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Suparba Roy
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A History of Adivasi Women in

Post-Independence Eastern India


The Margins of the Marginals

DEBASREE DE
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Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne


A History of Adivasi Women in
Post-Independence Eastern India
A History of Adivasi Women in
Post-Independence Eastern India

The Margins of the Marginals

DEBASREE DE
Copyright © Debasree De, 2018

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilised in any form or by any
means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

First published in 2018 by

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by Zaza Eunice, Hosur, Tamil Nadu, India and printed at Chaman Enterprises, New Delhi.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Name: De, Debasree, author.


Title: A history of Adivasi women in post-independence Eastern India: the
margins of the marginals/Debasree De.
Description: New Delhi, India; Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE, 2018. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018002756| ISBN 9789381345382 (pbk.: alk. paper) |
ISBN 9789381345405 (epub 2.0) | ISBN 9789381345399 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Women, Adivasi—India—Social conditions. | Marginality,
Social—India.
Classification: LCC HQ1742 .D397 2018 | DDC 305.40954—dc23 LC record available at https://
lccn.loc.gov/2018002756

ISBN: 978-93-81345-38-2 (HB)

SAGE Stree Team: Aritra Paul, Amrita Dutta and Guneet Kaur
To my father, the late Asim Kumar De,
and my mother, Sonali De,
with love and respect.
Thank you for choosing a SAGE product!
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I would like to personally hear from you.

Please write to me at [email protected]

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Contents

Acknowledgementsix
Introductionxi
1 Demystifying Adivasi Women: Some
Epistemological Issues 1
2 Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women
in West Bengal 49
3 Adivasi Rejas in Bihar 88
4 Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 113
5 Adivasi Women and Destructive Development
in Odisha 156
6 Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women:
The Process of Cultural Silencing 201
Epilogue252
Bibliography267
Index286
About the Author294
Acknowledgements

I EXPRESS MY deep sense of gratitude to Professor Amit


Bhattacharyya, Department of History, Jadavpur University,
for his expert guidance and uplifting inspiration. He always
offered complete support, without which the present work
could not have come to light. I am immensely grateful to
Professor Himadri Shankar Bandyopadhyay, Professor
Suchibrata Sen, Professor Chittabrata Palit and Professor
Anuradha Roy for their invaluable suggestions and assistance.
I am especially thankful to the villagers of different adi-
vasi villages, sarpanch, ward members, teachers of village
schools and Anganwari workers for their kind cooperation
during data collection. The book would not have come to a
­successful completion without the help I received from my
guides, namely, Gopinath Mishra, Madhusudan Rao, Pravin
Toto, Ranjit Hansda, Bikash Singh Sardar, Ananda Paramanik,
Milan Singh Sardar, Birendranath Sarkar, Mahadeb Patihar,
Arjun Baske, Sukumar Giri and Sanjoy Das.
This book draws upon my PhD dissertation, and a UGC
Junior Research Fellowship at the Department of History,
Jadavpur University, supported my research, for which I am
thankful. I am also indebted to the anonymous reviewers and
experts who provided critical and constructive comments
and to Stree and SAGE for their support.
Above all, I express my indebtedness to my beloved father,
the late Asim Kumar De, whose blessings have always been
with me. I am beholden to my mother, Sonali De, for her moti-
vation and encouragement, which inspired me to carry out
this work despite all the hardships of life. I remain indebted
x A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

to her for teaching me the value of perseverance. I thank the


contribution of my uncle and aunt, Dipak Dutta and Minati
Dutta and all my friends, Sweta, Amitava, Mangalda, Raju,
Suvajit and Kamrul, for their invaluable support and timely
help. Many thanks are due to my sister, Rajasree Dalal,
­brother-in-law, Dibyendu Dalal and little Shubhangi (Mishti)
for their willing support without which I would have been
alone in this long journey.
Introduction

Bhanmati had on a short plum coloured sari that she wore


above her knees, a green and red necklace of hinglaj, and
she had a spider lily tucked into her hair. She looked more
healthy and comely than when we had last met—her
slender body brimmed over with a sweet youthfulness,
though the expression in her eyes spoke of the same inno-
cent girl I knew.

THIS MESMERISING DESCRIPTION of Bibhutibhushan’s


Bhanmati creates a perfect picture of a tribal woman.1 But this
portrayal of Bhanmati gives us a partial notion about a tribal
woman. This is no doubt one among the many shades of her
life. The rest is unspoken and extremely under-researched.

I
Seventy years after independence and about the same span
of planned development, women’s position in India is still
grim. Their position has worsened considerably in almost
every sphere of life with the exception of some gains for
middle-class women in terms of education and employment.
The available literature on women in India has brought to
light many negative social practices like rape, wife-battering,
domestic violence, dowry deaths, prostitution, and working
long hours within and outside the home without recognition.
All this indicates that women are still perishing at the peri­
phery of the mainstream (read male-stream) society.
xii A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

This study focuses on the nature and dimensions of


changes in the life and status of tribal women, rural and
urban, in eastern India. It deals with the changing livelihood
pattern of the adivasi women in four states: West Bengal,
Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha of eastern India. Gender issues
are manifested differently in different locations and hence one
should not ignore the sociology of space while discussing
such issues. The impact of modern forces and institutions
on tribal women are more conspicuous in the urban spaces
relative to the rural areas. These changes have exacerbated
some new gender and class issues unprecedented in the pur-
portedly egalitarian society of the tribals. Within this con-
text, the struggles of Indian tribal women against class and
gender inequality acquire particular significance. The notion
of ‘indigenous’ is especially germane here, for tribals are con-
sidered India’s earliest inhabitants. Moreover, tribal women’s
resistance has generally occurred quite autonomously from
urban feminist movements.
Previously, gender studies was regarded as an addendum
and women’s movements as a concomitant movement. It is
the indigenous women who are leading grassroot democracy.
Women have always been doubly colonized. Their stories
have always remained at the periphery. Realization of this
is evident in the establishment attached to various univer-
sities in India. An objective and scientific interpretation of
culture from the women’s point of view is, however, still
lacking. Women scholars have not yet been able to carve out
a niche for themselves where their position is secure. There
is still a voice in the wilderness; a voice seldom heard even
by women themselves. And it is not surprising that not a
single woman scholar has ever tried to deal with the status
of tribal women. What Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
did on Muslim women, M. Borthswick did on Bengali upper
caste bhadramahila and Devaki Jain on working class women;
we do not find that extensive research on tribal women by
any woman historian. Among those who are striving hard to
Introductionxiii

represent women are anthropologists. As Mahale has rightly


stated:

By providing a new perspective for women’s studies,


anthropologists have encouraged a good deal of re-­
examination of existing theories, critical questioning and
research and have contributed towards extending the
frontiers of Anthropology.2

But women and anthropologists have a long way to go, and


this is even truer for tribal women. Thus it automatically
creates the vacuum. There are a large number of studies on
tribal communities but only a few are focussed on tribal
women. There is hardly any substantial work undertaken
in order to understand the concept of tribal women. Interests
seem to revolve around the social status of tribal women
and not on conceptual clarifications and on the problems
they are facing today. Reviewing the studies of tribal women,
K.S. Singh has concluded that there is ‘need for generating
studies which can fill the information gap about variations
that exist and about the role and status of tribal women
from one region to another and one community to another’.3
Singh has also reiterated that there are materials on tribals
in general but the existing literature specifically on tribal
women is limited.4 Health statistics also give an overall pic-
ture and data on gender differentiation of longevity, level of
health, extent of mortality, infant mortality, nutrition are not
available. There is a dearth of base-line data on certain basic
parameters relating to tribal women, their status, that data
on various tribes at least are needed as they differ from one
another.5 Generally speaking the parameters used to define
tribal women, their roles and status are different from those
used for men. This is unfortunate. They are, for instance,
depicted as the preservers of culture and social life whereas
men are glorified as hunters and killers. The general tendency
to define men in tribal society in terms of role categories like
xiv A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

warriors, hunters, statesman and elder has little to do with


their relationship with women. Women by contrast tend to
be defined almost entirely in relational terms, in terms of kin
roles as wife, mother, sister. In other words, while men can be
defined independent of women, the latter cannot be defined
independent of men.
I see tribal woman as a category or as an interest group
which is considered as a ‘labour force’, a ‘victim’, a ‘protester’
by the policy makers and planners or is increasingly being
looked down upon as a ‘witch’ or as a mere ‘sexual object’ by
the tribal and non-tribal men respectively. The work studies,
the production of tribal women as invisible and oppressed,
‘backward’ continue in the written history of India. My focus
is on understanding the discursive and material contexts
that have historically produced tribal women as victimized,
invisible and mute. The specific disappearance of the tribal
women in Bengali literature and the ways in which they have
been marginalized and made to disappear within both the
conventional (colonial and nationalist) and critical historiog-
raphy of India is a matter of concern. As entrenched realities
of adivasi women’s life—lived and thought—the problem-
atic of gender and ethnicity have constantly questioned my
bourgeois/educated standpoint. I have always tried to be
a part of their journey of identity, making, unmaking and
remaking it through gendered lenses.
Tribal women of eastern India are not a homogeneous
group, although they are known by the generic category
‘tribal women’. They are a socially excluded category which
has not appeared suddenly but is created through a histor-
ical process. It is true that there are a lot of differences and
discrepancies among the different tribal groups. These are
essentially cultural differences. We find varieties of culture
in tribal communities of India. It is important to remember
that ‘tribal women’ are also diverse ethnically, linguistically,
geographically and also historically. The social factors some-
times contradict as well because the nature of patriarchy dif-
fers from one tribe to another. The main cultural areas where
Introductionxv

different tribal groups differ are—language, script, festivals,


customs, folk traditions (songs, lore, tales, proverbs, and so
on), art and crafts, ornaments, dress, marriage ceremonies,
sexual behaviour, social taboos and the like. But does culture
mean only these things? I think culture denotes a way of
life. These are, in fact, the colourful side of the tribal life, but
there is also a dark side as the women in tribal societies are
often considered doubly disadvantaged, in the first instance
as tribal and in the second, as a woman. The discrimination,
humiliation, torture, harassment that a caste woman faces, is
also faced by her. If she is beaten by her drunk husband she
feels pain, if she works hard the whole day she gets tired,
if she gets displaced she laments for her hut, if she loses
her job in the course of deforestation for mining she starves,
if she gets raped her entire personality shatters. She takes
up arms to save the forests (in the Chipko movement by
Bhutia women); the hills (movement against Vedanta by
Dongria Kondh women of Niyamgiri hills); the lands (Bhil
women in Dhulia land struggle of Maharashtra; movement
in Kalinganagar against TISCO); the rivers (Dongria Kondh
women against damming the Indravati River, Odisha. Tribal
women are also active in the Narmada Bachao Andolan,
Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra); the dignity and
the future of her children that have been destroyed by the
gargantuan consumptive greed of the global market.
According to Bina Agarwal,

Tribal women are the second major category facing


substantial disabilities in inheritance. Given the non-­
codification of their laws, tribal communities are governed
by customs which (except under matriliny) discriminate
against women. And even the limited customary land
rights many tribal women enjoyed historically have been
eroding.6

So, we should attempt to link land resource rights for tribal


women as the central point of all the gender inequity making
its entry in the tribal community, and we should not forget
xvi A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

patriarchy can take various shapes and forms: from glo-


balization ‘thrusted’ to feminization of poverty to violence
against women in the name of customs. Simon de Beauvoir
has suggested in The Second Sex that ‘one is not born a woman,
but, rather, becomes one’.7
For de Beauvoir, women are designated as the Other,
women are the negative of men, the lack against which mas-
culine identity differentiates itself. There are hundreds of
attempts being tried to create a better world for tribal women:
from the tribal identity protection perspective, from women’s
right perspective, from the perspective of community control
over natural resources, from labour rights perspective in this
globalized economy. But still there is concern for a society
based on justice and this includes gender-justice issues in
tribal community.

II
Coming to the question of patriarchy in tribal society it is
pertinent to say that a tribal woman generally bears a double
burden of patriarchal inscription on her body within the
dominant-subaltern power contestation. On the one hand,
her own subaltern group ‘others’ her for her gender, on the
other, the dominant ideology ‘others’ her twice over, both
as an embodiment of femaleness and as an embodiment of
her class, caste or racial location. Patriarchy is perhaps one
of the oldest and most resilient forms of exploitative division
of socio-cultural geography. Though the patriarchal mani-
festation and operations are apparently distinct in public
and private spheres, yet their agenda overlaps. Through
its interrelated structures and strategies, it works towards
the same hegemonic ends, that is, the legitimization and
naturalization of gender enclosures and hierarchies in both
spheres—inner and outer, within and without—of socio-­
psychological interaction.8 As a flesh and blood entity, an
adivasi woman negotiates her place in a given gender order
by the way she conducts herself, that is, how she responds
Introductionxvii

to, opposes or claims the place she is supposedly given in


everyday life.
Patriarchy makes and remakes the female body for its
own consumption. It comes under intense pressure especially
during the period of transition from feudalism/tradition to
capitalism/modernity and leaves its traumatic repercussions
on tribal women. It is a well-known fact that tribal forest
economy is primarily a women’s economy, and it is women
who are most directly affected by the corporate exploitation
of their traditional lands. All available laws—those relating
to lands, forests, minor forest produce, water resources, and
so on—restrain people from using forests. Communities who
live near or inside forests are evicted from the land they have
lived on for centuries and reduced to a floating population.
On the other hand, private interests have started a process
of decimating forests.9 Thus primary resources such as fuel,
fodder and minor forest produce which were available free to
villagers are today either non-existent or have to be brought
commercially. Tribal women have to walk several kilometres
to fetch potable water in order to avoid polluted rivers and
rapidly dying wells, or spending four to six hours hunting
for firewood in deforested terrains. Disappearing grazing
lands make their animal husbandry tasks even more diffi-
cult. Governmental ‘development’ programmes have played
havoc on poor people’s lives. The construction of dams such
as the Srisailam Dam on the Krishna River near Hyderabad;
the Sardar Sarovar Dam on the Narmada River in Gujarat,
threatens to displace thousands of (mainly tribal people) who
were not compensated in any way. The mining companies
are not only subverting India’s laws, they are also changing
them, through Acts such as the SEZ Act (2005) and the new
National Mineral Policy (NMP drafts 2006–2008), which are
heavily influenced by foreign companies’ interest in getting
hold of key mineral deposits in India.
Tribal people are losing control over their land and forest
by the onslaught of globalization and the early communitar-
ian systems of control, management and output sharing are
xviii A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

disintegrating. The worst hit are women, whose status seems


to decline in direct proportion to shifts from forest to land
and the increasing influence of caste values in everyday life.
Thus the participation of women in the local community in
terms of politics and resource management declines as we
move from the foraging tribes (Birhor) to mainly agricul-
turist tribes (Santhal, Ho, Munda and Oraon). In this way,
the feudal-capitalistic gaze reduces the already hierarchized
and inferiorized body of the female other into a pliable com-
modity that could be easily exchanged for land and money.
Within these exploitative patriarchal locations—economic,
social or political—the body of the tribal woman becomes
a lust-quenching commodity for upper-caste gratification.
The exigencies of survival force her to rationalize that very
socio-economic order whose sensual gaze encroaches upon
the autonomy of her body and superimposes its desires on
her sexuality. In other words, the dominant gaze not only
frames subaltern sexuality but also appropriates it as a tag
to vindicate its status.10
Post-independence mainstream intervention into the
margins turns out to be disastrous for the adivasi woman.
Through the mechanism of constant surveillance and com-
munity policing (like Salwa Judum), the patriarchal state
in the name of ‘protection’ demarcates the spatial in such a
manner that whatever she does, she does within the threshold
of the patriarchal norms. The modern state can be defined as
a patronizing and hegemonic space that through its various
welfare measures actually appropriates the adivasi woman
and her body, thus divesting her of her agency.
Therefore, the struggle of the tribal women has been about
human rights to live in dignity and freedom to pursue a way
of life and livelihood that is centred on a complex relationship
fostered over generations with the entire forest landscape.
The ancestral plural relationships that women hold with the
forest space are depicted by how this space is used in multiple
ways: shifting cultivation, grazing, food production, foraging
for wild fruits, vegetables, tubers and medicines, saving seeds
Introductionxix

and breeds, collecting fuelwood, forest produce and materials


to build homes, worshipping their ancestors and gods and
a space to celebrate and mourn. It is these ‘productive’ and
other ‘non-economic’ interactions and relationship with the
forest that have been constantly contested, challenged and
have come into direct conflict with the interests of the state
since before independence and have intensified in indepen-
dent India.

III
When I started writing on tribal women of post-­independence
eastern India, I encountered some serious problems, one of
which is regarding the terminology. I have used both the
terms ‘adivasi’ and ‘tribal’ deliberately, because these two
terms are identical. These groups do not correspond to the
conventional anthropological formulation of the ‘tribe’, and
this term in any case now carries derogatory and politically
incorrect connotations in western academic circles. Myron
Weiner describes a sense of negative identity among tribals
in ‘Sons of the Soil’,11 and other studies have had similar
findings,12 suggesting that this is fairly common amongst
tribals across India. Crispin Bates advocates the use of adivasi
(original settler), noting that this appellation may itself rest on
the same prejudices as tribal, but arguing that it is preferable
as the name employed by members of Indian indigenous
peoples’ movements themselves.13 Adivasi is indeed the term
best known internationally, but many others are in use. In the
southern states, the word ‘adivasi’ is not used; they prefer
‘girijana’ (hill people), ‘vanabasi’ (forest people) are also
in use in some parts of the country. However, much of this
book concerns the pan-Indian classification, including non-
hill and non-forest dwellers, making girijana and vanabasi
inadequate. The global indigenous people’s movement turns
this characterization to political use, providing strength in
numbers to populations on the edge of each country’s borders
and marginal to each country’s citizenship by integrating
xx A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

them into a larger community with greater political clout.


This political unity is to a large extent concentrated on the
matter of land rights. Hence the choice of names such as
adivasi and vanabasi, which highlight settlement and forest
rights respectively. The word ‘tribe’, at least as frequently as
any other, is widely used in Indian popular and academic
English-language writing, and is in pan-­ Indian usage.
Although controversial in the West, it should be remembered
that the legal term for these groups is the scheduled tribes.
In order to free tribal from the negative associations carried
in many quarters, I have treated it as an indigenous (Indian-
English) term. However, since I am not dealing with the tri-
bals of south India and, more importantly, the term ‘adivasi’
is widely used in eastern India, I have made no distinction
between the two. This represents an idea of what it means
to be ‘adivasi’, ‘tribal’, or ‘indigenous’, in a more globally
acceptable language, similar to the romantic western model.
Both see adivasi people as spiritually linked with ‘nature’
and their environment.
Second, it is believed that research has been a process that
exploits adivasi people, their culture, their knowledge and
their resources. Linda Tuhiwai Smith wrote,

From the vantage point of the colonized, a position from


which I write, and choose to privilege, the term ‘research’
is inextricably linked to European imperialism and colo-
nialism. The word itself, ‘research’, is probably one of the
dirtiest words in the indigenous world’s vocabulary …
The ways in which scientific research is implicated in the
worst excesses of colonialism remains a powerful remem-
bered history for many of the world’s colonized peoples.
It is a history that still offends the deepest sense of our
humanity.14

This book deals with the history of their everyday sufferings


and reveals the nuances of their values and practices that can
make their story a profoundly rich one. To tell their stories
Introductionxxi

is the most powerful form of resistance and it was a pretty


difficult task to write a ‘good history’.
My conscious attempt has always been to write a ‘history
of the historyless’. However, so-called societies without his-
tories cannot be thought of as societies without memories.
They remember their pasts differently. Nothing more fully
expressed my feelings than Sherna Gluck’s rousing declara-
tion of independence in the 1977 special issue of, Frontiers, a
new feminist journal:

Refusing to be rendered historically voiceless any longer,


women are creating a new history—using our own voices
and experiences. We are challenging the traditional con-
cepts of history, of what is ‘historically important’, and we
are affirming that our everyday lives are history. Using
an oral tradition, as old as human memory, we are recon-
structing our own past.15

Recent debates around the inclusion of the histories of


the previously excluded groups have often fuelled the dis-
cussion of minority histories. Minority histories are still
fighting for their proper recognition in the mainstream (or
male-stream) history writing. Begun in an oppositional mode,
minority histories can end up being additional instances of
‘good history’. One can ask legitimate Foucauldian questions
about who has the authority to define what ‘good’ history
is or what relationships between power and knowledge are
invested in such definitions, but let me put them aside for
the time being. The expressions ‘majority’ and ‘minority’ are
no natural entities, but constructions. To explain ‘minority
histories’ in other way, it is the history of the marginalized
(read non-­modern) or simply of the small voices. The history
of the tribal women thus always has been ‘inferiorized’ by
considering it ‘of lesser importance’ as if in order to even
engage with the modern they must remain exclusively
dependent on their reproduction as the modern subject of
history as non-­present yet re-presentable. When we talk to
xxii A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

a tribal woman, her statements are regarded as the evidence


for anthropology. In fact, the aboriginal women use ‘dirty’
words and their voices cannot be found in archives, many of
which are still buried and not yet separately catalogued. We
treat their beliefs as just that ‘their beliefs’, and do not write
history from within those beliefs in order to produce a ‘good’
history. There are also some limitations that we cannot com-
pletely envisage: the lack of information and an irreducible
plurality in our own experiences of historicity that precludes
authenticity. As Shahid Amin has rightly said,

Testimony to the incompleteness of the existing record,


familial memories are, however, themselves witness to
another history, namely, the recent nationalization of the
event.16

Tribal culture has been described as unique and exotic to


legitimize the theory of ‘unity in diversity’ that occupies the
very first chapter of a school history textbook. One thing
that we forget here is the contradictions of their society, the
inner conflict between the tribal way of life as a whole (as
a general ‘other’) and that of their non-tribal counterparts.
The non-tribals prefer to describe the tribals as ‘primitive’,
‘backward’, ‘savage’, ‘wild and cruel cannibals’, ‘survivors of
another time’, a ‘child’ (who doesn’t understand what is good
for him or her) as if they have been entrusted with the duty to
‘civilize’ these tribal people with the wand of ‘development’.
Simultaneously, they have maintained a safe distance with
them socially, culturally and psychologically. Colonial offi-
cials had always exercised some kind of benevolently pater-
nal rule over the tribes. British administrators assumed that
the changes they imposed on tribal people formed part of a
necessary process of civilizing them, and that Indian adminis-
trators have inherited this tendency. The theory of the ‘white
man’s burden’ was the colonizers’ self-regarding defence of
their actions as bringing a beneficent order to backward peo-
ples, and now in ‘post-colonial’ India this idea that ‘we’ know
Introductionxxiii

better than the poor about what ‘they’ need has yet not been
discarded.17 It seems like we are the ‘white men’ and the
poor tribals are our ‘burden’. And when the non-tribals need
to display ostentatiously the so called ‘unity’ to the outside
world, they start imposing the obligations of Hinduization
and Sanskritization and give them an inferior status in the
caste society to maintain a complete avulsion or separation.
This tendency emanated as an opposition of the attempt of
the Christian missionaries, who wanted to ‘reform’ or ‘purify’
tribal religion. Thus the internal disunity brewing by the
non-tribals and their abhorrent attitude towards the tribals
never let the distinction to be blurred. Then the question may
arise that what is there about ‘primitiveness’ in a post-colony
that makes the adivasis to proximate and yet so discomfiting
to the self-conscious middle-class intelligentsia (read Bengali
bhadralok), fighting his own ‘backwardness’ and seeking to
make history? One thing that we, the non-tribal intelligentsia,
forget is that, once we also were considered as ‘backward’,
‘lacking history’, ‘lacking agency’ by the colonial masters
who claimed that they forced us into modernity and therefore
into history as if history is best written by an outsider. And
for tribals we constitute that ‘outsider’.
The colonial practice of viewing tribal societies through
various ethno-centric parameters and mainstream perspec-
tives has resulted in many stereotypes. In this context, it is
essential to understand the ‘tribal psyche’ in more objective
terms, identifying the primal characteristics of such societies
in relation to nature, resources, the collectivity (of people
around), and the ultimate values in life representing the uni-
versality of their traditional ways of thinking. The distinct
self-conceptualization of tribals in the context of natural,
social and historical processes is referred as ‘tribal conscious-
nesses’—mutual knowledge in distinguishing groups, self
from the other. They carry a strong sense of distinct identity.
It generally is expressed by attributing an ‘ingroup’ label
to their members and the mother tongue spoken by them.
They call themselves by words which literally mean ‘us,
xxivA History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

men, people’. For example, in the Chotanagpur region of


Jharkhand, a tribe called Ho means ‘people’; Santhals are
known as hor ‘people’; in Munda language horo signifies
‘people’, they are often referred as horoko; the tribe Korku
means ‘men’ (kor ‘man’, ku ‘plural suffix’). The tribe Birhor
comprises of bir ‘jungle’ and hor ‘people’, ‘the jungle people’.
This consciousness brings into focus ‘tribal corporate person-
ality’ which pervades the tribal ethos throughout the coun-
try. Essential characteristics of such ‘primal’ groups at one
end of the civilization continuum radically contrast with the
‘modernized’ groups on the other extreme who claim to be
‘developed’ societies on the scale of progress.

IV
Where do women stand in this analysis? I believe that by
creating a romantic picture of tribal ‘culture’ we are actually
trying to dilute the real problems regarding gender from it.
It is said that tribal women enjoy a greater autonomy than
their non-tribal counterparts. There is bride price instead of
dowry, the right to have premarital sex, right to divorce, right
to remarry. But will it be correct to say that tribal women hold
a superior position in their society on the basis of bride price?
Or, should sexual freedom be considered as an important
yardstick to describe women’s higher status in tribal society?
Tribal women have an intense sexuality with their demure
and innocent nature. But the increasing in-migration of the
non-tribal dikus into the tribal areas in the course of large-
scale industrialization debars them from exercising their
sexual freedom. The non-tribal dikus envisage the sexual
behaviour of the tribal women as promiscuous and with
‘free sex’. They loathe their sexual explicitness as raw and
lurid and thus rupture their image completely. This is the
reason why the ghotul (youth dormitory) is gradually becom-
ing extinct from tribals’ life. Here the question can be raised
why are the adivasi women accused of sexual extravagance
even today? Whenever they went to the police station to
Introductionxxv

report a case of sexual exploitation, the patent answer they


got from the police officers is that they should take it lightly as
they were reputed to be lax about sexual mores.18 In general,
men and women of caste society are not expected to have
sex before marriage. While there is some laxity with regard
to men’s sexual behaviour, women’s chastity is still greatly
valued. However, studies show that there is premarital sexual
activity in the country.19 In the popular media, there is now
a sense that sex before marriage is on the rise among caste
women with the social and economic changes brought about
by globalization. The increasing exposure of youth to western
culture is thought to have effected a change in moral attitudes
towards sex before marriage. Further, certain trends such as
the increase in urbanization, financial independence among
young women through employment, and the age at marriage
support this argument, as do studies gauging the attitudes of
youth to premarital sexuality. There is a strong relationship
between education and household wealth and the levels of
premarital sex among higher- and middle-class women. At
the same time, when it comes to sex and women, gender oper-
ates within the context of a complete and enduring silence.
As such, the inter-linkages between class and sexual choices
are complex in a culture with strong unwritten rules and
regulations on women’s bodies. In tribal society these rules
are more flexible and premarital sexual intercourse has been
socially sanctioned by the youth dormitories which are rap-
idly disappearing.
On the issue of bride price, it was once widely practised,
but the increasing infiltration of mainstream Hindu patri-
archal ideology and practices have vitiated tribal societies
in which a marriage traditionally had meant neither dowry
payments nor the bride’s lifelong subservience to a hierarchi-
cal household. It is astonishing that patriarchal hierarchy or
domination, preference for son, and associated gender biases
in contemporary India have hardly declined even amongst
the materially and educationally better-off. Similarly, gender
bias has over time become noticeable across the country. With
xxviA History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

the steady influx of plains Hindu ideas in the tribal region,


however, the tribal traditions are changing quite quickly.
Indeed, the practice of giving bride price is declining amongst
the Oraon tribe in the southwestern part of the Jharkhand,
although it is still common amongst the Munda, Ho and
Santhal tribes in the south and southeast.
T. Scarlett Epstein, in her landmark research on South
India reveals how tribal villagers in a bid to improve social
ranking in the 1970s had started adopting brahmanical names
and rituals, including dowry (varmana) in replacement of
bride-wealth (tara). Epstein has attributed the changeover
to a system of dowry to the interaction between four import-
ant variables. First, is the increased wealth that enables the
Mandya peasants of south India to spend more lavishly on
weddings in their struggle for social recognition. Second,
it has become a matter of prestige for wealthier peasants
that their womenfolk do not work on the land; young girls,
no longer trained to do field work, become capricious and
demand more and costlier items of jewellery. Where formerly
a peasant wife was an economic asset, she has now become a
liability. Accordingly, the groom’s family now want to be paid
for taking over the responsibility of keeping her where pre-
viously they had been prepared to compensate her father
for the loss of her productive contribution. Third, there are
now a small but growing number of young educated male
peasants whose parents feel justified in claiming compensa-
tion from their son’s in-laws. Lastly, brahmins, who provide
the reference group for village peasants, practise a dowry
system; imitating brahmin customs means sanskritizing one’s
style of life in the hope of raising one’s social status.20 This is
true in the other tribal areas as well, specifically those who
live near to the cities.
Another possible reason of the gradual weakening of
the tribal socio-cultural features, such as bride price, can be
traced into the aggression of corporate imperialism that has
thrown it out into oblivion by putting restrictions on their
traditional right to collect forest products. The multinational
Introductionxxvii

corporations bulldozed their huts for land acquisition. It


has created a grim situation of wanton deficiency of wealth.
They were poor, true, but not destitute. Everything is being
snatched away from them on account of living in a ‘national
sacrifice area’.

V
There is the need to focus on some crucial issues so that
they can never be diluted from the history of adivasi women:
the issues of migration, trafficking, forceful displacement
and resistance. Here again question will arise what form of
resistance is acceptable or ‘valid’ (in legal sense) for us? Do
we need a bio-diversity of resistance? Grassroot resistance
or protests, though in different forms like violent (move-
ment in West Midnapur), or non-violent (movement in
Jagatsinghpur), reflect the common wrath and grievances
of adivasi people in general and adivasi women in particular
against the enemies who possess a common aim, that is, to
wipe out these indigenous people and to marginalize their
womenfolk in every possible way. Here one pertinent ques-
tion can be asked: What is actually meant by a ‘non-violent
movement’? Is there really any movement that has shunned
violence completely, that is not related to any sort of violence
in any way? According to Partha Chatterjee, a fast also cannot
be called a ‘non-violent movement’ because it means the
application of violence on the very person who has launched
the movement.21 Hence, a violent movement is not neces-
sarily related to the use of arms. In fact, the naked protest
launched by the Manipuri women against the Armed Forces
Special Powers Act (AFSPA) was both violent (morally) and
‘non-violent’ (unarmed) simultaneously, which showed that
woman’s body can also become the site of protest. And if the
state does not listen to the demands of the adivasis through
a peaceful movement then what exactly remains to them as
an alternative? Varavara Rao has answered to these questions
in his prison diary. He said,
xxviii A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

It is expected that, since man possesses the power of


discrimination, he should continue, as far as possible, to
abjure the violence which is unavoidable in nature. While
inequality, oppression and exploitation are the expressions
of violence on the part of the exploiters, hatred, rancour
and revenge are expressions of counter-violence by the
exploited. The consciousness of the people alone can result
in revolutionary violence that will unveil non-violence.
Only that can assure us of a future in which agitation has
no place.22

In this process three factors are highly important: one, the


development programmes; two, the nature of compensation;
and three, the nature of state violence. The government (both
centre and state) has initiated a uniform model of develop-
ment for all the tribal communities. To quote Arundhati Roy,

If the well-being of adivasi people is what is uppermost


in the Planners’ minds, why is it that for fifty years there
have been no roads, no schools, no clinics, no wells, no
hospitals in the areas they live in? Why is it for all these
years they didn’t take any steps to equip the people they
care so deeply about, for the world they were going to
be dumped in? Why is it that the first sign of ‘develop-
ment’—a road—brought only terror, police, beatings, rape,
murder? Why must the offer of Development be condi-
tional, that is, You give up your homes, your lands, your field,
your language, your gods, and we’ll give you ‘development’?23

Recent tribal unrest is not only an outcome of underdevel-


opment or lack of development, or in the language of eco-
nomics ‘aspiration failure’, but the police administration
and governmental policies are more responsible for their
resentment. As a result, these destructive developments have
failed to understand the predicament of ethnic identity and
culture in the face of unrestrained globalizing forces and pro-
mote over-consumption. It denies the fact that the tribals
should be allowed to develop according to their own genius.
Adivasis traditional skills and knowledge are not recognized.
Introductionxxix

The state policies have been proved as hazards for them and
caused their impoverishment.
Not only that, the compensation for displacement fol-
lows the same path. The R & R Policy (Resettlement and
Rehabilitation) is designed in a similar pattern. It never
acknowledges or rather avoids the different requirements of
different tribal communities. Vedantanagar, the R & R Colony,
can be a good example where the tribal people became a
captive labour pool, living without land between refinery
and mountain. Let me quote a few lines from Felix Padel and
Samarendra Das to throw light on this issue,

Villagers had not expected this sudden removal and


destruction, and bitterly regretted saying yes. This is
when a woman in the colony [Vedantanagar] said to us,
‘They even destroyed our gods’, for the main Kondh dei-
ties, Darni Penu and Jakeri Penu, exist in the stones and
posts embedded in the centre of each village. These had
been bulldozed into oblivion … they had nothing … just
alien concrete shells to live in, no land, no gods, and little
self-respect or community. The houses and fields they and
their parents made and worked at for so many years—all
gone.24

The displaced villagers are even labelled ‘encroachers on gov-


ernment land’ simply because their land was never registered
by the survey commissioners. The victims are themselves
identified as perpetrators, the guilty! The same mechanism of
‘blaming the victim’ is being applied everywhere. These poli-
cies have also created a breach between the receivers and the
non-receivers of the compensation as well. Most Corporate
Social Responsibility is mere eyewash intended to fend off
the claims of campaigners and hoodwink the public.
The third factor is, of course, the nature of state violence.
If we look at colonial history we find that the colonial gov-
ernment perpetrated brutal repression towards all contem-
porary tribal movements starting from Santhal Hul to Munda
Ulghulan. Colonial interpretations largely proclaimed these
xxx A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

repressive measures as the ‘policy of pacification’, and the


tribal movements were termed as ‘insurrection’ to demean
their cause. The concept of ‘pacification’ implies a contrast
between ‘state of war’ and ‘state of peace’, as well as between
‘state of war’ and ‘war to impose a state of peace’. And now
we are experiencing the same repressive strategy of the
Indian state in the name of ‘Peace March’ that is decimating
the tribals considering their movements as an ‘insurgency’
(a rising in opposition to a lawful authority) or an ‘internal
security threat’ and justifies its act of violence as for maintain-
ing law and order situation. It is nothing but a manufactured
civil war. Is there any difference between these two ages?
Perhaps yes because the tribal people of today are the citizens
of an independent state that has mercilessly exposed them
to unprecedented levels of exploitation and penury. Perhaps
yes because the forms of state violence towards these tribal
people have acquired improved technology, shrewd tactics,
lethal weaponry and a new ‘divide and rule policy’ specif-
ically for tribals by which a section of tribals is being insti-
gated and armed against another section. The present policy
has superseded the previous one in brutality, inhumanity and
barbarity, be it in Kalinganagar, Bastar, Gadchiroli or more
recently Narayanpatna.
Indian history, by contrast, shows a pattern of coexistence
between adivasis and mainstream cultures. Is this culture
of coexistence under threat now? A local manifestation
of global ‘War on Terror’—the war against extremism—is
causing mass displacement of adivasis, and its underlying
cause is almost certainly the internal colonialism exacerbat-
ing through land grab and privatization of resources. The
womenfolk are the most innocent victim of this insatiable
hunger for land, sacrificing for the ‘greater good’. It caused
a massive drop in their standard of living when their land
is taken away. Tribal women are still facing the same kind
of atrocities in the course of ‘resource wars’ or let’s replace
the word ‘war’ with ‘creating a good investment climate’,25
as said by Arundhati Roy. They are still regarded as the ‘soft
Introductionxxxi

corner’ and are being attacked as a means of providing the


masculinity of the non-tribal men. This is, of course, a well-
known, if heinous, tactic of dishonouring an entire tribal
community. The question of women’s dignity was one of
the main issues of Santhal Rebellion (1855–1856) as well as
of the Santhal movement in West Midnapur (2008–2010). A
new dimension that the tribal women have added to these
movements is, indeed, a matter of discussion: they are now
appearing as the leading protesters of all these movements.
As Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva said,

What are the links between global militarism and the


destruction of nature? As feminists actively seeking
women’s liberation from male domination, we could
not, however, ignore the fact that ‘modernization’ and
‘development’ processes and ‘progress’ were responsible
for the degradation of the natural world. We saw that the
impact on women of ecological disasters and deteriora-
tion was harder than on men, and also, that everywhere,
women were the first to protest against environmental
destruction.26

Adivasi women have started to indoctrinate themselves in


the armed revolutionary ideology. This is no doubt a recent
phenomenon. But here again I am stereotyping their role. I
do not think that there is any necessity to dig out their sep-
arate group identity; what is more important here is their
commitment to a cause. I have seen them as a community of
interest that does not necessarily occupy the same geographi-
cal space. The community has its own borders, priorities and
particularities. She may be a Kondh or a Gond or a Oraon
or a Santhal, but more important are her sacrifices that she
makes to fight against the gigantic forces of global market
economy and its indomitable hunger for natural resources,
that have been unleashed. She knows that she will not be able
to defeat it but yet she is unperturbed and firm in conviction.
Moreover, the nomenclature used by various tribes in India
to address themselves bears different meanings. Contrary to
xxxiiA History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

the self-identification of the Oraons, for example, as Kurukhs,


groups and people other than Oraons had identified the
Oraon tribe by different names until their identity was sta-
bilized as ‘Oraons’. According to Joseph Marianus Kujur,
the identity of the Oraons as ‘Oraon’ had been an imposition
from outside. It did not resonate with the self-identification of
the group itself. Ironically, it has been the identity-tag ‘given’
that has been internalized by the Oraons, and has persisted
even to this day.27 S.B. Mullick argues, ‘present names of most
of the tribes in India have been given to them by the invading
societies.’28 This is the case, for example, in the nomenclature
‘Naga’. The latter is used to refer to mean ‘the naked people’
for a group of people in the northeast. Such is also the case
of the nomenclature ‘suar’ (swine) for the Sabar or Saora in
Odisha, ‘panias’ (slaves) for a group in South India, Dhangar
identity of the Oraons was linked with impurity (the term
‘dhangar’ is used only for the female Oraon migrants).
The ‘resource curse’ has eaten up colourful, joyful, simple
tribal culture. The world outside once saw it in timber, and
now in the wealth of minerals that lies buried in its earth. The
poverty comes from an old history of colonial extraction, to
which independent India has now added seventy years of
exploitation, and a continuing disdain for adivasi people. It is
meeting with growing resistance and there are the sounds of
war from across India. In writing the history of eastern India,
it does not mean that the tribal women are active participants
of these movements only within this boundary. In fact they
are no less active in Dantewada, Chhattisgarh. The artificial
boundaries are somewhat brittle today, for the adivasis of
all the states of eastern and central India have been pushed
into what is described as an emerging ‘commodity frontier’.
The extraction of mineral resources is not new nor the resis-
tance movements, but the women’s participation in these
movements is perhaps more recent because they are actually
paying the ‘price of progress’. Notwithstanding, why does
the figure of the dancing and singing adivasi woman appear
so frequently in Bengali literature and films?
Introductionxxxiii

VI
Considerable research has been done on the ‘tribal problem’
till today. But the problem is not the tribals. We are the prob-
lem; our way of looking at the tribal people constitutes the
biggest problem because we, the representatives of dominant
caste society, are not ready to consider them even as human
beings. It is said that ‘the aboriginals are the real “swadeshi”
products or the oldest “inhabitants” of India, in whose pres-
ence everyone is a foreigner'.29 Problematizing the adivasis
is a colonial obsession. The discourse has shifted away from
cultural deficit views to cultural diversity views that create
the illusion of ‘India Shining’ (the development slogan of the
Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP government of 2000–2004) alive.
I have already talked about the physical genocide that
is the indiscriminate killing and raping of the tribals by
tribal people militia. The other form of genocide is cultural
genocide. It would be more relevant to focus on this ‘cul-
tural genocide’ in this present context, instead of on the
­cultural distinctiveness of the tribals, since cultural genocide
means psychic death for the adivasis. In the contemporary
climate of ‘development’, the configurations of traditional
and modernizing milieus are bound to affect one another.
How are these dynamics influencing the socio-cultural pro-
file of tribal communities? When the norms and values of
one culture dominate the other through subjugation, colo-
nization, or in the name of development, these can generate
dissonance between the two or result in the assimilation of
one culture, weaker in demographic and economic terms,
with the other. Feelings of resentment against outsiders and
virtual rejection of the outsiders among a section of tribals
indicate their uncertainty, a sense of helplessness, about their
future. ‘A Bhil may brave a tiger in forest, but is afraid to face
even an insignificant outsider.’30
Another crucial aspect is the ‘linguistic genocide’ or ‘rape
of language’, that is, the gradual obliteration of tribal lan-
guages. This is one of the most important instruments of
xxxiv A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

the infamous ‘assimilation policy’ borrowed from America.


Nineteenth-century Europeans treated the absence or pres-
ence of literacy, and of a written script, as indicative of how
advanced a society was, or what its relationship with the
time of modernity was. When the ethnologist Campbell
inveighed against the suggestion of his predecessor that the
Khondhs were civilized, their lack of a script accounted for
one of his fusillades: ‘The author of this report represented
the Khondhs as a refined people, overflowing with the most
ingenious ideas. This was very much at variance with the
notorious fact that they were without a written language’.31
Like the Khondhs, most of the other communities eventually
classified as primitives did not possess written scripts.
The tribals are unlettered in the conventional academic
sense and have often been trapped by written documents
starting from the debentures of moneylenders to the MoUs.32
Their tradition transmits orally from generation to gener-
ation. Some of them have script (like the Santhals have
Ol Chiki) but that it is their own indigenous script. Their
languages and scripts are gradually going into oblivion for
want of proper preservation, so that later generations can
automatically be assimilated into caste society. Thus, all the
elements that constitute their culture, their way of life, will
be darkened and it is not a mere assumption since they have
already started facing the crisis of their individual identities.
The diagnosis probes into the question such as how have
the issues related to forest management and community
rights been tackled in the post-1947 years? How are the mod-
ernizing pursuits (notably industrialization) affecting the
tribal women’s ‘mindset’? Do these pursuits accentuate the
awareness of belonging to a distinct culture or of integrating
into the mainstream? Is there any violence being perpetrated
to integrate them that can be termed as ‘cultural genocide’?
How is this awareness reflected through various processes
of acculturation, for example, claiming one’s mother tongue
identity through the ‘ancestral’ language or switching over to
the language dominant in the region? Is there any force being
Introductionxxxv

applied to extinguish tribal languages that can be called as


‘linguistic genocide’? The study provides a comprehensive
understanding of the ways in which the tribal women in
eastern India have responded to the thrust of ‘development’
during the post-independence era.
One thing is certain that ‘tribal consciousness’ has been
acquiring a sharp edge over the past few decades. It, there-
fore, becomes imperative to utilize this consciousness by
extending and creating the avenues of participating among
the tribals through which all that is best in the tribal society,
culture, language and art could be preserved, strengthened,
and developed. Tribal consciousness in relation to its own
tradition and history and in relation to outsiders is taking
shape as an important part of the subaltern consciousness
of the nation. Tribals during the past three centuries have
gone through the trauma of various domineering forces in
the name of progress and development. First, they were the
targets of the ‘missionary solution’ which detribalized their
rituals, customs and morals; it was followed by a vigorous
reaction of the forces promoting Hindu institutions, disturb-
ing their segregation under the garb of ‘protectionism’ of
Excluded and Partially Excluded areas; tribals were linked
with primitiveness, and the task of defining their direction
of change was delegated to colonial administrators, guided
by the theory of ‘isolation’.33 Third, the Indian government
after independence charged with the sentiments of ‘national
integration’, enshrined guarantees in the Constitution of
the economic, socio-cultural and educational upliftment of
scheduled tribes.
Predictably, instead of addressing the outcome of exploit-
ative socio-economic structures that produced the conditions
of endemic starvation, what began to pour in from above was
a whole slew of so-called poverty alleviation schemes engen-
dering only the familiar corruption that has come to be associ-
ated with this model of development. Developmental projects
are based on a false notion of the ‘national interest’, and every
local interest felt morally compelled to make sacrifices for
xxxvi A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

what seemed the larger interest. It was only during the 1980s
when the different ‘local’ interests met each other nationwide,
they realized that what was being projected as the ‘national
interest’ were the electoral and economic interests of a hand-
ful of politicians financed by a handful of contractors and
industrialists who benefit from the construction of all dams.
Another crucial aspect of today’s tribal life is the forced
migration and the trafficking of tribal women. The third
space (after nature and land) for which modern men yearn is
woman, more precisely the woman’s body. Women’s bodies
are the projection screen for most of men’s desires and con-
stitute the ‘third colony’.34 It is through this practice of forced
transportation, that tribal women are to be materially con-
stituted as nothing but body-commodity. In nineteenth and
twentieth centuries, the Bengali arkattis became so insidious
that adivasis feared every other Bengali to be a labour agent.
Harilal Bandopadhyay, in a play called Arkati Natak (1901)
comprehensively indicated the arkatti system. This practice
is still in force in rural Bihar and arkattis now belong to the
Bihari community which has been dealt with in the case of
brick kiln adivasi women workers of Bihar (see Chapter 3).
The capture of adivasi women as coolies could not always
be punished, because recruitment is not a legal offence like
sexual abuse. In fact, as Kaushik Ghosh shows, the ‘primi-
tive’ was perhaps created out of this process of its circula-
tion as pure labouring bodies, much before it was produced
through techniques of anthropologization.35 Middle-class
intelligentsia still shares the colonial ‘modern’ understand-
ing of tribal people in general and women in particular as
primarily bodies, lacking culture, history, and location. We
have discussed the outlook of Bengali middle-class intelli-
gentsia towards the adivasi women in Chapter 6. With such
a worldview, the tribals are often looked upon as ‘museum
specimens’ to be cherished for their exoticness and to be clin-
ically observed and analysed before their extinction—a sort
of pre-mortem (instead of post-mortem). Satnam has thrown
light on this issue in case of Bastar,
Introductionxxxvii

No media crew has come here to record interviews.


Discussions, propaganda and advertising are all carried
out by the rich and the powerful, who promote or demote
as they wish. They are now pushing to bring the ‘robbers’
of Bastar into the mainstream. They want to gain control
over the natural resources and beauty of Bastar, to put
its tribal culture and life into museums and capitalize on
it, turn it into a tourist haven. Tourism entails crime and
creation of profit centres for the rich who plan to bring
ancient tribes like the Araaon and the Pahari Korva into
the fold of ‘civilization’. This unwarranted intrusion into
the peaceful life of the tribals is termed development
and an employment opportunity … Now, a new devel-
opment project has been suggested for converting the
tribal areas of Jashpur in Chhattisgarh into golf courses
for the entertainment of the super rich of the country …
Will the ancient tribes of Jashpur permit the conversion
of their vast jungles into golf courses? Or will they take
up the bow and arrow like the tribals of southern Bastar
and Bihar and of the Koyal-Kaimur range spread over
Jharkhand? The days to come will tell.36

These museums actually form an intrinsic part of the process


of cultural genocide. As Felix Padel has rightly observed,

Yet the greater tendency is still to try and ‘save’ tribal


societies symbolically or at an abstract level, by preserving
information, photographs, recordings, or artifacts of their
traditional culture. This makes tribal culture into a com-
modity, as if its ‘social facts’ could survive in the abstract,
without the human beings to whom the culture belongs.
There is an aspect of this ‘preserving’ that is as detached
and impersonal as scientists who preserves animal speci-
mens in jars, or administrators who try to preserve forests
by evicting their adivasi inhabitants.37

All these roles thus have a tendency to dehumanize, to


alienate tribal women from their humanness and to sacri-
fice their quality of life. Needless to say, corporate and busi-
ness interests now dominate the country’s media, as Satnam
xxxviii A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

has justly pointed out, both through direct ownership and


through advertisements. Mainstream media primarily reflect
the interests of certain sections of the society and promote
a model of development that favours corporate dominance
and accumulation through dispossession. Though alternative
media are gradually emerging in the vernacular and on the
web they face significant challenges.38
The tribal ‘festivals’ and ‘exhibitions’ organized by the
government in the name of promoting tribal culture, be it the
annual ‘Dongar Festival’ of Koraput or the ‘Adivasi Mela’ of
Bhubaneswar, have merely perpetuated the ideology of the
colonial museum, separating the adivasis from their lived
reality and exhibiting their culture as curiosities and spec-
imens from the past for the entertainment of non-adivasi
society. For the government, such exhibitions are ‘institu-
tionalized steps towards mainstreaming the tribal people’.
Ironically, the theme of Adivasi Mela of 2012 was ‘Sustainable
Development of Tribes’ while it was sponsored by Tata, Essar
Mining and Odisha Mining Corporation Ltd.39 The adiva-
sis of Odisha are fighting a life and death battle against the
incursions of these very corporations which are threatening
to jeopardize their communitarian existence, leave alone
culture. And yet, the government of Odisha deems it fit to
collaborate with these corporations for the ‘promotion’ of
tribal culture.40
How many of these adivasi women have been able to tell
their stories? And how many have disappeared into the womb
of history without telling their stories? How do we write the
history of those uncounted and unnamed ‘grey’ faces that
were denied expression? How do we reconstruct their past?
Any account of the past can be absorbed into, and thus made
to enrich, mainstream historical discourse if two questions
can be answered positively. First, can the story be told or can
we write the history of suppressed groups? Second, does it
allow for a rationally defensible point of view or position
from which to tell the story? Or to put it more specifically, do
we qualify to write the history of the marginalized? Who is
Introductionxxxix

representing whom, and how and why? Who and what are
left out? Could we have enough potential to extract the his-
tory from their memories, the memories which have suffered
from acute marginalization and silencing? Truly speaking,
these memories are not easy to revisit. The investment in a
certain kind of rationality and in a particular understanding
of the ‘real’ means that history’s exclusions are ultimately
epistemological. But we need a certain minimum agreement
about what constitutes fact and evidence and their rational
understanding. Iggers suggests,

Objectivity is unattainable in history; the historian can


hope for nothing more than plausibility. But plausibility
obviously rests not on the arbitrary invention of an histor-
ical account but involves rational strategies of determining
what in fact is plausible.41

Dipesh Chakrabarty has optimistically stated,

Successfully incorporated ‘minority histories’ are like yes-


terday’s revolutionaries become today’s gentlemen. Their
success helps routinize innovation.42

Tribal women’s empowerment is thought to be one of


the main issues when talking about gender equality, eco-
nomic growth and poverty in the academic world today. It is
argued that women need to be ‘empowered’ in the realm of
decision making so as to facilitate their ‘real’ empowerment.
When India was under colonial rule it was only the restricted
(upper caste and wealthy) male members who could vote
and contest elections while a very few women were found in
doing active politics. It was Gandhi who, without challeng-
ing their traditional role in society, could make women an
important social base for the nationalist movement. But he
remained unsuccessful in breaking out of the middle-class
ideological moorings on women which can only posit their
role within the household.43 Gandhi wanted women to act as
moral guardians of society, as social workers and do-gooders
xl A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

without competing with men in the sphere of power and


politics because that would be a ‘reversion to barbarity’.44
Violations of tribal rights take place at regular intervals. In
December 2001 in the state of Madhya Pradesh, tribals who
were relying on fishing for their livelihood in a reservoir as
their sole means of subsistence were up in arms against the
state government as they feared that steps were being taken
to deny them the right to market their produce.45 In Gujarat,
more blatant violations have taken place recently when the
government denied reservation to tribals just 48 hours before
the village council elections were announced. Scheduled tribe
men and women who get elected to office are not allowed to
function in the decentralized institutions of self-­government.
Just like the scheduled caste, the tribals also are not treated
with dignity by the panchayat bureaucracy. Elected tribal
women members face violence and rape if they dare to chal-
lenge the authority of the officials or the powerful. A tribal
woman sarpanch was stripped naked while unfurling the
national flag on 15 August 1998 in a district of Rajasthan. In
another case a tribal woman sarpanch in Madhya Pradesh
was stripped naked in a gram sabha meeting because she
was not consulting the leader of the dominant caste. Such
violations of human rights are everyday occurrence in the
tribal areas of India, in spite of powerful legislations for
decentralized governance.46
There is, however, a big difference between representation
and participation. It is relatively easy to legislate represen-
tation, but it is rather a complex and difficult task to create
conditions for participation. Proper representation does not
automatically lead to proper participation. It is important
that women are in a position to influence decision making
and prepare and implement schemes for economic devel-
opment and social justice. Unfortunately at the grassroot
levels of Panchayati Raj institutions, there have been strong
roadblocks and obstacles to women’s entry into politics and
a backlash of violence to keep them away from electoral
politics.47
Introductionxli

Thus, adivasi women have remained largely marginalized


in history writing in India as well as the emerging research
on gender. Adivasi women gained their first visibility in his-
tory through descriptions on anti-colonial movements. Yet
even in the available research on adivasi revolts, the gender
component is largely misplaced. Occasional, incidental or
fragmented references pose great problems for researchers
seeking to understand and analyse the contours, trends and
dynamics of women’s role in adivasi life ways. This book
seeks to discuss qualitative aspects of their participation in
economic activities, development and local self-government,
and situate them in the larger context of women’s agency and
dominant ideology of our society. It underlines the linkages
between women and various adivasi movements of today as
well, such as movements against POSCO, Vedanta Alumina
Ltd.; movements in Kalinga Nagar, Narayanpatna, Koel Karo;
movements in tea gardens of North Bengal, stone crushers of
Birbhum, and so on. It tries to reconstruct contours of wom-
en’s participation in various development initiatives, locating
women’s participation in the larger context of patriarchy and
social hegemony. It shows how women’s issues still remain
peripheral to the ‘mainstream’ adivasi history writing. There
is a need to move away from visible movements to more
mundane ‘everyday forms of resistance’ in trying to pro-
vide some entry points into alternative understandings of
women’s agency. Finally, it attempts to discuss the emergent
trends in women’s negotiation of the socio-political space.
In fine, it can be said that studies on tribal women have not
been many nor in depth. Most of the works have explicitly
discussed the social status of women in tribal society and that
also far from uniformly. The concern shown towards women
in tribal studies is no doubt very recent. This work attempts
to locate and contextualize the changing nature of women’s
role both social and political in tribal societies. There is a need
to study adivasi women, not only in relation to ‘politics of
presence’, but in their day-to-day struggles as well, where
power relationships operate in subtle yet entrenched ways.
xlii A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Hopefully, this study will contribute at least to some extent


to fulfil the vacuum.

NOTES
1 Bibhutibhusan Bandyopadhyaya, Aranyak—Of the Forest: 181.
2 P. Mahale, 1991. ‘Towards an Anthropology of Women’, in Relevance
of Anthropology: The Indian Scenario, edited by B.G. Halbar and C.G.
Hussain Khan (Jaipur: Rawat): 103.
3 K.S. Singh, ‘Tribal Women: Anthropological Perspective’, in Singh,
Vyas and Mann, eds, Tribal Women and Development.
4 K.S. Singh, ‘Tribal Perspectives—1969–1990’, in Miri, ed., Continuity
and Change in Tribal Society: 5–10; and also see Singh, 1993. ‘Status of
Scheduled Tribes Some Reflections on the Debate on the Indigenous
Peoples’, Social Change 23, 2&3.
5 B. Singh, 1993. ‘An Outline of Work to Be Taken Up on Tribal Women',
Working Papers: NCW.
6 Bina Agarwal, 2005, ‘Women’s Inheritance: Next Steps: A Look at
the Disabilities Non-Hindu Women Face’; column, The Indian Express,
Monday, Oct. 17.
7 De Beauvoir, The Second Sex: 301.
8 Rekha, 2015. Gender, Space and Creative Imagination: The Poetics and
Politics of Women’s Writing in India (New Delhi: Primus Books): 29.
9 Estimates of annual loss of forests vary from 5.6 millions hectares to
20 million hectares, Times of India, 17 October 1986.
10 Rekha, Gender, Space and Creative Imagination: 69.
11 Weiner, Sons of the Soil.
12 A.K. Singh, 1995. ‘Tribal Attitudes to the Tribals and Non-Tribals in
South Bihar’, in Singh and Jabbi, eds, Tribals in India.
13 Crispin Bates, 1995. ‘Lost Innocents and the Loss of Innocence:
Interpreting Adivasi Movements in South Asia’, in Indigenous Peoples
of Asia edited by R.H. Barnes, Andrew Gray and Benedict Kingsbury
(Ann Arbor: Mi: Association for Asian Studies): 109–19.
14 Smith, Tuhiwai, 2012. Decolonizing Methodologies: 1.
15 Sherna Berger Gluck, ‘What’s So Special about Women? Women’s Oral
History’, Frontiers 2, 2 (Summer 1977).
16 Amin, Event, Metaphor, Memory: 194.
17 The analysis of imperialism has been referred to more recently in terms
such as ‘postcolonial discourse’. Just because the word ‘globalization’
is substituted for the word ‘imperialism’, or the prefix ‘post’ is attached
to colonial, it does not mean that we have been free from their chal-
lenges. Colonialism is not an over, finished business. Colonizers have
left but the institutions and legacy of it have remained.
Introductionxliii

18 Vinay Kumar Srivastava, 2010. ‘On Tribal Economy and Society’,


in Tribal Economy Crossroads edited by S.N. Chaudhary (New Delhi:
Rawat): 15–16.
19 At the national level, reported premarital sex is still fairly low among
women (1.8%) and somewhat higher among men (12%). For more
details see Lekha Subaiya, ‘Premarital Sex in India: Issues of Class
and Gender’, EPW (29 November 2008): 54–59.
20 Scarlett Epstein, 1973. South India: 194–200.
21 Anandabazar Patrika, 5 July 2011.
22 Varavara Rao, 2010. Captive Imagination: Letters from Prison (New Delhi:
Penguin Viking): 116–17.
23 Arundhati Roy, 2000. ‘The Cost of Living’, Frontline, 17, 3 (5–8
February).
24 Felix Padel and Samarendra Das, 2010. Out of this Earth: East India
Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel (New Delhi: Orient Blackswan): 154.
25 Arundhati Roy, 2012. ‘Capitalism: A Ghost Story’, Outlook, 26 March.
26 See introduction, Maria Mies and Vandana Shiva, 2010. Ecofeminism
(Jaipur: Rawat).
27 Joseph Marianus Kujur, 2009. ‘The Hinduisation of Tribals: A Special
Reference to the Oraons in Chhotonagpur’, in Proselytisation in India:
The Process of Hinduisation in Tribal Societies, edited by Dharmendra
Kumar and Yemuna Sunny (New Delhi: Aakar Books): 262.
28 Bosu Mullick, Jayadas, Akkara, and Jaydas, eds, Indigenous Identity: 6.
29 Mamoria, Tribal Demography in India: 35–46.
30 Doshi, Bhils.
31 John Campbell, 1864. A Personal Narrative of Thirteen Years Service
among the Wild Tribes of Khondistan, for the Suppression of Human Sacrifice
(London: Hurst and Blackett).
32 Currently, over 60 Memorandum of Understanding have been signed
in eastern India between mining multinationals and state governments
to promote large-scale, open-cast mining of bauxite and iron ore as well
as that of other less important minerals, and to build processing plants
and port export facilities (Ministry of Coal and Mines, Department of
Mines, Annual Report 2003–2004, Government of India), available at
http://www.mines.nic.in accessed on 11 July 2011.
33 C. von Furer Haimendorf, 1939. The Naked Nagas (London: Methuen).
34 Mies, Bennholdt-Thomsen, Werlhof, 1988. Women—The Last Colony
(London: Zed Books).
35 Kaushik Ghosh, 1999. ‘A Market for Aboriginality: Primitivism and
Race Classification in the Indentured Labour Market of Colonial India’,
in Subaltern Studies, X, edited by Gautam Bhadra, Gyan Prakash and
Susie Tharu (New Delhi: Oxford University Press): 8–48.
36 Satnam, Jangalnama: 120–22.
37 Felix Padel, 2009. Sacrificing People: Invasions of a Tribal Landscape (New
Delhi: Orient Blackswan): 273.
xliv A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

38 Sudhir Pattnaik, 2014. ‘Who Does the Media Serve in Odisha?’ EPW
59, 14 (April 5): 74–81.
39 See http://odishaadivasimela.com/Updated_Events.htm accessed 11
July 2011.
40 A fact finding team of DSU (Democratic Student Union) of students
of Delhi University, Jawaharlal University and IGNOU published a
report in a booklet after visiting the area from 11 April to 16 April 2011:
The Flames of Narayanpatna: Two Reports on the Narayanpatna Struggle
in Koraput, Odisha, 2012 (Chandigarh: Charvaka Publications): 109.
41 Iggers, Historiography in the Twentieth Century: 145.
42 Dipesh Chakrabarty, 1997.‘Minority Histories, Subaltern Past’, from
‘Viewpoints' column in the November, Perspectives, available at
http://www.historians.prg/perspectives/issues/1997/9711/index.
cfm accessed 11 July 2011.
43 Sujata Patel, 1988. ‘Construction and Reconstruction of Women in
Gandhi’, EPW (Feb. 20): 377–87.
44 For details see Madhu Kishwar, 2010. ‘Gandhi and Women’s Role in
the Struggle for Swaraj’, in Sekhar Bandyopadhyay, ed., Nationalist
Movement in India: A Reader (New Delhi: Oxford University Press):
239–56.
45 The Hindu, 14 December 2001.
46 George Mathew, 2003. ‘Panchayati Raj Institutions and Human Rights
in India’, EPW (Jan. 11–17): 155–62.
47 Praveen Rai, 2011. ‘Electoral Participation of Women in India: Key
Determinants and Barriers’, EPW (Jan. 15): 54.
CHAPTER 1

Demystifying Adivasi Women:


Some Epistemological Issues

ENGELS HAD IDENTIFIED the ‘world historic defeat’ of


women with the rise of private property and the consequent
overthrow of women’s autonomy in the domestic sphere:
‘The man seized the reins in the house; also, the woman was
degraded, enslaved, the slave of the man’s lust, a mere instru-
ment for breeding children.'1 Private property, it should be
noted, is not just a matter of the private ownership or posses-
sion of the instruments and means of production; it is the abil-
ity of the owners of land, tools, and so on, to appropriate the
labour of other individuals. Thus the formation of private
property is synonymous with the splitting up of society into
classes, which, in turn, requires the institution of the state,
to maintain the class rule of the owners of private property.
Engels, following Marx’s hints in his notebooks, and based
on the anthropological work of Lewis Morgan, analysed the
effects of the formation of private property and the state on
the position of women and the nature of the family.
In India, society before the advent of class or pre-class soci-
ety is called tribal society2 and thus it is necessary to analyse
the changes in women’s position at this stage. Engels had
identified the domestic sphere as being the province of the
woman, and identified her defeat with man taking command
2 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

of the house too. Since Engels, we have come to know that


even in gathering societies and in early agriculture, women
do a major part of the work of non-domestic production.
Engels was thus wrong in identifying the domestic sphere
alone as women’s province. But what he pointed to was the
autonomy of men and women in their own spheres, the loss of
which autonomy for women resulted in their subordination.
The origins of sexual stratification lie in women’s role in
production and not in the powers of reproduction. There is
a stage of social development, which has been named the
‘lineage’ mode of production, which is the period of the tran-
sition from communal property to private property. At the
level of the family, women’s labour is the major part of social
labour, but any accumulation from this labour takes place in
the male line, and is thus outside the control of the women.
The subordination of women took place in this period of
kinship-based or lineage societies because of the formation of
group property (a form of property held by the corporate kin
group) and the patrilocal rules of residence. In the develop-
ment of surplus production, women’s labour provided, in a
sense, the base, while men’s labour was the variable element.
Women in gatherer-hunter appropriation and in extensive
systems of agriculture (slash and burn) do the major portion
of the labour and provide a major part of the sustenance for
the family. The rise of lineages means that there is a differen-
tial access to production resources. Women’s labour is crucial
in realizing the possibilities of differential accumulation. But
this accumulation takes place in the family of the husband.

DEFINING THE WORD ‘TRIBE’


Can the above analysis be of any help in understanding the
position of women in Indian tribes? Of course, the word
'tribe' covers a wide range of societies ranging from food
gatherers, to slash-and-burn agriculturists, to light plough to
settled agriculture. Some order needs to be brought into the
vast amount of anthropological material on these tribes. The
Demystifying Adivasi Women3

reason for clubbing these disparate societies into one category


of ‘tribes’ is that they are all, in a sense, pre-class societies or
at best very rudimentary forms of class society. But pre-class
societies themselves cover a considerable variety of social
organization. So it is necessary to identify the nature of these
tribes more clearly. This identification will both depend on
and in turn help illuminate the changing position of women
as we move from food gatherers up to settled agriculturists.
The term ‘tribe’ is derived from the Latin word ‘tribus’.
The term ‘tribal’ is nowhere defined in the constitution and
in fact there is no satisfactory definition. To the ordinary
person it suggests simple folk living in hills and forests; to
people who are a little better informed, it signifies colourful
folk famous for their dance and song; to an administrator
it means a group of citizens who are the special responsi-
bility of the President of India; and to an anthropologist it
indicates a special field for study of a social phenomenon.
The current popular meaning of a tribe in India is a category
of people included in the list of scheduled tribes. As these
groups are presumed to form the oldest ethnological sector
of the population, the term ‘adivasi’ (adi= original, and vasi=
inhabitant) has become current among certain people, oth-
erwise there is no indigenous word for tribe in any of the
Indian languages. In Sanskrit, there is a word atavika jana
(forest dwellers) which was used to denote agglomeration of
individuals with specific territorial, kinship and cultural pat-
terns. Words like ‘vanyajati’, ‘vanavasi’, ‘pahari’, ‘adimjati’,
‘anusuchitjati’, have been coined to designate these people.
The names of tribes like Kurumba, Irulu, Paniya in south
India; Asura, Saora, Oraon, Gond, Santhal, Bhil in central
India; Bodo in northeast India; occur in classical Indian lit-
erature. But we should remember that the word ‘adivasi’ has
a Sanskrit origin which has been popularized by the Hindus
amongst the tribals of India.
It is interesting to examine the changing notions of this
term over this period. Rising adivasi consciousness was given
an impetus by the activities of Christian missionaries and by
4 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

colonial writings which categorized people into essential-


ized tribal identities with fixed boundaries. The romanticiza-
tion of tribes also started becoming a part of the stereotype.
According to Vinita Damodaran, the embracing of the iden-
tity of indigenous or adivasi must be seen in political terms.
Given the effects of economic exploitation, political disen-
franchisement, social manipulation and ideological domi-
nation on the cultural formation of minority subjects and
discourses, a redefinition of the subject position of tribes
and an exploration of its strengths and weaknesses, and of
the affirmations and negations of the term adivasi itself was
inevitable.3 It is also necessary to deconstruct some estab-
lished notions regarding tribe and gender, so that the tribal
issues can come more to the centre of our discussions in con-
temporary India than remaining at the margins, as is the case
today. The challenge always is to demystify, to decolonize.
The following questions have thus become an integral part
of the analysis which will help demystification or demythi-
cization of adivasi women: (i) How far the romanticization
of tribal life is true? (ii) Are Adivasis Hindus? (iii) What were
the colonial perceptions regarding Adivasi people?

