*

On the rise, Hope Better


Orissa state Fisher Association President and one of the most influential
Bengali refugee dalit leaderin Orissa Narayan Haldar called me on my mobile
Saturday morning and told me all about the resistance against Posco and SEZ
drive in Orrissa. His native area happens to be the Mahakalpara block near
Paradip on one hand and on the other Bhitar Konika Sanctury, the worst
affected area by super Cyclone. He was a domestic name all over in Orissa
while the Dalit refugees were facing the Deportation drive and locals
supported them. Now Haldar leads anti SEZ movement in mahakal Para and
Paradip area.

I told him all about my Tumkur visit and the Dalit panchayat experience. I
quoted him what Hemlata, the young lady from Koraput said about Tribal
Refugee relationship. In tumkur I described the Refugee rehabilitation
policy of the Government of India and state governments to field refugees
and Dalit Bengali refugee against one another countrywide. Since the Dalits
and the tribals led all the peasant and subaltern insurrections in British
India, the Ruling Brahminical Hegemony aborted the Embryo rearranging simply
the demography and isolating the Tribals as well as Dalit Bengalies
including the militant Namoshudra caste.The used rehabilitation as a weapon
against both the communities and in Orrissa, chahattishgargh, Maharashtra
and other parts of India whereevr partition victim refugees resettled they
are destined to clash with tribals.

I always insisted on the leadership of women and tribals in real Dalit
movement and always speak about a global Black Untouchable antiimperialist
Resistance forum. Thanks to Raj and jyoti that I could analyse this in
Tumkur and Hemlata was convinced.

But I was not surprised to see that in Dandakaranya Bengali Dalit refugees
have no interest to resist Polavoram dam Project while their colonies will
also be submerged along with tribal villages. But antipathy against tribals
work among them with political promotions that they happen to be ready to
sacrifice their cause but are never ready to align with tribals.

For the first time a prominent Bengali dalit Refugee leader has accepted the
reality and is ready to work in accordance with our legacy and Dalitology to
align with Tribals.

We hope , we all be able to mobilise this alliance in Orissa on Tumkur line
as Naveen Patnaik also seem to adopt Buddhadeb line to use extra
constitutional forces to defend Posco and the capitalist system!

Pradeep Esteves to Stephanie, Elske, Jyothi, me, palashcbiswas, pamrajput,
pankaj.gorana, pardeep_rattu, parminder_ahir, patwardhan_gau., kpawde,
pdivakar, pdivakar, peacetrust, peoplepower, peoplesnewsnet., periyar,
pervinj2000, peter.ksmtf, Peterke, petra.hans, philipp.peter.., pidt2007,
pierrotstroupe, pioneercbp, pirbhu_m

show details 10:08 pm (32 minutes ago)

Dear REDS Team, Dalit Panchayat Movement and dear friends Jyothi and Raj,

Congratulations to the Hariharapura Dalit Panchayat. It is indeed a

great achievement. Narayanappa must be very happy - congrats to him too.

My warmest wishes to all the leaders of the movement.

Warm regards

Pradeep



Jyothi and Raj to me, palashcbiswas, pamrajput, pankaj.gorana,
pardeep_rattu, parminder_ahir, patwardhan_gau., kpawde, pdivakar, pdivakar,
peaceact, peacetrust, peoplepower, peoplesnewsnet., periyar, pervinj2000,
peter.ksmtf, Peterke, petra.hans, philipp.peter.., pidt2007, pierrotstroupe,
pioneercbp, pirbhu_m, pjmldn, pkm

show details 6:21 pm (1½ hours ago)

Friends

This is about Hariharapura. The special news is that the Dalits in this
village have picked up the courage to stop 'Bitti Chakri' in this village.
Bitti chakri is the free caste labor forced upon the Dalits by age told
traditions of Hinduism. It includes sweeping the of the streets of the caste
village, cleaning of sewage, removing of dead animals in the caste village,
announcing of death to near and far relative of the caste persons, digging
of graves for the dead among caste people, drumming during village
festivals, removing leaves after the caste people eat during marriages and
festivals, holding lamps during village processions. As you are aware The
Dalit Panchayat Movement in Tumkur has succeeded in removing most of these
free labors by Dalits as a caste labor thus bringing indignity to the whole
Dalit community. Though the government of India berates that these practices
are removed and are of the past, those of us working in the villages know
how severe these practices are even after 60 years of independence and it
has not spared even people like us. Though REDS and DPM have succeeded it is
still prevalent in some recently taken up villages and in those villages
where DPM has not stepped in directly.

