Question

Write a short note on Tribal Movements. 

Answer 1

Most of the tribal movements have been largely located in the so called “tribal belt” in middle India, such as the Santhals, Hos Oraons, Mundas in Chota Nagpur and the Santhal Parganas.

The social movement of Jharkhand had a charismatic leader in Birsa Munda, an adivasi who led a major uprising against the British.

His memory has still been kept alive has continued to be a source of inspiration for generation.

An educated middle class among the tribals was created by the Western education given by Christian missionaries. This education class developed the ethnic consciousness – awareness of their identity culture and customs. A sense of marginalisation brought together the tribal population of South Bihar. They identified their common enemies – dikus—migrant traders, money lenders. The adivasis in senior government jobs provided organisational intellectual leadership to the movement and negotiated and labbied for the creation of their own state on the following issues—acquisition of land for large irrigation projects; survey and settlement operations, which were held up, camps closed, etc; collection of loans, rent and cooperative dues; nationalisation of forest produce.

As far as the NE tribes were concerned, main issue taken up were – ascertain distinct tribal identity of the region; demanding of the traditional autonomy of tribes; misunderstanding & lack of communication in Indian mainstream society which needs to be bridged;

• Rights of the tribes to maintain their own social cultural institutions along with a connection with the rest of the India;
• Anger oFtribes because of the loss of their forest lands. Thus, tribal movements are good examples of social movements, which incorporates many issues – economic, cultural, ecological.

Earlier many tribal regions of NE, showed tendencies of separating from India but today they have adopted a balanced approach of asking for autonomy with the framework of Indian institution.