The Validity of the Romanticization of Tribal Life


Verrier Elwin was the most influential personality in the
debate on the tribal question between 1930s and mid-1940s.
He was in against of the application of the modernist view
in the tribal development. Since he himself experienced the
negative impact of the imperialistic policies of the West and
modern capitalism in the tribal society, he criticized civiliza-
tion and celebrated cultural primitivism. Ramchandra Guha
has stated in this regard, ‘With the long shadow of Nazism
cast over the warring nations of Europe, the primitivist
view could effectively challenge a view of human progress
in which savages of the forest were placed at the bottom of
the hierarchy and modern civilised society was at its apex.’4
Demystifying Adivasi Women5

Elwin’s celebration of tribal culture was based on ecolog-


ical romanticism, the way in which the English Romantics
(William Wordsworth, John Ruskin, Edward Carpenter)
described the harmful impact of the industrial revolution
on the environment of England. But there is an important
difference in that Elwin wanted to protect tribal culture, cus-
toms, and traditions, so that it could be a good alternative of
the modern way of life. His efforts laid the foundation of the
environmental ideology and became one of the most crucial
factors of the Gandhian Environmentalist movement of the
twentieth century. Thus, the ecological romantics rose up in
protest against modern capitalistic development and upheld
the traditional way of life as viable alternatives.
Those who are against the introduction of modern indus-
trial mode of production in tribal society, said that from the
ancient times tribal people have been living harmoniously
with the nature. They were the indigenous inhabitants and
their institutions and habits gave them a certain social coher-
ence and stability within their own society. This belief has
paved the path of modern ecological romanticism.5
On the other hand Elwin’s philosophy indirectly sup-
ported the imperialist clause of the protectionist policy
enshrined in the Government of India Act of 1935, because he
advocated the policy of ‘partial isolation’ of the tribal people
in order to prevent their exploitation of the non-tribal soci-
eties. For this reason, G.S. Ghurye, a critic of Verrier Elwin,
called him as ‘revivalist’ and ‘no changer’.6
At present the environmentalists are fighting against
neo-liberalism and communalism. But their notion about
the alternative and about the means of resistance is still
influenced by ecological romanticism.7 In the age of global-
ization when agriculture is continuously being threatened
and local livelihood pattern devastated, they are forced to
negotiate with the current paradigm of modern develop-
ment. It is correctly said that tribes are now confronting two
forms of opposing relations: one with the state and another
with international capital.8 The evidence of such an effect
6 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

on the tribes is further reflected in terms of decline of their


working population during the years of globalization and
economic reforms. Falling of forests and land resources are
some of the most important factors of decelerating employ-
ment opportunities.9
What type of development is accepted and for whom?
Theoreticians of ecological romanticism have failed to answer
this question. All the secular and democratic forces consider
the expropriation of natural resources under capitalism is
harmful for the marginal people. There is a great discrepancy
between theory and practice. They have failed to find out an
appropriate alternative of modernity.
Archana Prasad has attempted to argue that the theory
and practice of ecological romanticism prevent these move-
ments from opening up the discourse to an alternative notion
of modernity. She has shown that romantic ideas of ‘the first
inhabitant’, ‘eco-friendly customary practices’ and the com-
munity are ahistorical as they do not take the problems of
feudal and capitalist exploitation into account. There is thus
a need to develop a sustainable modernity that is outside the
framework of this system, and which helps to rejuvenate and
upgrade local practices. As the historian D. D. Kosambi aptly
stated, ‘Golden Age lies not in the past, but in the future’.
Archana Prasad has shown that an attempt to revive the past
will not redeem our future.10

Are Tribals Hindus?


The transition from tribe to caste is one such change. The
outstanding exponent of the Marxist interpretation of Indian
history in all its complexity and the one who ushered in a
paradigm shift in the study of ancient Indian history was
D.D. Kosambi. The transition from tribe to caste was for him
a basic historical process in India. His focus was on the two
ends of the social spectrum: the organization of the brahmana
‘varna’ and the creation of the ‘shudra varna’. The former was
that of the highest ritual status and in later periods included
Demystifying Adivasi Women7

the substantial number of recipients of grants of land.11 The


shudra varna, within which he included the ‘dasas’, provided
the labour force and was essential to the definition of class.
He compared this category to the Greek helots. They were a
category outside caste and a pre-class formation. Tribe and
caste were contrasting conditions.
The relationship between tribe and caste society is some-
times reformulated today as that between a clan-based soci-
ety and the state. The change from tribe to caste is a complex
historical process. In the juxtaposition of tribe and caste or of
clan and state, the encroachment on the tribe by caste soci-
ety frequently resulted in its incorporation into the state.
Kosambi very perceptively observed, ‘[For the] disruption
of the tribal people and their merger into general agrarian
society … would not have been possible merely by winning
over the chief and new leading members … The tribe as a
whole turned into a new peasant “jati” caste-group, generally
ranked as shudras, with as many as possible of the previous
institutions (including endogamy) brought over.’12 The result
of this process of transition was the formation of institutions
like private property, the caste system, the state and the patri-
archal family. While this change took place over a long period
of time and included a number of intermediate stages, it was
not just uniformitarian, in the sense of gradual and constant
cultural growth and modification, a kind of accretion as it
were. There were periods of accretion of small changes (say,
the Vedic period, or within tribal systems), and there were also
subsequent periods when these small changes gave way to
major changes, qualitative changes in ways of living, relating
to each other and even in ways of making sense of things.
The denial of such a major break in South Asian history
has varied manifestations. In sociology and anthropology
it is seen in G.S. Ghurye’s refusal to allow any separation
between the tribes and castes. For him, the tribes were only
‘backward Hindus’.13 Of course, this stand itself is part of a
‘nation-building’ project, one which requires the amalgama-
tion of all peoples into a Hindu nation. The denial of distinct
8 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

forms of living and being, of making sense of things, is a form


of ethnocentrism.14
In India ethnocentrism consists in seeing the history of all
communities as being merely the striving to become Hindu,
to become a caste. There is no distinction between tribe and
caste. All communities are castes, only the degree of being
castes is different. Baidyanath Saraswati has insisted on the
‘cultural oneness’ of tribe and caste. He asked for ‘tribe’ to
be treated as ‘caste’, and ‘caste’ to be understood as a cul-
tural unit. Powerful support for these ideas of castification15
comes from the analysis of inequality in society. According
to André Béteille, if social inequality is a common condition
of all human societies, then can we draw a valid distinc-
tion between tribal equality and caste inequality? Is there
a contrast in the ethical foundations of these two purport-
edly different forms of society? In an essay on ‘Tribe and
Peasantry’, he states that the country’s tribal populations are
like peasants anywhere in India.16 In this essay Béteille takes
each of the four criteria that are usually used to differenti-
ate tribes from castes—size, isolation, religion, and means of
livelihood—and argues that in each, there is no distinction
between tribe and peasantry in India. But later he shows how
the words ‘native’ and ‘tribe’ have been replaced by the term
‘indigenous’, pointing out that in India no given population
can claim indigeneity because there are no other populations
that can reasonably be described as settlers or aliens.17 In
some ways, his argument mirrors that of Crispin Bates, who
proposes that the term ‘adivasi’ is a colonial invention and
argues that we need to admit that in one sense all Indians
are adivasis.18 Well, whether the word ‘tribe’ is a colonial
construction or not that will be debated in the next section.
When Elwin’s pro-exclusion stances were being criticized,
Elwin had himself begun to review the relationship between
tribals and Hinduism. By the mid-1940s one essential element
of Elwin’s romanticism had undergone a significant change.
In the wake of Christian missionary activities in the Central
Provinces, Elwin’s argument that the tribes were culturally
Demystifying Adivasi Women9

different from caste Hindus and outside the fold of the varna
system underwent a change. His call for mobilization of
Hindu organizations was accompanied by a demand that
the Christian missionary activity be banned in the tribal areas.
Elwin began to look towards right-wing nationalists to push
out Christian missions from tribal areas. But in the process he
facilitated the penetration of right-wing Hindu nationalists
in tribal areas, which was enabled by the setting up of the
Niyogi Committee that recommended the expulsion of all
Christian missions from the Fifth Scheduled areas.
In the 1951 Census the religion of the tribes was termed
as tribal religion. The Census enumerators being high-caste
Hindus invariably mentioned the tribal religion as Hindu
religion. With the coming of the conservative political parties
in power the debate came into existence by the statement that
the tribals are Hindus. But we do not have empirical evidence
which suggest that the tribals are Hindus—­ethnically, racially
and bio-anthropologically. An analysis of trends in tribal reli-
gion from 1961 onwards shows that there are three trends:
first, there has been a remarkable spread of Christianity
among the tribes in north-east India, including Arunachal
Pradesh.19
According to K.S. Singh, tribal religion is seen in relation
to the local forms of Hinduism as far as shamanistic practices,
rituals and propitiation of local deities are concerned. It has
also been seen in the regional context.20

Colonial Perception of the Adivasis


One of the major issues in tribal studies today pertains to the
‘definition’ of ‘tribe’. Many of us think that the term ‘tribe’ is a
colonial construct. The Lokur Committee declared some crite-
ria for identifying a particular community as Scheduled Tribe.
These are: (i) the tribals are an ensemble of primitive traits;
(ii) distinctive culture; (iii) geographical isolation; (iv) shyness
of contact with the outside world; and (v) backwardness.
Which of the above criteria are relevant today for defining a
10 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

tribal community, and which of them have become defunct?


Second, what is meant by ‘primitive traits’? Many of the traits
found in the so-called primitive societies like polygyny may
also be found among the contemporary affluent and patriar-
chal societies. Ironically, when these characteristics are found
among the latter, they are not called primitive.
The ‘community way of living’ has also broken down.
Tribal families are moving out of their areas in search of
jobs, and sometimes they have to travel thousands of kilo-
metres to reach a suitable location where their never-ending
struggle for survival begins. Tribal culture today cannot be
described as unique. In the name of theory, then as Sumit
Sarkar points out, there has appeared in the present approach
of the Subalterns, a tendency ‘towards essentialising the cat-
egories of ‘subaltern’ and ‘autonomy’, in the sense of assign-
ing to them more or less absolute, fixed, decontextualised
meanings and qualities’,21 because conflicts must also be
located within the internal hierarchy of the tribal commu-
nities. Similar views have been expressed by Sanjukta Das
Gupta that recent studies have highlighted conflicts within
the internal hierarchy of the adivasi communities, on the one
hand, and, on the other, have challenged the Subalternist
contention of tribal autonomy by emphasizing linkages
between the tribal communities and the supra-village power
structure.22
We may site here an example of an adivasi village-­structure
in Koraput district of south Odisha where every tribal group
is internally segmented into hierarchical parts. This hierarchy
is expressed through different idioms, such as boro/sano and
essentially denote ‘elder/younger’ dichotomy. But one has to
remember that this hierarchical system in no way connotes
a rigid status distinction that the caste society upholds. In
an interior adivasi village of Koraput three levels may be
distinguished within a general hierarchy, including the lower
castes and sub-tribes. At the top there are categories of Rona,
Kamar, Goudo, Mali and Sundi. As a sign of their higher
status all members of these categories (men and women)
Demystifying Adivasi Women11

wear the sacred thread and worship the tulsi plant. They do
not consume beef or pork. On the middle level we find the
different adivasi categories: Gadaba, Parenga, Paraja, Jhoria,
Didayi, Bonda and Kondh. All the adivasi categories are
internally divided into two segments, the senior or boro (like
Boro Paraja, Boro Bonda) and the junior or sano (like Sano
Gadaba). The boro and sano Gadaba men and women often
interdine and intermarry. The Gadaba think of the Bonda as
their elder and of the Parenga and Kondh as their younger
brothers/sisters. They consider the Jhoria as to be still junior
and the Didayi to be of lowest status. Ghasia, Dombo lies at
the bottom of this hierarchy.23 This intermingling with the
lower castes sometimes leads the adivasi groups to take on a
different shape. They sometimes incline to adopt some of the
practices of the castes people and remould their hierarchical
structure accordingly.
Some anthropologists still depict the same stereotypical
mould from the colonial times in which they want to situate
the ‘tribes’. B.K. Roy Burman had proposed that because of
the pejorative connotation, the term ‘primitive tribes’ should
be changed to ‘vulnerable tribes’.24 Bhupinder Singh has
made the analogical distinction between two types of tribal
communities: first, those that demand the ‘first-aid treat-
ment’ (which means little help); and second, those which
require ‘hospitalization’ (or proper intensive care). The
primitive tribe groups (PTGs) fall in the second category.
Incidentally he also proposed that they may be called the
‘primary tribes’.25 D.D. Kosambi’s notion of tribe is also not
beyond criticism. Kosambi said the agrarian village economy
came to replace the ‘tribal’ way of life. He tends to mistake
Stone-Age hunter-gatherers for tribes.26 Kosambi went so far
as to state that among tribes the way of life has remained
‘largely unchanged’ since prehistoric times.27 But according
to Shereen Ratnagar, hunting-gathering-fishing constitutes
the pre-tribe stage of cultural development. The tribe as a
social formation came into existence only with the coming
of agriculture. She has also criticized Kosambi for using the
12 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

term ‘largely unchanged’ for the tribal way of life because it


amounts to denying marginalized groups a history and it was
an assumption handed down in the Orientalist ­tradition.28
According to Partha Chatterjee, the adivasis of India are
largely forest-dependent or pastoralists. He said,

In every region of India, there exist marginal groups of


people who are unable to gain access to the mechanisms
of political society. They are often marked by their exclu-
sion from peasant society, such as low-caste groups … or
tribal peoples who depend more on forest products or
pastoral occupations than on agriculture. Political society
and electoral democracy have not given these groups the
means to make effective claims on governmentality.29

Mihir Shah has criticized Partha Chatterjee’s notion of


tribes. He has mentioned the Sivaraman Committee Report of
1981 on the Development of Tribal Areas that was concluded
by saying, ‘settled agriculture is the primary source of liveli-
hood for the overwhelming majority of the tribal population
in the country’.30 Data from the 1981 Census already showed
that over 93 per cent of tribal ‘workers’ in India are engaged
in agriculture and allied activities, more than two-thirds of
these being cultivators.31 Mihir Shah has further stated that,

Even more surprising is Chatterjee’s notion that adiva-


sis are somehow beyond the pale of political society. He
appears to forget that adivasis played a decisive role in the
change of regimes in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and
Jharkhand in the 2003 assembly elections, earlier having
been part of the struggle for the creation of Chhattisgarh
and Jharkhand. Adivasis are at the heart of some of the
most significant political movements of our time.32

Those anthropologists who have worked with South


African stateless tribes argue that in political anthropology
the concept of ‘tribe’ is used as ‘holders’. But the concept has
been criticized on ideological grounds. According to Morris
Demystifying Adivasi Women13

Godelier there are two societies—the tribal society and the


state society. Godelier brings out the dispute and the crisis of
concept of tribe, saying anthropologists and politicians ‘see
in the contradiction attributing to tribalism not so much a
relic of pre-colonial status, but which flower again even vio-
lently as a legacy of the colonial period and the new relations
involved in new colonial domination.’33
Susan B.C. Devalle sees the tribe as essentially a construct,
a colonial category.34 Jagannath Pathy has argued that the con-
cept of tribe originated in India with colonial rule. He avers
that in the pre-colonial period people were either uncon-
scious of their ethno-national identities or called themselves
‘people’ versus outsiders.35 He further stated that in ancient
Indian literature there was no equivalent for the English
term ‘tribe’, an argument to which historian Niharranjan Ray
subscribed as well.36 In 1935, the British began calling them
as ‘backward tribes’. Both the words, ‘caste’ and ‘tribe’, are
non-indigenous terms and were used by the foreign writers
while describing Indian social structure as they understood it.
It has been further argued that Indian elites appropriated the
European racial ethnography both to justify an Indian hier-
archy and to assert parity with the European upper classes.37
According to Sanjukta Das Gupta, such an emphasis on the
‘imagined’ nature of caste, tribe and other identities and their
‘invention’ through deliberate collaboration of European
officers and their Indian informants have developed almost
into a ‘post-colonial essentialising’, countering the ‘orientalist
essentialising’ of earlier indologists and anthropologists.38
The colonial discourse on tribe in India had been largely
informed by prevailing concepts among the dominant caste
groups and in this sense, tribe may be considered to be a
brahmanical construct rather than merely a colonial one.39
Asoka Kumar Sen has denied the notion of tribe as a ‘colo-
nial creation’. According to him, it smacks of European eth-
nocentrism which does not as if accept the beingness of any
people prior to colonial rule. This contention posits colonial
ethnography within the famous subject-objects dichotomy.
14 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Just as the subjective idealists’ contention that no material


substratum exists in the mind of a subject, because to be is
to be perceived, in the same fashion the British committed
the ‘fallacy of initial predication’ when they thought that
they constructed the tribe, as if it were non-existent before
their intervention. He said that tribalism was a pre-­colonial
notion, which the British were reconstructing instead of
­constructing it.40
According to Crispin Bates, as mentioned in the
Introduction, ‘The Indian term ‘adivasi’ derives from the
Hindi words ‘adi’, meaning ‘beginning’ or ‘of earliest times’,
and the word ‘vasi’ meaning ‘resident of’. The epithet was in
fact invented by political activists in the area of Chotanagpur
in the 1930s, an invention motivated not so much by the idea
of abolishing the concept of the ‘tribal’ altogether (as was
later attempted by nationalists in Africa), but rather with
the aim of forging a new sense of identity among differing
‘tribal’ peoples—a tactic which has enjoyed considerable
success, with the term subsequently becoming widely pop-
ularized. Thus, there is nothing at all ‘indigenous’ about the
term, nor the people which it purports to describe. Indeed, it
could be argued that the concept of the adivasi is a product
of Orientalism. Orientalism has not just been a problem in
the western understanding of non-western societies, but a
phenomenon that has deeply affected Indians themselves
as they have incorporated into their own understanding
of Indian society the statistical, canonical, materialistic
and self-justificatory interpretations purveyed by colonial
administrations. As a result India, over the generations, has
in many aspects been re-made in the image invented for it
by European colonialists … the adivasi shares … a vital debt
to colonial prejudice.’41
Moreover, the tribal identity claims of different commu-
nities has loosened the idea of tribe from its classical anthro-
pological moorings and pushed it towards being a politically
productive ‘notion’. More recently, it has actually been to their
advantage to call themselves ‘adivasis’. A consequence has
Demystifying Adivasi Women15

been that since the introduction of the policy of reservation,


the number of adivasis in India as a proportion of the total
population has actually increased. The question that arises
is: do we take the view that once a tribe is always a tribe? It
is significant that the tribal policy acknowledged the need
for a process of ‘de-scheduling’ so as to exclude the people
of the creamy layer who are conspiring to retain their status
as ST in order to have the facilities of reservation. The most
recent instance is that of the Gujars of Rajasthan seeking the
status of ST. This hints at the emergence of a reverse process
of Sanskritization.42 It is noteworthy that the Rajbansis were
previously tribals but later they were detribalized and incor-
porated into caste society. It is a process of Kshatriyazation
where the group acquired the status of Kshatriya into the
Hindu fold. But Kshatriyazation process has greatly affected
the status of Rajbansi women. The old system of bride price
has been given up and so have been companionate marriage,
connubial union, divorce and remarriage, widow remarriage,
levirate, polygamy; their freedom has been curtailed and
their status has been lowered.43
The contemporary ethnicization of tribal identity in the
Darjeeling hills is certainly a new development. The concept
of a tribe has been strategically posed along the continuum of
politics-community-power. Tamangs, along with Limbus, did
mobilize themselves for tribal status and were accorded the
scheduled tribe (ST) status in 2002. This energized the other
Mongoloid groups (like Rais, Magars, Gurungs, Sunwars,
Yakhas, Thamis, to name a few) to clamour for the ST status.
In the case of the Gorkhas, the Gorkhaland movement also
demanded tribal status for them to gain the advantages of ST
quota provided by the Indian constitution. The GTA Act, by
March 2012, incorporates in it a provision stipulating that the
state government facilitate the demand of ST status for all the
Gorkhas except the scheduled castes, because the Gorkhas
were originally the martial castes in the colonial period. In a
situation like this—where the state approval meant almost
every community could become a tribe—answers to vexed
16 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

questions like ‘who is a tribe?’ or ‘what is a tribe?’ were to


be sought not in ethnographic literature or in welfare imper-
atives, but in the discourses of power.44
Colonial rulers had several, often contradictory, policies.
For example, in the 1941 Census, population of tribal and
aborigines were defined linguistically as Bhotiya, Cakama,
Damai, Gurum, Hadi, Kami, Khasa, Kuki, Lepaca, Limbu,
Mamgara, Meca, Mru, Munda, Neoyara, Saotala, Saraki, Toto,
Shabara, Kora, Garo, Khand, Bhumija, Tharu, Malapahadiya,
Ho, Mahali.45 Thus, while identities were certainly not fixed,
given or unchanging, their construction cannot be reduced to
colonial policies alone. Tribal identity formation, being part
and parcel of the history of Indian society, cannot be seen
in isolation from wider socio-economic and cultural dimen-
sions. That is why in recent years terms like ‘indigenous’ and
‘indigenes’ are widely being used to avoid the controversies
related to the word ‘tribe’. Keeping in mind the fact of cease-
less demoralization of tribes, Levi-Strauss said that the con-
cept of indigene (indigenous, native) was giving place to that
of indigent (poor, needy, destitute). The former was presented
romantically, depicting the bounteous beauty and charming
aesthetics of the tribal persons; the latter was its opposite. It
was an account of how the tribes were losing control over their
habitat, its land and resources, dehumanized and displaced.46
But, the question remains of which criteria would deter-
mine who is indigenous and who is not. David Hardiman
rejects the use of the term ‘tribe’ because the term is still
carries a racist content and used in an evolutionist manner.
He, therefore, prefers to use the term ‘adivasi’ in the Indian
context. He has speculated that the term ‘adivasi’ appeared
to have originated in the Chotanagpur region of Bihar in
the 1930s. According to Gail Omvedt, the tribals of western
India do not like words like ‘girijana’ or ‘vanavasi’, rather
they prefer the term ‘adivasi’. She prefers the term ‘tribal’
instead of ‘adivasi’. Her argument is that tribal has both a sci-
entific and a common sense meaning. Simultaneously, she has
expressed her doubts about the use of the word ‘tribe’ in the
Demystifying Adivasi Women17

Indian context.47 Morris Godelier has very rightly observed


that the concept ‘tribe’ is ‘in crisis’; and needs to be redefined
to evaluate its real significance.48
The term ‘tribe’ is also unfavourable to the people them-
selves. They are called with various names such as adivasi,
girijana, vanavasi, janajati. I would say the image and mean-
ing underlying the category was far from being a colonial
construction. We must not forget about the pre-colonial
depiction of the tribal people of India as ‘dasyus’, ‘daityas’,
‘rakshakas’ and ‘nishadas’, while juxtaposed with the
mid-nineteenth century western racial concept. The term
‘adivasi’ with its implication of ‘original settlement’ is debat-
able and appears to be unacceptable in a wider South Asian
context. Nevertheless, in the final analysis, ‘adivasi’, with all
its inherent problems is an acceptable solution. Therefore, in
this book I have adopted both the terms and have used them
interchangeably at times to indicate social structure distinct
from caste hierarchies in India even while not subscribing to
evolutionary or racist theories.

DEFINING GENDER
Like ‘tribe’ or ‘adivasi’, the word ‘gender’ also involves con-
structions. Arthur Mawick says that originating primarily as
a grammatical term, it was picked up by the feminists and
introduced in intellectual and then everyday discourse as
an alternative to ‘sex’ to signify what they maintained was
culturally constructed as distinct from what was biologically
given. A distinction was thus sought to be made between the
physiological ‘sex’ and social ‘gender’, between ‘female’ and
‘feminine’; ‘female’ being the biological category to which
women belong, while ‘feminine’ behaviours and roles were
a product of social construction. It was argued by the femi-
nists that whereas sex was a natural difference, the roles and
behaviours associated with gender were created historically
by different societies.49 Therefore, femininity is not biologi-
cally based but socially constructed. The secondary place of
18 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

women in relation to men was because of the imposition of


strong environmental forces of education, social tradition,
legal and political restrictions under the purposeful control
of men. Proponents of gender have argued that it serves as
one of the primary ways of signifying power relationships
and that the changes in the organization of social relationships
always correspond to changes in representation of power.
Women and tribals have long been marginalized sections
in Indian history writing. Tremendous hopes were aroused,
however, in the 1970s and early 1980s, when history writing
was modified in two more or less parallel, but largely uncon-
nected developments: the cataclysmic advent of ‘history from
below’, mainly the early Subaltern School, and a quantum
leap in women’s studies, increasingly informed by feminist
approaches. The first wave of women’s history in India, very
powerful and original, questioned the triumphal narrative
of ‘unilinear advance’ in the ‘status’ of women through male
initiated nineteenth-century social reform, later women’s
participation in Gandhian, revolutionary terrorist or Left-
led movements. The 1990s saw promising results for wom-
en’s history writing with some limitations. The subject again
largely continued to be middle class-women or dominant
Hindu castes. It is only with the maturing of ‘total history’
and the adoption of an interdisciplinary approach that tribes
began to be situated in works on history. In such attempts at
expanding the domains of history, the accent was more on
ethnographical details or the colonial experiences with only
incidental references to tribal women.

Comparative Understanding of the Struggling


Character of Adivasi Women
The first or the earliest reference to women in history writing
could be seen in the occasional passages in descriptions on
anti-colonial tribal revolts. During the colonial period adivasi
women did take part in different tribal movements: Santhal
Rebellion (1855), Kondh Revolt (1869), Koya Movement
Demystifying Adivasi Women19

(1879), Sardari Agitation (1887), Rampa Rebellion (1911),


Bastar Uprising (1911), Gond and Kolam Movement (1941–
62), and so on. In all these movements, women invariably
stood firmly behind their menfolk. Whatever ‘perks’ the
colonial state offered to the tribals later have not been in
any way beneficial to them. According to Manoshi Mitra,
women participated in large numbers in the Kol Rebellion:

In many instances women organised the defence of their


villages and withstood pressure for a period of time before
being forced to surrender. Many women were arrested by
the British authorities.50

In Ranajit Guha’s description of Santhal Hul, ‘the entire


female population of the Santhal districts in 1855 could have
been accused of acting as the providers and as the eyes and the
ears of the rebel forces.’51 To S.C. Roy, women played an import-
ant part in the Munda Uprising.’52 Speaking of the same move-
ment, K.S. Singh noted, ‘A large number of the tribals were killed
which also included three women fighters, namely, the wives
of Bankan Munda, Manjhia Munda and Dungdung Munda.’53
Besides, during 1930s Rani Gaidinliu was the well-known leader
of the Naga Uprising in northeast India. Rajmohini Devi led the
freedom struggle in Surguja of Madhya Pradesh. She was the
leader of Manjhi community of Gond tribals.
Today tribal women are amongst the poorest, most mar-
ginalized and backward people. Even today they have no
rights over the forest and cultivating forest lands is consid-
ered an offence. In spite of their important contribution in
various types of labour, within the tribal community too,
women are oppressed by various traditional male chauvinis-
tic practices. Tribal women are also victims of incessant sexual
violence and abuse by contractors, government officials and
the police. By luring tribal women to cities with the promise
of providing jobs, criminal gangs are engaged in illegal traf-
ficking and ruining their lives. The economic policies of the
central and state governments, in keeping with liberalization,
privatization and globalization, have opened the gates for
20 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

imperialist plunder. Since the last few years, various Indian


and foreign, or multinational corporate houses have been
expanding their activities or entered into agreements with
the state governments of Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh
and Maharashtra. These are companies like Jindal, Essar,
Mittal, POSCO, Tata, Reliance. Hindutwa communal orga-
nizations are making an all out effort to saffronize the adivasi
community.
In the post-independence era, like the colonial era, adivasi
women have risen up in struggle against their exploitation
and oppression. The state itself is directly targeted other
than the landlord moneylenders. Though the movements
are still regional, they are gradually crossing the boundaries
and defusing in broader areas successfully. Second, adivasi
women, though away from the cities and the mainstream
women’s movements, have continuously waged militant
struggles along with their menfolk. Recent tribal movements
have set the example of the formation of separate women’s
organizations. These adivasi women’s wings, women cadres,
women troops are organized and conducted by the decisions
of its women members. Today, they are more united, orga-
nized and self-conscious. They are negotiating with full com-
petency and this is the greatest achievement.
Third, tribal women have been portrayed in rather aggres-
sive modes in some of the communist led movements. In
the Tebhaga (1946–1947), Peter Custers argues that it was
‘the doubly oppressed rural poor women who manifested
themselves as most courageous and capable of leading the
combined anti-feudal and anti-colonial movement’.54 Vasanth
Kannabiran and K. Lalitha write that women’s contribution in
the Telangana movement (1946–1951) ranged from transport-
ing guns, arranging and running shelters, travelling through
forests to address meetings, as also cooking and providing
food to party comrades. There were some high, visible points
in the movements: ‘two hundred peasant women stood
together in Penukonda and chased the police out of the vil-
lage. In Appaijipet, women encircled a police van, attacked
Demystifying Adivasi Women21

the police with pestles and chilli powder and secured the
release of the Sangham activists.’55 Tribal women had also
added the militant character to the movements of 1970s.
They were in the forefront of the Naxalbari and Srikakulam
movements.56 In the contemporary revolutionary movements
in Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha
and Maharashtra, they have built up a huge women’s move-
ment. In the movement of West Midnapur (2008–2010) their
role was more constructive. In northeast India, where nation-
ality movements are going on, tribal women in places like
Manipur and Nagaland have active women’s organizations.
In the Narmada Valley, Kashipur and Kalinganagar, they have
agitated against imperialist backed ‘development’ projects.
Fourth, by trying to crush these movements with intense
and brutal repression, the state has made clear its anti-tribal
stand. In spite of arrests, beatings and torture by the police,
in spite of false cases being foisted on them, whether it is
TADA (Terrorist and Disruptive Activities [Prevention] Act)
or POTA (Prevention of Terrorism Act), which have been used
against struggling tribal women, they have carried on fight-
ing courageously. The state continues to try and crush their
movements through campaigns like Salwa Judum and Sendra
where mass rapes and murders of tribal women are taking
place in the name of a state sponsored ‘peace campaign’.
Fifth, another important feature is the synchronization
between the women’s movement and environmentalist
movements in the post-1947 era. Thus a new chapter has
been added to the history of the movement of the adivasi
women: the Ecofeminist movement. Ecofeminism is an activ-
ist and academic movement that sees critical connections
between the domination of nature and the exploitation of
women. Growing protest against environmental destruction
and struggles for survival and subsistence point to the fact
that caste, class and gender issues are deeply interlinked.
Ecofeminism emerged as a product of the peace, feminist
and ecology movements of the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Wherever women protested against ecological destruction,
22 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

threat of atomic destruction of life on earth, new develop-


ments in biotechnology, genetic engineering and reproductive
technology, they discovered the connections between patriar-
chal domination and violence against women, the colonized
non-western, non-white peoples and nature. It has led to the
realization that the marginalization of women by patriarchal
domination and the destruction of biodiversity go hand in
hand and liberation of women cannot be achieved in isolation
from the larger struggle for preserving nature and life on this
earth. Ecofeminist theory has brought into sharp focus the
links between development and gender. It has highlighted
the fact that the violence against nature and against women
is built into the dominant development model. We have seen,
for example, the women in the Chipko movement of the 1970s
in the Garhwal-Himalaya—where women struggled for the
protection and regeneration of the forests.
Some of the major debates that engaged the women’s move-
ment were issues of women’s oppression, violence against
women, the campaign for women’s rights that challenged the
dichotomy between public and private sphere and the social,
cultural, economic and political manifestations of ‘gender’. The
debate over growth, development and equity issues from a
woman’s perspective have thrown new light on the dimensions
and causes of gender inequality. Issues of peripheral groups of
tribals, poor, landless women also gained recognition.

Aspiration Failure and Tribal Women


It is generally believed that lack of development or under-
development is the core issue of tribal discontent and tribal
movements. A most crucial issue is what does mainstream
society mean by ‘development’? In spite of dying of starvation
the tribals of Amlasole57 or Kalahandi did not raise arms. And
those who raised arms in Lalgarh58 were not hit by chronic
poverty. In the fact-finding reports it has been categorically
mentioned that the main demand of the adivasi protesters of
Lalgarh was to end police terror, not to initiate development
Demystifying Adivasi Women23

while according to the National Family Health Survey 2,


half of the children in the state of West Bengal are anaemic;
among the adivasis the rate is 95 per cent. Paschimanchal
Development Board has failed completely to initiate devel-
opment of the tribals.59 Development undoubtedly was there
in their charter of demands, but the movement was launched
precisely for the sake of dignity and not for food.60 Similarly,
the grievances in Amlasole were not regarding development,
but about the gradual shrinking of the forest resources and
being prevented by police from collecting forest resources.
The first condition of development is to dream for develop-
ment or to aspire for development. Aspiration relates to how
people want to be in the future, for which reason people use
their existing capabilities differently from a situation where
they do not have this aspiration. For various reasons this
aspiration has not been created or rather has been deterred
by the government; it is called ‘aspiration failure’.
The hunting-gathering tribes have a traditional way of
production; they produce or work only when they need to
acquire food or other necessities. This is because they do not
have any surplus to store or exchange. Shifting cultivators
too have a subsistence-oriented production system. What,
however, can be observed today is that these tribals have
changed their production orientation to a more surplus and
­accumulation-oriented production.61 What is common to all
parts of the developing world is the development of new
needs, for example, medical services and education; also of
entertainment, radio or television, good clothing. The cre-
ation of new needs together with the dependence on the
market leads to a shift in the production objective.
Nowadays parents want something different for their chil-
dren. Most of the tribal women of West Bengal, Jharkhand
and Odisha told me that they want their daughters to be
educated. With communication and growth of markets, col-
lection of Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFPs) has allowed
the tribals to acquire income beyond immediate needs.
Agriculture and other labour markets have also opened up
24 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

new possibilities for earning income through wage employ-


ment. The majority of tribal women of my study area said
that they work whenever work is available.
What is the connection between aspiration and tribal
unrest? Here comes the question of capacity or what Arjun
Appadurai calls ‘the capacity to aspire’,62 which is not evenly
distributed among different tribal communities of different
regions, causing complete failure of fulfilling those aspira-
tions. There is an uneven distribution of the capacity to aspire
between women and men as well. According to Dev Nathan,
this uneven distribution is related to a number of factors:
the gender division of responsibilities, their economic roles
and everyday practice of economic relations with others, the
changes in various types of economic and cultural practices,
and so on.63 The uneven distribution of the capacity to aspire
is based to a high extent on the uneven distribution of what
Bourdieu calls ‘cultural capital’,64 using the term to explain
class differences in performance in the so-called merit-based
examinations; here, cultural capital is a factor that influences
the capacity to aspire.
Perpetually living on the brink of starvation, the aspira-
tions of the tribal women of Amlasole for themselves were
for developing capabilities of an elementary kind, like having
two meals a day or a permanent source of income. Their other
aspirations too were quite modest—to look clean, in short,
the capacity to appear in public without shame. But if we
look at the comparatively better-off tribal areas, we will find
some more ambitious aspirations, like to educate their chil-
dren so that they can work as a teacher or barefoot doctor, to
construct a cement-brick house, buy a TV or a mobile phone,
and so on. Amlasole women have established Amlasole Birsa
Munda Village Development Committee in July 2004. The
Committee made a micro plan giving priority to the source
of income and safety, health facilities, education and houses
for Sabars. In August 2004 Amlasole Primary Health Centre
was founded by the Committee. In the same year Berabhenge
school with a mid-day meal programme was started as well.
Demystifying Adivasi Women25

But all these are local initiatives called the community-led


structural intervention theory based on community mobili-
zation, creating enabling environment and ownership over
the process and product of intervention.65 These elements
are neither easy to find and sustain for long, especially when
there is a severe dearth of food. So, the fundamental needs of
life are more important for them than anything else. It limits
their capacity to aspire.
Subalterns aspire for having an equal status, honour and
human rights. For example, the Sabar children of Amlasole
are not allowed to join the ‘mainstream’ school in their own
village being dishonoured as ‘criminals, untouchables and
suspected as drug addicts’. Amlasole therefore remains
Amlasole, year after year. A Lalgarh is created whenever
there are violations of human rights. Lalgarh asked for some-
thing more than the basic needs.66 Following the Sonamukhi
rape incidents,67 Nari Ijjat Bachao Committee (Committee
to Save Women’s Honour) was formed with ordinary adi-
vasi women, hitherto unknown, to save their own dignity,
pride and democratic rights.68 Even, in the course of Lalgarh
movement the People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities
(PCAPA) initiated an alternative model of development in
the area. The Committee members distributed lands, built a
small check dam in Bohardanga village, collected money for
tractor and the morrum for the construction of roads, installed
mini tube-wells and submergible pumps, a People’s Health
Centre at Kantapahari village.69
When acts are enacted for land acquisition followed by
displacement, the adivasis resist, not only because land is
their source of income but also, more painful than the poverty
itself, is the erosion of people’s sense of community and cul-
tural identity, values, and traditions, which invariably accom-
panies their separation from the land. For them land is the
symbol of dignity. Adivasi identity is closely bound to the
earth, evoked in a dance-song of women from Kucheipadar,
a village that has led the people’s movement against mining
in Kashipur: ‘Matiro poko, mati bina aame bonchiba kahee?’
26 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

(Earthworms we are—without earth how to survive?)70


Displacement does not only mean being uprooted but also
a permanent detachment from their culture. Displacement
dislocates them into a social structure of broken relationships
and fragmented space.
Communications have had a big impact on aspiration.
Migration too has created new forms of aspirations. Exposure
to the outside world and spread of literacy can help develop
the capacity to aspire. Lack of education, health facilities and
employment are the most important barriers before discard-
ing the traditional subsistence economy. Due to the want of
governmental initiatives, the tribals are not gaining exper-
tise in using newer technological equipment and methods.
During the colonial period the tribals struggled to save their
economy from the greed of the zamindars–moneylenders
nexus with the colonial masters. But now another cause has
got attached to it and that is aspiration. The poor imple-
mentation of national tribal policies and the ignorance of
these aspirations on the part of the government are basically
responsible for its failure which belied the hope of protection,
welfare and development of the tribal people that came with
India’s independence.

Adivasi and Non-Adivasi Women’s


Socio-Economic Roles
What are the differences between the tribal and the non-tribal
women regarding their socio-economic roles. There are two
diametrically opposite views on this subject: (i) tribal women
enjoy a relatively low status in comparison to the caste Hindu
women. Except in the case of matriarchal, matrilineal and
polyandrous tribal communities, the status of women in most
of the tribes is inferior to men; (ii) tribal women enjoy a rel-
atively high status to their non-tribal counterparts.
Both the views are correct because an inferior status of
women has been reported from a number of Indian tribes.
For example, Todas do not touch their women during
Demystifying Adivasi Women27

certain periods and they are entirely excluded in a number


of ­ceremonies.71 Similarly the Kharia woman is not allowed to
cook for her husband or any stranger.72 Grigson has reported
low status of women of the Maria Gonds where they are
tabooed when menstruating and are debarred from attending
festivals in spite of premarital sexual freedom and freedom
in the choice of her husband.73 According to Verrier Elwin,
‘Tribal woman has a wide freedom, which she seldom abuses.
She can go to a bazar, even by herself. She can visit her friends.
She can dance and sing, especially before marriage, as she
pleases. She can laugh and joke with men without reproach.
Her freedom becomes naturally somewhat restricted after
marriage, but even then she can be herself.’74
Among the Tharus of the Nainital Tarai (Uttar Pradesh),
women’s status is proverbially high. They are dominant over
their husbands, have property rights, keep poultry, own it,
they fish, make baskets and sell the products of their labour.75
Writing about Nagas, Elwin said that Naga women hold a
high and honourable position. They work on equal terms
with the men in the fields and make their influence felt in the
tribal council.76 He makes a similar observation with regard
to the Baigas; there is no clear division of labour between
men and women.77 Furer-Haimendorf referring to the Nagas
writes, ‘many women in most civilised parts of India may
well envy the women of the Naga Hills, their high status and
their free happy life . . . you will think twice before looking
down on the Nagas as savages.’78 In a similar vein, Hutton
attributes a higher social status to Sema Naga women on the
ground that marriages among the Sema Naga are choice-
based and a girl is never married against her will. The Sema
Naga woman occupies a high position in her husband’s
house and is treated well.79
In his statistical account of Assam, Hunter has reported
very high status of women among the Garos and the import-
ant position the women occupy among them.80 Garo soci-
ety is matrilineal. Property, among the Garos, is inherited
only by the female, and she owns the fields, house and other
28 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

valuables of the household.81 Similarly in the Andaman


Islanders, women are equal to men. They are eligible to speak
out and form opinion.
At the end of the debate it can be said that in tribal society,
while women’s labour has an important role in accumula-
tion, control of which is in male hands, still women have
not completely lost their limited autonomy. The autonomy,
it must be stressed, is limited, not only because it does not
cover all or most of women’s activities, but also because the
requirements of accumulation very much determines the uses
to which women’s income is put. Such limited autonomy
too, it would seem, does have a role in maintaining some
dignity for women, a dignity that the further development of
private property is bound to erode. Therefore, tribal women
are indeed in many ways the equal, if not the rival, of the
tribal man.82

Changing Patterns of Livelihood and Tribal Women


It is now a well-accepted theory that there was less inequal-
ity between the sexes in tribal communities. With the inter-
vention of external economic, social and cultural forces, the
status of tribal women has deteriorated more than that of
men. This is attributed mainly to the delinking of their life
from the natural resources on which women depended more
than men did. Such delinking is done through three main
modes: denial of access to forests and land, displacement by
development projects, and outmigration either of men alone
or of the whole family. Under colonial rule the informal tribal
economy for the first time started transforming into formal
sector. The changeover has been intensified during the four
decades of planned development.
Because of the important role played by women, tribal
economy has often been called by Ester Boserup as ‘female
economy’.83 The tribals accordingly developed a culture
geared to keeping a balance between human needs and envi-
ronmental imperatives, because this conservation-­orientation
Demystifying Adivasi Women29

of their culture was crucial for women’s workload. Walter


Fernandes says it is not merely that the conservation-­
orientation of the tribal culture conferred a higher status on
her, but also that the predominant role she played in the forest
economy was a major factor in the conservation-orientation
of their culture. She had a bigger vested interest than the men
did, in a balanced use of the resource according to human
needs and its conservation for posterity. That is why tribal
women are more aware of their ethnic identity than men.84
Traditional tribal informal society was community-based,
and was oral tradition-based as against the written word of the
present system. In this system, oral undertaking of the indi-
vidual was accepted in trust by the community, not evidential
as in the litigation-based formal system that was imposed on
such a society in which literacy is low. Moreover, the infor-
mal economy did not have the concept of property as it is
understood today: something that can be used or destroyed
by the individual owner or the corporate sector according to
its will. The concept of property ownership or control over
resources brings out the major difference between the two
systems more than any other aspect. Land and forests were
a community resource, not merely an object of agriculture or
construction as is the case in the formal system in the property
owner has an absolute right over it. Consequently, when the
formal system entered their area with the support of the state
apparatus, the tribals were not prepared to meet it.
Tribals were integrated into the mainstream formal econ-
omy as subordinates; as suppliers of cheap labour and raw
material, to the benefit of the small minority controlling
the formal system. Tribal women were affected by these
developments in various ways, such as: (a) those women
who continue to live in their village were impoverished by
deforestation and other forms of environmental deteriora-
tion; (b) the women who were displaced by development
projects did not get proper rehabilitation and compensation
since the Common Property Resources (CPRs) are not their
property according to the present law.85 Finally, (c) women
30 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

were affected by outmigration. This vicious circle ensures


the transition of the tribals from constructive to destructive
dependence on what was once a renewable resource. While
all the tribals are thus alienated from these resources and
impoverished, women are the worst hit since their role was
crucial in the traditional economy. At the social level one
witnesses the transition from shifting to settled agriculture,
with the implications for ownership. At the same time, com-
petition begins for the scarce resources and the community
as such breaks down and class formation follows. It leads to
the emergence of a class of tribal elite. Finally, at the cultural
level there is Sanskritization in the strictest sense as enunci-
ated by M.N. Srinivas.
Deforestation definitely increases the burden of work for
the tribal women, but at the same time with displacement
their contribution to the family economy declines, because
then men become the only or main income earners since most
jobs go to them. According to Walter Fernandes, loneliness,
drunkenness (both for men and women) and wife-beating
then become their response to the trauma of displacement.
Women also accept status symbols like expensive clothes and
other trinkets to cope with the tension of displacement.86 With
an increased exposure to urban and industrial set-up, the
attitude of women has undergone a change. Proximity to
urban areas, lack of adequate employment opportunities and
poverty have driven them even to prostitution. According
to women of Chikapar resettlement village of Upper Kolab
Project, In the last three years at least six girls from the area
have become commercial sex workers in the nearby towns
of Koraput, Jeypore and other towns bordering the state of
Andhra Pradesh.87
Tribal women thus become only subordinate workers
under their husbands and begin to be considered exclusively
in the housewife’s role. We could think that subordination
is the key aspect in Sanskritization. In most tribal societies
Sanskritization involves changeover from bride price to
dowry, from adult marriage through choice of partner to
Demystifying Adivasi Women31

arranged marriage, at times child marriage. During field


work in West Midnapore I was informed that child mar-
riage is being performed; this practice is widely prevalent
among the Baiga tribe as well, while in Kalahandi divorce and
widow remarriage are beginning to be looked down upon.
Arranged marriages are coming to be accepted as the norm.88

Development-Induced-Displacement: Marginalization
of Tribal Women and Gender Justice
In the Indian context one of the best-known method by which
displacement has taken on a massive scale is Development
Induced Displacement. It has an inherent bias against the ethnic
communities. Developmental schemes provide little spaces to
the ethnic groups particularly the tribals to voice their pres-
ence or to contest, and, it takes no cognizance of the presence
of ethnic groups either. Most of the time developmental proj-
ects are imposed upon, rather than taking into account prior
consent of the ethnic groups and thus causing a fundamental
dispossession or exploitation of the ‘fourth world’ of the first
people, the indigenous or tribal people. Further, develop-
mental projects are decided not in cultural setting of ethnic
groups rather ‘outside their realm’—the realm lies either in the
capital cities or in the western multilateral institutions. These
projects are imposed or introduced in a straightjacket manner
without however taking into consideration locality or cultural
settings of ethnic groups. Finally developmental projects are
not backed by a proper rehabilitation policy.89
In the case of India’s development model, displacement
caused by large projects has actually resulted in a transfer of
resources from the weaker sections of society to more privi-
leged ones. Post-independence development policy and plan-
ning have largely followed the utilitarian and Benthamite
logic of ‘the greatest happiness for the greatest number’. This
has allowed for millions to be displaced in the interest of
the ‘common good’.90 Mega dams, in particular, create vic-
tims of development—mainly tribals who never share the
32 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

gains of development. No reliable data exists so far on the


extent of displacement in the name of ‘public purpose’. But
who constitutes the ‘public’? And how is ‘public purpose’
defined? Even, The country lacks a comprehensive resettle-
ment and rehabilitation (R and R) policy. Several studies have
documented the qualitative consequences of forced develop-
ment. This occurs along the following crucial dimensions:
landlessness, homelessness, joblessness, food insecurity,
social disarticulation, loss of common property, increased
morbidity and mortality.91
Now the focus is on some key issues related to tribal
women, displacement and people’s struggle (for displace-
ment see Table 1.1). First, it asks whether tribal women expe-
rience displacement differently from men. Second, it explores
the role of tribal women in struggles against displacement.
Third, it looks at biases against tribal women in resettlement
policies and finally, it locates displacement and resettlement
issues within wider debates of development, globalization
and privatization, which offer the overwhelming context for
displacement and pauperization in today’s times.
Tribal women do experience displacement differently.
Tribal women are deeply related to nature and natural
resources; they are the food providers in a tribal family and

Table 1.1 Displacement between 1951 and 1990 (in lakhs)


Sl. No. Type of Total displaced Tribal displacement % of tribals
projects and percentage and percentage to the total
1 Dams 164.0 (25.0%) 63.2 (25.0%) 38.5
2 Mines 25.5 (25.5%) 13.3 (24.8%) 52.2
3 Industries 12.5 (30.0%) 3.1 (25.6%) 25.0
4 Wildlife 6.0 (20.8%) 4.5 (22.2%) 75.0
5 Others 5.0 (30.0%) 1.3 (20.0%) 25.0
Total 213.0 (25.4%) 85.4 (24.8%) 40.1

Source: As quoted in Planning Commission, ‘Report of the Steering


Committee on Empowering the Scheduled Tribes for Tenth Five-Year
Plans’, 2001, Ministry of Rural Development (p. 3).
Demystifying Adivasi Women33

that is why their concern is for preventing displacement in


order to survive and sustain the livelihood pattern to give
security to the family, whereas the tribal men tend to see it
as an exchange on fair or unfair terms of property owned
by them.
Why do we often see women at the forefront of struggles
against forced displacement? Women’s realms especially
in the non-monetized tribal societies, more than men’s, are
largely located in non-market relationships. This perhaps
allows them to understand certain things better than men,
such as, soil erosion, destruction of greeneries, shortage of
food, fodder, portable water, and so on. For example, when
Bhutia tribal women of Chipko Movement (1972–1978)
protested against the felling of the trees, the men opposed
them because the men were employed to cut the trees. The
men not only opposed them in fear of losing their jobs but
also for the fear of not being provided with jobs in the army
since the women compelled the government to retreat. But
participating in struggle exposes women to state oppres-
sion and biases in ways never encountered before. They
have been the victims of state-sponsored rape and abuse.92
‘Mati Devata, Dharam Devata’—the soil is our Goddess; it is
our religion.’ These are the words of adivasi women of the
‘Save Gandmardhan’ movement, as they embraced the earth
while being dragged away by the police from the blockade
sites in the Gandmardhan Hills in Odisha. The forests of
Gandmardhan are a source of rich plant diversity and water
resources. It would be desecrated by the Bharat Aluminium
Company (BALCO) to mine for bauxite.
Although knowledge about the overall impacts of dis-
placement has exploded in the last two decades, the gendered
dimensions of displacement have so far remained a neglected
area in resettlement research. The first step towards resettle-
ment is social impact assessment (SIA) that usually is under-
taken at the beginning of the project to identify project impact.
The second step is compensation. Generally tribal women do
not have ownership of or control over land, though they may
34 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

often be its prime users. They are therefore not compensated


for the loss of land. Even if substantial land is often worked,
owned and inherited by the women in many cases, compen-
sation is provided to the head of the family, almost invariably
a man.93 Though it accepts the claim of an ‘unmarried adult
son’ to be treated as a separate family for the purposes of
compensation, this definition makes no similar provisions
for unmarried adult daughters, and leaves divorced, deserted
and widowed women out forcing them into dependency upon
male relatives.94 The selection of the resettlement site affects
women because tribal identity can be at stake if the new area
is physically, climatically, socially and culturally completely
different from their own. Reconstructing livelihoods after
relocation is the final step. This is particularly problematic
for the tribal women because of their dependence on CPRs
and they lack legal titles (patta) to these resources. As a result,
the acquiring agencies give preference to the CPRs, which
provide tribal women with a major source of their earnings,
and do not compensate for their losses.95
A job per displaced family is a scheme which has recently
been proposed by many industrialists. But it has many serious
shortcomings especially when its application is extended to
the tribals. First, only one job per family is given when in fact
the family often has several adults and that is bound to lead
to conflicts within the family. Second, land records are not
brought up to date. Third, almost all the jobs the Displaced
Peoples (DPs) are given are of the unskilled variety, oftener
than not temporary in nature since a large number of tribals
are illiterate and do not have the technical skills or training
required by the project. The NALCO unit of Damanjodi is
among the few to give semi-skilled jobs to a few tribal men
because a voluntary agency trained them in some skills. Even
in this case no woman got a job.96 In the Jagannathpur mines
of Talcher in Odisha and the Piparwar mines of Palamau in
Jharkhand, a family is entitled to a job for every 3 acres of
land lost. Later the Piparwar mines reduced it to 2 acres for
providing a job if the claimant had completed matriculation.97
Demystifying Adivasi Women35

Among the tribals even boys cannot hope to get technical train-
ing, women’s situation is worse. If cash compensation is paid
in lump sums to oustees, then that is without any advice on
proper investment or help in channelizing it. The deprivation
is more intense.
After the enforcement of The Provisions of Panchayats
(Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) 1996, it is now
compulsory for the government to consult the gram sabhas.
But my experience says that in many adivasi villages, people
do not even have knowledge of PESA to be able to demand
decision-making rights. In recent land acquisition process
pursued by Sterlite Industries in Lanjigarh, Odisha, we found
that women were never consulted. Since negotiations did
not succeed in addressing gender issues, adivasi women
opposed with strong determination new projects whether
in Kasipur (Odisha) where Utkal Alumina Plant has been pro-
posed, Rayagada (Odisha) where L & T, JK Paper Mills and
other industries are located, Nimmalapadu and Chintapalli
(Andhra Pradesh) where calcite and bauxite mining is pro-
posed, or Nagarnar (Chhattisgarh), where adivasis are oppos-
ing the Steel Plant of NMDC. Moreover, mining activities have
a particularly negative impact on adivasi women’s livelihood
security, employment opportunities and rights. For exam-
ple, the tribals in Odisha displaced by NALCO were forced
to migrate across state borders in Andhra Pradesh and are
living as ‘illegal encroachers’ on forest lands.98 In the Upper
Indravati Power Project, Odisha, a study of g ­ ender-specific
issues revealed that tribal women, in particular, were seri-
ously affected. Their displacement led to reversal in their
socio-economic autonomy and status. These were formerly
linked to forest-based, non-market economic activities. The
dislocation of their communities, their resettlement and
the flow of cash for compensation and rehabilitation into
the hands of men, has left women with diminished control
over resources.99 Several landowning families affected by
the Upper Indravati Project and resettled in Panasduka have
been reduced to daily wage earners because of an inadequate
36 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

rehabilitation package, compensation and soaring land price.


While these families were landowners prior to their displace-
ment, and at present, women from most of these families earn
a living by cutting stones. They earn `7 for a small container
of stone chips that they cut. Pregnant women and children
are exposed to health hazards, as they inhale the dust and
small particles that are produced while chipping stones in
the quarry. One of these women said, ‘With no other option
left we have adopted this kind of work and life’.100
The similar situation prevails in Mahanadi coalfields
(Odisha), Coal India mines of Jharkhand, Western Coalfields of
Maharashtra, the bauxite mines of Damanjodi (South Odisha),
the Singareni coalfields (Andhra Pradesh), and so on. The cash
flow to which tribal women had access, from the sale of forest
produce and raising livestock, has diminished. Instead these
women are forced to migrate to the cities, serve as domestic
maids in the township, casual construction labourers, petty
traders and hawkers, and commercial sex workers (hitherto
unheard of in tribal communities). They work with toxic and
hazardous substances without any access to safety measures
in the construction and mining sites with low wages, no paid
holidays during pregnancy or any worksite facilities like toilets
are provided to them. The impact of industrial displacement
has thus meant a complete transformation and degradation
in both the economic and social status of tribal women.
From 1951 to 1995, development projects in Odisha dis-
placed and affected an estimated 1,500,000 people—42 per cent
of whom were tribals. While only 32 per cent of the total
number of displaced were resettled, this rate falls to 25 per cent
among tribal populations and women are the hardest hit.101

VOLUNTARY VERSUS INVOLUNTARY DISPLACEMENT

Tribal migration challenges assumptions about the ‘volun-


tary’ character of migration and the involuntary character of
displacement. I argue that this ‘willingness’ to be displaced
stems from the structural dilemmas that confront poor tribal
migrants in the cities, who are systematically denied access to
Demystifying Adivasi Women37

secure employment and legal housing and who are resisting


displacement and forging alternative solutions to their predic-
ament. Categorizing displacement into ‘voluntary vs. involun-
tary’ might be too simplistic in understanding the process at
work. More often than not, the ‘voluntariness’ of the displaced
people is questionable as people are forced to shift due to factors
over which they have no control. Thus the focus is on a re-­
conceptualization of the nature of displacement (see Table 1.2).

Table 1.2 Displacement by Some of Odisha’s Biggest Dams, Mines


and Factories
Estimated no. of Families Persons
villages displaced
Hirakud Dam 285 22,144 180,000
Rengali Dam plus irrigation 287 11,725
Upper Indravati Dam 99 5,301 40,000+
Balimela Dam (Illustration 22) 91 2,000 60,000
3 Subarnarekha Dams 75 5,214
Upper Kolab Dam 49 3,179 14,000
Khadkei 36
Lower Sukhtel Dam 32
Ib Dam 29 3,092
Ong Dam 29
Lower Indravati Dam 25 1,462
Ramial Dam 22
Pilasalkhi Dam (near Phulbani) 17
Ranupur Dam 16 1,634
Talcher Coal Mines 61 1,790
T.S. Thermal Power, Kaniha 53 1,940
Rourkela steel plant 30 [64] 2,367 [23,000]
Ib Valley Coal Mines 18 1,353
Nalco smelter, Angul 40 3,997
Nalco refinery, Damanjodi 19 788 3,000

Source: Felix Padel and Samarendra Das, 2010. Out of this Earth: East India
Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel (New Delhi: Orient Blackswan): 354.
38 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

There was hardly any attempt to mitigate the trauma and


profound injustice of displacement. Instead the government
has often denied recognizing their rights by terming them as
‘illegal encroachers’ or ‘people out of place’. So, we should
re-examine the politics of recognition within the displacement
debate. The debate on displacement has worked with an
uncritical understanding of displacement as an ‘involun-
tary’ process. Anthropologist Liisa Malkki notes that ‘people
have always moved—whether through desire or through
violence’.102 Yet desire and violence are sometimes hard to
disentangle, because one ‘big’ displacement is followed by
a series of small but continuous displacements. This makes
it difficult to classify displacement strictly as ‘voluntary’ or
‘involuntary’, as what appears to be voluntary, when seen
in a historical context, may be involuntary—the only choice
in a situation of limited opportunities.103
Now, what is the objective that compensation is meant
to achieve? Dev Nathan holds that, in a normal, voluntary
sale of land, it is sufficient (fair) if the seller receives the
market price of land. But dispossession is an involuntary
sale of land. Land in this case represents to the unwilling
seller not its price as land, but a source of livelihood.104 But
the forced destruction of traditional ways of producing and
living brought about by involuntary displacement brings to
the fore the question: should indigenous peoples have the
right of refusal? The right of refusal is closely connected to
another point: the right of refusal is necessary for indige-
nous peoples to bargain for a better deal, one that allows
for a reconstruction of their livelihoods in an equal if not
improved position. The bargaining position of indigenous
communities, however, is weakened by invoking the prin-
ciple of eminent domain.
As Ranabir Samaddar points out, the rational choice
framework informing migration studies that is able to clearly
categorize the reasons for migration into the binary of ‘push’
and ‘pull’ factors, and thus distinguish between voluntary
Demystifying Adivasi Women39

and forced migration, fails to do justice to the complex play


of subjectivity that informs ‘choice’.105 When the decision to
move is throughout informed by the paucity of affordable
housing (read land) close to one’s place of work, and by the
overwhelming threat of state repression if tribals were to
resist, can the process be termed ‘voluntary’ resettlement?
This lack of meaningful choices makes the displaced tribal
migrants to protest against several industrial and mining
projects all over India. The process of land acquisition and
resettlement take years to complete, but the population are
deprived of livelihood activities and basic infrastructure in
the interim.
In Dumka district of Jharkhand, Santhals are the major
tribes comprising 40 per cent of the population of the district.
Here displacement had a lot of implications on gender roles
and spaces. The Masanjore Dam, built in 1955–1956 with
Canadian assistance on the river Mayurakshi, displaced 144
villages in Dumka district. When the notification for dis-
placement was first issued, all adivasis were promised ‘land
for land’. They were brought in trucks to the new locations
and allowed to choose their new home site. The total value
of the land holding in their original village was calculated
on the basis of the quality of land: thus dhani 1 was valued
at `2,200/acre, dhani 2 at `1,600/acre, dhani 3 at `1,300/acre,
bari 1 at `800 per acre and bari 2 at `500/acre.106 The entire
land at the new site, however, was accessed as being dhani
2 and valued at `1,600/acre. As a result, the total land that
the displaced people received in the resettlement village was
much less than their previous holdings. Apart from the loss
in total holdings, such classification has also had specific
gendered implications. Previously, dhani or paddy grow-
ing land was seen to be under men’s control. In contrast,
women’s rights of use over bari or homestead land were
clearly recognized. Now, bari no longer exists as a category,
so women’s rights to land have been wiped out without any
compensation. So, the lands allotted to the Santhals were
40 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

uncultivable wastelands. They were not given a choice, but


had to accept this land.107
Resettlement and Rehabilitation packages tend to treat
both individuals and households as autonomous units,
with a clearly identifiable set of interests, and thus fail to
take account of their embeddedness in a network of social
relations. The sudden movement reduces the possibility for
tribal women to negotiate their traditional rights within the
‘rehabilitation package’. The World Bank Resettlement Policy
Draft of 2001 (December) covers only ‘involuntary’, and not
voluntary, resettlement. As a result, voluntary resettlement
financed by the Bank lacks any procedural or substantive
policy requirements.108 Thus the draft introduced a perverse
incentive for project planners to characterise projects as ‘vol-
untary’ and thereby avoid the social safeguards that are at the
core of the involuntary resettlement policy. In this way project
affected people are required by the authorities to give their
‘consent’ to resettlement in order to receive benefits. Their
‘consent’ would, in turn, remove their rights to protection
under World Bank policy.
Colonialism and capitalism transformed land and soil
from being a source of life and a commons from which
people draw sustenance, into private property to be bought
and sold and conquered; development continued colonial-
ism’s unfinished task. Peter Berger has described develop-
ment as the ‘spreading condition of homelessness’.109 The
creation of homelessness takes place both through the eco-
logical destruction of the ‘home’ and the cultural and spir-
itual uprooting of peoples from their homes. In this way
organic communities give away to slum dwellers or urban
and industrial jungles. dams leave behind wastelands and
uprooted people. This was an essential part of colonialism
then and of development now. The famous Odisha poet
Brajnath Rai writes:

Miles of cocoa
and cashew plantation,
countless, luxuriant
Demystifying Adivasi Women41

betel-vines
draw green artistic designs
on the carpet of brown sand.
.........................
infused into hearts
of working people
an eternal hope to live.
But, today, suddenly,
covetous eyes of a power-mad hunter
has fallen on your green body
To cut it to pieces,
to drink to heart’s content
fresh red blood.110

In a specific context, at a point in time, sudden mass dis-


placement is indeed traumatic, while in the long run, the
impact of the gradual displacement may be as severe, as the
alienation of tribal lands has led to the occupational displace-
ment as well. This has undermined the economic role of adi-
vasi women in the forest-based economy. R and R policies
have not paid cognizance to the crucial factor of paying com-
pensation to the adivasi women for the loss of their income
earned through the collection of the minor forest produces.
The role of the adivasi women in the forest-based economy
has been overlooked totally by policy makers and increased
their dependence on their menfolk. The long-term impacts
on women can be highly damaging. In fine, the categories
like ‘voluntary’ and ‘involuntary’ are increasingly blurred in
a globalizing world, wherein the process of forced displace-
ment and migration are accelerated.