One such village is Hariharapura in Pavagada Taluk where Dalit Panchayat was
started only recently. On 30 November one person belonging to the dominant
caste kicked the bucket in this village and the caste people sent word to
the Dalits to dig his grave. But unfortunately for them Dalit Panchayat had
done its work well there and therefore, the Dalits refused to dig the grave
as a caste duty. Something unusual has happened in this village. How can the
Dalits dare to refuse to do this free caste labor that is ordained for them
by 'divinity? The caste leaders descended on the Dalit village to first
threaten them and when it did not work to mildly force them to do it. But
the members of the Dalit Panchayat stood firm and sent word to the Taluk
leader of the DPM. The police also got scent of the brewing trouble in the
village and came to the village immediately.

The caste people had no other option but to negotiate a deal. They sat with
the DP members and their leaders and reasoned out that this is the age old
custom of the village. But the Dalit Panchayat members asserted that they
are not ready any more to be guided by the caste dictates of the arrogant
village lords. They started saying that we lived like brothers and sisters
and now you are spoiling the peace of the village.

At this point the Dalit Panchayat members took out their strong weapon of
argumentative negotiation. Yes, we do agree that we are brothers and sisters
and that we should all live in peace. In that case we shall come for digging
the grave of one of your caste persons today. However, since we are all
brothers and sisters some of you also should join us in digging the grave.
In addition to that you also should give a written promise that some of you
will join us in digging grave when one of the Dalits die in the village.
This will be a true mark of being brothers and sisters. If you refuse to do
so it becomes evident that you only want to treat us as your caste slaves
and not as your brothers and sisters.

The argument carried its weight. But the caste fellows were already quite
educated. They are not ignorant idiots. Therefore they left the negotiation
table and started digging the grave all by themselves without involving the
Dalits. AN OBNOXIOUS TRADITION OF THE CASTE FORCES OF HINDUISM has been
removed in this village. It is done so easily these days. But many of our
Dalit brothers and sisters have shed their blood as a price of Dalit dignity
and self esteem in the process of building up their community. The Struggle
for dignity and Dalit rights will continue unabated in Tumkur and will also
be stepped up in the whole of Karnataka.

Note: Actually according to the rules of the Dalit Panchayat the Dalits are
allowed to dig graves for a price of Rs.2000/- per grave. This will become a
source of their economic bargaining. However, in this Dalit Panchayat they
decided to forego the economic benefits for the sake of their dignity. It
will take some more time for them to understand and accept that our physical
labor is worth the money that it can bring. That is the way many other Dalit
Panchayats have learned their lessons in the past.

TEAM REDS, Dalit Panchayat Movement and Jyothi & Raj



Rural Education for Development society

Shanthinagar

Tumkur 572102

Karnataka - India

Phone: ++91-816-2277026

Fax: ++91-816-2272515

Web: www.dalitreds.in

Jyothi's Mobile: ++91-9880184667

Raj's Mobile: ++91-9845144893

ramgopal gupta to Foundation, GC, Arora, me

show details 11:22 am (8 hours ago)

Dear Shri Bishwas,

Denial of entry to three Indonesian Hindus to Jagannath temple of Puri would
have followed with exemplary punishment to temple managers, had India been a
Hindu State. In the existing fake secular system this irreligious practice
is also allowed in the same manner as the State remains a mute spectator
when a Mohammedan marries his own daughter..

Scholars know that the current temple worship follows the teachings of the
Puranas, which were composed for all castes and classes of Hindus,( very
much including 'Dalits'). Hence, it is against the basics of Hindu religion
to deny entry to anyone calling himself a Hindu religionist.

