden for poorer families, with enormous repercussions on the status of women, and on the sex ratio in the population. Studies have shown that baby girls are less well-looked after than boys, leading to a higher infant mortality rate. The possibility of pre-natal sex identification has led to a rapid drop in the births of baby girls.

In hardly any indigenous society do women participate in formal political decision-making. They are often consulted, by their husbands or in community meetings. But they are not members of village councils, and cannot become the chief. They also hardly ever play an important role in religion, although they may also be spirit mediums or healers. Generally, women are valued for their productive and reproductive functions.

With the exception of a few matrilineal societies (such as the Garo and Khasi of Meghalaya in the north-east), women do not inherit land. And even among the matrilineal societies, the land is in reality managed and controlled by men. Indigenous women's right to land is usually only a usufruct right. But it is very important for unmarried women and widows. Ownership normally rests with their fathers, brothers or husbands. Men therefore tend to have greater control over agricultural production and products. However, tribal women do enjoy spheres in which they retain some control. On mainland India, in particular, gathering forest products - which has been very much a female activity - is crucial for women to maintain at least some degree of autonomy since they have control over these products, i.e. they sell them themselves.

Source: "Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in India" (2001) by Christian Erni & Shimreichon, ILO (Desk Review)
http://www.iwgia.org/sw18239.asp

'Maps of resource rich, poverty stricken tribal India overlap'
Date: 30/05/2007



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Source: Down to Earth Vol: 16 Issue: 20070531
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TagsConflicts, Displacement, Jharkhand, Koel Karo, Land Ownership, Naxalites, NGO, North East, Rural Poverty, Tribals, India, Poverty
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Ethnic conflicts have dogged India since independence. The problem has attracted a lot of scholarship. Amarjyoti Borah talks to two eminent academics who have looked at the problem. Ram Dayal Munda, currently chief advisor, Indian Confederation of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples, puts the problem of tribal people in the country in perspective

Which areas in India are most prone to ethnic conflict?
These days unrest begins in Nepal, and proceeds down along forest lines to Kerala; from north Maharashtra it spreads to the east coast. Maps of forest-laden India, poverty-stricken India, illiterate India, and natural resource-rich India overlap. These areas are also coterminous with tribal India, a realm prone to ethnic conflicts.

What are the main reasons for the unrest?
Rural deprivation breeds unrest.Illiteracy, poverty, unemployment and insecurity are reasons that are interrelated. People rebel because their survival is threatened.

But a lot of violence is committed by educated young men who have options.
Most, actually, don't have options. People are lured into extremist groups for paltry sums, sometimes as low as Rs 1,500. Such violence will definitely come down, once the economic condition of people improves.

Today tribal lands are encroached by non-tribals. There is also violence for small jobs, which adds ‘fuel to fire'.

Why can't the tribal leadership across India organise tribals into a more powerful force, like the dalit leadership?
I don't think the dalits are doing any better. But they do have more political knowledge. Besides, they are more in number and have better access to the ‘system'.

Why are tribal leaders not visible in national politics?
It takes time for tribal people to become aware of politics, their political awareness is quite low. They have to come out to towns from rural areas.

Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh have had tribal chief ministers who have done very little for tribal welfare.

They are not tribal states.

But they had tribal chief ministers.

It is the assembly which takes decisions, not the chief minister.

Is the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act, 1958, against the indigenous people of the northeast?
Yes, and it is very unfortunate that the common people are at the receiving end of an act specifically designed to curb insurgency in the area.

Does the Indian economy have any role in adding fire to ethnic conflicts?
Yes. Unfortunately equal attention has not been paid to rural development. This year's budget stresses that. This realisation should have come much earlier.

Do transnational companies complicate matters?
Yes. Most mega developmental projects such as dams and express highways are taking place in tribal belts displacing many people. This can cause major conflicts.

Your views on the Narmada Bachao Aandolan (nba).

It's almost a failure and this is because people were mobilised far too late—after work on the dam started.

Its leadership doesn't have any tribals as well.