NOTES
1 Engels, Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State: 82.
2 The pre-class society was organized into tribes. There are still visible
remnants of tribal society in India as among the Munda, Oraon, Bhil,
Toda, Kadar, and Santhal tribes. E. Sreedharan, 2007. A Manual of
Historical Research Methodology (Kerala: The Centre for South Indian
Studies): 35.
42 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

3 Vinita Damodaran, 2007. ‘Tribes in Indian History’, in Situating


Environmental History, edited by Ranjan Chakrabarty (New Delhi:
Manohar): 127–57.
4 Ramchandra Guha, Savaging the Civilised: 123.
5 V. Elwin, Aboriginals: 29.
6 Ghurye, Aboriginals So-Called and Their Future.
7 The famous ecological romanticists are William Wordsworth, John
Ruskin, Wiiliam Blake, Coleridge, Shelley, Keats, and so on.
8 M. Assadi, 2004. ‘Karnataka: Forest Encroachments, Left Adventurism
and Hindutva’, Economic & Political Weekly (henceforth EPW) (28
February): 885.
9 Govinda Chandra Rath, ed., 2006. ‘Introduction’, in Tribal Development
in India: The Contemporary Debate (New Delhi: SAGE): 38.
10 Archana Prasad, Against Ecological Romanticism: 108–09.
11 D.D. Kosambi, 2002. ‘On the Origin of Brahmin Gotras’, in Combined
Methods in Indology and Other Writings, edited by D. Chattopadhyay
(New Delhi: Oxford University Press): 98–188.
12 Kosambi, Culture and Civilization of Ancient India: 172.
13 G.S. Ghurye, 1992. ‘Features of the Caste System’, in Social Stratification
in India, edited by Dipankar Gupta (New Delhi: Oxford University
Press).
14 Dev Nathan and Govind Kelkar, eds. 1997. From Tribe to Caste (Shimla:
Indian Institute of Advanced Study): 2.
15 M.G.S. Narayanan has coined this term in preference to the earlier
used terms, like ‘Aryanization’ or ‘Sanskritization’. While he has
used this term with reference to the secondary caste formation in
South India, the use of this term can well be extended to the process
of primary caste formation in North India too.
16 Béteille, 1974. ‘Tribe and Peasantry’, in Six Essays.
17 André Béteille, 1998. ‘The Idea of Indigenous People’, Current
Anthropology 39, 2: 187–91.
18 Crispin Bates, 1994. ‘Lost Innocents and the Loss of Innocence:
Interpreting Adivasi Movements in South Asia’, in Indigenous Peoples
of Asia edited by R. Barnes, A. Gray, and B. Kingsbury (Ann Arbor,
Mi: Association for Asian Studies): 119.
19 Sumita Saha and Nilanjan Goswami, 2013. ‘Religious Life and Belief
System of the Santals—A Case Study in Solageria Village’, Man in
India, 93 (2–3): 313–32.
20 K.S. Singh, 1993. ‘Hinduism and Tribal Religion: An Anthropological
Perspective’, Man in India 73, 1 (March): 1–16.
21 Sumit Sarkar, ‘The Decline of the Subalterns’, in Writing Social History:
88.
22 S. Das Gupta and Raj Sekhar Basu, eds., ‘Introduction’, in Narratives
from the Margins: 6.
Demystifying Adivasi Women43

23 Peter Berger, 2002. ‘The Gadaba and the ‘Non-ST’ Desia of Koraput,
Odisha’, Contemporary Society: Concept of Tribal Society, edited by
George Pfeffer and Deepak Kumar Behera, vol. 5 (New Delhi:
Concept Publishing): 69–71.
24 Nirmal Kumar Chandra, 2008 ‘Concept of Tribe in the Draft National
Tribal Policy’ EPW (13–19 December): 29–35.
25 Bhupinder Singh, 1990. ‘Between Two Worlds, Five Ancient Tribal
Groups of Andaman and Nicobar Islands’, in Tribal Transformation
in India, edited by Buddhadeb Chowdhury (vol. 1: Economy and
Agrarian Issues) (New Delhi: Inter-India Publications).
26 D.D. Kosambi, 1955. ‘The Basis of Ancient Indian History’, Journal
of the American Oriental Society 75; reprinted in B.D. Chattopadhyay.
ed., Combined Methods in Indology (New Delhi: Oxford University
Press): 308.
27 D.D. Kosambi, 1967. ‘Living Prehistory in India’, Scientific American
(February); reprinted in B.D. Chattopadhyay, ed., Combined Methods
in Indology (New Delhi: Oxford University Press): 30.
28 Shereen Ratnagar, 2008. ‘Kosambi’s Archaeology’, EPW (July 26):
71–77.
29 Partha Chatterjee, 2008. ‘Democracy and Economic Transformation
in India’, EPW (April 19–25): 53–62.
30 Planning Commission, 1981. Report on the Development of Tribal Areas
(Sivaraman Committee), National Committee on the Development
of Backward Areas, Government of India, New Delhi.
31 Mihir Shah, D. Banerji, P.S. Vijay Shankar and P. Ambasta, India’s
Drylands.
32 Mihir Shah, 2008. ‘Structures of Power in Indian Society: A Response’,
EPW (15–21 November): 78–83.
33 Morris Godelier, 1978. Perspectives in Marxist Anthropology (London:
Cambridge University Press): 71.
34 Susan B.C. Devalle, 1992. Discourses of Ethnicity: Culture and Protest
in Jharkhand (New Delhi: SAGE).
35 Pathy, Anthropology of Development: 46.
36 Niharranjan Ray, 1972. ‘Introductory Address’, in The Tribal Situation
in India, edited by K.S. Singh (Shimla: Indian Institute of Advanced
Study): 21–22; Devalle, Discourses of Ethnicity: 50.
37 Sumit Guha, Environment and Ethnicity: 2–5.
38 Sanjukta Das Gupta, Adivasis and the Raj: 9.
39 I borrow this concept from B.B. Chaudhuri, 1994. ‘The Myth of the
Tribe? The Question Reconsidered’, Calcutta Historical Journal 16, 1:
152; Vinita Damodaran, 2006. ‘Colonial Constructions of the ‘Tribe’
in India: The Case of Chotanagpur’, Indian Historical Review 33, 1:
44–75.
44 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

40 Asoka Kumar Sen, 2003. ‘Conceptualization of the Hos of Singhbhum


as a Tribe’, in Changing Tribal Life: A Socio-Philosophical Perspective,
edited by Padmaja Sen (New Delhi: Concept Publishing): 2.
41 Crispin Bates, ‘Lost Innocents and the Loss of Innocence': 109–19.
42 Yogesh Atal, 2010. ‘Anthropology in the Twenty-First Century:
Need for Re-Orientation and Fresh Perspectives’, in Tribal Economy
Crossroads, edited by S.N. Chaudhary (New Delhi: Rawat): 33–54.
43 M. Bhadra, 2004. ‘Status of Scheduled Caste Women: A Case Study
of the Rajbansis of West Bengal’, Man in India 84, 3–4: 285–301.
44 Swatahsiddha Sarkar, 2014. ‘Tribal Detour in Darjeeling Hills’, EPW
49, 32 (August 9): 25–26.
45 Sunil Kumar, Tribal and Indian Society: 28.
46 Claude Levi-Strauss, 1987. Anthropology and Myth, Lectures 1951–1982
(Oxford: Basil Blackwell).
47 Gail Omvedt, 2000. ‘Unfair Label’, The Hindu, Sunday, February 13;
David Hardiman, 1987. The Coming of the Devi: Adivasi Assertion in
Western India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press): 13.
48 Morris Godelier, 1978. Perspectives in Marxist Anthropology (London:
Cambridge University Press): 72.
49 Arthur Mawick, 2001. The New Nature of History (London: Palgrave):
217.
50 Manoshi Mitra, Women and Class Struggle: 55–56.
51 Ranajit Guha, Elementary Aspects of Peasant Insurgency: 132.
52 S.C. Roy, The Mundas and Their Country: 330–31.
53 K.S. Singh, Birsa Munda and His Movement: 163–64.
54 Custers, Women in the Tebhaga Uprising: 131–34.
55 Vasanth Kannabiran and K. Lalitha. 1989. ‘That Magic Time: Women
in the Telangana People’s Struggle’, in Recasting Women: Essays in
Colonial History, edited by Kumkum Sangari and Sudesh Vaid (Delhi:
Kali for Women): 188.
56 The Srikakulam peasant uprising occurred in 1967–1970, in regions
of Srikakulam district, Andhra Pradesh. The Naxalbari movement
of 1967 inspired the upsurge.
57 A few years ago when Amlasole hit the frontage of the media as the
epicentre of starvation deaths in West Bengal, the Chief Minister
admitted that ‘Amlasole is not an isolated incident’, Times of India, 8
July 2004.
58 On 2 November 2008, the West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev
Bhattacharjee and the Central Iron and Steel Minister Ram Vilas
Paswan went to Salboni to inaugurate the Special Economic Zone
complex of the Jindal industrial house along with a huge police
convoy. On their way back, there was a landmine explosion when
the convoy of the Union minister was passing, as a result of which a
police car was hit and some policemen were injured. Sometime before
Demystifying Adivasi Women45

the explosion, the convoy of the Chief Minister had passed away.
Suspecting the incident as Maoist activity, the police and the CRPF
unleashed a reign of terror in 35 villages encompassing the entire
tribal belt of Lalgarh. They attacked and beat up the adivasi women.
The people of Lalgarh launched a resistance movement against these
atrocities and formed their own organization Pulishi Santrash Birodhi
Janasadharaner Committee or PSBJC, i.e., People’s Committee Against
Police Atrocities or PCPA. Adivasi women had equal participation
in the organization and led the movement in its initial phase. The
movement was brutally suppressed by 2010. For more details see
Amit Bhattacharyya Singur to Lalgarh via Nandigram.
59 ‘Adivasi in India’, March 2010. Update Series 18 (Kolkata: Update
Publications): 33–34.
60 Anonymous and undated, Fact Finding Report on ‘Lalgarh:
Paschimbanger Adivasi’ (Kolkata: Nagarik Mancha): 1–3; see also
Subhendu Dasgupta and Sujato, Operation Green Hunt: 9.
61 Malabika Das Gupta, 2002. ‘Objective Function in Economic Models
of Decisions on Production: Evidence from Swiddeners in Tripura’,
EPW 37, 34 (August 24): 3559.
62 Arjun Appadurai, 2004. ‘The Capacity to Aspire: Culture and
the Terms of Recognition’, in Culture and Public Action, edited by
Vijayedra Rao and Michael Walton (Palo Alto: Stanford University
Press).
63 Dev Nathan. 2005. ‘Capabilities and Aspirations’, EPW (January 1):
36–40.
64 Vijayedra Rao and Michael Walton, eds. 2004. ‘Culture and Public
Action: Rationality, Equality of Agency and Development’, in Culture
and Public Action (Palo Alto: Stanford University Press).
65 Dipak Bara Panda, 2008. Amlasholer Janajati Shabar Ar ek Arambher
Suchana (Kolkata: Durbar Prakashani): 47–50, 61.
66 For a detailed discussion on the demands and appeals of the adivasi
men and women of Lalgarh see the letters of PCAPA published 2011.
Rashtriya Santrash—Naxalbari Theke Netaigram, edited by Swapan
Kanti Ghose and Madhumay Pal (Kolkata: Padatik).
67 On the night of 30 June 2010, joint forces attacked the Sonamukhi
village and seven housewives were brutally raped and many others
were molested.
68 Sanhati, 2013. Letters from Lalgarh: The Complete Collection of letters from
the People’s Committee against Police Atrocities, edited and translated by
Sanhati, Kolkata: www.sanhati.com and Setu Prakashani): 2, 116–17.
69 For details see Amit Bhattacharyya, 2010. ‘Is Lalgarh Showing the
Way? EPW 45, 2 (Jan 9): 17–21.
70 Amarendra Das and Samarendra, 2005. Wira Pdika or Matiro Poko
Company Loko (Earth Worm, Company Man, in Kui/Odia with
46 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

English subtitles), available from [email protected] accessed


on 21 August 2013.
71 H.H. Rivers, [1906] 1973. The Todas (London: Macmillan).
72 Dalton, Descriptive Ethnography of Bengal.
73 Grigson, The Maria Gonds of Bastar.
74 Elwin, ‘Tribal Women’, in Indian Women, Devaki Jain, ed: 205–13.
75 Furer-Haimendorf, Chenchus.
76 Elwin, Nagaland: 104.
77 Elwin, Baigas, 235–36.
78 Furer-Haimendorf, Naked Nagas: 101.
79 Hutton, Sema Nagas.
80 Hunter, Orissa.
81 K. Mann, 1987. ‘Is Matriliny a Symbol of Higher Status? A Case of
Garo Women’, Man in India, 67, 1 (March): 36–46; Firth, Human Types;
G. Menon, 1995. ‘The Impact of Migration on the Work and Tribal
Women’s Status’, in Women and Seasonal Labour Migration, edited by
L. Schenken-Sandbergen (New Delhi: SAGE): 110; Sachchidananda,
1978. ‘Social Structure, Status and Mobility Patterns: The Case of
Tribal Women’, Man in India 58, 1.
82 Dev Nathan, 1988. ‘Significance of Women’s Position in Tribal
Society’, EPW (June 25): 1311–12.
83 Boserup, Woman’s Role in Economic Development.
84 Walter Fernandes, ed. 1993. ‘Transfer of Resources, Migration and
the Impact of Sanskritisation on Tribal Women’. in The Indigenous
Question: Search for an Identity (New Delhi: Indian Social Institute):
84.
85 CPR includes all such resources that are meant for common use of the
villagers, such as, village pastures and grazing grounds, village forest
and woodlots, protected government forests, waste lands, common
threshing grounds, watersheds drainage, ponds, tanks, rivers, rivu-
lets, water reservoirs, canals and irrigation channels. With the exten-
sion of state control over these resources and the resultant decay
of community management system, CPRs available to the villagers
declined substantially over the years. Today, in almost all parts of
the country, the villagers have a legal right of access only on some
specific categories of land and water resources.
86 Walter Fernandes, 2006. ‘Development-induced-Displacement and
Tribal Women’, in Tribal Development in India: The Contemporary Debate,
edited by Govinda Chandra Rath (New Delhi: SAGE): 122–23.
87 Ravindran Latha and Babita Mahapatra, 2009. ‘Gender Issues in
Displacement: A Study of Irrigation Projects in Southern Orissa’, in
Beyond Relocation: The Imperative of Sustainable Resettlement, edited by
Renu Modi (New Delhi: SAGE): 240–68.
88 Fernandes and Menon, Tribal Women and Forest Economy: 121.
Demystifying Adivasi Women47

89 Muzaffar Assadi, 2011. ‘Ethnic Groups/Tribals in the Midst of Policy


Transfer: Displacement, Rehabilitation and Governance in India—A
Critique’, Contemporary Anthropology, edited by Nanjunda D.C.
(New Delhi: Discovering Publishing House): 10–11.
90 Arundhati Roy, 1999. ‘The Greater Common Good’, Frontline, 16, 11
(22 May–4 June).
91 M.M. Cernea, 1997. ‘The Risks and Reconstruction Model for
Resettling Displaced Populations’, World Development 25, 10: 1569–88;
and also see M.M. Cernea and C. McDowell ‘Risks, Safeguards, and
Reconstruction’.
92 Ramkuwar, 2009. ‘We will Never Forgive the Government—A
Personal Testimony’, in Displaced by Development: Confronting
Marginalisation and Gender Injustice, edited by Lyla Mehta (New Delhi:
SAGE): 271–81.
93 Biswaranjan Mohanty, 2005. ‘Displacement and Rehabilitation of
Tribals’, EPW (March 26): 1318–20; Government of India (GoI), 2006.
Draft National Rehabilitation Policy, para 3(1) (J).
94 S. Singh, 2006. ‘Displacement and Rehabilitation: A Comparison of
Two Policy Drafts’, EPW 41, 52: 5307.
95 Fernandes, Walter and M. Asif (1997) Development-Induced-
Displacement in Odisha 1951–1995: A Database on Its Extent and Nature,
New Delhi: Indian Social Institute: 84; Fernandes, and Raj, 1992.
Development, Displacement and Rehabilitation: 92.
96 Fernandes, 2006. ‘Development-induced-Displacement and Tribal
Women’, in Govinda Chandra Rath ed., Tribal Development in India:
116.
97 Sherman, People’s Story: A Report.
98 S.M. Patnaik, 2000. ‘Understanding Involuntary Resettlement: An
Anthropological Perspective’, The Eastern Anthropologist 53, 1 & 2:
146.
99 World Bank, 1995. The World Bank and Gender in India: 19–20.
100 Ravindran and Mahapatra, ‘Gender Issues in Displacement’: 251.
101 Walter Fernandes, 2001. ‘Development Induced Displacement and
Sustainable Development’, Social Change 31, 1 & 2: 91; Government
of Odisha (GoO), 2006. Draft Odisha Resettlement and Rehabilitation
Policy (Revenue Department): para 6.
102 L. Malkki, 1992. ‘National Geographic: The Rooting of Peoples
and the Territorialisation of National Identity among Scholars and
Refugees’, Cultural Anthropology 7, 1: 24–44.
103 Amit Mitra and Nitya Rao, 2009. ‘Displacing Gender from
Displacement: the Santal Parganas, Jharkhand’, in Lyla Mehta ed.,
Displaced by Development: 34–58.
104 Dev Nathan, 2009. ‘Social Security, Compensation and Reconstruction
of Livelihoods’, EPW 44, 30 (July 25): 22–26.
48 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

105 Samaddar, ed., ‘Still They Come: Migrants in Post-Partition Bengal’,


in Reflection on Partition in the East.
106 Land of five qualities is recorded in the land settlement records:
dhani 1 refers to lowlands suitable for paddy cultivation, often irri-
gated; dhani 2 refers to medium quality paddy lands; dhani 3 refers
to uplands that can be used for rain fed paddy; bari 1 refers to home-
stead plots and bari 2 to more distant homestead plots, often waste-
lands, used for tree crop cultivation.
107 Mitra and Rao, ‘Displacing Gender from Displacement: the Santal
Parganas, Jharkhand’, Lyla Mehta, ed., Displaced by Development:
34–58.
108 World Bank, Environment Department (2001) Involuntary Resettlement,
Draft Operational Policy 4.12. available at http://www.ciel.org/
Publications/redlineresettle.pdf, accessed on 7 April 2012.
109 Peter Berger, Brigitte Berger and Hansfried Kellner, 1974. The Homeless
Mind: Modernization and Consciousness (New York: Vintage Books).
110 Mies and Shiva, 2010. Ecofeminism: 101–02.
CHAPTER 2

Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi


Women in West Bengal

THE FIRST PRIME Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, once


said that ‘in the tribal people, I have found many qualities
which I miss in the people of plains, cities and other parts of
India. It was these very qualities that attracted me.’1
Compared to other categories, incidence of poverty is
high (53%) in tribal populations and literacy is the lowest
(16.35%). Realizing these inequalities, the constitution has
provided certain privileges to the tribals under Article 275.
Development is a complex concept encompassing upward
qualitative and quantitative changes in the base and super-
structure of any society.2 Does adivasi economy mean forest
economy? How do we relate the needs and interests of tribal
women to the overall development perspective? What are
the social constraints that prohibit tribal women from taking
appropriate advantage of any developmental projects?
The question of the development of tribal women is also
closely linked to this general debate over status of depen-
dency of women and their exclusion from the mainstream
development matrix. The tribal economy is forest econ-
omy. The tribals rarely follow one occupation exclusively;
about 90 per cent of the tribal population depend on cul-
tivation, including shifting hill cultivation, as landowners
50 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

or as ­agricultural labour. L.P. Vidyarthi has classified the


basic economic activities of the tribals: (i) food gathering
including hunting and fishing; (ii) pastoral; (iii) shifting hill
cultivation; (iv) settled cultivation; (v) handicrafts; (vi) trade
and commerce; (vii) labour-work including agricultural and
industrial.3
Tribal women are not economically homogeneous. This
distinctiveness is quite evident in the four states and we will
discuss this in detail. Studies show that in the predominantly
urban areas tribal sex ratio is lower than that of the total
population because their urban presence is mainly through
single male migration; 92,916 (4.97%) tribal women were
urbanized in 1991 against 103,396 (5.33%) men.4 Their urban-
ization continues to be low in 2001.5 Their lower sex ratio in
the urban areas is one of many indications that the status of
tribal women declines with modernization. It is true also in
states like Odisha, Chhattisgarh and the Northeast.6
The majority of the adivasis in the country depend upon
agriculture for livelihood. With the introduction of market
economy and the monetization of exchange relations in the
adivasi areas, they are forced into degraded land resources
and subsist with low productivity and low investment. The
introduction of cash crops indebted them and widened the
class differences among the tribals. Several traders from far-off
places have now settled in adivasi areas where cash crops are
cultivated, to the great disadvantage of the adivasis. They get
further marginalized as the liberalization policy of the gov-
ernment tries to link their lives with international market. The
Government of India claims that they have introduced sev-
eral schemes like Integrated Rural Development Programme
(IRDP), Mahila Samriddhi Yojana, and so on, to inculcate the
habit of thrift and to operationalize Development of Women
and Children in Rural Areas (DWACRA), Jawahar Rozgar
Yojana (JRY), Employment Assurance Schemes (EAS), Prime
Minister’s Rozgar Yojana (PMRY), and other such schemes to
provide employment opportunities to rural and tribal folk,
but have not been able to improve the availability of work
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal51

during the post-liberalization period. The government has


introduced several schemes including Large-size Adivasi
Multipurpose Co-operative Societies (LAMPS), Primary
Agriculture Society (PAC) and others that do not benefit the
adivasi women in the way originally envisaged. The sectors
in which they have an advantage (such as fishing, plate-­
making, mat-making, rope-making, poultry, beekeeping)
have never been studied properly by scholars and policy
makers to suggest policy recommendations. Data presented
show that the flow of funds for the adivasi sub-plan has been
declining after 1991.7
Racially, linguistically and culturally these tribals may
be categorized into two broad groups—the plain tribes and
the hill tribes residing in the Himalayan and sub-Himalayan
regions. The tribes living in the plains belong to the Pre-
Dravidian or Proto-Austroloid racial stock. The Santhal,
Oraon, Munda, Mal, Bhumij, Lodha, Kora, Birhor, and some
others come under this category. The languages that they
speak belong to the Austric-Dravidian family of languages.
Most of them migrated from the neighbouring states of Bihar
and Odisha and settled in the districts of Medinipur, Purulia,
Bankura and Birbhum. The tribal groups of the hilly regions
of north Bengal (Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Dakshin and Uttar
Dinajpur) belong to the Mongoloid racial stock. The dialects of
the Lepchas and Bhutias belong to the Tibeto-Chinese family
of the Tibeto-Himalayan group. The dialects of the Mechs,
Garos and Rabhas belong to the Assam-Burmese group and
the dialects of the Chakmas, Hajangs, Maghs belong to the
Assam group. Majority of these communities have migrated
from Sikkim, Bhutan, Assam and Nepal. Matrilineal system
still exists among the Rabhas.8
The Santhals are the only community which can be called
‘very large’, covering more than 50 per cent of the total tribal
population of the state. It is also most advanced among
the tribes. The Oraon community, which forms more than
14 per cent of the state’s tribal population, can be termed
as a ‘large’ community. Two other communities, Bhumij
52 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

and Munda, may be categorized as ‘medium-sized’. Under


the ‘small’ sized communities there are the Koras, Lodhas,
Kherias, Mahalis, Bhutias and Sabars. Three tribal commu-
nities in the state are nearly extinct: Bihors of Bagmundi
of Purulia district (its present population is 333), Totos of
Totopara of Jalpaiguri (with a population of 1,391) and
Lodhas of West Medinipur (according to the Lodha census
of 2003 its present population is 60,136). With the exception of
a very few gatherers, most tribes in West Bengal grow crops,
some are craftsmen and others are labourers in collieries,
industries and tea plantations. Only a very small number are
engaged in trade, commerce and other services.
Tribal societies are generally economically undifferenti-
ated and tribals practise little specialization: Those under-
taking farming—settled or slash-and-burn—are involved
also in other subsidiary occupations like animal husbandry,
wage labour handicrafts, gathering of food and forest pro-
duce. Except for ploughing, which is essentially a male job,
in all other agricultural operations, the females participate
and traditionally, these are part of a female’s job and thus the
participation of tribal women is more than the men in terms
of different operations in major economic activity.9 Tribal
women at the same time also carry out all the household
chores. The role of tribal women in minor forest produce
component is 60 per cent of the total tribal household income
budget has not been precisely evaluated, but observers see
it as preponderant.10

ADIVASI WOMEN IN AGRICULTURAL SECTOR


Khanpur of West Dinajpur
Khanpur is 14 km away from the district headquarters,
Balurghat, West Dinajpur district, to which it is well connected
by bus. There is regular bi-weekly market in the v
­ illage. There is
a high school, a primary school and a non-formal female adult
education centre in the village. There are 13 castes, one tribal,
Santhals, and one Muslim community in the village. Santhals
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal53

were a part of the large-scale immigration which was taking


place in this district in the mid-nineteenth century.
Women joined the Tebhaga movement. They took the
lead in propaganda work, and often led the men in the fight,
facing the hirelings of the jotedars.11 Seventeen sharecrop-
pers were killed in police firing amongst them two were
women—Josodha Burmani and Kaushalya Kamini and
injured ­hundreds.12 The Tebhaga movement continued from
November 1946 to February 1947. In its last phase when Kisan
Sabha retreated from the movement the women took up the
leadership.13 According to Charu Majumdar, ‘The participant
peasants in this movement numbered about six million'.14
Rani Dasgupta, the women organizer of Dinajpur, said that
not only in Hindu-Muslim unity movements but in any phase
of national freedom struggle it was not possible to eradicate
social discrimination between the caste Hindus, Rajbansi,
Kshatriya, Namasudra, Mahishya, and the Santhal, Kol,
Munda, Oraon. Tebhaga movement removed the distance.15
There were initially two types of Santhal female work-
ers in the village: betisol khet majur (female casual worker)
and betisol chuktidar (female contract workers). Betisol khet
majur consists of two categories. The dadonee (one who took
a loan) came under the ‘beck and call relationships’ with
the landowners. In the lean agricultural seasons the female
agricultural labourers took advance loans (dadan) from the
landowners with the oral promise that they would work in
the fields of the landowner concerned. As daily wages they
got `100 plus 3 ser (1 ser = 700 gm) of paddy, whatever might
be the market price.
Santhal women play a dominant role in the agrarian rela-
tions of the village. But the nature and extent of their partici-
pation in the agrarian social relations has not been the same.
The party workers of the village tried to generate conscious-
ness among the Santhal women of the village, including other
female agricultural labourers. They organized a strike in 1984
by the female agricultural workers because the women were
from the poorest section of the village and yet were put under
54 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

wage discriminations and if the women went on strike the


economy of the agricultural labourers’ households would be
partially affected. The demands of the striking labour were:
(a) equal wages for males and females; (b) implementation
of the Minimum Wage Act, and (c) a stipulated time of work.
The landowners enhanced the wage of the male and female
labourers by a mere 50 paisa. The women have been brought
into the mainstream of political life through the process of
adult franchise, political mobilization and political actions.16
Santhal women now have joined the adult education school,
they can move out of the village freely; the young girls go to
Kolkata to join political meetings, go to the movies frequently,
and prefer to talk in the style of higher-caste women of the
village. Santhal women take loans from government sources
for piggery and poultry, raise cattle and goats.

Kora Women in Cultivation


The Koras are widely distributed in the districts of
Barddhaman (Barsul village), Medinipur (Shitli, Ranbania,
Dudhebude villages), Bankura (Jharia, Birkham, Labdapara
village) and Purulia (Raghunathpur, Gobindapur, Sanka
villages). During 1990–1996 many Kora families of Paschim
Amba village of Gokulpur, West Medinipur, lost their lands
in course of the huge amount of land acquisition (about 700
acres of fertile land) for the establishment of two big indus-
trial companies: Tata Metaliks and Birla Century.17
My visit during my field study, July 2012, to Nathsimahalla
Korapara village, Pandua Block, Hooghly district, revealed
that the Koras are mainly dependent on agriculture and
wage-earning as day labourers. About 69 per cent of the
families have their own land and most of them work in
their own land as well as in others, on a sharecropper basis.
Kora women do sowing, transplanting, weeding, harvest-
ing, threshing, winnowing, husking, preparation of rice
and reaping. An adult Kora male earns `500 on an aver-
age during agricultural season per month, whereas a Kora
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal55

female worker earns `300 on an average per month on the


daily wage basis.18 Minor forest products are also collected
both for personal consumption and marketing. The most
important edible produce of the forest is the mahua flower.
Tamarind is another important item collected for house-
hold consumption. Collection and sale of the sal leaves and
bamboo has assumed a great importance in recent times
due to increase in the manufacture of leaf-plate and basket
making from sal leaves and bamboo sticks respectively.
Fishing is also one of the seasonal food gathering activi-
ties of the Koras. Both men and women take part in fishing
activities.
Koras are also found in Bichabhanga forest village of
Matiali block of Jalpaiguri district. This is under Bichabhanga
Beat of Gorumara South Range in Jalpaiguri Division. The
village is very close to National Highway No. 31. Though
the FRA of 2006 advocates for the right of patta, the villag-
ers have not got its benefit so far. All the villagers are below
poverty level (BPL). They speak in Kora and in Bengali.
As an alternative profession, both men and women are
engaged with handicrafts, mainly jute-based. Jute craft was
initiated in this village in 2004. The women make various
products such as doll, toy elephant, bag, cushion, table mat
and the Forest Department buys these from them, giving
50 per cent of price immediately and the rest is deposited
in bank.19

ADIVASI WOMEN IN INDUSTRIAL SECTOR


Population growth and lack of land has led to large-scale
migration of both men and women from rural to urban or
industrial areas. After independence, several industries
were established in different parts of the country, even in
the remote tribal areas. These labourers drawn from the rural
sector constitute mainly the unskilled category of labour force
in the industries.
56 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Plantation Industry of North Bengal


In the tea gardens in North Bengal large-scale migration of
tribal men and women took place from Chotanagpur and
Santhal Pargana in search of food and livelihood in the grow-
ing tea industries. In Jalpaiguri such migration started since
1873 and the bulk of the immigrants were Oraon, Munda,
Santhal, Ho, Kharia. Gradually this tribal population settled
in the region with families. They now constitute more than
three-fourth of the total workforce in a tea garden and are
called as madesia by the local people. Women have been the
main workforce in the plantations. Traditionally migration
of families was encouraged so that children could be kept as
reserve labour force.
During the last few decades there had been a continu-
ous decline in the number of working women in the orga-
nized industries in India due to technological changes in the
manufacturing processes in which women are considered
unsuitable. Plantation is the only industry where women’s
employment has not declined. In a tea plantation industry
pluckers constitute about nine-tenth of the total workforce.
The job of plucking is done mostly by tribal women and the
strength of women labourers in a garden is almost equal to
men.20 The question may be asked that why is the number
of women in tea plantations increasing?
The Chandmani Tea Plantation (CTP), established in 1922,
is situated at the foothill region of Darjeeling district. Among
the workers, the adivasis outnumbered the non-adivasis. The
field operations of tea are comparable to that of modern agri-
culture. When the Sixth International Tea Day was celebrated
on 15 December 2010, the focus was on housing and land
rights for plantation workers in the context of the restruc-
turing of plantations. Tea workers are mostly adivasis and
dalits who were brought to the plantations as indentured
labourers during the colonial period and have been kept
along with families in a state of virtual bondage. Workers
were made to reside in labour lines which were designated
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal57

areas of residence in the plantations. Each of the labour lines


was under strict surveillance and the mobility of workers
was monitored. Those who tried to escape were punished.
The management policies have motivated the workers to cut
off social relations to a large extent from their native villages
and land.
A planter prefers to employ women for he thinks that
women are more committed workers than men. In every
plantation there are standardized working hours and weekly
rest-day. The employer provides housing and other welfare
facilities such as, free quarter, free fuel and firewood, free
health services, free grazing land, cultivable lands, mater-
nity benefits, bonuses, which have, perhaps, made the con-
ditions of employment more favourable. Recently turnover
in plantations has come down to the lowest level. In 2011,
the plantation workers were getting `67 per day in the plains
and `90 per day in hills of north Bengal.21 Besides plucking,
a woman labourer also does some other jobs in the garden
such as pruning, clearing. Plucking season starts from March
and continues up to October-November.22 Besides her work
in the garden a woman labours with her husband in raising
some minor crops in the plot of land given by the company.
The tribal groups also maintain to some extent their respec-
tive ethnic boundaries in such an alien and heterogeneous
environment with the aid of three major markers like rules
of commensality, dialect and intra-ethnic marriage.
According to the West Bengal Tea Board, during 1998–
1999 a lot of small tea gardens started in north Bengal. But
the contemporary government did not maintain any statistics
about the nature of the land or about the owner of the land.
These tea gardens are not even notified to the Tea Board.23
According to the Confederation of Small Tea Growers, there
are more or less 21,390 small tea gardens in north Bengal
and if declared illegal then nearly five lakh workers will lose
their jobs and most of them are poor adivasis.24 Since there
were no alternative livelihood options, labourers depended
entirely on the plantation management. Planters prevented
58 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

them from doing any work other than on the plantations. The
governments (both the centre and the states) while enacting
land reforms exempted tea plantations and they were never
broken up, distributed or shared with those who cultivated
it. Tea workers remain the tillers but their right over the
land has never been acknowledged. During field visits it
was found that the benefits of government schemes such as
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and Indira
Awas Yojana remain limited. For example, the skilled plan-
tation workers often do not understand why they are made
to dig ponds or break the stones under the National Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). In Terai-Dooars
any tea garden may get closed without giving any prior
notice. Workers of these gardens do not even get their daily
wages, rations and other due payments. As a result they are
deprived of all the facilities provided by the scheme start-
ing from the job cards to unemployment allowances. Many
people have not been provided with the BPL cards. In most
of the cases owners desert the tea gardens without declaring
lock-out or suspension of work officially, which means the
workers do not get government aid which requires official
closure of the gardens. Neither the trade unions nor the gov-
ernment nor the NGOs is taking any steps to eradicate the
problem.
There are many reasons for the crisis in the tea plantations.
One is the lack of experience of the owners conducting the
industry who use the gardens as a source of making easy
money. They use huge amount of pesticides and chemical fer-
tilizers to increase the productivity artificially and as a result
the soil gets poisoned, production cycle gradually gets short-
ened and the tea plants fall sick. The fund released by the Tea
Board of the Government of India to open new gardens is
expropriated. And when the tea gardens become dilapidated
and thus profitless the owners abandon them and run away.
Other reasons like refusal of repayment of the bank loans on
the part of the owners and robbing the provident funds of the
workers are also making the industry moribund. Nowadays
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal59

an average of 14 to 15 tea gardens remains closed in the entire


year. But the activities of the closed gardens are not halted
completely. Tea plucking goes on under the supervision of
Operating Management Committee or OMC. The OMCs are
government-approved and have the right to sell the tea leaves
in the market on a fixed price. It keeps the gardens partially
opened and brings `35–45 to the workers on daily basis. But
the OMC, an amalgamation of trade union leaders, commit-
tee members and middlemen, controls NREGS, distribution
of government reliefs and rations and is often involved in
corruption and embezzlement. The workers working under
OMC are awfully underpaid and do not get any facilities
provided by the PLA. The owners of the tea gardens buy
tea leaves from the OMCs on cheaper costs. The system is
imposed from the above.25
During 2003–2004 starvation deaths have been reported
from several closed tea gardens. According to government
data, in 2007 there were about 33 abandoned tea gardens
employing almost 30,000 workers.26 According to an esti-
mate, more than 50 gardens closed between 2000 and 2007,
affecting a huge section of the workforce. They leave behind
huge unpaid salary/wage bills, and provident fund and gra-
tuity claims due mainly to the tribal workers. Evidently, the
‘enclave economy’ of Jalpaiguri tea gardens provides very
few alternatives to unskilled and semi-literate boys and girls.
Such vulnerability exposes them to the well-built networks
of trafficking agents working openly as ‘placement agents’ in
and outside gardens. Surveys conducted in the tea gardens
reveal a very grim picture of child and women trafficking,
particularly from sick and closed tea gardens (see Table 2.1).
The prime targets of trafficking are mostly adivasi children,
both boys and girls, belonging mainly to the Oraon, Munda,
and Santhal tribes. The low level of literacy of the tribal boys
and girls prevents them from looking for alternative job
options. Agents try to lure fathers by gifting them alcohol
and/or cash as an advance. There are many instances of girls
returning pregnant or with AIDS.27
60 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Table 2.1 Number of Missing/Trafficked Children from Tea


Gardens in 2010
Tea garden Status Girls Boys Total
Indong Sick 5 6 11
Grassmore Sick 5 4 9
Red Bank Sick 7 5 12
Chulsa Good 5 4 9
Nayasaili Sick 5 5 10
Samsing Sick 5 4 9
Bharnobari Sick 5 1 6
Dheklapara Closed 6 3 9
Radharani Sick 4 3 7
Rahimabad Sick 2 1 3
Raimatang Sick 5 4 9
Satali Good 2 5 7
Total 56 45 101

Source: Biswajit Ghosh, 2014. ‘Vulnerability, Forced Migration and


Trafficking in Children and Women: A Field View from the Plantation
Industry in West Bengal’, EPW 49, 26 & 27 (June 28): 58–65.

The government announced a rehabilitation package


which included restructuring of outstanding bank dues,
fresh working capital with an interest subsidy from govern-
ment, waiver of outstanding loans dues to the Tea Board and
settlement of the provident fund dues in instalments. But
that is also yet to be implemented. Moreover, in Jalpaiguri
and Malda few tracts in the tea gardens that belong to the
tribals have been occupied by non-tribals who duped them.28
But the state backward class welfare department is unable to
restore them.

Case Study 1
My visit to the tea gardens of Jaldapara, Jalpaiguri district
of North Bengal reveals a good deal of information on the
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal61

ongoing movement in the plantation industry corroborated


by the oral accounts of the Oraon women of the area who are
working in the factory as well as in the tea gardens. Vrinda
Oraon (35), a labour of Jayshree Tea and Industries Ltd., said,

The authority never bothers to meet the demands of the


protesting tribals … [In]the thika system, one thika con-
sists of 23 kg tea leaf. We are to pluck 23 kg tea leaf at
a time and get `90 per day. Extra one and half kg leaf
brings additional `4 … The entire process requires a heavy
labour. But we are being paid with a meagre amount,
i.e., `94 per day … It was stopped in 2001 … Our major
demands are: to increase our wages; to construct our
houses; if not then compensate us with cash money or
quarter; allow us to collect lakdi or fire wood; to give us
potable drinking water and electricity, doctors, hospitals
and other medical facilities; provide rationing facilities;
provide bonus; Unfortunately not a single demand has
been fulfilled by the authority…29

According to my field survey, October 2012, the adivasi


women expect `200–300 as their daily wage.
NABARD and Indian Statistical Institute jointly conducted
a research on tribal poverty by Dr Kunal Chattopadhyay in
2008–2010 (Table 2.2). Over 119 villages of 19 blocks in five
districts of three eastern states have been covered: Purulia
and Jalpaiguri of West Bengal; Koraput of Odisha and Dumka
and Jamtara of Jharkhand. Altogether 1000 households have

Table 2.2 District-wise Starvation Scenario of Adivasi Families (%)


District Starvation Starvation Starvation Starvation
per year per year till per year till per year more
0 days 30 days 180 days than 180 days
Dumka 60 35 5 0
Jalpaiguri 55 30 14 1
Koraput 96 3 1 0
Purulia 60 27 13 0
62 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

been covered.30 It has attempted to uncover the situation


under which 35 adivasis died in the closed tea gardens in
2013.
The report shows that as far as the water, fuel, electricity
and sanitation are concerned, adivasi families are almost
at the stage of the pre-independence era; fuel condition is
worse than 1947. Though they are quite familiar with the
words such as widow pension, Annapurna Yojana, NREGA,
job cards, BPL, they are yet to enjoy these benefits. The
more striking information the report provides is that the
remarkable improvement in Public Distribution System
in Odisha has drastically changed the poverty scenario
of the KBK region (Koraput-Balangir-Kalahandi).31 The
report also reveals that in case of starvation and economic
poverty West Bengal is languishing far behind Odisha and
Jharkhand (see Table 2.2).32

Stone Quarrying Industry in Birbhum


A policy of development based on technology and with an
emphasis on the private sector paves the way for a higher
degree of concentration of capital and an extremely exploit-
ative situation. The exploitation of tribal women working
in the stone quarries in the town of Mallarpur in Birbhum
district is a case in point. Mallarpur is around 50 km north
of Santiniketan in the economically backward Rampurhat
1 block of Birbhum district. The only industry in the area
adjoining Mallarpur in Rampurhat 1, Mayureshwar 1 and
Muhammad Bazar blocks is stone quarrying. There are about
80–100 quarries and 400 crushers in Muhammad Bazar block.
The quarries of Panchami are functioning for more than fifty
years. By removing the upper layer of the earth high quality
basalt stones are lifted. The boulders are brought to the crush-
ers for crushing and making stone chips. The stone chips are
cheaper in this region than that of Pakur. All these quarries
and crushers work under the State Mineral Development
and Trading Corporation, which means that the prohibited
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal63

quarries are functioning within their notified area. In fact, the


government did not compensate the adivasis for the acqui-
sition of their lands to excavate quarries.
Quarries require unskilled workers and large numbers of
quarry workers are Santhal women who are drawn from the
desperately impoverished areas, taking jobs in these quarries
at a very tender age. They are made to work 10 to 12 hours
a day, paid a pittance and are not provided with mandatory
safeguards such as masks. Each woman gets `24.00 per day
for crushing one ton stones. A group of seven or eight women
can crush an average of 60 ton stones.33 They receive no med-
ical treatment and no compensation if they are injured in the
course of their work. The tribal women working here suffer
from serious health problems, such as asthma, as a result
of inhaling stone dust. All existing environmental laws and
statutes of West Bengal are violated by the quarry owners.
Many of these quarries have been dug on land which
belonged to the Santhals. As the Deputy Superintendent of
Police (DSP), Birbhum, reports: ‘The quarry owners occupied
the lands either through deceitful means or through political
influence from the tribals at a minimum cost violating the
Indian constitution, which prohibits any transfer of tribal
land in the form of sale or mortgage.’34 Besides, the women
workers as well as their teenage girls are sexually exploited
by the rich owners. Generally the police collude with the
quarry owners.
Air pollution has already been proved in two scientific
investigations conducted by West Bengal Power Development
Corporation (WBPDC, approved by the Government of West
Bengal) from 1999–2001. The investigations were conducted
into two phases, one, pre-monsoon, that is, from April–May,
and another post-monsoon, that is, in December.35 Those who
work in the fields and live in the contiguous areas of the
quarries suffer. The stone dust vitiates the soil of their land,
big pieces of stones harm their huts when blasts happen
and sometimes causes serious physical injury, it even does
not spare their cooked food. The adivasis of Panchami of
64 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Muhammad Bazar block are compelled to live in this sit-


uation. The tension arose when on 5 February 2010 in the
evening a big blast took place and harmed six houses of the
village of Talbandh. On the very next day a group of goons
on bikes attacked the village with hand grenades. According
to the villagers, the quarry owners hired goons in order to
threaten the adivasis who were protesting against the ille-
gal crushers since 2008 under the leadership of Birbhum
Adivasi Gaonta (BAG) which was formed at Suri. After this
incident, the adivasis of Talbandh, Bharkata and Hinglo gram
panchayat assembled with the beatings of madal (adivasi
drums) in thousands of numbers. Adivasi women also joined
the protesters and closed all the crushers where they them-
selves had to work. And since then the movement is going
on unabatedly.36
The stone quarries started in the 1970s, when the then
government issued licence and bank loans to the newly
released Naxals for constructing quarries as their rehabili-
tation package. These Naxals could not cope with the situa-
tion and left the quarries forever, but the quarries remained
there and spread gradually to the adjoining areas as well.
The entire plot is declared as tribal land, which cannot be
sold according to the Indian constitution, yet they are able
to get the permission from the government to construct a
stone quarry. The adivasis of Birbhum have mobilized under
BAG and Manjhi Pargana Baisi to launch a protest move-
ment against the illegal stone crushers. Gaonta has initiated
afforestation programme by planting sal, mahua, neem; they
have started celebrating adivasi festivals like Gobardhan
fair, Sohrai, Karam, Baha, for the rejuvenation of Santhal
culture and tradition as an integral part of the movement;
they have succeeded in demolishing hooch posts, send their
children to school, encouraged fishing, maize cultivation,
and so on. In Dholakata and Sholagoria village they have
started cultivation on two thousand bigha land with the
stored water of the closed quarries. They are also planning
to start looms to weave their own clothes. They have taken
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal65

the pneumoconiosis patients to the health department of the


National Human Rights Commission.37 Later a new adivasi
organization named Hihidi Pipidi was formed and joined
the movement. On February 22, the District Magistrate called
for a meeting with both the quarry owners and the adiva-
sis. The adivasis attended the meeting and demanded that
the owners have to maintain all the governmental rules and
regulations regarding the stone quarries and crushers. They
said that the quarries that have legal sanction both from the
government and the court will continue and those who do
not have will be closed immediately. But the situation still is
same. The workers of the adivasi organizations are tagged
as ‘Maoist’.
According to my field observation, September 2012, the
stone quarry industry severely contaminates the topsoil as
well as the ground water. The level of water has already
decreased to 15 feet and the small ponds and water bodies
have dried up. The dense forests stretches of Kanksa, Ganapur
to Rampurhat are already under threat. The villagers fall prey
of deadly diseases like tuberculosis, fluorosis and silicosis.
The owners neither obey the Labour Act nor the Minimum
Wage Act. In 2012 National Industries of Small Mines (NISM)
of Kolkata has conducted a survey under the Science and
Technology Project Government of India on health hazards
in stone quarries and crushers. All the exposed females were
Santhals within the age group of 15 to 45 years with history
of exposure to dust for more than 5 years. Apart from prob-
lems in the stomach, chest and skin, dust exposure of the
eyes resulted in diminished vision, loss of hearing and poor
gynaecological health was reported. Sexually transmitted
diseases (STDs) are on the rise.38
The NISM survey reveals that the tribal women of the
area do not get any widow pension or old age pension,39 BPL
cards have not been issued, and the adivasis are not even
getting rice of two rupees in spite of government declaration.
Following the closure of around 220 stone-crushing units by
Gaonta in Rampurhat’s Barpahari, Baromesia and Dighol
66 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

pahari areas on 17 October 2011, the district administration


called a tripartite meeting on the issue. At the meeting it was
decided that the crushers and mines which have no legal
documents will be sealed by the district administration. But
the BAG leaders said that the administration has not taken
any step against illegal mining.40
Topsoil is burnt to construct brick kilns, small water bodies
are filled up to erect big buildings, factories are established
across the paddy fields, and natural flow of streams and rivers
is stopped to build highways—all these require stone-chips.
Within fifteen years, the nature of the economy as well as the
environment of Nalhati-Murarai-Rampurhat-Muhammad
Bazar-Panchami-Hinglo of Birbhum was transformed dras-
tically. Paddy fields, water bodies, people of the contiguous
villages, everything was covered under the dust and the loud
noise of the quarries. Big trucks pass by the road the entire
day loaded with heavy stones. Non-tribals are intruding
the tribal areas with the support of this industry. The for-
ests of Sonthsal-Kashthagada-Habrapahari-Harinsinga are
lost. The adivasis are fighting for jal-jamin-jangal since time
­immemorial,41 and the movement in Nandigram and Lalgarh
did influence the adivasis of Birbhum considerably.

Alternative Development Programmes in Bankura


Amarkanan village is in the heart of Jangal Mahal has wit-
nessed miraculous social revival over the past few years.
Established in 1996, the Shamayita Math is an international
woman’s religious centre situated on a hillock at Ranbahal
in Bankura District, about 1 km from the Amarkanan bus
stop. In the Math Adivasi women are key figures who have
worked for development ranging from a convent school of
adivasi girls to a 25-bed hospital that has an operation t­ heatre.
The organization seeks to add the idea of a personal and
social reawakening to the tangible signs of development.
The convent school has reached out to nearly 600 adivasi
girls from neighbouring villages and brought the fruits of
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal67

an English medium institution affiliated to the Central Board


of Secondary Education to less fortunate sections of society
who are otherwise taught to depend wholly on reservation.42
Shamayita has brought essentials like water, electricity, edu-
cation, health and sport and has indeed changed lives.
The next case is The West Bengal Tribal Development
Cooperative Corporation Limited (WBTDCCL) that looks
after the economic interest of the tribals. By 1984, 121 Large-
Sized Adivasi Multipurpose Co-operative Societies (LAMPS),
2 Mahila Samitis, a Labour Contract Cooperative Society are
affiliated to WBTDCCL. Since the 1970s, several projects have
been initiated in some of the tribal districts of West Bengal.
For instance, in Bankura the first women’s collective called
the Grameen Mahila Shramik Unnayan Samiti was formed
in Jhilimili, a village in Ranibandh Block of Bankura District,
in 1981. Ranibandh is part of the least developed region of
Bankura with a large concentration of tribal population.
Originally a part of the vast area known as Jungle Mahal,
it used to be inhabited mainly by Santhals. Over the last
few decades, thousands of men, women and children had
taken to seasonal migration to the green revolution districts
of Hooghly and Barddhaman.43 The Centre for Women’s
Development Studies (CWDS), New Delhi, played a leading
role in organizing the women here.44
Deforestation had left them no option to migration.
Alternative employment was found in the collection of tendu
and sal leaves from the adjoining forest, sold by the samiti
to the local unit of LAMPS. The guarantee of a minimum
price acted as a tremendous spur for the women. The suc-
cess attained by this samiti led to the formation of two more
Mahila Samitis in Chendapathar and Bhurkura. In Bhurkura,
about 7–8 acres of land were donated to the samiti provided
employment for a prolonged period. They planted arjun and
asan trees and breed tassar silkworm on wasteland. Thus,
the success of one project spawned off others.45 In 1986 that
the Nari Bikash Sangha (NBS) was formed to function as an
apex body to coordinate the activities of the Mahila Samitis
68 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

in the villages. The CWDS report says, ‘The Bankura project


has reached a plateau. After 16 years of great hardship the
women are still happy with the little prosperity that they have
won and with their new found social status.’46 The 24 samitis
cover a little more than 60 villages and 2,500 members.47
By the end of 1987 it was clear to the NBS leadership as
well as to the CWDS that wasteland development through
women’s organization along with at least two support ser-
vices like adult education and childcare, and training in
organizational management of women were needed. A com-
ponent of training in legal literacy was added later to inform
women about their rights and responsibilities as citizens. By
1996 the NBS had expanded its outreach to two adjacent dis-
tricts and acquired more than 600 acres of wastelands with
thriving plantations of 2 million tassar host trees and babui
grass, diversifying into new activities like the manufacture of
synthetic footballs and leather footwear, sale of cheap cloth,
running a public distribution shop and production of tassar
seeds for its members. Another activity initiated since 1986 is
of storing a very popular forest produce, mahua.48 Between
2000 and 2003 the NBS made three other great strides. In
collaboration with CWDS, it successfully implemented a
three-year long programme of tassar culture supported by the
UNDP, Central Silk Board and State Sericulture Department
The NBS is a good example of how a women’s organization
defines empowerment.49
Since 1990 the NBS has taken a special initiative on the sus-
tainable use of forest resources and for regeneration of forests.
When the state Forest Department introduced the Joint Forest
Management (JFM) programme in 1989 by organizing Forest
Protection Committees (FPC) in each village, the NBS noticed
that the government resolution excluded women and it made
a representation to the state forest minister. Ultimately, NBS
was successful in setting up a federation of FPCs in 1996
known as Ranibandh Banabasi Sangha (RBS) with certain
environmental and developmental objectives. In the 1990s
the NBS turned its attention to the issue of the optimum
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal69

use of land. The process of land reclamation that has had


a widespread impact in regenerating wastelands, creating
employment and income for women, and building wom-
en’s organizational and leadership skills. By 1988, there were
twelve samitis with a membership of more than 1,500 women
engaged in land reclamation and income-generating projects.
As a result of their efforts, 100 hectares of former wasteland
were reclaimed and regenerated. By linking conservation
with employment and income-generation, as was done in
Bankura, participants’ ensured that short-term survival needs
were met along with long-term conservation goals.50
From the very beginning, the NBS and Mahila Samitis
took a non-party stand. Individually, their members gener-
ally supported the four political formations of the region—
the Indian National Congress, the Trinamool Congress, the
CPI and CPI(M) combine, and the various factions of the
Jharkhand movement. The region, however, was the arena
of chronic political rivalry between factions of the Jharkhand
movement and the CPI(M). Within this political scenario,
the NBS and its affiliated Mahila Samitis steadfastly resisted
attempts at co-option by any political party and has contrib-
uted to the maintenance of political and ethnic harmony.
Thus, the NBS been instrumental in creating a new social
space for women, so far hardly regarded as their right.51
My field study, February 2012, shows that the migration
caused immense trouble to them. They thought that if there
could be irrigation resulting in double or triple cropping,
they would get enough employment. They would not have
to go to distant areas for work and income.

Coal Industry of Barddhaman


The coal mining industry of West Bengal, Barakar block and
Ranigunge block of the Barddhaman district, pulled a large
number of tribal labourers like Santhal, Oraon and, Munda
from its adjoining districts. The figures of Census of India
1961 revealed that not more than 7 per cent (20,000) of their
70 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

total strength is engaged in the coal mining occupations.


Adivasis living in the vicinity of Chittaranjan and Hindusthan
Cables have got employment mostly under contractors as
manual labourers. Adivasi agricultural labourers of Ausgram
II and Faridpur cannot keep themselves engaged beyond six
months in a year. Hence they have to search for work in the
coal mining industry.52 In the early stage of coal mining indus-
try these tribal labourers worked underground and cut coal
with the help of hammer, pick and crow bar. Below the pit the
tribal women were employed to carry the coal on their heads
to the foot of the shaft.53 These labourers came to mines with
their male members and were engaged in piece-rate system
and also maintained their link with their natal villages.
There are mainly three categories of labourers: (a) a group
of labourers who come daily from their neighbouring villages
to mine site; (b) a group of labourers who are settled there as
migrants; and (c) a group of labourers who are almost per-
manently settled in the mining proximity. They either live in
the dhowras, residential quarters, erected by the management
or in villages formed by the tribal group of workers at the
vicinity of the coal mines. This industry provides them with
ready cash by which they meet their daily necessities.54
The condition of these working women in the coal mines
has never been assessed though there are some notable works
on the miners as a whole. A good amount of their earnings are
spent for consumption of country-made liquor thereby leaving
a small amount at their disposal for maintaining the daily need
of a week. Their diet is of poor quality. They are very often
dependent on local moneylenders who impose a high rate
of interest. The mechanization of the coal mines during the
recent period has very naturally affected the status of women
workers. There are some welfare schemes for the betterment
of the living and working conditions of women and children.
The coal mines’ Labour Welfare Fund is the oldest statutory
fund in India for the conduction of welfare activities.55
Santhal women constitute only 35 per cent of the casual
labour force of the Chittaranjan Locomotive Works (CLWs).
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal71

Since tribal men have become engaged in different types


of work related to the industry, agricultural work has been
vested mainly on the womenfolk. Before establishment of
the CLW, the Santhals could not depend wholly on their own
land for subsistence. They worked as agricultural labourers
or sharecroppers in the fields owned by other Hindu castes
in the locality. The wage for the agricultural labourers is less
than that of an industrial labourer and lack of irrigation facil-
ities is a hindrance to the security of farm production.
When women came to the new spheres of work in con-
nection with coal mining they became fully unskilled.56 Their
status in the economic arena of this industrial sector is almost
equal to the men. But their involvement in the new arena of
economic pursuits also brings up a socio-cultural barrier in
their society; some disorganization like the introduction of
immoral traffic; financial constraints due to dependency on
moneylenders, a portion of wages is given as donation to
local leaders, and so on. Most of the time, change has not been
a healthy one. They are found to be very rigid in their cus-
tomary rules especially in marital alliance and maintenance
of their ethnic boundary.57 These tribal women labourers
maintain a link as unskilled labour force for agro-industrial
economic avenues. They are especially preferred for trans-
planting and weeding. The cultivation of aus, aman and boro
varieties and their high yielding seeds require more man-
power in transplanting, weeding and harvesting. Tribal wom-
en’s existence in the working force has not only benefited
the tribal agricultural labour families, but it has also made
the tribal sharecropper families economically more viable.58
Mining is a hostile environment for them and they prefer
their traditional occupation of agriculture.

TRIBAL WOMEN IN HUNTING-GATHERING ­SECTOR


The forest dwellers, both men and women hunted for food
and for sport occasionally, but the representatives of the
state, ancient, medieval and colonial, brought up on the
72 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

ideology and traditions of shikar, hunted wildlife, as a


mark of status, prowess and manliness.59 According to K.S.
Singh, unlike the huntress, women’s role as gatherers shows
a remarkable continuity. From gathering roots and tubers
and other forest produce to maintaining the family in the
early period, women today apart from performing this role
also collect fuelwood and fetch water to keep hearth burning
and play a considerable role in gathering and marketing
what is called non-timber produce or minor forest produce.
Women are the major beneficiaries of various experiments
in reforestation.60
Some small hunter-gathers nomadic tribal communities
seem to be frozen in time since 1871, when the British gov-
ernment ‘notified’ certain tribes as ‘criminals’ and passed the
notorious Criminal Tribes Act.61 Till 1944, amendments to this
Act saw new areas and new communities included, all of
whom lost livelihoods with the introduction of the railways,
roads and outsiders entering their lives. In 1952, the govern-
ment of India officially ‘denotified’ the stigmatised ones but
made no provisions for their livelihood. In 1959, it passed the
Habitual Offender’s Act, which was not much different from
the Criminal Tribes Act, 1871. Since 1961, it has, through state
machinery, been publishing state-wise lists of ‘Denotified and
Nomadic Tribes’. The Lodhas, Sabars, Birhors and Dhikarus
are some of the denotified tribes in Purulia, Bankura and West
Medinipur districts. Birhors are strictly confined into three
blocks of Purulia, Bagmundi (Bhupatipalli, Bareria, Baredi
villages), Balarampur and Jhalda.62
Till date, the police and vigilante mobs continue to target
these unfortunates.63 Between 1979 and 1982, according to
author and activist Mahasweta Devi, 42 denotified Lodha
tribals were lynched by mobs—not for crimes committed
but for being born ‘Lodhas’. Eighteen Lodhas were killed at
Patina in 1979, 6 killed and 4 maimed at Gonua in January
1982, 2 killed at Jhargram-Nunnunigerya in February 1982, 1
killed in Khejurkuti in June 1982, 6 killed in the three villages
of Saro, Baghjhanpa and Chakua in June 1982.64 Between 1960
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal73

and 1998, more than 50 Kharia tribes have been killed by the
police or lynched by mobs.65

Kharia Women of Purulia


Data collected during my field study of September 2011
shows that the Hill Kharias are generally classified as hunt-
ers and gatherers. In most of the places they have been hard
put to sustain life through hunting and gathering because
the forest resources have dwindled or vanished altogether.
Consequently, they are now taking recourse increasingly to
wage labour. Hill Kharias live constantly under the shadow
of hunger and privation. Totally landless and basically
­forest-dwelling, they get agricultural labour work for only
three months as Purulia is drought-prone and has a mono-
crop system. Denudation of forests for timber and large scale
plantation of eucalyptus have deprived them of their main
livelihood—collecting and selling minor forest produce and
eating fruits, roots, tubers.
A large number of tribal women are engaged in collect-
ing minor forest produces. Similarly in LAMPS many tribal
women are engaged in collecting Kendu leaves, oil seeds
(sal, mahua, karanj, kusum, neem, haritaki), Mahua flowers,
Sabai grass, Bahera, and the LAMPS are procuring these
things by paying attractive collection rates to them. It may
be mentioned here that the Kharia women of Purulia district
along with their men applied modern techniques, blend-
ing the same with their traditional one for producing these
crafts and the District Science Centre, Purulia has played
a vital role towards transfer of such modern techniques in
accordance with the skill and aptitude of Kharia men and
women of the area. In other words, transfer of technology
has been done keeping in view the power of assimilation and
absorption of the Kharias and by supplementation of their
existing technology and not by substitution.66 As the forest
receded Kharias settled and shifted from several villages
finally settling down at the outskirt of village Kulabahal.
74 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

The present generation have taken to agricultural labour


for a decade and half.67

Sabar Women of Purulia


The difference between primitive tribal Sabars and predom-
inantly land-owning Mahatos is stark—symptomatic of a
stubborn adherence to feudal ways even as the rest of the
country has moved on after independence. Being a Sabar
is a kind of social stigma. The unwritten law in tribal vil-
lages of Purulia is that if a house is robbed, a Sabar must be
guilty. The small village of Garasagma of Barabazar block
of Purulia seems to be frozen in time since 1871. Among its
421 people comprising around 69 households, the Sabars are
in the majority but the Mahatos possess pucca houses and
employ Sabars to work in their homes, often for nothing in
exchange. Work under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act goes to the Mahatos who own
agricultural land and supply minor forest produce like sal
leaves and babui grass to the markets. Day after day, the rich
prosper and the poor sink deeper into misery in Garasagma.
The Sabars have become used to injustice and deprivation.
Naked, hungry Sabar children have no right to take admis-
sion in the Garasagma Primary School just because they are
Sabars, whereas the Mahato children are given admission and
uniform as well. These malnourished Sabar children were
‘born criminals’. Twelve years ago, a school in Garasagma
was donated by the Ramon Magsasay Foundation, due to
the initiative of Mahasweta Devi. Sabar children were given
books and uniforms. Most importantly, they were given a
mid-day meal every day.68
Located in the foothills of two mountains, Amjharna is an
isolated village under Kuchia gram panchayat in Bandwan
near the Jharkhand border and about 100 km away from
Purulia town. It boasts of about fifty residents, most of
whom are from the Sabar tribe, one of the most impover-
ished groups that have resorted to extensive deforestation
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal75

to earn a livelihood. The soil in Amjharna is infertile. Every


day, a majority of women in Amjharna village trudge 40 km
through dense forest and high rocky stretches, carrying
timber for sale at a weekly haat in Galudih, Jharkhand, for
which they get anything between `150–200. This pittance
is expected to sustain them for the next seven days.69 Their
earnings from this practice are spent to buy salt, oil and veg-
etables for the family. Most of the villagers suffer from mal-
nutrition. There is no alternative other than selling timber
for their survival. The community lives in a despicable con-
dition. Their huts have broken mud walls, poorly thatched
roofs and practically no windows and doors. None of them
have ever availed of the Indira Awas Yojana facility to build
pucca houses. The villagers have to walk 2 or 3 km. to fetch
drinking water. There is another signboard near the village
that states Amjharna has been electrified under the Rajiv
Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana. The electricity line
was disconnected long ago since the villagers could not pay
the bill. No child has been to school since the nearest one, a
primary school is too far.70
Akarbaid village under Manara gram panchayat, 30 km.
from Purulia town, is another such Sabar village referred by
the police as ‘crime village’. It was an isolated place with some
hundred residents of a most impoverished denomination.
The soil was infertile and most of the village’s inhabitants
were illiterate. They had no opportunity for employment
and were ostracized by the rest of the villages in the district.
Prasanta Rakshit, coordinator of the West Bengal Kheria
Sabar Kalyan Samiti, an NGO, alleges that no government
official has visited the place to take stock of the plight there.
He said, ‘Most of them had nothing to wear, including the
women, in 2002. Women came and met me, one at a time,
since they only had a single sari of sorts that they wore in
turns. Despite the Centre having introduced the Forest Rights
Act in 2006, to distribute lands to tribals, till now only 300
families within the community have been given land in the
district.’71
76 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Between 2002 and 2004 Rakshit’s NGO set up community


hall after community hall until there were 26 across several
remote areas of the district. Rakshit arranged for the distri-
bution of different traditional instruments to locals—from
drums, flutes and cymbals to reed instruments—and they
learnt to sing and dance. Off evenings, the youth would
gather in the hall and sing along to beating drums and soar-
ing flute music. In the morning, informal classes are being
held and in the afternoon people from the clan receive hand-
icrafts training to give them skills. The community halls have
helped in dropping the crime rate among the Sabars.72 The
central and the state governments have sanctioned funds
worth crores of rupees for improving the community and
yet they remains in the doldrums.

Lodha Women of West Medinipur


The Lodhas are known as denotified tribe, formerly recog-
nized as a criminal tribe. Due to the Forest Preservation Act
the Lodhas were driven out of the forest and, as a natural
consequence, they were uprooted from their basic economy.
Finding no other alternative to maintain themselves they
had to embrace antisocial activities like thefts, dacoities,
and ultimately they had been branded with the stigma of
criminality.73 Chandan Sinha has observed that Lodha vil-
lages of West Medinipur are the most vulnerable because of
the scarcity of irrigation and the lack of ownership of land.
They have been brought out of the jungle and have settled
on the worst possible land available.74 Men play an import-
ant part in all major economic activities. On rare occasions,
they also cook or attend to minor domestic duties. Women
do not catch snakes, collect tassar cocoons or plough. Lodha
women collect forest fruits like mahul, kendu, bhalia and dif-
ferent mushrooms (parab, bali and rutka chatu) from forests
in March-April and weave sal leaves in the form of plates
and bowls (khali-khola). The Lodhas of Nayagram also make
ropes with babui grass.75
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal77

Most of the PTGs of Jangal Mahal were supposed to have


moved out of the area.76 My field survey of November 2011
shows that the PTG population of Lodha and Sabar—the
­traditional dwellers of the deep forests of Nayagram, Keshiary,
Narayangarh, Jhargram, Salboni, Binpur I and Binpur II—
was not depleted. It is the Mahato and Santhal communities
who have fled the region. The PTGs—at the bottom of the
pyramid—had simply nowhere to go and stayed back. Patta
(under FRA 2006) distribution in Khajra, near Narayangarh,
has created an unbridgeable divide between the Lodhas and
the Santhals as the Santhals have been given pattas while the
former's land rights have been ignored.
The Lodha women as members of denotified tribe enjoy
less freedom in the outside world because of their stigma
of criminality which is still prevailing in the minds of their
neighbours. But at home their roles are highlighted by a
number of essential indoor activities. The uprooted eco-
nomic life and unbalanced mode of living compelled the
Lodha women to maintain the day to day familial activities
with profound hardship. Lodha men were associated with
anti-social acts and, as a necessary consequence, they used
to move outside. They had very little time or inclination to
look after the household. In consequence of the repeal of
the Criminal Tribes Act and subsequent rehabilitation of the
Lodhas the situations has not improved much as the Lodha
men are reluctant to do any responsible job. Owing to their
husbands' reputations Lodha women do not easily get work
in Hindu houses.77
Finally, the women who have struggled to get themselves
educated and employed feel a tremendous pressure. While
they get alienated from their own kind, they are not easily
accepted at par by other communities. This was the trag-
edy of Chuni Kotal, the first woman Lodha graduate, who
found it difficult to cope with these pressures and committed
suicide. Chuni Kotal was the first woman from a primitive
tribe to have passed the Higher-Secondary examination. In
1983, she was appointed a social worker at the Jhargram
78 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

ITDP office. From childhood, despite starvation, working


in the fields and having no money to purchase books, she
doggedly continued to study. In 1985, she graduated and in
1987, she was appointed superintendent of Rani Shiromoni
SC and ST Girls’ Hostel in Medinipur. That she was a Lodha,
a hated name in the district, clung to her like a stigma; some
of the hostel staff were against her because of her origins.
Matters became worse when she enrolled herself at the local
Vidyasagar University as an M.Sc. student in anthropology.
From the very first day, a certain male professor started call-
ing her a member of a criminal tribe who had no right to
study for an M.Sc; he failed her twice. Then she became a
victim of the inner politics between the members of the fac-
ulty. The enquiry commission set up to probe her complaints
did nothing. Cornered from all sides she committed suicide
on 16 August 1992.78
In 1988, Government of India adopted the policy of par-
ticipatory management of forests. In West Bengal, the Joint
Forest Management policy was implemented by a govern-
ment order in 1989 and the first Forest Protection Committees
(FPCs) were formed in 1991 under the initiative of the forest
department. FPCs are village-based committees with repre-
sentation from each household, which protect and manage
the forests. For this they hold regular meetings in the presence
of forest department staff or by themselves. In West Bengal,
women were not roped in adequately in the beginning. Later,
in November 1991, an amendment to the State Government
Order of 1989 was passed which bestowed joint FPC member-
ship on the husband and wife. In spite of this there has been
little active participation of women in the decision making
or functioning of the FPCs. The 1991 Amendment does not
deal with situations where a man has more than one wife or
where either the husband or the wife is simply not present
(due to death, divorce, abandonment). There is no provision
for the representation of women in the executive committees.
Yet the necessity of soliciting women’s active participation
in the FPCs is acknowledged.79 The JFM policy has helped
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal79

tribal women on the whole because they have got free access
to non-timber forest produces (NTFP) and to fuel.80
Several attempts have been undertaken by the Lodha
Sabar Kalyan Samiti for the upliftment of the conditions of the
Lodhas. Government documents will show that the Lodhas
have been provided with lands, in reality they are provided
with low quality of land which is worth nothing. A letter
sent to the Chief Minister in 2003 demanded, (i) BPL ration
cards for Lodha families; (ii) pattas of the government khas
lands for the landless Lodha families; (iii) ensure the supply
of electricity and portable drinking water facilities for the
villages; (iv) mobile medical services in every village at least
once a week; (v) special privileges for PTGs like Lodhas. This
indicates that even in 2003 the Lodhas were deprived of all
these facilities. The letter mentioned that in 1987 lands were
taken from 29 Lodha families for the Subarnarekha Barrage
Project without compensating them. In January 2009 a letter
was sent to the district administrator saying that Lodhas are
very poor and dependent on the collection of firewood and
different kinds of leaves as their livelihood. The people of the
community are dying out of poverty, malnutrition, deficiency
and inability. In this letter the Lodha Sabar Kalyan Samiti had
provided statistics from 1979 to 2010 about police atrocities,
arrests, rapes, arsons and murders. In February 2010 another
letter was sent to the district administrator explaining the
displacement took place in 1987. It also informed the con-
cerned authority that in Kharagpur Block-I Tata Metaliks and
Rashmi Metaliks Companies grabbed lands of 67 Lodha peas-
ants in 2004 and 2005 respectively. They still have not given
them any compensation.81

Rabha Women Gatherers of Jalpaiguri


The Rabhas of North Bengal are a forest dwelling tribe that
is matriarchal. Women are the owners of the ancestral prop-
erties. If a woman dies then her younger daughter will be
the next owner. But now the Rabha society is transforming
80 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

from matriliny to patriliny. Rabha economy is entirely depen-


dent on the collection of minor forest products. They still
practice tangia cultivation or shifting cultivation in some
of the pockets of north Khairbari Forest.82 In the sphere of
economy the contribution of the Rabha females is somewhat
significant though not many take part in direct sources of
income. In the forest bastee only the males are employed.
The females mainly work as agricultural labourers. Rabha
females also collect fuelwood, roots, tubers and fruits from
the forest; bring drinking water, cook, and so on. In Madhya
Manasi village only 20.45 per cent Rabha workers are females.
Among them 16.11 per cent are in cultivation, 27.78 per cent
in labour, 5.56 per cent in sharecropping and the rest in other
occupations. In Dakshin Manasi also only 21.74 per cent of
the Rabha women work and of them only 26.67 per cent are
engaged in cultivation, 33.33 per cent in sharecropping and
the rest 40.00 per cent in other occupations.83
As mentioned earlier, the Forest Rights Act (2006) is
not implemented properly in North Bengal. The Forest
Department continues imposing previous schemes that con-
tradict the Act, behaves very badly with the local people
and defeats the very purpose of the FRA. Thus, Rabhas are
compelled to collect firewood and other non-timber forest
produces which are illegal according to the prevailing of
laws, and thus face many types of exploitation by the forest
guards, who sometimes kill them.84
A number of movements have been taken up by the
­tribals to arrest the FRA’s faulty implementation as well as
to ­organize forest villagers within its provisions, including
mass petitions by the forest villagers at the block level, forest
beat-wise campaign to establish people’s control over the
forest resources, and, most importantly, the dissolving of
Gram Sansad-based Forest Rights Committees (FRCs) and
replacing them by Gram Sabha-based FRCs.85
From 2009 to 2010 three adivasi youths were killed by the
forest guards: on 13 November Suresh Rabha (25) at Uttar
Poro village, on 22 January Suraj Kheria (16) at Newlands
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal81

and on 12 April Sarju Cheria (36) at Mendabari village.


Besides, on 18 April 2010 three Rabha women, Pavan Rabha
(25), Radha Rabha (30) and Raman Rabha (30) were severely
wounded. The lower portion of the bodies of both Pavan and
Radha has been disabled due to the injury. All were tortured
on the suspect of being a wood thief. But these kinds of
incidents are not new in the Rabha villages of North Bengal.
On 2–3 April of 2005 a public meeting was organized, by
Rashtriya Vana Jana Shramajivi Mancha, NESPON and
Disha, at Rajabhatkhawa of Jalpaiguri district regarding the
Buxa Tigar Reserve. Justice Samaresh Banerjee, the Executive
Chairman of State Legal Services Authority, West Bengal,
headed the meeting with other lawyers and social scientists.
More or less 700 adivasis were present to speak about the
police atrocities perpetrated on them. The grievances were
the dearth of primary schools, there is only one and it is
without mid-day meals; villagers lack ration cards, BPL cards
and voter ID cards; absence of health centre; elephant depre-
dations; random unwarranted arrests; women harassed over
collecting firewood, accused of trespassing, theft obstructing
government officials, murder.86 The situation remains the
same and one of its reasons is the non-implementation of
Forest Rights Act of 2006.

Munda and Oraon Women of North Bengal


Kalamjote village situated near Kwakhali is about five kilo-
metres from Siliguri town. Munda and Oraon tribals live
here as well. Munda houses are made of clay, complete with
a stable for cattle, a place for offering prayers to their deities
and a small patch at the back for growing vegetables and other
plants. The men work as stone gatherers in the Balason’s dry
river bed and at the end of a month they earn about `6,000.
In the monsoon, however, this income is reduced by half as
the river bed swells with rain. The women remain at home,
engaged in domestic chores and farm work, in addition to
taking their children to school. Mundas, especially those who
82 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

are Hindus, pay dowry and worship the Goddess Bishohari


or Manasa Devi. Goddess Bishohari is equated with Mother
Earth. The Mundas, both men and women, are also good
fishermen.87
Magurmari forest village is situated at Rajadanga Gram
Panchayat, Mal block under Kathambari beat of Apalchand
range, Baikunthapur Division. Kailashpur Tea Estate is
very adjacent to this village. There are 34 families in the vil-
lage. All of the inhabitants belong to tribal group such as
Munda and Oraon. All the villagers are below BPL. They
speak Kurukh and Bengali. They drink handia (made from
from fermented rice). The forest villagers subsist mainly on
agriculture and employment in forestry including timber
operation, plantation, re-plantation, mulching, transplant-
ing, hoeing, intercropping, cleaning. They collect maximum
NTFPs from November to May each year. Range of average
income varies from `600 to `1,250 per month. In some cases
both husband and wife becomes members of Village Forest
Protection Committee in this village which is an important
feature of the village.88 The girl child of the family looks after
the household and her younger siblings. Thus, it can be said
that tribal women’s lack of access to education is one of the
causes of their large families. In West Bengal too, linked to
low tribal literacy is child labour. To the tribal parents a child
is not just a mouth to feed but two hands to work with.

