Adivasi Struggle for Human Rights in India

by Adarsh Pandey

The Constitution of India has recognized the Adivasi (tribal) communities in India under ‘Schedule 5’ of the constitution. Hence the tribes recognized by the Constitution are known as ‘ Scheduled Tribes’.

There are around 645 distinct tribes in India.

The total population of Scheduled Tribes is 104 million as per the Census 2011 - this accounts for 8.6% of the total population of the country. The share of the Scheduled Tribe population in urban areas is a meager 2.8%.

In February this year, India’s Supreme Court ordered the eviction of more than a million forest dwellers after their land claims were rejected and directed 21 states to file affidavits with details on how they had processed those claims.

The forest dwellers, the majority of whom belong to indigenous tribal communities, claimed their ownership of the forest lands under the landmark Forest Rights Act (FRA).

Passed in 2006 by the previous government, the law recognized the right of nearly 150 million people to inhabit and live off about 40 million hectares (98.8 acres) of India’s forest land.

Nearly 104 million of those people are from various tribes, constituting close to 10 percent of India’s 1.3 billion people.

Right now they are protesting in every part of the country.

Matter of fact is that descendants of kings and feudal Lords are being known as modern Lords and kings but those who originally fought against foreign attacks and British imperialism are no more recognized as brave soldiers of Indian history.

It was just a mere example of negligence our tribe suffers in modern societies.

Let me give you another example

There is protest ongoing in Bastar district of Chattisgarh state.

They are protesting against opening of new police stations in remote areas of Aboojhmaad, Silger , Naraynapur and more. It has been more than 4 months and no mainstream media have shown it anywhere ever . It is not the first time they are being ignored by media and social attention .

It's been decades since large amount of tribal communities are being killed by right wing government of India .

For more than 50 years they are fighting against corporate loot and state crimes. There house has been burn , there children's been killed there mothers and sisters have been raped and mens been killed in enormous numbers .

India is land of various types of minerals , metals and other major natural resources. For example in 1967 very first uranium mining started in Jharkhand district. They never informed tribes about side effects of mining and kept digging. In aftermaths of the project thousands of people were killed during the project . Newborn children's having cancer and infants with semi processed limbs became normal.

Corporates and government work hand in hand to force migration, organized crimes and mass killings. If they resist state call them extremists and Maoists .

Those who always played a role in favor of nature, those who loved this mother earth as their own mother , those who preserved jungles and rivers for a long time, those who who worship no religion but nature , are now being killed for their love of mother earth. They are being migrated to cities where they have nowhere to live. They often live on streets. Those who were Lords of jungle, those who lived in utmost pure environment have no other options than die or run.

Land alienation, loss of access and control over forests, enforced displacement due to development projects and lack of proper rehabilitation, and indebtedness have been some of the key reasons for the marginalisation of Adivasis.

A study published recently by Sama Resource Group for Women and Health (2018), titled ‘From the Margins to the Centre‘ focuses on the health inequities among the tribal communities in selected districts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Odisha’. It was supported by the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and emphatically highlights the link between the poor health status of tribal communities and their marginalised location in the socio-economic and political contexts.

Pathalgadi – meaning “carving a stone” – is an ancient tradition among the tribal communities in Jharkhand. According to the custom, erecting a huge engraved stone marks the death of a person.

This was first used to create political awareness when the Panchayat (Extension of Scheduled Area) Act or PESA came into force in 1996. According to the Act, people living in the Fifth Schedule Areas of India are ensured self-governance through gram sabhas to “safeguard and preserve traditions and customs of the people, and their cultural identity.”

The Fifth Schedule of the Constitution deals with the administration and control of Scheduled Areas as well as of Scheduled Tribes. Tribal activists like BD Sharma and Bandi Oraon decided to use the “pathalgadi” tradition to spread awareness about the PESA Act. They did this by engraving the provisions of the PESA Act on 15-feet long and four-feet wide, green-painted stones.

These stone plaques are still reportedly found in four districts in Jharkhand – Khunti, Gumla, Simdega and West Singhbhum. They are found at the entry of villages and often prohibit outsiders from entering the village.

Why did Pathalgadi become a political movement?

The Pathalgadi movement was revived to protest tribal land rights in May 2016, when the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Jharkhand introduced amendments to the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNT) 1908 and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy (SPT) Act 1949. The two Acts prohibited transfer of tribal land to non-tribals as well as commercial use of tribal land. Ordinances introduced by the BJP sought to change that. According to the new amendments, governments could procure land from tribals for commercial use, without the permission of the gram sabha.

In response, stone plaques were installed in villages of Khunti district with the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution engraved on them. This was a reminder of the autonomy provided to the gram sabha and the tribal communities as per the Constitution of India. Soon, the Pathalgadi movement spread to other tribal districts in Jharkhand and even to the neighbouring state of Chhattisgarh.

The Jharkhand Assembly passed the ordinances in June 2017, causing protests by tribal communities and opposition from political parties like the Congress and the JMM. In August 2017, the two amended Bills were withdrawn.

By filing sedition cases. In November 2019, Scroll.in reported that the Jharkhand Police had filed sedition cases against more than 10,000 people between June 2017 and July 2018 in Khunti district. Under the sedition law, the people were booked for “exciting, or attempting to excite feelings of disaffection against the government.”

But the new Hemant Soren-led JMM government dropped all sedition cases against those involved in the Pathalgadi movement in December 2019 and those booked in protests against CNT and SPT amendments.