Awareness among tribal people is very low except in the northeast and Jharkhand. The leadership should have geared people up for a long-drawn battle. This, unfortunately, did not happen. Also a lot of people opted for the dam: a lot of money was used to ‘buy' supporters.

How would you compare nba with the agitation which succeeded in getting the ‘Koel Karo' dam in Jharkhand scrapped in 2004?
In Koel Karo, people were aware of ground realities, they set conditions for resettlement.The government couldn't resettle two villages, which made the people more suspicious and they hardened their agitation.

What can civil society groups learn from the two movements?
Civil society involvement was minimal in both the cases. Civil society actually wanted the dams. In both the cases, nobody except activists, was concerned.

Should protest be non-violent?
The state misuses power. It's better to use other means and not non-violence.

Your views on reservation in employment and in educational institutes.

Reservation can only have a limited impact. The government should give extra attention to children from weaker sections. After all, the purpose of reservation is to bring about an improvement in lives of the weaker section of people, and not a reduction in work quality.
http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/node/34278

The Adivasis of India -
A History of Discrimination, Conflict, and Resistance

-- By C.R. Bijoy, Core Committee of the All India Coordinating Forum of Adivasis/Indigenous Peoples

The 67.7 million people belonging to "Scheduled Tribes" in India are generally considered to be 'Adivasis', literally meaning 'indigenous people' or 'original inhabitants', though the term 'Scheduled Tribes' (STs) is not coterminous with the term 'Adivasis'. Scheduled Tribes is an administrative term used for purposes of 'administering' certain specific constitutional privileges, protection and benefits for specific sections of peoples considered historically disadvantaged and 'backward'.

However, this administrative term does not exactly match all the peoples called 'Adivasis'. Out of the 5653 distinct communities in India, 635 are considered to be 'tribes' or 'Adivasis'. In comparison, one finds that the estimated number of STs varies from 250 to 593.

For practical purposes, the United Nations and multilateral agencies generally consider the STs as 'indigenous peoples'. With the ST population making up 8.08% (as of 1991) of the total population of India, it is the nation with the highest concentration of 'indigenous peoples' in the world!

The Constitution of India, which came into existence on 26 January 1950, prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth (Article 15) and it provides the right to equality (Article 14), to freedom of religion (Articles 25-28) and to culture and education (Articles 29-30). STs are supposedly addressed by as many as 209 Articles and 2 special schedules of the Constitution - Articles and special schedules which are protective and paternalistic.

Article 341 and 342 provides for classification of Scheduled Castes (the untouchable lower castes) and STs, while Articles 330, 332 and 334 provides for reservation of seats in Parliament and Assemblies. For purposes of specific focus on the development of STs, the government has adopted a package of programmes, which is administered in specific geographical areas with considerable ST population, and it covers 69% of the tribal population.
Despite this, and after the largest "modern democracy" of the world has existed for more than half a century, the struggles for survival of Adivasis - for livelihood and existence as peoples - have today intensified and spread as never before in history.

Over centuries, the Adivasis have evolved an intricate convivial-custodial mode of living. Adivasis belong to their territories, which are the essence of their existence; the abode of the spirits and their dead and the source of their science, technology, way of life, their religion and culture.

Back in history, the Adivasis were in effect self-governing 'first nations'. In general and in most parts of the pre-colonial period, they were notionally part of the 'unknown frontier' of the respective states where the rule of the reign in fact did not extend, and the Adivasis governed themselves outside of the influence of the particular ruler.

The introduction of the alien concept of private property began with the Permanent Settlement of the British in 1793 and the establishment of the "Zamindari" system that conferred control over vast territories, including Adivasi territories, to designated feudal lords for the purpose of revenue collection by the British. This drastically commenced the forced restructuring of the relationship of Adivasis to their territories as well as the power relationship between Adivasis and 'others'. The predominant external caste-based religion sanctioned and practiced a rigid and highly discriminatory hierarchical ordering with a strong cultural mooring.

