There is so much cacophony on ‘development’, that shrieking voices dissolve the milder ones, as bulldozers transform landscapes, and brush away healing sources of life along with the people who are nourished by them. I live in Madhya Pradesh (MP), the Indian state with the largest numbers of tribal people, as well as the highest malnutrition of children. The Narmada[Read More…]
All-India Fact-Finding Team observes grave violations of Adivasi rights in Nagarahole Tiger Reserve, even as PM ‘celebrates’ 50 years of ‘Project Tiger’. Calls for immediate measures to uphold rights of Adivasis as per law and end evictions, intimidation and violence. ‘Celebrations’ are a cruel way of marking not 50 years of Project Tiger and conservation through protected areas, but 50 years[Read More…]
To Smt Droupadi Murmu President of India Rashtrapati Bhawan Subject:- Migrant Gutti Koyas (Murias) in Telangana facing a humanitarian crisis- Urgent need for recognition of their Constitutional rights in Telangana, AP, Odisha and Maharashtra Respected Rashtrapati Ji, A severe conflict situation in Chhattisgarh State since 2005-06 has forced more than 50,000 Muria adivasis, recognised as a Scheduled Tribe (ST) in their[Read More…]
To Ms Leena Nandan Secretary Ministry of Environment, Forests & Climate Change (MEFCC) Govt of India Dear Ms Nandan, I understand that your Ministry has taken action to introduce a Bill to amend the Forest (Conservation) Rules in the Parliament during the ensuing winter session. The Bill has far reaching implications for the lives of the adivasis across the country[Read More…]
Rahul Gandhi’s in one of his recent statements about Adivasis said “The people of BJP don’t call you Adivasi. What do they call you? Vanvasi. They don’t tell you that you are the first owners of Hindostan. They tell you live in jungles…” The word used for these aborigines is Scheduled Tribes in the Constitution. It is interesting to recall[Read More…]
At a time of increasing economic inequalities and ecological ruin, the search for alternative development paradigms has increased and an important aspect of these efforts has been to learn more about indigenous and tribal cultures and world-views as a source of guidance. While these efforts can be seen more in a few countries like Bolivia and Ecuador, there have been[Read More…]
Book review : Being Adivasis: Existence, Entitlements, Exclusion edited by Abhay Flavian Xaxa and G. N. Devy, New Delhi, Penguin, 2021, 208 pp., 699 (Hardcover), ISBN 9780670093007 Scholars on the study of Adivasi bring out new book under the title ‘Being[Read More…]
After taking the oath of office of the President of India, Droupadi Murmu said: “My election is proof of the fact that the poor in India can have dreams and fulfil them too.” Her speech at the oath taking ceremony was a moving narrative, recalling her past struggles from humble origins and her daily toil during her childhood. She described [Read More…]
How will you feel if someone promises to remove an injustice you have suffered for years, but in the end leaves you suffering even more than before? Something similar appears to be happening to tribal communities in India in the context of the Forest Rights Act 2006. They were promised by the government that the historic injustice caused to them[Read More…]
Letter to the Prime Minister on the occasion of the Janjatiya Gaurav Divas (national Tribal Day) on November 15, 2021 To Shri Narendra D Modi Prime Minister Dear Shri Modi, Janjatiya Gaurav Divas on November 15, 2021 The Centre and the States should “walk the talk”! I understand (https://indianexpress.com/article/india/pm-modi-to-lead-first-tribal-day-celebrations-7620370/) that you will be leading the first-ever Janjatiya Gaurav Divas on[Read More…]
Thousands of Adivasis involved in the “Pathalgari Movement” were criminalized for fighting for their collective rights to self-determination and protection of their lands, territories, and natural resources in Jharkhand State of India. Forty-six year old Ladu Nag from the Munda Adivasi (Indigenous) community is bound to live alone after her husband Neta Nag, a resident of Kevda village in Khunti[Read More…]
Podu cultivation is a traditional way of “shifting agriculture” in forests being practiced from ages and generation to generation. Lakhs of forest dwellers are solely dependent on this type of agriculture for their livelihood. The plight of lakhs of podu farmers in the state of Telangana is becoming precarious. The dismay and panic faced by them is very miserable. They[Read More…]
In 1996 India took a great step forward in terms of empowering rural tribal communities, a step which moreover was very much in continuity with Gandhian traditions of gram swaraj or village self-rule ( genuine decentralization based on justice and equality) and so India was a particularly good country for introducing such a step. This was in the form of[Read More…]
The population of Tribals (Scheduled Tribes) in Uttar Pradesh is 11.35 lakhs of which 80% are landless. That is why the Forest Rights Act – 2006 and Rules 2008 came into force for the empowerment of Tribals. Under this law, Tribals and non-Tribals living in a Reserve Forest area were to be given a lease of residential and agricultural[Read More…]