NOTES
1 Shashi, Nehru and the Tribals: 23.
2 Hollis et al. Structural Change and Development Policy; also see Griffin
Keith, Political Economy of Agrarian Change.
3 Vidyarthi, Tribal Culture of India.
4 Registrar General and Census Commissioner, 1992. Census of India
1991: Series 1, India: Final Population Totals (New Delhi: Controller of
Publications): 664–96.
5 Registrar General and Census Commissioner, 2001. Census of India
2001: Series 1, India: Paper 1: Provisional Population Totals (New Delhi:
Controller of Publications).
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal83

6 Fernandes, Chetri, Lama and Sherry, 2012. Progress: At Whose Cost?


87–88.
7 Annual Report, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment,
Government of India, 2004–2005.
8 Bulletin of Cultural Research Institute, 1997, 22, 1: 1–5.
9 Chaudhuri, 1985. ‘Tribal Women and the Economy', in J.P. Singh et al,
eds., Tribal Women and Development: 47–57.
10 Ratna Gupta, ed., 1990. Profiles of Tribal Women in West Bengal
(Scheduled Castes and Tribes Welfare Department, Government of
West Bengal): 93.
11 R. Chakravarty, Communists in Indian Women’s Movement: 87.
12 The Khanpur events are described, amongst others, by Sunil Sen,
Agrarian Struggle in Bengal, 1946–47 (People’s Publishing House, New
Delhi): 63; and extensively by Kali Sarkar in his contribution to the
book Utter Bonger Adhiyar Bidroh o Tebhaga Andolen (‘The Sharecroppers’
Rebellion and Tebhaga Movement of North Bengal’) (Malda, 1984,
publisher unknown): 97. Chabi Ray in Banglar Nari Andolen-Shongrami
Bhumikar Der Sho Bochor (‘The Women’s Movement of Bengal-One
Hundred Fifty Years of Struggle-Policy’), (Calcutta, nd.): 162, a second
woman was killed in the same incident, Pagli Kolkamar (Saotali).
13 Peter Custers, 1986. ‘Women’s Role in Tebhaga Movement’, Economic
and Political Weekly (henceforth EPW), (Oct. 25): WS 101. Also see
Custers, Women in the Tebhaga Uprising: 131–34.
14 Charu Majumdar, 1965. Eight Documents; this is the Second Document,
available at http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/majumdar/
index.htm accessed on 19 July 2010.
15 ‘Tebhaga Andolaner Subarno Jayanti’: 48–49, ‘Saler Dwitiya Parjayer
Andolan’, in Kalantar, 20 January 1997.
16 Singha Roy, ‘Socio-Economic Changes among Santal Women in a Rural
Setting in West Bengal’, in Singh, Vyas and Mann eds, Tribal Women
and Development: 187–93.
17 Abhijit Guha, Jami Adhigrahan Unnayan: 29–36.
18 Jana Ethnohistory of the Koras of Bengal.
19 Paul and Bhuimali, Forest Resources and the Poor: 136–75.
20 Tea Board of India, 1976 and 1981–82, Tea Statistics, Calcutta.
21 The Statesman, 12 August 2011.
22 Pranab Kumar Das Gupta, 1978. ‘Tribal Women in Industrial Context’,
in Tribal Women in India (Calcutta: Indian Anthropological Society):
192–94.
23 Anandabazar Patrika, 1 August 2010.
24 Anandabazar Patrika, 28 December 2010.
25 A Fact Finding Report, 2009. Uttarbanger Cha Bagan Ek Anischit
Bhabisater Pratikhha (Kolkata: NESPON and Nagarik Mancha): 10, 16,
18. The survey was conducted from Oct. to Dec. 2008.
84 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

26 The Statesman, 29 December 2010 Anandabazar Patrika, 9 November


2012.
27 Biswajit Ghosh, 2014. ‘Vulnerability, Forced Migration and Trafficking
in Children and Women. A Field View from the Plantation Industry
in West Bengal’, EPW 49, 26 & 27 (June 28): 58–65.
28 The Statesman, 4 July 2012.
29 Interview with Vrinda Oraon, on 6 October 2012.
30 ‘Impact of Economic Reforms on Tribal Poverty’ by Dr Kunal
Chattopadhyay, funded by NABARD, the project was started in 2008–
2009 and completed in 2013–2014). This is an unpublished Externally
Funded Project Report lies with the Economic Research Unit of Indian
Statistical Institute, Kolkata.
31 Mihika Chatterjee, 2014. ‘An Improved PDS in a “Reviving” State:
Food Security in Koraput, Odisha’, EPW 49, 45 (Nov. 8): 49–59. Using a
sample of 793 households (60% are adivasis) in the district of Koraput
in Odisha, this article reviews the performance of the PDS in the dis-
trict, focusing primarily on BPL and AAY households. The aim of this
article was to highlight the progress made in food grain distribution
through the PDS in the deprived district of Koraput, while delineating
areas of deficiencies in the system. A major achievement of the PDS
is that it effectively distributes rice and inspires confidence among
the beneficiaries. It is highly utilized, specifically vis-à-vis rice, and
is perceived as essential to the overall welfare of beneficiaries.
32 Anandabazar Patrika, 31 July 2014.
33 Anandabazar Patrika, 21 July 2013.
34 Report submitted by the Deputy Superintendent of Police, Birbhum, to the
Women’s Commission, Government of West Bengal, July 2002.
35 Anandabazar Patrika, 9 February 2011.
36 Anandabazar Patrika, 30 March 2010.
37 Anandabazar Patrika, 18 September 2012.
38 Rupak Ghosh, 2012. ‘Health Hazards among Tribal Females Working
in Stone Crushing Units—Md. Bazar Block of Birbhum District, West
Bengal’, in Bulletin of the Cultural Research Institute, 24, Nos. 1 & 2
(Backward Classes Welfare Department, Government of West Bengal):
45–49.
39 The Statesman, 21 February 2011.
40 The Statesman, 20 October, 24 November, 5 December 2011.
41 A term coined by Myron Weiner in his path-breaking work, Sons of
the Soil: Migration and Ethnic Conflict in India (Princeton: Princeton
University Press, 1978).
42 The Statesman, 23 January 2011.
43 Narayan Banerjee, 1985. ‘Women’s Participation and Development:
A Case Study from West Bengal', CWDS, Occasional Paper No. 5.
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal85

44 D. Bandyopadhyay, ‘Travails of Tribal Women', Mainstream, 14 June


1980.
45 Anuradha Chanda, 2005. ‘Tribal Women’, in Changing Status of Women
in West Bengal, J. Bagchi, ed.: 137.
46 Chanchal Sarkar, ‘Tilting against Odds’: 48.
47 Ibid.
48 Vina Majumdar, 1989. ‘Peasant Women Organise for Empowerment: The
Bankura Experiment’, Occasional Paper No. 13 (New Delhi: CWDS): 1–35,
available at http://www.cwds.ac.in/OCPaper/PeasantWomenVM.pdf
downloaded on 18 August 2011.
49 Narayan Banerjee, 2004. ‘Nari Bikash Sangha: Towards Empowerment’,
Indian Journal of Gender Studies 11, 2 (May-August): 179–203.
50 International Labour Organisation, The Bankura Story.
51 D. Bandyopadhyay, ‘Travails of Migrant Tribal Women’: 11–12.
52 ‘Sub-Plan for the Tribal Areas of Barddhaman, West Bengal’, Asansol
Planning Organisation, November 1978. Tribal Development Project
No. 31 and 32, Development and Planning (T and CP) Department
(Government of West Bengal).
53 Sukumar Banerjee, 1978. ‘Tribal Women in Coal Field Area’, in Tribal
Women in India edited by Indian Anthropological Society, Calcutta.
54 Amitabha Sarkar, 1990. ‘Tribal Women in Industrial Arena’, in Profiles
of Tribal Women in West Bengal, Ratna Gupta, ed: 70–72.
55 R.M. Sarkar, 1990. ‘Tribal Women in the Coal Industrial Setting’, in
Profiles of Tribal Women in West Bengal, Ratna Gupta, ed.: 55–66.
56 P.K. Dasgupta, 1978. ‘Tribal Women in Industrial Context’, in Tribal
Women in India: Indian Anthropological Society. Also see ‘Impact of
Industrialisation on Tribal Life’, in the Bulletin of Anthropological Survey
of India 13, 1: 1964.
57 Debi Bharati, 1978. ‘Tribal Women A Study of Modern Conditions
and Future Prospect’, in Role and Status of Women in India edited by
Renowned Scholars (Calcutta: Firma KLM).
58 Satyabrata Chakrabarti, 1978. ‘Santal Women in Agriculture: Obser­
vations in a Barddhaman Village’, in Tribal Women in India edited by
Indian Anthropological Society, Calcutta.
59 Feldhaus, Malik and Bruckner, eds., 1997. King of Hunters, Warriors and
Shepherds: Essays on Khandoba by Sontheimer, Gunter-Dietz, New Delhi:
Manohar.
60 K.S. Singh, 2004. ‘Re-thinking Forest, Forest Dwellers and Ecological
History’, in Tribes, Forest and Social Formation in Indian History edited
by B.B. Chaudhuri and Arun Bandyopadhyay (New Delhi: Manohar):
44–46.
61 P.C. Jain, 1999. Planned Development among Tribals: A Comparative Study
of Bhils and Minas (New Delhi: Rawat): 116.
86 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

62 For detail information of Birhors of Purulia see Arun Kumar Mukherjee,


1991. Birhor (Kolkata: Cultural Research Institute, Scheduled Castes
and Tribes Welfare Department, Government of West Bengal, Special
Issue). 36. Also see Bhabesh Chakraborty, 1990. ‘The Women in a
Prefarming Tribal Society: The Birhor of West Bengal’, in Profiles of
Tribal Women in West Bengal Ratna Gupta, ed., Bulletin of the Cultural
Research Institute Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Welfare
Department, Government of West Bengal, Special Series No: 34): 39–45.
63 P.K. Bhowmik, 1994. Primitive Tribal Groups in Eastern India Welfare and
Evaluation (New Delhi: Gyan Publishing House): 54–55.
64 Mahasweta Devi, 1983. ‘The Lodhas of West Bengal’, EPW 18, 22 (28
May): 947.
65 The Statesman, 26 August 2012.
66 ‘New Directives on Forest Management in Tribal Areas’, 1980.
(Department of Forest, Land and Land Reforms, Scheduled Castes
and Scheduled Tribes Welfare and Board of Revenue, Government of
West Bengal).
67 Dikshit Sinha, 1978. ‘The Status of Women among the Hill Kharia’,
in Tribal Women in India edited by Indian Anthropological Society,
Calcutta.
68 Soma Basu, ‘Brutal Inheritance’, The report has been written under
the aegis of the Akshaya Patra—One World Media Fellowships on
Hunger, The Statesman, 26 August 2012.
69 The Statesman, 15 July 2012.
70 Ibid.
71 Ibid.
72 The Statesman, 24 March 2013.
73 P.K. Bhowmick, 1961. The Lodhas of West Bengal (Calcutta: Punthi
Pustak).
74 Chandan Sinha, 2013. Kindling of an Insurrection: 164, 197.
75 Subrata Kumar Mukhopadhyay, (no year is mentioned; information
gathered somewhere in 2001), Change: A Dying-Art of the Lodha Tribes
of Subarnarekha Basin (Paschim Medinipur: Ashirbad): 10–11.
76 The Primitive Tribal Groups are identified generally by following three
norms: (i) pre-agricultural level of technology; (ii) low level of literacy;
and (iii) a stagnant or diminishing population. Based on the aforesaid
criteria, 75 tribal communities are identified as PTGs spreaded over
in 17 states and one Union Territory.
77 Shampa Sarkar, 1994. ‘Status of Tribal Women in Three Socio-Cultural
Dimensions’, Man in India, 74, 1 (March): 49–57.
78 Kumaresh Ghosh, 1992. ‘Chuni Kotal', Desh, 31 October.
79 Sarin, Who Is Gaining? Who Is Losing?
80 Chanda, ‘Tribal Women’ in The Changing Status of Women in West
Bengal, J. Bagchi, ed.: 138.
Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women in West Bengal87

81 Subhendu Dasgupta, Prantaparer Katha: 12–16.


82 Saumitra Das, 2012. ‘The Rava Tribes of North Khairbari Forest’, in
Exploring the Conditions of Tribal People and Their Culture in West Bengal
edited by K. Mishra and Amrita Dutta (Kolkata: Rachayita): 50–57.
83 Manis Kumar Raha, 1990. ‘Status of Women in the Rabha Society’, in
Profiles of Tribal Women in West Bengal, Ratna Gupta, ed., Bulletin of the
Cultural Research Institute: 31–38.
84 Ghosh, Ray Chowdhury and Dasgupta, 2009. Banadhikar Ayne-2006:
Laraier Hatiyar, translated version of Forest Rights Act—Weapon of
Struggle by Saumitra Ghosh (Kolkata: Nagarik Mancha, Rashtriya
Vana Jana Shramajivi Mancha and NESPON): 18.
85 Sourish Jha, 2010. ‘Process Betrays the Spirit: Forest Rights Act in
Bengal’, EPW 45 (33) (14 August): 24–27; The Telegraph, 7 January 2010.
86 S. Dasgupta, Prantaparer Katha: 45–54.
87 The Statesman, 9 November 2014.
88 Paul and Bhuimali, Forest Resources and the Poor: 101–35.
CHAPTER 3

Adivasi Rejas in Bihar

WHILE THE BIHAR government is busy doling out schemes


for the empowerment of Maha Dalits, it seems to have been
completely forgetful of the problems plaguing Bihar’s tribal
population. As a result, even after the state’s bifurcation in
2000, policy makers remain clueless about the extent of its
tribal population. The state does not even have a tribal com-
mission. This, along with the Centre’s equivocal overtures,
has only compounded the misery of Bihar’s tribal population
of about 20 lakhs. The problem is that central and state gov-
ernment have not taken into account the addition of nearly
12 lakh tribals in the state after the 2001 Census. This number
mainly comprises three tribes—Gond, Santhal and Tharu.
While some of them live in scattered pockets, the majority
is concentrated in 14 districts. While the fault may lie at
the centre’s door for this omission, the state government’s
apathy towards its tribal population is intriguing. It seems
that after Bihar’s bifurcation with the creation of Jharkhand,
government officials and policy makers have impressed upon
themselves that there is no adivasi population in the state.
The Fifth Schedule covers tribal areas in nine states:
Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha and
Rajasthan. Under this, villages and panchayats with a tribal
Adivasi Rejas in Bihar 89

population of more than 50 per cent are notified as Scheduled


Areas. While this is true for other states, it has not yet been
put to effect in Bihar’s 14 districts where the population is
most densely concentrated. This induced miscalculation
has deprived the state’s tribals of almost all of the Centre’s
schemes.
Officials seemed utterly indifferent about enforcing the
Forest Rights Act in the state which was not implemented
until 4 February 2009, then too after it had been brought to
their notice by the State Tribal Forum organized by activ-
ists of the Hunger Free Bihar campaign. Lack of a database
has ensured that their cries have gone unheeded. Nobody
knows how many of them have died of starvation or what
are the atrocities committed against them. Moreover, there
is no record of the impact of Integrated Child Development
Services (ICDS) in tribal clusters. Landless tribals in the state
are of two types, namely, those who do not have land for
farming and those who do not have land for housing/shelter.
The Hindu reported that while the government is obliged to
grant a minimum of 4 decimal and a maximum of 12.5 dec-
imal of rayati (privately owned) land to the tribal families,
it has not done so as it does not have a record of landless
tribals. As the tribal does not have the permission to sell his
own land, he does not know the actual price and hence is
mercilessly cheated by unscrupulous brokers. The 11th Five-
Year Plan is equally nebulous about the clauses pertaining
to the progress of Bihar’s tribals. For instance, it is just not
clear whether there would be a separate hostel for SC, ST,
OBC children or whether they would all be accommodated
together. There are no tribal hostels, secondary schools or
colleges for tribal boys and girls.1
While about the 4 lakh tribal families in the country have
been covered under the Jan Shree insurance scheme Bihar’s
Asur, Kokha, Birhor and other tribes have not been able to
avail themselves of its benefit. There is not a single mobile
medical dispensary in any tribal cluster across the state. The
state does not have a single Tribal Cooperative Marketing
90 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Development Federation of India (TRIFED) building, which


has severely impeded tribals’ development, due to which they
are routinely exploited. The central and state governments
must involve NGOs to carry out these surveys. The Bihar gov-
ernment does not even need a matching grant while the centre
is ready to provide the funds. It is also reported that a passing
gesture in which `125 crores (125,000,000) were sanctioned by
the Nitish Kumar government in January 2009 for the benefit
of the Tharu tribe has been diverted to the betterment of the
Tiger Sanctuary in that district instead. Only after a demand
for a tribal ‘mega tribunal’ was made in the presence of state
officials has the deplorable condition of the tribals finally
come to light.2 It is up to the state now to reconsider its policy
quickly on tribals by beginning with a headcount.

ECONOMIC CONDITION OF TRIBAL WOMEN


IN BIHAR
In the Census of 1891 the British authorities classified almost
all of the tribals of Chotanagpur and Santhal Pargana as
Hunters, Forest and Hill Tribes, and Cultivators.3 Stuart
Corbridge has calculated Weaver’s Combination Index for
each of Bihar’s tribes using 1961 data and given a very dif-
ferent picture (Table 3.1).4 Many tribes now record significant
numbers of agricultural labourers in their ranks, with the
Bathudi and Savar being predominantly of this occupation.
Other tribal groups record a credible rate of participation in
mining and manufacturing industries, which speaks again

Table 3.1 The Occupations of the Scheduled Tribes of Bihar, 1961


Scheduled tribe Males Females All
Asur C C C
Baiga C, Ag C, Ag C, Ag
Banjara Mg, C, O Mg, O, C Mg, O, C
Bathudi Ag Ag Ag
Adivasi Rejas in Bihar 91

Scheduled tribe Males Females All


Bedia C C C
Bhumij C, Ag, O C, Ag C, Ag
Binjhia C C C
Birhor HHI, C, Ag HHI, C HHI, C, Ag
Birjia C C C
Chero C C, Ag C
Chik Baraik C C C
Gond C C C
Gorait C, Ag C C, Ag
Ho C C C
Karmali C, MQ C, Ag C, Ag
Kharia C C C
Kharwar C C C
Khond C, Ag, MQ, O C C, Ag
Kisan C C C
Kora C, Ag, MQ C, Ag, HHI C, Ag, MQ, HHI
Korwa C, Ag, MQ C, Ag C, Ag
Lohara C, HHI, Ag C, Ag, HHI C, HHI, Ag
Mahli C, HHI HHI, C HHI, C
Mal Paharia C C C
Munda C C C
Oraon C C C
Pahariya C, Ag C, Ag C, Ag
Santhal C C C
Sauria Paharia C C C
Savar Ag Ag Ag

Key: C-Cultivators; Ag-Agricultural Labourers; MQ-Mining, Quarrying;


HHI-Household Industry; Mg-Manufacturing; O-Others.
Sources: Stuart Corbridge, 2004. ‘The Ideology of Tribal Economy and
Society: Politics in Jharkhand, c.1950–1980’, in Stuart Corbridge, Sarah
Jewitt and Sanjay Kumar, Jharkhand: Environment Development, Ethnicity
(New Delhi: Oxford University Press): 46.
92 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

of the scale and pace of regional economic transformation


in tribal Bihar.
The dependence of scheduled tribe males and females on
the agricultural sector is much greater than that of others.
But if the male and female are considered separately then
the picture does not hold good. In tribal society, the percent-
age of female agricultural labour is much higher than that
of female cultivators. On the other hand the percentage of
male cultivators is much higher than that of male agricultural
labourers. With improvement in economic condition women
workers tend to withdraw from outdoor work in agriculture
and allied activities. Tribal girls, however, tend to go up for
education and thus they can join the tertiary sector of econ-
omy or take up more prestigious occupations later on. Decline
in the participation rate of women in a growing economy can
therefore be looked upon as a transitional phenomenon to a
certain extent. It would, however, be a mistake to consider
all declines in the participation rate as a mark of withdrawal
on prestige considerations. Some decline is also related to the
disappearance or reduction of the sex specific occupation role
of women in the wake of rescheduling the resource utilization
pattern or of introduction of technological innovations.
Technological change in agriculture has not radically
altered the social arrangement. There are two aspects of
technological change: mechanization and introduction of
high yielding varieties along with ancillary inputs, partic-
ularly assured water supply. Mechanization has reduced
the workload of men in preparing the soil, as has power-­
operated irrigation. But these two together have contributed
to the increase in the total workload in agriculture. Where
the time gap between two crops is short, mechanization has
made multiple cropping possible. At the same time multiple-­
cropping along with introduction of high-yielding varieties in
rice-growing areas increases the quantum of work in sowing,
transplantation, weeding, harvesting, transport and thresh-
ing. Almost everywhere the first three are predominantly
work of the women; the last three are mixed operations.
Adivasi Rejas in Bihar 93

The status of women in tribal Bihar varies along with the


differences in the level of socio-economic development. There
are conspicuous inequalities between the sexes in all walks of
life. Ninety per cent of the tribals in the state are concentrated
in this area. Most of the tribal communities in Bihar have the
patrilineal nuclear family as the basic unit of socio-economic
life. But tribal women have a wide freedom. The importance
of tribal women is apparent in the organization of tribal agri-
culture where the women maintain a high participation rate.
Tribal women participate in different agricultural operations
such as sowing, transplanting, weeding, harvesting and
threshing. But with the introduction of modern technology,
these traditionally female operated jobs are being gradually
taken over by men and machines.
According to the 1981 Census the percentage of tribal female
workers to total tribal females in Bihar is found to 19 per cent.
Their male counterpart comprises nearly 55 per cent. Among
the tribal female workers, as high as 91 per cent are in agri-
culture or in the unorganized sector as against 87 per cent of
the male tribal workers. The proportion of female workers
per thousand male workers in Bihar is only 174. While in
rural areas it is 187, in towns it is as low as 79. The position
of tribal female workers is better than that of general female
workers (115) and worse than that of scheduled caste female
workers (363) (Tables 3.2 and 3.3).
Notwithstanding the fact that a tribal woman works
shoulder to shoulder with men in agriculture and contrib-
utes substantially to economic activities, she is deprived of
inheriting landed property of her father or husband. They
try to maximize the income they can earn, going down the
line to low income activities, like collecting, carrying and
selling head loads of fuel wood. The compelling factor is the
gender division of responsibilities, where household food
security is very much in women’s domain. Failure to pro-
vide food can even lead to women being victims of men’s
domestic violence, besides being socially stigmatized. As a
reaction to men’s alcoholic violence adivasi women across
94 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Table 3.2 Percentage of ST Workers in Different Categories in Bihar


Total Rural Urban
Cultivation:
Person 63.06 65.71 12.41
Male 67.54 70.55 13.67
Female 50.17 51.96 7.69
Agricultural labour:
Person 23.20 23.86 10.69
Male 17.88 18.35 9.49
Female 38.51 39.50 15.20
Household industry etc.:
Person 1.79 1.84 0.96
Male 1.72 1.76 0.95
Female 2.00 2.05 1.02
Other occupations:
Person 11.94 8.95 75.94
Male 12.86 9.33 75.89
Female 9.36 6.49 76.09

Source: Census of India 1981, Series-1, India, Part II-B (III) Primary Census,
Abstract, Scheduled Tribes:. xx–xxi.

Table 3.3 Proportion of Female Workers per Thousand Male


Workers in Bihar
Place All workers SC workers ST workers General workers
Total 174 363 347 115
Rural 187 377 352 124
Urban 79 197 267 56

Source: Census of India 1981, Series-1, India, Part II-B (III) Primary Census,
Abstract, Scheduled Tribes:. xx–xxi.

the country have responded with movements to ban alcohol


consumption.
From production for self-consumption the new system of
global market economy shifts to production for sale in the
market. This fosters privatization of the access to productive
Adivasi Rejas in Bihar 95

resources, chiefly land. Consequently, the growth of external


markets for various forest products, for example, non-­timber
forest products (NTFPs), has often been accompanied by
the rapid depletion, even disappearance, of these products.
Thus, adivasi women are losing their viable source of income.
Moreover, with the opening up of the mines and growth of
industries in tribal areas of Bihar, a large number of women
have been drawn into occupations hitherto unknown to
them. Their status in labour market has changed. They are
employed in such jobs which give them ready cash. They now
work at times in isolation from their own men. This has led to
abuses and ushered in the trade of women’s bodies. In many
cases they have been subjected to sexual exploitation. Even,
prior to independence, women were subjected to sexual
abuse and assault, but only occasionally and exceptionally,
certainly not systematically and calculatedly as now with
the advent of the contract system and forced displacement
of the work force.5
They have to work under private contractors who get con-
tract work from industrial units. These women leave their
home early in the morning and go back late in the evening.
They remain out of home for more than twelve hours. They
are required to follow this schedule for two reasons. First,
the number of female workers exceeds the work available.
Because of this, they try to come as early as possible so that
they get work. Second, they are required to trek down a long
distance from home to their place of work, consequently they
leave home early and come back late. Most of them work to
supplement family income. In some cases they are the only
earners in their families. As the availability of workers is
disproportionate to that of the jobs, they are treated harshly
and become the victims of all sorts of exploitations.6
Premarital sexual relationship within the same clan is
not forbidden in tribal communities of Bihar. But nowadays
sexual relationship even beyond one’s own tribe is estab-
lished and it often leads to excommunication. The major
predisposing factors leading to the sex workers' profession
96 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

were unhappy family relationship, bad influence of ­relatives


and friends, sexual desire, deception, poverty and high
ambition.
Dev Nathan and Govind Kelkar have raised some
­questions: What has been done to change women’s gender
identity of subordination, including that of sexual subor-
dination? Have the progressive, gender-sensitive policies
attempted to use the threat point to dismantle patriarchal
powers and structures that deny poor, rural and indigenous
women control over their lives? According to them, the only
way to understand this particular form of trade of women’s
bodies is to understand this practice as an aspect of mas-
culine domination. In pre-capitalist class society, only the
nobility and gentry had access to harems; landlords to peas-
ant women; the lords’ ‘right of the first night’; upper-caste
men to lower-caste women; priests and merchants to temple
prostitutes, and so on. The spread of the market economy,
however, transforms sexual service into a commodity like
any other, available to anyone who can pay the price. At the
same time, among adivasi women, the destruction of indige-
nous welfare systems of reciprocity and the rupture of access
to productive resources, push them, with their continuing
responsibilities for household food security, into selling their
bodies for sexual services. In this arena of masculine dom-
ination among adivasis with relatively more equal gender
systems, it is pertinent to mention that, there has also been a
counter-movement of women’s resistance to gender inequal-
ities. For instance, among the Mundas in Bihar the produce
of swidden is understood to be more the domain of women.
But rice is exclusively men’s province. Women cannot take
out rice from the storage bin; not even for household food
needs. If the man is absent, women will borrow rice from
neighbours but not touch the household rice bin. Wet rice
is then quintessentially man’s domain, and a strengthening
of masculine domination is historically associated with the
spread of wet rice cultivation.7
Adivasi Rejas in Bihar 97

TRIBAL REJAS OF BIHAR


With the advent of industrialization particularly in and
around Bihar a huge labour force was needed to cope up
with the growing requirements at various labour centres.
Those engaged in industrial activities came out with a wide
publicity to deploy a large number of labourers through
their agents or sub-agents. With the result the tribal people
of Bihar with an intention to supplement their incomes took
to the work of labourers in different areas of the state. In
the beginning it were men who joined first to be followed
by women and thus the entire area started humming with
the bustling of tribal woman labourers termed as reja. These
tribal rejas were deployed at various labour centres like brick
kilns, building constructions, industrial complexes, trans-
portation of materials and the like, giving an emergence to
a unique class of tribal woman labourers, popularly known
as tribal rejas, a new concept of labour force altogether. This
very labour force comprising the tribal rejas is, so to say, a
new phenomenon in the tribal life of Bihar in the wake of
industrialization as well as urbanization. Oraon and Munda,
well-known tribes of Bihar form the majority of the tribal
rejas besides that of the Lohra tribe which has also the credit
of contributing some rejas.
Sexual asymmetry is a universal phenomenon. It is
nowhere as carefully developed in nature as among human
beings. Constituting a dependency class, women are
described as the ‘second sex’ and the ‘second creature’ who
live on surplus, their very existence being parasitic on the
men who rule them. Women are ‘burdened with cumulative
inequalities as a result of socio-cultural and economic dis-
criminatory practices which until recently have been taken
for granted as though they are part of the immutable scheme
of things established by nature'.8
One important manifestation of the subordinate status
of women is to be found in the division of labour that pro-
vides a cheap and ready source of labour and presents the
98 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

organization of marginal groups to further their common


goals. Division of labour between sexes is culturally imposed
and it ignores individual endowments. Although tribal males
are still the major breadwinners of the families, in recent
times the economic contribution of the tribal women has also
assumed significant role due to various reasons. With the
opening up of mines and growth of industries in tribal areas,
large numbers of women have drawn into occupations hith-
erto unknown to them. Now women are not only employed
inside the mines but also outside the mines.
Urbanization and industrialization have caused wide-
spread changes in occupations. The traditional tribal econ-
omy which rested mainly on agriculture is no longer the only
source of income. On account of a large number of factors,
such as the opening of the tribal country, growing industrial-
ization, growth of education and the impact of Christianity,
opportunities for diversification of occupation as well as
social mobility have multiplied. The building up of roads
and development of fast communication has led to a large
number of tribal women taking to petty trading and other
commercial activities in some area of the country.
In areas where a lot of constructional activity is being car-
ried out such as in industrial areas in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh,
Odisha, tribal women are lifted on trucks from the tribal vil-
lages and nearabouts by the contractors. In the evening they
are usually taken back to the villages.9 In some cases the tribal
women even migrate outside their villages, district and state
to some distant places for period ranging from 2 to 6 months
for working in the brick kilns, agricultural fields, tea estates.
Tribal women also feel inclined to go in for such short-
and long-term employment avenues because these provide
them ready cash which they prefer spending on clothes, new
fashion ornaments, and other items of daily use. Besides
the monetary gains, they also cherish the pleasure of daily
outing which is actively associated with such occupations.
But in many of the industrial projects, the employment of
women has led to several forms of physical and economic
Adivasi Rejas in Bihar 99

exploitations, paving the way for physical exploitation: and


to be more precise—sexual exploitation. This has ultimately
led to break-up of family ties, conjugal relationship, erosion
of the authority of the village headman and a general weak-
ening of the social sanctions of the traditional social structure
which provides certain distinct status of tribal women.
For providing empirical facts on the various socio-­
economic and socio-political issues behind the working
tribal women in a larger society hitherto unknown to them,
a study of the tribal rejas of Bihar has been undertaken. In
the present study the term ‘reja' refers to those tribal women
labourers who represent the wage earner class among the
tribal communities of Bihar inhabiting different districts in
Chotanagpur division. They fall in the age groups of 5–10
years to 60 years. Though the word ‘reja' commonly refers
to those wage earners who are dependent on some semi-
skilled jobs, the term ‘reja' essentially refers here to those
tribal women labourers who work with the contractors or
independently at the various labour centres and are engaged
in brick kilns, construction works, transportation of materi-
als, industrial complexes, the conditions of the tribal women
labourers (rejas) are still worse. Illiteracy, lack of awareness
of local and other redress processes and unscrupulousness
of the employers add to their miseries.
In agriculture, tribal women labourers suffer from spo-
radic and seasonal employment and also from disparities
and discrimination in wages. Tribal women are generally
employed on daily wages in sowing, transplantation, win-
nowing, crushing and harvesting and all jobs commonly
rated as unskilled and less-skilled. After agriculture, tribal
women are employed in various industries, trades, services.
The vast army of unorganized tribal women labour force
faces a battery of insurmountable problems accentuated by
their vulnerability, acute poverty, pressing needs for them-
selves and families. These problems range from insecurity of
employment, lack of standards of minimum wages, excessive
hours of work and absence of welfare amenities and various
100 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

other forms of exploitation. Some new industries and crafts,


in the recent times, have developed in the backdrop of the
tribal women labour force, without having been brought
under the purview of labour laws. With callous immunity,
many of the unscrupulous employers circumvent or openly
violate almost all pieces of labour legislation—whether the
Bidi and Cigarette Act, 1966, the Inter State Migrant Workman
Act, 1979, the Minimum Wage Act, 1948, the Factories and
Industrial Disputes Act, the Contract Labour (Regulation and
Abolition) Act, 1970, and the like.
The worse victims are the tribal rejas who work as daily
wage earners at different labour centres engaged in brick
kilns, construction works, transportation works, industrial
complexes, get their employment either by the contractors
or direct by the management or owners of the labour centre.
They have neither the benefit of minimum wages nor the
protection of the labour laws. The reja as a profession has not
only brought significant changes among the tribal society,
but it also brought about many more new types of social and
economic problems. Different types of peoples from different
corners of the state started working together in a new situ-
ation. This not only stretched the contact but they also were
exposed to many new types of situations which brought sig-
nificant changes in their life and culture. Besides working at
the various labour centres in districts of Bihar, the tribal rejas
are sent to some remote corners of the state and out of the state
also. The rejas are often subjected to exploitation either at the
hands of their contractors or employers or other associates.
The profile of the tribal reja is depressing and the lack of inad-
equate social security and welfare measure has engendered
in her feelings of fear, insecurity, alienation and frustration.
They are too weak to rebel because of their poverty, ignorance
and illiteracy and the employers know how to manipulate
the loopholes of legislation; how to evade their obligations
to exploit them for weakness and how to circumvent the law.
This study is based on the data collected from among
the tribal rejas of Ranchi district. The other cities of Bihar:
Adivasi Rejas in Bihar 101

Bhagalpur, Patna, Gaya have more or less the same area


under the municipal boundary. Since the study necessi-
tated collection of the first-hand information on the vari-
ous socio-economic aspects of the tribal rejas working in
different occupational categories like construction work,
brick kilns, transportation of raw materials, industrial com-
plexes, field work was conducted in various labour centres.
Information has been gathered from both the documentary
and field sources through observation, interview, schedules,
­photography.10 I have used observations and schedules' tech-
niques supported by interviews as basic tools of field inves-
tigation. The whole study is supported by case studies and
life histories. In most of the interviews notes were taken side
by side and doubtful information counterchecked.
Tribal rejas have been attracted by the prospects at distant
places like Siliguri and Burdwan. These women are lured
by agents called sardar or sardarni for jobs at distant places,
which results in migration. In the course of the field study
such migrant labourers came to light. For the tribals of Bihar
winter is a time when they face their annually recurring
choice between starvation and brutal exploitation.
In the tribal belt of Bihar land is undulating and acidic,
hence productivity is at its lowest. The agricultural season
is short (between June and October) and runs out soon after
the monsoon ends. The little usufructs which they have are
hypothecated to the sahus (moneylenders) against earlier
incurred loans. There are no irrigation facilities, electricity or
proper roads and thus the tribals can produce only one crop
annually. The forest land, which belongs to the government,
is also out of bounds for the poor tribals, the government
contracts out the forest lands to the highest bidder. Besides
this, parts of the tribal belts of Bihar have been occupied by
industrialists and trading communities for commercial inter-
ests because the areas are full of minerals and raw materials.
The tribals can only provide unskilled labour and contractors
bring in labourers from outside because they can be easily
manipulated.
102 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Around September agents of brick kiln owners come to


the tribal belt of Bihar in search of cheap labour; they estab-
lish contacts with sardars and sardarnis, local sub agents
also known as arkatia in the lingua franka of local tribals,
and the Mundas mean this as seller of human beings. They
are, sometimes, themselves tribals and have worked for sev-
eral years in many brick kilns (there are more sardarnis than
sardars and most of the people recruited from these regions
are woman rejas). Once recruited, the tribals are paid dadoon
or advance. The sardarni accompanies them to the brick kiln.
Once the tribals reach the brick kiln they are categorized
and work begins. The work of carrying bricks from where
they are moulded to the furnaces, where they are baked, is
usually done by women and children. Each reja receives just
enough money to buy about 4 kg of rice every week. This is
normally taken with salt and this is all they have to sustain
them through the long period of their hard work. Children
(between 8 to 13 years of age) face no better fate. In fact, they
are paid less, largely because their output is not as much as
that of adults and have to make do with rice and salt as their
daily diet.
The trade of adivasi labourers through contractors or
agents generally passes through three to four tiers. Mostly
the contractors trap the tribal leaders for the job, who are
given some commission. These tribal leaders, generally of the
status of Munda chiefs, known as Maniks, command good
respect among the tribals and encourage them to go with the
contractors for work. After being escorted up to the railway
station they are handed over to other contractors who take
them to the work sites at distant places by train. The con-
ditions are no better than that of animals which are loaded
onto trains or trucks. Outside the state there are certain stra-
tegic places from where the labourers are sent on to different
places like Siliguri, Hashimar, where the third contractor or
middleman receives them and then take them to different
work-sites. On reaching the work-sites, these labourers are
finally handed over to the real master which is the fourth
Adivasi Rejas in Bihar 103

tier of this labour-trade. The labourers construct temporary


huts. They work for 12 to 16 hours a day. Besides, the women
labourers—rejas—are subjected to various kinds of physical,
social and sexual exploitations.
Both the terms ‘reja’ and ‘coolie’ are widely known as
unskilled labour. Coolie is an established term for male labour
throughout the country. The term ‘reja’ is largely known as
female unskilled labour in the district of Keonjhar, Jharkhand
and in the mining and industrial areas of the eastern region.
But the term ‘coolie’ is never used in agricultural farm labour
in the eastern region.
There are different types of jobs which require tribal
woman labourers: brick kilns; construction work; transpor-
tation of raw/building materials on trucks; industrial com-
plex; and in miscellaneous types of work. The rejas who are
engaged in brick kilns mostly do the work of loading and
unloading the bricks. The rejas are sent to Chapra, Purnea,
Patna, Hazaribagh, Jamshedpur and out of the state to Uttar
Pradesh, Assam, Tripura, Nagaland, Punjab, Haryana,
Andaman and Nicobar, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya
Pradesh, West Bengal. The deployment of rejas from one
state to another is helpful in establishing the labour force
which leads to steady completion of any work. They prefer
to employ outstation labourers as the latter often leave aside
their jobs to some other places for even minor gains. These
contractors act as intermediaries between the management
and the rejas. Whether in Kalyani of Nadia district or Talabir
brick kiln in Mogra in Hooghly district, West Bengal, or in
any district in Bihar, the sardarni accompanied the rejas to
the brick kiln.
Construction works may pertain to buildings, road
making or repairing, stone quarries, river projects. One can
see a number of rejas standing in a line with their heads
wrapped in a dirty piece of cloth against dust, passing bricks
upto masons who are building a house. Although neatly clad
with a piece of chadar tied around their waist these rejas are
seen carrying cement, lime and mortar in large bowl shaped
104 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

receptacles (karahi) on their heads. Generally contractors


prefer employing the rejas of where the construction works
are in progress or being undertaken; the contractors’ assis-
tant, known as munshi, visits the nearby tribal villages.
In transportation, the loading and unloading are done by
those rejas who are kept reserved exclusively for this pur-
pose. When an order is received, the suppliers first arrange
to muster. First the driver of a truck collects the rejas from
their respective villages and brings them to the site and on
completion of the work they are reached back by the trucks
A set of seven-eight rejas are attached with a truck.
Rejas are absorbed temporarily in industrial complexes
through the contractual companies for doing casual work like
head-load-carrying, mortar making, water fetching. Through
the contractors they have the privilege of rendering duty as
per the normal working hours which, unfortunately, is not
the case with the rejas engaged in other trades.
The work of brick kilns generally starts from late October
and goes on to May because this being the dry season there
is no obstacles in brick making business. During the rainy
season the rejas work as casual agricultural labourers, maid-
servants, selling vegetables. Rejas working independently
may also be termed as free-lancers who set out early in the
morning from their villages in quest of any type of job in
the township so as to make both ends meet. These rejas can
be used for any type of jobs in view of their capabilities. The
rejas who work independently mostly prefer to work near
their respective villages. A number of tribal women directly
approached the owner of the brick kilns and started loading
and unloading the bricks on a temporary basis because they
are free to leave the job and go in search of other jobs.

WAGES
The availability of work in trucks is higher than any other
work available to them. They perceive construction work as
less strenuous and stressful but the availability of work is not
Adivasi Rejas in Bihar 105

Table 3.4 Rejas Weekly Average Income (in Rs)


Reja engaged Reja engaged in Construction Reja engaged
in brick kilns transportation of raw/ works in industrial
building materials on trucks complex
250–350 200–350 150–240 250–350

Source: Data available from field study.

as good as on trucks. On an average, rejas get hardly 15 days


of work in construction in a month. The senior and married
women prefer to work in construction and transportation
because it allows them to look after their children and family.
The level of income difference varies from `150 to `350
per week (Table 3.4). The level of variation is higher in trans-
portation work where as the income generation is lowest in
construction work. The uncertainty of income is much higher
in case of transportation and construction work. They are not
given any training and by regular working and watching the
senior rejas they gain expertise. Unfortunately, rejas special-
ized in certain works are not paid any additional remunera-
tion but find it easier in getting jobs.
Tribal rejas are kept in the most inhumanly state. Small
huts of bricks covered with the sheets of tin or with straws
are provided where health, hygiene and sanitary aspects are
very poor. There is also a total absence of electricity arrange-
ments in the brick kilns. They are allowed to attend a weekly
market from where they make purchases. The employer has
someone keeping a watchful eye on them.
In their home area, their earnings mean they are of higher
status as compared to other women. It has been observed
that above all a sizeable number of the rejas were engaged
as domestic servants because the jobs of maidservants are
very easily available in urban society for which they do not
have to struggle. That is why the tribal rejas engage with
different labour centres and bring about more income to their
families. The parents or guardians of the rejas have also no
objection because they are supplementing their families with
106 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

their income. Likewise in some cases husbands found that


pecuniary helplessness debarred them from preventing their
wives to be rejas. It is needless to say that with increased
income the status as well as the standard of living grows
by leaps and bounds. The highest contribution is made by
the rejas who are engaged in brick kilns. They contribute
80 per cent of their total income to the family. The rejas try to
copy the ways of life of the non-tribals who are working with
them either in the capacity of employer, munshi and other
associates other than that of the non-tribal communities. The
rejas who are engaged in construction and transportation
works, have more opportunities to move in urban areas and
their expenditures on clothes, refreshments, cosmetics, enter-
tainments are more in comparison to other rejas.
As the rejas cannot take time to do their household chores,
which fall on the other members of the family: their own par-
ents, brothers, sisters, husband, children, which cause much
anger against them. Most of the rejas are found to be under
stress because of the differential and preferential treatment
of their employers. Having been fully engaged in jobs, the
rejas can hardly please their spouses and thus a sort of tension
prevails in husbands and wives which disturbs their family
life altogether. It is evident that a good number of rejas are
separated or divorced.
Urbanization and industrialization have greatly influ-
enced the living conditions of the tribal rejas of Bihar who
chiefly come from the Oraon and the Munda tribes, besides
a few from the Lohra community as well. While studying
their living conditions it has been noted that the houses of
the tribal rejas are of traditional styles but many of the items
relating to household have changed. Likewise their dress
and ornamentation have not remained untouched; they have
almost forsaken their traditional dress and instead donned
sarees, blouses, petticoats, ribbons. Moreover, it has also
been noticed that unlike their parents or some old members
in their families the tribal rejas speak non-tribal languages.
Those who are in contact with the Hindu society have been
Adivasi Rejas in Bihar 107

greatly influenced by the Hinduism and even the Christian


rejas have taken to Hindu lifestyle.
Great changes are also noticed in their opinions and atti-
tudes. The majority prefer to be treated by the doctors instead
of ojhas. They now believe in imparting education to their
children which they previously opposed. Karma and Sarhul
festivals are still observed by them with gaiety just like other
tribals, and also Dussehra, Deepawali, Holi. they participate
in the festivities ungrudgingly and enjoy the fun mirthfully.

ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION
Employers or the entrepreneurs seldom maintain a regular
system of payments to the working rejas. Those who are com-
mitted to weekly payments to their rejas, often fail to stick
to weekly payment system and try to make certain excuses
for delays in payments. If such system of payment is carried
out in conformity with the Minimum Wages Act, then there
would not be any resentment or dissatisfaction among the
rejas. Since 80 per cent of the rejas are illiterate they very
easily fall prey to the hands of such exploiters and hardly
understand such intricacies and have to rely on their employ-
ers. In this way the ignorance and the innocence of the rejas
are exploited to an undesirable extent. They are also made
to work beyond the standard and prescribed 8 hours a day.

SOCIAL EXPLOITATION
A large number of rejas remain unmarried because their par-
ents delay or avoid getting them married in time for fear of
losing a substantial income source. Moreover, their society
looks at the rejas from scornful and derogatory angle because
the male tribals prefer to marry non-reja tribal girls as reja
girls are held to be unchaste. Second, there are examples that
husbands have deserted their wives who became rejas. These
women have worked for the betterment of their respective
families but are being subjected to much stress. It is better to
108 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

earn money than to die of starvation yet their husbands want


them to give up the work and look after their homes instead.

PHYSICAL EXPLOITATION
There is evidence of several cases of physical exploitation,
especially those rejas who have been working under contrac-
tors in brick kiln, construction work and also those who come
from outside Bihar from different places in India. They live
under the clutches of the contractors, sardar or other inter-
mediaries and on the mercy of their employers. In Bihar the
tribal labourers, both male and female, have been brought
from distant places to work in brick kiln. There are no proper
arrangements for drinking water and toilets. Medical facil-
ities are also missing. Regardless of the kind of labour, all
tribal rejas engaged in different types of work are also sub-
jected to physical exploitation. Sometimes it leads to suicide
and other criminal assaults also. Tribal rejas belonging to the
age-groups, 5–10 and 11–15 years, are working assiduously
in brick kilns, transportation work, construction sites. But the
greatest humiliation that the tribal rejas have to face pertains
to sexual exploitation. It is not uncommon for a tribal woman
to be locked up and beaten if she refuses to yield sexually
to her employer or local toughs. The tribal female labourers
who were subjected to torture are very innocent and poor
and that is why they do not dare to seek help of officials or
police due to the threat of the employers or perhaps they
feel ashamed.
About 30–40 women have disappeared every year from
Lohardaga region. As many as over 2000 minor or major
girls are enticed away to brick kilns or other working centres
every year; beautiful or attractive girls are generally sold to
the market of prostitution. But the contractors do not give
full account of the labourers to the labour department of
Bihar. Hence there is no record of the tribal women who are
economically and morally exploited by them.
Adivasi Rejas in Bihar 109

PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPLOITATION
Psychological exploitation occurs in the rejas’ day-to-day
workings. The rejas are psychologically depressed. When
engaged by brick kiln owners, managers, sardars, drivers,
they are subjected to sexual exploitation. Rejas are also
watched so that they may not escape.
In fine, it can be said that despite the existence of a lot of
regulations pertaining to labour welfare, there is a stagger-
ing gap in regard to their effective implementation. It can
be possible only if a monitoring cell exists at the nodal level
to check the effective implementation of the existing legal
safeguards for the labour in general and the tribal female
rejas in particular.

Case Study 1
We interviewed two Birhor women who are dwelling in
a slum of south Kolkata and work as domestic labour. In
every winter Ranja Majhi (35) and her mother in-law, Titri
Majhi (60), go to their village Ghoshbari (P.O. Champapur,
P.S. Bakhtiarpur, District-Patna), to work in the brick kilns.
Ranja explained to us the process of making bricks. She said,
first a clay mould is attached to a wooden base. Once the
mould is in the base, it is then left to dry and harden. This
takes a minimum of a week. Once the investment is dried,
the base is removed. Then it is again left to dry in the sun
heat. The work of brick making goes on for eight months,
from October to June. The work remains stopped for three
months, from July to September, that is, during monsoon. The
labour force constitutes equal number of men and women.
The wages are paid only after the completion of the entire
work; `4,000–6,000 rupees every month. During the monsoon
they often migrate to the cities like Delhi, Kolkata, or to others
in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana to work as domestic labour or
as labour to erect big buildings. She said that they are first
approached by an agent of the contractor with 50/100/500
110 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

rupees as an advance. They are taken to the kilns and got


engaged in the work. Titri Devi said that the labourers are
severely underpaid. The contractors exploit them through
various means. Though the women earn a good amount of
cash money, they have to face humiliation not only in the
workplace but also, as mentioned earlier, within their respec-
tive families. She wants her granddaughter (Sangeeta Majhi,
a class IV student) to be educated and not to work as a reja.
More or less 30 thousand children migrate to the brick kilns
in different seasons. They migrate annually with their fami-
lies from Jharkhand and Bihar to Barddhaman, Murshidabad,
North 24-Parganas, and Howrah of West Bengal spend
months working under miserable conditions for a meagre
pay. But brickfield owners, real estate developers who buy
bricks and government officials who are supposed to be
watching them all say they are not aware of any problem of
child labour. They get paid for each 1,000 bricks they mould
but it is not much. An adult can make 500 bricks a day; a kid
can make 200 to 300. Children start to work when they are
about nine or ten years old. Their education gets hampered
badly. No government thinks about starting bridge courses
for these migrating children. They are ‘nowhere children'
often called as ‘brick boy' or ‘brick girl'. From Jharkhand
alone, more than 77,000 children seasonally migrate. Seven
out of ten of these are destined for brick kilns; most of them
are headed for West Bengal.11

Case Study 2
Pukoro Rain (33) has a job to deliver freshly moulded bricks
to the furnace in a brick kiln in Hooghly district of West
Bengal. Pukoro, from Jharkhand, divorced her husband a
long while back because he was a drunkard and would often
beat her up. She has a 16-year-old daughter. She is presently
training her daughter as a brick kiln worker. Several other
women do the same tedious job and their husbands smash
Adivasi Rejas in Bihar 111

hard raw materials with hammers, packing the mix into brick
moulds and delivering these to the furnace. They work for
between 10 and 12 hours a day and end up with monthly
incomes around 1,500–2,000 rupees a month. Sukoro Rain
(23), also from Jharkhand, shares the same fate with her one
year old son. It is found that the women working with their
children as labourers are doubly disadvantaged as it takes a
toll on their health and also ruins the chances of education of
the children. Women have to bear the physical assault of their
alcoholic husbands. Women’s continuous exposure to heat
and mud gets them infected with silicosis, a disease caused
by inhalation of dust, and this is marked by inflammation
and characterized by shortness of breath, cough, fever and
a bluish skin.12 The bricks are used to build offices, factories,
call centres and cityscapes of a booming economic miracle,
but have sadly failed to bring an iota of change in the lives
of these people who give shape to the dreams of millions.

NOTES
1 The Hindu, 16 August 2009.
2 Ibid.
3 Census of India 1891, vol. III, Lower Provinces of Bengal—Provincial
Table XVI.
4 Weaver’s Combination Index is a simple measure designed to convey
the most accurate classification scheme—or intervals—to describe a
given body of data: in this case to determine the degree of occupational
specialization of a given tribe. For a brief discussion of the technique,
see J. Hammond, J. and M. McCullagh, 1974. Quantitative Techniques
in Geography (London: Longman): 27–31.
5 Shachi Arya, 1998. Tribal Activism—Voices of Protest (with special reference
to works of Mahasveta Devi) (Jaipur: Rawat Publication): 119–20.
6 B.B. Mandal and Kanika R. Sahoo, 1992. ‘Status of Tribal Women in
Bihar’, Man in India 72, 3: 281–92.
7 Dev Nathan and Govind Kelkar, 2012. ‘Civilizational Change: Markets
and Privatization among Indigenous Peoples’, in Adivasi Question:
Issues of Land, Forest and Livelihood edited by Indra Munshi: 337–67.
8 Alfred D’Souza, ed., 1975. Women in Contemporary India: Traditional
Images and Changing Roles (New Delhi: Manohar): ix.
112 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

9 Sachchidananda, 1978. ‘Social Structure, Status and Mobility Patterns:


The Case of Tribal Women’, Man in India 58, 1 (Jan–March): 9.
10 For a detailed study on tribal rejas see Sushama Sahay Prasad, 1988.
Tribal Woman Labourers: Aspects of Economic and Physical Exploitation
(Delhi: Gian Publishing House).
11 The Statesman, 12 June 2013.
12 The Statesman, 18 May 2014.
CHAPTER 4

Adivasi Women and Land Rights


in Jharkhand

IN COMMON WITH the food gatherer or even agriculturist


economies, where the agriculture is not the intensive one with
the heavy plough, women do a major part of the labour, not
only in the home but also in the field or forest. As elsewhere in
the eastern region, tribal women do not have ownership rights
on land. Till the coming of the British the tribes of Jharkhand
had clan ownership of land. The family right to land was only
usufruct. Descent even then was patrilineal. And marriage
was patrilocal. After the Permanent Settlement of 1793, land
became alienable, and the property of the male head of the
household. The clash between the residual usufructory right
of tribal women (important in the case of widows) and the
men’s absolute right of ownership is perhaps what is behind
the transformation of witch hunting from mere stigma or
expulsion from the village to a killing of the women con-
cerned. Whatever accumulation has taken place has been in
male hands. But there is one important respect in which the
control over female labour has not become absolute. Women
still retain the right of their earnings, whether from sale of
the forest produce, other commodities produced with their
labour, or by wage labour. For that reason, the subordination
114 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

of women in tribal society is not complete and they still retain


some autonomy within the family. Male domination increases
with the coming of the settled agriculture.

CONTESTING NOTION OF WED WITH


SARAIKELA KHARSAWAN
Despite the growing dissatisfaction amongst academ-
ics with romantic ecofeminist and ‘women, environment
and development’ (WED), generalizations about a special
­women-environment link, these ideas continue to be accepted
uncritically by development planners and government policy
makers. In particular, the translation of ideas about women as
the primary natural resource users and victims of environmen-
tal degradation into discourses on women-as-­environmental-
custodians continues to justify a strong emphasis on women’s
participation in environmentally-­oriented (particularly sus-
tainable development) programmes. A number of authors,
such as Bina Agarwal and Cecile Jackson, are particularly
critical of the essentializing and homogenizing tendencies
of ecofeminist ideology which romanticize the pre-modern
period. They have rejected the view of women and men as
unitary categories—undifferentiated by class, age, ethnicity,
region and wider political economy/ecology factors. They
have called for the replacement of WED by more robust
‘gender and development’ (GAD) and ‘gender, environment
and development’ (GED) perspectives.
Let us first discuss the limitations of WED/ecofeminist
approaches, which stereotype the role of adivasi women, and
discuss the relationship between gender and environment by
drawing upon my field study in adivasi-dominated villages
in Jharkhand. The collected information is based on primary
and secondary data compiled from relevant sources using dif-
ferent methodological tools of observation, interview, sched-
ule, focus group discussion, case study and content analysis.
The field work was conducted in the adivasi-dominated
Chatarma village of Nimdih block of Saraikela Kharsawan
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 115

district in September 2011, and some information was col-


lected from secondary sources1 on two other villages, namely,
Ambatoli and Jamtoli of Ranchi district to compare the situ-
ations prevailing there. The three main sample villages have
fairly similar ethnic compositions and environmental char-
acteristics. Chatarma village is dominated by Santhal and
Munda tribes, whereas Ambatoli and Jamtoli have predom-
inantly Oraon. One of the main differences between the two
sets of sample villages is their system of forest management,
which have an important influence on gender variations in
forest use and management and silvicultural knowledge
system more generally.2
It is widely accepted in the WED/ecofeminist literature
that forest use (especially fuel wood collection) and man-
agement in the developing world are predominantly female
activities. Vandana Shiva states that women play the key cen-
tral role in the forest economy, identifying men with hunting
and women with gathering. She said that women provide
up to 80 per cent of the daily food, whereas men contrib-
ute only a small portion by hunting.3 On management of
forest resources Shiva says, ‘it is primarily women who use
and manage the produce of forests and trees.’4 From this
hypothesis one would easily anticipate that tribal women
of Jharkhand possess extensive ecological knowledge. But
Kelkar and Nathan’s study indicates that forest use is rather
more evenly divided between women and men than many
WED/ecofeminist accounts suggest. Their findings also show
that silvicultural knowledges and forest-based management
systems are strongly male dominated in Jharkhand compared
to Shiva’s account of the situation in north India.5 According
to Dev Nathan, the mistakes made in Vandana Shiva’s analy-
sis are first to take the contribution of hunting at that time of
the year when it is at its lowest, and then to identify women
entirely with gathering. Adivasi women earn some money
by selling forest produce. Increasing the income from forestry
will thus help strengthen the position of women within the
family.6
116 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

In both Ranchi and Singhbhum districts, the fuelwood


collection season starts in late October, when the main agricul-
tural season is over, and finishes by the start of the monsoon in
June. In the area under study and also within Jharkhand, fuel-
wood collection and the gathering of NTFPs like fruit, seeds,
mushrooms, twigs, leaves and small branches, animal fodder
are regarded as jobs for women and girl children. They bring
sal leaves or sal toothbrush twigs (datun), ranu (herbs used
in rice beer fermentation), chiraita or sataur (jhareebooti or
medicinal herbs). They make sal leaf plates and press seeds for
oil. Other jointly conducted activities include the inoculation,
cutting and scraping of lac (for making shellac), cultivation
of tassar cocoons, collection of honey, wax, gum, resin and
gungu leaves for making raincoats and umbrellas.
Timber cutting, on the other hand, is a male-dominated
activity, although this seems to be for strength-related reason.
Cattle grazing is also strongly male-dominated. With the
exception of hunting and madwa (the thatched stage where
marriage rituals are performed) and timber collection, there
are no specific taboos restricting different forest-related
activities to men or women. Even, the taboo against women
hunting is sometimes broken amongst adivasis in the area
under study with the ritual Jani Shikar (women’s hunt) that
takes place every twelve years. There are also taboo against
women carrying items on their shoulders (which is done by
men only) rather than on their heads. Indeed, the method by
which adivasis carry items is so sex-specific that one way of
asking about the sex of a new born baby is ‘to ask whether
the child will carry on the head or the shoulder’.7
Regarding the collection of large timber, gender divisions
of labour are rather more pronounced in Munda villages
where only men go to the forests to bring wood for the con-
struction and repair of buildings and agricultural implements.
It has been found during the field work that although adi-
vasi women spend more time collecting ­subsistence-related
forest produce than adivasi men, the total number of hours
spent in the forest by men and women is roughly equal.8
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 117

Reflecting wider taboos that restrict women’s control over the


production process, it is common in Singhbhum for adivasi
women to be allowed to collect large timber only when male
household members are either indisposed or away and even
then they can only bring limited numbers of small diame-
ter poles. When no male household members for the collec-
tion of such items are available and large timber is required,
Munda women have to rely upon the madad system whereby
male villagers from the same community provide labour in
exchange for a specified amount of food and rice beer per
person per day. In Oraon areas, by contrast, there are signifi-
cantly fewer cultural restrictions on women collecting large
timber from forest areas.
In addition, there are many examples of women doing
men’s work and men doing women’s work. Environmental
degradation and economic hardships have made it necessary
for men to help women and force women to act as heads
of households while men migrate. Thus, in the entire study
area men and women from all tribal communities participate
fairly equally in timber cutting and fuelwood collection and
also in any replanting work. Kelkar and Nathan argue that in
Jharkhand: ‘there is a considerable sharing of jobs with some,
not very rigid, division of labour. Gathering activity engages
the whole family’.9 The items most commonly gathered by
men are economically valuable tree-borne oil seeds such as
sal, mahua and piyar. The marketing of these products is also
usually carried out by men whereas women tend to gather and
sell less valuable fruits, leafy vegetables, sal leafs and sal twigs.
A major theme within ecofeminist ideology is the idea that
women’s silvicultural knowledge exceeds that of men. But
the evidence collected during field survey suggest that even
in the most female-dominated tasks such as fuelwood cutting,
it is men who possess the greatest silvicultural k ­ nowledge.10
In contrast to Vandana Shiva’s view that indigenous forest
management is ‘largely a women’s domain for producing
sustenance’,11 studies on community and joint forest man-
agement initiatives throughout India indicate that the ‘job
118 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

of (forest) management is essentially a male one’ as it is men


and not women who have the greater role in village-level
decision making.12
Significantly though rarely, when adivasi women do speak
out in forest management committee meetings, they look
very assertive and outspoken and they are quite forthright
in their views about forest decline and the problems of fuel-
wood collection. But it is also a cruel truth that, most witch-
craft accusations are directed against women who appear
to transgress existing social norms by asking for greater
role in the decision-making process or property ownership
rights. Needless to say that, if joint forest management gives
women primary responsibility for forest management, there
might be an increase in witchcraft accusations as men seek
to re-establish their traditional control over forest resources.
One important exception to male dominance is the village
of Maheshpur in Anghara Block, Ranchi district, where a
self-initiated, all-women forest protection committee took
over from the former male-dominated committee when
disputes arose in 1991. The tribal women’s committee has
between 400 and 500 members and meets weekly. In addition
to its role in forest protection, the committee also operates a
kind of bank to which members contribute a small amount
of money per week and from which they can, if required,
take loans.13
In Munda-dominated villages, decisions are taken by the
gram sabha of traditional panchayats which is an exclusively
male domain. One possible reason why female-dominated
forest protection committees are more common in Oraon
areas may stem from the greater participation of Oraon
women in agriculture, which makes them more aware of
forest and village boundaries than their Munda counterparts.

CASE STUDY 1
A report published by The Statesman14 describing an excep-
tionally brilliant mission conducted by the Santhal women of
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 119

Jharkhand to protect the local wildlife by saving the forests,


which have been fast vanishing due to the havoc caused by
the timber mafia in the area, is a landmark in the theory
of WED. A part of the Maoist movement’s red corridor,
Saraikhela Kharsawan has seen insurgency, with many of the
local poverty-ridden villagers drawn into the armed struggle.
It is one of the most backward districts of the country and has
been given special status as one of the central government’s
Backward Regions Grant Fund Programme. According to
the state government’s Forest Department records, over a
period of two decades Jharkhand as a whole has gradually
lost 50 per cent of its ‘protected’ 24-lakh hectare forest.
Chami Devi Murmu aged 42, of Barisai village, which
falls in the Rajnagar block of Saraikhela Kharsawan, has
mobilized adivasi women from over 40 villages to plant sal,
eucalyptus and acacia trees, among others, to replenish the
heavily depleted green cover. The eco-brigade of Self Help
Group women has planted more than a million trees and has
also developed watersheds to help raise the ground water
levels in the region. Their organization, the Sahyogi Mahila
Group, a cluster of various SHGs, is now planting trees and
also protecting them. The reforestation drive started ten
years ago, keeping the needs of the local people in mind.
The group began by planting acacia trees that are best suited
for firewood. These were followed up with the hardy neem,
sal, sagwan and sheesham that are useful in building homes
and making furniture. Mango and Guava trees were planted
for their fruit. The land, that had been barren due to very
poor irrigation facilities, is now yielding paddy and arhar
dal (yellow lentil) because of local efforts to build watersheds
in the area. Women started making diversion canals, small
sheds, float bindings, and water harvesting tanks to save
water.
The movement started in 1988 is getting bigger. The
women brigade is now conducting rallies in villages to
mobilize more women to join them. So far, they have 3,000
dedicated volunteers and together they connect more than
120 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

45 villages. The volunteers do not just keep a track of the trees


planted; they look for an area where there is a need for ded-
icated watersheds. In fact, villages like Pandugiti, Bagraisai,
Jaharkani and Mochisai have their own version of small dams
to save water and irrigate the fields. The group has also been
able to persuade men to get back to farming paddy and con-
tributing in the household with other work. On their part,
the adivasi women are chipping in with extra income by
making the tendu and sal leaf plates and selling them in the
local markets. Chami Devi Murmu says ‘Jharkhand’ means
‘the land of forests’ and in our local Santhal language it also
means ‘a piece of gold’. Our survival is dependent on our
ability to save our forests.’15 Govind Kelkar has given an
example of the impact of climate change on adivasi women’s
livelihoods in Khuti district of Jharkhand. Gradually with
the assistance of a local NGO called PRADAN (Professional
Assistance for Development Action), the adivasi women
introduced new seed sticks of lac, brought from Chhattisgarh
and Andhra Pradesh. But due to erratic rain and fog in the
month of March they are sceptical about the result of these
efforts. This example shows that unless the adivasi women
are helped to adapt to climate change, progress in social and
economic development is likely to be blocked.16

TRIBAL WOMEN IN INDUSTRIAL SECTOR


The arrival of technological advancement has brought both
the villages and cities into new socio-economic structures
leading to a new process of change—industrialization.
Agriculture, which was one of the major traditional econo-
mies and the only source of income in India, is being rapidly
supplemented by the other economy, industry. There is con-
tinuous social change due to a large expansion of industrial-
ization in Jharkhand, which is experiencing industrialization
after signing MoU between the state government and about
one hundred private sector undertakings in the past few
years. The process of industrialization in Jharkhand began in
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 121

1856 with the expansion of the coal mining industry in Jharia


and Karnapura area of Dhanbad district. Industrialization
which awakened the tribals of East Singhbhum district
started spreading in the beginning of the twentieth century
with the installation of Tata Iron and Steel Company (TISCO)
at Jamshedpur in 1907. Since then, Jharkhand has been caught
by industrial revolution and rapid industrialization.
With the advent of industrial forces and transmigration
of various populations these tribal folks were exposed to
new cultural experiences which resulted in giving them some
sort of a cultural shock. The bureaucratic machinery man-
aging Indian social planning in the 1950s thought that the
only answer to the total eradication of poverty was concen-
trated effort towards industrialization. Tribal communities
were now facing the challenge of machine technology; which
demanded not only a change in an economic pursuit, but a
total reorientation of their socio-religious lives and also dis-
turbed the established political order and gave vent to social
conflict. The forces of modernization have also produced
changes in the thinking of tribal women. Although tribal
women contribute substantially to the agricultural activities
they are debarred from trade or service which require greater
mobility and contact with outsiders. Only in primary sector
of employment tribal women have got more employment
than non-tribal women. But in secondary and tertiary sectors
their employment is negligible.17

CASE STUDY 2
What was the impact of the introduction of a large steel plant
at Bokaro upon the life of the industrially affected Santhal
tribe? The entire core of the Bokaro industrial zone covering
about 167.25 sq km of land was characterized by agricul-
tural low land (don), upland (tanr) and scattered villages and
the main occupation was agriculture. Rain was the primary
source of irrigation with kuccha wells and tanks as the sub-
sidiary sources. All the industrially affected villages had one
122 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

single crop with rice as the chief crop. Daily wage labour
under landlords, mukhias and other rich persons was also
practised as the substitute economy. Pucca and kuccha wells
were the main source of drinking water.
I visited nine industrially affected villages of Bokaro-
Gorabali, Ranipukhar, Sangjouri, Kamaldi, Telidi, Ritudih,
Dumro, Maango and Khutri. The dominant tribals are the
Santhals. Gorabali village is just adjacent to the steel plant.
Most of the tribals asserted that their stable traditional econ-
omy was completely disrupted; the majority of the tribal
women were working as rejas under the contractors for the
survival of their family. The majority of the tribals felt that
the Bokaro Steel Plant had affected their culture adversely.
The Santhals said their economy was destroyed, family
destabilized and most of the cultural elements were lost.
No proper displacement facilities have been provided as yet.
The same view was persisting among the tribals of Ritudih
village as well. In Kamaldi and Khutri villages the Santhals
were angry that the Bokaro Steel Plant authorities had not
provided adequate employment facilities, and agitations
continue against it.18
The situation in Gumia village in Karmatand industrial
complex of Chotanagpur plateau is similar. Their peaceful
life was disturbed by the government’s decision to establish
Indian Explosives Limited (IEL) in their vicinity. Suddenly
a structure of expectation was created both at the individ-
ual’s level as well as at the planner’s platform. The tribals
thought that the factory would provide them regular source
of income and that is why they surrendered their lands and
accepted whatever monetary compensation was offered to
them in a lump sum. The villagers were assured that at least
one member of each household would be absorbed as a per-
manent employee in the factory. But since an industry like
IEL requires the service of trained and technically skilled per-
sonnel, the natives of Gumia could attain jobs in the factory
only as casual labourer that neither provided good income
nor ensure regular employment.19 Cultural contact coming
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 123

from urban areas with industrialization brought some tokens


of modern means of communication, clothing, language,
but this failed to promote the level of education, health and
hygiene.