This became the natural basis for the altered perception of Adivasis by the 'others' in determining the social, and hence, the economic and political space in the emerging larger society that is the Indian diaspora. Relegating the Adivasis to the lowest rung in the social ladder was but natural and formed the basis of social and political decision making by the largely upper caste controlled mainstream. The ancient Indian scriptures, scripted by the upper castes, also further provided legitimacy to this.

The subjugated peoples have been relegated to low status and isolated, instead of either being eliminated or absorbed. Entry of Europeans and subsequent colonisation of Asia transformed the relationship between the mainstream communities and tribal communities of this region. Introduction of capitalism, private property and the creation of a countrywide market broke the traditional economy based on use value and hereditary professions.
All tribal communities are not alike. They are products of different historical and social conditions. They belong to four different language families, and several different racial stocks and religious moulds. They have kept themselves apart from feudal states and brahminical hierarchies for thousands of years.
In the Indian epics such as Ramayana, Mahabharata and Puranas (folklores) there are many references to interactions and wars between the forest or hill tribes and the Hindus.

Eminent historians who have done detailed research on the epic Ramayana (200 B.C to 500 B.C) have concluded that 'Lanka', the kingdom of the demonic king Ravana and 'Kishkinda', the homeland of the Vanaras (depicted as monkeys) were places situated south of Chitrakuta hill and north of Narmada river in middle India. Accordingly, Ravana and his demons were an aboriginal tribe, most probably the Gond, and the Vanaras, like Hanuman in the epic, belonged to the Savara and Korku tribes whose descendants still inhabit the central Indian forest belt. Even today, the Gond holds Ravana, the villain of Ramayana, in high esteem as a chief. Rama, the hero of Ramayana, is also known for slaughtering the Rakshasas (demons) in the forests!

The epic of Mahabharata refers to the death of Krishna at the hands of a Bhil Jaratha. In the ancient scriptures, considered to be sacred by the upper castes, various terms are used depicting Adivasis as almost non-humans. The epics of Ramayana and Mahabharata, the Puranas, Samhitas and other so-called 'sacred books' refer to Adivasis as Rakshasa (demons), Vanara (monkeys), Jambuvan (boar men), Naga (serpents), Bhusundi Kaka (crow), Garuda (King of Eagles) etc. In medieval India, they were called derogatorily as Kolla, Villa, Kirata, Nishada, and those who surrendered or were subjugated were termed as Dasa (slave) and those who refused to accept the bondage of slavery were termed as Dasyu (a hostile robber).

Ekalavya, one of their archers was so skillful that the hero of the Aryans, Arjuna, could not stand before him. But they assaulted him, cutting his thumb and destroying his ability to fight - and then fashioned a story in which he accepted Drona as his Guru and surrendered his thumb as an offering to the master! The renowned writer Maheshwata Devi points out that Adivasis predated Hinduism and Aryanism, that Siva was not an Aryan god and that in the 8th century, the tribal forest goddess or harvest goddess was absorbed and adapted as Siva's wife. Goddess Kali, the goddess of hunters, has definitely had a tribal origin.

History of the Adivasis
Little is known about the relationship between the Adivasis and non-Adivasi communities during the Hindu and Muslim rules. There are stray references to wars and alliances between the Rajput kings and tribal chieftains in middle India and in the North-East between the Ahom Kings of Brahmaputra valley and the hill Nagas. They are considered to be ati-sudra meaning lower than the untouchable castes. Even today, the upper caste people refer to these peoples as jangli, a derogatory term meaning "those who are like wild animals" - uncivilised or sub-humans.

The Adivasis have few food taboos, rather fluid cultural practices and minimal occupational specialization, while on the other hand, the mainstream population of the plains have extensive food taboos, more rigid cultural practices and considerable caste-based occupational specialisation. In the Hindu caste system, the Adivasis have no place. The so-called mainstream society of India has evolved as an agglomeration of thousands of small-scale social groups whose identities within the larger society are preserved by not allowing them to marry outside their social groups.



