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Tribals (adivasi) representatives from all over India assembled in Delhi to begin an indefinite dharna, starting on 15 February 1996, to demand extension of the 73rd and 74th Amendments concerning Panchayati Raj to the Scheduled Areas, in line with the recommendations of the Bhuriya Committee. And not without reason.
In 1947, the tribal people of Independent India felt intensely betrayed. What they had fought and laid down their lives for nearly 18 decades was systematically subverted. The transfer of power from the Colonial Regime did not result in the resolution of the structural conflict between the community and the state apparatus resulting from the imposition of a formal administrative structure on a self governing people by the British administration. The Rulers had changed, their minions were the same. Azadi was won, Swaraj was denied.
The Constitution tried to resolve this structural conflict through the arrangements provided in the Vth and VIth Schedules. These principles were accepted by the political executive and articulated by the first Prime Minister in his Policy of Panchsheel. But while the Governors refused to throw off the shackles of a colonial administrative structure, the President remained a silent spectator. History repeated itself, the tribals were twice betrayed in less than a decade. The situation remained unresolved, the contradictions sharpened, while legitimate aspirations were suppressed. In the wake of the avowed policy of the state to devolve authority to the people under the 73rd and 74th Amendments, Article 243(M) of the Constitution was introduced as a saving clause. In restraining the automatic extension of the 73rd and 74th Amendments to the Scheduled Areas without suitable modifications, a fresh attempt was being made to resolve the age old conflict. The Article enjoined on Parliament the duty to promulgate the legislation. The logic behind this article, we were given to understand, was that tribal societies, were, by and large, the last vestiges of community self governance and would be the first to re-activate the process of popular self-rule.
The High Level Committee of tribal MPs under the Chairmanship of Dileepsingh Bhuriya MP, constituted to recommend suitable modifications for the new legislation, took up the responsibility to resolve the conflict between the community and the state apparatus and give it a concrete form in the context of the tribal area. The Bhuriya Committee submitted its report on 17 January 1995, an important benchmark in the history of democratic India as it brought within the scope of village governance, the stress on participatory democracy, community command over resources, management of conflict, administration of law and order, planning and implementation of development, accountability of the bureaucracy et alia. In short it provided the people the chance to govern their own lives and the space for the common man to intervene in the processes that shape his destiny. In the short history of the nation, this was the first time that an opportunity had arisen and we were excited to be at a historic moment when our intervention could make or unmake history. Hopes were raised only to be betrayed again.
The rights of autonomy and self-governance for tribal regions are being denied by the various State governments. The Central government is of course playing the sleeping dog in all this. The High Courts of Hyderabad and Patna have declared the extension of the state Panchayati Acts to the Scheduled Areas unconstitutional, while the Bombay High Court has stayed its application. But both Parliament and the Government have remained strangely silent and somnolent on this vital issue. So much for the claim of the "revolutionary character" of the 73rd Amendment. The ensuing legal vacuum has denied the tribals the right to village self-governance as envisaged in the Constitutional Amendment. It appeared that the tribals would be betrayed for the third time. It was time the tribal people undertook the challenge themselves.
All over the country, tribals are agitating for the right to self rule and implementation of the Bhuriya Committee Report. The Civil Disobedience Movement has continued since 2 October 1995. But Parliament seems to be oblivious to their anxiety over the legal vacuum existing in the scheduled areas. On the other hand, while political parties are beginning preparations for the Lok Sabha elections, the issue of tribal self rule does not appear on their agenda.
Tired of the Government's and Parliament's refusal to legislate in accordance with the recommendations of the Bhuriya Committee Report and to resolve the conflict and restore the patent rights to democratic self governance to the tribal people, the tribal leaders of the National Front for Tribal Self Rule decided on incisive action to bring the issue on the national agenda and force the politicians to sit up and take notice. Consensus was reached on: 1. indefinite dharna to commence from 15 February 1996 at Samta Sthal (near Raj Ghat, Delhi)
2. indefinite fast to follow immediately after two days.
3. indefinite solidarity fast by Dr.B.D. Sharma, Chairman of Bharat Jan Andolan, Adv. Pradip Prabhu, National Convener of Front and Dr. Vinayan, Gen. Secretary Bharat Jan Andolan and others
4. relay fasts and demonstrations in support of the fasting tribals in state capitals.
The Bharat Jan Andolan is appealing for support and solidarity in the fast of the tribal leaders. It requests letters, telegrams, faxes sent to the Prime Minister and the President "Demanding Promulgation of Legislation based on Bhuriya Committee Report." It also request participation with the fasting tribals in a solidarity chain fast.
for more information, contact:
Sanjay Anand
swa2@cornell.edu
(607-253-5420), or
Sangeeta Kamat
kamat@vm2.cis.pitt.edu
(212-690-7145)
John H. Stevens, Jr.
Department of Anthropology
Cornell University
265 McGraw Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853
tel/fax: 607-256-1829 (call first!)
alternate fax: 607-255-3747
jhs14@cornell.edu
Draft Letter for Prime Minister
Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
We write in condemnation of your government's passive and active blockage of the right to autonomy of the tribal peoples of India. Your and other State governments have not only tried to ignore the recommendations of the Bhuriya Commission which has developed concrete legislation for extending the provisions of the 73rd Amendment Act 1992 to the Scheduled Tribe Areas, but they have also, through the judiciary, deemed the 73rd Amendment unconstitutional.
The tribal peoples of India, as elsewhere in the world, have always been sacrificed for the cause of the nation, and it is time that the nation accord them their constitutional guarantees in the interests of justice and democracy. The demands of the Bharat Jan Andolan are by no means unique in the present era, where similar struggles for autonomy and self-governance are being carried out in different parts of the world. Nor are these demands extraordinary given the long history of exploitation and oppression of tribal peoples by the government, bureaucracy and elites of the country. Everywhere, tribal and indigenous peoples are saying "Enough," that they will not tolerate anymore the social and economic injustices done to them.
We are in solidarity with their struggle, and urge you to implement the Bhuriya Commission Report in its fullness immediately.
address to:
P.V. NARASIMHA RAO
Prime Minister of India
fax: (011) 91-11-3013817 or 3019817
or:
c/o The Indian Embassy
Washington, DC
fax: 202-939-7027; 202-265-4351
fax directly to the Ambassador: 202-483-3972
Fourth World Bulletin • Spring/Summer 1996
Copyright © 1996 by the Fourth World Center
Created by Aigis Communications, Ltd