Written by K.M. Seethi & Elizabeth Abraham The social landscape and livelihood options in the tribal habitats in Kerala have changed tremendously in the last several decades. This transformation has its impact on the tribal population and their life-world experiences. This is the theme of the ongoing workshop organised as part of the Engaging Human Ecology Series of the Inter[Read More…]
Many commentators on land and forest rights, including former senior government officials, have expressed serious concern at the land alienation suffered by tribal farmers and the dilution of their forest rights. While this has led to a serious livelihood crisis among a large number of tribal households, in addition this has led to immense threats to the rich[Read More…]
Written by Aman Rathi, Ashutosh Rungta and Darpan Jain It was a fine morning, about 4 AM, in a remote village named Beliyapal, in the state of Chhattisgarh. Shiv Kumari, a tribal woman of around 40 years, readied herself to make her way to the jungle. She would walk about 5-6 km deep in the wilderness with a basket ready[Read More…]
One million animal and plant species face extinction due to human activity, according to the United Nations. Now, think about cultural production—art and literature that we have invested to address the extinction of just a handful of species (passenger pigeon included). Quite a bit actually. The extinction of one million species feels rather abstract, beyond the comprehension of human cultural[Read More…]
In the not-too-distant past, there was a very senior official . He was an official of his own kind, very devoted to the welfare of the poorest people. He led a most simple life, so that he could devote himself single-mindedly to the dearest objective of his life which was to work for the welfare of poor and oppressed people,[Read More…]
Commemorating 25th anniversary of spark ignited in Padmagiri-Pandaripani landmark struggle This week we commemorate 25 years since the launching of the peasant struggle in Padmagiri Pandaripani in Malkangiri in Orissa which was landmark event in history of Indian revolutionary Movement. Such agitations are the turning point in the seeking of liberation of the oppressed from the clutches of exploiter classes.[Read More…]
Co-Written by Dr. Anamika Roy, Dr. Chandrima Chatterjee & Dr. Parul Malik The tribal population of India comprises of the indigenous people dwelling in the hinterlands who are sometimes extremely susceptible to high levels of inaccessibility to health resources. The health inequalities which have been faced by these people are an evidence of the fundamental failure of the realization of[Read More…]
MAHILA KISAN ADHIKAAR MANCH (MAKAAM) or Forum for Women Farmers’ Rights condemns and expresses deep concern over the increasing incidence of violence, harassment and atrocities against adivasi and other traditional forest dwellers especially women forest dwellers in Uttarakhand. The Forest Rights Act 2006 proclaims the responsibility of the state to defend and uphold the rights of Adivasis and Other Traditional[Read More…]
by Pranab Doley, Jacinta Kerketta, Deme Oraon, Gladson Dungdung, Sharanya and Rajaraman Sundaresan A recent protest, through a petition endorsed by around 300 Adivasi leaders, academics, activists, environmental groups and people’s movements in India, has brought the issue of decolonization to the forefront by protesting against the decision of IUAES and its member organizations to hold the World Anthropology Congress[Read More…]
The 24th edition of the Kolkata international film festival, held in November 2018, showed a surprisingly large number of films from Australia, which has never been counted among the foremost film-making nations of the world; no less than two dozen in all. It is hard to tell whether the ‘focus’ had anything to do with an increasing interest in Down[Read More…]
Co-Written by Dibyendu Chaudhuri and Parijat Ghosh Deskilling is a process of elimination of skilled labour within an economy. Separation of intelligence from muscle helps ruling class dominating both (Braverman, 1974). Advent of modern agriculture, characterised by hybrid seeds, chemical fertilisers, pesticides, etc., is considered responsible for deskilling in agriculture. In agriculture, deskilling is understood as a process in[Read More…]
Whereas previously SC affirmed indigenous people’s inalienable rights to their land, it now orders their eviction from their land unilaterally There are three significant SC judgments on the indigenous Adivasi people’s rights over their land and natural resources: 1) In 2011 the SC, hearing a complaint petition by a young Adivasi woman who was raped and paraded naked by[Read More…]
Today, the Campaign for Survival and Dignity, a national platform of adivasi and forest dwellers’ organisations, decided on a national Wave of Struggle over the next two weeks against the unjust attack on millions of people whose claims under the Forest Rights Act were rejected. The Supreme Court’s order to evict over one million claimant families is the direct[Read More…]
