Video | A Journey to a Santal school: Allowing children to be fully Adivasi, preparing them for success in mainstream society – West Bengal

Project Coordinator: Jerome Cranston, University of Manitoba

The Adivasi, the tribal peoples of India, comprise eight percent of the total population of the country. They have found that their children cannot cope with dilemma of living in ways that are inconsistent with their traditional ways. These same children are subjected to assimilationist structures embedded within India’s traditional formal schools. This clash of culture, language and ways of life has resulted in high dropout rates, low educational aspirations and degraded self-esteem in India’s Adivasi. The video, which is narrated by Mr. Boro Baski, the project coordinator of the Ghosaldanga Adibasi Seva Sangha (GASS), explains that there is an alternative that will allow Santal children to be fully Adivasi and also be prepared for success in mainstream society. The Ghosaldanga Adibasi Seva Sangha (GASS) is a non-governmental organization, which helped establish a non-formal Santal tribal school in West Bengal, the Rolf Schoembs Vidyashram (RSV) non-formal school.

Source: A Santal school’s way forward for the Adivasi in India – YouTube
Address : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kldDFZUT4T4
Date Visited: Thu Feb 27 2014 17:52:29 GMT+0100 (CET)

Dr. Boro Baski works for the community-based organisation Ghosaldanga Adibasi Seva Sangha in West Bengal. The NGO is supported by the German NGO Freundeskreis Ghosaldanga und Bishnubati. He was the first person from his village to go to college as well as the first to earn a PhD (in social work) at Viswa-Bharati. This university was founded by Rabindranath Tagore to foster integrated rural development with respect for cultural diversity. The cooperation he inspired helps local communities to improve agriculture, economical and environmental conditions locally, besides facilitating education and health care based on modern science.

He authored Santali translations of two major works by Rabindranath Tagore, the essay “Vidyasagar-Charit” and the drama Raktakarabi (English “Red Oleanders”), jointly published by the Asiatic Society & Sahitya Akademi (India’s National Academy of Letters) in 2020.

Other posts contributed by Dr. Boro Baski >>

Ghosaldanga Bishnubati Adibasi Trust
Registration under Trust Registration Act 1982
P.O. Sattore, Dist. Birbhum
West Bengal-731 236
India

For inquiries on Santal cultural and educational programs, please contact:
Mob. 094323 57160

Dr. Ivy Hansdak clarifies that during the early twentieth century, “two main streams within Indian anthropology influenced the literary and visual representations of tribes by mainstream writers, artists and film-makers. One group was led by GS Ghurye (the assimilationist position) and the other by Verrier Elwin (the isolationist position). Later, Elwin shifted to the intergrationist position. According to the former, tribes were seen as ‘backward Hindus’ and an attempt was made to assimilate them into the Hindu fold. The identity of tribals as ‘vanavasi‘ comes from this position. Elwin, on the other hand, wanted to preserve their distinctive culture and often glorified them as the Noble Savage. Elwin’s views influenced Pandit Nehru’s tribal policy. Today, most tribals are being clubbed together with the scheduled castes (SC or dalit) with whom they share reservation in college admission and jobs. In the government documents, ‘SC/ST‘ are usually written together. The certificate that is issued to those claiming reserved status is also called ‘caste certificate’.” (email dated 26 April 2023)