Adivasi

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Adivasi at a traditional dance ( Jharkhand , 2001)
Adivasi woman from the Kutia Kondh tribe in Orissa state, India, 2005
Adivasi on a visit to Germany (2005)

Adivasi (modern Sanskrit ādivāsī "first settlers, original inhabitants") is a freely chosen self-designation of indigenous peoples in the area of ​​today's India , sometimes even beyond. Adivasi are regionally also referred to as tribals (" tribal communities "), provided they traditionally live organized in small societies. The word Adivasi was coined as modern Sanskrit by political activists in the 1930s, but the use of the term was suggested by the creators of the Indian constitutionexpressly rejected on the grounds that its meaning "first settlers" gives the impression that the tribals have been resident longer than the caste Hindus . The central Indian government does not currently recognize the name Adivasi .

Some groups of the indigenous peoples are officially registered as Scheduled Tribe in 26 of the 29 Indian states and in 4 of the 7 Union territories (“listed tribal community”), they are entitled to (central) state protection and support measures, and in Northeast India partly to autonomous self-government . At the 2011 census in India , the 705 recognized Scheduled Tribes had a total of 104.3 million members, with a growth rate of around 24% since 2001 (compare proportions of the Scheduled Tribes in the states ). Most of the Scheduled Tribes are in the state of Odisha (62), Madhya Pradesh has the most tribesmen with 15.3 million (21% of the population). The extent to which members of a local Scheduled Tribe refer to themselves as Adivasi varies from region to region.

Social structure

The Adivasi are not a homogeneous population group , but rather feel that they belong to certain societies (compare tribal society ); These indigenous peoples in India include:

The Adivasi who live in the villages share a tradition that is borne by the strong connection to nature and their own land (compare ecosystem people ): traditional dances, music and festivals connect the village community and all life is permeated by a holistic ethnic religion - often a connection ( syncretism ) from Hinduism and animistic ideas (compare Indian folk religion ).

Economic and social situation

Most of the Adivasi communities are still active in agriculture , livestock farming and handicrafts, mostly only for their own needs . 25 different groups with around 1.3 million Adivasi are classified as hunters and gatherers , although they do not live exclusively from this type of economy. The own and often jointly cultivated land therefore forms the historical basis of existence for the Adivasi communities.

Together with the untouchable castes ( Dalits ), the Adivasi belong to the poorest people in India , especially in the cities where the traditional subsistence principles can no longer be carried out. Approx. 10 million Adivasi live in urban slums, around 90% below the poverty line. As non-Hindus, they are still disadvantaged as outcasts alongside the Dalits in Indian society, despite laws to the contrary (as Scheduled Tribes the Indian constitution grants them minority rights).

The continued economic growth of India is currently pushing the indigenous people to the edge. In the course of large-scale projects, the development of industrial sites and tourist regions, Adivasi are largely relocated or even sold for the construction of dams, the development of raw materials, the settlement of heavy industry, road construction or for nature and leisure parks. Germany's participation in the construction of the iron and steel works in Rourkela from 1958, during which around 16,000 Adivasi were driven out, is still controversial today. In the ongoing construction of the Sardar-Sarovar Dam in the Narmada Valley in the state of Gujarat, in which around 110,000 Adivasi are forcibly relocated and significant deficiencies have occurred during the resettlement, international donors have therefore withdrawn their involvement under constant public pressure.

In order to improve the living situation of the Adivasi, on the one hand protection laws were passed by the Indian government, on the other hand numerous specific programs and projects were carried out. But neither the laws - such as the ban on the transfer of Adivasi land to non-Adivasi, land reforms, the ban on debt bondage or alcohol trafficking in Adivasi areas - nor the programs and projects for infrastructure development, health promotion and poverty reduction were able to improve their situation sustainably, because they remained incomplete, were hardly implemented or ignored the reality of the Adivasi.

Numerous non-governmental organizations (NGOs) also work in the Adivasi areas . You offer social services, get involved, etc. a. for education, infrastructure development, awareness-raising or environmental protection and support the increasingly cross-group alliances and organizations, women's organizations and self-help groups in which the Adivasi themselves fight to improve their living conditions. A very successful self-help project is ACCORD / AMS in Gudalur / Nilgiris / South India. This is where the Kattunaickans, Moolakurumba, Bettakurumbas, Irulas and Panniyas live.

