Who are the Tribals? Where are they? A Personal Journey of Discovery

How much do we know about our tribal population? I suspect for most around me, almost nothing. Except that Tribals live in the jungles, there are schedules in the Constitution to protect them (well in rare cases we know they are Schedule 5 and 6), and no one can buy land in tribal areas. That is it.

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For me, it had been a lifetime of discovery of facts around me, that I was unaware of. Something I am not proud of. But probably, the time has come for all like me to understand them far better. Because despite being around 8% of our population, they are known to most as the beneficiary of the 7% reservation – nothing more.

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I grew up in Durgapur, a still city. It was in the Chota Nagpur plateau, which has a high tribal population. I remember witnessing Santhals performing the Chow dance. As my memory goes, their performances were always perfunctory, when some state or national events were happening. People had a limited understanding of the dance and were probably more mocking than appreciative of the form. It was much later, through the efforts of Banglanatak.com (https://banglanatak.com/), that I built an appreciation of the dance form.

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The Santhal stories continued when I studied at Kharagpur, which too is proximate to the Chotonagpur plateau. A senior recalled how in one of his treks to the Susunia Hill, some arrow-wielding Santhal men chased him. It was by this time, however, I formed an opinion that Santhals are poor and illiterate, but extremely clean and have a strong sense of fraternity.

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My next stop for tribal awareness was in 1978 when we visited the Andaman Islands. We befriended the curator of the local museum, who gave us a crash course on the various endangered tribes like Onges, Sentinelese, etc. However, his account of Jarawas was poignant. Apart from the women of the community being exploited for cheap thrills like tribal dance for a few bucks (an illegal act performed primarily for foreign tourists), there were reported instances of Jarawas being gunned down by the authorities in cahoots with the illegal loggers.

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It was during my visit to Andamans, for the first time, that I became vaguely aware that the tribals in India have largely been left to be exploited, while the state has made elaborate commitments for their protection, including Schedules in the Constitution guaranteeing that.

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Fast forward to a decade and a half back, and I was having a conversation with a friend who has worked closely with the tribals in Maharashtra. He was sharing his experiences about some of his work, where he took two days to reach the location. And large part of that journey was on foot, through dense jungle. I was astounded by the fact that some Indians are so distant from us, and with such poor infrastructure. The same feeling was in the recent past too, when I met someone who volunteered in a school with only tribal students in remote Assam.

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Then came Rahul Banerjee (https://www.rahulbanerjeeactivist.in/), a senior of mine who I knew had been working among the tribals of Madhya Pradesh, but not much more. In 2019 I thought of nominating Rahul for the Distinguished Alumni Award of IIT Kharagpur, and that gave me a chance to know about his life. Rahul a Kharagpur alumni left the campus and went to MP to work with the Adivasis there, primarily the Bhil community. He married a tribal lady and integrated himself with their life in a manner I had never heard before. But the nomination writing was a window for me to know some more about the tribals, including the fact that Bhils are the largest tribe in India with a population of 1.7 crores. Just half of that of Malayalis, but we hear so less about the Bhils.

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So what does all these lead to? Well, some awareness about around 8% of our population, who by any stretch is ever part of our conversations. But in a way, we are all thankful to them for what they did for us. How? Well, take my example. I grew up in Durgapur Steel City, which was built on thousands of acres of land taken from the SC and ST communities, and with little or no compensation. And that story repeated across the country over the years, and in some way we today live, work, study, and play on land which in some way can be traced back to these communities.

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I am glad that I joined the Post Graduate Diploma in Management Course at the Azim Premji University, and got an opportunity to crystallize all these experiences. I was directed to the recording of the “National Conference – Local Democratic Governance in India” organized by APU in 2023. And I found two videos relevant (in References).

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I came to know about two landmark Acts that have been passed in the last three decades to correct some of the historical wrongs we have done to our tribal population.

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Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, PESA - 1996

The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, aka Forest Rights Act - FRA 2006

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These are significant interventions and will need separate discussions each by itself. But I am happy that we did these, and in the enactment of PESA, we also expressed our regret in the Parliament for the injustices. Well, there are lots of gaps in implementation and outcomes, but that is a journey of struggles that needs to be fought every day.

?References:

1.????????? Policy Exchange - Key Policy Lessons from 25 years of PESA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TeINjv7uEVw

2.?????? Policy Exchange - Key Lessons from 15 Years of FRA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPqzgDe-C2Q

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