The Human Rights Forum (HRF) rejects the atrocious February 13 order of the Supreme Court that calls for eviction in a summary and time-bound manner of those whose claims for forest rights under The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act (FRA) have been rejected. This amounts to an attack on the rights of adivasis[Read More…]
A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra has ordered eviction of Adivasis and other forest dwelling communities from the ‘forest’ regions whose claims for entitlement have been rejected by the Forest department. The written copy of the order was made available on February 20th, 2019 which makes things unambiguous and the intent. The court order says : “The[Read More…]
Supreme Court Order for Eviction of a million forest dwellers in more than 16 states perpetuates ‘Historical Injustice’ ! BJP-led Union government jeopardizes the interests of country’s forest dependent people and adivasis: State governments fail in implementing FRA in true spirit Centre must issue Ordinance to stop evictions as per SC Order 21st Feb, 2019: National Alliance of People’s Movements[Read More…]
Today we celebrate World Indigeneous people’s day but in the backyard of the biggest democracy of the world is the systematic isolation and displacement of millions of adivasis in the name of development. A veteran activist is fighting for the rights of the aadivasis on the Narmada valley but the government is determined to ‘develop’ the state even when it[Read More…]
Not many people may have witnessed the beauty of forests, but it is certainly something that everyone knows something about. In the narrative of climate change and the destruction wrought on nature by man, the declining forest cover and the thinning canopy take on poetic notes. The forest becomes a singular identity, existing majestically, independent of animals and people. Thus[Read More…]
One does not have to read Marx to understand how debt-based money in the form of credit to corporations, – chosen by banks on the basis of their ability to make profit, – leads to an accumulation of money in the hands of those few who create the money and are given the credit. Profiteering, in short, capitalism, is incompatible[Read More…]
Notes on two recent sensations 
A shocking picture of health apathy….. 
Railway accident in Odisha- Are the Railways ready for high-speed trains? Who is to be blamed? 
Teaser of Film on Savarkar: Lies Galore 
Preserving India’s Heritage: The Power of International Collaboration for Natural and Cultural Conservation 
Looking for Home in an Overheating World – If Emissions Continue, Will We All Be Migrants Someday? 
From Ploughshares to Swords—Sudden Militarism of Those Who Once Stood for Peace 
Transreality 
Australia stands to benefit from India only if Indian democracy survives, not from rallies 
Whether Rhetoric or Serious, Arab Diplomacy Can’t Be Ignored! 
Unleashing the Power of Sports: How Sporting Events Drive Tourism Growth 
Black Panther and the need to dream for a better world 
Mexico’s Zapatistas Warn Chiapas Is on “the Verge of Civil War” 
Why distress from railway accidents may be much higher than is commonly believed 
Stop Plastic Pollution as We Commemorate 50th World Environment Day 2023 
Modi Regime should be Called to Account for the Deadliest Triple Train Collision at Balasore 
Thoughts on World Environment Day 
Nuclear Fusion: Eternal Energy = Eternal Damnation 
Why There Should Be A Treaty Against the Use of Weaponized Drones 
Protests in Germany after Anti-fascists sent to five years in prison 
Women Wrestler’s Protests: Exposing Beti Bachao Slogan 
Inauguration of Parliament Building: Coronation Ceremony? 
FBI appears to be continuing investigation of Julian Assange 
And We Are Much More Than Our Uterus. (In Solidarity With the protesting wrestlers) 
Strike ends in Belsonika with reinstatement of 10 suspended workers 
A Man Without a Strategy: How Netanyahu Is Provoking Armed Intifada in the West Bank 
The Ancient Patterns of Migration 
Seven Reasons Why the Present Phase of Imperialism is the Most Dangerous Ever 
Unmasking Tourism’s Roadblocks 
Metro authorities humiliating ordinary commuters 
PLI Scheme- Do subsidies to profit-earning private manufacturers yield commensurate societal benefits? World Environment Day in India: Doing Justice with the Day 
Ben Roberts-Smith: The Breaking of a Plaster Saint 
Do we All need Religion? An Introspection 
Obama, Kissinger and the Nobel Peace Prize 
The Politics of Erdogan and Western Anxieties 
The Compulsion to Intervene – Why Washington Underwrites Violence in Ukraine 
Just War and Just War Theory 
Stolen Heirloom or poppycock 
‘Simply Inconceivable’ to Dump Fukushima Water in Pacific, Critics Say After Latest IAEA Report 
Our beloved K.P.Sasi is no more. Filmmaker, cartoonist, writer, mentor, friend and above all tireless activist championing the cause of every underdog, Sasi breathed his last, mid-afternoon this Christmas day – after battling a medical condition for months. I remember the last time I met him, almost exactly a month before he passed away, at the ayurvedic healing center in[Read More…]