The subjugated groups became castes forced to perform less desirable menial jobs like sweeping, cleaning of excreta, removal of dead bodies, leather works etc - the untouchables. Some of the earliest small-scale societies dependent on hunting and gathering, and traditional agriculture seem to have remained outside this process of agglomeration. These are the Adivasis of present day. Their autonomous existence outside the mainstream led to the preservation of their socio-religious and cultural practices, most of them retaining also their distinctive languages. Widow burning, enslavement, occupational differentiation, hierarchical social ordering etc are generally not there. Though there were trade between the Adivasis and the mainstream society, any form of social intercourse was discouraged. Caste India did not consciously attempt to draw them into the orbit of caste society.

But in the process of economic, cultural and ecological change, Adivasis have attached themselves to caste groups in a peripheral manner, and the process of de-tribalisation is a continuous one. Many of the Hindu communities have absorbed the cultural practices of the Adivasis. Although Hinduism could be seen as one unifying thread running through the country as a whole, it is not homogenous but in reality a conglomeration of centuries old traditions and shaped by several religious and social traditions which are more cultural in their essence (and including elements of Adivasi socio-religious culture).

Adivasis at the lowest rung of the ladder
Adivasis are not, as a general rule, regarded as unclean by caste Hindus in the same way as Dalits are. But they continue to face prejudice (as lesser humans), they are socially distanced and often face violence from society. They are at the lowest point in every socioeconomic indicator. Today the majority of the population regards them as primitive and aims at decimating them as peoples or at best integrating them with the mainstream at the lowest rung in the ladder. This is especially so with the rise of the fascist Hindutva forces.

None of the brave Adivasi fights against the British have been treated as part of the "national" struggle for independence. From the Malpahariya uprising in 1772 to Lakshman Naik's revolt in Orissa in 1942, the Adivasis repeatedly rebelled against the British in the north-eastern, eastern and central Indian belt. In many of the rebellions, the Adivasis could not be subdued, but terminated the struggle only because the British acceded to their immediate demands, as in the case of the Bhil revolt of 1809 and the Naik revolt of 1838 in Gujarat. Heroes like Birsa Munda, Kanhu Santhal, Khazya Naik, Tantya Bhil, Lakshman Naik, Kuvar Vasava, Rupa Naik, Thamal Dora, Ambul Reddi, Thalakkal Chandu etc are remembered in the songs and stories of the Adivasis but ignored in the official text books.

The British Crown's dominions in India consisted of four political arrangements:

the Presidency Areas where the Crown was supreme,
the Residency Areas where the British Crown was present through the Resident and the Ruler of the realm was subservient to the Crown,
the Agency (Tribal) areas where the Agent governed in the name of the Crown but left the local self-governing institutions untouched and
the Excluded Areas (north-east) where the representatives of the Crown were a figure head.


After the transfer of power, the rulers of the Residency Areas signed the "Deed of Accession" on behalf of the ruled on exchange they were offered privy purse. No deed was however signed with most of the independent Adivasi states. They were assumed to have joined the Union. The government rode rough shod on independent Adivasi nations and they were merged with the Indian Union. This happened even by means of state violence as in the case of Adivasi uprising in the Nizam's State of Hyderabad and Nagalim.

While this aspect did not enter the consciousness of the Adivasis at large in the central part of India where they were preoccupied with their own survival, the picture was different in the north-east because of the historic and material conditions. Historically the north-east was never a part of mainland India. The colonial incorporation of north-east took place much later than the rest of the Indian subcontinent. While Assam ruled by the Ahoms came under the control of British in 1826, neighbouring Bengal was annexed in 1765. Garo Hills were annexed in 1873, Naga Hills in 1879 and Mizoram under the Chin-Lushai Expeditions in 1881-90. Consequently, the struggles for self-determination took various forms as independence to greater autonomy.

