are in Dadra and Nagar Haveli,
and Lakshadweep (94%). However
in terms of a headcount, the
overwhelming numbers are in
Central India.
There are some 573 communities
recognized by the government as
ST’s and therefore eligible to receive
special benefits and to compete
for reserved seats in legislatures,
government and educational
institutions. The biggest tribal
group, the Gonds, number about
7.4 million; followed by the Santhals
with about 4.2 million. The smallest
tribal community is the Chaimals of
the Andaman Islands who number
just eighteen.
Central India is home to the
country's largest Adivasi tribes, and,
taken as a whole, roughly 75 percent
of the India’s tribal population lives
there.
The late Professor Nihar Ranjan
Ray, one of our most distinguished
historians, described the central
Indian Adivasis as “the original
autochthonous people of India”
meaning that their presence in India
pre-dated by far the Dravidians, the
Aryans and whoever else settled in
this country.” The anthropologist
Dr. Verrier Elwin states this more
emphatically when he wrote: “These
are the real swadeshi products of
India, in whose presence all others
are foreign. These are ancient
people with moral rights and claims
thousands of years old. They were
here first and should come first in
our regard.”
Adivasi carries the specific
meaning of being the original
inhabitants of a given region and
was specifically coined for that
purpose in the 1930s. Clearly all
Scheduled Tribes are not Adivasis.
Unlike the Adivasis the other two
broad tribal groupings have fared
better in the post-independence
dispensation. Within them some,
such as the Meena’s and Gujjar’s of
Rajasthan, and the Khasis, Mizos,
Angami and Tangkhul Nagas, and
Meitei in the Northeast have done
exceptionally well. Unlike the
Northeastern tribes, the Meena’s
and Gujjar’s do not even meet the
stipulated criteria of geographical
isolation, backwardness, distinctive
culture, language and religion.
Forget “shyness of contact.”
Even before Independence on
December 16 1946, welcoming
the Objectives Resolution in the
Constituent Assembly, the legendary
Adivasi leader Jaipal Singh stated
the tribal case and apprehensions
explicitly and succinctly: “As a
jungli, as an Adivasi, I am not
expected to understand the legal
intricacies of the Resolution. But my
common sense tells me that every
one of us should march in that road
to freedom and fight together. Sir, if
there is any group of Indian people
that has been shabbily treated
it is my people. They have been
disgracefully treated, neglected for
the last 6,000 years. The history of
the Indus Valley civilization, a child
of which I am, shows quite clearly
that it is the new comers — most
of you here are intruders as far as
I am concerned — it is the new
comers who have driven away my
people from the Indus Valley to the
jungle fastness...The whole history
of my people is one of continuous
exploitation and dispossession
by the non-aboriginals of India
punctuated by rebellions and
disorder, and yet I take Pandit
Jawahar Lal Nehru at his word. I
take you all at your word that now
we are going to start a new chapter,
www.smartgovernance.in | February 2020 19