Remember of Ram who himself visited the hut of a pure tribal woman 'Shabari'
and blessed her. Now, I am told that even the temple dedicated to her makes
certain restriction on its entry.

It is all because Hindu don't have a Dharm Sansad or an appex Hindu
religious body to decide or adjudicate such religious dichotomy and other
controversies to be followed by all.

Yours,

Ram Bhai

- Show quoted text -

'Kaliyug'Palash Biswas <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

Can Equality be achieved?

Palash Biswas

Contact: Palash C Biswas, C/O Mrs Arati Roy, Gosto Kanan, Sodepur, Kolkata-
700110, India. Phone: 91-033-25659551

Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

Caste test at temple door

Three weeks after denying entry to three Hindu Indonesians to the Jagannath
temple in Puri, five citizens of the same country were not allowed to step
inside the 12th cen ... | Read..

http://www.telegraphindia.com/section/frontpage/index.asp

----- Original Message -----

From: Pramod Jonnalagadda

To: Ashok T. Jaisinghani

Cc: ORGANISER Weekly ; J. G. Arora ; Tarun Tejpal ; Sunanda Thali ; Hari
Venkataraman ; Palash Biswas ; Arvind Mallya ; VHP DELHI HQS ; Birendra
Verma

Sent: 27 Nov 2007 4:41 PM

Subject: Re: Fw: Excerpts from Ancient Brahmin Literature

Namaste Ashok,

True that some sections of the society where and are being exploited. What
is your solution to bridge the gap between different sections in our
society. Simply bashing one section or the other is still aggravating the
problem. There needs to be a change in the mindset of the people. If we have
to unite people we cannot go by the differences between them. We need to get
people to respect the unique traits of the other. What is your solution for
this.

Shubam

Pramod Jonnalagadda

+91-9845969951

If India has to become developed nation by 2020 we can not afford to neglect
eight crore Vanavasis. A P J Abdul Kalam Former President of India.

Please visit http://vanavasikalyan.org/.



 1— Relations between Tribes and Sovernment

http://content.cdlib.org/xtf/view?docId=ft8r29p2r8&doc.view=content&chunk.id=d0e705&toc.depth=1&anchor.id=0&brand=eschol

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 1—

Relations between Tribes and Sovernment

The co-existence of established states and independent tribal communities
living according to their own rules and customs dates back to the earliest
times of recorded Indian history. In an age when the subcontinent was
sparsely populated and beyond the limits of centres of higher civilization
there were vast tracts covered in forests and difficult of access,
populations on very different levels of material and cultural development
could live side by side without impinging to any great extent on each
others' resources and territories. Even at times of the greatest
efflorescence of Hindu culture there were no organized attempts to draw
aboriginal tribes into the orbit of caste society. The idea of missionary
activity was then foreign to Hindu thinking. A social philosophy based on
the idea of the permanence and inevitability of caste distinctions saw
nothing incongruous in the persistence of primitive life-styles on the
periphery of sophisticated civilizations. No doubt, there were areas where
the infiltration of advanced populations into tribal territory resulted in a
closer interaction between aboriginals and Hindus. In such regions, cultural
distinctions were blurred, and tribal communities became gradually absorbed
into the caste system, though usually into its lowest strata. Thus the
untouchable castes of Cheruman and Panyer of Kerala were probably at one
time independent tribes, and in their physical characteristics they still
resemble neighbouring tribal groups which have remained outside the caste
system. Aboriginals who retained their tribal identity and resisted
inclusion within the Hindu fold fared better on the whole than the
assimilated groups and were not treated as untouchables, even if they



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? 34 ?

indulged in practices, such as the eating of beef, which Hindus considered
polluting. Thus the Raj Gonds, some of whose rulers vied in power with
Rajput princes, used to sacrifice and eat cows without debasing thereby
their status in the eyes of their Hindu neighbours. The Hindus recognized
the tribes' social and cultural separateness and did not insist on
conformity to Hindu patterns of behaviour, and this respect for the tribal
way of life prevailed as long as contacts between the two communities were
of a casual nature. The tribal people, though considered strange and
dangerous, were taken for granted as part of the world of hills and forests,
and a more or less frictionless coexistence was possible because there was
no population pressure, and hence no incentive to deprive the aboriginals of
their land.

