A Tribute to Tribals of India

Tribal way of living is the most primitive type. In any part of the world the tribals represent the Indigenous culture of that region. They represent the most independent way of life. That means the tribal living requires very less dependency on each other. There is no large society structure. Every family is independent. Every family hunts or gathers their own food & water. They make their own clothes. For dwelling they take little help from other families. For entertainment they get together and develop indigenous culture, tradition, language, ballads. Their religion will be generally simple. If a mountain is their life line, they worship it. In desert they worship sand, cloud, water etc., In forest they create forest goddess, or worship various animals, plants, trees etc., which they feel are their lifelines.

Just to give a comparison with our life, let’s take an example of a small family of an engineer, teacher and their kids in a city. They would not grow vegetables, pulses. They don’t fetch water.  They don’t build their house by themselves. They don’t grow cotton nor make clothes. They get all that by paying money. How they get money? There exists a complex system. It is a societal structure. Money plays complex role in this structure. In this complex structure the family head works for money and feeds the family with the basic needs like food, water, clothing, shelter & security. He works in a small part of that complex system which provides these basic needs for seemingly all. 

So anthropologists who want to understand the human evolution study tribals to know how society evolved? Because that’s how man existed in ancient times. Then they look at how man evolved? Why society evolved? Who defines that structure? How? Who protects that structure? How kingdoms came up. Why it requires such large complex structure? Etc., The more you like to know the murkier it gets. The tribal way of life is the epitome of simplicity.

India must take some pride that we have NOT wiped out tribal way of life completely. Several tribes still persist with semi tribal way of life with little interaction with modern civilization. Some tribals who are completely untouched by civilization in Andamans, Orissa are being declared UN Heritage and being given state protection.

Compare it with the rest of the world. In whole of Europe, north and south Americas, most of Asia, Australia the tribal way of life is completely wiped out. The European imperialists with their invention of steam engine, fast transportation, navy, increased their fire power, gun power and went about ruling the entire world. The religion which plays key role in shaping society also was more taunting and oppressive rather than self-exploratory. The Imperialistic religions like Christianity and Islam slayed their indigenous way of life & self-exploratory life style. The new religions brought new way of worshipping, new theories, new gods. But unfortunately they focused equally ferociously on killing the old faith. The Pagan religious culture of Europe, The Mayans of Americas, The Egyptians, The Mesopotamians, Various indigenous Arabian tribal cultures are all completely wiped out today.

As these imperial religions expanded, they did nothing to imbibe any good things from other religions & regions. They are very rigid. They forced their theory upon people they came to rule. For example in Christianity, the individual aspirations for material needs are much appreciated. Every individual has the right to aspire for material needs & luxury life. Control over ones desires is not wise according to them. Where as in eastern religions like Hindu, Jain, Buddhism the importance given to abstinence, contentment, simplicity, yogic way of life not just for saints but for householders is very high. If as society we don’t control our material desires then it is not sustainable. We all know that. We have to look inner for happiness, satisfaction, god!

Indian freedom struggle has got much aid from tribals at various stages of history. Maharana Pratap Singh, Shivaji the Great, Chandrasekhar Azad the revolutionary freedom fighter are few examples of many in India whose life is greatly shaped by the tribals of India. 

Maharana Pratap Singh & Mewar Bhils 

The Bhils of Mewar had special relation with the Maharana Pratap. These tribals protected the great king and their family during the 13 long years of exile in forests. They shifted him safely from place to place in harshest of the conditions.

The tribal leaders lent a great help in the great battle of Haldi Ghati. Why did they put their life in danger for the great leader? Why so many tribes risked their life to protect him? When Akbar’s army was scouting the mountains for the traces of the Maharana why did they sacrifice their life to protect him?

Since his childhood days he regarded the Mewar Bhils with respect. He roamed around the Aravali hills understanding the geography and people. He vouched for protecting their habitats, their independence. He encouraged their skills, culture & tradition. He trained and played warfare with them in their way.

When Akbar’s army backed off, Maharana was reinstated on the throne. The Bhils of Mewar wanted nothing material in return. No big edifices, no big forts, no highways. They got their life of freedom, a life of self-exploration, a life of harmony with nature, a life of harnessing nature, a simple beautiful livelihood.

The Raja protected their living rights. And they laid their life for him.

Compare it to today’s Raja = The Indian Government = Praja Rajya = Large business houses + Middleclass demands. That’s all. All others are scums.

