The Tribal Question

INTRODUCTION TO VOLUME VIII

Indigenous peoples the world over have comparable difficulties in coping with the changing world around them, which is now increasingly encroaching on their shrinking space.The outsiders’ quest for their land and resources is unrelenting. Though the approach to these issues may vary, they fundamentally concern issues of land and its resources: issues of identity, education, and developmental change. In India after the colonial ‘Excluded areas’ were refocused as ‘Scheduled Areas’ and now these peoples have been brought within the scope of the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1996. The articles in this selection focus on these basic questions, The continuing Maoist resistance is evidence of the inadequacy of the state response.

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The Tribal Question

LIST OF ARTICLES WITH ABSTRACTS IN VOLUME VIII

1. PROBLEMS AND POSSIBILITIES OF DEVELOPMENT WORK AMONG TRIBALS: PARTICIPATORY EVALUATION OF A VOLUNTARY AGENCY IN INDIA

Abstract: Mandal, a church-related non-governmental voluntary agency operating in north-west India’s Nasik district since 1966 was evaluated for performance in promoting self-sustaining economic growth and socio- political awareness in its beneficiaries. It was concluded that on the individual level some positive impact was discernible in terms of family income and agricultural investment. At the village level no quantitative improvement was measurable, but the effect of Mandal was symbolic in that it sets an example for social change.

2. TRIBAL EDUCATION IN INDIA: THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL

Abstract: The iniquitous bias of the system falls hardest on the ones lowest in the social hierarchy and it is most crucial at the earliest stages of education. The reasons for the failure of tribal education in India are not just economic. For too long have the internal constraints of the system and socio-cultural context of the community been neglected. The resulting mismatch between educational institutions and tribal life has been responsible for a colossal economic and human wastage. Reformist measures have been proposed, but as yet there has been no breakthrough in tribal education.

3. TRIBAL EDUCATION IN INDIA: REVERSING THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL

Abstract: This paper is a sequel to ‘Tribal Education in India: The Downward Spiral’. This paper attempts to suggest how it can be stopped and turned around. It is indeed a complex and difficult task, but it is not an intractable problem. If only there is sufficient empathetic understanding and committed action, the strategies for change will not be elusive.

4. TRIBAL EDUCATION FOR DEVELOPMENT: NEED FOR A LIBERATIVE PEDAGOGY FOR SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION

Abstract: If the developmental dilemma that confronts our tribute is to be successfully addressed, tribal integration will require their mobilisation not just to preserve their cultural autonomy, but to redress their minority status as well, so that they can participate in their own development. In this tribal education will have a necessary and crucial role to play.

5. TRIBAL IDENTITY AND DIGNITY: AN INTEGRATIVE RESPONSE

Abstract: Now if the ‘fundamental issues’ on the tribal question are to be faced, issues of equity, sustainability, participation, autonomy, and integration, then, we must go beyond ‘vague’ and ‘weak’ descriptive studies to a more profound analysis. Here we argue that to preserve the identity and dignity of these threatened people today, tribal ethnicity needs to be mobilized to overcome their minority status, so that in their integration into the national mainstream, the distinctive contribution they make will be appreciatively accepted, and the incisive challenge they pose honestly faced by this larger society. However, to do this effectively we must take into consideration the class dimensions of ethnicity.

6. THE TRIBAL QUESTION: FUNDAMENTAL ISSUES

Abstract: A relevant response to the tribal situation in our changing world must begin with more than just benign goodwill and paternalistic benevolence. As people, they must be studied in their historical context, and perceived in relation to their environment. Once the ‘tribal question’ itself is thus clarified and contextualized, only then can the responses to it be usefully described and critiqued. For it raises fundamental issues for our society: of social equity, ecological sustainability, and peoples’ participation; of cultural autonomy and democratic integration. For in India national development cannot be separated from tribal integration, or for that matter the marginalized minorities in our society. Our own future is more closely bound up with theirs than we perhaps realize.

7. TRIBAL ORAL HISTORY: LIVING WORD OR DEAD LETTER?

Abstract: If India’s tribals are to regain their true identity, it is necessary that their oral history, which was suppressed by the history written by outsiders, is reconstructed.

8. WARLI SOCIAL HISTORY: AN INTRODUCTION

Abstract: The overwhelming motif of this study that stretches across three periods of Warli history – the pre-British period; the colonial era and the post-independence era, is the depiction of the ‘outsider as exploiter’. However, an increasing devolution of self-assertion in recent years has provided such hitherto marginalised groups a new opportunity to claim their rights and reaffirm their identities in a new context. But self-rule needs a history and a reconstruction of Warli history can only begin with a relook at their oral traditions.

9. INTERROGATING INTEGRATION: THE COUNTER-CULTURAL TRIBAL OTHER

Abstract: The correspondence between a negative ethnic identity and a marginalised social status is crucial for any interventionist strategy that seeks to empower people to break out of the poverty trap. For tribals, this implies integration into the larger society, but not necessarily with a loss of their distinctiveness. By isolating the tribals we stymie both their contribution and their challenge to society.

10. RECONSTRUCTING IDENTITY, PRESERVING DIGNITY: THE STRUGGLE OF THE NOMADIC PASTORALISTS

Abstract: For settled peoples, whether rural or urban, the nomad is the ‘quintessence of otherness’. And yet our geographic and social mobility today is creating modern nomads. Challenging inferiorised identities to reconstruct tribal identity and to preserve their dignity is so much the more urgent for vulnerable groups like nomadic pastoralists. It is a struggle that will demand genuine ‘organic intellectuals’ to engage with committed and involved activists for an authentic Freirean ‘praxis’ to emerge. But first scholars must cease to be armchair critics and activists become more than ad hoc pragmatists.

11. DENOTIFIED AND NOMADIC TRIBES: THE CHALLENGE OF FREE AND EQUAL CITIZENSHIP

Abstract: The paper essentially attempts to open up perspectives on the desired journey from criminal to equal citizenship and social affirmation in a free and democratic society. It analyses the historical background and the relationship between denotified nomadic tribes and sedentary communities. It underlines the issue of identity and integration of nomadic tribes with society.

12. TRIBALS AT THE MARGINS: INFERIORISED IDENTITY, VIOLATED DIGNITY

Abstract: A critical issue for the tribals is whether their identity will be affirmed and protected in mainstream society, not inferiorised and rubbished; whether their dignity will be preserved and respected in the developmental process, not compromised or violated. For mainstream society, the crucial question is whether tribals will be treated as equal citizens and active partners in society, not exploited and oppressed for some vague ‘national good’ that benefits them least and last of all, while their very exploiters and oppressors thrive at their expense. This presentation is intended as a background for the consideration of an indigenous theology for tribal peoples.

13. THE ADIVASI OTHER: ETHNICITY AND MINORITY STATUS

Abstract: To preserve the identity and dignity of tribal people today, tribal ethnic identity needs to be mobilised to overcome their minority status, so that in their integration into the national mainstream, the distinctive contribution they make will be appreciatively acknowledged and the incisive challenge they pose honestly faced by this larger society. However, to do this effectively we must take into consideration the class dimensions of ethnicity.