OPEN ACCESS AGPE The Royal Gondwana Research Journal of History, Science, Economic, Political and Social Science ISSN (P): 2582:8800 A Peer reviewed Multidisciplinary Annually Volume 01 Issue 01 March 2020 Page No. 92-100 HUMAN RIGHTS AND TRIBAL JUSTICE: NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE Prof. Rohan Joshi Department of Social Science Savitribai Phule Mahavidyalaya, Nagpur [email protected] If we look at the media headlines today, Before we point out the impact of this the following spectacles and phenomena much-flaunted economic achievement on dominate information barrage: vulnerable segments like women, Dalits, ethnic . Bullish stock exchanges and religious minorities, Adivasi, peasants and . Crowded McDonalds and swarming beach workers etc, we would like to deconstruct the resorts myth of 8% growth and the stock exchange . Swinging discotheques boom. This economic turning point as bloody . The sparkling Queen's necklace (Marine pointer of early 21st century imperialism -with a Drive) century-long bloodthirsty trajectory of . Malls, multiplexes, software parks, 'smart eliminating the peasants from the face of the cities, swanky emporias, towers with all their earth, extermination of the indigenous people glass and glitter. from most parts of the of the globe is the long Against this backdrop we have the sweeping tiring story of capital's insatiable hunger for This gentrification of slums, burgeoning suburbia 8% growth has been achieved after the ruling with their pools, golf courses, custom built classes of India and their political parties vehicles, luxury condominiums and so on. The ruthlessly administered the shock therapy known banner headlines bombard us with the news of as structural adjustments- liberalization packaged India's arrival as an economic superpower with a in the neoliberal paradigm, whose master phenomenal 8-9% growth GDP. narrative is known is as profit. Globalization - 92 www.agpegondwanajournal.co.in | Vol-1, Issue-1, 2020 AGPE The Royal Gondwana Research journal of History, Science, Economics, Political and Social science which was capital response to its own culture-vultures who romanticize tribal culture contradictions and cyclical structural crises . and their way of life, the governments objectify Washington consensus was adopted to bail out and museumize them, and the government of global capitalism in the late 70s and early 80s. India showcases tribal culture in state-sponsored The comprador rulers of the third world gave up official APNAUTSAVS in London and Paris, their shallow rhetoric of socialism, self-reliance, while on the other hand. Shocking news of and the whole discourse of decolonization was starvation deaths of Adivasi pours in from reduced to the desensitized moribund terrain of different parts of the country every day. history textbooks and development studies. In Adivasi -native people, indigenous the 80s, as direct fallout of the debt crisis, people were condescendingly called Tribals' by structural adjustment policies of globalization the colonial masters, while the anthropologists were ruthlessly imposed by the Bretton woods made lucrative academic carriers by objectifying institutions, at the behest of the imperialist them through their studies, as if they are a masters especially American imperialism on different species to be showcased in the Latin America (which it considered its own museums. There was decimation in the name of fiefdom). These policies devastated and the white man's burden, arrogantly portrayed as pauperized the entire working masses and the civilizing mission of the imperialist west. indigenous people of Latin America - while the Human beings without private property or power local elites and the multinational corporations hierarchies had existed for millennia, time made money there was "boom'. China and India immemorial. We started our journey from the are having the present economic boom because caves, hunting, gathering, and struggling to save capital has found new virgin acres to exploit. ourselves from the forces of nature. We were Most of the Sensex leaps are results of foreign originally a part of the nature, coexisting with it institutional investment of speculative finance in a mutually liberating symphony- without capital coming in to make a fast buck, and will polluting and devastating the environment like withdraw at the first signs of the crisis. Then the the present day multi-national corporations, in entire edifice of aspiring Asian economic super- their relentless drive for profit maximization and powers will collapse like a house of cards. One commodification. should not forget the meltdown of the economy a) A traditional occupation in a definite of the so-called Tigers of South-east Asia'. On geographical area