3rd Fr Stan Swamy Memorial Lecture organised by PUCL – Jharkhand
Relevant State Jharkhand
Click here to watch the full lecture.
Addressing the Adivasi Question: Brief Summary of Prof Xaxa’s speech at the Memorial
On the occasion Fr Stan Swamy’s death, PUCL Jharkhand hosted it’s annual memorial lecture. This was the 3rd memorial lecture, which was chaired by Prof Jean Dreze with Prof Virginius Xaxa as the key note speaker.
When people are asked the question of what is politics, they often share it is party politics, about the Government of India Act (1935). They talk about the Constitution and how it gave rights to Dalits. Especially on the question of political representation, it is recognized that after this point in time tribals were seen as getting representation in the national and state politics.
Another practice of politics is that it arises from resistance and movements. In these spaces the struggle is for the power that has been snatched from us by British and thereafter the state. It wasn’t party politics but it was this struggle to assert and access the power that was stolen from Adivasis. The Birsa Munda movement is a kind of politics. Here the central issue was how do we get back the power that was snatched from us. It was not party politics; it was the politics to reclaim and regain power. For this claim to power there were a range of revolts and insurrections by the Adivasis and this was a way of practicing politics. This question of electoral politics for the Adivasis came much later than the politics that drove these revolts and movements. Despite the huge numbers of Adivasis in states such as Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand, it is my understanding that their rights have still not been secure. A question we must ask ourselves is that through electoral politics what is it in terms of rights and dignity that we have gotten. The work that is done by the States/Parties has only been symbolic to have not gotten a law against Adivasis. The question remains what have they done positively for the rights of the Adivasi people. The crux of the reality is that the national party, state party and interests of Adivasi people can never align because the national interest/state interest is not that of Adivasi people. This pattern is clear everywhere – what is TMC? What is TDP? Why are there these regional parties? These parties have come to secure interest of regional people and the varying identities that come with it. What is happening in Jharkhand is that there is a national party, there is a regional party and then there is the Adivasi political question. Within these the contradictions are so many that there is no way to reconcile them. And thus, we must address and secure the rights of the Adivasi people at this regional, this local level. It is not that there is no identity of regional and local politics, it is actually a form of sub national identity. For example, the Oriya identity. We can imagine a similar sub national identity of Adivasis in Jharkhand. But Adivasis in Jharkhand have tried to accommodate so much that somewhere this identity got left behind. As the Adivasis in Jharkhand, we must deliberate that in this scheme of national and regional politics what is the place made for us. And most crucially, how can we reclaim our space?
The other practice of politics is that of movements. The struggle against mining, for forest rights, against dams, for irrigation is all continuing forms of politics. In my understanding, if one were to look at the Adivasis situation then, colonialism is still continuing. This means that there is still outside control on our resources in the forest. Our forest resources are not allowed to be used for the benefit of the Adivasi people but instead are being depleted in the name of development. This colonialism is common to Jharkhand, Orissa and Chhattisgarh. We have not been able to dislodge this colonialism.
Now how do we dislodge this colonialism – Fr Stan Swamy taught us ways of thinking about this resistance and of self-preservation. He also emphasized through his life’s work on the constitutional provisions for the protections of the Adivasis such as the Fifth Schedule. The Fifth Schedule gives the right to Adivasis that whatever law the Parliament may pass; if it is not in the interest of the Adivasis then it can be amended or even repealed by the Governor. In all these years, which State’s governor has done this? This was the dream of Fr Stan Swamy. He used to speak about land acquisitions and how the unlawful ways in which lands were being grabbed, how can it be diluted. He was leading the initiative in Jharkhand to amend that law. During the British Rule the East India Company was supported by the State. After India attained independence, we were imagining a socialist society and even in this so-called socialist society, Adivasis have been the most displaced. After 1991, when liberalization came in, we see that the corporate and the State are collaborating on a large scale. At least before that the State was forced to give something in return to the displaced Adivasis. This was not the case for the corporates. In fact, the State creates a big show of how it is giving jobs through affirmative action to Adivasis. But the truth of the matter is that the State is taking away a lot from the Adivasi people. Affirmative Action was imagined as a tool to uplift the Dalit and Adivasis. But now there is a system where the claim is that we are giving something to the Adivasi people (affirmative action) but they are taking away Jal, Jungle, Zameen and effectively leaving us worse off.
The biggest problem of the Adivasis is that they are taken for granted. They have limited the understanding of the Adivasi question to an ST certificate and what the law says. We – the Adivasis are much more than this ST certificate. We are a sub national identity especially considering the question of the language of the Adivasis. Who are we if don’t know the different Adivasi dialects? These questions of language have not been the focus of the Tribal community. There has been a claim by the Hindu religions over the Adivasi identity. It is like asking the question of whether Bengalis are Muslims or Hindus? And what relationship does language have to religion? There is also a tendency within the Adivasis to exclude other Adivasis on differences in language.
Keeping all this in mind, what is the future of the Adivasis? We have a responsibility to foster the feeling of pride and assert our tribal identity. Colonialism is persisting and it will continue to persist and the relationship of the market and State will become intertwined. For the State, this market has become more important than its people. What we were seeing the changes after 1991, we will see the situation on the ground exacerbate. At such a critical stage, we need to reflect on the work of Fr Stan Swamy and his ideas on the Constitution. The legal provision of Fifth Schedule is our weapon of defense. Keeping in mind Fr Stan, why don’t we mobilise ourselves? Why don’t we collectivize on the demands of fifth Schedule?
This is the future of our work. Similarly, we have such common experiences of the displacement and the violence of the State that we survive. Across States and villages, we have to build a broader alliance of Adivasis while navigating the question of regional politics. We have to be able to be in solidarity with each other. We have to start a thinking circle to be able to reflect on these issues and questions related to the Adivasi identity. The middle class has become completely detached from the Adivasis; it is like they are dead from inside. It is through thinking and reflecting together within the Adivasis that we have to carve out our future and secure our rights. There is need for larger civil society organizations to especially collaborate on fighting police violence, thinking about laws and amendments based on the needs articulated by the Adivasis. A lot of the significant legal changes for the Adivasi society have come because of the civil society initiative, for example: PESA, Forest Rights Act.