This position persisted during the whole of the Mughal period. Now and then
the campaign of a Mughal army extending for a short spell into the wilds of
tribal country would bring the inhabitants briefly to the notice of princes
and chroniclers, but for long periods the hillmen and forest dwellers were
left undisturbed. Under British rule, however, a new situation arose. The
extension of a centralized administration over areas which had previously
lain outside the effective control of princely rulers deprived many of the
aboriginal tribes of their autonomy, and though most British administrators
had no intention of interfering with the tribesmen's rights and traditional
manner of living, the establishment of "law and order" in outlying areas
exposed the aboriginals to the pressure of more advanced populations. In
areas which had previously been virtually unadministered, and hence unsafe
for outsiders who did not enjoy the confidence and goodwill of the
aboriginal inhabitants, traders and moneylenders could now establish
themselves under the protection of the British administration. Often they
were followed by settlers, who succeeded in acquiring large tracts of the
aboriginals' land. In chapter 2 the process of land alienation will be
illustrated by concrete examples, and it will become apparent that by
imposing on tribal populations systems of land tenure and revenue collection
developed in advanced areas the government unintentionally facilitated the
transfer of tribal land to members of other ethnic groups. The deterioration
of the aboriginals' position, which in many parts of Peninsular India began
as early as the middle of the nineteenth century and continued into the
twentieth century, occurred despite the fact that many British officials
sympathized with the tribesmen and some of the most fervent advocates of
tribal rights were found among the officers of the Indian Civil Service.
Yet, the recommendations for reforms contained in numerous reports were
seldom implemented in full, and even where they were incorporated in
legislation they did not always prove effective.

Unable to resist the gradual alienation of their ancestral land, the



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? 35 ?

aboriginals of many regions either gave way by withdrawing further into
hills and tracts of marginal land or, if no such refuge areas were left, had
no other choice than to accept the economic status of tenants,
sharecroppers, or agricultural labourers on the very land their forefathers
had owned.

There was only one part of British India where a policy of noninterference
and protection enabled the tribal populations to retain their land and their
traditional life-style. In the hill regions of Northeast India which enclose
the Brahmaputra Valley in the shape of an enormous horseshoe tribes such as
Nagas, Mishmis, Adis, Miris, Apa Tanis, and Nishis were the sole inhabitants
of a vast region of rugged mountains and narrow valleys into which the
peoples settled in the plains of Assam had never penetrated. A small volume
of barter trade between hills and plains was carried on by tribesmen from
the foothills, but most of the hill people never set foot in the Brahmaputra
Valley. When in the second half of the nineteenth century and during the
first decades of the twentieth century the British extended their
administrative control over part of the hill regions, they did not encourage
the entry of plainsmen, but devised a system of administration which allowed
the hillmen to run their affairs along traditional lines. As late as the
1930s the entire administration of the Naga Hills District, for instance,
was in the hands of one deputy commissioner stationed at Kohima and one
subdivisional officer, whose headquarters was Mokokchung. With the help of a
few clerks and a small force of Assam Rifles, these two officers maintained
peace and order in a large hill region where bridle paths were the only
means of communications. No plainsman was allowed to acquire land in the
hills, and the indigenous system of land tenure was retained virtually
unchanged. This policy protected the hill people from exploitation and land
alienation. It is not surprising that the introduction of a much more
elaborate and less flexible system of administration in the years following
1947 sparked off a great deal of unrest, for tribesmen used to running their
own affairs reacted violently to interference from a host of minor officials
lacking in understanding of local customs. This is not the place to discuss
the cause of the rebellions of Nagas and Mizos, which at the time of writing
have by no means completely ended, but no analysis of the relations between
aboriginal tribes and the governments in power can be complete without
consideration of at least some of the rebellions by which tribal populations
tried to shake off the yoke of those who had invaded their habitat, usurped
their ancestral land, and mercilessly robbed them of the fruits of their
labours.