CASE STUDY 3
In Noamundi, Barajamda and Gua in West Singhbhum dis-
trict, a large number of iron ore mines of varying sizes and
proportions are in existence. Other industries have also devel-
oped in this district due to its richness in mineral deposits
and forest products. Iron ore in this area occurs in huge sur-
face deposits and thus there is open cast mining. Before the
mines came into existence (mostly after the independence),
this area was heavily clad in forests, interspersed with vil-
lages with predominant Ho population. Production in most
of the mines is labour intensive and is dependent primarily
on an unskilled labour force. Ho labourers from the immedi-
ate tribal hinterland compose the bulk of the labourers with
a sprinkling of Mundas and Santhals. A large number of
tribal women are also employed as unskilled labourers. In
a small iron ore mine which was surveyed, the total work
force was about 490 of which 370 were men and the rest 120
were women. These mines provide some subsidiary income
to the tribal peasants during off season and the rate of absen-
teeism among the labourers in these mines is very high. One
of the significant consequences of involvement of the tribes
in industrialization is the removal of a large section of male
labour force from the primary sector, and dependence on
women in maintaining the agriculture, because women are
instrumental in maintaining this agro-industrial economic
pursuit.
Jhinkpani shows how the Ho cling both to agriculture
and industrial occupation and women play the vital role in
the maintenance of the dual economic involvement. The fac-
tory and township of the Chaibasa Cement Works (C.C.W.)
is located at Jhinkpani, district, West Singhbhum. The Ho
124 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

constitute about half of the total workforce of the industry


concerned. Women are mainly engaged in the limestone
quarry. In Jhinkpani women are the main farm workers.
We find that polygyny is significantly high in the town in
comparison to that in the villages. One of two wives from a
polygynous marriage lives in the village and looks after the
agriculture whereas the other manages the town household.
In many private industries the recruitment of women is
sometimes discouraged and they are encouraged to retire
voluntarily under voluntary retirement schemes with a lump
monetary incentive, newly introduced by the company. One
of most important cultural barriers is marriage between
tribal girls and non-tribal boys which is highly disliked and
resented by the tribals. In Chittaranjan, six cases of irregular
sex union of Santhal girls with members of other communi-
ties were reported where all the girls were excommunicated.
Later in Jhinkpani the night shift for the women workers
was stopped.20

IMPACT OF INDUSTRIALIZATION ON TRIBAL


WOMEN
In and Out Migration
The integration of tribal societies of eastern India with the
colonial system, coupled with the influx of population from
the mainland, led to many far-reaching consequences, which
ultimately resulted into serious tribal movements. Along
with the loss of control over land, forest and other resources,
the threat to their cultural system have stirred up the tri-
bals deeply. The close proximity with the new settlers led
to the acculturation or Sanskritization process. It posed a
potential threat to their culture, which had allowed wom-
enfolk to have a very open and free working space in the
­agriculture-cum-forest economy so far. Since colonial rule
had already initiated certain process affecting tribal life, the
deviation from the traditionally accepted economic-­social
role by becoming labourer in mines, construction work, brick
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 125

kilns, plantations, and migrating to far-off places led to the


tribal woman losing social status within tribal society. In
Jharkhand, the system of male inheritance prevalent among
the major tribes has somewhat affected their position, which
is economically weak, dependent and insecure.21 Besides,
there existed certain taboos restricting women’s free move-
ment in certain essential areas of agricultural production.22
Though women’s participation in wage work has been equal
to that of men, agricultural wages paid to them have almost
always been lower. In spite of several legislative enactments,
the discrepancies in wage structure continue to haunt them.
In the industrial sector gender discrimination operates in
obtrusive ways in many industries and mining. The majority
of the women labourers in Chotanagpur, after being margin-
alized from agriculture and industries or mines, have started
working as casual labourers.
According to Shashank Shekhar Sinha, postcolonial
migrations have both intra- and inter-state dimension and
some distinctive features as well. First, they are relatively
temporary or seasonal in character. Second, the migrations
will be directed along two routes: from rural areas to urban
or industrial areas. These migrations have more of a male
component or at times, also inter-state to cater to the demands
of an ever-expanding construction industry (which has a
substantial female component). Third, men migrate to the
urban areas leaving behind their womenfolk to look after
the agricultural operations in the villages. Thus male labour
force is getting removed from the primary sector and there-
fore greater dependence on women in doing the agricultural
work. With their men away, women are left alone to deal
with exploitative elements like the moneylenders, landlords
and businessmen. Adivasi women in areas with low female
literacy are particularly susceptible to these elements leading
to land alienation, being cheated in weighing and pricing and
also being sexually exploited. The expansion of the construc-
tion industry led to the tribal migrations in the 1970s and this
is the period when development-induced dispossession was
peaking up in the Chotanagpur region and tribal women
126 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

faced nightmarish working conditions in industrial sites.23


This exploitation continues even after the enactment of the
Inter-State Migrant Workman (Regulation of Employment
and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979, which calls for better
service conditions, accommodation and wage structure for
the migrants.24
Alpa Shah has given an idea about tribal migration
which is completely different from the prevailing notions.
She has worked in the village of Tapu, less than 50 km from
Ranchi, situated in the undulating landscape of forest of
the Chotanagpur Plateau.25 There are scheduled tribes like
Munda, Oraon, Badaik and Maheli and other lower-caste
people live in the village. Alpa Shah has said that from
the point of view of the migrants of Tapu, migration to the
brick kilns (Daisy Brick Factory, Jharkhand) did not just rep-
resent a way to earn money, nor was it seen as the torture
and drudgery that much of the scholarly and activist liter-
ature portrays. Payment was at piece rates—`22 for carry-
ing 1,000 unbaked bricks, and `32 for 1,000 baked bricks.
Payment took place at the end of the season. A monthly sum
of money was given to each worker to cover living expenses,
and subtracted from the final pay. Labourers expected that,
after paying their living costs, hard-working couples could
take home 8,000–9,000 rupees for the six-month season. It
was far more common to hear of individuals who manage
to save only 2,000 rupees. The major reason for this shortfall
was cheating on the part of employers and contractors.
It is not contradictory to view labour migration to the kilns
as exploitative, while also appreciating that most migrants
not only view their movement as a choice but also as tem-
porary, space away from the social constraints back home.
According to Shah, the migrants themselves rarely stressed
economic motivations. They saw the brick kilns as a space
in which they could do certain things and be certain people
away from home. These are important dimensions of sea-
sonal, casual labour migration which are rarely considered
as a primary impetus for migration in the scholarly literature
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 127

and which have generally been ignored by the activists. She


has surmised that from the migrant’s point of view, economic
motivations may be less important than liberation from the
constraints of village life—obligations of kinship, domestic
disputes, and a narrow-minded and oppressive environment.
One of the most important constraints is amorous relation-
ships in the tribal villages are strictly prohibited.
As Shah has stated clearly, premarital sexual relations
are common among the Mundas in Tapu. The restriction on
such relations, however, is that they must not become per-
manent. Marital partners should not be chosen by the boy
or girl, but by their parents. While it was not necessary for a
bride to be a virgin, marital partners should not have previ-
ously engaged in sexual relations with each other. Premarital
lovers who want a more permanent relationship commonly
use the tactic of leaving for the kilns. Frequently, they return
after the woman is several months pregnant. The increas-
ing brahmanical and Christian influence has led to the dis-
appearance of the dhumkuria (youth dormitory) and the
decline of the akhra (dancing circles) in some areas. It seems
perhaps, brick kilns have become a functional surrogate
for the spaces of freedom from the brahmanical constraints
that were once provided by the akhra or the dhumkuria.
Migration also provides the space to explore unions within
a clan or between tribes and castes that are prohibited in
the village, as well as postmarital affairs. This is not to say,
however, that every young person who goes to the kilns
engages in amorous relationships. It was also very common
that when a woman is being accused of witchcraft, the brick
kilns provide a welcome space of escape from the malicious
village gossip.
Living in the city normally holds the promise of diverse
employment opportunities and access to public spaces for
women. For tribal women, however, their access to urban
spaces and work opportunities is mostly limited to domestic
work, which engaged almost 78 per cent of the total migrant
female population in the village of Nawadih in Gumla district.
128 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

These work opportunities are based on the assumption that


women need not acquire special skills to carry out domestic
work in the cities. A deep-rooted nexus exists between local
job contractors and unregulated placement agencies and is
instrumental in the exploitation of domestic workers. For
many tribal women migrants, the only way out of the village
is through migrating for domestic work in the city.26
Industrialization not only increased cultural contacts
between tribal and caste societies and exposed the latent
contradictions in the tribal societies but also created new
structures of oppression and control. Sanskritization emerged
as a dominant process of assimilation of the tribal societies
into caste societies. But as compared to Hinduism, conver-
sion to Christianity was more complete and comprehensive.
The forces of industrialization and urbanism also loosened
many of the traditional moorings and cultural norms, while
simultaneously providing for new and gendered situations
of work. Tribal girls acquired new dress habits, dominant
language, pre-puberty marriage, marriage with non-tribal
men, going to the cinema, consuming country liquor, tobacco;
and dhumkuria, community dance, consumption of rice beer
gradually became non-existent. There was also the emergence
of prostitution that was evidenced by the case of Bokaro
industrial region.

Dispossession
We have to look at dispossession from the wider perspective
of developmental activities. Displacement becomes a prob-
lem because of the dispossession that results from it. In the
name of ‘development’ for ‘national interest’, the Jharkhand
area is witnessing not development but the rape of its people
and of its natural wealth through a process of colonialist and
capitalist exploitation (Table 4.1). The brutality inherent in
the process of industrialization, the plundering of its min-
eral wealth, and the decimation of its forests which provided
much of the livelihood for its people, have not only reduced
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 129

Table 4.1 Tribals Displaced from 1950 to 1990 (in tens of millions)
Project type Displaced Resettled Backlog Backlog percentage
Dams 53 13.15 39.86 75.21
Mines 12 3 9 75.00
Industries 2.6 0.65 1.95 75.00
Animal Sanctuaries 5 1.25 3.75 75.00
Others 1.5 0.4 1.1 73.33
Total 74.1 18.45 56.26 75.92

Source: A. Minz, 2000. ‘Development and/or Destruction in Jharkhand:


Growing Fascism’ Update Collective quoted in Prakash Louis, ‘Marginali­
zation of Tribals’ EPW (Nov): 4088.

the majority of its inhabitants to destitution, but has also


brought the area to the brink of an ecological disaster.27
Nirad C. Chaudhuri had a few meaningful points to make
about the exploitation of adivasis. In The Continent of Circe,
described as ‘an essay on the peoples of India’, Chaudhuri
wrote, ‘In my own life I have seen the march of industrialisa-
tion into the aboriginal’s territory—I am quite familiar with
the spot where it established its first base, and began the
conquest with its most typical feature—cooperation between
Indian capital and American technical guidance. This hap-
pened at a place in the Singhbhum district of Chotanagpur,
which came to be named Jamshedpur.’
Chotanagpur Plateau is one of the richest areas in the
whole country, rich in minerals with huge reserves of coal,
iron ore, mica, bauxite, and china clay and has considerable
reserves of copper, manganese, limestone, atomic minerals. A
report of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) has
focused on mining and extensively documents the state-wise
environmental impact of mining in India. For Jharkhand, the
report notes that, ‘feeding minerals to meet the nation’s insa-
tiable appetite has turned large tracts of forests into waste-
lands’. The proposed scale of some of the projects in terms
of land acquisition by the Mittals, the Jindals, and the Tatas
is an indication of things to come (Table 4.2).28
130 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Table 4.2 Forest Cover in Mining Districts of Jharkhand, 2005


Districts Percentage of Percentage of Major
state forests in area in district minerals
the district under forest cover produced
Hazaribagh 9.19 34.81 Coal
West Singhbhum 16.78 38.47 Iron ore,
manganese
Ranchi 8.25 24.36 Coal
Gumla 11.28 28.24 Bauxite
East Singhbhum 4.06 26.13 Copper
Chatra 7.87 47.91 Coal
Dhanbad 0.92 6.94 Coal
Bokaro 2.56 30.12 Coal

Source: Centre for Science and Environment, ‘Rich Lands, Poor People’: 163.

But the natural wealth of this area contrasts vividly with


the desperate poverty of the people, among whom 85–90 per
cent of the total population are adivasis, who inhabit it. In
Hazaribagh, the requirement of Environmental Impact
Assessment, which has been mandatory since the 1970s,
was undermined by a 2001 draft notification where a carte
blanche was given to mining projects with a lease of up to
25 hec­tares, widening of highways, and modernization of
irrigation without the displaced people’s prior informed
consent or public hearing. To date, the statistics show that
50 per cent of the mining leases were below 25 hectares, thus
excluding them from Environmental Impact Assessment. It
has been estimated that 50,000 adivasis will be displaced in
Jharkhand alone.29
According to M. Areeparampil, the basic phenomenon
that characterizes the situation of indigenous people of
Chotanagpur Plateau is that of dispossession through depri-
vation of their land and denial of benefits of ­development.30
They are dispossessed of their political autonomy and
their communities are being broken up in the name of
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 131

‘development’ and ‘national interest’. ‘They are ­dispossessed


of their cultures, their values, and their very identity through
well-planned policies, such as those of integration and assim-
ilation, of bringing them to the so-called ‘national main-
stream’.31 Almost all the major steel plants in India are located
in what was once tribal land. These factories attracted men
and women from all parts of the country who soon began
to encroach on the homes, hills, fields and jungles of the
adivasis. Everyone has done well save those who were once
owners of the land on which the factories stand. But it was
in Jamshedpur, the brightest jewel in the Tata crown, that
the history of pauperization of the primitives began in right
earnest. When once in a while someone like Shankar Guha
Neogi in Bhilai-Rajhara or Nirmal Mahato in Jamshedpur
has emerged to make the tribals aware of their stolen rights
and the need to retrieve them, they have been silenced—the
former shot in his sleep, the other done away with likewise
as he stepped out of the Tisco guest house in Jamshedpur.
One of the major causes of land alienation and displace-
ment in the area is the mining industry, particularly coal
(Table 4.3).

Table 4.3 Number of Families Displaced and Number of Jobs


Provided by Coal India Ltd.
Sl. Company No. of families No. of jobs provided
No. displaced to one member of the
family
1 Eastern Coalfields Ltd. 14,750 4,915
2 Central Coalfields Ltd. 7,928 3,984
3 Western Coalfields Ltd. 6,232 2,250
4 Bharat Coking Coal Ltd. 3,481 752
Total 32,751 11,901

Source: Report of the Committee on Rehabilitation of Displaced Tribals due


to Development Projects (1985), New Delhi, Ministry of Home Affairs,
Government of India.
132 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

The pioneering industrial concern of the region is Tata


Iron & Steel Company that caused virtual disappearance
of the original tribal inhabitant. According to the Dhebar
Commission Report, 1,231 Scheduled Tribes families were
displaced for the Rourkela Steel Project from 8,158 acres of
land and only 843 of them of them were settled on land; for
the Mandira Dam 817 ST families were displaced from 4,225
acres and only 447 of them were settled on a total area of
1,696 acres.32 The Heavy Engineering Corporation Limited,
established at Hatia in 1958, displaced 2,198 families or a
total population of 12,990. These families belonged to Oraon
and Munda tribes and some Hindu castes. Bokaro Steel Plant
displaced 12,487 families, 2,707 of them were tribals.33

CNTA AND SPTA


The Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (1908) (CNTA) and Santhal
Pargana Tenancy Act (1949) (SPTA) were enacted specifically
to protect tribal land from being expropriated by non-tribals.
Sections 46 and 47 of the CNTA clearly restrict the transfer
of land in the Chotanagpur region, only to a member of the
same caste/tribe as the original raiyat, who should also be
a resident of the same police station area. This law was an
impediment to the new industrial-urban development. As
a result, the CNT Act was amended in 1947 by the addi-
tion of Section 49, so that tribal land could be acquired for
the purposes of urbanization and industrialization and for
developmental projects, including mining. Section 53 in the
SPTA allowed acquisition of land for mining and some other
specified purposes. But this section had been declared ultra
vires by the Patna High Court in 1969 in the case of Buddinath
Mishra vs State of Bihar and others (civil writ jurisdictions
case no. 738 of 1967). There is a certain ambiguity here, as
the SPTA has not been amended by then and there was no
provision under SPTA which allows land to be acquired for
mining in the Santhal Pargana’s region. But there are lawyers
who argue that the 1969 verdict itself is invalid in the light
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 133

of the later constitutional amendment removing the right to


property as a fundamental right.34
Recently CNTA, 1908, Amendment Bill of 2016 has been
arbitrarily passed in the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly
without even proper discussion and debate. Moreover, some
changes were made in the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act, 1949
as well. This has paved way for unbridled corporate loot and
plunder of adivasi land and livelihood. These Amendments
empower the government to usurp land for ‘non-agricultural
purposes’, to make commercial use of their land, something
that was prohibited till now. Also, it will adversely affect
the pro-adivasi/marginalized provisions of the Panchayat
Extension to Scheduled Areas (PESA) Act, 1996, The Right to
Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition,
Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013, Forest Rights Act
2006, and so on. The Jharkhand government has been con-
sciously attempting to enact policies for serving the interests
of the corporations.
Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land
Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement (LARR) Bill
2013 passed by both Houses to ‘reduce forcible acquisition
and help tackle Naxalism in mineral rich areas’. But with
Coal Bearing Areas Acquisition and Development (CBA)
Act 1957, Land Acquisition (Mines) Act 1885, and Damodar
Valley Corporation (DVC) Act 1948, along with 10 other laws,
exempt from the Land Bill, the central government has its
own acquisition in mineral rich areas such as Jharkhand
out of the law’s purview. Some adivasi areas like Latehar,
Palamau and Garhwa do not even come within the purview
of the tenancy acts.
The cement dust from the ACC cement factory at Jhinkpani
in Singhbhum is polluting the air and making vast areas of
agricultural land practically useless. The red oxide from the
slag dams at Noamundi iron ore mines has destroyed vast
areas of paddy fields during the rainy season in several vil-
lages around them. The influx of the dikus and the gradual
criminalization of the society due to prostitution, communal
134 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

riots, robbery, and so on, are other reasons for the simple
adivasis to opt out of such areas. For instance, into the com-
position of the government in the early years after the forma-
tion of the state, one would find that almost every important
portfolio, from finance to labour and from health to housing,
was in the hands of the diku.
According to Directory of Mines and Mine Leases published
in 1976 by the Indian Bureau of Mines, there were about 300
mines operating in Singhbhum and more than 151,000 acres
of land were leased out, owned mostly by private agencies.
The Uranium Corporation of India Ltd. (UCIL), situated
at Jadugora in East Singhbhum is the only producer in the
country of the vital nuclear fuel needed in all atomic reactors
fed by natural uranium. Exact figures are not yet available
about the extent of land alienation and displacement due to
uranium mining and allied activities.35 The Jharkhand state
cabinet has recently approved the second lease renewal of
the UCIL, which had been pending since 2007.36 During flash
floods in June 2008, radioactive uranium waste dumped into
a tailing pond in Jadugora reportedly spilled over into nearby
village ponds, wells and fields, and destroyed crops as well.
It has been found that children in many villages close to the
uranium-bearing Jadugora region are born with congenital
disability, which is a matter of grave concern for the state.
The tribal areas are not completely free from the threat
of fresh displacement. The government often tries to revive
those projects, which had earlier been discontinued following
protests. For example, the local tribals vehemently opposed
the Koel-Karo Hydro Electric Power Project, under which two
dams were proposed to be set up at Basia (Gumla district) and
Lohajimi (Ranchi district) in Jharkhand in 1975. This culmi-
nated in a pathetic incident on 2 February 2001, in which nine
protesters were killed and 22 seriously injured when a large
contingent of police force opened fire on a 4,000–5,000 strong
crowd.37 In a film entitled, Development Flows from the Barrel
of the Gun, this case of police barbarism has been shown.38
It is common knowledge that many of the adivasi elected
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 135

political leaders or village elders contribute to their continued


enslavement and degradation by direct or indirect collusion
with the politician-civilian-capitalist-contractor combine (see
also Chapter 3).

CASE STUDY 4
Nagri village, about 20 km from the Jharkhand capital of
Ranchi, has been in the eye of a storm for several months
now. Without consulting the inhabitants of the village, the
government of Jharkhand acquired 227 acres of tribal land
to construct a Central Law University, an Indian Institute of
Management and several institutes of information technol-
ogy. The adivasis of Nagri claim that the land is agricultural,
and has been so for generations and, therefore, the govern-
ment should look elsewhere for the proposed educational
hub. Ranchi city was in grip of protest by the villagers under
the leadership of the popular tribal leader, Dayamani Barla
of the Adivaasi Moolvaasi Astitva Raksha Manch (Forum for
the Protection of Tribal and Indigenous People’s Identity).
She had been leading several campaigns against displace-
ment of tribals.39 Nagri might well inflict a similar blow like
Singur and Nandigram in West Bengal.

CASE STUDY 5
The Jharkhand government approved construction of the
dam on the Chata River at Jabra village in Karra block of
Khunti district that would submerge 365 hectares of about
100 tribal families. But Triveni Engicons Private Limited,
the company that begged the tender, did not follow proce-
dures before starting the project. Unsuspecting people got
a rude shock on 10 December 2010 when they saw vehicles
driving onto their land and contractors performing bhoomi
pujan. Soon, heavy machines trooped in and construction
began. Angry over the forced acquisition of their land, people
staged several protests. What followed were arrests by the
136 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

police and the abduction of two local residents. Here also


the movement was led by Dayamani Barla who filed three
RTI applications—with the state water resources department,
its Khunti district office, and the land acquisition cell of the
revenue department.40

TRIBAL WOMEN IN AGRICULTURAL SECTOR


IN WEST SINGHBHUM
It is true that the problem of technologically stagnant and rain-
fed agriculture, low cropping intensity (monocropping) and
yields, a marketing system cornered by middlemen, lack of
institutional credit facilities and heavy indebtedness gravely
afflict the tribals: per capita land holdings and income have
been declining slowly and steadily.41 More and more tribals
are reduced to the ranks of sharecroppers or migrant agri-
cultural labourers, a large proportion of whom are women
migrants in both seasonal and long term migration stream.42
My field work was carried on in Mirra village in September
2011, in the south of West Singhbhum district, surrounded
by a Protected Forest Block. Previously all the lands were
forested but today they have been brought under cultiva-
tion. Deforestation is rampant in these areas. Singhbhum is
very rich in mineral resources. More than a quarter of the
total mining activity in India is carried on in this area. But
the poor tribals of this area have hardly benefited from this
massive industrialization and urbanization. The Ho tribals of
Singhbhum share many common features with the Mundas,
Santhals, Oraons, Kharias. Today Hos are settled agricultur-
ists. The Ho villages of Singhbhum still lack good roads,
schools, electricity, irrigation facilities and consequently low
productivity of agriculture. Cultivation is completely depen-
dent upon natural rain and failure of monsoon causes scarcity
of food. Thus, the adivasis are compelled either to rest on the
collection of minor forest produces or to migrate as casual
labourers in mines, construction industries, brick kilns and
other worksites.
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 137

My field work in Raghunathpur village of Jhinkpani Tehsil,


West Singhbhum in September 2011, revealed that 90 per cent
of the total labour in tribal villages is performed by the wom-
enfolk. The tribal economy functions primarily on the basis
of women’s labour. It is interesting to note that ploughing
is one task that is strictly prohibited for the women to per-
form. It is believed that if a tribal woman touches the plough
it would cause drought. If there is no man in the family to
pull the plough, the women of the family have to hire male
labour. This taboo indicates the male control over the land,
though women perform more tedious jobs like breaking
lumps of earth with a hoe, prepare manure from cow dung
compost, transplanting of rice, hand-­threshing, harvesting,
carrying the grains from the fields to the house, and weed-
ing. Women also build embankments, take care of irrigation,
and water drainage in the fields in the absence of menfolk.
Women collect firewood, medicinal herbs, wild fruits, sal
leaves (for plate making). During the lean season they have to
sell the firewood when the stock of rice is exhausted. Thus the
women also go to the market in Chakradharpur or Rourkela,
usually in a group, to sell the products. There they conduct
barter activity, exchange grain, poultry, lentils, mahua fruits,
oilseeds, for soap, salt and oil. Even though Ho women are
more active than men in agricultural and marketing activi-
ties, they have to do all the household work without much
help from men.
Childcare is mainly a woman’s responsibility. When
infants are breastfed, women often carry on their backs while
going to work in the fields or for gathering in the forest.
Health care facilities are unavailable in these villages that
has affected the child mortality rate. Men perform hunting,
ploughing, building roofs, but there are several reasons for
men’s labour contribution being low amongst the Hos and
most other tribal communities. The Ho tribe was patrilineal
and patrilocal even before transforming into settled agricul-
turists, although the absence of developed forms of private
property helped prevent it from being as heavily patriarchal.
138 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Writing on the inheritance right of the Ho women, Madhu


Kishwar described her experience about the customary laws
of the Ho tribe.43 She said that the Hos continue to be gov-
erned by their customary law in inheritance which results
in tribal women not being maintained by the men’s labour,
but getting the right to cultivate a portion of the land in their
lifetime. After their death, it reverts to men of the family. This,
as discussed earlier, is called a usufructory right. As soon as
a daughter marries, she loses her limited usufructory right
over parental land, even if the marriage turns out to be a
nominal one. A discarded woman cannot claim any perma-
nent right on her parental land, while an unmarried woman
has the right to work on and be maintained from her family’s
land. But she does not inherit as a son does. She is not even
given an equal portion of land with sons and only given a
piece of land for her maintenance which is much smaller
than the ones sons get. If an unmarried woman has a sexual
relationship with a non-tribal man, she loses her usufructory
right. A widow’s usufructory right in her husband’s land is
similar to that of an unmarried woman. She does not inherit
the land but has a right to be maintained from it. In practice,
very few women’s customary rights are honoured. If she
remarries, she loses her usufructory right over her dead hus-
band’s land which goes to her sons, or if there are no sons,
to the husband’s male agnates. Women do not have rights
on the domestic animals as well. Ho women’s land rights as
wives are the most precarious of all. At no point of her life
can a woman claim a share in her husband’s land in her own
right. The concept of joint property is totally unknown. The
wife’s status is in many ways similar to that of a landless
labourer. The male members of a tribal family can mortgage
their family lands without consulting the female members
who have a usufructory right in these lands because the lands
are registered in their names.
This gives rise to a culture of son preference. Daughters are
valued chiefly because of their work capacity. A Ho woman’s
work burden is overwhelming if she has no daughters to
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 139

help her; girls fetch a bride price instead of taking a dowry,


so they are not perceived as a burden on the family. Single
women and childless widows are among the most vulnerable.
If a woman does not surrender her usufructory right, she
may become the target of different kinds of violence and the
most common is in the form of witch killing. Although it is
generally believed that lack of modern health care facilities
makes tribals fall prey to the superstition that various dis-
eases are the result of witchcraft, we should not forget the
economic reason behind it and that is to take away her land
by any means. Another form of violence is social ostracism.
A woman who has been ostracized will not find anyone to
plough her fields or thatch her roof.
The denial of equal land rights to Ho women is often
justified on the grounds of patrilocal family structure. It is
argued that because a woman shifts to her husband’s home
and village on marriage, she will not be able to cultivate land
in her natal village, so there is no use her inheriting parental
land. Ho wives have a very uncertain kind of rights on their
husbands’ lands. There are a high proportion of unmarried
women among the Hos, because they have at least a right
to subsist on their parents’ land. According to the Census
1971, approximately 11 per cent of all Ho women 45 years of
age or above had never married.44 In contrast, the all India
percentage of tribal women above 45 years of age who had
never married is less than 1 per cent, approximately the same
as the all-India figure for all communities.
Although most Ho men who find jobs outside the village
do not contribute to work on the land, they manage to keep
control over it by virtue of their near exclusive rights over it.
An unmarried sister or a wife continues the subsistence agri-
culture in the village while the brothers or husbands function
somewhat like absentee landlords. The land is an important
source of security for men. After returning he can easily take
over the land from his wife, sister or daughter, because the
village community supports the man’s right.
140 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

TRIBAL WOMEN’S ALTERNATIVE DEVELOPMENT


INITIATIVE IN EAST SINGHBHUM
In East Singhbhum district of Jharkhand, some NGOs are
successfully working for the development of the Primitive
Tribe Groups (PTGs), like Bharat Sewa Ashram Sangha of
Ghatsila, Vikas Bharti of Gumla and Society for Participatory
Action and Reflection (SPAR) of Ghatsila. East Singhbhum is
one of the PTG inhabited districts. The Sabars usually work
as agricultural labourers and the families having agricultural
land are negligible. They mainly depend on the forest for
the collection of wood and other products. SPAR is pres-
ently working among the Sabar community inhabiting in
four villages (Kendua, Lakhaidih, Bomro and Chatanipani)
of Dumuria block.45 SPAR promotes and forms Self Help
Groups (SHGs) to organize and empower the Sabar women
on group dynamics and management, savings and credit
management, communication skill, production and market-
ing management.46
There has been 20 per cent increase in women’s participa-
tion in Gram Sabha, women are taking part in ­decision-making
process, resisting plunder of natural resources, contributing
to gram sabha resource management. Villagers themselves
prepare micro-planning: Gram Sabha Resource Management
Plan and diversion channels have been developed in three
villages. This will help the villagers to get water for addi-
tional two months. Thus SPAR ensured the participation of
tribal women in management committees.47

TRIBAL WOMEN’S LAND RIGHTS IN JHARKHAND


The customary tribal land inheritance systems among the tri-
bals of Jharkhand are patrilineal in order to prevent the land
alienation, as we saw with the Ho women. Among the Munda
and Oraon, the widow and the unmarried daughters are given
the maintenance lands till the death the former and the mar-
riage of the latter. After the marriage of the daughters their
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 141

lands are divided among their brothers. But if the daughter


is the only surviving child in the family, she is entitled to her
father’s property till she gets married, after which it goes to
the closest male agnates of her father. But neither her husband
nor her sons are allowed to inherit her father’s landed prop-
erty. A widow with grown up sons and daughters is given a
plot of land, generally equalling a younger son’s share, for
her maintenance. Some money and grain is also given to her
to see through till the next harvest. She enjoys a lifetime use
of the produce of her land, which is generally cultivated by
one of her sons at whose house she chooses to live. Should
this son meet her funeral costs, he is entitled to this land
after her death. Otherwise it is distributed equally among
her sons. But if a widow remarries, she forfeits everything
at her deceased husband’s place and can take away only her
clothes and jewels. A widow without sons is allowed a life
interest in the property of her dead husband.48 Among the
Santhals, daughters have special privileges in sharing their
father’s lands. If an unmarried woman’s father dies leaving
no widow, sons, brothers or male agnates, she either shares
his land with her sisters, or if here are no sisters, she inherits
it entirely.49
According to Nitya Rao, land is not merely as a material
asset but also as a ‘key element in the identities of indige-
nous people’.50 Women recognized the symbolic and histori-
cal significance of land to adivasi identity in general and kin
identity in particular.51 ‘Women are unable to act as auton-
omous individuals in relation to land,’ thus compromising
their ability to fulfil a positive social identity through owning
and cultivating land.52 In the absence of a son, women can get
married under the gharjawae custom, wherein the husband
foregoes his land claims and moves to the wife’s home, and
thus inherits his father-in-law’s land.
Activists claimed that if a widow is given land, she
might be harassed. No one is able to cite cases of daughters
asking for partition of land, but people may employ various
‘tricks’ to give property to their daughters, such as selling
142 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

land and then buying it back in the daughter’s name. There


is also a practice of gifting a married woman some land in
her natal village as maintenance by her father, brothers or
other male agnates. But if it can be shown that an adivasi is
sufficiently Hinduized, she/he may come under the provi-
sion of the Hindu Succession Act where women can inherit
land. The grounds for the decision may be the practice of
cremation rather than burial, the form of marriage, religious
practices, and even social practices such as prohibition on
women touching the plough. In case of marriage between
tribal woman and non-tribal man or tribal man and non-
tribal woman, the tribal community takes decision on the
recognition of the matrimonial alliance and approval of the
marriage and thereby inheritance.
At present the tribal people of Jharkhand suffer greatly
on account of land alienation, and the ecological degradation
is at its worst on account of the non-sustainable develop-
ment process. The destruction of the eco-system for others’
profit and not the adivasi’s that began in the colonial period
was aggravated in the postcolonial era of ‘development’.
Today 14 per cent of the land in Jharkhand is covered mostly
by degraded forests. In the 1970s, a fierce conflict ensued
between the adivasis and the forest department.53 Although
the Approach Paper to the draft Ninth Plan states that pref-
erence should be given to women in distribution of ceiling
surplus land, it is not clear to what extent women as indi-
viduals have received land distributed by the Government
of Jharkhand or Bihar.54 Ever since the New Economic
Policy ushered in the 1990s, the economic scenario of the
country changed drastically. Jharkhand promptly brought
out the ‘Jharkhand Vision 2010’ and ‘Jharkhand Industrial
Policy’, both aggravating the plight of the tribal people.
That is why as many as 74 Memorandum of Understanding
(MoUs) have been signed by the Jharkhand government in
the last few years giving 3,000 acres of land to Jindal Steel
at Ghatshila and 25,500 acres to Tata Steel for Green Field
Project at Manoharpur and Chandil in East Singhbhum to
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 143

mention a few.55 A review of the land distribution in Dumka


during 1998–1999 reveals that the land distribution is absent
in the largely adivasi and forested blocks of Kathikund and
Gopikandar. In 1994–1995, in line with the Eighth Plan call
to allot 40 per cent of ­ceiling-surplus land to women, but
this focus is not reflected in the land distribution data. A
related issue is in terms of issuing joint pattas to men and
women. Progress in this too has been tardy. Government
initiative in terms of redistribution does not seem to have
touched women much in real terms, but has contributed to
the discourse around the legitimacy of women’s land claims.56
Work participation rates for adivasi women in Jharkhand are
much higher in comparison to that for the general female
population in the state or even for India as a whole. While in
India 74 per cent of women were classified as non-workers
in 2001, the ratio at 65 per cent is much lower for Dumka
district, 40 per cent of whose population is adivasi. For the
scheduled tribes, women classified as non-workers are even
lower: 59 per cent for Jharkhand and only 53.5 per cent for
Dumka. Interestingly, the Census of 1991 ranked Dumka third
in terms of female work participation rates in the then Bihar
state, following the districts of Gumla and West Singhbhum,
both with adivasi-majority populations.57

CASE STUDY 6
Forcible occupation of tribal land in East Singhbhum district
took place. Phulo Baske, a tribal woman, purchased a small
piece of land (0.6 acres) from Chandu Ho by virtue of regis-
tered sale deed No. 6431, dated 20 September 1966. She got
her name mutated and began to pay rent to the government.
But Pagla Gwala, a non-tribal, forcibly occupied 0.2 acres of
her land. Phulo Baske filed a restoration case in the court
of LRDC, Dhalbhum, at Jamshedpur on 19 September 1989;
her R.P. case number was 7–10/91. Pagla Gwala’s tribal wife
Raiban Ho claimed that she had also purchased the occupied
land from the original Khatiyani Raiyat. After the inquiry
144 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

in the court it was found that the land was truly transferred
to Phulo Baske by the competent authority. Consequently,
the land was restored to her as per the Order-sheet (Misc.
case no. 86/87 under Section 46 of the Chotanagpur Tenancy
Act 1908). The land was restored to Phulo Baske on 10 July
1992. The court ordered the CO to ensure that the delivery
of possession is effected within 7 days of the receipt of the
order. But Phulo Baske had been harassed by the CO and
other officers. Eventually she lost all faith in the efficacy of
the administration and hope of getting her land back.58

TRIBAL WOMEN AND LABOUR FORCE


PARTICIPATION IN RANCHI
I discuss the impact of the poverty alleviation programmes
and employment generation programmes on tribals as a
whole and tribal woman in particular, of the rural areas of
Ranchi. This consisted of three community development
blocks: Burmu, Angara and Kara. The tribals of Ranchi
use traditional and primitive technology in agriculture. There
is high incidence of landlessness and there is no large-scale
prevalence of leasing system in the tribal villages. Access to
irrigation facilities among the tribals is low. They do not even
have traditional farm equipment, such as wooden plough or
sickle. They are very poor and take up any kind of economic
activity, which is survival strategy for them. This is evident
from the higher participation rates both among the males
and females in the age group of 5–15 years and above. In the
age group of 15 years and above, labour participation rates
are almost equal to the male one because even those women
who do not find time to work as full-time workers take up
some kind of secondary activity. According to the criterion
of extended labour force more than 80 per cent of the tribal
women participate in economic activities,59 and children sup-
plement the family income through part-time work.
The tribals are mainly subsistence level cultivators; they
also participate in other economic activities, because the share
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 145

of surplus generated is very small. It results in lower wage


rate for agricultural labourers, which is lower than even the
wage rates prevalent in other parts of Jharkhand. In this con-
nection, there are two noteworthy features of tribal ­peoples:
the majority also participate in wage work in agriculture
which was traditionally not so widely prevalent, and in rear-
ing of domestic animals which was also traditionally not so
common. Non-farm self-employment activities are generally
of low investment and primitive technology-based. Trade of
agro-products and minor forest products are the main activ-
ities. Here there is evidence of gender differentiation and
discrimination. The tribal males participate in more remu-
nerative trade such as selling of fuelwood and coal, while the
tribal females take up less remunerative trade such as selling
of grass, leaf plates, and so on. Earnings per day are higher
for the males than for the females in all the activities. There is
gender discrimination in wage payments as well—the wage
rates of the females are much lower.60 Livestock is increas-
ingly becoming more important among tribals. Piggery and
poultry are very common among almost all the tribal commu-
nities. Livestock rearing is mainly performed by the females
and the young children.
The Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) is
the only self-employment programme being implemented
in these villages by the District Rural Development Agency
(DRDA). Even after selection, the beneficiaries face many
hurdles before the actual disbursement of loans and other
infrastructural help. An overwhelmingly large number of the
beneficiaries do not know the provisions or facilities avail-
able under the IRDP, which works as a major hindrance in
its successful implementation. Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY)
and its various components like Million Wells Scheme and
Indira Awas Yojana are not as much prevalent as the IRDP in
the tribal villages of Ranchi. There is also evidence of gender
discrimination in wage payments under these programmes.
Women get `5–10 less than the minimum wage rate pre-
scribed by the government of Jharkhand (`30–50) which is
146 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

paid to the men.61 Social forestry, so important for the tribal


region, has not been given its due importance and so are
the small schemes of irrigation in the rural areas which are
also very important for agricultural development. There is
significant scope for social forestry in the region.

BIRHOR WOMEN IN HUNTING-GATHERING


SECTOR IN HAZARIBAGH
Birhors are one of the most important PTGs in Jharkhand, in
mainly Hazaribagh, Ranchi, and Giridih districts, comprising
0.12 per cent of the total tribal population, with a popula-
tion of 8,159 in 1991 (Census 1991). They are mainly divided
into two types: settled Birhor (Janghi Birhor) and nomadic
Birhor (Uthlu Birhor). In recent years a third category from
Uthlu Birhor has emerged that is semi-nomadic Birhor, locally
called Baslu Birhor.
Birhors mainly reside in villages like Banaso, Burhachanch
and Sidhbara of Hazaribagh district. Birhors of Hazaribagh
district of Jharkhand are nomadic in nature. Their close inti-
mation with the forest has created a specific well-integrated
man-nature relation. They live in small hamlets known
as tanda which the Birhors can establish instantaneously.
According to Vinita Damodaran, the Birhors, in the extreme
east of Singhbhum, were a wandering community who lived
by snaring monkeys and by collecting the fibre of the Bauhinia
vahlii creeper.62 Birhors pursue quite a number of occupations,
of which rope making is the primary one. They also carry on
hunting, which does not contribute much to their total econ-
omy. Besides household organization Birhor economy also
involves band organization: a group of interrelated house-
holds moving and camping together. The major economic
activity at such level is the pursuit of hunting monkeys and
other wild game.63
Birhors exclusively depend on three different items of
the forests: fibres, jungle roots, tubers and wild animals. The
jungle infested regions in Hazaribagh district more or less
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 147

provide these essential items.64 These people face tremen-


dous problems due to large scale deforestation throughout
the Chotanagpur plateau. Using a kilogram of jute, they make
five ropes which sell at 4 rupees per piece, enabling them
to earn 20 rupees per day. If the Bahunia creepers had been
available in the forest, each rope-maker would have been
able to make a profit of `40.65
Although Birhors are called a nomadic tribe, now they
are becoming settled and leaving their traditional pattern of
migration. The population is getting redistributed as a result
of the dismantling of their traditional modes of economy. The
1960s witnessed a major shift in their workforce structure. As
the forests were no longer able to supply the raw material for
rope-making, it declined in importance, and a large number
of workers moved to work as agricultural labourers. The
direction and intensity of the change in workforce structure
took a different turn during the 1970s. A sizeable segment
of agricultural labourers reverted to one of their traditional
occupations of forest gathering. Though the alternative eco-
nomic activity for the Birhors has been agriculture, ignorance
of agricultural practices and low quality of land has been the
major hindrances in adopting these activities. Thus they have
gone back to rope-making.66
As a member of the hunter-gatherer tribe with wander-
ing activities the Birhor women are specifically responsible
for keeping the household materials in the right position
during the transit of the band. Moreover they are respon-
sible for maintaining the family duties. Collection of fire
woods, fetching of drinking water as well as collection of
jungle roots and tubers are the female jobs and the Birhor
males are greatly dependent on them for this. The Birhor
women are allowed to move freely in the neighbouring
forests but they are debarred from cutting chop fibres—
the essential raw materials for the preparation of ropes.
Mahua liquor is one of the important liquors of the Birhors.
Authority lies in the hands of the father, husband or an
older male member, according to the composition of the
148 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

household.67 The basic economy of the Birhors rotates round


the nuclear family. In this family the wife is the pivot and
thus she is respected by all the family members.68 Thus,
women possess comparatively high position in the Birhor
society.

ASUR AND PAHARIA WOMEN


The Asur is one of the primitive tribes in Jharkhand and is
confined to Netarhat Plateau of Chotanagpur. The Asur have
three economic and territorial sub-groups, namely, Soika,
Birjihas and Jat Asur. They are patriarchal, patrilocal and patri-
lineal. They prefer early marriage. Divorce cases are absent.
The socio-economic status of the Asur women is higher than
that of other primitive tribal groups in Chotanagpur. The
economy of Asur was dependent on shifting cultivation and
iron ore smelting. But after the banning on the use of forest
they were forced to take up agriculture in the new economic
situation. They were engaged in daily wage labour and sea-
sonal migrant labour in the Forest Department and mining
along with their existing agriculture and collection work.69
Rice beer or handia is prepared by women.70
The main economy of the Paharias pivots around the
kurwa or slash and burn cultivation and collection of forest
produce. Both genders participate in field preparation. A
man ploughs and the women sow the seeds from behind
the plough. Women participate in collection of forest pro-
duce and cattle rearing. Both genders sell folk medicines in
local hats. Women also do bee-keeping. Paharia men and
women work as labourer at the crusher and get `20 to 35
per day as wages depending on the number of baskets of
stone chips they loaded.71 Paharias have now become agri-
cultural labourers as they lost their land in due course of
time. The women are engaged in the collection of forest roots
and fruits, bamboo work and lac cultivation. They do bas-
ketry as well.72
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 149

BAIGA WOMEN AS SHIFTING CULTIVATORS


IN GARHWA
The Baiga is one of the most important PTGs in the state of
Jharkhand, inhabiting Garhwa district. Many make medi-
cines by profession, though their chief traditional occupation
has been shifting cultivation. The Baiga dwell in the remot-
est regions of the state and it becomes very difficult for the
people of the urban world to reach out to them. Most of them
are found to reside in the forested regions and hilly areas of
Jharkhand. Baiga subsistence depends on a combination of
gathering, hunting and swidden cultivation practices for their
survival. Of these, swidden cultivation is considered the cor-
nerstone. Gathering, hunting and bewar are bound together
in a precarious balance by a fragile seasonal rhythm, whose
success was intrinsically dependent on the success of the
bewar cycle. Therefore, shifting cultivation system is difficult
to sustain without the existence of hunting and gathering.73
The swiddening practices of the Baigas are similar to those
of the Khondhs of Odisha. Baigas believe that tilling the soil
with a plough is akin to scratching the breast of Mother Earth.
Generally they start to prepare for it by late May. They sow 16
varieties of seed, mostly coarse grains and minor millets—an
enviable diversity of native crops including paddy, wheat,
pulses, oil seeds. Women process the maize, rice and coarse
grains with the traditional instrument called ‘jata’. They also
do the preservation work. They process liquor from mahua
flowers. The same plot produced less in the second and third
years. The old bewar was then allowed to lie fallow for tree
re-growth during the next ten to fifteen years, before being
cut again.74
In the second year, there is more time for hunting because
fewer crops have to be sown and harvested, but since there
is enough food, the people lived on the bewars. It is only in
the third year that the diet has to be supplemented with the
forest products and game from hunting. This is true even as
bewar forms the fulcrum of the seasonal cycle and enjoys a
150 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

dialectical relationship with hunting and gathering, without


which bewar itself would become unsustainable.75 There is
also the need to maintain the fallow cycles of bewar in order
to replenish the nutrients of the soil. If the undergrowth fails
to appear, it is impossible for the cultivator to do bewar cul-
tivation on the field.76
Gathering is not a gender-specific task. Both men and
women do the gathering for the local agrarian market. Men
also gather roots in times of drought and famine. Mahua
and sal seeds are collected by women and used as food or
for brewing tadi (country liquor). Marketing of goods and
articles of daily necessity are done by both men and women.77
Today with massive commercialization of minor forest pro-
duce a change is taking place. The commercial establishments
are appointing their collecting agents from outside, resulting
in the loss of an important economic role of the women.
Male members of the community control the technology
and the means of production. For example, the women are
not allowed to touch the axe. After the marriage of the son,
the father gifts an axe to him. The male child’s access to the
axe, bows and arrows give him power and is a recognition
of his dominance as a future patriarch.78 The Baigas are pres-
ently in a transitional phase. With the transformation from
swidden cultivators to settled cultivators, Baiga women have
started acquiring a greater role in the fulfilment of the Baiga
needs. Baiga people are exposed to outside people and cul-
ture; the results can be seen in their customs, culture and
society.
Forest economy is, to a great extent, women’s economy.
On an average, women and girls work in shifting cultivation
for more than 200 work-days a year as against 60 days work
done by men. Reports available on Chotanagpur show that
60 per cent of the women head loaders are in the age-group
of 15–30 and 34 per cent are in the age group of 31–40 and
the rest 6 per cent are above 40 years of age.79 It is pertinent
to mention here that no theories of western patriarchy and
ecofeminism are entirely applicable in the Indian situation,
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 151

although by seeing the situation outlined above, it is nec-


essary to draw attention towards the need for highlighting
the role of adivasi women in the natural economy and their
vulnerability in the context of an ecological crisis, which is
always there.
Women depend more on non-market access to environ-
mental products and services because they have less access
to private property resources, such as land, and because of
the gender division of labour which makes firewood or water
women’s work. Against the ‘chrematistic’ man,80 we find the
ecological-economic man. Today, on several counts, as with
women’s exclusion or token presence in many forest com-
mittees, it is necessary to change such institutions towards
equality, both for justice and for effectiveness.

NOTES
1 Stuart Corbridge, Sarah Jewitt and Sanjay Kumar, 2004. Jharkhand:
Environment, Development, Ethnicity (New Delhi: Oxford University
Press): 112–74.
2 As agriculture is the cultivation of fields (agra), silviculture is the cul-
tivation of forests (silva). Silviculture is the domain of foresters who
are trained in the systems used to maximize the volume and value
growth of forests. Silviculture also has to do with sustained yield and
keeping the forest productive through multiple rotations (life spans of
trees) for wildlife habitats, clean water and recreational uses as well
as forest products.
3 Vandana Shiva, 1988. Staying Alive: Women, Ecology and Survival in
India (New Delhi: Kali for Women): 50.
4 Ibid.: 60.
5 See Kelkar and Nathan, Gender and Tribe.
6 Dev Nathan, 2012. ‘Women and Forests’, in Adivasi Question, Indra
Munshi, ed.: 195–202.
7 Kelkar and Nathan, Gender and Tribe: 58.
8 Jewitt, Environment, Knowledge and Gender: 279.
9 Ibid.: 57.
10 L. Fortmann, 1986. ‘Women in Subsistence Forestry’, Journal of Forestry
84, 7: 39–42.
11 Shiva, Staying Alive: 61.
12 Kelkar and Nathan, Gender and Tribe: 116.
152 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

13 Roy and Mukherjee, ‘Status of Forest Protection Committees in West


Bengal’, in Managing the Village Commons, R. Singh, ed.: 113–16.
14 The Statesman, 23 September 2012.
15 Ibid.
16 Kelkar, ‘Climate Change: Vulnerability and Women’s Agency’, in Social
Exclusion and Adverse Inclusion, Nathan and Xaxa, eds.: 208–36.
17 Vinita Narain and Lakshmi, 1994: ‘Self-Concept in Santal Women’,
Man in India, 74, 1: 15–20.
18 Awinash Chandra Mishra, 2009. ‘Socio-economic Impact of Indust­
rialization on the Santal Tribe of Jharkhand’, Man and Life, 35, 3 & 4
(ISRAA, Bidisa): 99–104.
19 Shalina Mehta, 1992. ‘Industrialization of a Tribal Belt: Some
Observations’, Man in India 72, 3: 271–80.
20 Pranab Kumar Das Gupta, 1978. ‘Tribal Women in Industrial Context’,
in Tribal Women in India, Calcutta: Indian Anthropological Society:
192–99.
21 V. Das, 1992. Jharkhand: 79.
22 Ibid.: 76.
23 Shashank Shekhar Sinha, Restless Mothers and Turbulent Daughters:
113–16.
24 S.N. Ray, 1982. Migrant Women Workers (Ranchi: Bihar Tribal Welfare
Research Institute).
25 Alpa Shah, In the Shadow of the State, Indigenous Politics, Environmentalism,
and Insurgency: 131–61.
26 Neha Wadhawan, 2013. ‘Living in Domesti-City Women and Migration
for Domestic Work from Jharkhand’, Economic and Political Weekly
(henceforth EPW) 48, 43 (26 Oct.): 47–54.
27 Mathew Areeparampil, 2012. ‘Displacement due to Mining in
Jharkhand’, in Adivasi Question, Indra Munshi, ed.: 239–50.
28 Centre for Science and Environment, Rich Lands, Poor People: 165.
29 Dias, Kalinga Nagar, Before and After.
30 Areeparampil, ‘Industries, Mines and Dispossession’, in Development,
Displacement and Rehabilitation, Fernandes and Ganguly Thukral, eds.:
19.
31 Areeparampil, ‘Industries, Mines and Dispossession of Indigenous
Peoples’, in Tribal Movements, Mishra and Paty, eds.: 142–68.
32 Dhebar, UN Report of the Scheduled Areas and Scheduled Tribes
Commission, 1961, vol. 1, 1960–1961 (New Delhi: Ministry of Home
Affairs, Government of India): 115.
33 Report of the Committee on Rehabilitation of Displaced Tribals due to
Development Projects (1985), New Delhi, Ministry of Home Affairs,
Government of India.
34 Ajitha Susan George, 2005. ‘Laws Related to Mining in Jharkhand’,
EPW 40, 41 (Oct. 8–14): 4455–58; Nitya Rao, 2003. ‘Life and Livelihood
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 153

in Santal Pargana: Does the Right to a Livelihood Really Exist?’ EPW


38, 39 (Sep. 27–Oct. 3): 4081–84.
35 Areeparampil, Mathew (2012).
36 The Times of India, 1 October 2014.
37 Anonymous, 2001. ‘Massacre of Adivasi: A Preliminary Report’, EPW
(March 3–9): 717–21.
38 Savyasaachi, 2012. ‘Struggles for Adivasi Livelihoods Reclaiming the
Foundational Value of Work’, EPW 31 (Aug. 4): 27–31.
39 The Statesman, 27–28 September 2012.
40 The Statesman, 27 March 2011.
41 Goutam K. Sarkar, 1995. Agriculture and Rural Transformation in India
(New Delhi: Oxford University Press): 208.
42 P.P. Ghosh and Alakh N. Sharma, 1995. ‘Seasonal Migration of Rural
Labour in Bihar’, Labour and Development, 1, 1.
43 Madhu Kishwar, 1987. ‘Toiling without Rights: Ho Women of
Singhbhum’, EPW 22, 3 (Jan 17): 95–101; 22, 4 (Jan 24): 149–55.
44 Census of India, 1971, Series 1, Part V-A (ii) Special Tables for Scheduled
Tribes, 1977.
45 Suchismita Sen Chowdhury and Mahua Sengupta, 2012. ‘Development
of PTGs through NGO: A Case Study with Savars of Jharkhand’,
Bulletin of the Cultural Research Institute, 24, 1 & 2: 31.
46 Ibid.: 35–36.
47 Ibid.
48 Alex Ekka, 2011. A Status of Adivasis/Indigenous Peoples Land Series—4
Jharkhand (New Delhi: Aakar Books associated with The Other Media):
34–37.
49 W.G. Archer, 1984. Tribal Laws and Justice: A Report on the Santal (New
Delhi: Concept Publishing Co): 142.
50 Nitya Rao, 2008. ‘Good Women Do Not Inherit Land’: Politics of Land
and Gender in India (New Delhi: Social Science Press and Orient
Blackswan): 6.
51 Ibid.: 37.
52 Ibid.: 294.
53 M. Areeparampil, 1992. ‘Forest Andolan in Singhbhum’, in Jharkhand
Movement: Origin and Evolution edited by S. Narayan (New Delhi: Inter
India Publications).
54 Approach Paper to The Ninth Five Year Plan (1997–2002), Planning
Commission, Government of India, available at http://planningcom-
mission.nic.in/reports/publications/app_nine.pdf downloaded on 24
August 2012.
55 Alex Ekka and Mohammed Asif, 2000. Development-Induced Displace­
ment and Rehabilitation in Jharkhand, 1951 to 1995: A Database on Its Extent
and Nature (New Delhi: Indian Social Institute): 33–38.
154 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

56 Census 199, Series 5 Bihar, Part-II-B (I) [Census 1991, Series 5 Bihar,
Part-II-B (I); Census 1991, Series 5 Bihar, Part-II-B (I); Nitya Rao, 2012].
‘Displacement from Land: Case of Santhal Parganas’, in The Adivasi
Question, Indra Munshi, ed.: 122–23.
57 Nitya Rao, 2008. ‘Good Women Do Not Inherit Land’: 61.
58 Alex Ekka, 2011. A Status of Adivasis/Indigenous Peoples Land Series:
83–84.
59 Seema Singh, 1998. ‘State Interventions and Tribal Workers’, in
Empowering Rural Labour in India: Market, State and Mobilisation, edited
by R. Radhakrishna and Alakh N. Sharma (New Delhi: Institute for
Human Development): 243–68.
60 R. Sharan, and H. Dayal, 1994. ‘Discrimination against Female Farm
Labourers in the Jharkhand Region of Bihar’, Indian Journal of Labour
Economics 37, 4.
61 Seeema Singh, ‘State Interventions and Tribal Workers’.
62 V. Damodaran, 2007. ‘Tribes in Indian History’, in Situating Environ­
mental History edited by Ranjan Chakrobarty (New Delhi: Manohar):
135.
63 Jyoti Sen, 1978. ‘Status and Role of Women among the Birhor: A
Nomadic Hunting and Gathering Community of Eastern India’,
in Tribal Women in India edited by Indian Anthropological Society,
Calcutta.
64 B.K. Roy Burman, 1985. ‘Challenges of Development and Tribal
Women of India’, in Tribal Women and Development, edited by J.P. Singh,
M.N. Vyas and R.S. Mann (Udaipur: The MLV Tribal Research and
Training Institute, Tribal Area Development Department): 19.
65 Sohel Firdos, 2012. ‘Forest Degradation, Changing Workforce Structure
and Population Redistribution: The Case of Birhors in Jharkhand’, in
The Adivasi Question: 169–81.
66 Ibid.
67 Ashim Kumar Adhikary, 1984. ‘Society and World View of the Birhor’,
Anthropological Survey of India, Government of India: 21 and 28–29.
68 Sampa Sarkar, 1994. ‘Status of Tribal Women in Three Socio-cultural
Dimensions’, Man in India 74, 1: 49–57.
69 Partha Das, and Nabakumar Duary, 2005. ‘The Asur: A Study on their
Changing Economy’, in Primitive Tribes in Contemporary India, vol. 2,
edited by Sarit K. Chaudhari and Sucheta Sen Chaudhari (New Delhi:
Mittal): 43–48.
70 Pratibha Kumari, 2005. ‘Asur of Jharkhand—A Glimpse of Their
Material Culture’, in Primitive Tribes, edited by Chaudhuri and Sen
Chaudhuri: 49–59.
71 Pratibha Kumari, 2005. ‘Sauria Paharia Economy in Time Perspective—A
Case of Sahebganj District’, in Primitive Tribes, Chaudhuri and Sen
Chaudhuri, eds.: 69–84.
Adivasi Women and Land Rights in Jharkhand 155

72 Channa, Kumar and Kapoor, 2005. ‘Economy of a Primitive Tribe in


Jharkhand’, in Primitive Tribes, Chaudhuri and Sen Chaudhuri, eds.:
61–68.
73 The Statesman, 29 July 2012.
74 Rajesh K. Gautam, 2011. Baigas: The Hunter Gatherers of Central India
(New Delhi: Readworthy Publications): 86–88.
75 Archana Prasad, 2004. ‘Reinterpreting Tribal Livelihood Systems:
Underdevelopment and the Local Political Economy in Central India,
1800–1940’, in Tribes, Forest and Social Formation in Indian History, edited
by B.B. Chaudhuri and Arun Bandyopadhyay (New Delhi: Manohar):
109–44.
76 Archana Prasad, 1995. ‘The Political Ecology of Swidden Cultivation’,
Tools and Tillage 2, 4, Denmark.
77 A.K. Danda, 1978. ‘Economic Role and Status of Women’, in Tribal
Women in India (Calcutta: Indian Anthropological Society).
78 Verrier Elwin, 1939. The Baiga (London: Oxford University Press):
78–79, 273.
79 N.G. Basu, 1987. N.G.O. Report, Forests and Tribals (Calcutta: Manisha):
94–104.
80 B. Agarwal, 1992. ‘The Gender and Environment Debate: Lessons from
India’, Feminist Studies 18, 1: 119–58.
CHAPTER 5

Adivasi Women and Destructive


Development in Odisha

ODISHA IS DEFINED in economic terms as one of India’s poor-


est states, yet it is one of the richest in ‘mineral resources’,
possessing the world’s best deposits of the bauxite used in
aluminium production, a process which requires the con-
struction of dams to provide electricity. Many of these moun-
tain ranges have complex sacred meanings attached to them
by adivasis or are biodiversity ‘hotspots’ as defined by the
International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The agriculturally poor mining belt of Odisha, comprised
Hos, Kols, Kharias, Mundas as the main working force, has
large surplus labour and the poor wage structure. Tribal
women and children are often found working in these mines.
The women work in gangs, and are mainly involved in pit
clearing, while children as young as eight are seen carrying
waste underground.
With the acceleration of the forces of globalization since
1800, vigorous contestations for space and resources have
taken place among adivasis, peasants, the state, and mining
and other commercial companies. Since 1945, and much
more since 1990, these contests have involved an increas-
ing level of state and corporate violence against adivasis.
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 157

According to conservative estimates, 24,124 hectares of land


(until 1999) have been deforested as a result of develop-
ment projects in tribal areas including dams, mines, roads,
railways and new industry.1 The Kalinga Nagar massacre
in Jaipur district in January 2006 appears to be a turning
point in the breakdown of governance. A 35-year-old Ho
woman, Deogi Tina, from a village in Champa Koila stood
against illegal mining. The streams and hills were sacred to
her and her kinsfolk. Deogi Tina was executed in cold blood
by the Odisha police.2 The Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik
declared: ‘No one, I repeat no one, will be allowed to stand
in the way of Odisha’s industrialization and the people’s
progress’.3

CASE STUDY 1
Centre for Research and Development Solidarity (CRDS),
Odisha, conducted a field study in 2006, which partially
aims to construct adivasi social movement perspectives
on development and its implications in one hundred and
twenty villages inhabited by Kondhs and Saoras of south
Odisha. The study refers to the Adivasi Dalit Ekta Abhijan
(ADEA). A Kondh woman leader expressed her sentiments
as follows: ‘The sarkar [government] and their workers think
that we adivasis do not know anything … To the govern-
ment, we are of no significance. They are selling our forests
… our water … our land and maybe they will sell us also.’4
The ADEA movement’s purposes are articulated at various
forums employing different culturally-specific mediums
of movement. Extracts of a lamentation of a song by three
­adivasi women follows:

This forest, this mountain and this land is ours


Given by our Gods to our ancestors.
But people are destroying the forests,
How can we depend on it if everything is gone?
158 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

TRIBAL WOMEN, LAND ALIENATION


AND DISPLACEMENT
The status of tribal women in Odisha is mixed. Districts
of Malkangiri, Rayagada, Nuapada and Kalahandi have a
female literacy rate of less than 30 per cent. Gender dispar-
ity in education is further accentuated with only 31 per cent
girls as compared to 51 per cent boys completing primary
schooling (NFHS 2, 1998–1999). The Maternal Mortality Rate
(MMR), that is, the number of maternal deaths in the age
group 15–49 years per 100, 000 live births, has gone up from
361 in 1997 to 367 in 1998 in the state (Human Development
Report 2004, GoO), whereas for all-India, it has declined from
408 to 407 in the same period. Overall 63 per cent of the
women in reproductive age group (15–49 years) have some
degree of anemia (NFHS 3, 2005–2006). Fertility continues to
decline in Odisha. At current fertility levels, women will have
an average of 2.37 children each throughout their childbear-
ing years (NFHS 3, 2005–2006) down from 2.9 children per
woman as per NFHS 1, 1992–1993. Crimes against women
in Odisha have recorded an increasing trend.5
The Government of Odisha has enacted several important
legislations for the development and welfare of STs, such as,
Odisha Scheduled Area Transfer of Immovable Property (by
Scheduled Tribes) Regulation of 1956, Odisha Survey and
Settlement Act of 1958, The Odisha Land Reforms Act of 1960,
The Bonded Labour System Abolition Act of 1976, The Land
Ceiling Act of 1974–1975, PESA of 1996, Forest Rights Act
came into force in 2008, and so on. The various legislations are
based within the same matrix of colonial legal ­framework.6
So, the continuation of the British pattern of policies stands
today as an obstacle to social justice.7 These laws have placed
the landless tribals and non-tribal landlords on the same legal
footing, a situation of utmost inequality. The role of the state
continues the principle of ‘Eminent Domain’ from British
rule, which has struck at the customary rights of the tribal
people.8
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 159

The history of tribals has been one of deprivation, dispos-


session and marginalization. Tribals in Odisha continue to
suffer land deprivation and dispossessions of different kinds
despite special enabling provisions in the constitution, a legal
framework for their implementation and several targeted
public policy initiatives taken by the state government. The
erosion of the tribal way of life and landownership system,
imposition of the values and dominance of outsiders have
ensured that the tribals in Odisha continue to be impover-
ished and dispossessed.
In the districts of Koraput, Kalahandi, Balangir and
Sambalpur, more quantum of land has been distributed than
in coastal districts. The tribals or the rural poor could not take
full advantage of this because it was not followed by financial
assistance for their cultivation.9 There are no disaggregated
data showing the number of tribal women beneficiaries,
which indicates the absence of gender-wise break-up.10 For all
these reasons Odisha is witnessing series of tribal resistance
movements in recent years: land conflicts between the tribals
and the Bengali settlers in Gudari region of Rayagada district;
Malkangiri district; and Nabarangpur district; then the ongo-
ing conflicts over resources between tribals and non-tribals
in Narayanpatna block of Koraput district; and the conflict
between the Kondh tribe and Panas in Kandhamal district of
Odisha.11 The adivasis of Narayanpatna organized under the
banner of Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha (CMAS) and are work-
ing on two linked issues: the illegal and fraudulent grabbing
of adivasi land and alcohol addiction, and mobilized adivasis
to take back land that they claim has been unfairly appropri-
ated by non-tribals. Angered by police atrocities, 200 villagers
along with CMAS leaders proceed to Narayanpatna police
station, where the police indiscriminately opened fire at the
people.12 The Malkangiri Adivasi Sangha (MAS), another
adivasi organization, is fighting fraudulent land alienation
and arbitrary arrests.13 In Kandhamal the two most disad-
vantaged communities, adivasis and dalits, had been incited
against each other by political and fundamentalist forces.
160 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Closely related to these are the corporate interests whose


goal is the district’s exceptionally rich resources: land, forest,
water, minerals.14
The adivasi women’s situation is worst among the
marginalized and face displacement from multinational
­
projects (Table 5.1). Re-settlement is inadequate.

Table 5.1 Displacement of Tribal Families


District Name of the project(s) Forest area cov- No. of tribal
ered (sq km) ­families displaced
Koraput NALCO and other 2,000 __
industrial projects
Machkund Hydel __ 1,500
Dam
Balimela Project __ 2,000
Upper Kolab __ 7,092
Multipurpose Project
Koraput/ Upper Indravati __ 5,000
Kalahandi Project
Keonjhar Salendi Dam __ 965
Sundargarh Rourkela Steel Plant 13,185 __
All Odisha Sanctuaries (16)/ 7,395 __
Parks (12)
Mining 950 __

Source: K.G. Karmakar, 2002. The Silenced Drums: A Review of Tribal Economic
Development (New Delhi: Northern Book Centre): 50.

CASE STUDY 2
During our field investigation in Damanjodi in October-
November 2012 we came across an underground mine of
Panchpat Mali Bauxite Mines at Kakiriguma in Koraput,
owned by National Aluminium Company Ltd. (NALCO).
With a single integrated plant in the country, NALCO has
emerged as Asia’s largest and world’s seventh largest
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 161

aluminium complex integrating bauxite mining, alumina


refining, aluminium smelting and casting, with dedicated
power generation, rail and port facilities. It was like a big
city inside with excellent roads and big buildings. The giant
trucks with full of bauxite were coming and going. A young
officer, R.N. Sahoo, told me (3 Nov. 2012) that when NALCO
started Koraput-Bolangir-Kalahandi was an underdevel-
oped region and NALCO has done a great job in developing
the local area. A Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team
is visiting the tribal villages within 7 km of the plant and
making plans to develop them. NALCO is working for the
upliftment of the tribal women as well. It is encouraging
backyard poultry, distributing sewing machines, stitching
machines, giving trainings on making terracotta figurines
and sanctioning regular grants. NALCO profits two thou-
sand crore (20 billion) annually and 2 per cent of that profit
is being spent on the development of the tribal areas. The
immediate motif of NALCO is ‘prosperity among pov-
erty’. NALCO has already built colonies, like B.R. Colony,
Sahid Laxman Nayak Colony, for the displaced tribals and
provided them with proper monetary compensation and
jobs. All the 600 tribals who were once displaced have been
rehabilitated satisfactorily. According to him, NALCO is the
forerunner in making proper R & R policy for the displaced.
The project affected 26 villages directly and over 690 vil-
lages indirectly, most of which were tribal villages. As per the
claims of the NALCO officials, 600 families were displaced
out of which 597 were provided with housing in rehabilita-
tion colonies; one person from each displaced family was pro-
vided employment at NALCO. The reality on the ground is
that 60 per cent of the land acquired by NALCO at Damanjodi
was tribal communal land and no compensation was paid for
it. The tribal families were shown on to have been paper paid
a paltry `6,700 per hectare. Land given to the tribal families
as compensation was uncultivable, whereas the jobs NALCO
promised benefited only the non-adivasis.
162 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

The estimates show that no fewer than 40 per cent of the


Displaced Persons or DPs/Project Affected Persons or PAPs
of five decades of planned development are from the tribal
communities. In Odisha they are 22 per cent of the popula-
tion, but account for 42 per cent of its DPs/PAPs.15 Fewer than
25 per cent of the DPs seem to have been resettled during the
first three decades of planned development.16 It is recorded
that only 35.27 per cent of the DPs in Odisha have been reset-
tled between 1951 and 1995.17 Even, after mechanization
very few jobs are left for the women. Transport of minerals
is fully mechanized and has created about 300 skilled and
semi-skilled jobs that have gone to outsiders.18 In Odisha, out
of 266,500 families of DPs/PAPs for which data are available,
the project has given one job per family to 9,000.19
An interview with a young tribal woman, who was dis-
placed as a child from a tribal village to Amlabadi which is
NALCO’s main resettlement colony at Damanjodi, has been
published. Her parents made sure she got a good education.
She pursued an MA degree and got a teaching post in a vil-
lage outside Damanjodi. NALCO would not give her a job
despite their quota for displaced persons.20
Policymakers should know that the natural resources are
also the common property resources (CPRs) for the tribals
and the womenfolk do exercise a great amount of control over
these resources. The denial of their rights will cause not only
economic impoverishment but also the loss of their social
status. In the shifting cultivation of south Odisha both men
and women share the burden; the division of work is more
­gender-friendly in shifting cultivation than in settled agricul-
ture. Since the land laws in India considered the tracts of shift-
ing cultivation as state property, the women are left with no
alternative to the livelihood lost. For example, in Odisha, out
of 11 projects we may refer here to the two NALCO plants,
one at Damanjodi in the tribal majority Koraput district and
the other in upper caste-dominated Angul. In the former case,
58 per cent of all land taken over and more than 65 per cent
of that acquired from the tribes constituted CPRs.21 In Angul,
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 163

it was only 18 per cent, much of it school, roads and other


service areas. In neither of these cases was compensation
given for their CPRs.

