Adivasis – Past and Present

The Adivasis are the descendants of those first inhabitants of India, who resisted the law and order system installed by the respective conquerors. Over quite a long period in history the Adivasis have been left untouched on principal. In many regions of the Indian subcontinent the Adivasis used to live as fishermen, as nomadic shepherds, as shifting agriculturalists and as hunters and gatherers. Between 2500 and 1500 BC cattle-breeding pastoralists from Western Central Asia – they called themselves “arya” i.e. the noble ones – conquered the then densely forested land. In order to confirm their dominance this “elite” created the caste system, which brandmarked the orginal population as “wild” and “uncivilized”. A certain part of the aboriginal people was subjugated and subsequently integrated into the system of dominance at the lowest rung as “outcastes” or “untouchables” (today they are known as “harijans”, “scheduled castes” or “dalits”). Thus racist discrimination started more than three thousand years ago. This was also the beginning of continuous eviction and withdrawal of the Adivasis.

Many communities fled in inaccessible hill areas, where they could preserve their traditional way of life partly to this day. The Adivasis have never been part of the economic system – except that they were exploited as cheap labour. Their economic activities in agriculture, animal husbandry and craft have always been exclusively for their subsistence – not for making profit. The Constitution of India provides quota for the scheduled tribes in education, public service and also in the parliaments. Moreover there are quite a few tribal development programmes. These promotion activities do not address the specific needs of the Adivasis. In addition they aid and abet the formation of an Adivasi elite, which is aloof from the situation of the majority. The government-sponsored industrialization increasingly destroys the last withdrawal areas of the aboriginal inhabitants. The delogging of vast forests, the construction of huge embankment dams, mining projects and test ranges for the army have already devastated large parts of Adivasi areas. They have uprooted millions of them and made them beggars in their own land.