Anyone familiar with the oppression and exploitation aboriginals of regions
such as the Telengana districts of Andhra Pradesh have suffered at the hands
of landgrabbers, landlords, unscrupulous traders



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? 36 ?

and moneylanders, and, regrettably, many minor officials must be surprised
not by the fact that now and then tribal groups rose against their
oppressors in violent outbursts but that organized rebellions were so few
and so short-lived. If any of the tribes of Arunachal Pradesh or even of
such settled hill regions as the Garo or Mikir hills had been exposed to
injustices as severe as those suffered by Gonds, Kolams, Koyas, and Reddis,
murder and violence would have been the order of the day, but most of the
tribes of the Deccan are on the whole so gentle and inoffensive that extreme
provocation is necessary before they take the law into their own hands.

Rebellions of aboriginal tribesmen against the authority of the government
are among the most tragic conflicts between ruler and ruled. Whatever course
the clash may take, it is always a hopeless struggle of the weak against the
strong, the illiterate and uninformed against the organized power of a
sophisticated system. There may be loss of life on both sides, but it is
always the aboriginals who court ruin and economic distress. I do not refer
here to the past risings of martial frontier tribes whose aims were
basically political, but to the rebellions of primitive aboriginal tribes of
Peninsular India, such as the Santal Rebellion in Bihar, the Bhil Rebellion
in Khandesh, and the Rampa Rebellion in the East Godavari District. All
these uprisings were defensive movements; they were the last resort of
tribesmen driven to despair by the encroachment of outsiders on their land
and economic resources. As such they could all have been avoided had the
authorities taken cognizance of the aboriginals' grievances and set about to
remedy them, not as it happened in most cases after the rising, but before
the pressure on the tribesmen made an outbreak of violence unavoidable.

The Santal Rebellion of 1855–56, with which we are here only marginally
concerned, was mainly an effort to undo the steady loss of land to
non-tribal immigrants, but E. G. Mann, writing in 1867,[1] listed also a
number of specific grievances as having caused the Santals to rise against
an inefficient and lethargic government, totally inexperienced in dealing
with primitive tribes. Among the causes of the rising were: the grasping and
rapacious manner of merchants and moneylenders in their transactions with
the Santals, the misery caused by the iniquitous system of allowing personal
and hereditary bondage for debt, the unparalleled corruption and extortion
of the police in aiding and abetting the moneylenders, and the impossibility
of the Santals obtaining redress from the courts. The causes of the Santals'
uprising, one of the greatest rebellions in the annals of tribal India, were
very similar to the circumstances which led to outbreaks of violence in



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? 37 ?

other tribal areas. An insurrection which occurred in an area now part of
Andhra Pradesh involved the Hill Reddis, a tribe whose present situation
will be discussed in the following chapter. This uprising occurred in 1879
and is commonly known as the Rampa Rebellion, after an area which now falls
within the Chodavaram Taluk of the East Godavari District.

At the time of the cession of the Northern Circars by the Nizam to the East
India Company, the Rampa country was in the possession of a ruler
alternatively styled zamindar, mansabdar , or raja . This feudal lord was
not a Reddi, but we do not know how he had originally gained possession of
the country and by what means he controlled the independent and elusive hill
people. He appears to have leased his villages to certain subordinate hill
chiefs known as muttadar , and from these he received an annual income of Rs
8,750 per annum, an amount equal to at least Rs 800,000 according to the
present value of money. This mansabdar was succeeded first by his daughter
and subsequently by an illegitimate son. The latter's oppressive rule led to
several minor insurrections, but the last straw was an excise regulation
forbidding the drawing of palm wine for domestic purposes and leasing the
toddy revenue to contractors entitled to collect taxes at their own
discretion. Their illegal extortions and the oppressiveness of a corrupt
police were the immediate causes of the Rampa Rebellion in 1879. The
operation of the civil law of the country was an additional grievance of the
tribesmen, whose trustfulness and ignorance of court proceedings enabled
traders from the lowlands to make unfair contracts with them, and if these
were not fulfilled according to the trader's own interpretation, to file
suits against them, obtain ex parte decrees, and distrain as much property
as they could lay hands on. The hill people laid the blame for all this
injustice on government and government regulations and thought that their
only remedy lay in rising against the authorities.

