WHO ARE THE ADIVASIS?

Hey all!!

Hameed Catel here, creator of the Almier project. Now very early on in the series, some of my main characters will be in India and one of them will be from India. So I had to research India if I was to depict an accurate representation of how things really are there. During my research, I came across an interesting story which I am surprised I didn’t know before. So I decided to share this particular story with you all. It’s about the Adivasis.

Now it's no secret that India's economy is fast growing and diverse but one particular group are being left behind drastically. The Adivasis are on the lowest rung of India’s social and economic ladder, the poorest of the poor. They’re a loose collection of tribes and villages in the jungles of central and eastern India and for generations have scraped together a living off farming and the spoils of the land.  Believed to be the first ones to live in India, they’re about 84 million in number (8% of India’s population). To help you put that into perspective think of it this way, there are about 64 million people in the UK; so imagine everyone in the UK (and then some) living below the poverty line or on the edge of starvation.

The Adivasis - normal people like me and you

And as if this wasn’t bad enough, the land that provides their living is now being taken from them. Millions of Adivasis are being displaced from their homes for two main reasons; the first is because of the 40 year long civil war that has been going on between the Indian government and the Maoist anti-government groups. The second is because the lands of the Adivasis contain rich mineral deposits worth trillions of dollars which the Indian government wants to cash in.

The lands of the Adivasis rich in minerals.

The eastern jungles of India

Forests are being cleared and hundreds of villages have been evacuated to make room for steel plants and other mineral refineries. The displaced Adevasis are moved to settlement camps and are promised jobs and a living. Unfortunately that is not what they get and has not been for over 60years.
“We are not treated as equals... When we complain, we're threatened or beaten. We have no jobs so we stay hungry.” – The words of an Adivasi in one of the settlements camp. Al Jazeera. “India’s silent war”.

India’s Maoists rebels also live in the jungle area, an anti-government communist group that claims to be fighting for the people. They initially fought for land reform but now want to change India’s governance. Their ideal is a just society without hierarchy. Instead of standing back and watching everything they’ve ever known be taken away from them some of the Adivasis join the Maoists and fight back.
However the Maoists are not all the saviors they seem to be. When the Adivasis reject having anything to do with them, the Maoist force them out of their villages, threaten and hurt them. They burn construction equipments,  schools and hospitals in their zeal to undermine the government. Any Adivasi suspected in collaborating with Indian government is brutally executed. Among their many “victories” is a passenger train which they successfully crashed killing hundreds of people. This is how they fight with the government and it doesn’t seem to matter that they're hurting the very people that they claim to protect.

Maoist signs in an Adivasi village 

To fight back the government created the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF). To discourage people from having any contact with the Maoists, the CRPF kidnap, jail and torture those that support the Maoists, however innocent Adivasis have also been implicated on false charges. They've also been known to burn and destroy Adevasis villages they claimed were working with the Maoists. However it seems they are simply taking out their anger and frustration on the Adevasis, traumatizing them. For example when 76 members of CRPF were ambushed and killed by Maoist, CRPF burned retaliated by burning down the village in that area even though the Maoists were long gone.

The uprising by Maoist fighters and its brutal suppression by the Indian government, has claimed more than 10,000 lives since 1980, and displaced 12 million people. Many of the victims are not even associated with either side. They are simply caught in the crossfire. And the violence is escalating as both sides mount offensive after counter-offensive.

Adivasi caught in the middle.

Final thoughts:

The way I see it, if the Indian government is going to displace millions of people in order to cash in trillions of dollars, the least they could do is find a suitable substitute home for the Adivasis and provide a way for them to sustain themselves. They should also work to get the Adivasis on their side instead of nonchalantly making them casualties of war. At least this way, the Adivasis won’t have any cause to support or help the Maoist fighters in any way plus they will no longer be caught in between the conflict.

This solution isn't happening simply because of a lack of effort on the government’s side. Poverty in India is a large problem which will take great efforts to tackle but things doesn't have to be this bad for the Adivasis. If the Indian government can stop seeing them as insignificant and expendable people and start looking at them as 84 million human beings, then I’m sure they would make more of an effort to accommodate them. 

Note: this post does not set out to discuss the ideals of the Maoist fighters against the ideals of the government. It sole and only purpose is to shine light on the situation of the Adivasis.



For more information see sources


Did you know?

• ·         India is home to 1/3 of the world’s poor people

• ·         According to world Bank about 33% of the global poor now reside in India

• ·         75.6% of india’s population live below $2 a day mark compared to the 72.2% for Sub-Saharan Africa.

• ·         1/3 of india’s population (equivalent to population of US) live below the poverty line.

Sources: Inside India’s ‘redcorridor’, An end to an unending war in India, India’s silent war, One third of the world's poor in india: survey, The Hindu, ET Define poverty anew, BBC world poverty more widespread.