Abstract

Jagannathpur is an 98% heterogeneous adivasi village in Surajpur District, Chhattisgarh comprising of Gonds, Oraons, Pandus and Panikas. The village is marked as an IAP village by the government, thus there are various welfare schemes distributed for their upliftment, however the village is also under the hawk eyed view of mining companies. Living in this village for the last two years have left me in angst, unease and turmoil. Each day is a struggle, as the layers of reality unfolds in the village. The situation of adivasis is worse than what is written or spoken about. From being categorised as backward by the government officials, coupled with daily injustices, to structural changes in their lives due to penetration by global forces and persistent threats of displacement in the name of development contributing directly or indirectly to relentless violence while effecting the dignity and freedom of the adivasis. Even in media spaces, their cultural resistance have been marked as parochial, anachronistic and incongrous leaving adivasi hope for justice scattered, forcing them to fight silently in invisible spaces. Within such context and experiences I attempt to throw light on these everyday struggles that adivasis face silently in their attempt to regain freedom and dignity. Based on my personal experiences from Jagannathpur village I also propose to place these experiences in a theoretical frame hoping to articulate unheard stories of pain and struggle towards unraveling ‘un-justified violence’ unleashed on them.

Understanding Violence

Writing about violence is not a straight forward matter and defining violence is even more difficult. According to Oxford Dictionary, there are two conceptions of violence. “ a. behaviour involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something. b. strength of emotion or of a destructive natural force.” The first definition is very clear, where violence is only related to physical force while the second definition is somewhat arbitrary. Dictionary meaning however limits the understanding of violence only within its physical nature. In everyday life, violence doesn’t necessary manifest by the occurrence of physicality and shouldn’t be understood solely in terms of its physicality, i.e., force, assault or infliction of pain alone. Violence also includes assault on person -hood, dignity, sense of worth or value of the victim. The social and cultural dimensions of violence are what gives violence it more real meaning and power.

Defining violence as ‘basic denial of human rights’ is how the paper would view the lives of adivasis. According to universal declaration of human rights, every individual is born free and is equal in dignity and rights. By denial, we closely see everyday injustices and inequality, impairing the freedom to express, denial of dignity and justice and masking the reality. (Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948)

Violence has come to represent a profound dilemma, not only within social science today, but even during the late twentieth century society. while on the one hand the canon of the integrity of human life and the human person has never been more vocal and more explicitly enshrined in national laws and international human rights treaties, on the other hand there has been in recent decades a marked increase in the occurrence, awareness, experience, and social acceptability, of violence. Large sections of the media and entertainment industry today concentrate on the production and diffusion of images of violence, and often these images do nothing but depict true life situations. One of the most conspicuous aspects of the globalization process (Kloos & de Silva 1995; Appadurai 1996) in which the entire world has been increasingly involved during the twentieth century, has been the enhanced presence of violence in places and situations where previously it was securely kept out.

In the paper, we will see how everyday violence is layered in the lives of adivasis, which sometimes, they realize the brutality of violence and injustices that they face but most of the times accept it as they are part of it and move on as if nothing has affected them. While trying to understand the distinguished existence of Adivasi in India with an unnatural rather assimilation oriented transition, the paper explores multiple institutionalization of violence. Disengagement with an oral-cultural history and growing conversion to a specific religion have contributed to existing tension arising out of multiple forms of incursion. Thus located within such a critical spatio-temporal reality, characterized by unprecedented pressures to open up Adivasi hinterlands for commercial exploitation by trans-national corporate interests, I try to unravel how forces are undermining many of the special provisions for their protection and safe guarding their interest provided under the Constitution.

Story of Jagannathpur:

Jagannathpur is a revenue village marked by the government located in Pratappur Block, District Surajpur (erstwhile Surguja District), Chhattisgarh. It consists of 11 smaller villages (often referred as hamlets), which the people consider as a village in itself. The villages comprises of people from Gonds or Oraons community in a particular village, some of the Oraon villages have people from the Panikas community and one Gond village has Pandu’s living with the adivasi majority group.

History

Before the Independence of India, Surguja was a princely state as declared by the British. The king employed revenue collectors to live in the interior parts of the state to collect tax from the people. One such revenue collector lived in a village called Dharmapur, which is around 5 km from the village. The revenue collector and his family acted as rulers in the particular area, dominated by his presence. To this very day the dominance is still intact and upheld.

Geography

The nearby small villages (now called as hamlets) were combined together for administrative purposes and such a village is called revenue village. But unfortunately, these villages were divided in the similar way as done with African countries. Thus, while half of 2 hamlet lies in one village and the other half in another hamlet. It is so that, one particular hamlet because of this division is located and identified as being in two different districts. Generally a road demarcates and separates the hamlet into two halves.

