Also known as “tribals”, the Adivasi (indigenous/aboriginal) peoples of India are found from the Nilgiris to the Himalaya, and from asthan to Arunachal Pradesh. This blanket term refers to a hugely diverse selection of societies and cultures and is used as a catch-all for peoples who are not easily categorized in terms of India’s dominant groups or ideologies.
Many Adivasi peoples, particularly those living in a forest belt that stretches across Central India, from Orissa and Bihar, to Madhya Pradesh, may be the descendants of the first inhabitants of South Asia. Linguistically and culturally distinct from the peoples that make up the majority of India’s population, it is thought their presence in South Asia predates the two waves of immigration from the north and west that brought the now-dominant groups of the North and South.
As these new peoples moved in through the passes of the northwest they displaced the existing inhabitants, forcing them into the hills and forests where there was less pressure for land. Over time there was interaction between these different groups, but due to their relative isolation in sparsely populated regions many Adivasi peoples have retained highly individual identities.
The northeastern states have, after Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh and Orissa, the highest concentration of Adivasis. The groups who live here have more in common culturally and linguistically with peoples living in Burma (Myanmar) to the east, than they do with, say, the Todas or Kotas of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Even within the state of Arunachal Pradesh, one of the very few areas of India where Adivasis have any control over their affairs, there are over 60 distinct groups.
What does unite many of these peoples, however, is the degree of discrimination they have suffered and continue to face. Where Adivasis have had close contacts with the dominant Hindu population their place within the caste system has been considered extremely low, working as agricultural labourers or undertaking menial tasks (often those believed to be “polluting” by high-caste Hindus).
Traditionally, land-ownership patterns among ™ivasi groups tend to be collective and not governed by individual ownership laws, making it easy for unscrupulous politicians and landowners to appropriate Adivasi lands. This process of appropriation accelerates as the general pressure for land increases, and those areas where the Adivasis are relatively protected from exploitation become fewer and fewer.
Some of the worst offences of this kind have been committed by the state. Many large dams, such as the controversial Narmada projects, have flooded areas populated by Adivasis, and provide power and drinking water to urban areas while handing out pitiful, or no, compensation to the people they displace. Land reform programmes in states such as Kerala, while laudable in many respects, redistributed land that had traditionally supported Adivasi groups practising low-level rotational agriculture and hunter-gathering. Logging has decimated many of the forests previously inhabited by Adivasi groups, and areas such as Jhark-hand, which are rich in mineral wealth, have seen the displacement of many people, as well as widespread pollution of their lands.
Southern Bihar is now the new state of Jharkhand, and eastern Madhya Pradesh is now the state of Chattisgarh. Both have large Adivasi populations and, in theory, the Adivasis themselves should be able to lobby the state governments more efficiently than before. How far these new states will go towards protecting the interests of the Adivasis, however, remains to be seen.