A process of marginalization today, the total forest cover in India is reported to be 765.21 thousand sq. kms. of which 71% are Adivasi areas. Of these 416.52 and 223.30 thousand sq. kms. are categorised as reserved and protected forests respectively. About 23% of these are further declared as Wild Life Sanctuaries and National Parks which alone has displaced some half a million Adivasis. By the process of colonisation of the forests that began formally with the Forest Act of 1864 and finally the Indian Forest Act of 1927, the rights of Adivasis were reduced to mere privileges conferred by the state.

This was in acknowledgement of their dependence on the forests for survival and it was politically forced upon the rulers by the glorious struggles that the Adivasis waged persistently against the British. The Forest Policy of 1952, the Wild Life Protection Act of 1972 and the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 downgraded these privileges of the peoples to concessions of the state in the post-colonial period.

With globalisation, there are now further attempts to change these paternalistic concessions to being excluded as indicated by the draft "Conservation of Forests and Natural Ecosystems Act" that is to replace the forest act and the amendments proposed to the Land Acquisition Act and Schedule V of the constitution. In 1991, 23.03% of STs were literate as against 42.83% among the general population. The Government's Eighth Plan document mentions that nearly 52% of STs live below the poverty line as against 30% of the general population.

In a study on Kerala, a state considered to be unique for having developed a more egalitarian society with a high quality of life index comparable to that of only the 'developed' countries, paradoxically shows that for STs the below poverty line population was 64.5% while for Scheduled Castes it was 47% and others 41%. About 95% of Adivasis live in rural areas, less than 10% are itinerant hunter-gatherers but more than half depend upon forest produce. Very commonly, police, forest guards and officials bully and intimidate Adivasis and large numbers are routinely arrested and jailed, often for petty offences.
Only a few Adivasi communities which are forest dwellers have not been displaced and continue to live in forests, away from the mainstream development activities, such as in parts of Bastar in Madhya Pradesh, Koraput, Phulbani and Mayurbanj in Orissa and of Andaman Islands.

Thousands of Korku children below the age of six died in the 1990s due to malnutrition and starvation in the Melghat Tiger Reserve of Maharashtra due to the denial of access to their life sustaining resource base. Adivasis of Kalahandi-Bolangir in Orissa and of Palamu in south Bihar have reported severe food shortage. According to the Central Planning Committee of the Government of India, nearly 41 districts with significant Adivasi populations are prone to deaths due to starvation, which are not normally reported as such.
Invasion of Adivasi territories The "Land Acquisition Act" of 1894 concretised the supremacy of the sovereign to allow for total colonisation of any territory in the name of 'public interest' which in most cases are not community notions of common good. This is so especially for the Adivasis. The colonial juristic concept of res nullius (that which has not been conferred by the sovereign belongs to the sovereign) and terra nullius (land that belongs to none) bulldozed traditional political and social entities beginning the wanton destruction of traditional forms of self-governance.

The invasion of Adivasi territories, which for the most part commenced during the colonial period, intensified in the post-colonial period. Most of the Adivasi territories were claimed by the state. Over 10 million Adivasis have been displaced to make way for development projects such as dams, mining, industries, roads, protected areas etc. Though most of the dams (over 3000) are located in Adivasi areas, only 19.9% (1980-81) of Adivasi land holdings are irrigated as compared to 45.9% of all holdings of the general population. India produces as many as 52 principal, 3 fuel, 11 metallic, 38 non-metallic and a number of minor minerals.

Of these 45 major minerals (coal, iron ore, magnetite, manganese, bauxite, graphite, limestone, dolomite, uranium etc) are found in Adivasi areas contributing some 56% of the national total mineral earnings in terms of value. Of the 4,175 working mines reported by the Indian Bureau of Mines in 1991-92, approximately 3500 could be assumed to be in Adivasi areas. Income to the government from forests rose from Rs.5.6 million in 1869-70 to more than Rs.13 billions in the 1970s. The bulk of the nation's productive wealth lay in the Adivasi territories. Yet the Adivasi has been driven out, marginalised and robbed of dignity by the very process of 'national development'.

