Category Archives: Adverse inclusion

“Adivasi struggles and perspectives come from experiences of discrimination, marginalisation and powerlessness and ours has been one of a long, ongoing call for justice for our rights of restitution and repatriation. Is anyone listening?” – Ruby Hembrom (founder-director of Adivaani—a publisher of Adivasi writing) in “A phrase that eclipses key histories” (The New Indian Express, 18 May 2016)
https://www.newindianexpress.com/columns/A-phrase-that-eclipses-key-histories/2016/05/18/article3437908.ece
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=20374

“India is a colourful country comprising a staggering variety of cultures and communities. Each section has its own needs and requirements and among all, we tend to forget the most sidelined community – the tribals.” – India Today Web Desk in “Educating the world’s largest tribal population is a challenge for India” (16 March 2017)
https://www.indiatoday.in/education-today/featurephilia/story/tribal-education-and-its-challenging-issues-in-india-965832-2017-03-16
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=10669

“The picture that emerges from the report is in many ways grim and troubling, one that affirms that there continue to be significant populations that are consistently and often extremely deprived of access to public goods that are essential for a human life with dignity.” – “The India Exclusion Report 2015: A comprehensive, annually updated analysis on the exclusion of disadvantaged groups in India” (First Edition, New Delhi 2016, www.yodapress.co.in, supported by UNICEF, UNFPA and UN Women)
https://www.im4change.org/docs/91763text-final_India-Exclusion-Report-round2Final.pdf
https://www.indiantribalheritage.org/?p=22410

“[T]he the highest number of cases against Scheduled Tribes in that year [2020] was in Madhya Pradesh (2,401).” –Scroll Staff in “Crimes against Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes rose from 2018 to 2020, Centre tells Lok Sabha” (Scroll.in, 22 July 2022)
https://scroll.in/latest/1028900/crimes-against-scheduled-castes-and-scheduled-tribes-rose-from-2018-to-2020-centre-tells-lok-sabha
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=26798

“A polity based on the structural exclusion of a section of its population cannot reasonably be said to qualify as a democracy.” — Indrajit Roy in India Forum (September 2021)
https://www.theindiaforum.in/article/india-world-s-largest-democracy-ethnocracy
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=9465

“Tribal groups (adivasis) in India have often been excluded, marginalized and oppressed by ‘mainstream’ society. In many ways this exclusion, marginalization and oppression is fostered by the way in which ‘mainstream’ society looks at the adivasis – as exotic, dangerous, or ‘primitive’ others.” – Ganesh [G.N.] Devy in “A Nomad Called Thief: Reflections on Adivasi Silence and Voice” (Orientblackswan.com 2006)
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=13801

“After Independence, the erstwhile aborigines were classified as scheduled tribes, the untouchables were classified as scheduled castes and others included in the backward classes. Although, many of the denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes are spread among SC/ST/OBC, many are still not classified anywhere and have no access to socio-economic benefits, whether education, health, housing or otherwise.” – Bibek Debroy in “An unfortunate legacy” (Indian Express, 5 January 2017)
https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/crime-criminal-act-racial-discrimination-non-bailable-offence-criminal-tribes-act-an-unfortunate-legacy-4459258/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=12284

“The people among the tribal communities who get into ‘the mainstream’ of Indian society by landing a job after some education are in a small minority. They are made to feel inferior by the major communities in governmental or commercial administration.” – Guest Column titled “Hands off tribal culture” (India Today, 9 January 2014)
https://www.indiatoday.in/magazine/guest-column/story/19800915-hands-off-tribal-culture-821415-2014-01-09
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=15861

“[E]very time India tries to ‘develop’ her tribal communities, they end up destitute, working as wage labour in our fields and factories and brick kilns.” – M. Rajshekhar in “Remembering Samir Acharya, Who Fought to Preserve the Cultures of Andaman and Nicobar” (The Wire, 18 October 2020)
https://thewire.in/rights/samir-acharya-andaman-nicobar-activist-culture-preservation-tribute
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=7364

“Behind the (justifiably) much-lauded secular model of development in Kerala lies the hideous reality of racism/casteism in which an Adivasi or a Dalit becomes the other. ” – Nissim Mannathukkaren in “The Adivasi in the mirror: The lynching of Madhu in Kerala must shock our conscience into recognising the dispossession of India’s tribals” (The Hindu Opinion, 3 March 2018)
https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-adivasi-in-the-mirror/article22911351.ece
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=24460