The rebellion started in March 1879 with attacks on policemen and police
stations in Chodavaram Taluk, and it spread rapidly to the Golconda Hills of
Vishakapatnam and to the Rekapalli country in the Bhadrachalam Taluk, which
had recently been transferred from the Central Provinces to Madras
Presidency. While under the previous administration shifting cultivation
(podu ) had been virtually unrestricted, the Madras government trebled the
land revenue and excluded the tribal cultivators from certain areas. Because
of these restrictions the Rampa leaders found adherents in the Rekapalli
country, and soon five thousand square miles were affected by the rebellion.
In the ensuing guerilla war the government forces comprised several hundred
police drafted from neighbouring districts, six regiments of Madras
infantry, two companies of sappers and miners, a squadron of



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cavalry, and a wing of infantry from the Hyderabad contingent. Despite these
formidable forces the rebellion was not entirely suppressed until November
1880.

In this context the history of the Rampa Rebellion is relevant for two
reasons. It shows first that aboriginal tribes, even if inherently not of a
warlike character, are capable of considerable efforts if driven to
extremities, and second that the grievances which had led to the rebellion
were basically similar to the injustices and the exploitation under which
tribal populations of Andhra Pradesh labour up to this day.

In the East Godavari Agency of Madras Presidency the conditions of the
tribal populations were considerably improved as a result of the Rampa
Rebellion. The necessity of instituting special methods of administering
primitive populations had been forcefully brought before the eyes of the
authorities, and steps were taken to protect the aboriginals from the
encroachment of outsiders.

The various orders passed from time to time with the view of ameliorating
the conditions of the tribal population of the East Godavari Agency were
ultimately consolidated in legislation known as The Agency Tracts Interest
and Land Transfer Act, 1917. The regulations of this act formed a model for
similar legislation in other tribal areas, and I shall therefore quote some
of its main sections. In order to save the tribals from the exploitation of
moneylenders, the act laid down that "a) interest on any debt or liability
shall not as against a member of a hill-tribe be allowed or decreed at a
higher rate than 24% per annum nor shall any compound interest or any
collateral advantage be allowed against him; b) the total interest allowed
or decreed on any debt or liability as against a member of a hill-tribe
shall not exceed the principal amount."

Even more important were the sections restricting the transfer of land from
tribals to outsiders. The relevant section (4) contained the following
provisions:

1) Notwithstanding any rule of law or enactment to the contrary any transfer
of immovable property situated within the Agency tract by a member of a
hill-tribe shall be absolutely null and void unless made in favor of another
member of a hill-tribe or with the previous consent in writing of the Agent
or of any other prescribed officer. [Agent was the revenue officer
comparable to the collector of a normal district.]

2) Where a transfer of property is made in contravention of sub-section (1)
the Agent. . . . may on application by anyone interested decree ejectment
against any person in possession of the property claiming under the transfer
and may restore it to the transferor or his heirs.

These sections of the Act of 1917 should, if fully implemented, have put a
stop to all alienation of tribal land, and it is a sobering thought



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? 39 ?

that sixty-one years later large areas in what was the Godavari Agency are
no longer in the possession of their previous tribal owners, even though the
provisions of the Act of 1917 remained in force till the promulgation of the
Andhra Pradesh Scheduled Areas Land Transfer Regulation, 1959.

It is only fair to admit, however, that in the period 1917–47 the condition
of the tribal populations in the East Godavari Agency Tract was relatively
favourable, and that the massive invasion of tribal land by outsiders
occurred after 1947.

The need for special protection of aboriginal tribes was not confined to the
areas notified as Agencies, and in 1919 an act known as the Government of
India Act, 1919, provided "that the Governor-General in Council may declare
any territory in British India to be a 'Backward Tract' and that any act of
the Indian Legislature should apply to such Backward Tracts only if the
Governor-General so directed."

