Protests over cultural, political and ecological rights are growing louder
On March 31, 2023, Adivasis from the Purulia district participated in a meeting with their traditional musical and agricultural instruments and weapons. Photo: Mrinalini Paul A recent agitation by the Kurmi community in West Bengal demanding inclusion in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list forced authorities to cancel hundreds of trains in the South Eastern Railway division.
The Kurmis, a strong Other Backward Class community with nearly five million residents in the region, was promised ST status by the Trinamool Congress (TMC), the incumbent political allegience in West Bengal, during the 2021 assembly elections.
Around the same time, a video of four Adivasi women being humiliated for apparently shifting political party allegiance in Dakshin Dinajpur district went viral and redirected the focus to votebank politics.
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Following the incident, the president of the Bharatiya Janata Party, an opposition party in the state wrote a letter to the President of India. The incident also made TMC replace their district party president with an Adivasi woman.
Neither case is minor, but the solutions to them should move beyond votebank politics. The Kurmi agitation is a long-standing one that needs to be addressed as per the existing rules for recognising ST and the state government has a limited role in it. And the atrocity incident should be investigated under the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Prevention of Atrocities (PoA) Act, 1989.
In 2004, the Jharkhand government sent an application to include Kurmis in the ST list to the Tribal Research Institute (TRI). However, the TRI’s report on the issue was not in their favour. So, the centre refused to include them in the list.
The effectiveness of the PoA Act remains compromised, similar to other existing institutions and legislations for the protection of the SC and ST populations.
West Bengal had a zero conviction rate under PoA, according to the 2016 government data. Cases of violence against STs and SCs were frequently reported from the state.
On Ambedkar Jayanti, hundreds travelled from areas in Deucha Panchami coal block to Kolkata to meet the governor and express their opposition to the open-cast coal mining project, which is set to displace more than 10,000 Adivasis.
The word “Adivasi” appears in the news quite often, but its sudden appearance and disappearance have two-fold implications.
First, it discounts the gravity and historicity of these events and gives the impression of ‘minorities’ trying to gain privileges before elections.
Second, it denies addressing structural inequalities inherent in society, which gets amplified through these incidents. Hence the space for systemic changes and agency both get ‘election-washed’.
In the meantime, a crucial narrative of the Adivasis is getting lost. The coming together of the different communities — the Santhals, Mundas, Bhumij, Deshwalis, Lodhas, Sabars and Bediya — under political state-wide organisations / platforms puts the strategies of the mainstream parties in a fix.
“We realised that it was important to project our unity. So we started forming larger coalitions at both regional and Central levels. We came together at the state level under platforms such as Prakriti Bachao Adivasi Bachao Manch,” said Tapan Sardar, the president of Adivasi Ekta Manch.
The manch was formed in 2018 to bring together the different local Adivasi organisations in Khatra town, Bankura district. Now their members and presence have spread beyond the region.
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Regular decentralised meetings at traditional institutions of governance are organised and attended in huge numbers, where different issues are discussed.
Some 28-30 social, traditional institutions such as the Bharat Jakat Majhi Pargana Mahal, Bharat Adibasi Bhumij Samaj, Adibasi Kora Samaj Kalyan Sangathan, Bharatiya Munda Samaj, Bharatiya Mahali Samaj, Bharatiya Sabar Samaj and others have been coming together to hold massive independent meetings. These meetings, attended by thousands, aim to gather voices for their grievances in their own ways and exercise their agency.
Adivasis from the four Jungle Mahal districts of Bankura, Purulia and West Midnapore and Jhargram recently came together with their traditional musical and agricultural instruments and weapons.
On March 31, 2023, they gathered in Purulia district under the Paschim Banga Adibasi Kalyan Samiti and on April 10 in Bankura, under the aegis of Adivasi Ekta Manch.
Memorandums have been submitted to the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee through the district magistrate, Purulia and the sub-divisional officer (Khatra subdivision, Bankura). Revoking false ST certificates and preventing non-STs from being included in the ST list were part of the demands raised.
These incidents were not looked at as isolated, individual cases of power struggles but rather as systematic attacks on the rights of Adivasis by the existing state apparatus.
“The inclusion of non-STs in the ST list is not only about reservations but is legalising the wrongdoings of the land mafia and spelling an end to the Adivasis’ rights over the little land that they possess; we are already struggling for our rights and now the state wants to make us even more vulnerable,” said Dileswar Mandi, secretary of Adivasi Ekta Manch.
The members of the community demanded the implementation of the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA) and the Panchayat Extension to Scheduled Areas Act, 1996 (PESA). Both acts have been specially designed to protect the rights of Adivasis.
While the state doesn’t have any areas included in the fifth schedule of the constitution, there are continuous tribal geographical tracts in both the Jungle Mahal districts and in north Bengal. The status of the FRA is dismal, with just 686 community forest resource rights being recognised.
Educational facilities for the Adivasi children have been stressed since many ST hostels are closed. OlChiki, the script of the Santhals, though given official recognition, is yet to be included in government-aided schools.
Additionally, they demanded to stop the distortion of their histories and appropriation of their heroes and martyrs. Such a comprehensive set of demands articulates the fluid concepts of time and space as it exists in Adivasi and indigenous worldviews.
“The mainstream news media, however, failed to grasp this complexity and historicity of our issues,” pointed out Sushil Murmu, a professor in Purulia.
The Adivasi and indigenous populations in West Bengal do not appear in the political discourse as proportional to their roles in anti-colonial struggles or even their present-day demography.
Taking over from the left-front government, the incumbent party has not done much to politically address the caste or tribal question in their decadal rule either.
Every time before the elections, these communities’ issues become issues for the political parties. Growing grassroot-mobilisations across communities, awareness building, the rejuvenation of traditional and social organisations and the resurgence of identity politics are determined to change this sudden appearance and disappearance phenomena.
A month ago, the incumbent party had introduced a motion in the state legislative assembly to recognise the Sari and Swarna Dharma of the Adivasis.
The Sari Dharma is followed mostly by Santhals and the Sarna Dharma by other Adivasis. Both these dharmas are outside the ambit of mainstream religious practices of Hinduism, Christianity etc.
The move to recognise the Sari and Sarna dharma was portrayed as an appeasement policy that placed the BJP in a tight spot, but in this recognition process, the agency of the Adivasi was once again denied.
Apart from this problematic interpretation, the recently held meetings clarify that this move was insufficient to “win” them over and their demands and struggles resound deeper.
Views expressed are the author’s own and don’t necessarily reflect those of Down To Earth
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