The systematic opening up of Adivasi territories, the development projects and the 'tribal development projects' make them conducive for waves of immigrants. In the rich mineral belt of Jharkhand, the Adivasi population has dropped from around 60% in 1911 to 27.67% in 1991. These developments have in turn driven out vast numbers of Adivasis to eke out a living in the urban areas and in far-flung places in slums. According to a rough estimate, there are more than 40,000 tribal domestic working women in Delhi alone! In some places, development induced migration of Adivasis to other Adivasi areas has also led to fierce conflicts as between the Santhali and the Bodo in Assam.

Internal colonialism Constitutional privileges and welfare measures benefit only a small minority of the Adivasis. These privileges and welfare measures are denied to the majority of the Adivasis and they are appropriated by more powerful groups in the caste order. The steep increase of STs in Maharashtra in real terms by 148% in the two decades since 1971 is mainly due to questionable inclusion, for political gains, of a number of economically advanced groups among the backwards in the list of STs.

The increase in numbers, while it distorts the demographic picture, has more disastrous effects. The real tribes are irretrievably pushed down in the 'access or claim ladder' with these new entrants cornering the lion's share of both resources and opportunities for education, social and economic advancement.
Despite the Bonded Labour Abolition Act of 1976, Adivasis still form a substantial percentage of bonded labour in the country.

Despite positive political, institutional and financial commitment to tribal development, there is presently a large scale displacement and biological decline of Adivasi communities, a growing loss of genetic and cultural diversity and destruction of a rich resource base leading to rising trends of shrinking forests, crumbling fisheries, increasing unemployment, hunger and conflicts. The Adivasis have preserved 90% of the country's bio-cultural diversity protecting the polyvalent, precolonial, biodiversity friendly Indian identity from bio-cultural pathogens. Excessive and indiscriminate demands of the urban market have reduced Adivasis to raw material collectors and providers.

It is a cruel joke that people who can produce some of India's most exquisite handicrafts, who can distinguish hundreds of species of plants and animals, who can survive off the forests, the lands and the streams sustainably with no need to go to the market to buy food, are labeled as 'unskilled'. Equally critical are the paths of resistance that many Adivasi areas are displaying: Koel Karo, Bodh Ghat, Inchampalli, Bhopalpatnam, Rathong Chu ... big dams that were proposed by the enlightened planners and which were halted by the mass movements.

Such a situation has risen because of the discriminatory and predatory approach of the mainstream society on Adivasis and their territories. The moral legitimacy for the process of internal colonisation of Adivasi territories and the deliberate disregard and violations of constitutional protection of STs has its basis in the culturally ingrained hierarchical caste social order and consciousness that pervades the entire politico-administrative and judicial system. This pervasive mindset is also a historical construct that got reinforced during colonial and post-colonial India.

The term 'Criminal Tribe' was concocted by the British rulers and entered into the public vocabulary through the Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 under which a list of some 150 communities including Adivasis, were mischievously declared as (naturally) 'criminal'. Though this shameful act itself was repealed in 1952, the specter of the so-called 'criminal tribes' continue to haunt these 'denotified tribes' - the Sansi, Pardhi, Kanjar, Gujjar, Bawaria, Banjara and others. They are considered as the first natural suspects of all petty and sundry crimes except that they are now hauled up under the Habitual Offenders Act that replaced the British Act! Stereotyping of numerous communities has reinforced past discriminatory attitudes of the dominant mainstream in an institutionalised form.


