On the Future of Indigenous Traditions - Munin

2.8 Which direction is the ‘development’ politics
leading the Adivasis into?
The government launches very ambitious development plans to deal with the wider
contemporary political and social realities the Adivasis in Jharkhand face. It is seen
that soon after the Jharkhand government was formed, they have signed more then 40
memorandum of understanding (MoU) 78 with big companies. These companies who
have their shares with foreign and multinational agencies, invited to Jharkhand for
further industrial development and industrial expansion and for exploitation of its
natural resources. These companies’ field of operation, exploration and exploitation
extends not only in Jharkhand but to the adjoining states. As stated earlier, Jharkhand
is the richest natural and mineral resource areas in the country, and the challenge for
the Adivasis here is much greater.
This whole region has become an industrial and mining magnet. Here the Adivasi or
indigenous peoples have been exploited, and continue to be exploited to the maximum
in all respects. Areeparampil observes that the Adivasis in Jharkhand are
‘systematically’ and ‘methodologically’ being dispossessed of their ownership of their
livelihood resources and their ‘very means of human existence’. Among the
dispossession is their political autonomy as their community is becoming fragmented
in the name of ‘national interest’. This includes an unjust ‘integration’ on unequal
terms and a kind of ‘cultural assimilation’ into the national mainstream.
These changes are bound to produce social maladjustments when a people who have a
different history are forced to live in administrative conjunction with another group
i.e. the Biharis, Bengalis and members of other dominant societies, socially and
culturally differ in varied proportions, and still hold the key positions in the state
administration.
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From the news March 2006, compilation of Bindrai Institute for Research Study and Action
(BIRSA) in Ranchi
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