Livelihood:

Jagannathpur is primarily an agricultural village with the majority having their own land holdings for practising agriculture. Paddy is the chief cultivation generally sown for one season (kharif) and occasionally in both rabi and kharif. Other major crops grown are groundnut. Some farmers grow wheat, sugarcane and mustard in the rabi season.

The majority of the people have less than 5 acres of land and are dependant on rains for the production. They grow paddy along with maize in the karif season and most of them dont grwo anything in rabi and summer. The people have to sustain themselves and their families with the crops produced in kharif season. Most farmers have small landholdings and therefore practise more than one occupation to supplement the farm income and gather resources for living, like building the house and collecting forest produces. There are more than 60 minor forest products such as flowers, resins, barks, roots, kernels, seeds etc that are collected by the people and sold in the market.

Apart from the agriculture, the people who have been educated work in bankers, in government schools as teachers, in brick klins, traders etc. During the summer season, the some adivasis communities migrate to cities in search of work.

Culture and religion:

The adivasis have a very distinct culture and the folk songs, dances and tales, differ from one community to another. The Gonds, Oraons have different festivals and customs. All the adivasi communities celebrate festivals associated with agriculture. Karma,Hariyari, Phagun, Navakhai are major celebration around agriculture along with many other minor celebrations. Navakhai is celebrated at the time of ‘harvest of the new crop’ and Karma is to celebrate their deep and life long attachment to the forests by singing and dancing. The spring festival, known as sarhul, is celebrated when thesaltree is in full blossom. In this festival the Oraons perform the symbolic marriage of the sky with the earth. This is done to ensure the fertility of mother earth.

The major customs among the Oraons, as with any other community, are connected with birth, marriage and death. The linkage of customs with the ecology is best reflected in customs connected with marriage and death. There is the custom of men going to the forest to fetch firewood and women to fetch sal leaves for preparing cups and plates. (Xaxa, 1992). The Gond, Oraon and Pandu tribal families have, over the years, adopted different religious faiths like Hinduism and Christianity while some remain devoted to the pagan animist belief system. There is also a set of people who neither follow any of the modern day religions nor worship the nature. For them, the devotion to their parents is of supreme importance. Despite their conversions, all of them are associated with Sarna (Sal Tree) Dharma, based on the oral traditions passed from generation-to-generation.

There are different places of worship in the village according to the peoples’ choice of faith. For Oraons, the Sarai tree is important and is associated with their religion. There is always to be found one big sarai tree in every hamlet/small village, where people meet up for discussions, celebrations etc. There are smaller temples of their gods, that hold holy significance for adivasis. Apart from their own pagan religion, people are observe to have started worshipping Hindu and Christian dieties. There is a Church as well as few temples dedicated to Lord Shiva in the village. The Church was built in the 1976 primarily for promoting education.

Outsiders influence

Around the 1970s there was an influx of traders from Uttar Pradesh as this area is bordered by Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Jharkhand (then Bihar). These traders, one-two families, settled in each of the village and started engagong in money lending, while also advocating new technologies in the villages such as starting a small grain crusher, kirana shop etc. “I came to the village around 1971. There was nothing in the village. Yeh pichide jaat ke log kuch nahi jaante teh (referring to the tribals as backward and unaware). There were no facilities here. I came to the village when I was posted as a government teacher. There was nothing. No shop. So I started a shop with modern equipment to crush rice.” recalls a 60 year old government teacher who is originally from Uttar Pradesh. The exposure of their land to the outside world brought in the influx of the non advasis to their territories, which further caused threats to their identities, culture and tradition.(Fernandes, 2006)

Every day Violence:

The Adivasi communities have their own political characteristic and socio-cultural life-pattern. In fact their culture comprises of distinctive languages, dances, music, song and spirituality whish is well known and has been a subject of intensive research. Adivasi communities still possess the basic human values of co-operation, caring and sharing, consensus mode of decision making and a living symbiosis with nature. They have their own history, culture and mythology, which are rich and vibrant and understands the secret of a sustainable living. Though the constitution has recognized and mandated to respect such diversity, in practice it does not hold true.

The adivasis in Jagannathpur experience multitude of violence each day. Unfortunately, they are ubiquitously absent as subjects, as actors, as agents in national imagination; they are invisible in the administration, education, economic systems and in the popular media.

a. Tagged as “backward:

Jagannathpur was under the control of the revenue officer, who was a non adivasi ruling over the adivasi land. Since the rulers maintained a hierarchy, the adivasis were down the bottom of the ladder. They were dominated and treated like slaves in their own land. Ever since then they were called backward in these areas. As they were deprived of the being happy about their identity,

Today, the government officials, the police, the outsiders who have been working in these areas treat them as backward or “pichade jaati” on the basis of unable to understand the cultural differences. One of the police officer argued that they don’t have a culture that is respectable in the society.

