#OutlookMagazine | The “politics of indigeneity” has become stronger in recent times with the passing of the resolution in 2020 in Jharkhand to include Sarna, a separate religion of the indigenous people, in the Census. Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren was recently arrested over a land scam case by the Directorate of Enforcement. Soon after he became the chief minister in 2019, the first decision taken by his party was to drop the cases against the accused in the 2017-18 Pathalgadi movement.
This issue of Outlook looks at the politics of appropriation and resistance in the wake of recent developments in states like Jharkhand and in the UT of Ladakh. With the General Elections due this year, it remains to be seen how the Adivasis, who form more than eight per cent of the total population, participate, and how the identity politics shapes up in the future.
This issue of Outlook looks at the politics of appropriation and resistance in the wake of recent developments in states like Jharkhand and in the UT of Ladakh. With the General Elections due this year, it remains to be seen how the Adivasis, who form more than eight per cent of the total population, participate, and how the identity politics shapes up in the future.
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00:00 Outlook brings to you excerpts from its latest issue titled 'Adivasi' or 'The Earliest Inhabitants'.
00:07 This issue of Outlook looks at the politics of appropriation and resistance in the wake of recent
00:13 developments in the states like Jharkhand and the Union Territory of Ladakh. With the general
00:19 elections due this year, it remains to be seen how the Adivasis, who form more than 8% of the total
00:27 population, participate and how the identity politics shape up in the future. In the introduction,
00:35 editor Chinky Sinha writes, "Jal Jangal Jameen. To separate the Adivasi from his land is to stop
00:42 his breathing. If you want to see an Adivasi's extinction, take him away from his land, as it is
00:49 happening at present." Author and tribal activist Ram Dayal Munda. "The tribal people should be
00:55 helped to grow according to their genius and tradition." Late Prime Minister Jawaharlal
01:01 Nehru. "We are the disciples and worshippers of tribals who made Lord Ram Purushottam Ram."
01:08 Prime Minister Narendra Modi. "Adivasis were never Hindus and they will never be." Former
01:14 Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren. Alongside the Jai Shri Ram slogan that has mobilised many
01:21 Hindus and means victory of Lord Ram, asserting the Hindu nation's identity since the 1980s,
01:28 yet another slogan, "Jal Jangal Jameen", coined by Gond Adivasi leader Komaram Bheem,
01:35 much earlier, has been gaining prominence. The politics of indigeneity has become stronger in
01:41 recent times with the passing of the resolution in 2020 in Jharkhand to include Sarna, a separate
01:49 religion of the indigenous people, in the census. Former Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren was
01:56 recently arrested over a land scam case by the Directorate of Enforcement. Soon after he became
02:02 the Chief Minister in 2019, the first decision taken by his party was to drop the cases against
02:09 the accused in the 2017-18 Pathalgadi movement, a practice where Adivasis erect stone plaques
02:18 to honour their dead was used to raise awareness about the provisions of the Panchayat Extension
02:24 to Schedule Areas Act (PESA) by inscribing the provisions of the Act on these plaques.
02:30 It was an effort to empower people in the FIP schedule areas about their legal and constitutional
02:36 rights. More than 75 FIRs were registered in Khunti against those who led the movement. Almost
02:43 10,000 unknowns under the BJP government were opposing the proposed amendments to the Chota
02:49 Nagpur Tenancy Act and the Santhal Parganas Tenancy Act. Soren has since become the face of
02:56 the Adivasi rights movement and identity politics. With protests happening across the country by the
03:03 indigenous people demanding recognition of their economic, political and cultural rights,
03:09 the old debate over appropriation of Adivasi community by the Hindu nationalists and Christian
03:16 missionaries has once again come to the forefront and now with more rigour and force than before.
03:22 It was in the 1940s that the political right raised the issue of conversions by Christian
03:28 missionaries that led to the Neogi Committee report which banned the work of Christian missionaries
03:34 in the FIP schedule areas like Jharkhand. They also paved the way for the RSS to form Vanvasi
03:40 Kalyan Parishad in the early 1950s to mainstream the indigenous people and to the eventual
03:47 acceptance of the RSS by the Adivasi community. Then came the Ghar Wapsi campaign in the 1970s
03:55 and 1980s to project an inclusive political Hindu nationalism, alongside the movement by the
04:02 Adivasi community against the hegemonic identity has gained prominence and the resistance movements
04:08 have mobilized many across India. For instance, after the abrogation of Article 317 Jammu and
04:15 Kashmir that led to the reorganizing of the state into Jammu and Kashmir, a union territory with
04:21 legislature and Ladakh as union territory. There has been a growing demand in Ladakh by the people
04:28 that the center must ensure that their culture, identity and land rights are secured in the face
04:35 of an increasing thrust on development. Ladakhis are now demanding that Ladakh be declared a tribal
04:42 area under the sixth schedule of the constitution. The schedule tribes were first notified in 1950.
04:49 Since then, they have been projected and seen as those who have low literacy rates and are backward,
04:55 a term that is often contested by the indigenous groups saying the so-called development has made
05:02 them poorer and marginalized. They are also considered primitive, which is also being
05:07 questioned by the community saying that confers on them a savage like identity, a colonial construct
05:14 and not much has changed after independence for them. The industrial development proposed,
05:20 promoted and implemented by the BJP led government now faces resistance from the indigenous people
05:26 who are fighting for the right to self-determination of their cultural,
05:30 social and religious systems that are not being recognized. This issue of outlook looks at the
05:36 politics of appropriation and resistance in the wake of recent developments in the states like
05:42 Jharkhand and in the union territory of Ladakh. With the general elections due this year,
05:48 it remains to be seen how the adivasis who form more than 8% of the total population
05:54 participate and how the identity politics shapes up in the future.
05:59 For this and more, read the latest issue of Outlook.