“[T]he incomes of the poorer sections of the society are decreasing, while those of the richer sections are increasing.” – Dipa Sinha (Dr. B. R. Ambed­kar Uni­ver­sity Delhi) in “A betrayal of the social sector when it needs help” (The Hindu, 2 February 2022)
https://www.thehindu.com
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=30029

“Tribals are subject to oppression and cruelty even after independence and still picked up by the investigating officers to cover up shoddy investigations.” – Supreme Court Judge Justice D.Y. Chandrachud quoted in “Members of De-Notified Tribes Picked Up to Cover Up Shoddy Investigations” (The Wire, 7 December 2021)
https://thewire.in/rights/members-of-de-notified-tribes-picked-up-to-cover-up-shoddy-investigations-justice-chandrachud 
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=20996

“[T]here exists a major gap in India between these encouraging judicial pronouncements and how the right plays out in reality […] According to the latest 2010 data from the Indian government […] a disproportionate percentage of scheduled castes, scheduled tribes, and other backward classes (OBCs) made-up the undertrial-population, with nearly two-thirds of the total number of undertrials coming from one of these three communities.” – Jayanth K. Krishnan & C. Raj Kumar in “Delay in Process, Denial of Justice: The Jurisprudence and Empirics of Speedy Trials in Comparative Perspective”, 42 Georgetown Journal of International Law 747 (2011)
https://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/facpub/155/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=13755

“Dalits, Most Backward Castes, and Adivasis face staggering levels of dispossession and the brunt of economic downturns.” – Nissim Mannathukkaren (Dalhousie University) in “How Hindu Nationalism Enables India’s Slide Into Inequality” (The Wire, 28 December 2021)
https://m.thewire.in/article/communalism/how-hindu-nationalism-enabled-indias-slide-into-inequality
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=5547

“[I]implicit to theories such as Sankritisation is an evolutionary approach towards tribes, implying that there is a ladder towards attaining higher status under the fold of caste Hindus.” – Subhadra Mitra Channa in Anthropological Perspectives on Indian Tribes, quoted by Richard Kamei in “Uncivilising the Mind: How anthropology shaped the discourse on tribes in India” (Caravan Magazine, 1 March 2021)
https://caravanmagazine.in/books/anthropologists-tribes-india
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=12454

”It’s a long road to freedom!” – Stan Swamy (sociologist and activist for Adivasi rights) in “I am Not a Silent Spectator: Why Truth has become so bitter, Dissent so intolerable, Justice so out of reach” (Indian Social Institute, Bangalore, 2021)
https://indianculturalforum.in/2021/08/05/i-am-not-a-silent-spectator/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=22085

“The Denotified Tribes have been the victims of the doctrine of criminality by birth. This concept is abhorrent to the present-day thinking. […] The process of Notification of innocent communities traders, itinerant entertainers, peasants and disbanded soldiers, begun in 1871 through enactment of the Criminal Tribes Act, should have come to an end soon after Independence. Instead, a Habitual Offenders Act was slapped on them, and their sufferings continued through the last six decades. This entire episode of turning innocent and defenseless communities into vulnerable and victimized groups has been a chapter of shame in India’s social history. During the last twenty years, there has been a strong movement shaping up from the grass-roots, which has sought to restore dignity and human rights to these communities.” – “Recommendations of the Technical Advisory Group” [TAG], New Delhi, 2006
http://www.bhasharesearch.org/Reports/TAG%20Report.pdf
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=32139

“The new normal is the many millions marching back in search of those livelihoods that we destroyed these past three decades.” – P. Sainath (founder of PARI “People’s Archive of Rural India”) in “We Didn’t Bleed Him Enough”: When Normal is the Problem (counterpunch.org , 12 August 2020, first published in Frontline magazine)
https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/08/12/we-didnt-bleed-him-enough-when-normal-is-the-problem/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=35352

“The post-independent states in South Asia occupied tribal land for military and security reasons, natural resource extraction, and development projects; leased land to corporations; and created zoning regulations to protect industry and private interests. In addition to the destitution caused by ecological devastation, the development projects—industry, hydraulics (dams and irrigation), infrastructure (roads, railways), mining, and plantations—led to massive, enforced displacement and migration in South Asia.” – Chundankuzhiyil Ulahannan Thresia, Prashanth Nuggehalli Srinivas, Katia Sarla Mohindra, Chettiparambil Kumaran Jagadeesan in “The Health of Indigenous Populations in South Asia: A Critical Review in a Critical Time” (free access in SAGE Journals, August 2020)
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0020731420946588
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=27829

