They say the blackest of the clouds have a silver lining. It is possible that the ongoing Maoist violence will finally focus the nation?s attention on how to deal with the tribals who constitute about 8% of India?s population. Whoever be the real masterminds and executors of the Maoist violence and wherever they may be getting their ideology, funding, strategy advice and weaponry from, it is undeniable that today they enjoy some support from a broad section of the tribal belts in central and eastern India. Yes, there may certainly be cases where the tribals are threatened or forced into providing protection, but broadly speaking the tribals, or at least large sections of them, are more sympathetic to the Maoists than to the Indian state. Whether or not the war against the Maoist needs to be won by force or through dialogue, the fact remains that for the long run India needs to win the ?hearts and minds? of the tribals and take them along in its journey to progress.
That is far from simple. And let?s not keep blaming the state and the bureaucracy for the neglect with which they have treated the tribals for the last 60-plus years. This is not to say that such blame is misplaced, nor that the tribals have not been repeatedly shortchanged, exploited and even relocated in the name of development projects. But our approach to the tribal issue has been marked by confusion at a more fundamental level.
Take the most basic issue of integration. Almost by definition, the tribals are disconnected from the Indian mainstream. Whether this isolation is voluntary or forced by violent invaders in some hoary past is immaterial. The question is what to do about it now. The official line is to integrate them into mainstream by providing education and other facilities. But civil society protests are common. Let them be?it is argued?let them live their lives in perfect harmony with nature, with their traditional sustainable modes of the exploitation of nature. Just don?t interfere.
The problems with that approach are manifold. Does it mean we create reserve areas with tribal communal ownership of, or special rights to, natural resources [as in the Scheduled Tribe and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Rights) Act, 2006] and then leave them untouched by modern gadgets and practices? How about modern medicine? Should the larger society remain comfortable with the quacks handling childbirths and illnesses in tribal areas? If that is not acceptable and if the use of modern medicine leads to a rise in tribal population by raising life expectancy, would the natural resources earmarked for them be enough to sustain them in the long run? Would their methods of natural resource usage still remain balanced if their populations rise? If not, should the larger society be worried about the environmental impact? The problem becomes worse when we take into account the fact that often the tribals inhabit areas rich in mineral deposits.
Integration is no simple matter either. Without making a sweeping generalisation, tribal ethos and life-views are often very different from those of the mainstream. In particular, savings and planning for the future are elements that are missing in their way of thinking. Without criticising the underlying philosophy?indeed spiritual leaders and psychologists exhort us to achieve exactly what these people practise naturally?this poses several practical problems. Tribal children have a much higher school drop-out rate. Tribal labourers are often less regular than others. Labour movement is extremely difficult, even with the best incentives. The mainstream system just does not know, nor cares to find out, special ways of motivating the tribals. As a result, decades of reservations in education and jobs have brought mighty little to most of these communities.
At the end of the day, non-integration is not an option, simply because it is impractical and unsustainable in the long run. The question is how to make the process of integration more humane, fair and effective. Of course, all this begs the valid question?what gives the mainstream the right to decide the fate of these societies? The only answer to that is to declare large tracts of forests and mineral-rich areas as autonomous areas ruled by the tribal councils. As the US experience with Indian Reserves show, that is hardly the road to either development or fair treatment. Direct subsidies and exposure to national electronic media may be a good starting point.
Like it or not, in a few more decades, tribal lifestyles will be things of history. No point bemoaning it, some changes are inevitable, nature does not allow anachronisms, which is what isolation is in today?s rapidly globalising and integrating world. Let?s accept it and help the tribals transition to the mainstream.
?The author teaches finance at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad