Claremont Colleges Scholarship @ Claremont CMC Senior Theses CMC Student Scholarship 2009 Advancement of the Adivasis: The ffecE t of Development on the Culture of the Adivasis Jantrania Akta Claremont McKenna College Recommended Citation Akta, Jantrania, "Advancement of the Adivasis: The Effect of Development on the Culture of the Adivasis" (2009). CMC Senior Theses. Paper 227. http://scholarship.claremont.edu/cmc_theses/227 This Open Access Senior Thesis is brought to you by Scholarship@Claremont. It has been accepted for inclusion in this collection by an authorized administrator. For more information, please contact [email protected]. CLAREMONT McKENNA COLLEGE ADVANCEMENT OF THE ADIVASIS: THE EFFECT OF DEVELOPMENT ON THE CULTURE OF THE ADIVASIS SUBMITTED TO PROFESSOR WILLIAM ASCHER AND DEAN GREGORY HESS BY AKTA JANTRANIA FOR SENIOR THESIS FALL 2008 / SPRING 2009 ARPIL 27, 2009 Table of Contents List of Figures and Tables....................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ................................................................................................ iii Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................... 1 Objectives of Study ............................................................................................. 4 Diversity of the Adivasis ..................................................................................... 5 Government Policy Toward the Adivasis ........................................................... 6 Agents of Change from the Local, National and International Levels ............. 10 Responses to Development Efforts ................................................................... 13 Structure of Thesis ............................................................................................ 14 Chapter 2: Background Trends ......................................................................... 16 Extent of Poverty .............................................................................................. 17 Healthcare ......................................................................................................... 20 Education .......................................................................................................... 23 Indebtedness ...................................................................................................... 27 The Struggle for Property Rights ...................................................................... 30 The Status of the Adivasi Women ..................................................................... 34 Demand for Political Autonomy ....................................................................... 36 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 38 Chapter 3: Culture and Socioeconomic Development ..................................... 41 The Effect of Culture on Development ............................................................. 42 The Effect of Development on Culture ............................................................. 47 Interview Method .............................................................................................. 50 The Vasava Bhils of Southern Gujarat ............................................................. 53 Results – Perceived Impact of Development on Economic Well-Being .......... 56 Results – Perceived Impact of Development on Cultural Well-Being ............. 59 An Evolving Vasava Cultural Identity .............................................................. 61 The Transition to the Accepting New Cultural Values ..................................... 65 Conclusion ........................................................................................................ 66 Chapter 4: Economic Vulnerability .................................................................. 69 General approaches to reducing economic vulnerability .................................. 71 Land .................................................................................................................. 73 Potential Methods of Land Reforms ................................................................. 80 Irrigation ........................................................................................................... 87 Access to Finance ............................................................................................. 92 Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 103 Chapter 5: Summary and Policy Implications ............................................... 105 Summary of Main Conclusions ...................................................................... 105 Overall Policy Implications ............................................................................ 108 Appendix ............................................................................................................ 125 Works Cited ....................................................................................................... 127 i List of Figures and Tables Figures Figure 1. Scheduled Tribes in States and Union Territories as Percentage of the Total State/Union Territory Population. ..................................................................................... 16 Figure 2. Map of Villages in which Interviews were Conductive Relative to Jaghadia ... 51 Figure 3. The Impact of Secure Land Rights on Productivity. ......................................... 75 Tables Table 1: Population Living Below Poverty Line – Scheduled Tribes ............................. 18 Table 2: Literacy Rate of General Population and Scheduled Tribe Population .............. 24 Table 3: Dropout Rates, 2004-05: Scheduled Tribes ........................................................ 26 Table 4: Share of Rural Household Debt Held by Different Creditors............................. 30 Table 5: Results of Interviews Conducted in Southern Gujarat ..................................... 125 ii Acknowledgements I am very grateful for the guidance and insightful critiques offered by Professor William Ascher and Barbara Ascher. In addition, this thesis benefited greatly from invaluable assistance of Lataben Desai, Anilbhai Desai, Ranjanben, and Dhirenbhai of the Society for Education Welfare and Action – Rural in Jaghadia, India. Finally, my fieldwork in Jaghadia was facilitated by the generosity of the Keck Center for International and Strategic Studies‟ Donald A. Henriksen Fellowship in Economy Diplomacy. iii Chapter 1: Introduction He failed his medical entrance exam seven times. After his fourth try, Champukbhai had to leave his college in Ahmedabad and return to his parents‟ village in the Jaghadia district of Southern Gujarat. Luckily, he became involved in a survey conducted by a medical college from the nearby city of Bharuch, bringing his struggles to the attention of the staff of the Society for Education Welfare and Action (SEWA) – Rural, a nongovernmental organization focused on socioeconomic development in the rural, adivasi regions of Southern Gujarat. Anilbhai Desai, a surgeon and founding trustee of SEWA-Rural, took Champukbhai under his wing and provided him with hands- on training in local adivasi, or tribal, villages. After significant effort, Champukbhai passed the exam on his eight try. Now he runs a small private clinic for underprivileged patients in the town of Dadyapada, Gujarat. In Champukbhai‟s opinion, adivasi culture has become very similar to nontribal culture in India. Though many adivasis used to be oppressed economically, politically, and socially by nontribals, he believes that this domination has significantly diminished, and that many adivasis have now become successful doctors, lawyers, and businesspeople. Despite the difficulties he has faced, Champukbhai has had better fortune than many adivasis. For instance, Somabhai comes from the nearby village of Kapat. Both he and his wife, Muniben, are illiterate. Their two teenage sons dropped out of school before completing their secondary education, and their daughter is currently in eighth grade. 2 Muniben is a housewife, and Somabhai and his two sons earn money splitting rocks at a nearby quarry, though they cannot find work on a daily basis. Muniben and Somabhai find adivasi culture to be vastly different from nontribal culture. The nontribals eat better food and they can cook with more oil, molasses, and purified butter; they wear more expensive clothing and have larger wardrobes; they live in bungalows and paku, or “finished,” homes made of concrete, whereas adivasis live in katchu, or “unfinished,” homes generally made of sticks coated in a mixture of mud and dried cow dung; nontribals do things with niam, meaning “according to rules,” while adivasis often waste money on alcohol and tobacco; and they speak “proper” Gujarati, whereas nontribals often speak informal, Bhil dialects. Overall, Somabhai and Muninben believe that nontribal culture is superior to adivasi culture. The adivasis are the members of the Scheduled Tribes protected by the Constitution of India.1 As Article 342 of the Constitution states, the President is in charge of publicly specifying the adivasi communities that are considered to be Scheduled Tribes in a particular state (or union territory). Thus, a community declared as a Scheduled Tribe in one state is not necessarily scheduled