ADIVASI WOMEN IN AGRICULTURAL SECTOR


In the districts of Keonjhar, Koraput, Sambalpur and
Sundargarh the tribal women form nearly 78 per cent of
the workforce in agriculture. It would also be critical to the
enquiry to focus on power struggles and contestations not
in a socio-cultural boundary of gender alone but within the
large unexplored territory of family, state and gender rela-
tions. Koraput tribes are Gadaba, Bondas, Gond, Kondh,
Paraja, Koya, Pentiya, Saora and Bhuinya. Among these the
Bhuinyas have a very low literacy level and are usually very
poor. They are losing their distinct socio-cultural identity. The
Gadabas, who are primitive though exogenous, still maintain
their traditional political organization. The Gonds have a
very superior socio-cultural ethos, though a section of the
Gonds is losing it through marginalization.22
The Kondhs are the most primitive and also the largest
tribe in Odisha. The Parajas or the ‘common people’ are iso-
lated by nature. The tribals are both patriarchal and patrilin-
eal. The hill slopes are locally called as ‘dangar’ lands and
the very low lands with constant flow of water are known
as ‘jhola’ lands, famous for paddy and vegetable cultivation.
Most of the tribal women are either recorded as marginal or
non-worker that ignores entirely their contribution to house-
hold management and livelihood.
The tribal inhabited villages of Koraput are, A. Malkangiri
(Admunda Malkangiri is a village in Dasamantapur Tehsil
in Koraput district in Odisha), Tentuliguda, Hardaput,
Mundigura. The tribal villages of Sambalpur district are
Birsinghgarh, Jharanpada, Kudamunda, Mahulipalli; of
Sundargarh district Budhabahal, Baragada, Bijlikhaman,
Chhentenpalli; of Keonjhar district Badaposi, Bayapandadhar,
Kaliabeda, Tentuli. A majority of the women in India work
164 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

in agriculture and agro-based enterprises. The men in these


three districts admitted during village surveys that women
are the real workforce in agriculture. They prepare the land,
break the clods, sow the seeds, do the weeding operations,
transplanting, beushaning (beushaning is used in dry seeded
lowland fields to control weeds) operations, apply manure
and fertilizers. They also help during harvesting, inter-­culture
operations, uprooting, plant protection, transporting, thresh-
ing and processing. They store the grain and market it.
Women’s activities included land preparation, usually
identified as a male work. They collect various forest prod-
ucts, conduct farming operations, sericulture, bidi-making
(villages around Sambalpur town), forestry and post-­harvest
operations and have varied responsibility as head of farm
household, farm manager, cooking and carrying food to the
field and taking care of the children and cattle as well as
other domestic animals. It has found that every household
has livestock. The survey in the villages clearly brought out
the heavy daily workload of tribal women. Wherever irriga-
tion is available, there is multiple cropping, leading to heavier
work load on women.23 Decisions regarding use of imple-
ments, land development, use of plant protection measures
and purchase of animals as well as irrigation are done with
women’s consent.

THE CONSTRAINTS
First, lack of improved farm implements: seed drills, threshers,
iron ploughs. Irrigation facility should be developed. Second,
training needs: female trainers should be appointed to train
the women because the tribal women are not free to meet the
outsiders; in their local languages. Women have specified few
things as of importance to them and these are, production
practices of cereals, vegetables (rainy season); disease and
pest control; improved implements; fertilizers and manures;
new crops and crop diversification; seed treatment; organic
and biofertilizers; water management; poultry; mushroom;
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 165

horticulture; processing of forest produce; soil and water con-


servation, bunding and terracing; post-harvest technology
including seed storage; sugarcane growing; weed control or
safe use of weedicides; sericulture, pisciculture, dairy.24
The other constraints are non-availability of fertilizers and
pesticides, lack of good HYV seeds, absence of land develop-
ment. When men migrate leaving women in charge of cul-
tivation, they cannot avail of credit from the bank and need
access to credit facilities. Access to inputs is a serious con-
straint for women. Women cannot access available resources.
Inadequate fodder for cattle is a serious constraint. There
are low food security, poverty, deprivation, low level of lit-
eracy, malnourishment of the tribal women, and children,
poor health, inadequate avenues of alternate employment
opportunities, attacks of incurable diseases, lack of adequate
storage facilities at village level. Low value attached to liter-
acy has confined the majority women as marginal workers
in the field of agriculture.
Two other issues emerged from the field survey. The first
was the increasing violence against tribal women. The major-
ity of tribal men usually use a major share of their earnings
for purchasing liquor. Wife battering seems to be the product
of increased alcoholism among the tribal men, which is never
reported. Field work reveals that there has been a steady
increase in rape and other forms of sexual assault. There has
also been an increase in sexual exploitation of tribal women
by outsiders, the major reason being poverty. There is a lack
of awareness among the tribal women of their legal and con-
stitutional rights and gender sensitivity in the judicial system.
The second issue was that increasing migration of men to
urban areas did not reduce the poverty levels as tribal women
and children remained very much below the poverty line.
Even, their wages were found to be much lower, in many
cases 50 per cent of the men’s. The tribal custom of bride price
is disintegrating; decreasing income means it is difficult to
pay. There were even a few cases of tribals demanding dowry,
which explains the increased numbers of single women.
166 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

The Training and Visit System of Extension (assisted by the


World Bank) has introduced largely needed improvements
in the overall agricultural extension machinery. This, in turn,
has been mainly responsible for introduction of modern agri-
cultural technology that has bypassed half of the population
engaged in agriculture, namely, tribal farm women. Tribal
women’s participation is neither acknowledged nor mean-
ingfully incorporated in planning agricultural development.
This is aggravated by the fact that male extension workers
have a lack of faith in women farmers and there is a social
bias of not coming into contact with tribal women.
Panchayats could only carry out developmental activi-
ties such as Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY). While 33 per cent
of these functionaries are women, most of them have been
pushed into power by husbands and communities and
cannot cope with their new roles. The state has kept women
out of the development process; the patriarchal society has
turned into a patriarchal state. All research has a male bias.
Knowledge for tribal women remains peripheral. In keeping
women out of the decision-making roles in farming by limit-
ing their knowledge the state can be held responsible for the
deteriorating state of agriculture in the tribal areas.

BONDA WOMEN IN AGRICULTURAL SECTOR OF


MALKANGIRI DISTRICT
Bondas inhabit the Bonda Ghati Area (Bonda Hills) in
the undivided Koraput district which now comes under
Malkangiri district after 1992. Not mobile, they are there-
fore confined to that area. According to the Census 2001, the
Bondas are about 6,000. They speak Remo. Agriculture and
forest collection are principal sources of livelihood, both shift-
ing cultivation (podu) and terraced cultivation, also glean-
ing, hunting, fishing, animal husbandry, and wage earning.
Bondas are extremely aggressive in nature. It is their cus-
tomary practice that a Bonda woman of the age group 16–20
years marries a male (boy) of the age group 12–14 years. This
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 167

is how a relatively mature woman (who happens to be older


than her spouse) exercises control over the latter. Therefore,
it is the women whose opinions get precedence over male
members with regard to household matters.25 There are spe-
cific dormitories meant for boys and girls for this purpose,
which serve as matrimonial agencies to facilitate selection of
spouses. Usually, older girls prefer to marry boys younger
than them so that the latter would earn for them when they
grew old. The way Bonda women dress is attributed to an
episode in the Ramayana. Bonda women shave their heads
and wear around their waist only a tiny piece of cloth called
ringa, covering their torsos with strings of stunningly mul-
ticoloured beads. Abundant metal rings used to cover their
necks and the bangles adorning their arms are more func-
tional. The ornaments shield them from attacks by wild ani-
mals when they go for hunting.26
The Bondas largely rely on their women for survival. They
wander in the forest for food, work in the fields and even
hunt. The Bondas can be divided into two groups: Lower
Bondas who have come down from the hills, live on the foot
hills in the multi-tribal villages whereas the Upper Bondas
territory is full of mountain ranges rising in most cases to
more than 3,000 feet in height above the sea level.27 As a result
of development programmes introduced in the Bonda Hills,
sale of vegetables, spices and other horticultural produce,
wage labour and paid employment have become sources of
income. Bonda women are conscious about their significant
role in their economy.28
Bonda women play the main role in weekly markets.
During their visits it is seen that the Bonda women are
treated with utmost caution; they sometimes snatch away
the items if they are not treated carefully. The management
and economy of the household are the responsibility of the
wives. They sell and buy in the weekly market: sell seasonal
fruits, liquor, palm juice, leaf plates, and vegetables and
they buy mostly dry fish, salt, cloths and cosmetics. They
are experts in preparing liquor with all kinds of fruits and
168 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

rice.29 Fishing plays an important part in Bonda diet and


ritual.30
Bonda Development Agency (BDA) was formed in
the 1970s for development of the Bondas and community
members came to work in its development programmes as
wage labourers. This encouraged the community to switch
from subsistence production to production for exchange.
Consequently wage labour or buti replaced the earlier coop-
erative labour, odja, resulting in dilution of the domestic com-
munity. The Bondas lost their age-old subsistence mode of
production and were pushed into the permanent web of the
wage economy. Wage earning has become substantial source
of income of the Banduguda village for women and girls
because this village is very near to Mudilipada Project Area.
The women are involved in government building construc-
tions, road repair works and check dam constructions. As
the idea of development was imposed on them from above,
it destroyed their economic independence, made them sub-
servient to an exogenous system and finally devalued their
culture.31
As India celebrated its seventieth year of the Republic,
what has become of these ‘first citizens’—these people
who live pretty much the way our ancestors did when they
first came to India? Is there a way to give them the bene-
fits of modern civilization while, at the same time, helping
them retain their ancient identity and culture? The Bondas
have fiercely resisted—perhaps more than any other tribal
group—all attempts by the state to ‘develop’ them. A lot of
the indigenous knowledge of the Bondas—like the use of the
rhizome from a plant, ‘black turmeric’, to induce abortion—
is at stake as the government forces its development pro-
grammes on them. Even Remo, an Austro-Asiatic language
that they speak, is endangered under this onslaught. Most
Bondas now speak, if not Oriya, a pidgin that has evolved
from it. And the state has pushed Remo further into extinc-
tion by not evolving a text for the language that can be used
by Bonda children.32
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 169

THE DIDAYI WOMEN OF MALKANGIRI


The Didayi is a little known Primitive Tribal Group of Odisha
confined to Khairaput and Kondakamberu Mountain range
and its foothills which constitute the part of the Eastern Ghat
Mountain Range. In fact the hill range is known as Didayi
land. The construction of Balimela Hydel Project (1962)
changed their lifestyle and habitat. The people settled in the
valleys were displaced as their lands got submerged in the
reservoir water. Most of them shifted to the hilltop and some
preferred to stay back at their own locality of the river bank.
The cut off Didayi have lost their cultural identity because
of their displacement and rehabilitation. They have even lost
linguistic and socio-cultural identity owing to the influence
of the Bengali refugees, Kondhs, Telugu businessmen and
others.
Didayi Development Agency (DDA) was established in
the year 1986 at Kudumulugumma of Malkangiri district.
Didayis were aware of the difficulties of becoming displaced
and had protested against the construction of the Balimela
Hydro Electric Project. During interviews many of the Didayi
burst into tears which indicate the depth of their agony.
Didayis of plains are known as Jhadi-Didayi, the Didayis of
hilltop are called Konglo-Didayi or Ghati Duar Didayi, and the
Didayis of cut off sector are known as Londia Didayi.
The Didayi economic structure mainly revolves round the
agriculture and forest produce collection. Their primary occu-
pation is food production by means of settled and shifting
cultivation while the secondary occupation involves wage
earning, forest produce collection and other casual employ-
ment. Hunting and fishing seems to be a tertiary occupa-
tion The Didayi women understand the functioning of the
Panchayati Raj system and some who have actively partici-
pated in political processes at grassroot level and got elected
as Sarpanch, Naib Sarpanch and Ward Members. The women
participants in the system are supported from not only the
family members, but also of the community as a whole.
170 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Didayis are patrilocal and thus patrilineal and patriarchal


although a certain degree of female dominance is marked
in several matters. Both nuclear and extended families have
been found. Bride price is also in practice. The girl’s family
may reject the marriage proposal made by the boy’s family.
A large number of girls between age group of 15 to 35 years
from plain and hilltop sector are found unmarried due to lack
of suitable proposals pressed from the boy side. These girls
live with their parents and support the family by wage earn-
ing. The plain boys with little education are only seeking alli-
ances with educated working girls from other communities.
Most of the PTGs of Odisha have youth dormitories either
for boys or girls or for both. The Didayi dormitory is meant
for only boys. It is known as gulisung and its socio-economic
and cultural importance are lessening.
The District Rural Development Agency (DRDA),
Malkangiri, has been implementing its various schemes.
Development of women and children, a sub-scheme of IRDP
was started in 1982–1983. It aims at collective endeavours of
women groups providing additional opportunities for self-
employment. Under this scheme Didayi women are orga-
nized in groups of 10–15 for taking of economic activities
like broom binding, spice and turmeric powder making and
tailoring. There are 11 DWCRA groups in operation in such
different income-generating activities in the Didayi villages.33
Didayi womenfolk play a vital role not only in the house-
hold sphere but also assume responsibility in supplementing
household income. Marriage for a woman cannot be per-
formed without her consent. Their latent leadership qual-
ity has been manifested in the assumption of roles under
Panchayati Raj institutions and they have become reasonably
vocal to express their ideas for the betterment of the commu-
nity. Their awareness level has enhanced their zeal to orga-
nize Self-Help Groups (SHGs), promoting a micro-financing
network. Didayi women in the hill area and cut-off area are
less advanced and need a special campaign to increase their
awareness level.34 A woman after marriage lives with her
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 171

husband in a lineal extended family or in a neo-local resi-


dence according to patrilocal residential rule. In case her hus-
band dies or leaves her at a young age she is free to remarry
by leaving her husband’s households with or without her
children. They follow levirate so that a young woman can
remarry her deceased husband’s younger brother. Polygyny
or plurality of wives is practised. and often requires main-
tenance of two households instead of one in order to avoid
unhappiness.

THE KOYA WOMEN OF MALKANGIRI


The term ‘Koya’ means man. Koyas are concentrated in the
southern portion of Malkangiri district. Since the 1960s the
Government of India and the Government of Odisha started
rehabilitating refugees from East Pakistan in their area, and
the increase of population depleted the traditional natural
resources of the Koya. The refugees possessed higher agri-
cultural technology and had expertise in wet-rice cultiva-
tion, which made them prosperous. Their traditional pastures
were converted to agricultural land by the government for
the settlers, which led to the Koya pastoral economy suffering
a major setback.
The Koyas are divided into five categories or sub-tribes:
Gomin, Goti, Meta, Dartad and Manim. The Gomin Koyas
inhabit the low land of Malkangiri, sandwiched between
Sileru and Saberi tributaries of Godavari. They are mostly
cattle herders. The Goti Koyas inhabit the plain lands and
depend upon farming. The Meta Koyas occupy the hilly
areas and practise shifting cultivation. The Koyas who earn a
living through iron smithy are known as Dartad. The Manim
Koyas are the ones who live on the western side of the Saberi
River in Chhattisgarh. Meta Koyas reside in Malkangiri and
Kalimela blocks. The Goti Koyas occupy the Podia block and
the Gomin Koyas dwell in the Motu.
There are several weekly markets in the Koya area, which
cater to the buying and selling needs of the Koya. Both men
172 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

and women together carry out the transaction. Koyas mainly


practise shifting cultivation as suitable land for plains and
wet cultivation is scarce in their habitat. Harvest period is
a busy time for them, when all members of the family go
to the crop field to collect the crops. Ploughing or udsinadi
of land commences after the pre-monsoon showers in the
April or May. Ploughing is done with a simple ploughshare
either by men or women. Women are totally forbidden from
sowing seeds.

CASE STUDY 3
In November 2012 we visited to Malkangiri. I wanted to visit
Bonda Market but it is restricted to the outsiders, as men-
tioned in the Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups Act of
March 2012, enacted by the Odisha government that prohibits
foreign travellers/scholars to visit the tribal areas at night,
taking photographs, entering inside their houses or any kind
of physical proximity with the tribal people. We started on
our journey early in the morning. Malkangiri is fully covered
with dense forests and is the Maoist heart land as well, the
district falls under the red corridor. On our way to Bonda
Market we covered the exact place where a land mine blast
took place in July, 2008. It was a heavy explosion that took
lives of 17 BSF jawans. My guide said that the mines are
operated from inside the jungles. The road was closed for few
years after the explosion and has been opened just the last
year. The entire district has been covered with high security.
There are BSF camps after each twenty km and more police
stations than required. In front of the BSF camps there are
security personnel on duty with arms.
We met the Didayis, the shifting cultivators of Malkangiri.
One of them, Chandan Pujari, told me that their rights over
the forest and forest products are still unrecognized. They
have not been informed about the Forest Rights Act, 2006.
Another Didayi, Buddhu Pujari, said that they collect mainly
firewood and different kinds of leaves. On the way to Bonda
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 173

Market we met two Bonda women carrying liquor on their


heads. They said that livelihood of the Bondas is a prim-
itive form of agriculture, animal husbandry and hunting.
The Bondas are still deprived of the minimum basic needs of
life like drinking water, sanitation, education, communication.
We reached Bonda Market, situated at Mundiguda v ­ illage
close to Khairaput Block, Mudulipada P.S. of Malkangiri.
The market sold dry prawn and other fish, vegetables, chil-
lies and saris and other garments. At the edge of the market
the Bonda men and women were selling traditional country
liquor. The women wear a lot of rings on their head, neck,
ear, nose, hand-made with brass or nickel even in their day to
day life; they wear it by boring the pins into their neck. Since
their lives are so tough, perhaps they are hardened against
pain. Lots of projects are being established in these areas by
displacing thousands, such as Balimela Hydro Power Project
(only 30 km) away from Malkangiri.
Tanginiguda village, Khairaput Block of Malkangiri has
large areas of sal forests. The Bonda and Paraja women were
going to the market with vegetables and fruits. We also found
men digging the earth under National Rural Employment
Guarantee Scheme. On our way back we visited Bhuniya
Market of Boipariguda, a weekly market held on every
Sunday used by the Gadabas, Bhuniyas and Parajas who sold
dry fish, vegetables, garments, fruits and tobacco. Gadabas
wear a two-piece nose ring whereas Kondhs wear a three-
piece nose ring, and Bhuniyas wear a two-piece nose-ring,
sometimes one-piece, and anklets as well. Lakshmi Puja was
being performed by the tribal women and wearing white
saris they were distributing prasad and putting on the ver-
million tika. Many Bengali refugee families came from erst-
while East Pakistan and settled in Malkangiri and have had
an impact on tribal culture.
More than 90 per cent of the households depend on agri-
culture, out of which more than 60 per cent depend on both
shifting and settled agriculture; with 50 per cent depending
on shifting cultivation alone. With the establishment of the
174 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Bonda Development Agency there has been better involve-


ment and participation of the local inhabitants. Women’s con-
sciousness has increased considerably in as much as some
of them have started clothing themselves in a better way.
(Field work in Koraput and Rayagadha was carried on during
October-November 2012.)

THE KONDH WOMEN OF KORAPUT


AND ­RAYAGADA
The Dongria Kondh is one of the officially designated PTG in
Odisha.35 They are the original inhabitants of Niyamgiri hilly
region which extends to Rayagada, Koraput and Kalahandi
districts of south Odisha. The theological pantheon is the
earth goddess (Darni Pennu) at the apex and Niyam Pennu
(Niyamgiri Hill) is believed to be the creator of Dongrias. The
Dongria population is confined to three community devel-
opment blocks namely Bissamcuttack and Munuguda of
Gunpur sub-division and Kalyansinghpur block of Rayagada
sub-division. They speak Kuvi, which is of Dravidian linguis-
tic ancestry that has no script. Each Dongria Kondh village is
situated in the centre chain of hills of Niyamgiris, which are
inaccessible, hidden in the mountains, devoid of road and
transport facilities. Dongria Kondhs are known for their deep
knowledge and skill in horticulture. Due to development,
their traditional lifestyle, customary traits of economy and
political organization, norms, values and worldview have
been drastically changed. Kondh women are considered
assets because of their contribution inside and outside the
household. For this reason the girl child is preferred over the
boy child and fetch high bride price. The girls’ dormitory is
called adasbeta is a common practice. However, the family is
patrilineal and patrilocal.
The Dongria Kondhs extensively practice bogodo, slash and
burn (swidden) type of cultivation. The hill slopes are clearly
marked by areas under swidden cultivation, organized in
such a way as to ensure a regular supply of food over several
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 175

months. Traditionally most tribes of Odisha grew around


26 varieties of cereals and pulses that matured during dif-
ferent months between October and February when forest
produce like fruits and edible flowers became available. But
because of deforestation and decline in resources, tribal fam-
ilies have become more dependent on shifting cultivation
than in the past. The shifting cultivation cycle has changed to
becoming more frequent because of soil degradation, from 6
years to 3 years. As a result of the shorter cycle, the forest does
not regenerate, soil erosion follows and soil fertility declines.36
Kondh women display a vast knowledge of the agri-
cultural, horticultural and swiddening activities. Women’s
expertise in the fields of crop management and housekeeping
is significant. Dongria girls are particularly adept at embroi-
dery, weaving the Dongria shawls, in house decoration and
the making of paints and cosmetics. Dongria women are
skilled at processing and preserving foodstuff and at distill-
ing liquor, which is officially a men’s task. They are efficient
at gathering non-timber forest products. Both sexes operate
on an equal footing in the market place. Women transport
and sell the products at the market and are thus aware of
basic commercial practices.37
Rayagada district is infamously known as the hunger
pocket of Odisha. The district is inhabited by the hill tribes,
nearly 90 per cent of the population depends on agriculture
but the land area is too meagre, mostly with poor soil base
and a large part faces drought with a wide seasonal variation
in food consumption mainly in quality and quantity. Dongria
Kondhs face acute shortage of food in the post-sowing mon-
soon period (July-September) and again around March when
the kharif harvest has been exhausted.
The Primary Health Centres (PHC) situated at K. Singpur,
Bissamcuttack and Muniguda are quite inaccessible, devoid
of road and transport facility and often cut off en route with
flowing canals and rivers; thus the Kondhs still consult their
traditional medicine man at times of need. Kondh women are
aware of certain medicines that are used specifically during
176 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

birth, for contraception, abortion, and amenorrhea; and are


familiar with remedies for common ailments, the knowledge
being acquired from the medicine man’s wife.
Dongria Kondh society displays marked sexual inequality,
men occupying the dominant position in the social hierar-
chy. Women are denied certain social activities; despite their
inferior status the contribution made by women in certain
situations is quite substantial. Certain religious ceremonies
require significant female participation. As in the neighbour-
ing Lanjia Saora community, Dongria women also work as
shamanins. There is also a discernible hierarchy among the
women who work as priests or religious performers.38
Kondh customs of human sacrifice were performed prin-
cipally to the Earth Goddess. She was called Darni Pennu,
the main deity worshipped by most Kondhs, along with Bura
Pennu or the Sky God. According to Kondh belief, human
sacrifices were performed in response to Darni’s demand for
human blood to ensure the fertility of the earth. The victims
of sacrifice were called meriahs and were of either sex. Kondhs
bought meriahs, who were not Kondhs by birth from other
lower castes. Between Bura and Darni Pennu there was per-
petual strife. Some Kondhs held Bura supreme, and therefore
performed no human sacrifices; instead they practised female
infanticide, since they identified women with the evil princi-
ple. The bride price given for women in Kondh community
was enormous. The Kondh woman used to change her hus-
band whenever she wished and in that case the huge bride
price which her first husband paid was to be repaid by her
father. So, having a girl child was an expensive business and
that is why most of the female babies were killed.39

CASE STUDY 4
We visited Bhatpur village, Bissamcuttack Block, Rayagada
district inhabited by Kondhs. A linear village, which is only
inhabited by Dongria Kondhs who speak Kui. There are two
Self Help Groups in the village. In a micro finance scheme
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 177

women have made a banana plantation. There was a com-


munity house, a remnant of a dormitory or ghotul where
young tribal boys and girls lived together and were sexu-
ally active; now it is abandoned. There was also a sacrificial
ground, probably influenced by the Hindu culture. Kanchana
Hemrika (28) took me home. There was a photograph of the
Hindu goddess Lakshmi, the household goods were hanging
from the roof. Baskets, sarees, utensils, and pails—all scat-
tered. The children were found reading books in Oriya in the
courtyard. Houses are being built with the funds released
under Indira Awas Yojana, but the houses do not suit tribal
culture.
The Rayagada tribes’ staple food is a gruel prepared from
ragi or finger millet locally called ‘mandia’ which contains
iron, calcium and protein, offering richer nutritional value
than rice. Flavoured with a pinch of salt and a handful of
rice or maize corn thrown in, the rather flat tasting gruel
is taken for breakfast, lunch and in the absence of rice, for
dinner too, without variation; it is the first solid food for
babies too. Each family gets between 120 to 160 kg of millet
and the same quantity of rice again in the second cropping.
Selling a portion to cover cash expenses, the rest lasts for four
months. In the monsoon the women may pick wild gurundi
leafy greens and work for daily wages.
Their main sources of income are agriculture, collection
of forest produce and occasional wage labour, which lets
a family of five members, at best, survive for six months.
By mid-monsoon the millet and rice produce have been
consumed. Wage labour is hard to come by. The tribals
were BPL card holders, but the performance of Annapurna
Yojana was not satisfactory at all. Malaria is virulent; sap-
ping their immunity and diarrhoea lays them to further
waste and even death, a death that is often represented as
‘starvation death’.
At the Dongria Kondh Development Agency (DKDA) of
Rayagada, I interviewed the DKDA officers, M.K. Karkaria,
Bhagirath Sahoo, Karno Kausaliya, Janak Bag, S. Trinath
178 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Rao and Ramesh Nalla. They said that in 1964 the Odisha
Government started the Agency with the Purchase and Sale
Fair-Price Shops scheme through which the indigenous
produce of the Dongria Kondh were being purchased at a
reasonable rate and the daily necessities like salt, kerosene,
tobacco, match box and cheap garments were provided at
a fair price. They introduced me to Kondh women. The
women showed their ornaments mainly hair clips, one
knife kept within the hair-knot, 25–30 earrings, khagla or
necklaces with beads, nose rings of mainly gold or brass
and little tattoos. Government projects and funds for the
development of the Dongria Kondhs are utilized through
the Agency. The Odisha Welfare Service cadres help the
government to implement the projects properly. Driven
by the need of sustainable farming they cultivate several
indigenous varieties of pearl millet, brinjal, sesame, bottle
gourd and legumes. The DKDA has its own plans related
to the cultivation of the seasonal crops such as, pineapple,
jackfruit, mango, papaya, black pepper, coffee, lemons,
orange. DKDA gives training on how to grow crops on
both the hill terrains and plain lands and which crop has
to be cultivated in which season so that the women can go
to their villages and carry on the process learnt here. The
DKDA is also training Kondh women to make different
types of handicrafts, especially designing shawls which
sell for `700–1,000.
Our next destination was in Khojuri village, Bissamcuttack
Block, Rayagada district inhabited by Kutia Kondh and
Dongria Kondh. Tribal women also work under National Rural
Employment Guarantee Scheme. They are getting `126 per day
as wages. Many want the NREGS withdrawn as the benefits
were not fully percolating to the community. The daily diet
of the Kondhs consists of millet, gruel, dry fish, rice, chicken,
and vegetables. Their occupation is mainly in primary sectors:
agriculture and domestication of animals and horticulture.
They have no land in their name. The Kondhs practise bride
price instead of dowry but that is in kind and not in cash.
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 179

Then we visited tiny Titijhola village, in Kumbhikota Gram


Panchayat under Sadar block at the tail end of Rayagada
district bordering Koraput, which is inhabited by the Jharia
Paraja community. There is no Self Help Groups in the vil-
lage. We found the shifting cultivation tracts extensively
under swidden cultivation for maize and rice. We entered
the Titijhola Primary School, an upgraded school both for
girls and the boys. The little Kondh and Paraja girls were
wearing three-piece nose rings. They sang the prayer song
before us and ended it with ‘Jana-Gana-Mana’. When asked
about the mid-day meal programme we were told that on
Wednesday and Saturday they are served with eggs and in
the rest of the days with khichris (a blending of rice, dal and
vegetables). Titijhola is a classic example of official apathy on
electricity front. Rajiv Gandhi Grameen Vidyutikaran Yojana
(RGGVY), a scheme for providing access to electricity was
launched by Union Ministry of Power on 18 March 2005.
But when I visited Titijhola in November 2012, there was no
electricity connection.
We moved to Jhigidi and Ghasi Sahi of Jhigidi Gram
Panchayat, Muniguda Tehsil, Rayagada where we visited
the luxury goods markets at Jharia Paraja Market. The arti-
sans were preparing dokra using a once lost-wax technique,
a process by which the metal sculpture is cast from an artist’s
sculpture. Charms, pendants, rings, necklace, different types
of idols, ornaments, are just a few items that can be made.
We went to Gadaba village of Rayagada block, Rayagada,
The villagers make and sell different types of pottery. Our
next destination was the village Janiguda, Laxmipur Tehsil,
Koraput. The village is inhabited by the Bodo Paraja tribal
community which has been recognised as PTG. This is the
only tribal community that still bears matriarchal culture.
There are two SHGs and undoubtedly need more super-
vision on the side of the government. Janiguda is situated
very near to Narayanpatna but there were strict restrictions
on entering the block since security forces were posted to
handle any kind of unrest.
180 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

THE HOLVA AND SAORA WOMEN OF KORAPUT


The tribal society of Koraput presents a picture of a stable,
tolerant, gender-cooperative, gender-non-discriminatory, and
humane society. Though the tribal society here is a closed
society having a primitive life style and attitude, they are
natural feminists. According to the 2001 Census, in Koraput,
the tribal population comprises almost half (about 49.62%) of
the district’s total population. Among all tribes of Koraput,
no discrimination is known to be made on the grounds of sex.
According to the 2001 Census, out of 8,145,081, total number
of scheduled tribe population in Koraput, the female popula-
tion (4,078,298) outnumbers the male population (4,066,783).40
Holvas have undergone a process of ‘Sanskritization.’
They are mainly found in Undivided Koraput and Kalahandi
districts of Odisha. They speak a dialect called ‘Halvi,’ but
are also capable of speaking Oriya language without diffi-
culty. The pattern of dress and ornaments among the Holva
is the same as that of their Hindu neighbours. The Saoras
are known as one of the oldest tribes in Odisha. They are
known for their artistic skills and traditional panchayat
system, which is responsible for maintaining law, order and
solidarity in the village.
So far as following the guidelines of an Institutional Review
Board (IRB) or Ethics Committee (EC) is concerned, the tribal
chieftains (Gamango/Buyya in case of Saora tribe) of the
respective tribes were consulted and were intimated about
our intentions. The places where the interviews were con-
ducted are Saora Guda (for Saoras), and Umeri (for Holvas).
Saora Guda and Umeri were found to have the respective
tribes in a sizable majority. In the absence of modern day
varieties in the composition of the population of the two
tribes, only age, sex, and to some extent education were taken
into consideration while taking interviews. The responses
of the Holva women, in sharp contrast with the Saoras,
indicate that they have shown more interest in raising their
status v­ is-à-vis their male members. The Holva tribe encour-
ages widow remarriage. A widow can remarry the younger
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 181

brother of her deceased husband. In a similar way, Saoras


practise both sororate and levirate forms of marriage, that
is, a man can marry his deceased wife’s younger sister and
women can marry her deceased husband’s younger brother.
Saora women retain their family name after marriage.41
Male and female members in both the tribal communities
are economically self-dependent. Both male and female con-
sume country wine. Both males and females dance together
during their community festivals. Dhemsa is the most popu-
lar form of dance among tribals of Koraput where both male
and female dance together, keeping their hand on each other
while singing in a chorus. Even if today female members
are given some political offices through the Panchayati Raj
Act, it does not make any difference in the status and posi-
tion of the women. They prefer to work and live in cooper-
ation with their male members. Gradually tribal women are
increasingly enrolled as members of the SHGs. This has been
a means to enhance the economic condition of tribal women.
However, the benefits and responsibilities of the SHGs are
also regarded as a partnership between males and females in
tribal community. In the villages inhabited by Holva tribes,
institutions like Youth Centers, Kirtan Mandali and Mahila
Samitis (Women Organizations) are found to exist. Women
take up issues concerning them in these centres.

THE GADABA WOMEN OF KORAPUT


Gadaba society in India has gone through rapid socio-­
economic transformation in recent days under the impact
of both traditional and modern factors of social change.
In Odisha, they are distributed mostly in five different
districts: Koraput, Malkangiri, Nabarangapur, Kalahandi
­
and Rayagada. However, Koraput has the highest Gadaba
population among the districts (Census 2001). Keeping
this in mind the study has been conducted at the micro
level covering three Gadaba dominated blocks of Koraput
­district—Pottangi, Nandapur and Semiliguda—to analyse
the socio-economic transformation process.
182 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

With the introduction of forest laws now in force the


Gadabas lost their traditional forest land on hill slopes and
were driven down to the flat fields below. The Gadabas had
to cultivate the low land. Land alienation has become evi-
dent in Gadaba villages due to industrialization and inflow
of non-tribals. The traders and businessmen of urban area
now have acquired the lands of these people by paying a
very small amount. Thus a majority of Gadabas, who do
not have any knowledge about the land tenure laws, found
themselves increasingly deprived of the very land that was
their source of livelihood. The construction of the hydro-
electric project in Machakund and the multipurpose dam in
upper Kolab have taken away lands from the Gadabas with-
out giving them anything in return. Due to the setting up of
Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd. (HAL) factory at Sunabeda and
the NALCO at Damanjodi, the Gadaba and Paraja territory
has been invaded.42
The major occupation of tribals of Koraput district can be
classified as: (a) forestry and food gathering; (b) shifting culti-
vation: (c) animal husbandry; (d) settled agriculture; (e) wage
labour; (f) household industry; and (g) miscellaneous occu-
pation. With the decline in output from forest produce, as
well as shifting cultivation, tribals are increasingly becoming
dependent on seasonal wage labour, both as agricultural and
unskilled construction workers.
In matters of marriage, observation of rituals and arrange-
ment of feasts, the husband and the wife take decisions
jointly. Though the position of women has improved, it is still
not at par with men, especially in ritual, education, political
aspects. The change in Gadaba women’s status is percepti-
ble more in urban than rural areas, more among educated
than uneducated women and more in Christian than non-­
Christian women. Female literacy has slightly gone up due
to free education up to high school, scholarships and estab-
lishment of residential schools for girls. Education has helped
the women to improve their social position within the family
and provide opportunities for performing new roles outside.
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 183

In Gadaba society there are women with magic power who


is called ‘Gurumai’ or ‘Bejuni’. She performs rituals to stop
the evil spirits causing ill health to an individual or a family
out of the village.

CASE STUDY 5
We visited to two hundred acres forest land of coffee plan-
tation on the foothills of Deo Mali in Semeliguda Block of
Koraput which is densely populated by the Gadaba tribe. The
forest was covered by the cash crops: coffee, black pepper,
silver oak trees. These cash crops provide employment to the
tribals for nearly six months. The coffee plantation of Koraput
employs men and women who take part in fertilizer appli-
cation, weeding, bush management, nursery maintenance,
harvesting and coffee processing. The workers receive their
wages as per the rule of NREGA: 120 rupees per day. The
produce from Koraput is exported to places like Chennai and
Mumbai for marketing. At Dangarachhini Gram Panchayat
of Jeypore Block Gadaba women were preparing the leaf
plates for a funeral meal. They said that the dead bodies are
cremated, but in case of unnatural death they bury the dead
bodies by the river bed. We found a sacred grove called sarna
where tribal goddesses are worshipped with a banyan peepal
or jackfruit tree; there was a mark of vermillion on a big rock a
sign of Hindu influence on the tribals. The villagers said that
sorcery is still being practiced by the jani or janguru in most
Gadaba villages and believe that janis can suck the spirit.
Our next destination was Maliguda village of the Gadabas,
Jeypore, close to Boipariguda. In this village, Mali, the sub-
tribal group, live with the Gadabas as well. We found a place
with a large platform. It was a community gathering place
where the Gadabas hold meetings and perform Demsa dance.
Gadaba women use different types of hairpins, wear ear-
rings, nose rings and finger rings made with coins, brass
bangles. Bride price (jala dabu) prevails in their community
though. Gadaba society is going through transformation of
184 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

their whole socio-cultural milieu. Now, one can hardly find a


Gadaba woman wearing Kerang sarees. Many customary fes-
tivals and rituals are decaying, animal sacrifice is frowned on.

BHUYAN-JUANG WOMEN OF KEONJHAR


Extensive deposits of minerals resources like iron and man-
ganese ores have also made this district quite an important
one in the resource map of Odisha and India. The Bhuyan-
Juang Pirh (abode of the hill tribes) is a mountainous country
with two broad divisions: the Bhuyan Pirh to the west and
northwest of the Keonjhar town; and the Juang Pirh to the
south of the town. Juangs live a largely communal life and
revenue is paid by the village altogether, But Bhuyans have
become individualistic, do not share, and rich and poor are
distinguished.

CASE STUDY 6
We also visited Patrapura village of Jeypore Block, Koraput, a
Bhuyan village, not linear but circular in nature. Shifting culti-
vation, locally known as kamani, continues to play a dominant
role in the household as well as their village economy. Somari
Parajoni, a Bhuyan woman said that they have no land in their
names. She gets widow pension that has increased from `200
to `300. She is a BPL cardholder and gets 25 kg rice through
PDS. She also said that bride price is paid in kind. The Bhuyans
speak Oriya and have adopted the local Hindu culture more
extensively than the Juangs who, though speak Oriya, have a
dialect of their own. Till recently, the latter were considered to
be a semi-nomadic race unlike the Bhuyans. There are more
than 12 sub-divisions among the Bhuyans. Each group con-
siders itself to be the superior one and does not intermarry.43
The geo-physical location and climatic condition of the
Pirh have attracted many development agencies operating for
last few decades in mining exploration, tea plantation, and so
on. The Gandhamardan Iron Ore Mining of Odisha Mining
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 185

Corporation is working in a contiguous area of 5,751.25 acres


since 1963 for a projected time period of 200 years. This has
so far affected 1690 acres of forest land, 121 acres of non-­
forest private land, and 397 acres of non-forest government
land. Surrounding villages like Suakati, Danala, Upparjagar,
Luapada, Upper Kainsari, Nitigatha and Ichinda has been
highly affected due to the impact of mining activities with
respect to their forest, economy, sources of employment, cul-
tural life and institutional patterns. The second major devel-
opment project is a tea garden owned by a private company
at Tamarkanta near Bansapal by IPICOL, Government of
Odisha and one private company of West Bengal in 1982. The
tea garden has deforested an area of 2200 acres of forest land,
of which 800 acres was given on lease to a private company.
The land was largely dominated by sal trees. The tea garden
has been closed since 2002. The third major factor affecting
the Pirh is the construction of National Highway-6 during
1980s linking Calcutta with Bombay, as a result of which
thousands of trucks go through Bhuyan Pirh. The construc-
tion of roadside dhabas and hotels has resulted in prostitu-
tion, child labour, sexually transmitted diseases.44
The Juangs are found in large numbers in Keonjhar and
Dhenkanal districts. The Juang economy has been based on
shifting cultivation. Women are forbidden to take part in
ploughing, sowing and storing grains, but women do partic-
ipate in all other work. Saora women of Sambalpur district
unlike many tribal women are allowed to use the plough.
Almost in every hill tribe community women dominate in
household affairs (but not in village matters); they are earnest
in family matters and more strongly attached to their family
than the males.45 Some of the common taboos like women
must not plough are based on the perception of difference
between masculine and feminine nature while some others
owe their origin to purely socio-religious concepts.46 Women’s
contribution to the household income is that that they con-
stitute 50 per cent or even more of the working force.47 But
women do not inherit land and property though a widow
186 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

can be allowed to inherit the homestead land. This creates


a major problem for them after the death of their husbands
unless they have male children, and they become destitute
without a husband or son.
Juangs used to wear only leaf-dress even during the nine-
teenth century and were hence known as Patra (or leaf) Saora
or Pattoa. Almost all large and smooth leaves were used for
this purpose and the ‘dress’ was changed daily.48 The Juangs
still practice toila or jhum cultivation. The right of the forest
belongs to the community as a whole and is divided by
mutual consent.49
Juang Development Agency (JDA) was constituted in
1970s for the development of the Juang under the ‘Tribal
Sub-Plans’. But in the name of creating new scope for eco-
nomic growth of the tribe, the JDA forcibly diverted the
community from their age-old shifting cultivation to com-
mercial exploitation of the forest wealth. Later on, when
the forest department enforced restrictions on use of forest
resources, these tribes were pushed back to the condition of
virtual landlessness.50 On the economic development of the
survey and settlement operations during 1965–1985 helped
demarcate forest blocks clearly and a number of these DPFs
(Demarcated Protected Forests) were then proposed to be
declared as Reserve Forests. One such PRF (proposed reserve
forest) is the Gandhamardan Hill forest where mining is
taking place. Bharat Aluminium Company or Balco started
mining in north Chhattisgarh and disrupted the lives of
thousands of adivasi. In February 1986 people from both
sides of Gandhamardan set up a blockade on the mining
road. Women played a crucial role at this point and placed
their babies on the road, right in front of police and mining
vehicles. By June 1986 the blockade had completely stopped
work at the mine.51 Usually the whole area of Bhuyan-Juang
Pirh was considered to be under shifting cultivation since
there was no control over it in this area. Previously when
the customs were strictly adhered to in context of shifting
cultivation, the impact on environment was negligible;
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 187

the rotation of 22 years has come been reduced to 5 years


sometimes.52

DANDAKARANYA DEVELOPMENT
AND TRIBAL WOMEN
The present KBK region consists of the undivided Koraput,
Bolangir and Kalahandi districts, which was reorganized
into eight districts in 1992–1993 as: Kalahandi, Nawapada,
Bolangir, Sonepur, Koraput, Malkangiri, Nawarangpur
and Rayagada. The KBK region along with the contiguous
Gajapati and Khandamal districts is considered one of the
poorest in the country. Scheduled tribes like Bonda, Didayi,
Lanjia Saora and Dongria Kondh inhabit this area. The
tribal population suffers from high morbidity on account of
undernutrition as well as endemic malaria and other local-
ized ­diseases.53 Sanjay Kak has stated, ‘In a terrible twist,
this land, traditionally fertile with the nutrients that flow
down its many bauxite rich malis, became emblematic of
the endemic poverty of Odisha … there have been terrible
famines since the 1960s.’54
In 1957 the Ministry of Rehabilitation carved out a con-
tiguous area of about 80,000 square miles stretching over
Koraput district of Odisha and Bastar district of Madhya
Pradesh (now in Chhattisgarh) for the policy towards reha-
bilitation of the Bengali Hindu refugees from East Pakistan,
which was given a mythical name: Dandakaranya. The
Ministry proposed to leave half the area as forest and keep
the other half for the settlement of four million persons, of
which half may be the local adivasis and the other half dis-
placed persons. The Dandakaranya Development Authority
(DDA) was set up by a Resolution of the government dated
September 1958 to look after the project. The area covers the
areas belonging to Bastar and Koraput.
The rehabilitation project planned to build new colonies
over 200–300 villages for the settlement of 35,000 displaced
families and 6,000 tribal families. The project started to face
188 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

aberrations around 1966, when a large number of settlers left


for West Bengal. Another exodus also took place between
1972 and 1978. By the end of 1984, it was estimated that there
were altogether 36,513 families in the rehabilitation sites, but
this number was reduced to 25,153 after the exodus.55 The set-
tled groups acquired more benefits from the project compared
to the tribals. This caused severe unrest among the tribes. In
course of time, the DDA left implementation of tribal wel-
fare to the two concerned state governments and primarily
functioned as an agency for rehabilitation of the refugees.
The tribals did not react negatively while the settlement
process was on. Neither did the government feel the need for
obtaining tribal consent for the settlement nor did the tribes
feel any necessity to react to it. When the bulldozers of the
Dandakaranya Development Authority started cleaning the
jungle, out of insecurity the tribals ran away into the deeper
forests. When the settler acquired their land, the tribes did
not protest, as they knew that they could reclaim more land
by cleaning the forests, which they did. But the settlers once
again grabbed that newly reclaimed land of the tribals. Many
of the families in the settlers’ communities increased their
landholding to up to 50 acres through this process. The tribals
now became landless and started working in the fields of the
settlers as agricultural labourers.56 Besides the land, the trib-
als gradually lost control over community resources such as
forests. At a later stage, Joint Forest Management Committees
(JFMCs) were formed with the villagers as members, to take
care of the distribution of income from forest produce among
the village community. The settlers acquired the dominant
position in these committees by manipulating the process
and selected those tribals as representatives who had been
working in their houses as servants. This helped them to
alienate the local tribe from such resources. The settlers are
now higher up on the ladder of progress. Their children have
acquired education. Those who are educated have got good
jobs in the government. There are engineers and doctors from
this community but one can rarely find even a clerk from the
tribal community.
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 189

Fernandes reported that 432.20 sq km of land were defor-


ested for the Dandakaranya Project in Nowarangpur, Jeypore
and Malkangiri Divisions.57 Koraput’s thick forest cover dwin-
dled rapidly in the course of major developmental projects
like the Indravati Hydro Project, which evicted 5,000 families.
The movement against the project was effectively suppressed
in April 1992 when police lathicharged and arrested 28 or
more protesters, who were taken to Nowrangpur jail.58 They
are still waiting for rehabilitation.59 The local tribes of the area
are deprived of irrigation facilities; instead, water from the
dam is allowed to flow to many distant parts of Odisha. A
number of private industrialists established paper mills in
the district, which led to depletion of forests due to mindless
cutting of bamboo.
The forest cover of Koraput is a mixture of sal and bamboo.
Once the bamboo is taken away, it destroys the thickness of
the forest, resulting in high temperatures, going up to 45°C
in summer. The liberalization process of the government
encouraged many multinational companies to take interest
in the area. All these projects would displace many thousands
of people. Against these forceful displacements when resis-
tance is increasing, the response of the government is highly
repressive. Tribal protestors of Maikanch village in Kashipur
block of Rayagada district are protesting against Utkal
Alumina International Limited—a joint venture of Alcan
of Canada and Hindalco of India (UAIL).60 The Prakritik
Sambad Suraksha Parishad (PSSP) has been spearheading
the struggle against UAIL.61

CASE STUDY 7
In November 2012, I visited Utkal Alumina Ltd. at Kashipur.
Our first place of visit was Karajhola village of Sankarada
Gram Panchayat, Kashipur Block, Rayagada. The ­women’s
contribution along with the loans provided by the govern-
ment is being utilized to grow mango and mustard. Tribals
here are dying of diarrhoea because of polluted drinking
190 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

water combined with an inefficient public health care


system that is responsible for a high mortality rate in this
area. Even the NGOs failed to perform efficiently. The vil-
lagers talked about the incidents of starvation deaths in
Kashipur. A large number do not resort to any treatment
for diarrhoea. Most will consult the dasari or traditional
doctor first, who stays virtually next door and who may
prescribe an herbal remedy. We went to visit the Karajhola
Primary School. There were no toilet facilities not even for
the girls and this is the situation in almost every school. The
school teacher, an exception, is committed to teach in this
extremist affected area.
We then moved to Utkal Alumina International Ltd. sit-
uated at Tikiri. In April 2007, Alcan declared that it is with-
drawing from the project by divesting its stake to Aditya
Birla group by June 2007. The project aims to mine baux-
ite through open-cast mining from Baplimali (in Maikanch
panchayat), a hill regarded as sacred by the tribal people.
The extracted bauxite would be transported to a refinery at
Doraguda near Kucheipadar, where it would be processed
for aluminium in an alumina plant. The processed alumin-
ium is to be transported to Tikiri by trucks, for onward
transport to Visakhapatnam seaport by train for export to
different parts of the world. The entire industrial complex is
surrounded by Niyamgiri Hills with ostentatious quarters.
Security did not let me enter the company. So I talked to
the local adivasi women of Kucheipadar who felt that it is
their natural surroundings and environment that is being
threatened by UAIL. Sumani Jhoria and Mukta Jhoria said,
‘For us, the lands, forests, hills and the rivers of Kashipur are
the source of livelihood and also our Gods. We will continue
to protest.’
In Lanjigarh of Kalahandi district 34 tribals were arrested in
April 2006 because they opposed forceful occupation of their
land by Vedanta Alumina Company of UK. One of the tribal
woman leaders was Maladi Majhi who led the movement
with others. At one village called Chatrapur, downstream
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 191

from Vedanta’s refinery, villagers have complained several


times of contamination in the local Vansadhara River. An
Odisha Pollution Control Board Report confirmed that toxic
waste from the factory had been dumped into the river during
2007. People also complained that they were not getting jobs
they had been promised by the company.62 The traditional
beliefs, values, norms and religious practices like the Meria
festival of sacrifice are dying. A woman said, Amoro devata ke
bi nashta kole—they even destroyed our d ­ eities—referring to
the Dharni vali (Earth Goddess stones) that form the centre
of a Kondh village, which has been crushed to rubble along
with the houses.63
Local residents face repression for opposing POSCO. In
Sambalpur and Jharsuguda district of west Odisha, trib-
als are opposing sponge iron projects because these plants
contaminate water bodies and air. People also faced brutal
police repression in Dhenkanal in December 2005 and in
Bolangir in May 2005 when protesting against Bhusan Steel
Company and Sukhtel Dam project respectively. Plans for a
lower Sukhtel Dam in Bolangir are almost certainly linked
to the plans for mining Gandhamardan. Inhabitants of vil-
lages due for submergence have been virtually forced into
signing agreements to accept compensation. Tribal women
and men were severely beaten and harassed by the police
for taking part in demonstrations.64 Since August 2008, the
Odisha government has started a similar scheme like the
Salwa Judum of Bastar, of deploying 2000 armed tribal youths
as special police officers in five districts of Odisha particularly
affected by Maoist violence: Kandhamal, Gajapati, Rayagada,
Koraput and Malkangiri.65 According to Satnam, ‘In Bastar,
different kinds of fires burn—the fire in the empty belly, the
fire of the jungle, of the revolution.’66
Koraput had been the original home of various tribes for
centuries. From 1961 onwards, settlers expanded their mate-
rial base in the lands of the tribe, took away their lands and
forests, displaced them from state politics and dominated in
the sector of government jobs. The tribals of Koraput, under
192 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

the leadership of their educated sons, started a demonstra-


tion against the settlers over the issue of preservation of land
and forests in the tahsil town of Umarkote. They stopped
the illegal felling of the trees. In June 2001, the movement
turned into a violent clash between the settlers and the tri-
bals. The police firing at Rayagada block headquarters led
to deaths; the movement gradually gained strength and the
tribals attended meetings armed with their traditional weap-
ons like bows and arrows. The movement also led to political
mobilization among the tribes and created a new state of
Chhattisgarh.
In Rayagada the Dandakaranya Jagaran Morcha, consti-
tuted by the local people, has now demanded patta rights on
the land that has been in their possession since a long time.
Militant organizations like the Kui Chasi Mulia Samiti and
the People’s War Group (PWG) have become active in creat-
ing political consciousness safeguarding tribal rights to land,
forests and water. Earlier the PWG worked in a zone com-
prising the tribal areas of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and
Malkangiri, but now they have included all the tribal areas
of Koraput as a separate zone for their action. There is also
an adivasi women organization called Krantikari Adivasi
Mahila Sangha (KAMS) or Revolutionary Adivasi Women’s
Organization.67 In the Dandakaranya region an alternative
model of development has been introduced by CPI (Maoists).
The Dandakaranya Special Zonal Committee of CPI (Maoists)
supervises the developmental activities of Dantewada, Bastar
and Kanker districts of Chhattisgarh and Gadchhiroli district
of Maharashtra.68
Action for Welfare and Awakening of Rural Environment
or AWARE is a non-governmental development organiza-
tion involved in the overall development of this region. In
1992 AWARE adopted many villages in the Dandakaranya
region covering Andhra Pradesh and Odisha states. It works
through Village Associations, Mahila Mandalis, and Youth
Associations by creating awareness through motivation and
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 193

organization. A survey report has been published on devel-


opment process initiated by AWARE from 1992–1996.69
The basic education for the girl child is one of the import-
ant national level objectives as well as AWARE’s target.
Nearly 95 per cent of the women in AWARE villages want
their girl child to be educated as compared to 28 per cent in
the non-AWARE villages. AWARE efforts to bring a change
in the attitude towards a girl child have given the desired
results. Nearly 70 per cent of women feel that there are no
atrocities in AWARE villages while it is less than 34 per cent
in non-AWARE villages. AWARE is playing a significant role
in savings schemes which cover over 60 per cent of AWARE
families.
The survey report further talked about the Mahila
Mandalis of the Dandakaranya region. Mahila Mandalis play
an important role in forming a concerted effort to mobilize
women. They meet more frequently based on the concerned
issues, conduct training camps to discuss nutrition aspects,
population, education, use of local resources, taking an active
role in awareness regarding their development in all aspects.
Mahila Mandali plays an important role in solving the con-
flict among members. More than 70 per cent of them indi-
cated that in cases of trouble, they make them sit together
and solve the problem. In some instances, they caution them
and even impose fine on them. The Mahila Mandali members
also meet with other associations like Youth Associations,
Village Association and offer some help.
Chaitanya Shakti members visit the villages as part of
rural development efforts. These visits are expected to offer
more confidence and empowerment for women. The major
achievement is strengthening the unity among women. The
report indicates that more than 50 per cent of the respondents
are in favour of reservations to women. The Mahila Mandali
members meet frequently the District Collector, concerned
MLA, police, and other district officers. Women empower-
ment is the strategy of AWARE. The strength of women in
194 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

AWARE villages is derived particularly from connecting with


other women through their own medium of Mahila Mandali.

TRIBAL WOMEN IN RESISTANCE MOVEMENT


IN ODISHA
The foundation stone for the first of Odisha’s new steel
plants, near Gopalpur was laid by Prime Minister Narasimha
Rao on 30 December 1995 was thwarted by a strong people’s
movement. The factory threatened to displace about 25,000
people from 25 villages, who stood to lose a rich agricultural
economy, and swiftly established a Gana Sangram Samiti to
fight the plant. Tribal women formed a Nari Sena (women’s
army), and came to the forefront of protests when about 6,000
armed police were sent to curb resistance in August 1996
and arrested hundreds of men and women. Police invaded
the area again in March 1997, and meeting strong resistance
again, opened fire, injuring four severely. People set up
14 gates to prevent entry by company officials and police,
erecting a pillar inscribed with the words: ‘Water, land and
environment belong to us and no one else has any rights to
them.’ The movement managed to stop the plant and a dam
on the Rushikulya River 120 km away, which would have
displaced about 5,000 adivasis. Yet TISCO displaced several
of the Gopalpur villagers, enclosing 5,000 acres with a high
wall, though till now, this land has remained unused.70
The Kalinganagar complex of steel plants is conveniently
close to Sukinda of Odisha. In May 2005, police lathi charged a
protest against a bhumi puja being performed by Maharashtra
Seamless Steel. The Additional District Magistrate ordered
seated adivasi protesters to disperse, after which police dis-
armed and then attacked them.71 On 2 January 2006, hun-
dreds of adivasis from 25 villages heard that Tata was about
to start construction on their land near Champakoili village.
For 23 days, the adivasis had blocked the state highway at
Kalinganagar, protesting against the takeover of their farm-
lands by TISCO. The police was brought in to forcibly clear
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 195

the highway.72 Police took six bodies away immediately after-


wards, and when these were returned to their families, it
was found that the police had cut off their hands, the men’s
genitals and the women’s breasts.73
Pohang Steel Company of South Korea (POSCO) was also
drawing up plans for a contentious steel plant at this time, on
the coast near Paradip Port, in Jagatsinghpur district. The pri-
mary aim was to get a lease for mining iron in north Odisha,
including the deeply forested Khandadhara Mountain in
Sundargarh. People of the Pahari Bhuiya tribe were preparing
to resist this invasion. The farmers of the district threatened
with displacement were 22,000 people from 3,700 families
in 11 villages. People erected barricades and formed POSCO
Pratirodh Sangram Samiti. Pro-POSCO goons threw bombs at
a crowd consisting largely of women.74 A Khondh woman of
Putsil village, close to Deo Mali, Odisha’s highest mountain,
where both the Ashapura Minechem Ltd. and Bhushan Steel
Ltd. have been angling for clearance, spoke on how the adi-
vasi women took part in the movement against mining, ‘On
8 March 2008 we were going to Boro Manjili. On the same
day the MLA was passing by car. We stopped him and asked
him: ‘Where are you going?’
‘I’m going because of the mining. Don’t worry—I’ll make
sure you Putsil people get work, and others of this area, and
I’ll feed you in my own house’.

‘Why have you sold our mountain to the company?’


Finally he said, ‘As long as I’m MLA I won’t allow any
mining.’75

A month after this event, the villages around Deo Mali


organized a meeting at Upara Kanti, the village after Putsil
(13 April 2008). They said, ‘We have to protect our area from
being destroyed … We won’t give our mountain, Deo Mali
… Our cattle, buffalo, sheep and goats would die. We won’t
let them have our precious fields … We won’t sustain as con-
struction and mine workers. When the government comes
196 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

we’ll tell them, ‘If you want to kill us, just kill us, but we all
Adivasis and Harijans won’t let you mine our mountain. We
mustn’t let them divide us. That’d make it easy for them, to
sell Deo Mali like they’ve sold Mali Parbat [to Hindalco, that
is, Birla] … If we lose our land where will we go?’76
The adivasi women of Narayanpatna have set an example
by keeping themselves in the forefront of the struggle while
patiently putting up stiff resistance to the inhuman attack on
the agitating villages and arrest of the agitators by the police.
Using traditional weapons and the home-made chilli powder
they have been able to withstand the police and played a key
role in cracking down on the hooch manufacturing units and
made Narayanpatna liquor-free. When all the male members,
the CMAS leaders, are forced to go in hiding, the remaining
children, and women took up agricultural activities.77 In the
wake of police firing on 20 November, the police arrested
Kumudini of Polapat village, a woman leader of the CMAS.
Police arrested the husbands of Sirka Bina and Sonia Hikoka
on suspicion of aiding the Maoists.78 They formed a separate
women’s organization named Biplabi Adivasi Mahila Sangha
(BAMS), Revolutionary Tribal Women’s Organization. BAMS
have have achieved considerable success in its endeavour.79

A part of this chapter is based on Debasree De, ‘Development-


Induced Displacement: Impact on Adivasi Women of Odisha’, Community
Development Journal, 50 (July 2015): 448–62 (Oxford University Press).

NOTES
1 Behura and Panigrahi, (2006) Tribals and the Indian Constitution: 192.
2 Vinita Damodaran, 2010. ‘Globalization and Tribal Histories in Eastern
India’, in Environmental History: As If Nature Existed, edited by John
R. McNeill, Jose Augusto Padua and Mahesh Rangarajan (New Delhi:
Oxford University Press): 179 [From the field notes of Richard Grove
who visited Kalinga Nagar in March 2006, Damodaran has cited
Richard Grove’s accounts of his field visit in her article.]
3 This was a statement made by the Chief Minister of Odisha, Naveen
Patnaik, which was on Oriya (Odisha) TV news on 5 December avail-
able at http://www.minesandcommunities.org/article.php?a=3931,
accessed on 18 June 2012.
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 197

4 Chana Kapoor, ‘Adivasi Social Movement in Odisha’, in Dissenting


Voices and Transformative Actions Debal K. Singha Roy, ed.: 510, 511.
5 Hans, Patel and Das, Violence against Women in Odisha.
6 Viegas, Encroached and Enslaved: 34. Walter Fernandes, 1996. ‘Land
Reforms, Ownership Pattern and Alienation of Tribal Livelihood’, in
Social Action 46, 4: 433.
7 Walter Fernandes, 1996. ‘Land Reforms, Ownership Pattern and
Alienation of Tribal Livelihood’, Social Action 46, 4: 433.
8 L.K. Mahapatra, 1999. ‘Tribal Rights to Land and the State in Odisha’
in Contemporary Society: Tribal Studies, edited by Deepak Kumar
Behera and Georg Pfeffer, vol. 3, Social Concern (New Delhi: Concept
Publishing): 135–51.
9 P.K. Agrawal, Naxalism: Causes and Cure: 153.
10 Bina Agarwal, 2002. ‘Are We Not Peasants Too? Land Rights and Women’s
Claims in India’, in SEEDS, Issue-21 (New York: Population Council)
the article was downloaded from http://www.binaagarwal.com/
downloads/apapers/are_we_not_peasants_too.pdf on 15 July 2012;
see also 1994. A Field of One’s Own: Gender and Land Rights in South
Asia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
11 Jagannath Ambagudia, 2010. ‘Tribal Rights, Dispossession and the
State in Odisha’, Economic and Political Weekly (henceforth EPW), 45,
33 (August 14): 60–67.
12 A fact finding team of DSU (Democratic Student Union) of the stu-
dents of Delhi University, JNU and IGNOU published a report in a
booklet after visiting the area from 11 April 2011 to 16 April 2011: 2012.
‘Flames of Narayanpatna: Two Reports on the Narayanpatna Struggle
in Koraput, Odisha’ (Chandigarh: Charvaka): 15–16.
13 Tehelka, 6, 50 (19 Dec. 2009).
14 Padel and Das, Out of This Earth: 403.
15 Fernandes, and Asif, Development-Induced-Displacement: 112.
16 Hansda, 1983. ‘Agricultural Development in Tribal Areas’, in Mishra
and Singh eds., Tribal Area Development: 23.
17 Fernandes and Asif, Development-Induced-Displacement: 135.
18 Gopabandhu Pattanaik and Damodar Panda, 1992. ‘The New Economic
Policy and the Poor’, Social Action 42: 2 (April–June); 201–12.
19 Fernandes and Asif, Development-Induced-Displacement: 137–39;
Fernandes, and Raj, Development, Displacement and Rehabilitation:
141–44.
20 Padel and Das, Out of this Earth: 360–61.
21 Fernandes, and Raj, Development, Displacement and Rehabilitation: 90.
22 Satnam, Jangalnama: 96–97.
23 Hans, Tribal Women A Gendered Utopia: 29.
24 Adivasis have a tradition of animal husbandry, though not of profit-
able dairy husbandry. The Operation Flood programme to replicate
198 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

the Amul pattern has from the start—as the National Dairy Plan
has done now—self-selected only ‘milk shed districts’, i.e., western
India (from Punjab down to Kerala) with an extant tradition of prof-
itable dairying. As a result, the entire adivasi belt of central India has
remained excluded. The Vasudhara cooperative is a classic case of
the ‘reinvented’ Amul pattern, ideal as the model to launch India’s
second White Revolution to empower adivasi women and strengthen
their livelihoods. See Tushaar Shah, Yashree Mehta, Shilp Verma and
Amit Patel. 2015 ‘Vasudhara Adivasi Dairy Cooperative: Model for
the Second White Revolution?’ EPW 1, 7 (February 14): 15–18.
25 Panda, Bonda Banabasinka Vivaha Pratha Parab, 104–08.
26 Debarshi Dasgupta, 2010 ‘Being Remo: For the Bonda Tribals of
Odisha, a Constant Struggle Is On—with State and Custom’, in Outlook
(1 February).
27 Patnaik, Chowdhury, Das Patnaik, The Bondos and Their Response to
Development.
28 Jhansi I. Rani, and K.E. Raj Pramukh, 2009. ‘Bondo Women and Their
Economic Organization’, Man and Life 35, 3&4: 31–34.
29 Ramesh P. Mohanty, 1992 ‘Belief and Practices in Liquor Preparation
among the Bondo Highlanders’, Man and Life 18, 3&4.
30 Elwin, The Bondo Highlanders.
31 Nanda, Contours of Continuity and Change: The Story of the Bonda
Highlanders.
32 Outlook, 1 February 2010.
33 B. Mahapatra, Development of a Primitive Tribe: 152–53.
34 Final Report on ‘In Search of a Strategy to Build a Field Model’: 102–05.
35 The term ‘primitive’ is derogatory, wrong and dangerous. Since 2006,
the Government of India has recommended that the term be avoided
and that tribes, such as the Dongria Kondh, should be referred to
as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups. Internationally, the use
of the term has been discouraged for many years. Back in 2007, the
Association of Social Anthropologists advised that the use of the term’
primitive’ is damaging and is used as a pretext for depriving people
of their lands and rights.
36 Fernandes, Menon and Viegas Forests, Environment and Tribal Economy:
251–53; Fernandes, and Menon, Tribal Women and Forest Economy: 76.
37 Mihir Jena, Pathi, Dash, Patnaik, Seeland, Forest Tribes of Odisha:
Lifestyle and Social Conditions: 122–25.
38 Ibid.
39 For detail see Padel, Sacrificing People.
40 Saran, Final Population Totals: A Brochure of Odisha.
41 Mohanty, Mohapatra, Samal, Tribes of Koraput: 94.
42 Padhi, The Gadaba Tribe of Odisha: 148–49.
43 N.K. Bose, 1929. ‘Juang Associations’, Man in India 9.
Adivasi Women and Destructive Development in Odisha 199

44 Nilakantha Panigrahi and Rashmirani Balabantaray, 2012 ‘Tribal


Society, Women and Social Inclusion’, in Social Exclusion & Gender:
Some Reflections, edited by Rath, Chinara, Mohanty and Mohanty:
325–46.
45 Verrier Elwin, 1948. ‘Notes on the Juang’, Man in India 28, 36; also see
Bonda Development Agency: Baseline Survey & Needs Assessment and 10th
Five-Year Action Plan for 2002–03 to 2006–07 (March 2002): 39.
46 Elwin, ‘Notes on the Juang’: 36.
47 Lanjia Saora Development Agency: Baseline Survey & Needs Assessment and
10th Five-Year Action Plan for 2002–03 to 2006–07 (March 2002): 44–45.
48 E. Samuels, 1856. ‘Notes on a Forest Race called Puttooas or Juanga,
Inhabiting Certain of the Tributary Mahals of Cuttack’, Journal of the
Asiatic Society of Bengal 25: 296–97.
49 Roy and Roy, Hunger and Physique: 21–22.
50 A.E. George, 1982. ‘Tribal Development: A Visit to the Juang’, EPW 3
July: 1095–96.
51 Telegraph, 13 November 1986.
52 Elwin, ‘Notes on the Juang’, 51; Saradindu Bose, 1961. ‘Land Use
Survey in a Juang Village’, Man in India (July–September): 174.
53 The New Indian Express, September 11, 2009.
54 Kak, Sanjay, 2010. ‘The Bauxite Mountains of Odisha’, EPW 45, 38
(September 18): 30–34.
55 R.K. Barik, 2006. ‘Faulty Planning in a Tribal Region: The Dandakaranya
Development Authority’, in Tribal Development in India, Govinda
Chandra Rath, ed.: 97–98.
56 B. Singh, 1984. The Saora Highlander: Leadership and Development­
(New Delhi: Somaiya).
57 Fernandes, Menon and Viegas. Forests, Environment and Tribal Economy:
6–10, 63–84.
58 Pradhan and Council of Professional Social Workers State of Odisha’s
Environment: A Citizens’ Report: 144–45.
59 Manipadma Jena, 2008. ‘Food Insecurity among Tribal Communities
of Odisha’, EPW (February 9): 18–21.
60 Padel, and Das, Out of this Earth: 122–23, 126.
61 Debranjan Sarengi, 2005. ‘Shallow Grave: Odisha’s New Labs of
Horror’, Tehelka, 23 July.
62 The Statesman, 10 October 2010.
63 Binay Kumar Pattnaik, 2013. ‘Tribal Resistance Movements and the
Politics of Development-Induced Displacement in Contemporary
Odisha’, in Social Change 43, 1: 53–78.
64 D. Sarengi, 2006. ‘Odisha: Paradise for Private Players’, Frontier 39, 5
(August 20–26).
65 Indian Express, 30 October 2008.
66 Satnam, Jangalnama: 38.
200 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

67 Amit Bhattacharyya, 2010. ‘Maoist Movement in India and the


Alternative Model of Development in Dandakaranya’, in Discourses
on Naxalite Movement, Pradip Basu, ed.: 268–80.
68 For detail of this model of development see, Bhattacharyya, Janaganer
Unnayan.
69 V.B.N.S. Madduri, 1997. ‘Sustainable Development of Dandakaranya
Tribals: Methodological Issues’, in Sustainable Development in Tribal and
Backward Areas, Kohli, Shah and. Chowdhary, eds. 85–95.
70 Shiva, and Jafri, Stronger than Steel: People’s Movement against
Globalisation: 4. Also see Birendra Nayak, 2000. Voices of Gopalpur, an
English language bulletin edited by Birendra Nayak from 1996 and
published from Berhampur with Prafulla Samantara.
71 Nayak, and Kujur, State Aggression and Tribal Resistance: 9, 15.
72 C. Kartik Dash, and Kishore, C. Samal, 2008. ‘New Mega Projects in
Odisha: Protests by Potential Displaced Persons’, in Social Change 38:
4: 627–44.
73 Amita Baviskar, 2008. ‘Pedagogy, Public Sociology and Politics in
India: What is to be Done?’ Current Sociology 56, 3: 425–33.
74 Padel, and Das, Out of this Earth 408; also see Update, edited by Suvro
Mallick, Series-13 (January 2007), Kolkata.
75 Ibid.: 563.
76 Ibid.: 564–65.
77 Amitabha Kar, 2012 ‘The Invincible Flame of Narayanpatna: An
Interview with Dandapani Mohanty’, Sanhati: Fighting for Neo-
Liberalism (18 November 2012), available at www.sanhati.com down-
loaded on 11 December 2013.
78 ‘The Flames of Narayanpatna’: 92–93.
79 Ibid.: 43.
CHAPTER 6

Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi


Women: The Process of Cultural Silencing

The low, flat-topped hills of south Odisha have been home


to the Dongria Kondh long before there was a country
called India or a state called Odisha. The hills watched
over the Kondh. The Kondh watched over the hills and
worshipped them as living deities. Now these hills have
been sold for the bauxite they contain. For the Kondh it’s
as though god has been sold. They ask how much god
would go for if the god were Ram or Allah or Jesus Christ?

