Adivasis are the rising victims of development

Due to the Sangh Parivar’s policy of painting everyone in one colour, people of all kinds of minority communities in our country are feeling insecure, which includes number one Muslims, then Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists and people of all kinds of advasis, nomads and various tribes. Ignoring various provisions of our Constitution and due to the conspiracy to root out the concept of indigenous people, in the name of so-called development, due to the policy of eradicating their identity along with their existence, today Surajgarh hill is being cut. All this is going on as part of a conspiracy to root out people of all scheduled tribes from Kashmir to the Northeast.

‘Mawa Nate Mawa Raj’ This declaration, which emerged from the mass movement of the tribals of Abujhmad (Chhattisgarh), has reminded all the tribal areas of their constitutional rights. But even after seventy-five years of independence, the most surprising act of the government is that mining of Surajgarh mines in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra continues despite the opposition of the local tribals. Ignoring the fifth and sixth schedules and the Gram Sabha made for the protection of the tribals, the lease has been given to Lloyds and Metals Company for iron excavation on the Surajgarh hill. And at present, the iron production work is going on by Triveni Earth Movers Company. The hill is being cut with the help of hundreds of workers and machines from outside areas. Deforestation is also going on in full swing to take out the raw material. At present, most of the Surajgarh hill has been completely cut. The life of the tribals depends on forests and hills. Therefore, they are opposing Surajgarh mining through Gram Sabhas.

And like Kashmir or the states of the Northeast, under the guise of law and order, various types of armies including local police, Central Reserve Force and all types of paramilitary forces of India are being deployed and the entire forest, water and land are being handed over to various multinational companies. And the entire Northeast, tribal-dominated Jharkhand, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra to Gondia, Bhandara, Chandrapur, Madhya Pradesh, almost one-fourth of India has been declared a disturbed area. Is this our achievement after seventy-five years of independence?

Tribals protest against eviction from forest land for mining in Surajgarh Due to the ongoing ‘Thiya Andolan’ by the Gram Sabha and the tribal community for three consecutive days demanding to stop Surajgarh mining, the State Minister of Tribal Department of Maharashtra said that no injustice will be allowed to be done to the tribals. But what is his stand today on the demand to stop Surajgarh mining?

Our politicians have been exploiting Dalits, tribals, women and the poor in their electoral politics for the last 75 years. But the rich people who give money for elections, whether it is mining work or deforestation and other projects, they continue it as usual. And 75 percent of the tribal population, which is 8.5 to 9 percent of the total population of India, is displaced by mining work, dam projects, or mostly projects running in the name of development. Due to these, the tribal people are the biggest victims of displacement. And that is why mining in the Surajgarh mines of Gadchiroli district continues despite the opposition of the local tribals.

There is a provision in our country’s constitution that “no work should start on any project within the scheduled area until the permission of the local Gram Sabha is obtained.” But the party currently in power in the country, as per the agenda of its parent organization Sangh Parivar, has ignored all the constitutional provisions made for Dalits and tribals, starting from our constitution, and has a policy of painting everything in one colour like one country, one constitution, one flag, one language, for the last eleven years, whether it is the citizenship law or the abolition of the provision of 370 from Kashmir or the ongoing farmers’ movement regarding the new agricultural laws and the process of selling public sector undertakings at throwaway prices, all this is continuing despite the opposition of tribals, farmers, laborers. Today, the work of Surajgarh mining is also continuing unabated due to their same policy. And calling the tribals forest dwellers is also a conspiracy to evict them by denying their existence due to their policy decision.

Five hundred years ago, the whites in America had treated the native Red Indians in the same way. Therefore, I am quoting a small part of the letter written by the Seattle Chief to the then President in 1854. “How can you buy and sell the open sky and the warmth of the land? For us, even thinking like this is a wonder. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkling shine of the water, then how can you buy it? For our people, every part of this earth is sacred. Every shining spot, every shore of water, the fog ringing the dark forests, every gap in them and the humming of insects are sacred to the memory and permission of our people.But if we sell our land to you, you must keep in mind that air is precious to us, it is the basis of all kinds of life, it participates in their consciousness. The air that comes as the first breath of our forefathers, dissolves in their last exhalation. And if we sell our land to you, you must consider that place in it as isolated and sacred, where even a white man can reach and taste the air laden with the sweet fragrance of the flowers of our bushes. “
(Excerpts from a letter written by the Chief of Seattle to the then President of America in 1854.)