“In a slave society, the master isn’t required to unleash violence every single day. Just because the slave seems happy to serve his master doesn’t make the latter non-violent.” – G. Sampath on Ritual humiliation in “The Violence in Our Bones: Mapping the Deadly Fault Lines Within Indian Society’ review: An ideology of hatred” (The Hindu, 6 November 2021)
https://www.thehindu.com/books/books-reviews/the-violence-in-our-bones-mapping-the-deadly-fault-lines-within-indian-society-review-an-ideology-of-hatred/article37337087.ece
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=6771

“Scheduling was the act of committing certain areas to a written list or inventory of ‘special administrative regimes’; here, normal laws and regulations prevalent in the rest of British India would not be applicable. […] The underlying belief behind this categorization was that modern representative democracy with electoral politics and law courts was highly unsuited to tribal communities.” – Saagar Tewari, quoted by Richard Kamei in “Uncivilising the Mind: How anthropology shaped the discourse on tribes in India” (Caravan Magazine, 1 March 2021)
https://caravanmagazine.in/books/anthropologists-tribes-india
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=11544

“In a complex democratic society such as ours, technically ideal solutions to public problems have to be balanced by the management of conflicts that are inevitable when there are multiple and contradictory pulls. This should also help in understanding why the idea of inclusion goes beyond narrow economic perspectives on poverty and its alleviation.” – Vijaya Sherry Chand (Chairperson of JSW School of Public Policy) quoted in “Pranab Mukherjee all set to teach public policy at IIM Ahmedabad” (India Today, 8 September 2018)
https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/pranab-mukherjee-all-set-to-teach-public-policy-at-iim-ahmedabad-1335295-2018-09-08
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=6984

“Highly urbanised societies such as Hong Kong and Singapore that have no agricultural base are food secure because of their considerable purchasing power, while India, although self-sufficient in agriculture, has much of its population that is food insecure primarily due to social inequity and poverty.” – Terry C.H. Sunderland in “Forests and food security” (International Institute for Asian Studies, The Newsletter No. 58, 2011)
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=4747

“When the Aryans came into India as invaders with radical differences in complexion, religion, customs, and manners between them and the non-Aryan inhabitants, there came about the first broad grouping in the emergent Indian society. Politically, the Aryans were the conquerors and the non-Aryans the conquered, and racially the former were of a fair complexion whereas the latter were dark. The Aryan society had three classes which were occupational in their nature: the soldier-administrator, the priest, and the agriculturist-artisan.” – B.G. Gokhale in Ancient India (Bombay, 1959 ed.), p. 118
http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/602186629
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=4315

“KISS seems to share key features of U.S. residential schools, and its stated goal of ‘converting tax consumers into taxpayers’ implies a view of tribal cultures as ‘primitive’. This insensitivity to the complexity of Adivasi society and economy, the sheer scale of KISS, and its distance from villages, alienate children from their roots […] The notion of ‘mainstreaming’ needs to be challenged not just because Adivasi culture is being crushed, but also because Adivasi values and ways of life offer insights that the ‘mainstream’ needs.” – Felix Padel & Malvika Gupta in “Are mega residential schools wiping out India’s Adivasi culture?” (The Hindu, 13 February 2021)
https://www.thehindu.com/society/children-from-tribal-communities-are-being-corralled-into-mass-schools-that-are-wiping-out-cultures/article33818793.ece
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=20406

“At the bottom of all this bottomless/ enterprise to keep simple the heart’s given beat,/ the only risk is heartlessness.” – The final lines of an early poem by AK Ramanujan titled “The Hindoo: The Only Risk”, quoted by Nakul Krishna in “RK Narayan’s second opinions” (The Caravan, 1 October 2018)
https://caravanmagazine.in/literature/rk-narayan-second-opinions
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=23039

“The World today is facing a challenge that is becoming increasingly acute day by day. For years and decades a few dominant countries and a small elite population in each developing country have ruled the world, exploited the human and material resources, in their favour. When the oppressed and the deprived have begun raising their voice on issues beyond immediate relief and gain.” – Acceptance speech by Medha Patkar and Baba Amte (Narmada Bachao Andolan), Laureates of the 1991 Right Livelihood Award (“a courage-powered community for social change committed to peace, justice and sustainability for all”)
https://rightlivelihood.org/speech/acceptance-speech-medha-patkar-and-baba-amte-narmada-bachao-andolan/
https://indiantribalheritage.org/?p=10420