one side the depoliticized academia, and the 93 www.agpegondwanajournal.co.in | Vol-1, Issue-1, 2020 AGPE The Royal Gondwana Research journal of History, Science, Economics, Political and Social science b) A distinctive culture which includes the whole identity and a wide range of commonly shared spectrum of a tribal way of life, that is language, traits of culture... they believe they have a customs, traditions, religious beliefs, arts and common descent, consciously hold a collective crafts, etc. in their occupational pattern, self-image, and possess a distinctive cultural economy, ethos, many elements of which are shared by the c) Primitive traits depicted in their occupational collectivity" pattern, economy etc. Majumdar, in his definition of a tribe, d) Lack of educational and technological incorporated such traits as territorial affiliation, development (Rahul Sen, Tribal movements endogamous, ruled by tribal officers, common during the colonial period. 1770-1947, pp206) language or dialect, following tribal traditions, etc. On the other hand, anthropologists in India beliefs and customs etc (See D.N. Majumdar and are still to come to an agreement on a definition Madan, an introduction to social anthropology. of the term. G.S. Ghurge made a distinction Asia publishing house, Bombay 1956). The between tribals and non-tribals on the basis of Adivasi were the original inhabitants of the religion, occupation and radical elements (1962), Indian subcontinent, with their sustainable Desai elaborated on this by listing the following agriculture, fairly gender-just democratic general egalitarian social order with equality and a) They live in unapproachable places, away collectivism as principles governing social life. from civilized people. "Vested with such revolutionary intent, all these b) They belong to one of the following groups- movements, inspite of their diverse context, Negroito Austriloid or Mongloids. territory and actions, possessed one unitary c) They use a tribal language. objective-the re-establishment of the indigenous d) They follow a primitive religion, which is order with the concurrent rolling-back of the based on principles of animism. alien system. The essence of these movements is e) Their economy is of a primitive nature, such clearly delineated by Singh in his description of as collection, hunting, the Birsa Ulgulan as "..agrarian in root. and in its g) They have nomadic habits and have a special end, Birsa in his speeches, emphasized the interest in dance and wine. agrarian factor and sought a political solution to According to S.C. Dube, a tribe is: the problems facing his people i.e. the "An ethnic category defined by real or putative establishment of a Birsaite Raj..." (see K S descent, characterized by a corporate self- Singh- The Dust-Storm and the Hanging Vist: 1 94 www.agpegondwanajournal.co.in | Vol-1, Issue-1, 2020 AGPE The Royal Gondwana Research journal of History, Science, Economics, Political and Social science study of Birsa Munda and his movement in up in 1771 and later under the supervision of a Chotanagpur. According to Rahul Sen, "The joint Judge Magistrate-Collector, with the indigenous communal social order of the tribes constitution of the Ramgarh Regulation District was in conflict with the private proprietary land in 1780. tenurial system introduced by the colonial The tribal uprisings in the South-west administration. This was the root cause of the Orissa-Andhra-Bastar region were: the Kandh repeated insurrection by the tribals. rebellion of Western Orissa, Gond rebellion of Consequently, the political solution invariably Adilabad, etc. The tribal movements in arrived at by the insurgents was reversion to the Rajasthan-Gujurat-Maharashtra region were: indigenous system, whether through rebellion or Bhil revolts of Rajasthan. The armed uprisings in revivalism." (Rahul Sen, Tribal movements Khandesh, Bhil revolts in Western Madhya during the colonial period: 1770-194). Pradesh, the struggle of Gond in central Madhya One of the main historical reasons for the Pradesh and present day Chattisgarh, the Devi tribal uprising in Chotanagpur was explained by movement of Surat, and so on. These uprisings Rahul Sen as follows: "In 1765, the then Mughal produced inspiring martyrs like Tantya Bhil, Emperor, Shah Alam II, granted the diwani of Khajya Nayak, Motia Bhil, and many others this Bengal, Bihar and Orissa to the East India fierce resistance of the Adivasis from Rajmahal company. With this, Chotanagpur, a part of the hills in the cast to Khandesh in the west against subah of Bihar, passed into the hands of the predatory encroachment of their habitat and company administration. Although Chotanagpur the commons led to various compromises of the came under company administration