There is a whole history of legislation, both during the pre-independence as well as post-independence period, which was supposed to protect the rights of the Adivasis. As early as 1879, the "Bombay Province Land Revenue Code" prohibited transfer of land from a tribal to a non-tribal without the permission of the authorities. The 1908 "Chotanagpur Tenancy Act" in Bihar, the 1949 "Santhal Pargana Tenancy (Supplementary) Act", the 1969 "Bihar Scheduled Areas Regulations", the 1955 "Rajasthan Tenancy Act" as amended in 1956, the 1959 "MPLP Code of Madhya Pradesh", the 1959 "Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Areas Land Transfer Regulation" and amendment of 1970, the 1960 "Tripura Land Revenue Regulation Act", the 1970 "Assam Land and Revenue Act", the 1975 "Kerala Scheduled Tribes (Restriction of Transfer of Lands and Restoration of Alienated Lands) Act" etc. are state legislations to protect Adivasi land rights.
In Andhra for example, enquiries on land transfer violations were made in 57,150 cases involving 245,581 acres of land, but only about 28% of lands were restored despite persistent militant struggles. While in the case of Kerala, out of a total claim for 9909.4522 hectares made by 8754 applicants, only 5.5% of the claims have been restored. And this is happening in spite of favourable judicial orders - orders which the state governments are circumventing by attempting to dismantle the very protective legislation itself.

The callous and casual manner with which mainstream India approaches the fulfillment of the constitutional obligations with reference to the tribes, and the persistent attempts by the politico-administrative system to subvert the constitution by deliberate acts of omission and commission, and the enormous judicial tolerance towards this speak volumes on the discriminatory approach that permeates the society with regard to the legal rights of the Adivasis.

Race, religion and language
The absence of neat classifications of Adivasis as a homogenous social-cultural category and the intensely fluid nature of non-Adivasis are evident in the insuperable difficulty in arriving at a clear anthropological definition of a tribal in India, be it in terms of ethnicity, race, language, social forms or modes of livelihood.

The major waves of ingress into India divide the tribal communities into Veddids, similar to the Australian aborigines, and the Paleamongoloid Austro-Asiatic from the north-east. The third were the Greco-Indians who spread across Gujarat, Rajasthan and Pakistan from Central Asia. The fourth is the Negrito group of the Andaman Islands - the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawa and the Sentinelese who flourished in these parts for some 20,000 years but who could well become extinct soon. The Great Andamanese have been wiped out as a viable community with about only 30 persons alive as are the Onges who are less than a 100.

In the mid-Indian region, the Gond who number over 5 million, are the descendants of the dark skinned Kolarian or Dravidian tribes and speak dialects of Austric language family as are the Santhal who number 4 million. The Negrito and Austroloid people belong to the Mundari family of Munda, Santhal, Ho, Ashur, Kharia, Paniya, Saora etc. The Dravidian groups include the Gond, Oraon, Khond, Malto, Bhil, Mina, Garasia, Pradhan etc. and speak Austric or Dravidian family of languages. The Gujjar and Bakarwal descend from the Greco Indians and are interrelated with the Gujjar of Gujarat and the tribes settled around Gujranwala in Pakistan.

There are some 200 indigenous peoples in the north-east. The Boro, Khasi, Jantia, Naga, Garo and Tripiri belong to the Mongoloid stock like the Naga, Mikir, Apatani, Boro, Khasi, Garo, Kuki, Karbi etc. and speak languages of the Tibeto-Burman language groups and the Mon Khmer. The Adi, Aka, Apatani, Dafla, Gallong, Khamti, Monpa, Nocte, Sherdukpen, Singpho, Tangsa, Wancho etc of Arunachal Pradesh and the Garo of Meghalaya are of Tibeto-Burman stock while the Khasi of Meghalaya belong to the Mon Khmer group. In the southern region, the Malayali, Irula, Paniya, Adiya, Sholaga, Kurumba etc belong to the proto-Australoid racial stock speaking dialects of the Dravidian family.

The Census of India 1991 records 63 different denominations as "other" of over 5.7 million people of which most are Adivasi religions. Though the Constitution recognises them as a distinct cultural group, yet when it comes to religion those who do not identify as Christians, Muslims or Buddhists are compelled to register themselves as Hindus. Hindus and Christians have interacted with Adivasis to civilize them, which has been defined as sanscritisation and westernisation. However, as reflected during the 1981 census it is significant that about 5% of the Adivasis registered their religion by the names of their respective tribes or the names adopted by them. In 1991 the corresponding figure rose to about 10% indicating the rising consciousness and assertion of identity!

