Scheduled tribes: history
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Contents |
Nomenclature
Adivasi vis-à-vis Vanvasi
Nov 25, 2022: The Times of India
The Constitution refers to the tribal communities as Scheduled Tribes (STs) in English and Anusuchit Janjatiyan in Hindi.
The R S S-BJP finds a dichotomy between the use of the word Adivasi and the Aryan Invasion Theory, which it rejects. The Aryan Invasion Theory makes Adivasis the original inhabitants and the rest as invaders or outsiders, whereas the R S S-BJP considers the Aryan stock of the Indian population as the original inhabitants of the subcontinent in the same way as the tribal stock.
The R S S refers to the mention of Vanvasi in ancient Indian texts, saying that forest dwellers have been a reality of India, and that the movement among forest dwellers, village dwellers (gramvasi) and city dwellers (nagarvasi) had been fluid in India’s past.
There has been an argument that the use of the word Adivasi is inspired by the term ‘aboriginals’ used in America when European settlers colonised the land a few centuries ago. The aboriginals were the natives, while those coming from outside dominated the land.
The R S S-BJP rejects this dichotomy in the Indian context. It was against this academic background that the R S S had set up the Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (ABVKA) on December 26, 1952 in Jashpur, Chhattisgarh. Now, even the R S S members refer to ABVKA simply as Kalyan Ashram, but without agreeing to preferring the term Adivasi for STs.
All is in the name
Tribal representatives have insisted on using the word Adivasi since the days of Constitution making. Jaipal Singh Munda, a hockey player who was a tribal representative in the Constituent Assembly, passionately argued against the use of ‘Banjati’ for STs and substituting it with ‘Adibasi’ as he objected to the translated version of the draft Constitution.
“I would only request that your translation committee should not translate Scheduled Tribes as ‘Banjati’. The word ‘Adibasi’ has not been used in any of the translations made by several committees. How is it? I ask you why it has not been done. Why has the word ‘Adibasi’ not been used and the word ‘Banjati’ has been used?” he asked.
Tribal inhabitants of Odisha. Often stereotyped as a bow-and-arrow wielding population living in forests, the tribes of India are in reality not a uniform congregation
“Most of the members of our tribes do not live in jungles. You may go to Western Bengal. You will find that there are no jungles near the places where these members of these tribes live, not even is there any trace of trees. How can they be appropriately termed as Banjati or forest tribes — tribes which live in forests?” he wondered.
“I wish that you should issue instructions to your translation committee that the translation of Scheduled Tribes should be ‘Adibasi’. The word Adibasi has grace. I do not understand why this old abusive epithet of Banjati is being used in regard to them — for till recently it meant an uncivilised barbarian,” he added.
What is a tribe?
It may come to some as a shock that humans first made sense of themselves as a tribe and many centuries later as individuals (originating from the Latin word indivisibilis). Etymologically, tribe comes from the Latin word tribus, meaning an administrative category designating a voting unit.
Their origin is traced to oligarchic societies (like the one mentioned in the Rig Veda), usually having a common ancestry. The Oxford Dictionary describes tribe as a group of people forming a community and claiming descent from a common ancestor. In a way, tribals are people whose ancestors missed the bus that took others to the world of scientific revolution.
Tribes of India
India has listed more than 700 such communities as STs but they have not been considered a homogenous bloc. Muslims, backward castes and Scheduled Castes (SCs) have found their electoral identification by political parties — as vote banks. This has not been the case with the tribal spectrum of India, albeit until recently. Now, there seems to be a sudden rush to club them all together. The BJP, Congress and even the Aam Aadmi Party are all doing the same.
Often stereotyped as a bow-and-arrow wielding population living in forests, the tribes of India are in reality not a uniform congregation. They differ from one another in their cultural attributes — such as dressing pattern, housing their societies, patrilineal and matrilineal customs and even in their religious beliefs — but they are like the rest of, non-tribal, India.
Some (Lakshadweep) tribal groups are predominantly Muslims. Some others are Christians (in Nagaland and other parts of the Northeast). Others are Hindus (Rajasthan’s Meenas) and many follow their own belief systems, preserving their centuries-old religious-spiritual traditions.