The legislation of 1919 was a forerunner of the Government of India Act,
1935, and the Government of India (excluded and partially excluded areas)
Order, 1936. "Excluded areas" were backward regions inhabited by tribal
populations to which acts of the Dominion Legislature or of the provincial
legislatures were to apply only with the consent of the governor of the
province. The intention of this provision was to prevent the extension of
legislation designed for advanced areas to backward areas where primitive
tribes may be adversely affected by laws unsuitable to their special
conditions. Though at the time Indian nationalists saw in it a device to
retain British control over selected areas, after the attainment of
independence the government of India adopted a somewhat similar policy in
regard to several territories on the North East Frontier.

The Indian Constitution of 1950 also provided for the notification of
"scheduled tribes" and their protection by special legislation. Regarding
the administration of the scheduled areas the governor of each state which
includes a scheduled area is bound to submit a report to the president
annually or whenever required. The states periodically prepare lists of
scheduled tribes, and these have to be confirmed by parliament. As scheduled
tribes are in receipt of various benefits, there has been considerable
pressure from backward classes for inclusion in this list, and as late as
1977 new additions were proposed by various states and confirmed by
parliament.

As this volume is largely concerned with the changing fortunes of tribal
populations in parts of Andhra Pradesh which used to be part of H.E.H. the
Nizam's Dominions, we will now turn to the situation as it prevailed in
Hyderabad State, both in the days of the Nizam's rule and after the
incorporation of the state in the Republic of India in 1948.



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? 40 ?

In contrast to the administration of adjoining provinces of British India,
the government of Hyderabad State had not provided for any special
privileges for tribal communities. Indeed it was not until the 1940s that
the condition of the aboriginal tribes received serious attention from
government. In his foreword to my book The Chenchus (vol. 1 of The
Aboriginal Tribes of Hyderabad ) the late Sir Wilfrid Grigson, then Revenue
Minister of Hyderabad State, commented on the ignorance of the average
Hyderabad official in regard to the tribal communities in the following
words:

This ignorance tends to blind him to the suffering and the loss of land and
economic freedom that results in the backward areas when Hindu, Rohilla or
Arab cultivators, contractors, traders and moneylenders are allowed freely
to exploit the aboriginals. In such records therefore as can be traced of
dealings between the governing classes of Hyderabad and the aboriginal and
backward tribes little will be found of deliberate oppression or of positive
policy. Laissez faire has been the governing principle, but, as everywhere
in India, and not least in Hyderabad, laissez faire more than anything else
has ruined the aboriginal and turned him into a landless drudge and serf.

In the following chapters we shall see that indifference to the plight of
the aboriginals, be they Gonds, Koyas, or Konda Reddis, is as much the usual
attitude of the dominant classes of Andhra Pradesh as it was that of the
ruling classes of Hyderabad State. Yet today no one can claim the excuse of
ignorance. Ethnographic accounts and publis
*

On 12/3/07, Debashis Mukherjee <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>   My heart went out to the simple tribal girl when I read about the
> inhuman and barbaric treatment meted out to her in public by some goondas in
> Assam. However, when I read detailed reports of the incident, I concluded
> the following :
>
> 1) Some Assamese tribals planned a rally in Guwahati to demand ST status.
> The leaders of this movement forced many simple and innocent tribals to go
> to Guwahati for the agitation.
> 2) Once in Guwahati, some members of the tribal organisation indulged in
> mindless looting, violence and destruction. This infuriated the local people
> who tried to take revenge by attacking the tribals.
>
> There is no denying the fact that the barabaric action of some goondas
> cannot be justified in the face of the gravest provocation. But the fact
> remains that the immediate trigger for the goondas was the hooliganism of
> the tribals themselves. Therefore, I feel that the so called tribal leaders
> who forced simple and innocent young tribals to visit an unfamiliar big city
> and left them to face the music all by themselves after incurring the wrath
> of the local populace by their own irresponsible provocative acts are
> equally to blame. But who has the courage to bell the cat?
>
> Debashis
>
> 
>


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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