Indian Council of Indigenous & Tribal Peoples

INDIAN COUNCIL OF INDIGENOUS & TRIBAL PEOPLES 28, MAHADEV ROAD, NEW DELHI—110001 PHONE 381229 Promotional Office-CAE CAMPA : Police Line Road, Midnapore-721101 W. Bengal Statement made by the ICITP- at the U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Peoples at t&e 8th Session- on 31st. July 1990- Agenda item No. 5* Madam Chairperson, I take the floor, for and on behalf of the Indian Council of the Indigenous and Tribal Peoples (ICITP), this beîng the 4th year of our participation on ttee the floor of this august House. 1. We are repeatedlty and consistently asserting on the floor of this House- that the Adivasis/Tribal Peoples are the Indigenous Peoples of India; whereas the delegation of Permanent Mission of India- to the United Nations-Geneva- are also asserting that "the term Adivasi used commonly in India to designate the Scheduléd Tribes cannot he equated with the term- "Indigenous Peoples". W.e continue to assert that.Adivasis are the Indigenous Peoples of India I quote from U.N. Dhebar Commission report (1961), Government of India- "the term "tribe" is no where.defined in the Constitution and in fact there is no satisfactory definition any where. To the ordinary man the word suggests simple folk in the hill$f. and forests; to a people who are a little bttter informed it signifies Coüfljçful famous for their dances and songs; to an administrator it» means a group of citizens who are special responsi bility to the President of India; to an anthropologist it indicates a -.special field of study of a social phenomenon. In their own way, all these impressions are correct. No standard term has been accepted to denominate the people who are classafied as of tribal origin, ' Even tha constitution has:'not defined them clearly y except by declaring that scheduled tribes are "the tribes or tribal communities -■or parts of or groups within tribes or. tribal-communities" which.the.President— may specify by public notification (Art-342) / ■ As these groups are presumed to form the oldest ethnological sector of thfr population. the term Adivasi1 ~ (Adi-Original and vasi-inhabvitants) has become current among certain people. In classifying them, áifferent"and sometimes contrîlftory^crrteria necessary. The International Labour Organisation has classified such -people as ’’Indigenous". Thus the constitution of India, while does not define the term "tribe’’, but going ahead with the task of scheduling such -people ' as "tribes” , has recognized such undefined people who havb been classified as "Indigenous" by I.L .O . While scheduling such peoples as "tribes" in the Constitution and entrusting the President of India as the custodian with a special responsibility for their protection, it was clearly presumed that such people form the oldest ethnolo gical sector of the population. And denying the oldest ethnological origin of such people, how was it possible to prepare a schedule? It was not merely the colour of the skin, the shape of the skull, customs or livings conditions, but ancestry or biological factor of descent from members of the oldest native population, culture - its naturalness and primitiveness, Indigenous languages - which are still unspecified and unrecognised, because they do not understand our language, Group Consciousness and Territorial Consciousness, both on the part of the Indigenous Peoples and the Government, all these multiple criteria were applied in order to determine the scheduling of the tribes. Thus Adivasi, Indigenous People, or Scheduled Tribes are synonymous. 2. The British government, prior to our national independence, had taken careful note of our Indigenous Peoples and made special provisions for' the administration of our people and our areas in the Government of India Acts - 1919 and 1935* It was because our Indigenous Peoples, for example, the Santals, llandas, Kals had confronted the British Government and overwhelmed them.. The names like Tilka Majhi, Sidhu-Hanhu-Birsa Munda etc. are • . memorable names of Jharkhand areas and are recognised and respected by the Government of India today. Santal Parganas, Chhato Nagpur, Kolhan areas were geographically demarcated and specific Santal Pargana, Chhatonagpur or Kolhan Land Tenancy Acts were enacted, through which considerable safe guards were guaranteed in the civil, social, economic or judicial matters as a recognition of our right of self-determination through our Majhi-Parganait, Manki-Munda Paiha systems... History has abundant records of such struggles “of other Indigenous and' tribal p e o p l e s eT^pa^s^with'rthe British. Tiroth Singh of Khasi-Joyantiya Stills, Sambodhan Kachari of Bodos are memorable names in the North-East India ^---Government .