- Sat, 31 Jul, 2010, 2:12 am -

|| Stan Swamy ||
There are two important concerns which all those living in Jharkhand have to keep in mind: (1) the 50 year long struggle of the Adivasi People of Jharkhand for a separate state was not for industrialising Jharkhand through mines & industries by national and multi-national companies. It was not for establishing prestigious universities and technical institutes. Rather, it was for the possibility of self-governance in accordance with their traditions, customary laws, socio-cultural values & norms.

The ruling class finally came to accept these demands, and in the year 2000 granted separate statehood and called it Jharkhand State. The Home Minister, while moving the Bill in Parliament, said in very clear terms that this step was being taken to fulfil the long cherished desire of the Adivasi People of Jharkhand to govern themselves as per their traditions, customary laws and culture.

But what has happened during the past nine years is just the opposite of what was originally intended. Business people, professionals, bureaucrats, industrialists from far and near have poured into Jharkhand in lakhs, occupy centre stage in all spheres of life and have pushed the Jharkhandi People to the periphery. This is a travesty of justice. It is high time to restore the original intent.

(2) Fathers of the Indian Constitution were not guided by numbers (majority /minority) when they formulated the Fifth & Sixth Schedules. Not how many they are, but how they are. They looked at a people who were the original inhabitants (Adi-vasi) and who have preserved up to now some clear ethnic characteristics which distinguish them from the rest of the population. Some of these characteristics are: commonality, equality, cooperation, consensus decision making, closeness to nature. They have also practised a unique type of self-rule based on their traditional system and leadership. A person like Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of India, was sensitive to the cause of the Indigenous Adivasi People. In 1952 he spelt out what is known as Nehruvian Panchsheel :

1. Tribals should be allowed to develop according to their own genius.

2. Tribals’ rights in land and forest should be respected

3. Tribal teams should be trained to undertake administration and development without too many outsiders being inducted.

4. Tribal development should be undertaken without disturbing tribal social and cultural institutions

5. The index of tribal development should be the quality of their life and not the money spent

It is important to note that numbers / population-ratio of the Tribals/Adivasis in relation to non-adivasis is not the factor behind bestowing special consideration and protection for Tribals/Adivasis.

But sadly enough, the above Nehruvian Principles have been thrown to the winds by the different Central & State govts during the past five decades. And now the unkindest cut of all comes when the Jharkhand Govt wants to do away with the Adivasi traditional system itself.

Forcible panchayat election will permanently destroy the traditional Adivasi system of self-governance. And if this election will be held on party-line, it will be much worse. It is bad enough that Adivasi People have been divided on party lines in the Parliamentary and Assembly elections. If parties will enter the gram and tola level with their party slogans, one cannot imagine a greater damage. The damage is especially because the humanising values such as communitarianness, commonality, equality, cooperation, consensus decision making, closeness to nature which are already in the process of weakening because of the modern capitalist values, will completely disappear.

Any one with a human sense would admit that the values that have characterised the Indigenous Adivasi People are not only humanising but also should be preserved so that the non-Indigenous peoples may also be humanised. For that to happen, we must by all means preserve the Indigenous values. And to preserve them, we must preserve the Indigenous Adivasi People’s system of self-governance. There is no other way.