They celebrate, at times, festivals celebrated by the rest in a geographical region. Their demographic identity — besides the constitutional status of STs — is practically more a reflection of their socio-economic status, depending on their literacy level, employment status and share in the power structure.
Their share of us
The various designated tribes make up 8.6% of the Indian population, with 47 Lok Sabha seats reserved for them since the 2008 delimitation exercise — up from 41 earlier. They have a quota of 7.5% fixed in government jobs. But a government report, combining their employed strength across the 19 Union ministries, found that only 6.18% of the employees belonged to STs. Some of them definitely would have qualified as general category candidates in the qualifying exams.
Though their overall literacy level falls behind the national average by 14 percentage points (2011 Census), in Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya, STs have higher literacy rates than the non-tribal population. In Lakshadweep, the two groups are almost equally literate at about 92%.
They are poorer than SCs as a community. According to the Global Multidimensional Poverty Index, of the total Indian population living in multidimensional poverty, over 50% belonged to the ST category, followed by SCs at over 33%.
Their poor socio-economic status has often been held as the principal reason for the spread of Maoist extremism in geographies with a higher tribal population despite the multitude of government programmes aimed at their uplift.
Critics argue that STs never got due attention from governments and political parties as they never got consolidated as a vote bank at the state or national level. Having stayed away from sprawling urban centres due to historical reasons, most tribal communities have lived in resource-rich hills and forests, which have been exploited for the development of the rest of India.
In some cases, they consolidated in the name of their respective tribes to get the states or hills named after the dominant ones, especially in the Northeast — Nagaland, Mizoram, and the Garo, Khasi and Jaintia hills of Meghalaya. Jharkhand was carved out for the development of tribals of erstwhile Bihar but their lot did not improve much despite the state having had tribal chief ministers for much of its independent existence.
The constant search for a new political narrative by the stakeholder parties has brought them to scrambling for the tribal vote bank. Though only 8.6% in demographic strength, a consolidation of tribal communities into a vote bank could swing a general election by a force of 75-odd seats — or about 15% of the Lok Sabha’s strength, and in about half-a-dozen states besides the tribal-dominated Northeast.
The tribes of India are the stripes of India. Now, political parties are scrambling to turn them into a consolidated vote bank as they fight over how to address them — Adivasi or Vanvasi — and with promises to bring greater benefits to the regions of their demographic dominance.
Tribal Uprisings
Against the British
Birsa Munda | The charismatic tribal leader led an armed uprising, Ulgulan (rebellion), against the oppressive and unjust colonial state and the dikus (outsiders) in 1899-1900. The British had abolished the khuntkatti system (joint ownership of tribal land) causing unrest in areas which are now part of Jharkhand state. Birsa, 24, was hanged but the uprising forced positive changes in the land tenancy acts that followed
Santhal revolt | Widespread economic exploitation caused by colonial forces led to the widespread santhal uprising (hul) of 1855-56. Sido and Kanhu orchestrated the movement which took place in wide swathes of eastern India. Undaunted by British firepower, the santhals fought with bows and arrows and ‘reckless courage’. But were gunned down savagely
Kol uprising | The Kols of Chhotanagpur were in revolt from 1820 to 1837 against the invasive and exploitative land and economic policies of the East India Company. Thousands of them were slaughtered before the colonial rulers could establish their dominance in the region again
Bhil rebellion | In 1818, the Bhils of the Khandesh region (located in Maharashtra now) rose against the colonial masters for being denied forest rights. The uprising lasted for over a decade
Paika Bidroh | The Paika Bidroh (rebellion) took place under the leadership of Bakshi Jagabandhu Bidyadhar in 1817. The Paikas were peasant militias who served the Gajapati rulers of Odisha. The armed uprising was caused by the oppressive policies of the East India Company. Jagabandhu died in jail
Rani Gaidinliu | The Naga leader spent 14 years in jail (1932-46) for opposing the British and urging people not to pay taxes. Last year the process to set up the Rani Gaidinliu Tribal Freedom Fighters Museum at her birthplace began