-oiLIndia^ after ... Independence started with the system left over by. the British and thought it fit to schedule our Indigenous-and^tribal peoples- with a special category in the Constitution. - - - ^ 3. I f not, then Constitution of India will prove to be a complete misnomer as far as the Indigenous and tribal peoples are concerned. It becomes a rtificial, outside—imposed/''empty and brutally hostile. It makes the scheduled tribes merely constitutional or legal entity or real non-entity. The interpretation of the Constitution by our Permanent Mission is confused, superficial, dangerous and detrimental to the national interest of India as a whole, because it makes the Indigenous people of India presume that any day, a ruling party, at the Government of India, with a two-thirds majority may bring in an amendment to deschedule the tribes, and that becomes the doomsday for the so-called scheduled tribes in the constitutional sense. 4. We refute the stand of our delegation of Permanent Mission on two more gorunds. They have stated, "No tribe has a separate political boundary." They do not seem to know that in the Scheduled Tribes concept of the Constituiton there are area restrictions. Our people are Scheduled Tribes within a particular territory or geographical boundary which was our traditional habitat. If and when they are domiciled out of their territory or boundary, they are no longer regarded as a 11 tribe". Nearly 6 million of our Indigenous Peoples who had to migrate from Jharkhand areas into Assam to miture the tea industry there. They are regarded as non-tribals and called as "coolies", a derogatory term for cheap labour. Likewise, the Bodos and other plain tribes, who are regarded as scheduled tribes in plain Assam are not recognised as scheduled tribes in a the h ill areas of Assam. This by itself is a grave discrimination and viola- tion of basic human rights. Our people demand that wherever they may be in India, they should be recognised as "tribes". Our demand is distinct ethnic identy. Furthermore, Borne of our tribes or Indigenous Peoples, like Nagas and Mizos, after prolonged conflict with the Indian army and then after prolonged dialogue with the Government of India, have achieved their statehood— the Nagaland or Mizoram. The Khaai and Garo tribes did not have to fight the army that way, but they achieved. their statehood of. Meghalay, throutíh. y, • . ......... _ s- , \ ^ ‘ - _ ^ -i?» v ^ - . - V.-fr m '■ ~ ‘ --. * prolonged agitations. Each of the tribes have their statehood, with definite political boundaries of their own. v"_. 5. Government of India delegation states, "My government does not recognise the -right of self-determination and rightof-' self-determination is applicable in ^.the_cp.nte3£t_of. .colonial .s it u a t io n ’l^Qur-.misaionf rienda. hava-.nei.ther... read.—— ^history accurate 1 v_nor_ have ù n d e rst:ood^jê^sgimtîn^'triiidî we ^ deaand^Q ur '-':'-tS- right of self-determination. We never wanted the right of cessation. We want it within the constitution of Indian Federal Structure. At the commence ment of Indian Independence, we had only 14 states, and: now we hava 25 states and Union Territories. Each of the ciajor linguistic and cultural groups of India have got their right of self-determination and achieved their statehood. In the same standard, we Indigenous Peoples also demand the right of self-determination and autonomy inour own territories, toi control our own destiny in our own affairs. The demand for Bodosland and Jharkhand has to be understood in this background. Most recently, Govememtn of India and Governemtn of Vest Bengal have signed an "agreement" with our Gorkha brethren of G.N.L.F. in the background of their demand for a separate Gurkha Land and they have achieved their right of self-determination and autonomy in the form of a Hill Council over a district territory. Thus our Indigenous Peoples are fighting for their right of self-determination, not necessarily in the colonial situation of a foreign power, but against the internal colonial sit uation created by the dominant groups of our own country, which is even more exploitative, suppressive and oppressive than the foreign rulers.- 6. Our Permanent Mission states that, "Scheduled Tribes is a specific designation with developmental requirements." Our Mission in Geneva has come out with part of the truth— that the concept of Scheduled Tribes is a development concept for the ethnically weak or inferior. Therefore in their view such development should be paternalistic— a concept that the Government will develop our people according to their ideals, goals, plans, or executive machinery - i.e. bureaucracy, agents, or contractors— and not by our indigenous ideas, goals, or machinery— or our genius or by our people. We are inferior beings not capable of consultation or participation. The result of such developmental activities during the last 40 years has been destructive for our indigenous and tribal peoples. In the name of developments, our land and territories have been invaded, we have been evicted from our traditional habitat. By destruction of our forests, we have been deprived of our live lihood.

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