This is the second part of the three-part series on ‘asserting Adivasi identity through food, festivals, literature and culture‘ as a part of the Justicemakers’ Writer’s Training Program, run in partnership with Agami and Ashoka’s Law For All Initiative. The first and final parts can be found here and here.
Trigger warning: death by suicide, discrimination against Adivasi people and culture
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On a long road journey, while fighting to play my favourite Bollywood songs, my uncle interrupted and remarked: “Listen to cultural songs to understand your culture profoundly.”
This remark persisted in my mind for a long time. The question of who I am, what my identity is, how different I felt from the mainstream—was precisely what I was unable to grasp.
Since childhood, I have faced a kind of identity dilemma: to make people understand who I am and where I actually belong… Little did I know that I myself was the victim of my own inquiry!
When I was growing up, time and again, I was confronted with the question of what my religion is. In a bid to avoid the complex narration of what “Sarna” religion actually means, I would simply say “Hinduism”, as a child. To be honest, I am yet to fully explore the former as a grown up.
So, when I reached high school and we had to fill up a school form, the religion column confused me as there was no mention of Sarna in the categories listed there. I turned to my teacher in confusion, who suggested that I tick the box which said “Hindu”.
What I am trying to get into is a bit difficult to comprehend and articulate, because it has taken me years to understand the larger political complexities that emerge from being who you are.
My intention is not to demean or attack any particular religion, but rather, to proclaim why the recognition of every culture is important in order to make sense of diverse worldviews.
The Adivasi culture and worldview envisages the ideas of community and consensus, based on an idea of interdependence with nature.
Adivasi Lives And Festivals Advocate For Sustainability
It so happened that when I moved to Delhi for my higher education, I tried exploring the cultures and tradition of Adivasis of Jharkhand, through some written works. Upon exploring an altogether different worldview, I wondered: why are we Adivasis usually tagged as uncivilised and backward?
It is through culture that knowledge and meaning is produced. And, Adivasis have a strong bond with their culture. The stories about the origin and destruction of the earth prevalent in the Oraon community, explain the ill-effects of human activity and greed.
These stories tell us that such excessive greed will lead to its own destruction. Thereby, they were critiquing the dominant, capitalist mode of production, to have a needs-based characterisation of the human living.
It is now that the mainstream research on environment and climate change issues are focusing on the areas of sustainable practice, the Adivasis have always practiced it through our worldview and innate understanding.
The community festivals too revolve around praising and appreciating nature, and mother earth, for providing all the essentials required for the continuation of not only the human species, but also all other flora and fauna.
The major types of festivals that are celebrated in Jharkhand’s Adivasi communities are related to agriculture, forests, hunting and cattle. All these are considered sacred as they are related with day-to-day activities in our lives.
Thus, the importance and interdependence of humans on nature has been at the core of consensus-based decision making among the Adivasis.
These are again backed by folklore, stories and myths—through which the community makes sense of their importance in their everyday lives. The idea of collectivism is also reflected from the community dancing grounds and practices, which are very different from the mainstream’s idea of dancing alone.
Traditional Adivasi Knowledge Has Been Systematically Erased
Integration of the tribal community in the mainstream has led to its assimilation through various ways. One of the most devastating impacts of this assimilation has been the loss of traditional, Adivasi knowledge systems. This is aggravated through the politics of development.
For instance, I am from the unfortunate generation who has very little clue about the medicinal properties of plants and greens. Often, I refuted the efficacies of the traditional and indigenous medicinal properties of plants and greens, such as pudkal, beng, saag and madwa, taught to me by my mother. When I think about it now, I realise the hegemonising tendencies of the dominant practices, which tag these traditional cures as ineffective.
The large-scale development and narratives of modernity, have always found indigenous practices to be backward, static and unprogressive.
The educational system has also played a prominent role in subsuming alternative forms of knowledge. It took a linear path—prompted by a colonial hangover—with little space being made for acknowledging tribal repositories.
Adivasi students face the highest dropouts due to the lack of education in their mother tongue. “In schools, Adivasi children are made to learn in alien languages and their textbooks have an equally alien cultural context.” (Gunjal, 2019)
The worst happens when big companies like Vedanta and the Adani Group, in the name of philanthropic endeavors, systematically erase Adivasi culture and identity. Factory schools are notorious for promoting free education among Adivasi students on the face of it, but draining their identity by making the future tribal generations ashamed of their so-called backwardness.
They are taught about the inferiority of their own culture, all the while preparing them to join the ranks of the industrial workforce. These factory schools hegemonise the Adivasis kids with the dominant development discourse.
As a result of this, they end up losing out on their cultural understanding and connectedness with nature. According to Survival International, these factory schools are not only responsible for exterminating the cultural aspects, but have also lead to the deaths of thousands of Adivasi students.
Just in the state of Maharashtra alone, they documented 1,500 deaths of tribal students in residential schools, between 2001-2016. Over 30 of them were deaths by suicide.
Refusal To Acknowledge The Distinctiveness Of Adivasi Culture
Another difficulty arises when the state refuses to recognize the distinctiveness of the Adivasi cultures and religions. The demand to include different Adivasi religions in the upcoming census has gained momentum.
This demand must not be seen as something unimportant when the state is coming up with laws like the Citizenship Amendment Act and National Register of Citizenship, where religious identity defines one’s legitimacy as a citizen.
Absence of any knowledge among the mainstream about the languages, identities and cultures of the marginalised—leads to the mocking of our identities. Recently, this was most evident when actor Sambhavna Seth and her husband mocked the tribal language spoken by their domestic worker, in a video the couple had uploaded on YouTube.
I am also reminded of an acquaintance of mine who once commented saying that, “Dress properly otherwise you will resemble an Adivasi.”
Every culture needs protection and preservation as each and every one of them have distinctive realities to share.
The upcoming Adivasi generations will not possess the understanding of interconnectedness of people, community and nature at large, due to the one-liner process of development narratives. The loss of these repositories will eventually lead to extermination of a whole cultural understanding.