Though Article 350A of the Constitution requires primary education to be imparted in mother tongue, in general this has not been imparted except in areas where the Adivasis have been assertive. NCERT, the state owned premier education research centre has not shown any interest. With the neglect of Adivasi languages, the State and the dominant social order aspire to culturally and socially emasculate the Adivasis subdued by the dominant cultures. The Anthropological Survey of India reported a loss of more than two-thirds of the spoken languages, most of them tribal.

Fragmentation Some of the ST peoples of Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, W. Bengal, Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur and Mizoram have their counterparts across the border in China (including Tibet), Bhutan, Myanmar and Bangladesh. The political aspirations of these trans-border tribes who find themselves living in different countries as a result of artificial demarcation of boundaries by erstwhile colonial rulers continue to be ignored despite the spread and proliferation of militancy, especially in the north east, making it into a conflict zone.

The Adivasi territories have been divided amongst the states formed on the basis of primarily the languages of the mainstream caste society, ignoring the validity of applying the same principle of language for the Adivasis in the formation of states. Jharkhand has been divided amongst Bihar, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa though the Bihar part of Jharkhand has now become a separate state after decades of struggle. The Gond region has been divided amongst Orissa, Andhra, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh. Similarly the Bhil region has been divided amongst Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Rajasthan.

In the north-east, for example, the Naga in addition are divided into Nagaland, Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. Further administrative sub-divisions within the states into districts, talukas and panchayats have been organised in such a way that the tribal concentration is broken up which furthers their marginalisation both physically and politically.

The 1874 "Scheduled District Act", the 1919 "Government of India Act" and later the "Government of India Act" of 1935 classified the hill areas as excluded and partially excluded areas where the provincial legislature had no jurisdiction. These formed the basis for the Article 244 under which two separate schedules viz. the V Schedule and the VI Schedule were incorporated for provision of a certain degree of self-governance in designated tribal majority areas. However, in effect this remained a non-starter. However, the recent legislation of the Panchayat Raj (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act of 1996 has raised hope of a radical redefinition of self-governance.

By not applying the same yard stick and norms for Adivasis as for the upper caste dominated mainstream, by not genuinely recognizing the Adivasis' traditional self-governing systems and by not being serious about devolving autonomy, the Indian State and society indicates a racist and imperialist attitude.
The call for a socially homogenous country, particularly in the Hindi Hindu paradigm have suppressed tribal languages, defiled cultures and destroyed civilisations.

The creation of a unified albeit centralised polity and the extension of the formal system of governance have emasculated the self-governing institutions of the Adivasis and with it their internal cohesiveness.

The struggle for the future, the conceptual vocabulary used to understand the place of Adivasis in the modern world has been constructed on the feudal, colonial and imperialistic notions which combines traditional and historical constructs with the modern construct based on notions of linear scientific and technological progress.

Historically the Adivasis, as explained earlier, are at best perceived as sub-humans to be kept in isolation, or as 'primitives' living in remote and backward regions who should be "civilized". None of them have a rational basis. Consequently, the official and popular perception of Adivasis is merely that of isolation in forest, tribal dialect, animism, primitive occupation, carnivorous diet, naked or semi-naked, nomadic habits, love, drink and dance. Contrast this with the self-perception of Adivasis as casteless, classless and egalitarian in nature, community-based economic systems, symbiotic with nature, democratic according to the demands of the times, accommodative history and people-oriented art and literature.

The significance of their sustainable subsistence economy in the midst of a profit oriented economy is not recognised in the political discourse, and the negative stereotyping of the sustainable subsistence economy of Adivasi societies is based on the wrong premise that the production of surplus is more progressive than the process of social reproduction in co-existence with nature.

The source of the conflicts arises from these unresolved contradictions. With globalisation, the hitherto expropriation of rights as an outcome of development has developed into expropriation of rights as a precondition for development. In response, the struggles for the rights of the Adivasis have moved towards the struggles for power and a redefinition of the contours of state, governance and progress.
http://www.pucl.org/Topics/Dalit-tribal/2003/adivasi.htm











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