Marginalization & Its Perception

1. THE MISSION

You are the descendant of the adivasis and you are in the year 2040. The Adivasis faced a huge crisis where most of the people who are adivasis have been displaced due to mining and cutting down of all trees in the forests, forcing them to migrate to areas of construction, domestic work and manufacturing leading to loss of their way of life. There is a huge loss of wildlife and the adivasis have lost their livelihood and have been affected by a lot of stereotypes and the culture as well as way of life have become indistinct. This has led to a huge loss in the life of the gamer. The player has to strategically plan the game in such a way that all the measures are done to reclaim the forests and culture of Adivasis. Along each step of the game, the player gains 100 points and in three levels, the player at the end gains 300 points. There will be various obstacles along the way and the player has to defeat all the enemies against the life and values of the marginalised populations. You have to go back in time to the 19th Century and strategically play the game in such a way that you save the adivasis from all forms of problems posed by deforestation and encroachment of industries and help spread awareness of cultures and traditions of Adivasis.

2. CONCEPTS

Tribals are also referred to as Adivasis. Adivasis–literally means ‘original inhabitants’, communities who lived and continue to live, in close association with forests. About 8% of India’s population is Adivasi and most of the country’s mining and industrial centres are located in Adivasi areas like Jamshedpur, Rourkela, Bokaro and Bhilai, among others. Not a homogeneous population, there are over 500 various Adivasi groups in India. They are numerous in states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal and in the north-eastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura. 60 different tribal groups in Odisha. They are distinctive because there is often very little hierarchy among them and this makes them radically different from communities organised around principles of jati-varna (caste) or those that were ruled by kings.

Adivasis practise a range of tribal religions- different from Islam, Hinduism and Christianity- worship of ancestors, village and nature spirits, the last associated with and residing in various sites in the landscape – ‘mountain-spirits’, ‘river-spirits’, ‘animal-spirits’, etc. The village spirits-worshipped at specific sacred groves within the village boundary, the ancestral ones- worshipped at home. Adivasis-influenced by different surrounding religions like Shakta, Buddhist, Vaishnav, Bhakti and Christianity. Adivasi religions-influenced dominant religions of the empires around them, for example, the Jagannath cult of Odisha and Shakti and Tantric traditions in Bengal and Assam. During the 19th century, substantial numbers of Adivasis converted to Christianity, which has emerged as a very important religion in modern Adivasi history. Adivasis have their own languages (most of them radically different from and possibly as old as Sanskrit), which have often deeply influenced the formation of ‘mainstream’ Indian languages, like Bengali. Santhali has the largest number of speakers and has a significant body of publications including magazines on the internet

1. Adivasis and Stereotyping

Adivasis are portrayed in very stereotypical ways – in colourful costumes, headgear and through their dancing. Besides this, we seem to know very little about the realities of their lives. This wrongly leads to people believing they are exotic, primitive and backward.

1. Adivasis and Development

Forests covered a major part of our country until the 19th century. Adivasis had a deep knowledge of, access to, as well as control over most of these vast tracts at least till the middle of the nineteenth century. They were not ruled by large states and empires. Instead, often empires heavily depended on Adivasis for the crucial access to forest resources.

In the pre-colonial world, they were traditionally ranged hunter-gatherers and nomads and lived by shifting agriculture and also cultivating in one place. For the past 200 years, Adivasis have been increasingly forced – through economic changes, forest policies and political force applied by the State and private industry – to migrate to lives as workers in plantations, at construction sites, in industries and as domestic workers. For the first time in history, they do not control or have much direct access to the forest territories. From the 1830s onwards, Adivasis from Jharkhand and adjoining areas moved in very large numbers to various plantations in India and the world – Mauritius, the Caribbean and even Australia. India’s tea industry became possible with their labour in Assam. Today, there are 70 lakh Adivasis in Assam alone. For example, in the 19th century alone 5 lakh Adivasis had perished in these migrations. Forestlands-cleared for timber and to get land for agriculture and industry. Adivasis-lived in areas that are rich in minerals and other natural resources, which were taken over for mining and other large industrial projects. Powerful forces collude to take over tribal land forcefully and procedures are not followed. According to official figures, over 50% of persons displaced due to mines and mining projects are tribals. Another recent survey report by organisations working among Adivasis shows that 79% of the persons displaced from the states of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand are tribals. Huge tracts of their lands have also gone under the waters of hundreds of dams that have been built in independent India. In the Northeast, their lands remain highly militarised. India has 104 national parks covering 40,501 sq km and 543 wildlife sanctuaries covering 1,18,918 sq km. These are areas where tribes originally lived but were evicted from. When they continue to stay in these forests, they are termed, encroachers. Losing their lands and access to the forest means that tribals lose their main sources of livelihood and food. Having gradually lost access to their traditional homelands, many Adivasis have migrated to cities in search of work where they are employed for very low wages in local industries or at building or construction sites.

Poverty and deprivation, situations Adivasis are caught in. 45% of tribal groups in rural areas and 35% in urban areas live below the poverty line leading to deprivation in other areas- malnourished tribal children- low Literacy rates-When Adivasis are displaced from their lands, they lose much more than a source of income-lose their traditions and customs – a way of living and being. As you have read, there exists an interconnectedness between the economic and social dimensions of tribal life. Destruction in one sphere naturally impacts the other. Often this process of dispossession and displacement can be painful and violent.

1. Minorities and Marginalisation

The Constitution provides safeguards to religious and linguistic minorities as part of our Fundamental Rights. Why have these minority groups been provided with these safeguards? The minority refers to communities that are numerically small in relation to the rest of the population. This concept goes well beyond numbers encompassing issues of power, access to resources with social and cultural dimensions.

Culture of majority influencing the way in which society and government express themselves- size is a disadvantage and result in the marginalisation of the relatively smaller communities- hence, safeguards protect minority communities against being culturally dominated by the majority-also protect them against any discrimination and disadvantage-Communities that are small in number relative to the rest of society may feel insecure about their lives, assets and well-being, which may get accentuated if the relations between the minority and majority communities are fraught-The Constitution provides these safeguards because it is committed to protecting India’s cultural diversity and promoting equality as well as justice-the judiciary plays a crucial role in upholding the law and enforcing Fundamental Rights-every citizen of India can approach the courts if they believe that their Fundamental Rights have been violated.