The writer Mahasweta Devi has been campaigning for the rights and culture of the Adivasi for decades . In 1999 the Adivasi Academy was founded in Tejgadh, Gujarat, which among other things also researches the several hundred languages ​​of the Adivasi and advocates the dignity of indigenous peoples worldwide.

Maoists and Adivasi

In many of the regions inhabited by Adivasi, for example in northern Andhra Pradesh , in southern Bihar , in Jharkhand and in Assam , Maoist organizations, the so-called Naxalites , enjoy not inconsiderable backing among Adivasi. This is expressed both in the voting for parties operating in a legal framework such as the CPI (ML) Liberation , whose member Jayanta Rongpi represented the constituency of Karbi Anglong / Assam from 1991 to 2004 in the Lok Sabha , as well as in membership in Maoist-built parties Organizations. Some Adivasi support Naxalite guerrilla groups . One example is the CPI (Maoist) who are in the forests of Central India.

The human rights organization Samata

In addition to Maoists, the human rights organization Samata has been involved in the mountain ranges of the Eastern Ghats in Andhra Pradesh and in southern Odisha for Adivasi for 20 years . The project mainly supports the Adivasi in legal issues and in setting up infrastructure.

history

According to the German linguist and cultural scientist Harald Haarmann , the Adivasi immigrated to South Asia from the west before the Dravids and Indoarians. They lived from hunting and fishing and were still producing in the 4th millennium BC. The majority of the population of the subcontinent. Later they partly turned to agriculture, but in the course of time they lost more and more of their ancestral land to the surrounding majority population, from which they were displaced into inhospitable areas.

Up until the beginning of the 19th century, the Adivasi tribes lived mostly independently and apart from the Indian kingdoms. Only then did the British colonial rulers begin to place the jungle areas of the Adivasi under their administration, lease fields and tax forest products.

Hundreds of bloody uprisings were the result (see uprisings and revolts against British rule in India ). The most important:

  1. Halba Rebellion (1774–1779)
  2. Chamka Rebellion (1776–1787)
  3. Chuar Rebellion in Bengal (1795–1800)
  4. Bhopalpatnam fights (1795)
  5. Khurda Rebellion in Orissa (1817)
  6. Bhil rebellion (1822-1857)
  7. Paralkot Rebellion (1825)
  8. Tarapur Rebellion (1842-1854)
  9. Maria Rebellion (1842–1863)
  10. Santal uprising (1856-1858)
  11. Bhil Rebellion, started by Tantya Tope in Banswara (1858)
  12. Koi Revolt (1859)
  13. Gond Rebellion, started by Ramji Gond in Adilabad (1860)
  14. Muria Rebellion (1876)
  15. Rani Rebellion (1878-1882)
  16. Bhumkal (1910)
  17. Kuki uprising (1917–1919) in Manipur

See also

  • Veddas (the indigenous people of Sri Lanka)

literature

  • 2019: Andreas Becker: In the shadow of the economic boom. The uprising of the Adivasis and Dalits in India. Draupadi, Heidelberg 2019, ISBN 978-3-945191-41-5 .
  • 1999: Ratnaker Bhengra, CR Bijoy, Shimreichon Luithui: The Adivasis of India. Minority Rights Group International, London 1999, ISBN 1-897693-32-X .
  • 1994: Helmuth Borutta: Revolution for the Law. Daud Birsa Munda and the land of the Adivasi. Verlag für Mission und Ökumene, Erlangen 1994, ISBN 978-3-87214-507-9 .
  • 1994: Sanjoy Hazarika: Strangers of the Mist. Tales of War and Peace from India's Northeast. Penguin, New Delhi 1994, ISBN 0-670-85909-5 (monograph on the tribal people of northeast India).
  • 1990: Rainer Hörig : Even the gods stole it from us: India's Adivasi are fighting for survival. Society for Threatened Peoples, Göttingen 1990, ISBN 3-922197-26-4 .
  • 1988: Thomas Methfessel: Shiva's tears are still flowing ... - Huge dams in the valley of the Narmada are supposed to displace Indian tribal peoples from their homeland. India Aid e. V. Durga Press, Herrsching 1988, ISBN 3-927211-00-1 .
  • 2003: Madhusree Mukerjee: The Land of Naked People: Encounters with Stone Age Islanders. Penguin, New Delhi 2003, ISBN 0-14-303101-5 (monograph on the situation of the indigenous population in the Andamans).
  • 2001: Sarini, Solidarity Action Research, Information Network International (ed.): Voices of the Adivasis - "In our dreams we see our country". Bonner Siva Series, Bonn 2001, ISBN 3-926548-98-3 .
  • 2001: Mari Marcel Thekaekara: The double eye. How Adivasi and Germans sharpen their eyes and discover new worlds. A travel report. Laufersweiler, Giessen 2001, ISBN 3-89687-051-3 .