—Arundhati Roy

THE TERM ‘GENOCIDE’ was first used in 1944–1945, to describe


the Nazi treatment of Jews. ‘Genocide’ means killing a people,
race or tribe. There are two levels to what was killed: the physical
extermination, and the killing of a culture. ‘Cultural Genocide’
means essentially the killing of people’s culture by uproot-
ing them from their ancestral lands. Underlying this cultural
genocide is the invaders’ total disrespect for adivasi people’s
traditions and cultures. This is nothing but a deeper psychic
death. The starting point of this extermination is the process of
cultural silencing of the most vulnerable section of the adivasis:
adivasi women, who are the marginal of the marginals and I
have termed this very process as ‘peripheralization’.
202 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Let us attempt to delineate the tribal culture by segregating


the colourful sides of its life: mythology, arts, crafts, songs,
dances. Let us deal with drudgery, hunger, malnutrition, illit-
eracy of women, increasing domestication that curbs their
autonomy, sexual victimization, brutal killing of suspected
‘witches’, commodification of their labour by converting
them into domestic maids or mine workers. The issues of
representation and the politics of identity—body politics in
particular—lead to questions of culture, gender and power.
The word ‘silence’ can be of two meanings: First is simply
ignoring their voices: the ‘culture of silence’ initiated by the
process of Sanskritization or Hinduization. On the one hand
the voices of the tribal women were continuously cultur-
ally silenced by the manipulation of the state elites and the
state system and on the other by the forces of patriarchy.
The culture of silence causes a cultural memocide, killing of
memory of resistance and creative excellences and aesthetics.
Dispossession and forced migration have remained chronic,
leading them to extreme poverty, exploitation, oppression
and dehumanization culminating into cultural silence that
debilitates and destroys not only personality, but also the
creative genius of the ethnic groups. Eventually, these adiva-
sis lost their cultural strength and were forced to adopt the
dominant norms. Pashupati Prasad Mahato has termed the
process as nirbakization or cultural silence, which embodies
the same process of what I called peripheralization.1
The application of the word ‘peripheralization’ can be
questioned because we are more conversant with the word
‘marginalization’. Both the words are synonymous. Then how
does the difference follow, reader will ask? ‘Marginal’ means
the people who live on the edge of society and ‘periphery’
denotes an outer boundary or an outer world. The ‘outside’
is important because it positioned territory and people in an
oppositional relation to the dominant Centre. The notions
of accessibility and remote rurality are attached to the term
‘periphery’. Centre, as an opposite, was always there, but
the periphery has been constructed everywhere. Centre is
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women203

the first world and periphery is the third world. Centre is


the exploiter, periphery is the exploited. Both these are con-
structed opposing identities. Centre forces the periphery to
abide by its rules and commands, but periphery sometimes
revolts and prepare their own alternative model of devel-
opment. Centre conquers periphery, uproots it by applying
impunity, jailing, mass rape. Periphery protests, retaliates,
and faces brutal repression of the Centre but always remains
there. The adivasis see the culture of the Centre or the culture
of the mainstream as peripheral.
Adoption of the mainstream culture by the adivasi women
leads to their invariable subjugation. Mainstreamization may
take place in two ways: ‘being mainstreamized’ and ‘doing
mainstreamizing’. ‘Being mainstreamized’ means when the
adivasi women consciously or unconsciously, however delib-
erately, take up the culture of the women of the dominant
caste society. With the introduction of land as private prop-
erty, the growth of trade and the market economy, spread
of modern education, opening up of new occupations, and
modern communications adivasis are experiencing economic
and social structural changes. They are not ready to give up
their ST status. And needless to say, the reason is the poli-
tics of reservation. Prima facie mainstreamization actually
confirms the permanent peripheralization of the adivasis by
denying their right to embrace modernity. Next is the issue of
‘doing mainstreamizing’. The very first step towards main-
streamization could be the recognition of the fundamental
rights of the adivasi communities to be the citizens of this
country. And that can be done through enumeration of all the
tribal groups in the Census. But the parliamentary commit-
tee on welfare of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes has
found that 18 tribal groups in two successive censuses—1991
and 2001—remained non-accounted. These tribal groups are
Gutob Gadaba, Kutia Kondh, Kondh Sabar, Bonda Paraja,
Parenga Paraja in Andhra Pradesh; Cholanaikayan in Kerala;
Abujh Maria, Bharia and Hill Korwa in Madhya Pradesh;
Maria Gond in Maharashtra; Chuktia Bhunja, Dongria
204 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Kondh, Kharia, Kutia Kondh, Lanjhia Saora, Paudi Bhuyan


and Saora in Odisha; and Toto in West Bengal. These groups
have been termed as Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups
(PTGs).2
According to the state, massive industrialization will bring
the adivasi societies into the ‘mainstream’. Henry George in
his phenomenal work Progress and Poverty (1880) said that
natural resources are the key to understanding our economy,
and the failure of others to see this has led to increasing pov-
erty and environmental degradation. Henry George has very
truly stated, ‘Where the conditions to which material progress
everywhere tends are most fully realized—that is to say, where
population is densest, wealth greatest, and the machinery of
production and exchange most highly d ­ eveloped—we find the
deepest poverty, the sharpest struggle for existence, and the
most of enforced idleness’.3 When the Supreme Court stalled
the Vedanta Group’s bauxite mining project in the Niyamgiri
Hills of Odisha on 18 April 2013, till the gram sabhas clear it,
several sections of society asked are the adivasis of Niyamgiri
going to be segregated from the mainstream forever? Won’t
they take part in the mainstream development initiatives? If
they are substantially compensated then everyone may gain
from the project! The Supreme Court specifically said the vil-
lagers would decide whether the proposed mining would
cause harm to their religious rights of worshipping Niyam
Raja at Hundaljali hilltop, about 10 km from the identified
mining site. The apex court added that the Forest Rights
Act has been enacted conferring powers on the gram sabha
­constituted under the Act to protect community resources,
individual rights, cultural and religious rights; the Court cited
the ‘religious freedom guaranteed to Scheduled Tribes and
the Traditional Forest Dwellers under Articles 25 and 26 of
the Indian Constitution’.4 According to the adivasis, the baux-
ite-rich rocks are lying at the top of the Niyamgiri Hills and
sustain the rain water for the whole year. The water flows
down like streams and supplies drinking water to the adi-
vasi hamlets of the region. For the mainstream bauxite means
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women205

aluminium; but for the adivasis bauxite means river, water


and water gives life.
The easiest way to expose the adivasis to the real world
is to impart education which helps them to get a better life.
But here also the government fails miserably. Most of the
tribal children hardly understand the dominating alien lan-
guages through which education is being imparted. Thus
they lose interest in education. Take, for example, the case of
Amrita Baro, an Oraon tribal girl found in the tea gardens of
Jalpaiguri. She came here with her father from Gumla district
of Jharkhand in search of livelihood. Amrita goes to school
and is very much willing to go to the college. But the major
problem she faces is the lack of toilet facilities for the girls in
the schools. She knows that sanitary napkins should be used
instead of rags and open defecation is unhealthy (the initia-
tive taken by the panchayat to sell low-cost sanitary pads
has been proved a lie).5 A study commissioned by the Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan, Ministry of Human Resource Development
and Government of India in 2012, revealed the fact that in
Odisha not a single sample school (20 schools were visited)
had separate usable toilets for boys and girls. This was also
the case in Bihar, where 75 per cent of the schools had usable
toilets but most of them were locked for the use of teachers.6
Adivasi boys and girls are being brought to towns to study
in urban educational institutions so that they merge with the
‘mainstream’.7
The other meaning of silence is ‘silence’ itself. It is often
said that the silence of the tribal women should be read or
sensitized. If they do not answer any particular question
and choose to remain silent then we should try to find out
the probable causes of their silence or try to read from their
expressions. This is, I believe, more harmful than the former
one because then it justifies that ‘subalterns cannot speak’.
We, the non-tribals or caste people, can never be an appropri-
ate representative of their silences. Will an adivasi woman,
the most vulnerable group of our society, agree to share her
secrets with an unknown male researcher?
206 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

For example, when you ask women about witch hunts


they usually remain silent about it. This is not because they
are afraid to speak but perhaps they do not want to involve
outsiders. If they are asked why they still practise black magic
or go to ojhas for curing diseases, they may have no answer
perhaps because they know that this is their custom or rule
of their society. It is also very true that they have no other
alternative, such as an expensive nursing home or doctors’
clinic or a mere health centre! You must try to make them
break the silence; you have to believe in that tribals can and
will speak. Needless to say this is the most difficult task,
though not impossible, than simply assuming different mean-
ings of their silence. It is wrong to see the tribal women as
mere passive victims. Indeed, they have been at the forefront
of dynamic struggles against displacement and oppression
(see Chapter 5). For this ‘culture of silence’ to be broken,
we need to push for emancipatory politics that challenge
gender biases both at the level of community as well as in
wider state-directed institutions and policies. Still the basic
questions remain unanswered, why have the development
policies failed? Are the ‘felt needs’ of the tribals ever taken
into consideration?

HISTORY OF CULTURE
History is constituted by culture—of the ‘people’. Such
culture is perceived to constitute an important seed-bed of
tradition and heritage from which ordinary people derived
their perceptions regarding their traditions. Cultural objects
are not manufactured by the historian but by the people he/
she studies. They give off meaning. All interpersonal rela-
tionships are of a cultural nature, even those we qualify as
‘economic’ or ‘social’. The tribal world, for example, is their
own world and here we are the intruders. Therefore, we can
say by following Darnton that ‘the third level (culture) some-
how derives from the first two (economics, demography and
social structure)’.8
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women207

I have attempted to adopt an anthropological mode of


history writing. Anthropology has much to offer the hist­
orian: first, an approach which is to gain entry into another
culture; second a programme that will try to see things from
the native’s point of view, and to seek out the social dimen-
sions of meaning; third, a concept of culture as a ‘symbolic
world’ in which shared symbols serve thoughts and actions
mould classification and judgement, and furnish warnings
and indictments.9 The use of sources, for example, the witch-
craft accusations can be the sole material of cultural study.
They can rewrite the history of the movement in terms of a
struggle for cultural power. In this way cultural studies affirm
the normalcy of apparently exceptional forms of behaviour,
and identify the rational in the irrational, the ordinary in the
grotesque. It transfers attention from the study of ‘objective’
reality to the categories in and through which it was per-
ceived, from collective consciousness to cognitive codes, from
social being to the symbolic order.10 Allen F. Repko suggests
that, ‘disciplines are fluid and their boundaries porous’.11 Yet
it can be said that the openness and fluidity of current aca-
demic fields undermines the main critique of the disciplinary
system.12 By focussing on the forms of representation it offers
a common ground where epistemology and ontology, anthro-
pology and ethnology, history and archaeology, language
and literature, past and present can meet in conditions of
rough equality. It encourages the historian to borrow freely
from other spheres.

TRIBAL WOMEN’S SEXUALITY


Ajay Skaria once questioned why the emphasis on the unbri-
dled sexuality of the Bhil woman in western India remained
muted in the nineteenth century? His findings suggest that it
was because the primary emphasis was on the exotic sexual-
ity of the oriental woman, epitomized in South Asia by her for
the upper castes. Thus there was the colonial fascination with
sati, the practice of widow immolation amongst the upper
208 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

castes. This fascination was to a large extent ‘voyeuristic’,


stemming from the fact that sati enacted the ‘powerful male
fantasy of female devotion’. Because of this primary focus
on exotic, orientalist sexuality, the primitive sexuality of the
tribal woman was, with some important exceptions (as for
example in the tea plantations of northeast India), not much
dwelt on.13
Reference might be made to a whole series of collateral
changes which, over the past forty years, have shifted the
locus of historical inquiry from the study of social facts to
that of the symbolic space they inhabit. One could instance
the vast new literature on representation of womanhood
and latterly on the idea of masculinity and the formation
of sexual identities. Tribal women have their own modes
of thought regarding conjugality, passion and privacy that
might have been regarded as vulgar by ‘civilized’ people.
Their privacy is of two types: privacy in their personal life
and privacy within their community life maintained against
the non-tribals. Writing on women's sexuality is attempting
to extract meaning from the absences, silences and ‘aporia’.14
It attempts to interpret the visible by the evidence of things
unseen by using the behaviour and mode of thought of the
tribal women themselves and not by ours.
It was felt essential to study the dimensions of sexual
behaviour of tribal women, because the tribes are a closed
group community and due to their exposure towards urban
area and mass media, the tribal women are becoming a vul-
nerable group for sexual exploitation and thereby subjected
to psychological and physiological problems. (The field study
was conducted in February 2012.) Earlier, their behaviour was
mainly governed by their own culture and directions given
by their elders but now all that is changing. Sexual behaviour
has never been a taboo for the tribal people. In their society
it is governed by their own cultural rules and regulations
and they enter into relations within their community. For
example, Santhals have their own customary law to regulate
sex. It aims both at providing the greatest freedom as well
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women209

as enforcing the strictest control. The main rules regarding


regulation of sex are: (i) all premarital relations should be
private. If a boy and girl are caught together a goat is exacted
by the village and if does not end in marriage the boy has
to pay a fine; (ii) intercourse should always be consensual;
otherwise the girl can complain and the village will fine the
boy; (iii) if post-marriage intercourse with another man is
detected, the adulterer will have to pay a sum of compen-
sation or double bride price and sometimes the costs of the
wedding or take the woman or pay her divorce money; (iv) in
no circumstances a Santhal can have sexual relations with
any non-Santhal. Intercourse with the Santhals of the same
clan is banned.15
As mentioned earlier, there was a dormitory system pre-
vailing in tribal society’s ghotul. It is separate for boys and
girls. In this system boys and girls spend their night together
under supervision of old men and women of the village.
Due to the influence of NGOs and missionary schools, the
ghotul is disappearing from tribal societies. But interestingly
the custom of bride price is still prevalent in the tribal areas
of eastern India. Pannan Hansda of Raipur block, Bankura
district said that the amount of bride price is only seven
rupees. Sometimes cows, clothes and ornaments are given
to the father of the bride by the family of the bridegroom.16
The amount has increased, varies from `2,000 to 5,000, paid
in cash. According to W.G. Archer, ‘It confirms the family’s
responsibilities for the girl’s fidelity. It is way of formally rec-
ognizing a son-in-law. It stresses the conception of woman as
property. The price is symbolic. It is a legal payment that acts
as a foundation of the rights of the husband and his family.’17
Dongria Kondh in Niyamgiri Hills (Bissamcuttack and
Muniguda, in Gunupur and Ksinghpur sub-divisions) has
youth dormitories. Once unmarried boys and girls attain
puberty they are sent off to the Dhangara bassa (boy’s dormi-
tory) and Dhangiri bassa (girl’s dormitory) located at the far
end of the village. The youngsters sing, dance and share expe-
riences. In what could be termed a ‘modern’ move, girls and
210 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

boys are allowed to forge relationships, including sexual ties,


with those from other villages. The idea is that eventually
their ‘affair’ will end in marriage. The boy usually proposes
and his family gives the girl’s family wine and buffaloes as
offerings. If his feelings are reciprocated, then along with
wine and buffaloes the girl’s side provides other ‘gifts’ to con-
solidate the union. Unfortunately, not all liaisons have happy
endings. Dongria girls who face rejection are not allowed to
stay in the Dhangiri bassa and cannot even be part of dances
or musical programmes during festivals, because they are
considered ‘rejects'. Tradition demands that these women
are to live like widows and wait for the boy forever. They
have to shave their heads, wear only light-­coloured cotton
saris, sport no ornaments and remain alone for the rest of
the life. Practices like this are now posing a huge risk to their
very existence and they are getting increasingly depleted by
the day.18
According to the information gathered during my field
study, tribal women today are more exposed to education and
the outside world and are more aware of abortions and con-
traceptive methods.19 Women, to fulfil their enhanced desires,
need more money to get things from market. The women
are now actually living in a transformational phase, trying
to adopt a new lifestyle, which is very much influenced by
transportation, consumerism, modernization, urbanization
and migration to big cities for education and livelihood at
the same time linked to their own culture. Due to exposure to
outside world, they have become vulnerable to sexual abuse
and many modern evils like HIV/AIDS.20
In tribal society only after the influx of modern education,
migration and contact with non-tribal communities, some
restrictions were imposed on the girls like coming back home
before sunset, accepting a marriage settled by parents. All this
happened as the young tribal girls started getting attracted
towards non-tribal norms, culture and lifestyles. This made
them vulnerable to many evils. Earlier the social behaviour
of young boys and girls were limited up to dancing, singing,
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women211

playing and chatting. They had sexual relations only with


those whom they wanted to marry and settle down with. Due
to exposure to mass media and to non-tribal communities,
now the young tribal girls are not sticking to relations within
their own community. Many tribal girls, who are studying
and working outside, become sexually active within or out-
side the community, easier for them as social interaction with
opposite sex is not a barrier for them.
Sexual harassment is unwelcome attention of a sexual
nature. It includes a range of behaviour from mild trans-
gression and annoyances to serious abuse, which can involve
even forced sexual activity. Tribal women have frequently
been observed as a sexual object by the ‘civilised’ men. Tribal
communities have their own knowledge of indigenous meth-
ods of birth control.21 They use several types of forest prod-
ucts and jadi buties (herbal) for controlling unwanted birth.
Later new methods evolved in contraceptive technology like
condom, pills, IUD, sterilization.

TRIBAL MEDICINES
As a forest-hunting tribe the Birhors have an age-old tra-
dition in the domain of herbal medicine. Pressed by eco-
nomic hardship, many of the experts in herbal medicine
have approached the modern markets for selling these to
the outsiders. The Birhor medicine men are called Mati or
the Baiga. Birhor women also practise and train themselves
in using tribal medical traditions. For Birhors the dream is
a medicine too. According to the Birhor methods, khaksa
root stops menstrual bleeding. Morom-dah and pathal-konda
roots are very good in treating women’s complaints. The best
sexual stimulant is haser. There are cures for cancer and AIDS
or other problem sicknesses ravaging the modern world.22
In childbirth: mahua seeds, mahua liquor, mahua oil; for
­barrenness: imli with sugar, bark of ashoka plant, amarlata
plant; for family planning: oil of neem and karanj, betel leaves
and roots; for abortion: mahua flower, ginger and loaf sugar.
212 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

The risk factor associated with the traditional methods


of preventing unwanted pregnancy and the pain associated
with adopting them have diverted them towards modern
methods of birth control.23 Female sterilization is the most
widely known method of contraception, followed by con-
traceptive pills. During my field study in West Medinipur
I asked Lakshmimoni Mandi (Kopatkata village of Jamboni
block) about whether there is any attempt going on for rais-
ing awareness about family planning she replied, ‘Didimoni
comes and talks about the use of bori.’ I got to know that an
Aganwadi worker comes in the village and talks about the
use of contraceptives. The knowledge of contraceptives is
higher among younger girls than older ones. But the women
are not always convinced by her. The use of condoms is not
very clear to them and they know very little about IUD/
Copper-T Loop and about male sterilization. They are still
not fully aware of the need of a proper family planning.
Collecting information on matters related to sexual inter-
course is a very difficult task. (The field work was carried out
in November 2011). When I asked the women respondents
specifically about pregnancies and abortions, they became
reluctant to disclose anything. These issues are too personal
and should be dealt with proper care. They declined coming
before the camera until they were convinced that their names
or photographs would not be disclosed at any level. They
said that the medical plants which are mainly used by the
tribes are: karand, karkati, padal, kena, betel leaves, betel nuts
(kasaili), awala, baheda and bhagrud. For abortions, some hot
medicinal plants are used in the form of paste, which is kept
on the mouth of vagina and after that, sometimes malish (oil
rubbing) is done on stomach with hot tisi oil. Sometime they
use some particular stems, which are inserted in the vagina.
All these are very painful.
Most tribal women are engaged in the unorganized sector
working as domestic servants, brick kiln workers, daily wage
workers (see Chapter 4). Most of them are sexually active
at their workplaces. These women neither receive their full
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women213

payment nor are physically secured as they are subjected to


sexual exploitation and rape. Premarital pregnancies lead to
unsafe induced abortion.

WITCH HUNT
Witchcraft is studied today in the light of gender and class,
or as the limit case of strategies of subversion and resistance.
Almost all tribal groups in India believe in witchcraft, Evil
Eye and productive, protective and destructive powers of
the spirits or gods and goddesses. When somebody in the
family is sick, it is suspected that the evil spirit has attacked
the individual. The sudden death of several animals at a
time in a family or village is also considered to be caused
by a witch. Thus, tribal women also have to face internal
violence in the form of witch hunting. Mainu Hansda from
Kopatkata village of Jamboni block, West Medinipur, talked
about the witchcraft. (Field work was conducted in Purulia in
September 2011.) She said two years ago a boy died in some
unknown disease. The people of the village suspected that
it happened due to black magic. In Hura block of Purulia
district Mamoni Murmu was first suspected as a witch and
then beaten to death. Sajani Soren of Sarenga block, Bankura
district said that witch hunt is often performed in their village
and they still have a deep faith on black magic.24 If a person
is ill for a long period and it is confirmed that his illness is
due to witchcraft, the second step is to locate the witch. If
the witch does not disclose the location of seeds of sickness
that she has planted she is beaten up by the villagers and the
village council drive the suspected witch out of the village.
Vijay Tendulkar, a well-known Indian playwright, relates his
personal experiences in ‘Tribal and I’.

Everything beneath looked like a dream with sounds of


drums reaching us at the top. Then gradually, groups of
tribals with gigantic dhols (drums) and coloured bodies
and faces emerged out of the surrounding depths … [they]
214 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

attacked a tribal woman among their own group … the


woman ran for her life. They chased her, caught hold of
her and began to beat her with fists and legs. They pelted
her with stones, fisted and kicked her in her abdomen, on
her face, on her head, on her back.
Soon the body of the lone tribal woman lay prostrate
on the ground—half dead? Dead? Some distance away,
and the killer men and women returned to their clan and
resumed dancing as if nothing had happened … soon
everything was normal, except that body lying motionless.
According to the law of her clan members, she, a witch
needed to be killed. Her body would be left to rot, and to
be eaten by dogs and wolves.25

Tendulkar’s rendering of the real drama of witch mobbing


and torture is also enacted in Shivkumar Pandey’s short nar-
rative, ‘Daakan’ (The Witch).26
Soma Chaudhuri has connected witchcraft accusations to
gender conflict. First, the ‘witchcraft’ (women’s acting out-
side of established norms) that fuels the hunts can be seen as
a rebellion against an established order of society, and second,
the witch hunts are attempts by men to denounce the ritual
knowledge of women and link it to evil, establishing their
societal dominance over women.27 But witch hunting is also
a kind of class struggle.
Suffering imposed on a woman’s body by inflicting phys-
ical violence, verbal assault, or rape has had precedence as a
general norm in India. This is not necessarily motivated by
sexual desire but very often as the outcome of women’s sup-
posed defiance of the system of power or kinship dispute—as
vendetta.28 In Bortika, Mahasweta Devi has mentioned several
cases of witch hunting in tribal societies. Mahasweta Devi’s
exploration of the life of a young woman, Chandidasi, falsely
accused of being the Bayen—one who practices witchcraft, is
another story of women’s forceful subjugation by the forces
of patriarchy. According to Spivak, the subaltern woman-
hood cannot break itself away from internalized gendering,
and accepts exploitation as it accepts sexism in the name of
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women215

willing conviction; that this is how one is accepted as being


a good and ethical woman.29 And ‘if women speak outside
[the symbolic] order they will either not be heard or be heard
as insane’, says Patricia Waugh.30
It is important to note that both men and women are
suspected as witches. Thus while both dayan (female) and
bishaha (male) can be identified as witches, there is a greater
likelihood of women, generally widows, being identified as
witches. The tribals make a distinction between ‘white magic’
and ‘black magic’: the minister of white magic is known as
ojha or diviner and medicine man, while one of black magic
was known as dayan, or witch or sorcerer. The belief in
the existence of witches was remarkably absent among the
nomadic foraging communities (like the Birhor). Among
the Santhals, witches are exclusively women while among
the Munda, Ho and Oraon a witch can either be a man or
a woman.31 The fact that ojhas or in Mundari term deoras
(traditional witch healers) are exclusively males reflects the
extension of gender conflicts in the domain of witchcraft.
In 2012, in Dubrajpur village of Daspur-I block in West
Medinipur the victims were Fulmoni Singh (62) and her
daughter Sambari Singh (40) and another Sambari Singh
(55). A meeting was called, then the janguru consulted. After
that they summoned an arbitration assemblage and started
beating the adivasi women with a heavy bamboo stick. Later
the dead bodies were buried under the bank of Kangsabati
River.32 Dubrajpur has a primary school, a high school, and
Narajole Raj College within three kilometres. Many educated
people live there.
Why are childless, single, widow or unprotected women
primarily the victims? Traditionally, witch hunt is a ritual-
ized violence or simply a brutal custom perpetrated against
women. In the post-independence period the erosion of the
communality of traditional land holdings and replacing
those with private ownership of land reinforced the gender
dimensions of witch hunt. The displacement of the adivasis
from their lands under ‘development’ further aggravated
216 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

the problem. Vinita Damodaran argues that the rise in


witch-hunting in the latter half of the nineteenth century and
in the twentieth century was linked to the ‘pressure of rapid
ecological changes combined with the erosion of common
property rights and deforestation’.33 The clash between the
residual usufructory right of women and the men’s absolute
right of ownership is perhaps what is behind the transforma-
tion of witch hunting from a mere stigma or expulsion from
village to the killing of women concerned.34
Witches were made to walk naked, through the village, be
gang-raped, have their heads tonsured or their breasts cut off,
their teeth broken, or be forced to swallow urine and human
faeces, to eat human flesh or the raw blood of a chicken.35 But
with the monetization of the witch trials suspected witches
are now to pay a huge fine and very often ostracised.36 An
elderly couple, Robert Lakra (65) and his wife Colestina (60),
were forced to eat excreta and drink urine, after they were
blamed for the sudden death of cows and other animals in
Puro village of Latehar district in Jharkhand. They were also
beaten up for allegedly practising witchcraft.37
Rumour also plays an important role during the whisper
campaign against the accused woman.38 Tendulkar’ said,
‘She was a wife of one of them, a mother of his children. An
elderly woman. Her husband must have been there among
the dancing tribals with their coloured faces and torsos. Her
children must have been there.’39
Under the impact of ecological and social crisis, even the
strains generated by regular fluctuations in the agricultural
cycle became difficult to sustain. The agriculturally lean
periods would thus be particularly turbulent for the adiva-
sis. It has found that most of the witch killing was commit-
ted between the months of May, June and September. May
and June have traditionally been ‘hunger months’, when
the strain of living bulks largely felt. The high incidence of
witch killing in January could also be explained by the fact
that there is a general sense of abandonment following the
winter harvest. The fact that there was no witch killing in the
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women217

month of transplantation, that is, August, also speaks a lot


about the intricacies involved.40 The traditional systems of
health care and cure have fallen flat without a corresponding
availability of modern health care facilities. ‘Witches’ thus are
increasingly becoming scapegoats to ojhas failure to diagnose
and cure many new diseases.
In the 1988 summer the tribal region of Bihar experienced
an acute drought. In these inaccessible areas medical facili-
ties were almost non-existent. The tribals lacked the where-
withal for a bare meal every day and their caloric intake was
starkly inadequate. The tribals had to first go to the ojhas who
exploited them by telling that their sickness was due to some
black magic and demanded money to please the evil spirit.
But the reality was that the doctors first failed to identify
the disease and termed it as malaria. For around a week or
so, the patients continued to be given antibiotics while the
required medicine, gamaglobolin injection, was not supplied
to the villagers.41
In an another case, branded as a witch, Sarathi Baske, a
resident of Oltar village under Habibpur police station of
Malda district of West Bengal, was attacked and forced to
flee from home. The reason behind this incident was that
the village had seen several baby deaths. Also, the villag-
ers had been seen suffering from some ailments. Worried
with the prevailing trend, the villagers led by Lolin Soren
and Moti Murmu therefore visited the janguru. He labelled
Sarathi as a ‘witch’ and held her responsible. The villagers
stormed Sarathi’s house. The incident was also linked to the
property issue since Sarathi owned 10 bighas of land.42 This
poignantly exposes and mounts a scathing attack on the bias
that inheres in tribal women’s gendered location dented by
a dual patriarchal onslaught.
Witch hunt thus forms a special and an institutionalized
instrument of social discrimination. It is also conducive to
the social process of controlling women. The threat of being
declared a ‘witch’ certainly helps to restrict non-­conformism.
Witch hunt could therefore be seen as one of the many,
218 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

though extreme, reflections of gender and social tensions; a


sphere where struggle for power and resources were resolved
through violent means.
Witch hunt is also reflective of some kind of distrust in
women and a fear of their sexuality. Sexuality not only influ-
ences the constructions of witches but also accounted for
women’s invisibility from adivasi rituals and religion. Troisi
says that the belief in dangerous potentiality of women to
seduce evil spirits and wreck vengeance on their enemies
means that all sacrifices were tabooed for women. Women
were also not allowed to climb trees, as it was believed that
the nearness of their sex would ‘pollute the bongas’ (the dei-
ties of the tribals).43 Roy similarly says that the exclusion of
Kharia women from religious festivals and ritualistic obser-
vances was due to the tribals’ horror of the menstrual blood,
which attracted evil spirits. For similar reasons, there were
restrictions against women accompanying funeral proces-
sions to burial place or cremation ground or against their
going to sarnas (sacred groves).44
There is a link between Christianization of the tribals and
witch hunt. Christian conversion has been a topic of angry
debates from the time of the Indian national movement up
to the present resurgence of militant Hindu nationalism.
Laxmi Murmu (50) of Mahishdhal (Bolpur, Birbhum district
of West Bengal) had a very strained relationship with her
brother-in-law’s family. She was accused by them of being
a witch and had been beaten up severely a few times. She
was living with the fear of fresh attack on her while her hus-
band, Balai Murmu, was almost dying of some incurable
disease. Nobody stood beside her. She went to the village
ojha to cure her husband. The ojha demanded a lot of things
to propitiate the ‘angry’ god. But Laxmi could not meet his
demands. She was also asked to perform a puja that would
cost another heavy financial burden. At this point, a Christian
neighbour suggested that she should visit the local church
at Mokrampur. She grabbed the suggestion as a last resort.
Her husband received care and treatment at the charitable
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women219

dispensary run by the Catholic missionary and she became


free from all threats of being a witch as well. Her husband
recovered soon and they finally converted into Christianity.
In another case it has been found that Mungli Tudu (25) of
Balipara village (Shantiniketan, Bolpur) was driven towards
Christianity because of the fear of branding as witches and
evil spirits.45 In 1991, there were 0.17 per cent Christians in
Birbhum. According to the Census, 2001, this had increased
to a mere 0.24 per cent
During the field survey in Birbhum in 2012, I came across
certain causes deeply rooted within the Santhal society that
serve as a catalyst for turning towards Christianity. Santhal
villages in Birbhum are isolated. Government health centres
and schools are in minimal functional conditions. Moreover,
NGOs catering exclusively to the needs of the tribes are
extremely rare. In such a dismal situation the Catholic
churches with their imposing organizational structure and
benign presence deliver the urgently required service in
these areas. The most dominating fear psychosis of a tribal
woman is being branded as witch, and by changing religion
she can nullify the effect of all degrees of evil in one stroke
under the protection of the Christianity. Sometimes, conver-
sion to Christianity remains the only choice available for the
Santhals, especially for women wishing to escape from the
internal pressure of the community. Catholic missionaries
also encourage the Santhals to educate their children, arrange
books, tuitions and scholarships.
Once the identification of the witch is ‘established’, the
accused is left with no alternative but to accept the charge.
Patriarchy not only creates witches but also hunts them down.
The woman had no other alternative except to plead guilty.46
Ajay Skaria points out that many women in fact claimed to
be witches maybe because of the resources and respect they
secured or because it was one of the few means by which
they could claim authority.47 Tribal cosmology is replete with
references to women being ‘trained’ as witches. It is held
that the power of witchcraft is not inborn but is acquired
220 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

through ‘training in secret’. According to Shashank Sinha


witch-­hunting should be seen as acts of resistance as well. He
said that, the world of witches, spirits and ojhas was a very
vibrant and reflective one; it resonated with, yet contested
the impact of colonial rule in myriad ways.48
A shift in focus from ‘extraordinary moments of collec-
tive protest’ to ‘variety of non-confrontational resistances and
contestatory behaviour’49 could lead to a way of examining
women’s agency even while they belong to and participate
in an oppressive patriarchal society.50 The ‘everyday forms
of resistance’ require little or no coordination, or planning;
represent a form of individual self-help and typically avoid
any direct symbolic confrontation with authority. Witchcraft
could therefore be seen as an act of subversion, an attempt
to create a space denied by/in society.51
It is important to say that adivasi women are gradually
becoming stronger to fight against such injustice and super-
stitions. Punam Toppo of Namkumer Nayabusu village of
Ranchi was once accused of being a witch. She is a graduate
in economics. She started her protest first in Jharkhand then
visited Odisha and Purulia with the aim to raise conscious-
ness of the women against witch hunt. Her attempt was rec-
ognized in 2004 by the central government. She has presently
started an organization called ASHA. More or less 30 to 32
organizations are working together with ASHA to form a
network to help the victims of witch hunt.52 North Bengal’s
Peoples Development Centre (NBPDC) is an NGO that is
currently working on anti-witch hunt campaigns since 2003.
The primary focus of the NBPDC in the Dooars expanded
from women’s problems to encompass the marginalized pop-
ulation in the tea plantation areas.53 Liberal Association of
the Movement of the People (LAMP) during 1984–1989 has
reported about fifty cases of witchcraft and related punish-
ment meted out to persons accused as witches in Bankura,
Purulia and Medinipur districts.54
Another study carried out by the Bihar Tribals Welfare
Research Institute on the number of cases registered in
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women221

different police stations revealed that in West Singhbhum,


between 1993 and 1998, out of 82 people killed on account
of being suspected as witches, 64 were women, the rest men;
and the situation is similar in Ranchi, Palamau and other
district.55 The number of people killed in West Singhbhum
between 1993 and 1998, out of the 82 killed, 64 were women
(P.C. Oraon, Bihar Tribal Welfare Research Institute, 1999–
2000: 11, 13).
A significant component of the population in Ranchi,
Palamau, Hazaribag, West Singhbhum fall in the list of a
hundred most backward districts and are poverty stricken.56
The situation has become so bad that the Bihar government
passed legislation in 1998 to curb incidents of witch hunt.57
But no such initiatives have been taken by the Government
of West Bengal so far.58

HEALTH OF TRIBAL WOMEN: EVALUATING


NATIONAL RURAL HEALTH MISSION
The three consecutively National Family Health Surveys
(NFHS) conducted in 1992–1993, 1998–1999 and 2005–2006
lay elaborate emphasis on the level of deprivation regarding
health and education. The level of such deprivation has been
measured in terms of six variables: presence or absence of any
adult literate member in the household as an indicator of lack
of social and communicational access; house electrified or
not; whether there is any arrangement of drinking water facil-
ity within the house; whether the household owns a radio,
transistor, bicycle or television; ownership (or otherwise)
of agricultural land; and whether residing in a house that
is kuccha or otherwise. Higher incidence of deprivation is
reported among the tribes of Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha.59
Child mortality rates for tribals in rural areas have nearly
stagnated. All-India data indicate that tribal babies are not
more likely to get sick from diarrhoea or respiratory dis-
ease, but are much less likely to get treated. NHFS 2005–2006
reported that 55 per cent of tribal women have ever used
222 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

contraception; a relatively smaller proportion of ST women


reported three or more ante-natal visits; they also remained
less likely to receive pre-natal care from doctors. Almost
80 per cent of tribal women give birth at home.60 There is a
deep rooted cultural chasm and mistrust between the largely
non-tribal health providers and the tribal patients whom the
former treats with little dignity.61 Moreover, medical facility
providers are reluctant to visit to the tribal areas. For a migrat-
ing or displaced tribal family immunization and ante-natal
care is no longer a priority.62
Besides the biological causes, most of the ailments in
tribal areas are caused by an unbalanced diet and starvation.
In 2002, tribal districts like Kalahandi in Odisha, Palamau
in Jharkhand, Shivapuri in Madhya Pradesh and Baran in
Rajasthan reported starvation deaths. In this situation of food
crises, children are prone to starvation death than the adult
members of the community. In India the role of the state in
health care system is only seven decades old and is unable
to meet the changing health service demands of the people.
Tribal health has a causal link with food security, which itself
is highly dependent on the agro-forest economy as well as
the health delivery system of the state.
The tribal districts are still lagging behind other dis-
tricts of Odisha in terms of supply-side infrastructure like
distribution of beds, health personnel, medicine and other
facilities. Suggestions to improve the situation is new to
development discourse: a health delivery system, which
provides health infrastructure on the basis of incidence
of poverty, malnutrition, infant mortality and morbidity,
rather than the present criterion of density of population
and location.63
In 2005 National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was
launched by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh which
seeks to provide effective health care to rural and urban pop-
ulations with the special focus on the backward districts
through. It seeks to integrate health and Panchayati Raj
Institutions, Women and Child Development, Rural Water
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women223

Supply and Sanitation and Education. The main components


of NRHM are Reproductive and Child Health II (RCH),
Immunization, National Disease Control Programme and
other initiatives.64
The health scenario of Odisha is not an encouraging one.
According to the National Family Health Survey, 2005–2006,
about 17.0 per cent females in the age group of 15–19 were
married. Besides, 1.6 per cent females below 14 years of age
were married; 14.40 per cent of women in the age group of
15–19 years have begun child bearing in Odisha. The adoles-
cent thus is vulnerable and at risk of unwanted pregnancies
due to ignorance and lack of access to contraceptives. Other
reproductive health related problems such as STDs/HIV/
AIDS and RTIs are also on the rise in the age group of 15–19
years. Anaemia affects 61.20 per cent of women as compared
to 53.30 per cent in the country. The incidence of anaemia
among the pregnant women is as high as 68.10 per cent.65
According to Odisha Human Development Report (2004),
the nutritional status of tribal women is not much worse
than that in the case of the general population or that of
women belonging to other disadvantaged social groups such
as scheduled castes and Other Backward Classes. However,
the incidence of anaemia amongst tribal women is signifi-
cantly higher than that for other social groups. There are two
indicators of maternal health: extent of antenatal check-up
and delivery care, where among tribal women, 37 per cent
did not have any ante-natal check-up. While institutional
delivery is low in the case of Odisha (22.7%), as mentioned
earlier, it is even lower in the case of tribal women (8.7%).
The incidence of anaemia among children is, however, much
higher among the tribal population.66
The scheduled tribe districts of Odisha are character-
ized by high geographical inaccessibility and a population
largely guided by their cultural practices and beliefs. These
two major factors have largely influenced the accessibility
of the tribal people and specifically the tribal women to the
health services provided by the state. Therefore, the fruits
224 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

of NRHM are yet to be translated into action and the people


are yet to internalize the benefits since the programme has
not considered people as a bio-cultural resource. Health pro-
viders while implementing various programmes of NRHM
need to reconsider various institutional perspectives of tribal
communities, their contribution in strengthening the health
status of the tribal communities and to reduce the regional
disparities in the achievements of health indicators.

CASE STUDY 1: PURULIA


Sirkabad in Purulia is a tourist destination. At about 304
metres above sea level, it is the main halt for tourists on
their way to the Ayodhya Hills, about 12 km. away. But the
village Bhuda of Sirkabad presents a picture of desperation
and remains starved of clean water. During the field survey
it was found that the stream is their sole source of water
because there is not a single tube well in the village. There
has not been one since independence. The increasing use
of fertilizers in the fields through which the stream flows
has turned its water toxic and yet there is no alternative.
Diarrhoea and allied stomach ailments represent the resul-
tant resident evil. The mid-day meal at the primary school,
which caters to about 54 children, is cooked with water from
this stream that also caters to the village cattle. The village is
often rendered inaccessible by this stream.
Meals in the village are cooked with polluted water, as
a result of which at least six children of the 54 in the school
are absent everyday because of diarrhoea and other stomach
infections. The villagers, mainly forest-produce collecting tri-
bals, are unaware of the concept of chlorine treatment and
their children get to eat meat and eggs only at school. The
school has no proper toilets as well. The primary school apart,
the village has no Integrated Child Development Services
centres and the nearest primary healthcare unit is 9 or 10 km
away. Most of the tribal women in Bhuda age fast. The school
has children up to the age of 12 but almost all of them have
stunted growth, brittle nails and a weak immune system.
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women225

Stunting is the result of prolonged food deprivation and dis-


ease or illness; wasting denotes acute malnutrition as a result
of food deprivation or illness; and underweight is indicative
of both acute and chronic malnutrition.67
In a study carried out to determine the prevalence of mal-
nutrition among Santhal children of Purulia district of West
Bengal, 442 Santhal children (216 boys and 226 girls) aged
5–12 years were taken from randomly selected schools of
Balarampur and Baghmundi areas of Purulia. The preva-
lence of stunting, underweight, and wasting among Santhal
children in Purulia district is 17.9 per cent, 33.7 per cent
and 29.4 per cent respectively. The prevalence of moderate
stunting among students of this community was found to
be higher in girls (15.9%) than boys (9.7%).68 The percentage
values of severe stunting in both the sexes are similar: 4.17
in boys and 5.76 in girls.69 In West Bengal, 54 per cent chil-
dren (6–12 years of age) of the Oraon tribe suffer from severe
malnutrition.70 Another report entitled as Integrated Child
Development Scheme—Annual Action Plan 2014–2015 pre-
pared by the Social and Women Welfare Department pointed
out that in West Bengal Purulia has the highest number of
malnourished children (30.78%) followed by Barddhaman
(29.42%) and West Medinipur (29.21%).71 The government has
failed to lure most of the children to schools with the mid-
day meals and that is why they suffer from malnutrition. In
some blocks there are hardly any health centres.

CASE STUDY 2: WEST MEDINIPUR


A field survey was carried out in 2006 and the report revealed
the situation of the Munda settlers in the Keshiary block in
two villages Sanjhaparia and Meghdumbur. All houses were
made up of mud and not a single brick built house was found.
The poor condition of the houses has some adverse effects
on the health of the Mundas. Absence of proper drinking
water facilities and drainage system result in accumulation
of filth and mud. Sanitation was totally absent in these vil-
lages with endemic typhoid, fevers and so on, Anaemia has
226 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

been found to be more frequent among the women maybe


because of repeated pregnancy due mainly to the lack of
nutritious food. With low income and more dependents many
of them even cannot include pulses in their regular diet. Due
to lack of government initiatives the Mundas rely heavily
on ­magico-religious and herbal treatment.72 Amlasole village
of West Medinipur is in a miserable health condition too. A
health check up was conducted of the students of Bera Bhenge
School at Kengora, Amlasole. There were three communities:
Sabar (Boys-8, Girls-9), Munda (Boys-10, Girls-11) and a non-
tribe Singh (Boys-2, Girls-1), all severely malnourished.

STATE OF EDUCATION AMONG TRIBAL WOMEN


Education is regarded as the most important factor in the
sphere of social change. In the development programme of
the tribal people education plays an essential role specifically
in the creation of various stagnant behaviour-patterns. We
can put forward a couple of very sensitive research ­questions:
(i) what leads to failure in achieving and qualitatively
improving teaching and learning activities in tribal areas?
(ii) what kind of measures are needed for improving the cur-
rent situation? The District Primary Education Programme
under the National Policy of Education provides physical
and infrastructural facilities to all the primary schools in
tribal areas. A large number of schools in the tribal areas
have still not received essential teaching aids or teachers do
not use them properly. Thus the problems begin at this stage.
The drop out rate of children is high and literacy rate of
the tribal female (12.74%, according to the Census 1991) is
lowest of all social groups.
The majority of educated tribal women see education
as a means of getting employment and maybe due to the
reservation facilities, almost all educated tribal women are
government employees. Those women who were encour-
aged by their families did much better than those who were
denied this. Maximum dropouts from the schools happen
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women227

due to dire economic necessity. The majority of tribal women


in West Bengal and Odisha choose general schools instead of
tribal schools because they think that it helps them to move
ahead. They strongly oppose the consumption of liquor and
community dances because dances are associated with liquor
and intoxication. This rational attitude is more prominent
in the field of health and hygiene. Most of them always use
modern medicine and doctors at the time of sickness. During
my field study I found that most of the tribal women were
in favour of education for their daughters.
Sometimes educated tribal women face problems in get-
ting grooms. It is because educated boys, when they get good
jobs due to reservation facilities, prefer to marry outside to
get dowry or to connect with families of high social status.
Educated women usually take up nursing and become health
workers and that is why they face problems in getting grooms.
In the tribal villages bride price is still the rule. But among
the urban educated families in common with their Hindu
neighbours dowry is a practice. Educated tribal women have
begun to restrict their behaviour regarding pre-marital sexual
intercourse. Only a few educated tribal women do not believe
in witchcraft.

CASE STUDY 3: WEST BENGAL


In West Bengal, age-specific attendance rates of tribal chil-
dren are 62.54 per cent and 52.15 per cent in primary and
upper primary levels, respectively, which are even lower than
the respective median rates (82.49%, 55.05%) in the country.
School completion rates are 2.65 per cent and 16.18 per cent
for primary and upper primary levels respectively which are
much below the respective median figures (57.9%, 40.4%) in
the country.
In 2011 the central government decided to introduce a
special education loan scheme—Adivasi Siksha Rin Yojana—
exclusively for the students coming from Scheduled Tribes
communities.73 A loan up to a maximum amount of `5
228 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

lakhs (5,000,000) would be provided if their annual family


income did not exceed `40,000 in rural areas and `55,000 in
urban areas. Under the scheme, loan would be disbursed
through National Scheduled Tribe Finance and Development
Corporation, a statutory organization controlled by the
Centre. Repayment starts either after six months of the com-
pletion of the course or after securing employment.
The education gap is extremely serious as in 2003–04,
81,000 tribal habitations remain unserved as regards school
facilities.74

CASE STUDY 4: ALIPURDUAR


The Totos are a primitive Indo-Bhutanese tribe residing in a
small enclave called Totopara in Jalpaiguri district of West
Bengal. Totos were nearly becoming extinct in the 1950s,
but recent measures to safeguard their areas from being
swamped with outsiders have helped preserved their unique
heritage and also helped the population grow. According to
the Census 2011 the total number of Totos is 1307 (at pres-
ent their population is 1391). While measures to safeguard
the population have been effective nothing has been done
regarding the socio-economic uplift and growth of the tribe as
a whole. The economic life of the Toto has been transformed
to a great extent. About 95 per cent cultivate their own land.
The women mostly help the men in the peak agricultural
season. About 70 per cent of women are engaged in collection
of firewood from the forest along with their usual household
chores.75
During my visit to Totopara (in October 2012), I met Rita
Toto (22) who is the first woman graduate, from Prasanna Deb
Women’s College, Jalpaiguri, and worked for TCS Company
(IT). She said, ‘I always wanted to be a teacher; English is
difficult for me as is the computer. Also adjusting to Kolkata
is hard. I have written to the state government for a suitable
job but not received any reply.
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women229

Mr Ashok Toto (52) expressed Toto discontent regarding


the movement launched by the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha
(GJM). He said the demand was raised by the outsiders or
people coming from Nepal and Bhutan. The Totos’ principal
demand is proper development of the community in every
sphere of life.
Dhaniram Toto (60), the president of Toto Kalyan Samity
said, ‘The government is not providing “primitive tribe” cer-
tificate to the Totos, as a result, Totos have to compete with
the major tribe like Bodos and also with the non-tribes like
Nepalese and Gorkhas. Such uneven competition deprives
them from all the opportunities especially in the field of
employment.’
According to Amali Toto (23), there is no dowry system
and girl child is welcomed in the family. There are 5–6 girl
children in a single family, but the succession goes through
the male line. There is a clear division of labour among them.
All household work such as cooking, child care, giving
fodder to the cattle and collecting firewood, is done by the
women. Oranges are the principal cash crop that transformed
the marginal economy of the Totos into a market economy.
Toto women also work in the fields, collect marua (a kind
of millet), and cultivate maize which is their principal food.
Education of the girl child or even the boys is not a priority at
Totopara. Women do not participate in political activities. She
said that the women go to the panchayats but hardly speak
in the meetings. Women do not hold lands in their names.76
Due to poor sanitation, food scarcity and lack of nutri-
tion, Totas lead unhealthy lives: average male life expectancy
is 35; prevalence of thalassaemia and anaemia is rampant,
particularly among the women; also tuberculosis and skin
diseases.77 The tribe almost became extinct because of malaria
and kala azar around 1865. For almost five months in a year,
Totos depend on forest products or stored food grains. Once
maize, kaoni and marua were eaten for about seven months,
but now the staple food is rice. Beef and pork and dried meat
are also eaten. Fresh vegetables are rare.
230 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Totopara displays all the symbols of modern India like


cell phones and some pucca houses. There are both Christian
Totos and non-Christian Totos. There is a Grameen Bank too,
but the grim fact is that the tribe is now struggling with land
rights within its own village. Many Nepalese, Marwaris and
Biharis have settled in Totopara and the rich are buying the
land. Those Totos who can afford to do so are trying to build
pucca houses to ensure that their rights to the land are held by
them. The criminal nexus between the police and the timber
mafias is causing massive deforestation in the area which is
another problem for the Totos since non-timber forest pro-
duces play a crucial role in their day to day economic life.
Totopara gets cut off during the rainy season, when the sur-
rounding rivers get flooded. Transportation is a problem.
Education, especially for women, comes far behind major
concerns like food, health, shelter, transportation, employ-
ment and livelihood.

CASE STUDY 5: WEST MEDINIPUR DISTRICT


We will briefly analyse the impact of the development pro-
gramme on Mahali, West Medinipur district, West Bengal.
Field work was conducted in the village named Kotaigarh
under Narayangarh Gram Panchayat, Kharagpur s­ ub-division
in November 2011. An attempt has been made to examine the
various measures taken for the upliftment of the tribals in the
field of education and health and their actual rate of success.
There are at present two primary schools in the village. Both
the primary schools hold classes from first to fourth.
Most of the Mahali children drop out of school at a very
early age or simply do not go to school. There is no proper
motivation by the government functionaries and gram pan-
chayat body which force them to go to school. The children
are engaged in basket making from a very early age, so their
parents are reluctant to part with their help without a proper
incentive. Among the Mahali, boys have so far been given
the chance to get educated. This differentiation on the lines
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women231

of gender probably has its roots in their culture. Girls are


married off early and they are considered better at home.
One Mahali was training for his B.Ed and another has joined
the Railway Reserve Police Force. There is a primary health
centre at Barakalanki in Kotaigarh village. It was established
in 1968. There is no doctor and an acute scarcity of medicines.

CASE STUDY 6: MID-DAY MEAL PROGRAMME


In April 2001, the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Rajasthan,
filed a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court, argu-
ing that the right to food was a fundamental right of every
Indian citizen and demanding that the country’s gigantic
food stocks (about 50 million tonnes of grains at that time)
should be used without delay to prevent hunger and starva-
tion. It argued that the right to food should be seen as a corol-
lary to the fundamental ‘right to life’ (Article 21) in so far as it
was impossible to live without food. The Supreme Court has
passed orders directing the Indian government to introduce
hot cooked mid-day meals in all primary schools; provide
35 kg of grain per month at highly subsidised prices to 15 mil-
lion destitute households under the Antyodaya Anna Yojana,
a component of the Public Distribution System. An aim was
to universalize the Integrated Child Development Services by
increasing the number of centres from 0.6 million to 1.4 mil-
lion; and identify schedule caste and schedule tribe h ­ amlets/
habitations for new ICDS centres on a priority basis.78 The
Supreme Court, in an interim order dated 28 November
2001, converted the benefits of nine f­ood-related schemes
into ‘legal entitlements’ and directed all state ­governments
to fully implement these schemes.79 However, implementa-
tion has been at the mercy of the ration dealers who have
disregarded the norms completely.
A report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG)
for fiscal 2009–2010 was published by The Statesman that
pointed out that the Government of West Bengal lost a whop-
ping `133.66 crore (13 billion) in food subsidy receivable from
232 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

the centre as the finance department did not prepare the


annual PDS accounts from 2005 to 2010. The government was
never serious in doing its duty as regards the identification
of the Antyodaya Anna Yojana beneficiaries in West Bengal.80
A study conducted by Pratichi Trust Organization in
2004 in West Bengal especially in Birbhum District funded
by Amartya Sen found the presence of classroom hunger in
Birbhum district to a large extent, particularly among the
dalits and tribals. While the caste Hindus made a lot of com-
plaints against the monotonous menu, the tribals such as the
Santhals and the Koras mentioned that they did not bother
much about the repetition of the menu. So, the percentage of
enrolment and attendance increased more among the dalit
and tribal students than the caste Hindu students.81

THE MARGINALIZATION OF
TRIBAL LANGUAGES
Because tribal languages are not dealt with respect,82 a kind
of a limited ‘linguistic terror’ has been created among the
tribals. We should listen to the competing voices struggling
for narrative mastery and think of the social location and
sexual identity of the voices competing for narrative space. In
anthropological literature, tribes in general have been defined
in terms of the distinctive features of language, culture, terri-
tory and government. For tribals, language and culture, now
often referred to as ethnicity, matter the most and was hence
the most pronounced marker of distinctiveness.83 Tribes were
invariably posited against the dominant regional community,
which also happened to be a distinct linguistic and cultural
community.
The Constitution recognizes the distinct cultural features
of tribes especially in respect to language and, according
to the Constitution, Article 350 A provides for facilities for
instruction through the mother tongue at the primary stage of
­education. Yet, no effort whatsoever has been made so far by
the federal state or the provincial states towards safeguarding
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women233

tribal languages. The thrust is towards absorption, which


entails their inclusion into the dominant society. The unstated
state administrative practices both at the federal and state
levels have been geared towards their absorption into the
larger society. It has pushed the tribals towards the articula-
tion for greater political power in the form of a struggle for
autonomy, which has more often than not moved in the direc-
tion of a demand for a separate state either within the Indian
union or even outside of it. The promotion and revitalization
of tribal languages and the creation of primers, literature and
even introducing the tribal language in primary schools has
been voiced. Connected to it is the search or development of
a script as has been the case with the Santhals or the Tripuri
speaking tribes in Tripura. The choosing of the script from
among scripts tribals are familiar with has also formed a part
of identity articulation as with the Bodos of Assam.84
Though nearly half of the tribal societies still maintain a
distinct language as a mark of their identity, a large section
of them tend to switch over to the surrounding non-tribal
languages as their mother tongue or retain both languages
(ancestral and non-tribal) in home environments and various
modernization processes have further accelerated the pace of
assimilation. Tribal languages in this area are charged with
minimum functional load (restricted largely to the home
environment) and serving primarily as a mark of group
identity. These languages, thus, are open to the pressures of
assimilation from major regional languages. For example,
many tribal languages do not keep the pace vis-à-vis the
growth of the tribal community bearing the same name, such
as, Kharia tribe. We have been actually institutionalizing the
mass hara-kiri of the indigenous languages.
An intense degree of bilingualism is noticed in the East
Indian tribal regions. Elicitation techniques in the Census
favour the reporting of ‘status’ languages prevailing among
tribals. Hence one notices the traces of under-reporting
the most intimately known tribal languages of their own
milieu. Prominent contact languages of the tribal origin,
234 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

though claimed by smaller populations, in different states


are: Santhali in Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal; Munda
and Kurukh in Jharkhand and Bihar; Kui in Odisha. Kui and
Kondh are two separate languages, raising the issues of lan-
guage identity. Some regions have developed local creolized
languages like Sadan/Sadri and Kurmali (hybrid forms of
Bihari and Mundari, in Jharkhand and Bihar); Desiya (a tribal
blend with an Oriya base in Koraput, Odisha).85
In Jharkhand, my field work was in September 2011, a
strong current of the distinct identity has emerged around the
lingua franca Nagpuria (with an Indo-Aryan base, commonly
identified with the caste label Sadan/Sadani) by carving out
a regional consensus over and above their Austric/Dravidian
mother tongue identities. Such cultural synthesis can be
described as ‘grassroot Aryanization’ where the Jharkhandi
regional identity gets defined around the grasp of the Indo-
Aryan Sadan/Nagpuria language. Persistent efforts are being
made to develop a literary diction in Nagpuria written in
Devanagari script.
Despite the provisions in Article 350(A) of the Indian
Constitution, many states have denied giving efforts for devel-
oping tribal languages as preparatory media at the primary
stage of education; textbooks are generally prepared in the
dominant regional script (Devanagari, Bengali, Oriya). There
has been a move to revive the indigenous Ol Chiki script for
Santhali. Textbooks in Ho, Munda, and Kurukh are prepared
in the indigenous Adi script, or in Devanagari or Roman. But
at the secondary stage most of these languages are confined
to the regional script. Tribal elites of Chotanagpur, Jharkhand,
do not prefer Sadan and made Hindi as the medium of edu-
cation. Similarly, a limited recognition is accorded to Santhali
in primary education in West Bengal. In Bihar textbooks are
prepared in Santhali, Kurukh, Mundari, Ho, Kharia but the
state authorities have not shown great enthusiasm as far as
its implementation is concerned. In the absence of a definite
policy concerning the questions of orthographies for tribal
languages, the preparation of textbooks in these languages
has been considerably retarded.
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women235

MIGRATION AND TRAFFICKING


The tribals in India have inherited a rich culture from their
ancestors. However, with the onslaught of industrialization,
urbanization and modernization and the resultant migration
of tribal men, women and girls to urban centres the age-old
culture of these communities is on the verge of extinction.
Tribal women and girls have migrated from different tribal
areas far away from the cities in which they settle; the ‘Push-
Pull’ factors have played an important role. The significant
push factors were very low rates of wages, unemployment
and land alienation along with poverty and indebtedness.
Women who are in marriageable age or have just married
are migrating to towns and cities in search of jobs. It is worth
noting that some of the women have never contacted their
families after leaving the villages, and families fear that these
women have been sold somewhere after trafficking.86
Other reasons reported included acquisition of land/
house for development projects, repeated natural calamities
like floods and famines, attraction of city life and education.
Migration of tribal girls to big cities for education is very
limited and hence negligible. It is, therefore, very clear that
in spite of the facilities like free hostel facilities the tribal girls
are not coming to big cities for higher education in sufficient
number.
Tribal women and girls migrated to cities belong to differ-
ent tribal regions of different states in India and as such they
had different patterns of lifestyle. Migrant tribal women and
girls had to gradually shift from their traditional lifestyle to
the local lifestyle of the cities. The employment status, income
range and level of exploitation (both financial and sexual)
of the migrant tribal women and girls in cities should also
be counted. Most of the migrant tribal women are domestic
servants, some work as construction labour and industrial
workers, and thus very frequently they have been the victims
of sexual exploitation. The principal causes of financial and
sexual exploitation of the migrant tribal women and girls
in cities were poverty, lack of employment opportunities,
236 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

misunderstanding of the local people about tribals being


available for free sex and lack of community support to
victims of sexual exploitation. Mental harassment is also
frequent.
The tribal women and girls who migrate to cities from
their hinterland in search of jobs have to face the problem of
sexual exploitation by the middlemen who offer them good
emoluments, good placement and work conditions and after
they are taken to the workplace it is a different case. Many
of the employer or their agents, after providing jobs to these
tribal women and girls, take every opportunity to exploit
them sexually. Many a time sexual contact is a pre-condition
for giving jobs to these women and girls. Due to acute pov-
erty and non-availability of jobs the tribal women and girls
surrender themselves for sexual exploitation against their
will. A Research Study Report, submitted to the Planning
Commission, states the causes of exploitation of migrant
tribal women and girls.87 Good education and the courage
to fight the exploitation are the only ways open for resist-
ing exploitation. A study carried out by the NGO Pragati in
11 blocks of Sundargarh district of Odisha in 2010 revealed
that 723 girls and women had been trafficked and had never
returned to their homes, while 60 are missing and cannot
be traced. It also highlighted 345 cases of sexual abuse, of
which only 38 have been registered. To date, one trafficker
has been punished and released on bail. According to the
study, 56 girls travelled to Delhi with unknown people, and
the identity of only 15 traffickers has been established so
far. The study reported that around 85 per cent of the tribal
women who left Sundargarh villages were being exploited.
The majority of the girls are lured to leave Sundargarh for
Delhi by relatives, neighbours, or friends. The tribal women’s
isolation in the city deters them from reaching out to their
own groups. What is important to note here is that unlike
other domestic maids living in the city, who are organized
and come together for common causes, tribal women have
been unable to do so because of social exclusion primarily
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women237

due to the barrier of language, and their lack of confidence


in a metropolitan setting.88 The Census data may not fully
reflect seasonal or circulatory migration, estimated to be up
to 10 million by the National Commission on Rural Labour.

CASE STUDY 7
The number of people missing from Jangal Mahal in West
Medinipur has increased manifold, triggering fears that more
persons are being trafficked from the region than before.
Social activists have blamed poverty, lack of job opportunities
and political instability for the rise in the number of miss-
ing persons. The situation is alarming in Sankrail, Binpur-II,
Gopiballavpur-I and Nayagram blocks of Jhargram since
the geographic conditions of Jhargram is such that it forms
an easy transit point for trafficking. Local people said that
most of these people are trafficked by middlemen locally
known as dalal or agents, some are by their near relatives
or even family members. These people, mostly tribal girls
between 15 to 18 years and their parents, become easy prey of
agents who lure them with attractive packages and lifestyle.
These trafficked tribal girls are subjected to worst kind of
economic and physical exploitation at various metros in our
country. It is strange that the administration has no proper
information or data bank for these trafficked tribal girls. The
local respondents also asserted that, during the tough periods
when political clashes often occurred in tribal villages, many
earning members of the tribal families were forced to join the
armed camps. It seems that police are also responsible for
increased trafficking as this issue is not prioritized enough.89

ADIVASI WOMEN IN BHADRALOK IMAGINATION


There is an indigenous Hindu Bengali view of history, rooted
in the culture of Bengal, distinctively different and unique
from several other concepts of history. The celebration of the
‘peoples’ culture’ was an integral feature of the Swadeshi
238 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

movement. But the limitations inherent in the romantic cel-


ebration of ‘peoples’ history’ need to be kept in mind. The
masses were eulogized as the custodians of the region’s
history and customs. It required urban, upper-class, often
upper-caste, and educated scholars to speak up for and rep-
resent village traditions in a bourgeois public sphere shaped
by print. It was perhaps inevitable too that the perception
of what was considered to be peoples’ culture would be
coloured by caste, class and other cultural considerations
unique to the urban Bengali literati.90 It automatically raises
the question that why does the figure of the dancing and sing-
ing tribals, specifically tribal women, appear so frequently in
Bengali literature and films? Rajnarayan Basu’s Deoghar Diary
thus proceeds without any reference to Santhals, except one
description of a Santhal dance staged by a local Bengali, on
occasion of his son’s first rice-eating ceremony.91 This is also
a kind of cultural silencing.
One of the big problems of writing tribal women’s his-
tory is that there is not a single account written by the tribal
women themselves, unlike for the dalits and Muslims. The
only account that we find about a Santhal girl is, Sona.
We know Sona’s life better than that of any other convert,
since P.O. Bodding wrote her biography, which is the most
complete biography we have of any Santhal woman during
the colonial period.92
In the construction of tribal identity as ‘primitive’, there
were two attempts on the part of the Bengali literati that were
made during colonial and postcolonial period. These were,
first to integrate the tribals into the so-called mainstream
caste society which can be regarded as an integral part of the
nation building process, and the other tendency was portray-
ing the tribal woman as a sexual object. Though the literature
is not replete with the life stories of the tribal women, yet it
is based on a very biased view of their sexual objectification.
It was with the railways that the Bengali bhadralok began
visiting places like Santhal Pargana, as a holiday retreat.
Bengali travel-imperative drew its competence from the
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women239

project of the colonial ‘penetration’ of interiors. In this par-


adigm of travel as penetration—of interior—spaces as well
as of the depths of time—the land and the people of the
land were equated. The penetrative competence staged the
first-ever visualization of the ‘primitive’ as a discovery of a
people who appeared not to exist prior to observation. The
‘primitive’ was thus denied his/her definitional antecedence,
which could dislocate history itself by making the ‘primitive’
more originary to the nation than the ‘historical’. In Santhal
Pargana, for example, the colonial administration denied the
right of some Bengali settlers precisely on the ground that
the ‘primitive’ Santhals were more ‘original’ to this land than
Hindus. And the politics of Bengalis in Deoghar became that
of actively reclaiming the Hindu’s tenancy rights over that
space of the nation, which colonial administrative discourse
had classified as purely ‘primitive’.93 This discourse of dis-
covery also implied that there were lands within the nation
which were as yet untouched by the stir of passing events to
mainstream Indian society. This undid to an extent the claim
of nationalism itself. If the strategy of spatial gathering was
indispensable to the nation so that the ‘primitive’ could be
integrated without disrupting the unitary narrative of history,
it was this very strategy which also reproduced the nation in
the colonial image of a fractured and stratified terrain.94 The
question whether tribes should unconditionally be integrated
to modernizing mainstream society or should be protectively
confined within spatialized and bounded ‘culture gardens’,
thus, became an intractable problem for nationalism and still
remains a disputed one.
As colonial modernity sought to commodify the trib-
als by making them pure bodies, they seemed to become
increasingly larger than life, muscular (tribal men) and
sensuous (tribal women) and desirable to the middle-class
Bengalis. This produced the Bengali aesthetic imagination of
tribals as sensuous and uninhibited figures—to be painted,
sculpted, filmed, and desired. For example Sanjib Chandra
Chattopadhyay wrote about the Kol women of Palamau in
240 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

his memoires of Palamau, which was published as a serial


between 1880 and 1882 in Bankimchandra Chattopadhyay’s
Bangadarshan. Bankim Chandra was his brother. He said that
the Kol women appeared to him as unbearably beautiful
and sensuous. He believed that even in old age, Kol women
remained young.95 He wrote, ‘All of the same height, the same
black colour of stone, bare-bodied, on their naked breasts
mirrors sparkle in the moonlight. Wild flowers in their hair
and ears, smile on their lips … restless with pleasure.’96
Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s Aranyak reflects sim-
ilar kind of romanticization of a tribal woman, Bhanmati.
We can have a clear notion of a tribal woman imagined by
a bhadralok intelligentsia (Babuji, as Bhanmati used to call
Satyacharan) in the portrayal of Bhanmati: ‘a slim and healthy
young girl … the garments she wore would not have been
considered modest in civilised society … she had a certain
natural poise and an inherent sense of dignity.97 Satyacharan
further thinks that when she is affectionate and loving, it is
as if the gates of heaven are opened on our earth. The dic-
tates of refinement and the pressures of the civilised world
had erased in her sisters the eternal woman that resided in
Bhanmati.’98
In these descriptions of Bhanmati we find a stereotypical
picture of a tribal woman replete with an unbound sexual-
ity and passion. Though tribal history in British India was
always a history of violent movements and protests, yet there
are no such reflections found in the mentality or imagination
of Bengali intelligentsia and their writing.
But with the appearance of the landmark character of
Draupadi (Dopdi) the imagination of a tribal woman achieved
a new horizon. Mahasweta Devi in most of her stories makes
explicit the patriarchal appropriation and usage of women’s
body, her sexuality and gender identity, as cultural sites to
create, revamp and contest its notions of normality and social
respectability. Her stories usually foreground tribal woman
as a doubly ‘otherized’ embodiment of exploitative patri-
archal praxis that operates at the cross-section of class and
caste, tradition and modernity, feudalism and capitalism.99 In
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women241

Draupadi, Mahasweta Devi invites us to begin effacing the


image in an inextricably mingling historico-political spec-
ificity with the sexual differential in a literary discourse.
‘Draupadi’ first appeared in Agnigarbha (Womb of Fire), a
collection of loosely connected, short political narratives.
Here she begins putting together a prose that is a collage
of literary Bengali, Bureaucratic Bengali, tribal Bengali, and
the languages of the tribals. The Naxalite movement and the
severe state repression are the background of the story and
it is the killing of this mistress’s husband that sets going the
events of the story. Dopdi was first apprehended and then
brutally tormented by the police since she denied revealing
the whereabouts of her comrades.