60% of Indian tribals are displaced from their dwellings. Mostly due to dams & mining. Did they ask for mining & dams? No. State asked for it. Who is state? Is it people protector? Or is it people destructor? These tribals are called internally displaced. They are illegal occupants of land wherever they go. So they have taken up arms. They have become Maoists. They are called naxals. They have become anti nationals, violent & bloody.

Shivaji the Great & Mavalli Tribals 

Shivaji grew up playing earthly games with the Mavalli tribes. Most of his child hood friends were from these freedom loving tribes. Under the watchful eyes of Dadaji Kondadev, these free spirited boys wandered around the hills & forests of the Great Sahyadri range. They grew up to become Shivaji’s trusted generals in building up his empire.

Baji Prabhu Deshpande laid down his life protecting Shivaji at the mouth of Panhalaghad. Tanaji’s sacrifice while capturing the Simhaghad for Shivaji’s mother’s wish is very famous in the folklore of Maratha region.

Why these people did willingly laid down their lives for the kingdom? Shivaji built new forts and fortified old ones in toughest of the Sahyadri hills. Why did they help him? Did he enslave them? Or Entrust them? Did he snatch their livelihood? Or did he give them status?

What can our today’s tribals do for us? What their strengths are? How can we utilize them for nation building? Are they good archers? Are they good artisans? Artists? Builders? Naturalists? Do they know the forest landscape? Do they have knowledge of the flaura & fauna? Should we not care today? Are they just illegal occupants of the world!?

The India’s Freedom Struggle & Tribals

Till the British rose to the power no government or king had disturbed the various tribals living across Indian mountains and forests. The need for coal, iron, for railways, brought the need of modern civilization in direct conflict with the tribals. The traditional community land rights were challenged. Also the British craze for coffee & tea guzzling and exporting cleared pristine forests for monoculture and enslaved its inhabitants in large estates.

Birsa Munda a young tribal leader lead an uprising in the Chota Nagpur forest areas. He became spiritual guru also. He lead a great armed rebellion against the British. Similarly there were, many uprising against the British misrule by the tribals across India especially in Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand regions.    

How can we protect Tribals today? 

We still have about 8% tribal population in India. They are peaceful people. We should let them live where they are & however they are. We need to learn from them. We need to engage with them humanely. Entrust and empower them to protect the forests, mountains, rivers. Utilize their archery, physical strength in sports, army, police. Utilize their naturalist knowledge.

We are aping too much of western culture. We must know civilization thrived well even before coffee tea were discovered. We must get back to roots. Why not? Baba Ramdev sells simple alternatives. Our own elders used to do many alternatives from simple things grown in backyard. We must get back to that.

Too much of carbon footprint by each and every family. We are growing our material needs. We don’t even realize it is causing so much stress on government to acquire forests and come in direct conflict with the tribals.

Do we know that we are the cause of Naxalism? Our life style is the root cause of Maoism? We demand high lifestyle. Government in order to provide it, cuts forests, drills mines, bring down hills. Where do people living there go? For them state is a terrorist organization. For them we are all terrorists.

If we have to remove Naxalism we have to be ready to remove consumerism. We have to adopt ancient ways of simplicity. We have to gain confidence and love of the tribals. Yes. That is possible. Then they themselves will help us build Submarines, Fighter jets, Mars Mission Satellites. Those are necessary for us. Not individual luxury like, granite flooring, leather jacket, luxury high speed car. We need to build community assets like our ancients built beautiful long lasting temples, lakes, tanks, forts. Like the way the tribals built formidable forts for Rana Pratap & Shivaji, they can help us build today’s defense. Provided we ask them. Provided, we tell them why they should sacrifice. And how we can rehabilitate and empower, train them to contribute for such feats! If we directly displace them without even asking for Car manufacturing, Paint manufacturing for meeting someone’s luxury needs, then they obviously revolt.

We should let them live. We should let them fight to retain their forests, hills, rivers. We should recognize their rights to live. At least in theory if we support their life, then it translates to some austerity in our life. In practice to bring in much austerity is difficult. But if we give them right to protect their environment, then we force ourselves for simple living. It can be however gradual.

Some of my friends say when I pick a subject I don’t stick to the line of that subject. I go all around. Like in this example, Tribals – Religion – conversion –  freedom struggle - materialism – simplicity – Maoism etc., But as you see they are all interconnected. Each of it is not standalone & sacrosanct. I wish our policies were as people oriented as our ancient times than today’s mad economics based.