On one hand, despite the fact that our constitution makers made special provisions to protect all the tribal areas of India by making the fifth and sixth schedules due to being a scheduled area, the work on all the projects is continuing as usual. Presently, Surajgarh hill is being cut. But our politicians are doing nothing except giving assurances to the tribal community. Being the minister of the tribal department, he should have first issued an order to stop Surajgarh mining. Instead of this, just saying that injustice will not be allowed to be done to the tribal community, what is the meaning of such empty talk?

A few days ago, I had the opportunity to participate in a discussion at the Nagpur Press Club. Seeing the then Forest Minister saying that the forests of our country are creating a huge obstacle in development, I said that you should be made the Forest Destruction Minister instead of the Forest Minister. Today, due to the rampant deforestation in India, our environment is going through a terrible crisis. The post of Forest Minister was created for the conservation of forests, and here you are saying that forests are creating a huge obstacle in development. You are speaking against your own department.

I have heard the same thing from the Union Environment Minister. And I also told him that after the Geneva Convention in the 1970s, for the first time, an Environment Ministry has been created in India. So, the work of your ministry is to protect the environment of India, and you are speaking against your own ministry. This is not their fault. They have got the ministry only for sharing the wealth. Many people think that development means massive industrialization, eight-lane cemented highways, bullet trains, and destroying all the forests and building dams, electricity, industrialization in the name of so-called development. Due to this mentality, those ministers do not even know what is the work of their ministry?

Dr. BD Sharmaji has a 232-page book in Hindi titled ‘The Unbroken History of Broken Promises – The Indian State and the Tribal People’ published by his own associate publication. Dr. BD Sharmaji himself was an Indian Administrative Service officer of the 1956 batch. And in 1991, he resigned from his post due to policy differences with the then government on tribal issues. After that, he was appointed to the post of Commissioner of Scheduled Castes and Tribes of India. And his 28th report is still considered a historical document for the tribals of the entire country. I am quoting something from the preface of his book.

“Today in our country, there is a huge debate going on about the tribal people and their country or areas. At the national level, the biggest concern is to free them from the demonic forces that have been dominating these areas for decades. The most interesting thing is that the state, which is so concerned about them today and is mandated under the Constitution to protect them and promote their interests, does not even know how many tribals have been displaced during this time. How many settlements have been occupied in the rush to loot gold? And how many have been destroyed? Like the case of Surajgarh right now.What other frauds have taken place under the guise of law? And how many small primitive tribes have been displaced or wiped out by powerful groups?

Despite all these mistakes, the tribal society has remained privileged. For them, there is a storehouse of unprecedented goodwill in the form of Panchasheel (decade 1950), in the form of Tribal Sub-Plan (decade 1970), in the form of action plan, decade 1990 and 1996 are the best presentation and there is a unique world of self-governance system in the form of Panchayat Provisions Scheduled Areas Extension Act PESA Act. The declaration of “Our rule in our village” is the result of the declaration of this law. It seemed as if heaven had come true on earth. But with time this grand miracle turned out to be a mirage. We had heard about minor forest produce being the property of the collector etc. (1976, 1996, 2006) but the BJP government that came to power after eight years has clearly said that the fifth and sixth schedules are unconstitutional. Although the Sangh itself had rejected our constitution on the second day of its declaration. But after coming to power, cleverly, by taking oath on the constitution, under the policy of abolishing the constitution, the special privileges given to the tribals have been declared unconstitutional by the fifth and sixth schedules. And after that, after abolishing 370 of Kashmir, now there is a conspiracy to abolish 371 of the Northeast as well.

Because there is a declaration of one nation, one constitution, one symbol. And thus, instead of unity and integrity, in the entire India, in the name of Hindu nationalism, the conspiracy to eliminate diversity by denying the existence of minorities, Dalits, Adivasis and various nomadic tribes and evicting them continues unabated.

Dr Suresh Khairnar is Ex. President of Rashtra Sewa Dal