Slowly the bloodied nailheads shift from her brain. Trying


to move, she feels her arms and legs still tied to four posts.
Something sticky under her ass and waist. Her own blood
. . . She senses that her vagina is bleeding. How many came
to make her? … How many? Four-five-six-seven—then
Draupadi had passed out.100

Draupadi of the Mahabharata provides the only example of


polyandry and thereby exceptional. But Mahasweta Devi’s
Dopdi also got exceptional when she was placed first in a
comradely, activist, guerrilla warrior, monogamous marriage
and then in a situation of multiple rape.
The strongest characterization of a tribal woman, Draupadi,
comes out through the way she protested against the army
officer who captured and degraded her.

Draupadi, naked, walking toward him in the bright sun-


light with her head high … Draupadi stands before him,
naked. Thigh and pubic hair matted with dry blood. Two
breasts, two wounds … She looks around and chooses the
front of Senanayak’s white bush shi … for the first time
Senanayak is afraid to stand before an unarmed target …101

Thus, Dopdi crosses the sexual differential into the field


of what could only happen to a woman that she emerges as
242 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

the most powerful ‘subject’, who, still using the language of


sexual honour, can derisively call herself ‘the object of your
search’, whom the author can describe as a terrifying super-
object—‘an unarmed target’. Being a tribal woman Dopdi is
not romanticized by Mahasweta Devi. There is a long tra-
dition of writing on tribals as is evident from the work of
famous writers such as Tarashankar Bandyopadhyay and
Satinath Bhaduri. But there is a remarkable difference in their
outlook and that of Mahasweta Devi. In an interview with
Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Mahasweta Devi says:

‘The tribals and the mainstream have always been


­parallel … The mainstream simply doesn’t understand
the parallel … They can’t keep their land; there is no
education for them, no health facilities … they are denied
everything … That is why I started writing about the
tribal movements and the tribal world … I repay them
their honour.102

Regarding the gendered politics, Colin MacCabe’s com-


ment appears to be closer to the heart of the matter, when
he says: ‘The force of Mahasweta Devi’s text resides in its
grounding in the gendered subaltern’s body, … The bodies
of Jashoda and Dopdi figure forth the unutterable ugliness
and cruelty which cooks in Third World kitchen to produce
the First World feast that we daily enjoy.’103
New histories have been popularized as a way of demys-
tifying the world of appearances, where media plays a very
crucial part. In independent India, the major thrust of cultural
policy is documentation and dissemination. Unfortunately
media itself is stereotyping the gender dimensions of tribal
society and it can rightly be called as the poverty of empir-
icism, because the reading or deciphering myth regarding
tribal way of life is a new way of legitimizing bourgeois read-
ership and bourgeois conceptualization.
Photography may show perhaps the original of what is
today the faster growing area of ‘alternative’ critical practice
of cultural studies. But here also the role of the photography
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women243

and audio-visual media is not satisfactory at all in upholding


their worldview. The movies made on tribal life portray a
wrong image of its womenfolk. For example, the tribals have
been portrayed as exploited people, as militants, as simple,
gullible folk in the film Mrigaya (The Royal Hunt) of 1976
directed by Mrinal Sen. In this award-winning film the cen-
tral female character is Dungri. She happens to be abducted
by a local moneylender in lieu for the debt of ten rupees
owed by her father. Santhal women have been shown danc-
ing and singing. Portraying a hunter-gatherer tribal society
somewhere in the Santhal Pargana, the character of Dungri
fails to recognize the courage and the freedom inherent to a
tribal woman.
The film Aranyer Din Ratri (Days and Nights in the Forest)
of 1970 directed by Satyajit Ray, which is based upon the
Bengali novel of the same name by Sunil Gangopadhyay,
describes the escapades of four urban young men in tribal
areas of Palamau and their attitude to Santhal women, which
is deplorable. The entire sequence is interspersed with shots
of tribal women dancing to primitive rhythm as the central
characters are engaged in their primitive pursuits. The four
young men from the city are not unlikable, but their treatment
of the local tribal people reveals an unthinking arrogance that
at times verges on brutality. One of them, Hari, gets close to
a Santhal girl Duli when she approaches the group for extra
drink. When Hari sees the rustic and attractive Duli, the tribal
key to increase his self-esteem, he jumps at it. He does not like
it when Shekhar pays the tribal women money for sweeping
and swabbing floors for them. Duli has an untamed quality
that enhances her appeal. Hari takes her into the forest and
makes love with her. Though the film masterly juxtaposes
the urban and tribal, yet the character of Duli gives a very
negative idea about a tribal woman. This identification of
adivasi women with pure Bengali bourgeois culture has
also been pointed out by Prathama Banerjee: ‘In films like
Mrinal Sen’s Mrigaya, Satyajit Ray’s Aranyer Din Ratri and
later Agantuk, the adivasi appeared as that marginal presence,
244 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

on the frontiers of embourgeoised society, which haunted the


nation as an embodied political critique. And yet, this critique
always figured as the dancing, drinking, singing, “primitive”,
whose freedom and sensuality had the potential to turn, in
a jiffy, to retributional violence’.104
As suggested by these divergent visual and textual
accounts the bourgeois objectification of the tribal women
indicates dehumanization in capturing the ethnic identities.
Rabindranath Tagore, however, realized that the Indian intel-
ligentsia needed to destabilize social prejudices, to allow
India to flourish as a pluralistic postcolonial democracy. He
wrote,
The Santhal woman comes and goes
Over the gravelled path under the shimool tree,
Slender limbs draped by a coarse sari.
Some heedless divine artist
As he sat shaping a dark bird,
Finds his elements in thunder and lightning,
And creates unaware, this woman’s form.
.............................................
My heart is touched with shame when I feel that the woman’s
service,
sacredly ordained for her loved ones, its dignity soiled by the
market price,
Should have been robbed by me with the help of a few pieces of
copper.105

At Visva-Bharati, Rabindranath instituted a new percep-


tion vis-à-vis India’s indigenous peoples, which attempted,
through hegemonic inter-cultural relations, to subvert the
colonial separation of ‘aboriginals’ from mainstream Hindu
India. As is evident in his poem, ‘The Santhal’, the agency of
the subaltern is less easy to identify because Tagore positions
adivasis and modernists on an equal footing, producing a
new dynamic between ‘real’ and ‘positional’ subalterns.
In all these accounts the uniqueness of tribes, of their
social structure and their worldview, their sense of harmony
with nature and with one another, does not come through
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women245

either. The tribes are not doomed to suffer for eternity. Tribal
women, have broken the ‘culture of silence’ to demand equal
rights. However, they continue to be marginalized. There is
something in their society and their culture that has survived
and endured and held them together in many parts of India.
This story needs to be told.

NOTES
1 Mahato, Sanskritization vs Nirbakization: 17–18.
2 The Statesman, 29 August 2013.
3 Henry George, 1880. Progress and Poverty (New York: Robert
Schalkenbach Foundation): 6.
4 Manipadma Jena, 2013. ‘Voices from Niyamgiri’, Economic and Political
Weekly (henceforth EPW) 47, 36 (7 Sept.): 14–16.
5 Anandabazar Patrika, 12 November 2013.
6 Vimala Ramachandran, and Taramani Naorem, 2013. ‘What It Means
to Be a Dalit or Tribal Child in Our Schools: A Synthesis of a Six-State
Qualitative Study’, EPW 47, 44 (2 Nov.): 43–52.
7 Banikanta Mishra, and Sagarika Mishra, 2014. ‘Mining and
Industrialisation Dangerous Portents’, EPW 49, 14 (5 April): 56–65.
8 Robert Darnton, 1984. The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in
French Cultural History (New York: Basic Books): 257.
9 Roger Chartier, 1985. ‘Text, Symbols, and Frenchness’, The Journal of
Modern History 57, 4: 682–95.
10 Raphael Samuel, 1991. ‘Reading the Signs,’ History Workshop Journal
32, 1: 88–109.
11 Allen F. Repko, 2012. Interdisciplinary Research Process and Theory (2nd
edition, London: SAGE): xiii.
12 For more details see Jerry A. Jacobs, 2013. In Defense of Disciplines:
Interdisciplinarity and Specialization in the Research University (Chicago:
Chicago University Press): 20.
13 Ajay Skaria, 1997. ‘Shades of Wildness Tribe, Caste, and Gender in
Western India,’ Journal of Asian Studies 56, 3 (Aug.): 726–45.
14 In William Harmon, A Handbook to Literature, for example, aporia is
identified as ‘a difficulty, impasse, or point of doubt and indecision’
while also noting that critics such as Derrida have employed the term
to ‘indicate a point of undecidability, which locates the site at which
the text most obviously undermines its own rhetorical structure,
dismantles, or deconstructs itself.’
15 P. Bandyopadhyay, Tribal Situation in Eastern India: 87–89.
16 From field work in February 2012.
246 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

17 W.G. Archer, 1984. Tribal Law and Justice, A Report on the Santal
(New Delhi: Concept): 307–19.
18 Sarada Lahangir, ‘Robbed of a Future’, The Statesman, 7 July 2013.
19 Savara, M. and C.R. Sridhar, 1994. Report on a Survey of Sexual
Behaviour Patterns and Attitudes amongst Men and Women in Maharashtra
(Mumbai: Shakti).
20 Zelnik and Kanter, 1981. ‘Confronting the Teenage Pregnancy Issue:
Social Marketing as an Interdisciplinary Approach’, Journal of Human
Relations 38, 10: 983–1000.
21 Steven Polgar, and Ellen S. Fried, 1976. ‘The Bad Old Days: Clandestine
Abortions among the Poor in New York City before Liberalisation of
the Abortion Law’, Journal of Family Planning Perspectives 8 (3), May/
June.
22 Bulu Imam, 1993. ‘The Story of Kamli: A Birhor Medicine-Woman’,
in Man in India 73, 4: 377–85.
23 Nagda, Social Correlates of Fertility.
24 Field work conducted in Bankura, February 2012.
25 Vijay Tendulkar, 2007. ‘Tribals and I’, in Vijay Tendulkar Omnibus,
edited by Makarand Sathe (Delhi: Amar Kumar Publishers): 268–82.
26 Shivkumar Pandey, ‘Dakan’, in Bhagoria Ki Baat: 123–31.
27 Soma Chaudhuri, Witches, Tea Plantations, and Lives of Migrant Laborers
in India: 23.
28 Vanashree, 2010. ‘Witchcraft: Pain, Resistance and the Ceremony
of Punishment—Mahasweta Devi’s Bayen’, Indian Journal of Gender
Studies 17: 2: 226.
29 Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, 1988. ‘Can the Subaltern Speak?’ in
Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture, edited by Cary Nelson and
Larry Grossberg (Urbana, Il: University of Illinois Press): 287.
30 Waugh, Metafiction: 54.
31 Dalton, Descriptive Ethnology of Bengal: 198.
32 Anandabazar Patrika, 18 October 2012.
33 Vinita Damodaran, 2002. ‘Gender, Forests and Famine in Nineteenth
Century Chhotonagpur, India’, Indian Journal of Gender Studies 9, 2:
147.
34 Dev Nathan, 1988. ‘Significance of Women’s Position in Tribal
Society’, EPW (June 5): 1311–12.
35 Archana Mishra, Casting the Evil Eye.
36 Upen Kisku, 2004. ‘Daini’, in Adivasi Samaj o Sanskriti, edited by
Dibyajyoti Majumdar (Government of West Bengal, Centre of Folk
and Tribal Culture, Department of Information and Culture): 287–92.
37 The Hindu, 21 July 2012.
38 Soma Chaudhuri, Witches, Tea Plantations and Lives of Migrant Workers:
98.
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women247

39 Tendulkar, ‘Tribals and I’, in Makarand Sathe, ed., Vijay Tendulkar


Omnibu: 68.
40 S.M. Naqvi, 1943. ‘Santal Murders’, Man in India 23, 3: 240.
41 Indu Bharti, 1989. ‘Paharia Tribals’ Plight and Government’s
Indifference’, EPW (July 8): 1503–05.
42 The Times of India, 23 July 2012.
43 Troisi, Tribal Religion: 221.
44 S.C. Roy, 1937. ‘The Kharias’, Man in India: 120.
45 Moushumi Roy, 2011. ‘Choosing to be Christian: An Analysis of
the Causes of Conversion of the Santal Tribals’, Jadavpur University
Journal of Sociology 4, 4 (March): 43–52.
46 Palamau District Gazetteer: 165, available at https://docs.google.
com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:xtLfSBsaaTQJ:palamu.nic.in/gazette/
general_gazette.doc+Palamau+District+Gazetteer,+p.+165
47 Skaria, Hybrid Histories: 89.
48 Shashank Sinha, 2007. Witch-Hunts, Adivasis, and the Uprising in
Chhotanagpur’, EPW 42, 19 (May 12–18): 1672–76.
49 Haynes and Gyan Prakash, Contesting Power: 1–2.
50 Nita Kumar, Women as Subjects: 4.
51 Shashank Shekhar Sinha, 2006. ‘Adivasis, Gender and the ‘Evil Eye’:
The Construction(s) of Witches in Colonial Chhotonagpur’, Indian
Historical Review 33, 1: 134–35.
52 Anandabazar Patrika, 25 September 2010.
53 Shoma Chaudhuri, Witches, Tea Plantations and Lives of Migrant
Workers: 137.
54 Pradip Bhattacharya, 1994. Witchcraft Among the Santals (Calcutta:
Liberal Association for Movement of People [LAMP]): 21.
55 P.C. Oraon, 1999–2000. Janjatiya Kshetra Mein Dayan Pratha Ki
Samasya Avom Samadhan (Ranchi: Bihar Tribal Welfare Research
Institute): 11 and 13.
56 Shashank Shekhar Sinha, 2004. ‘Gender Constructions and
“Tradit­
­ ions”: The Positioning of Adivasi Women in Twentieth
Century Adivasi Chhotonagpur’, Indian Historical Review 30, 1 & 2
(Jan and July): 69–70.
57 In Purulia district, movement against witch hunting was once very
strong, but later it has died down. Lakshmindra Kumar Sarker has
described the course of the movement in his book, 1991. Puruliar
Daini Birodhi Andolon (Kolkata: Sachayan Prakashani). According to
him, witch hunting is still prevalent in the tribal areas of West Bengal
mainly because of illiteracy and poverty. There are numerous reports
on witch killing published in newspapers. Let us mention some of
them: 21 January 2010—Badli Mandi (50)—Balagarh in Hooghly—
Driven out of her home (The Statesman) 16 October 2010—Ramsumari
248 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

Devi (35)—Majhaulia village in Sitamarhi of Bihar—Beaten to death


(The Statesman) January, 2011—Sindri, Sasangdi and Jiling villages
of Manbazar-Barabazar of Purulia– Ransacked the houses of the
accused women and beaten (Anandabazar Patrika) 26 February 2011—
Budhin Murmu (27)—Jaipur village of Mangalkot, Burdwan—She
was fined with three thousand rupees. The villagers forcefully sold
her cows and then ostracized her. (Anandabazar Patrika) 4 March
2013—Laxmi Murmu (50)—Fatesinghpur village of Chadrakona
Road—janguru was called and after identifying her as a witch was
beaten badly (Anandabazar Patrika) 18 February 2014—Amti Murmu
(65)—Dogachhi village in the Gazole police station, Malda—The
accused people are after the land bequeathed to the woman by her
late husband and are bent on burning her to death by concocting
stories.
58 K. Srinivasan, and S.K. Mohanty, 2004. ‘Deprivation of Basic
Amenities by Caste and Religion: Empirical Study Using NFHS Data’,
EPW (February 2014): 728–35.
59 Maitreyi Bordia Das, Soumya Kapoor and Denis Nikitin, 2012. ‘Dying
to Get Attention: A Closer Look at Child Mortality among Adivasis
in India’, in Social Exclusion and Adverse Inclusion: Development and
Deprivation of Adivasis in India edited by Dev Nathan and Virginius
Xaxa (New Delhi: Oxford University Press): 113–44.
60 A. Pandey, Nandini Roy, D. Sahu and Rajib Acharya, 2004. ‘Maternal
Health Care Services: Observations from Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand
and Uttaranchal’, EPW (Feb 14): 713–20.
61 Das, Kapoor and Nikitin, ‘Dying to Get Attention’: 113–44.
62 Motilal Mahamallik, Sunil Kumar Mishra and Minarva Dash, 2006.
‘Health-Disease-Poverty Nexus among Tribals in Odisha’, in Tribal
Development in India: The Contemporary Debate, edited by Govinda
Chandra Rath (New Delhi: SAGE).
63 Sabita Acharya and Abhijita Das, 2012. ‘State of Health and Health
Service Delivery System in Scheduled Districts of Odisha: A Look’,
Journal of Indian Anthropological Society 47, 1: 53–74.
64 Key Indicators for Odisha from National Family Health Survey 3, 2005–
06, available at www.nfhsindia.org/factsheet.html, downloaded on
5 March 2012.
65 Human Development Report Summary (2004), Odisha, Government
of Odisha, Bhubaneswar, Published by Planning and Coordination
Department: 22, available at http://www.odisha.gov.in/pc/human-
development/summary/Summary.pdf downloaded on 05.11.2013/
66 The Statesman, 2 September 2012.
67 Sutanu Dutta Chowdhury, Tarun Chakraborty and Tusharkanti
Ghosh, 2007. ‘Prevalence of Undernutrition in Santal Children of
Puruliya District, West Bengal’, Department of Human Physiology
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women249

with Community Health, Vidyasagar University, West Medinipur,


West Bengal, also available in Indian Pediatrics 2008, 45: 43–46.
68 V.G. Rao, R. Yadav, C.K. Dolla et al., 2005. ‘Undernutrition and
Childhood Morbidities among Tribal Preschool Children, Indian
Journal of Medical Research (July) 122, 1: 43–47.
69 Dutta Chowdhury, Chakraborty and Ghosh, Prevalence of Under­
nutrition in Santal Children of Puruliya District: 43–46.
70 The Statesman, 10 August 2014.
71 Abhijit Ghosal, and Sovan Chakraborty, 2012. ‘Socio-Economic
Impact on Health: A Study on the Mundas of Paschim Medinipur’,
Bulletin of the Cultural Research Institute 24, 1 & 2 (Government of West
Bengal, Backward Classes Welfare Department): 57–63; Sudhangshu
Chakrabarty, 2010. ‘Mahal’, in Durbar Bhabna 2, 2 (June) (Kolkata:
Durbar Prakashani): 17, 20.
72 P.K. Sahoo, and B.C. Das, 2006. ‘Primary Education in the Tribal Belt
of Odisha’, in Tribal Development in India: The Contemporary Debate,
edited by Govinda Chandra Rath (New Delhi: SAGE).
73 The Statesman, 9 December 2011.
74 Ministry of Home Affairs, 2001. Census of India (New Delhi:
Government of India): Eleven Five Year Plan, 2007–12, vol. 1,
Planning Commission: 113.
75 Amitabha Sarkar, 1993. Toto: Society and Change (A Sub-Himalayan
Tribe of West Bengal) (Calcutta: Firma KLM): 12.
76 Rajib Chatterjee, 2010. ‘Life Among the Totos of Totopara: A Study
in Continuity and Change’, The Oriental Anthropologist: A Bi-Annual
International Journal of the Science 10, 1 (Jan–June): 269–78.
77 Supreme Court Orders on the Right to Food: A Tool for Action, August 2008
(2nd ed.), published by Right to Food Campaign, Secretariat, and
printing support from Office of the Commissioner’s to the Supreme
Court (Civil Writ Petition 196 of 2001): 1–159, available at http://
www.righttofoodindia.org/data/scordersprimeratoolforaction.pdf
downloaded on 30 August 2012.
78 The schemes are: (1) Public Distribution System (PDS); (2) Antyodaya
Anna Yojana; (3) National Programme of Nutritional Support
to Primary Education, also known as ‘Mid-Day Meals scheme’;
(4) Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS); (5) Annapurna;
(6) National Old Age Pension Scheme (NOAPS); (7) National
Maternity Benefit Scheme (NMBS); and (8) National Family Benefit
Scheme (NFBS). A ninth scheme, Sampurna Gramin Rozgar Yojana
(SGRY), was not mentioned in this order but it did figure in the initial
list of food-related schemes on which the Supreme Court requested
affidavits from the state governments (on 17 September 2001), and
SGRY became the main focus of the next interim order, issued on 8
May 2002. Ibid: p. 21.
250 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

79 The Statesman, 2 September 2011.


80 Sumita Saha, 2011. ‘Mid-day Meals Program: A Boost to Primary
Level Education in India’, Jadavpur University Journal of Sociology 4,
4 (March): 26–34.
81 Pey de Garros, 1887. Poesias (Toulouse): 299.
82 Virginius Xaxa, 2005. ‘Politics of Language, Religion and Identity:
Tribes in India’, EPW (March 26): 1363–70.
83 Script developed by the Santhals in known as Ol Chiki, Kak-Barok
is the script developed and used for the Tripuri speaking tribes of
Tripura. Among the Bodos, there is an increasing articulation for the
use of Roman script in place of Assamese to mark off their distinct
identity.
84 Lachman Khubchandani, 1992. Tribal Identity: A Language and
Communication Perspective (New Delhi: Indus Publishing): 55.
85 Society for Regional Research and Analysis, 2010. ‘Migration of Tribal
Women: Its Socioeconomic Effects—An in-depth Study of Chhattisgarh,
Jharkhand, M.P. and Odisha’ (October) Submitted to Planning
Commission, Government of India, Yojana Bhawan, Sansad Marg,
New Delhi.
86 Tirpude College of Social Work, Civil Lines, Sadar. A Research Study
Report, 2003. ‘A Research Study On Migrant Tribal Women Girls in Ten
Cities: A Study of Their Socio-Cultural and Economic Reference to Social
Intervention’, Submitted to Planning Commission, Government of
India, New Delhi.
87 Panda, Smita Mishra, Ragnhild Lund et al., 2013. ‘Gender, Mobility,
and Citizenship Rights among Tribals of Khurda and Sundargarh,
Odisha (India)’, Gender, Technology and Development 17, 2: 105–29.
88 Report on Human Trafficking on the rise in Jangal Mahal, published
in The Statesman, 4 April 2012.
89 Sumit Sarkar, ‘The Many Worlds of Indian History’, in Writing Social
History (New Delhi: Oxford University Press): 22–24.
90 Rajnarayan Basu, 1995. ‘Devgrihe Dainandin Lipi’ [1879], in Nirbachita
Rachanasamgraha, ed. Baridbaran Ghosh (Calcutta: College Street
Publishers): 193. For more details see Prathama Banerjee, 2006. Politics
of Time (New Delhi: Oxford University Press): 86–87.
91 P.O. Bodding, 1919. Sona: En Kristen Santalkvindes liv oggjerning
(Copenhagen: Den Nordiske Santalmisjon).
92 Shashibhushan Ray, 1926. Santal Pargana, Past and Present (Deoghar).
93 Prathama Banerjee, 2006. Politics of Time: ‘Primitives’ and History-
writing in a Colonial Society (New Delhi: Oxford University Press): 91.
94 Sanjivchandra Chattopadhyay, 1970. ‘Palamau,’ in Sanjiv Rachanabali
Calcutta): 381.
95 Ibid.: 393.
Increasing Marginalization of Adivasi Women251

96 Rimli Bhattacharya, Aranyak of the Forest: 151–54.


97 Ibid.: 181–82.
98 Rekha, 2015. Gender, Space and Creative Imagination: The Poetics and
Politics of Women’s Writing in India (New Delhi: Primus Books): 69.
99 Gayatri Spivak, Mahasweta Devi Breast Stories: 34–35.
100 Ibid.: 36–37.
101 Satyanarayana, Plays of Mahasweta Devi: 19.
102 Colin MacCabe, Foreword, In Other Worlds: xvi.
103 Prathama Banerjee, 2011. ‘Culture/Politics: The Curious Double-bind
of the Indian Adivasi’, in Subaltern Citizens and Their Histories, edited
by Gyanendra Pandey (New York: Routledge): 132.
104 Daniel J. Rycroft, 2006. ‘Santalism: Reconfiguring “The Santal” in
Indian Art and Politics’, Indian Historical Review 33, 1: 150–74.
105 Rabindranath Tagore, 1935. ‘The Santal Woman’, in Visva-Bharati
Quarterly, New Series, vol. 1, Part 1, edited by K.R. Kripalani (trans-
lated from Bengali by Tagore on 2 April 1935): 71–72.
Epilogue

The government is simply waiting for me to die … My health


is not good … I pray to all of you, please help me stay alive.
—Soni Sori

SO UNFEELING A contrast provided by Soni Sori1 to Bhanmati.


Adivasi women—the poorest, hungriest and malnourished—
are fighting patriarchy in their own communities and dis-
placement, lacking access to education, health care or legal
redress, mercilessly exploited and raped as matter of right by
police and forest department officials. Their evictions from
land and forests where they worked, lived and worshipped
are not regarded as a feminist problem. Being disillusioned
by the promises of the governments they have started looking
for an alternative.
Chandra Talpade Mohanty in her essay ‘Under Western
Eyes’ suggests that the formulation of autonomous, geograph-
ically, historically and culturally grounded feminist concerns
and strategies is a key to third world feminist enquiry. The
first project is one of deconstructing and dismantling; the
second, one of building and constructing. While these pro­
jects appear to be contradictory, the one negatively and the
positively, unless these two tasks are addressed simultane-
ously, ‘third world’ feminisms run the risks of marginal-
ization or ghettoization from both mainstream (right and
left) and western feminist discourses.2 In this enquiry of not
the third but fourth world, that is, the indigenous women,
this concern is grounded in not only epistemological tra-
ditions but is located in construction of social reality. The
Epilogue253

complexities and absence of an indigenous theory tends to


incline literature towards adopting ecofeminism, losing the
strands necessary for enquiry into indigenous women and
signifies the problematique faced in the field.
There is in India, as in most of the developing world a
gendered division of labour. In India, agricultural workers
are widely acknowledged to be women. This women’s work
has been invisible as the state does not include women’s
work in the fields as part of economic input. Both state and
society largely discriminate against women. What is not very
clear here is tribal women’s status. Are tribal women con-
sidered equal to men? Is their work in the fields acknowl-
edged by the men? Does this work convert itself into rights
or enhance their power? What role does the state play in
their lives? These were questions that confronted me when I
began my research. Poor adivasi women commonly referred
to as head loaders, walk miles through different conditions,
collecting wood, gathering fodder, picking leaves, brewing
liquor and selling them—the typical items of work are all
characterized by monotony, hard physical labour, harass-
ment and exploitation. The activities they predominantly
engage in are such as manufacture and sale of products
based on minor forest produce. These activities are typically
low income, seasonal activities, and marginal to the econ-
omy. The liquor trade in tribal areas finds a predominance of
adivasi women. This may seem a sharp contradiction when
viewed in terms of the problems faced by adivasi women
on account of male alcoholism. But when viewed in context
of the limited availability of economic options and issues of
survival, it is perhaps less surprising that such trade is taken
up by women. In the few cases that employment is available
to adivasi women, gender-based discrimination in wages
both by government and contractors reinforces their eco-
nomic marginalization.
Not only economic marginalization but also the field of
adivasi politics, active or passive, has also remained largely
male dominated. The feminization of domestic affairs
254 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

precludes the process of politicization of adivasi women


to a great extent. Their visibility in the politics by the con-
stant attempt of vocalizing silences has been denied some-
times by their own men in various ways. For example, the
first largest SEZ project was planned in Raigarh district of
Maharashtra, spreading across 35, 000 acres. According to the
Land Acquisition Act of 1894 this land was chosen for the
establishment of industries. The villagers were completely
unaware of the term ‘SEZ’. When they got to know what it
actually means 2,800 peasants had already sold their lands
amounting to 12,000 acres. Later they decided to protest
against the proposed SEZ. On 28 June 2006 an unprecedented
dharna was organized in front of the Collector’s office of
Raigarh demanding the withdrawal of the notice of the land
acquisition which was attended only by the women of the
village, some with their babies on their laps. The way they
protested was unprecedented as well, they sang folk songs
composed by them to voice their dissatisfactions. More or
less 35 women were arrested by the police during the pro-
test and booked under various cases. The women had to
spend several weeks in jail. After that an organization was
formed named Chaubis Gaon SEZ Virodhi Manch (Twenty-
four villages against SEZ). Quite surprisingly there was no
place for the women in the organization. In 1984 when the
land acquisition began for the Gopalpur project in Gajapati
district of Orissa the first objection came from the women of
the village. Lakshmi Amma and Erema Amma were killed
in the police firing. The movement is still continued under
the banner of ‘Samaj Suraksha Samiti’. But the women of the
organization are considered as second-class citizens.3
Recently Gobindapur villagers who have refused to give
away their land to POSCO have formed a three-tier human
barricade at the entry point. On 2 February 2013 the police
attacked a human barricade composed of over 350 women.
The indiscriminate use of force, which allegedly included
lathi attacks on women and children, injured over 50 people.
On 6 February, the district administration of Odisha was
Epilogue255

forced to halt the operation at around noon when hundreds


of women and children formed a human barricade and told
the police: ‘Kill us first before you proceed further’.4 But there
is no woman in the leadership positions, neither in POSCO
Pratirodh Sangram Samiti nor in Bhitamati Suraksha Manch
nor in United Action Committee.
Although it has been emphasized time and again that
villagers should be consulted on decisions concerning rural
development, women are generally not consulted at all,
or else their viewpoint is not accorded the importance it
deserves. Thus, there is little understanding of the priorities
and problems concerning half of the country’s population.
Women themselves were not really bothered being deprived
of leadership. Needless to say any organization is the mirror
of the society and its norms. We still have not granted power
to the women to take decisions either in the family or in the
society, how will the organizations do that?
It is noteworthy that the Lalgarh movement for the first
time gave equal participation to the adivasi women with
their male counterparts in the movement as well as in the
organization. But even there they were visibly absent in the
leadership positions. They formed a separate organization
for the women called Nari Ijjat Bachao Committee. It is also
unfortunate that most of the feminist and women organi-
zations maintain a safe distance with the adivasi organiza-
tions like say the Krantikari Adivasi Mahila Sangathan of the
Dandakaranya forest (with 90,000 members).
Therefore, the tribal scene today is very disquieting.
The need for change was never greater than today. Positive
policy by itself is not enough, although it forms the basis
of what is to be done. In spite of positive policy and allo-
cation of considerable funds, not much has been achieved
during the last seventy years of independence. In the Twenty-
Ninth Report (1987–1989 and submitted on 28 May 1990),
the Commissioner, B.D. Sharma, finds it futile to make any
fresh recommendations and said, ‘What recommendations
can be made when the foundation of the system itself is
256 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

faulty? The law and system itself are against the spirit of the
constitution and basic tenets of natural justice; moreover the
right to life of ordinary people is being violated at every step.
The whole report itself is one substantial recommendation.’5
He has further stated that, ‘In a hurry for development we
have accepted the questionable premise of “development
first” and given social equity secondary position. In this
approach an important fact of the global system was over-
looked that the “dustbin” of the third world was a necessary
concomitant of the process of development in the first and
second worlds. In the same continuation the third world now
requires the “dustbin” of a fourth world.’6 Tribals constitute
this ­dustbin—victims of the mindless process of develop-
ment: dispossessed, displaced and raped.
Let us strike one example of the attempt to short sell
India’s natural resources to the corporations with attendant
kickbacks for our political leaders. ‘I am forced to conclude
that there is no valid gram sabha resolution under Section 6
(1) of the Forest Rights Act,’ said the union minister of state
for environment and forest, Jairam Ramesh, while granting
final forest clearance to POSCO, `54,000 crore, 12 million ton
integrated steel plant near Paradip in Odisha, barely three
months after putting 60 conditions pertaining to pollution
control and the captive port in the vicinity of the plant. The
gram sabhas of Dhinkia and Gobindapur passed a resolu-
tion that the Odisha government had failed to implement
the Forest Rights Act, which promises tribals and other forest
dwellers legal land rights. The enquiry committee appointed
by the ministry had described the project as an ‘environmen-
tal disaster in the making and the Indian Council for Social
Development in its summary report on the implementation
of the Forest Rights Act has said: ‘All the key features of
this legislation have been undermined by a combination of
apathy and sabotage during the process of implementation.
Unless immediate remedial measures are taken, instead of
undoing the historical injustice to tribal and other traditional
forest dwellers, the Act will have the opposite outcome of
Epilogue257

making them even more vulnerable to eviction and denial


of their customary access to forest.’ Among 1,620 hectares of
land spread over eight villages in Jagatsinghpur district, 1,253
hectares is forest land. The Odisha government suppressed
the fact that the area was home to about 4,000 tribal families
comprising more than 20,000 members.7 Instead of certificates
from gram sabhas, as required under the Forest Rights Act,
certificates from the District Magistrate were relied on while
granting clearance. Instead of treating this massive project
as a whole, it was broken up into smaller units for purposes
of granting clearance. It means that POSCO’s gain is a loss
to the nation.
‘Deprivation’, as would be clear from the above analy-
sis, seems to be the key word: deprivation of land, forest
resources, water, real freedom, education and of oppor-
tunities for participation in the developmental processes.
Coupled with this is the feeling of disregard for their ethnic
identities, which more than ever before is causing great dis-
tress as also a feeling of being let down. The question of
statehood or autonomy is not related merely to the notion
of ethnic identity but it also reflects the hope and conviction
that once the tribals become partners in planning and are
entrusted with the job of implementation, other problems
will be automatically sorted out.
Adivasis, whether they are in different parts of India or
in other lands, are faced with the common crisis of being
denied their basic rights to livelihood, to traditional life-
styles and to an identity that is quite different from that of
the ‘outsider’. Everywhere they are displaced and marginal-
ized; and everywhere they defy the arson and anarchy that
governments unleash on them. Everyone save the adivasi
seems to have prospered in greater or lesser degree in what
was originally adivasi country. The worst insult which a self-­
respecting tribal has to swallow today in the name and game
of development is the epitaph ‘poor’ given to him/her by the
arrogant elite. It is being done on purpose so that they can
project themselves as the well-wishers of the tribals and the
258 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

born rebel is tamed by the subterfuges whose significance


he/she can hardly realize. The bitter truth is that the tribal
is not poor but disinherited.8 Who knows better than the
interlopers how they have robbed the adivasis of their land,
forests and rivers, metals, minerals, languages and lifestyle,
customs and ceremonies, gods and ancestors, their creativity
and confidence, their pride and sense of self or of self-worth,
and their deep-rooted communion with Nature, all in the
name of introducing them to the democratic mainstream and
the rule of law.
And when they challenge the authority of the mainstream,
the mainstream expels them by calling it a ‘threat’. Tribals have
taken up arms to fight against poverty and disparity. We have
nurtured such a heartless social system for these communities
where death is more desirable than living. According to the
statistics given by the National Commission for Enterprises
in the Unorganized Sector, in our country 77 per cent people
earn less than `20 daily and 5 per cent people live in inde-
scribable prosperity. According to the statistics of National
Nutrition Monitoring Bureau, 33 per cent people suffer from
famine and starvation and languish in endemic malnourish-
ment and thereby deadly diseases; 50 per cent members of
SC and 60 per cent members of ST communities belong to
this famine affected areas. Besides, in a draft report published
by the Rural Development Ministry of the Government of
India, it is said that 77 per cent dalits and 90 per cent adivasis
are landless.9 With the Forest Conservation Act of 1980 the
adivasis lost their lands and rights over the forest and forest
resources. Moreover, the tribals live in the mineral rich areas
which are presently the target of the MNCs and are waiting
for the mass eviction in the near future. How can there be
two Indias—one hit by starvation and the other enjoying an
excess of luxuries? A ‘poverty line’ that is based on calories
can at best be called a ‘hunger line’.10
The districts of Kalahandi and Rayagada in Odisha, where
the mining company of Vedanta would have been situated,
are very poor and this has been used to suggest why industry
Epilogue259

should be encouraged. Some of the arguments used by


Vedanta’s lawyers in the Supreme Court seemed completely
spurious: that people were desperately trying to feed them-
selves and mining would help to alleviate this situation.11
Most of the people in the area are hardworking farmers or
food gatherers who value their land more than anything else.
Many would not swap their land for any amount of money.
‘We cannot eat money’ as one Dongria Kondh woman said in
a documentary film named Cowboys in India made by Simon
Chambers.12
In the village Sindhekela of Bolangir district, Odisha, the
very life-support system of the Kondhs, the forest, has van-
ished. The ownership of vast stretches of farmland all around
is now with non-adivasis. In the K­ alahandi-Bolangir-Koraput
region in Odisha, the influx of non-adivasis started in the
early nineteenth century. It is small wonder that, in the second
half of that century, the region was hit by famine for the first
time in history, which became a routine feature thereafter.
Post-independence, the biggest casualty was that the dark
and dense jungle was relegated to mere images, intrigu-
ing though, in folklore. Today, the Kondhs walk for more
than three days (about 75 km) to Chhattardandi to collect
a specific type of bamboo stick essential for the annual rit-
uals. The Ganher trees, too, are few and far between. Their
branches are used by people to make delicious cakes, one of
the 16 items offered to the Goddess. Sindhekela points to the
political economy of cultural appropriation in India as a tool
for not only resource-grabbing but also internal economic
colonialism.13
Economic colonialism was not possible, despite the blood,
without cultural colonization. This was done broadly in two
ways: by adopting the existing cultural practices of adivasis
and gradually taking control of them; or by imposing one’s
own cultural and religious tenets by means of using royal
power or by intimidating them with the divine ‘superiority’
of a new God, such as the spread of the Jagannath cult in
which thousands of temples came up in remote, forested
260 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

hinterlands, sucking them into an alien temple system. This


has been the single-most lethal process of cultural coloniza-
tion in Odisha.14 Cultural appropriation led to a change of
hands in controlling local resources around the new power
centres—always in agreement with the dominant political
order of the day—which resulted in sudden dispossession
and perpetual deprivation of the adivasis. It is a travesty
of history that the adivasis are the ones who today lend
the region the dark identity of being hunger-ridden and
backward.
Did tribal societies exist in a state of gendered equality
and equity? By analysing the existing situation in several
tribal districts of four states, it was possible to challenge
this assumption. It has to be recognized that the women
belonged to different tribes, spread across four large states
in different parts of the country. These states are at different
stages of economic and agricultural development. For exam-
ple, Sundergarh district is more developed than Koraput in
Odisha. Studies however indicated that in spite of these
overall variations the tribal villages are transitional societies
moving out from the primitive stage.
The favourable position of the women in a tribal com-
munity should not induce complacency. First, although the
sex ratio is favourable, it is declining. The number of tribal
women taking up employment is rising sharply which shows
the extent of their pauperization and marginalization. There
is resistance to the recognition of their right to land and plac-
ing their right to maintenance on the statute book. Female
literacy is still low except in a few pockets. In some areas
like mining and other occupations they have been replaced
by men. The minimum wages for tribal men and women
are not uniform. Adivasi women have been exposed most
ruthlessly to the operations of market and other commer-
cial forces and of unscrupulous elements that have flocked
into the tribal areas for the exploitation of mines and estab-
lishment of industries.15 The struggle for women’s property
rights and their ownership of land has been a subject of policy
Epilogue261

debate over the course of the twentieth century; and these


rights have still not been achieved in our country. Women
have lower levels of access to education and medical services
and these differences are related to the differential control of
household assets. Lack of control over assets also results in
women’s lower wages, and cripples their economic agency
and decision-making power over assets.16
According to adivasi women in a national conference of
adivasis at Ranchi, Jharkhand in February 2007, women’s
declining social stature within society and growing vulner-
ability over the past 60 years, can be attributed to the follow-
ing: (i) increasing erosion in women’s use and control rights
to land and housing; (ii) lack of access to new technologies
and agricultural extension services; (iii) human insecurity
and displacement; (iv) lack of participation in decision-­
making processes on use of community resources (forests,
pastures, water); and (v) inadequate knowledge and control
over marketing. These are aggravated by lack of attention to
such issues in development and the lack of basic amenities
(education and health-care facilities) provided by the govern-
ment, infrastructure, including communication information
technologies, in women’s communities and personal lives.17
Adivasi women negotiate patriarchy in everyday lives.
One such area has been the struggle for land rights. In 2013
Krishi Ratna Award had been given to one farmer from each
block of West Bengal. A total of 341 farmers were given the
award among which only two are women—Chhandarani
Karan (52) of Kolaghat and Fulmani Hansda (27) of Lalgarh.
Fulmani expressed her concern over the issue of women’s
land rights, ‘Women give the most back breaking labour to
agriculture, though they are mainly unskilled jobs. They are
deprived of modern technology like tractor or power tiller
which are under men’s control. So, women earn less than men.
Women have no land in their names and without land how
will they become farmer? Nobody knows how many women
get kisan credit cards or membership in Krishi Samabai?’18
On 25 April 2013 Reserve Bank Employees’ Union organized
262 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

a conference in Kolkata where Munni Hembram (40) from


Dumka district of Jharkhand reiterated the problem of lack
of land rights which is key to their autonomy.19 Kanaklata
Murmu (40) has emerged as a community leader by dis-
playing the gumption to stand up for women’s rights in the
remote village of Kumari in Manbazar II block of Purulia
district. Kanaklata joined a local organization called Purulia
Zilla Banchita Jana Jagaran Adhikar Samity supported by
Action Aid. She has set up a parallel justice delivery structure
in her village to take decisions on disputes usually under
the consideration of the male elders. She has been able to
get drinking water, ensuring pensions for several widows
and helped people access jobs under NREGS in her village.20
An empirical understanding of the tribal women in east-
ern India places them as unimportant cogs in the wheel of the
state. In the process of modernization and development she
loses whatever space she may have created for herself. Her
marginalization is complete when neither society nor state
considers her important to their existence. Poverty, depri-
vation and now the reduction of government expenditure
on basic medical health facilities are reflected in the abso-
lutely poor health condition of adivasi women and children.
Maternal mortality was reported to be high among various
tribal groups but no exact data are available. The main causes
of maternal mortality were found to be unhygienic and prim-
itive practices for parturition. The crude death rates are also
very high. These adverse health indicators are largely due to
inadequate access to the nutritious foods and lack of access
to health care services. The lack of food supply through the
TPDS is compounded by the fact that adivasis have no rights
in forests that used to provide them with a variety of food.
The solution of providing food for work (EGS) or free food
would only take care of the immediate needs of the adivasis,
but will not provide a long-term solution.21
According to the Asian Centre for Human Rights
(ACHR),22 despite constitutional provisions in the Fifth and
Sixth Schedules that recognize tribal ownership rights over
Epilogue263

land and forests in Scheduled/Protected Areas, ‘contradic-


tory legal provisions and failure to implement or translate
Constitutional Provisions into reality’ undermine these rights
of adivasis. Under the Forest Conservation Act (1980), the
Wild Life Protection Act (1972), and the Land Acquisition
Act (1994), ‘The government has the sovereign right to evict
people for undefined public interest or ‘larger interest’ but the
affected people do not have the right to question the decision
of the government on the forced evictions’.23 In fact, until just
recently, the Land Acquisition Act, which has been instru-
mental in evicting tribal peoples for more than a century,
has had no provisions for resettlement and rehabilitation,
not to mention right to free, prior, and informed consent (the
Right to Information is a recent legal innovation in India).
The New Economic Policy (NEP) of 1991 (neoliberal policy
prescriptions to marketize, privatize and open up the Indian
economy to foreign direct ownership/investment) has exac-
erbated the process of adivasi land alienation.
One can notice a clear case of wide variation in the formal
frame of tribal rights over resources with extreme positions.
For example, the traditional frame of ‘community ownership
and individual use’ is continuing in khutkati (collective rights)
areas in Jharkhand and extensive shifting cultivation areas in
Odisha. Several tribal communities, particularly those that
are relatively educationally advanced, have launched move-
ments to conserve their ethno-cultural values and refurbish
their ethno-cultural identity. In other words, this is a solidar-
ity movement. Some of the tribal communities, for instance,
the Santhal in Odisha, and several in the northeastern states
of India equate their ethno-cultural identity with some kind
of ethno-cultural sub-nationalism. The identity of self-image
centres on their age-old hegemony over the natural resources
in their habitat. Now there is increasing state control over
these resources; and moreover, non-tribals have grabbed their
resources in a large measure. Material deprivation led the
leaders to form an ethno-cultural organization to promote
ethnic solidarity and fight for the mitigation of their material
264 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

deprivation. Thus ‘identity mobilization’ is an adaptive strat-


egy for gaining access to strategic resources and power.
The tribal and the scheduled castes and the Other
Backward Classes constitute more than two-thirds of Indian
society. Relentless coercion and ignorance have reduced them
to a beastly plight. If poverty is the linchpin of India’s prob-
lems, it should be forthwith apprehended by the right distri-
bution of Gross Domestic Product. If ignorance is ingrained
in the Indian masses, it must be quickly driven away by the
spread of education so that neither poverty nor ignorance
can farther pass from generation to generation. If the segrega-
tion of women among indigent Indians is an insurmountable
hurdle, it must be annihilated expeditiously. If disease in
rural areas remains unchecked because of casual and insin-
cere health services, serious steps must be taken against those
responsible.
It is true that women were hardly positioned as equals
in traditional adivasi societies. However, earlier they had
formed an important cog in the traditional gender division
of labour inside as well as outside the household. Under the
impact of the colonial-capitalist regime, they were pushed
to the margins of resultant political economies. In this book
I have tried to investigate the invisible everyday forms of
resistance and how adivasi women are related to the ques-
tion of women’s agency. Because accounts are largely by the
intelligentsia using written records that were also created
largely by literate officials, histories and social sciences are
not always adequately equipped to uncover the silences and
anonymous forms of struggle that typify the oppressed.

NOTES
1 Soni Sori, an adivasi schoolteacher from Bastar, was arrested and
tortured in Dantewada police custody since she tried to stop local
government corruption. She was stripped off, given electric shocks
and stones were pushed up her vagina to get her to ‘confess’ that she
was a Maoist courier. The stones were removed from her body at a
Epilogue265

hospital in Calcutta, where, after a public outcry, she was sent for a
medical check-up. At a recent Supreme Court hearing, activists pre-
sented the judges with the stones in a plastic bag. The only outcome of
their efforts has been that Soni Sori remains in jail while Ankit Garg,
the Superintendent of Police, who was named by her of ordering and
supervising her torture and sexual violence against her, was conferred
with the President’s Police Medal for Gallantry on Republic Day.
2 Chandra Talpade Mohanty, 1991. ‘Under Western Eyes: Feminist
Scholarship and Colonial Discourses’, in Third World Women and the
Politics of Feminism, edited by Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Ann Russo
and Lourdes Torres (Bloomington, In: Indiana University Press): 51.
3 Ananda Bazar Patrika, 24 August 2010.
4 See Sanhati: Fighting for Neo-Liberalism at http://sanhati.com/
articles/3634/downloaded on 20 February 2013.
5 Verrier, Tribal World of Verrier Elwin: An Autobiography: xxiv.
6 Ibid.: iii.
7 The Statesman, 7 May 2011.
8 B.D. Sharma, 2010. Unbroken History of Broken Promises: Indian State
and the Tribal People (New Delhi: Sahyog Pustak Kuteer): 98–99.
9 Ananda Bazar Patrika, 11 August 2010.
10 Very few people know about the incidents of starvation deaths in
the tribal areas of western India. In the wilderness of Baran district
in Rajasthan the Sahariyas, a primitive tribal group are often in the
news for starvation deaths. The Sahariya women collect forest pro-
duce and work as agricultural labourers. They live in abject poverty
and are debt-ridden and suffer malnutrition. See Syeda Hameed and
Gunjan Veda, 2012. Beautiful Country—Stories From Another India (New
Delhi: Harper Collins); Tejinder, 2004. Dairy—Saga Saga (New Delhi:
Rajkamal Prakashan): 12, for the starvation deaths of Kashipur. see
66–67.
11 The Statesman, 10 October 2010.
12 Cowboys in India, a film by Simon Chambers, was shown on NDTV,
10 October 2010 at 1 pm.
13 The Statesman, 16 January 2011.
14 Subrat Kumar Sahu and Mamata Dash, 2011. ‘Expropriation of Land
and Cultures: The Orissa Story and Beyond’, Social Change 41, 2:
251–70.
15 Mukhopadhyay, Tribal Women in Development: 7.
16 Govind Kelkar, 2014. ‘The Fog of Entitlement Women’s Inheritance
and Land Rights’, EPW 49, 33 (August 16): 51–58.
17 Kelkar, Adivasi Women Engaging with Climate Change: 12.
18 Ananda Bazar Patrika, 23 April 2013.
19 Ananda Bazar Patrika, 13 June 2013.
266 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

20 The Statesman, 9 February 2014.


21 Anonymous, 2006. ‘Adivasi Women: Situation and Struggles’, People’s
March 7, 7 (Aug–Sept–Oct).
22 Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR), 2005. ‘Promising Picture
or Broken Future? Commentary and Recommendations on the Draft
National Policy on Tribals of the Government of India’, available at
http://www.achrweb.org: 4–5. Accessed 17 December 2017.
23 Ibid.: 9.
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Index

adivasi, xx, xxvii, xxviii, xxxii, bride price, xxv, 165, 170, 176,
xxxvii, 4, 51, 201. See also 184, 209
government policies; consciousness, xxxiv, 174
land; women contraception, 212. See also
adivasi children. See education; sexuality
health empowerment, xxix, 193–94
democracy, xii, 12, 242 female economy, 28, 30, 90
as indigenous, xix, xlii, 16, as ‘fourth world’, 31, 250, 254
37–38, 96, 130, 135, 141, health, 221–23, 260. See also
259–51 health
marginalization, xxxix, 22, 31, livelihoods, 34, 38, 72, 120. See
159, 163, 201–203, 251, also agriculture; Forest
255, 258, 260 Rights Act 2006
vs tribal, xix, 22 Mahasweta Devi, 72, 74, 214,
violence against, 156. See also 238–40
violence K.S. Singh, iii, 9, 19, 72
adivasi occupations agency, of subaltern, xxiii, xli, 34,
animal husbandry, xvii, 52, 166, 220, 242, 262
173, 182 agriculture, xviii, 30, 50, 90, 114,
grazing, xvii-xviii, 57, 116 162, 166, 114, 177. See also
handicrafts, 50, 52, 55, 178 land
horticulture, 164, 174, 178 constraints, 164–65
household industry, 91, 94, 182 harvesting, 53, 54, 71, 92–93,
hunting and gathering, 11, 99, 119, 137, 164, 183
72–73, 149 middlemen, 59, 102, 59, 136,
livestock, 36, 145, 164 234–35
pastoralists, 12, 50, 171 patta, 34, 55, 77, 79,
nomadic, 72, 146–47, 184, 215 143, 192
silviculture, 115, 117 sharecropper, 53–54, 71, 136
adivasi women tea plantation, 52, 56, 58, 185,
autonomy, xviii, xxiv, 1–2, 28, 208, 220
35, 114, 202, 231. See also as settled, 2, 12, 30, 113, 162,
patriarchy 173, 182
Index287

slash and burn agriculture colonialism, xx, xxx, 13–14,


slash and burn, xviii, 2, 40–41, 128, 257. See also
23, 30, 50, 52, industrialization
80, 96, 148–50, committee reports, 9, 12, 132, 158,
162–69, 171–75, 179, 223
182–87, 261 corporations, xvii, 101, 160. See
Kondh, 175, 178 also displacement, xvii
Koras, 54–55 Balimela Hydro Electric Project,
Koya, 171–73 169
Santhals, 53–54 Bharat Aluminium Company
women labour, 73, 90–93, 113, (BALCO), 33, 186
117, 186, 251 Gandharman Iron Ore, 185, 186
anthropology, xiii, xxii, xxvi, 7, 12, Koel Karo Hydro Electric
13, 78, 207 Power Project, xli
National Aluminium Company
Bengali literature, xiv, xxiii, xxxvi, Ltd. (NALCO), 34–35, 38,
235–36, 39, 262. See also 160–62, 182
class POSCO, xli, 20, 191, 195, 252–55
Bengali cinema, 240–42 SEZ, 252
British rule, consequences, 5, Tata Iron and Steel Company
8, 38, 121, 158. See also (TISCO), xv, 121, 131,
legislations 194–95
Upper Indravati Power Project,
capitalism, xvii, 4, 6, 8, 9, 17, 40, 35, 38, 160
44, 239, 250 Upper Kolab Project, 30, 38,
caste, xxiii, xxv, xxxiii, xxxiv, 7, 160, 182
10–11, 15, 128, 236 Utkal Alumina International
dalits, 56, 88, 159, 196, 230, 236, Limited (UAIL), 35,
256. See also scheduled 189–90
castes Vedanta, xv, xli, 191, 204,
dominant caste, xxxiii, xl, 13, 256–57
30, 232 culture
G.S. Ghurye, 5, 7 assimilation, xxxiii, xxxiv, 73,
D.D. Kosambi, 6–7 128, 131, 231, 257
Kshatriya, 15, 53 genocide, xxxiii, xxxiv, xxxv,
OBCs, 89, 223 xxxvii, 201
Census, 1991, 2001, 181 of silence, 202, 205–06, 243
missing tribes, 88, 203–04, 235 tribal, xxii, xxxii, xxxvii, xxxviii,
1941, 16 5, 10, 29, 173, 177, 202
Christianity, 9, 98, 127–28, 219. See
also witch hunt Dandakaranya, 169, 171, 173,
Christian missionaries, xxiii, 3, 9, 187–88, 192–93
218 deforestation, xv, 29, 30, 67, 73,
class, xii, xxiii–xxxvi, xxxix, 24, 50, 75, 119, 136, 147, 175, 185,
96, 214, 237–38, 242, 262 216, 228
288 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

denotified tribes, 74–78. See also ecological crisis, xxxi, 5–6, 21,
tribes 40, 129, 151. See also
development, programmes, xvii, ­corporations; government
xxviii, 21, 29, 31, 36, 49, policies
132, 157, 226, 228 Verrier Elwin, 4–5, 8–9, 27
GAD, 28, 114
rural, 32, 193 festivals, xxxviii, 64, 107
WED, 114, 115–18. See also forest, 78. See also land
ecofeminism management, xxxiv, 115–18
diku, xxiv, 133–34 resource, 68, 73, 80, 115, 118,
displacement, 32, 36–37, 40, 63, 186, 255–56
129, 160. See also protest wildlife, 32, 72, 119
Arundhati Roy, xxviii, xxx, 201 Forest Rights Act, 2006, 80–81, 89,
coal mining, 69–70, 121, 131 204, 254
dams and, 38–39, 134, 135, 160,
169, 191 Gandhi/Gandhian, xxxix, 5,
development and, 31, 125, 196 74–75
eviction, 250, 255–56, 261 gender, xii, xiii, xvi, 17, 22, 31, 125,
Felix, Padel, xix, xxxvii, 38 145
M. Areeparampil, 130 globalization, xvi–xvii, xxv, 5–6,
Walter Fernandes, 29–30, 189, 19, 32, 156
dormitory/dhumkuria/ghotul. See liberalization, 19, 50–51, 189
sexuality monetization, 50, 216
government policies/
ecofeminism, 21–22, 114–15, 117, organizations
150, 251 Annapurna Yojana, 62, 177
Vandana Shiva, xxxi, 115, 117 Antyodaya Anna Yojana,
economy 229–30
forest, xvii, 29, 47, 49, 115, 124, Backward Regions Grant Fund
150, 198, 222 Programme, 119
global market, xv, xxxi, 94 Below Poverty Level (BPL), 55,
market economy, xxxi, 50, 94, 58, 62, 65, 79, 81–82, 177,
96, 203, 227 184
weekly market/haat, 52, 75, Bokaro Steel Plant, 122, 132
105, 167, 171, 173 Bonda Development Agency
education, xxv, 210, 226, 232. See (BDA), 168, 174
also government policies Common Property Resources
adult education, 52, 54, 68, 182 (CPRs), 29, 34, 162
of daughters, 23, 107–10, 228 Dandakaranya Development
hostels, absence, 89 Authority (DDA), 187–88,
illiteracy, 99–100, 202 199
employment, xxv, xxxvii, 6, 30, 35, Demarcated Protected Forest/
50, 127, 165, 221, 233 Reserve Forests, 186
Index289

Didayi Development Agency Paschimanchal Development


(DDA), 169 Board, 23
District Rural Development Planning Commission, 32, 234
Agency, 145, 170 Prime Minister’s Rozgar
Dongria Kondh Development Yojana, 50
Agency (DKDA), 177 Primitive Tribal Groups (PTGs),
Five-Year Plans, 32, 153 11, 77, 79, 140, 146, 148–49,
Forest Protection Committees 169–70, 174, 179, 204
(FPC), 68, 78, 118, 151 Public Distribution System
Integrated Child Development (PDS), 62, 184, 229–30
Services (ICDS), 89, 225, Rajiv Gandhi Grameen
229 Vidyutikaran Yojana, 75,
Integrated Rural Development 179
Programme (IRDP), 50, Resettlement and Rehabilitation
145 (R&R), xxix, 32, 40, 261
Jawahar Rozgar Yojana (JRY), Rourkela Steel Plant, 38, 160
50, 145, 166 Uranium Corporation of India
Joint Forest Management (JFM), Ltd. (UCIL), 134
68, 78–79, 117–18, 188
Juang Development Agency health, 23, 26, 137, 139, 217,
(JDA), 186 221–25, 240, 260
Large-size Adivasi centres, 24–25, 81, 89, 175, 206,
Multipurpose 219, 225, 229
Co-operative Societies Hinduism, 8–9, 107, 177, 184
(LAMPS), 51, 67, 73, 220 Hinduization/Sanksritization,
Mahila Samriddhi Yojana, 50 xxiii, 7, 9, 128, 142, 173,
Mid-Day Meal, 24, 74, 81, 179, 183, 202
224–25, 229 Hindutva, 20
Memorandum of hunger, xxx, xxxi, 73, 86, 89, 175,
Understandings (MoUs), 202, 216, 256, 258
xxxiv, 142. See also Right to Food, 229
corporations starvation, 22–25, 59, 177, 190,
NABARD, 61 222, 226
National Family Health Survey
(NFHS), 23, 158, 221. See identity, adivasi, xxviii, 4, 14–16,
also health 25, 29, 141, 146, 169, 242,
National Human Rights 255, 261
Commission, 65 industrialization, 128, 204, 233. See
National Mineral Policy, xvii also corporation; govern-
National Rural Employment ment policy
Guarantee Scheme CNTA Act, 132–33
(NREGS), 58, 62, 183 Jharkhand, 120–21, 123–24
Panchayati Raj, xl, 170, 223 labour, 69, 136, 156
290 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

industrialization (cont.) Denotified and Nomadic Tribes


land alienation 182. See also Act, 72
land Fifth Scheduled Areas, 9
rejas, 97–106, 132, 204, 233 Forest Rights Act, 2006 (FRA),
75, 80–81, 89, 133, 158,
labour, xxxvi, 29, 56, 71, 02, 103, 172, 204, 254–55
123 Forest Conservation Act, 256,
child, 82, 110, 185 261
division of, 27, 97–98, 117, 151, Forest Preservation Act, 76
227, 251, 262 Habitual Offender’s Act, 72
Dev Nathan, 24, 37, 96, 115, 117 Inter-State Migrant (Regulation
rejas. See industrialization of Employment and
land, 151 Conditions of Service)
alienation, 125, 131, 134, Act, 1979, 126
140, 142, 158, 159, 182, Land Acquisition (Mines) Act,
233, 261 1885, 133
Bina Agrawal, xv, 114 Minimum Wage Act, 1948, 54,
inheritance, 140–42, 186 65, 100
Madhu Kishwar, 138 Panchayats (Extension to the
Nitya Rao, 141 Scheduled Areas) Act, 35,
ownership, 113, 139, 143–44, 133, 158
203 Prevention of Terrorism Act,
usufructory right, 113, 138–39, 2002 (POTA), 21
216 Right to Fair Compensation
language, xxiv, 230–32 and Transparency in
Oriya, 168, 177, 180, 184 Land Acquisition,
scripts, xxxiv, 174, 231, 234 Rehabilitation and
legislations Resettlement Act, (LARR),
Armed Forces Special Powers 2013, 133
Act (AFSPA), xxvii Right to Information Act (RTI),
Bidi and Cigarette Act, 1966, 136
100 Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act,
Chotanagpur Tenancy Act 1949 (SPTA), 132
(CNTA), 1908, 132, 144 Special Economic Zones, xvii,
Coal Bearing Areas Acquisition 252
and Development (CBA) Terrorist and Disruptive
Act 1957, 133 Activities (Prevention)
Contract Labour (Regulation Act (TADA), 21
and Abolition) Act, 1970,
100 Maoist, xxx, 65, 119, 172, 191–92,
Criminal Tribes Act, 72, 77 196
Damodar Valley Corporation Salwa Judum, xviii, 21, 191
(DVC) Act, 1948, 133 Sendra, 21
Index291

matriarchy/matriliny xv, 26–27, 46, Non-Timber Forest Products


51, 79–80, 179 (NTFPs), 23, 79–80, 82, 95,
migration, 37, 39, 77, 126–28, 165, 116, 175
233. See also displacement minor forest produce (MFP),
movements, unrest, xx xxix, xxx, vii, 41, 52, 55, 72–74, 80,
18, 20, 124, 159, 199, 240 136, 145, 150, 251
babui grass, 68, 74, 77
Non-Governmental Organizations fire wood/fuel wood, 61,
(NGOs), 76, 120, 220, 234 79–80, 93, 147
Action for Welfare and kendu, 73, 76
Awakening of Rural mahua, 5, 64, 68, 73, 117, 137,
Environment (AWARE), 147, 149–50, 211
192 sal, 55, 64, 67, 73–74, 76,
Adivasi Women’s Organization, 116–17, 119–20, 137, 150,
192 173, 185, 189
Amlasole Birsa Munda Village tendu leaves, 67, 120
Development Committee,
24 Panchayati Raj, xl, 169–70, 181, 223
Birbhum Adivasi Gaonta gram panchayats, 64, 74–75, 82,
(BAG), 64, 66 178–79, 183, 190, 228
Centre for Science and gram sabha, xl, 35, 80, 118, 140,
Environment, 129–30 204, 254–55
Centre for Women’s sarpanch, ix, xl, 169
Development Studies, 67 patriarchy, xiv, xvi–xvii, xli, 150,
Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha 202, 214, 219, 250, 259
(CMAS), 159, 196 patrilineal/patrilocal, 2, 80, 93,
Grameen Mahila Shramik 113, 137, 139–40, 148, 163,
Unnayan Samiti, 67 170–71, 174
Mahila Mandali, 193–94 polyandry, 239
Mahila Samitis, 67, 69, 181 polygyny, 15, 124, 171
Malkangiri Adivasi Sangha primitive tribal groups (PTGs), 11,
(MAS), 159 74, 77, 79, 140, 146, 149,
Nari Bikash Sangha, 67–69 170–74, 179, 204, 227, 263
Nari Ijjat Bachao Committee, prostitution, 30, 36, 96 108, 128,
5, 253 133, 185. See also sexuality
Manjhi Pargana Baisi, 64
Self-Help Groups (SHGs), 119, rituals
140, 170, 179, 181 animal sacrifice, 184
Society for Participatory Action human sacrifice, 176
and Reflection (SPAR), jani shikar, 116
140 tattoo, 178
Tribal Cooperative Marketing
Development Federation scheduled castes, 15, 203, 262
of India (TRIFED), 89–90 Dhangar, xxxii
292 A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India

scheduled castes (cont.) tribes. See also agriculture;


Dombo, 11 ­displacement; land
Mahato, 74, 77 Baiga, 27, 31, 90, 149–50, 211
Namasudra, 53 Bhil, xv, xxxiii, 3, 131, 207
Paniya, 3 Bhumij, 16, 51, 91
Rajbansis, 15, 53 Bhutia, xv, 33, 51–52
Sadan/Sadani, 232 Bhuyan, 184–85, 204
scheduled tribes (ST). See adivasis; Birhor, xviii, xxiv, 51, 72, 89, 91,
tribes 109, 146–48, 211, 215
sexuality, 207–208. See also Bodo, 3, 179, 227, 231
prostitution Bonda, 11, 163, 166–68, 172–74,
dormitory, xv, xxiv, 127–28, 167, 187
174, 177, 209–210 Didayi, 11, 169–72, 187
marriage, 170, 181 Dongria Kondh, xv, 174–78,
with outsiders, xxi 187, 201, 209, 257
subaltern, xvi, xviii, xxxv, 10, 18, Gadaba, 11, 163, 173, 179,
25, 205, 214, 240, 242 181–84, 203
Gond, xxxi, 3, 19, 27, 88, 91, 163,
trafficking, xxxvi, 19, 59–60, 203
233, 235. See also Gorkha, 15, 226–27
industrialization Ho, xxiv, xxvi, 91, 123, 136–40,
agents, 59, 97, 101–02, 150, 143
234–35 Jhoria, 11, 190
arkattis/arkatia, xxxvi, 102 Juang, 184–86
sardar/sardarni, 101–03, 108–09 Kharia, 27, 56, 73–74, 91, 136,
brick kilns xxxvi, 66, 97–110, 156, 204, 218, 231–32
124, 126–27, 136, 212 Kol, 19, 237–38
tribal revolts, xli Kora, 54–55, 91
Bastar, 19 Koya, 18, 171
Chipko, xv, 22, 33 Lepcha, 51
Gond and Kolam, 19 Lodha, 52, 72, 76–79
Gorkhaland, 15 Lohra, 97, 106
Jharkhand, 69 Munda, 81–82, 132, 136, 140,
Koya, 18 156, 215, 225–26, 232
Lalgarh, 25, 253 Naga, 19, 27
Maoist, 119, 200 Oraon, 53, 106, 115–18, 126, 132,
Munda Ulghulan, xxix 136, 140, 205, 215, 225
Narmada Banchao Andolan, xv Pahari/Paharia, xxxvii, 3, 91,
Sardar Sarovar Dam, xvii 148, 195
Naxalites, 239 Paraja, 11, 163, 173, 179, 182,
Rampa rebellion, 18 203
Santhal Hul, xxix, xxxi, 18–19 Parenga, 11, 203
Sardari, 18 Rabha, 51, 79–81
Tebhaga, 20, 53 Sabar, xxxii, 24–25, 72, 74–79,
Telangana, 20 226
Index293

Santhal, 118, 120–24, 208–09, World Bank, 40, 165


215, 219, 225, 230–32, writers on tribes
236–37, 241–42, 261 Arjun Appadurai, 24
Saora, xxxii, 3, 157, 163, 176, Crispin Bates, xix, 8, 14
180–81, 185–87, 204 Simone de Beauvoir, xvi, 97
Totos, 16, 52, 204, 226–28 André Béteille, 8
Partha Chatterjee, 12
violence, 22, 202 Soma Chaudhuri, 214
alcoholism, 93, 165, 215 Susan Devalle, 13
Chuni Kotal, 77–78 Verier Elwin, 4–5, 8–9
domestic, xi, 93, 165 C. von Fürer-Haimendorf, 27
sexual, 19, 95. See also sexuality W.V. Grigson, 27
state, xxviii–xxx, 33. See also cor- Ranajit Guha, 19
porations; displacement G.S. Ghurye, 5, 7
David Hardiman, 16
witch hunt, 113, 206 J.H. Hutton, 27
ojhas, 107, 206, 215, 217–18, Govind Kelkar, 115
220–21 D.D. Kosambi, 6, 11
Poonam Toppo, 221 Gail Omvedt, 16
property, 216 Jagannath Pathy, 13
sacred grove, 183, 218 Archana Prasad, 6
shamanins, 176 Baidyanath Saraswati, 8
Vijay Tendulkar, 213–14 Mihir Shah, 12
women targets, 214–19 L.P. Vidyarthi, 50
witches, 215–17, 220–21. See also Myron Weiner, xix
Christianity
About the Author

Debasree De is Assistant Professor, Department of History,


Maharaja Srischandra College, University of Calcutta. She
has a PhD in history from Jadavpur University. She has many
contributions in journals and in edited books. Her special
interests are Tribal Studies, Gender Studies, Environmental
History, Ancient Indian History and Indology.

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