Web links

Commons : Adivasi  - collection of images

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Robert Harrison Barnes, Andrew Gray, Benedict Kingsbury: Indigenous peoples of Asia (= Monographs of the Association for Asian Studies. Volume 48). Association for Asian Studies, Ann Arbor MI 1995, ISBN 978-0-924304-14-9 , p. 105 (English; quote view in Google book search); Quote: "The Concept of the Adivasi: According to the political activists who coined the word in the 1930s, the 'adivasis' are the original inhabitants of South Asia."
  2. ↑ On the self-designation of Scheduled Tribes as "Adivasi": Ministry of Tribal Affairs: Report of the High Level Committee on Socio-Economic, Health and Educational Status of Tribal Communities Of India. Government of India, New Delhi May 2014, pp. 24–33 2nd: Introduction , here p. 25 (English; PDF: 5.0 MB, 431 pages on indiaenvironmentportal.org.in); Quote: "However, many tribal communities employ the term 'adivasi' (original inhabitant) as a political term of self-reference - although this term is not recognized by the Government of India."
  3. ↑ Rainer Hörig: India's endangered indigenous people: Adivasi are increasingly defending themselves against marginalization and exploitation. Federal Agency for Civic Education, April 7, 2014, accessed on January 30, 2019.
  4. ↑ Peter P. Schweitzer, Megan Biesele, Robert K. Hitchcock (Eds.): Hunters and Gatherers in the Modern World: Conflict, Resistance, and Self-determination. Reprint, Berghahn Books, New York, Oxford 2006 (first edition 2000), ISBN 978-1-57181-102-8 , p. 4.
  5. ↑ www.adivasiacademy.org.in
  6. ↑ Arundhati Roy : Walking With The Comrades outlookindia.com, March 29, 2010 ( translation )
  7. ↑ Felix Padel and Samarendra Das: Anthropology of a Genocide: Tribal Movements in Central India against Over-Industrialization. South Asia Analysis Group (SAAG), 2006 (PDF; 117 kB)
  8. ↑ Harald Haarmann : In the footsteps of the Indo-Europeans. From the Neolithic steppe nomads to the early advanced civilizations. Beck, Munich 2016, ISBN 978-3406688249 , p. 301 ( reading excerpt in the Google book search).
  9. ↑ taz article "India's Wild East" from April 129, 2010
  10. ↑ Cf. Gopal K. Bhargava, Shankarlal C. Bhatt: Land and people of Indian states and union territories (in 36 volumes), Volume 6: Chhattisgarh . Gyan Publishing House 2005, ISBN 978-81-7835-384-5 . For a list of the ten most important uprisings, see p. 21.
  11. ↑ Page 63 Tagore Without Illusions by Hitendra Mitra
  12. ↑ Sameeksha Trust, P. 1229 Economic and Political Weekly
  13. ^ Atul Chandra Pradhan: Freedom Movement in Khurda , in: Orissa Review, August 2007
  14. ↑ P. 111 The Freedom Struggle in Hyderabad: A Connected Account By Hyderabad (India: State)
  15. ↑ P. 32 Social and Political Awakening Among the Tribals of Rajasthan By Gopi Nath Sharma
  16. ↑ P. 420 Who's Who of Freedom Struggle in Andhra Pradesh By Sarojini Regani