This socio-cultural assault by the hegemonic mainstream culture, coupled with their political and economic deprivation–propagated and perceived as “backwardness” – makes them feel inferior and ashamed of their age old customs and cultures. As a result the cohesive power of the culture which is of paramount importance in holding a society together is getting weakened. They are etched with the tag of “backward” on their bodies and often their dignity of being once culturally strong is questioned. As Chinua Achebe describes in his book “Things Fall Apart” a continual tension and resistance prevails due to the shift in paradigm of development which they do not identify that doesn’t respect the culture. (Achebe, 1958)

Traditionally, Adivasi communities have their own methods and wisdom of imparting knowledge to their children and in educating them in different spheres of life. The children learn from their parents cultural expressions (dances, songs, music), hunting and agricultural techniques and other knowledge relevant to their daily life. Formal schools have always been alien to them.

Today, the adivasis face a major cultural alienation due to the methods used by the State Government. The text books do not talk about the adivasi culture or their community. The curriculum only teaches them how the mainstream society is much better than what they are. As a result, the text books project the stereotypical images of the adivasis, which may result in tagging them as ‘primitive, ‘backward group’.

Government schooling system plays role as much as the ignorance of teachers towards alienation of the traditional Adivasi cultures and its value system and language problems. This is done by adivasi as well as non adivasi teachers. The adivasi teachers who inspite of understanding the children’s issue, often neglect their conditions of being first time learners from their house and the child’s alien to Hindi, discourage and demotivate them and insult the children by calling them dull, dumb, unwanting to learn, ignorant etc.

Due to this, we see a lot of youth culturally alienating themselves, as a result the young adivasis are on a thin wall where they are not accepted in the mainstream society nor can they be associated with their culture. Isn’t this cultural alienation a form of violence?

Nihuti Nihuri Danda tooteei re tootee

Bhooti kati kan chootee

(The hard and laborious work we do has broken our back.

Will there be a day where we will be free of this toil?) (1)

This folk song, which can be traced to the zamindari system under the British regime, is still sung by the tribal women of Jharkhand. (Tete, 2006)

The situation is such that this song is applicable across the adivasis society. Adivasi women enjoy a better status in the society as compared rural women. They are considered to be an asset in their family. In most of the adivasi culture, the men have to pay a bride price to marry a woman. The reason being, the man is taking away a helping hand from the family and he has to compensate the family for it. But, the role of women has become synonymous to laborious work.

Most of the adivasis are involved in agriculture for their livelihoods and women play an important role in here. Today, around 91% of adivasi women are involved in agriculture but their role is confined to that of the agricultural labourers not of Farmers or cultivators.(Singh, Lakshmi, 1993) The role of women, even in adivasi society, in agriculture is from sowing of the seeds to transplanting to weeding to cutting the crops. But not ploughing. It’s a Man’s job. Among the Oraons, Gonds, women touching the plough is considered as taboo. So to prevent the touch of a woman even by mistake, they put their ploughs outside their houses.

At one end, Adivasi women are central to the economy of their society. They take part in agriculture production, gather forest produce, Work in other’s farm as wage labours , work in local government such as aganwadi worker, as teachers etc , collect tendu leaves from forest, rearing of cattle and livestocks, and some go to market to sell their produce, and almost single handedly bear the whole burden of domestic work and child rearing. For some they are paid but most of it goes unrecognized, unsaid and unpaid. Unfortunately, SHE is never mentioned, paid or even acknowledged by the family. Even after her very tiring long day of work, without complaining, she smiles and continues to work for herself, her family and her community.

The structures of the roles are so defined that they limit them at agriculture/economical level, but it exists within the household level too. Rules such as the daughter in law cannot sit on the bed/ chair when her father in law is around or in a community meeting, the men sit on chair and cots but women sit down on the ground, and sometimes, the women do not speak unless asked for in meeting clearly demarcates influence of power structures of patriarchy that exists in these villages. They are subtle but they still exist.

By living with patriarchy, Adivasi women face gender-based discrimination and violence in all spheres of lives within their household and their communities. They are involved in all aspect of production, but men have a monopoly on inheritance. Very often Adivasi women raise their children in the absence of their husbands, but they have no parental rights over their children. They take all responsibility of housework and also often earn the major part of their household expenditures, but they encounter domestic violence within their family. They participate actively in the social-movement against all discrimination caused by state, but they are not the ones who takes decision in social matters as well as in household. Therefore, the multifaceted experiences of Adivasi women have remained all most unheard, their unique marginalization, agency, strategy have remained mostly unseen. In this way, Adivasi women remain more invisible than Adivasi men. They exist as the “other” of “other,” and margin of margin.

witches and their attack

The belief in witchcraft is widely prevalent in Oraon society. There is a strong belief in potent powers of a witch and thought to be productive of greatest misfortunes and disease. They are considered as a great threat to whole society and looked upon with fear and suspicion. They are believed to cause harm to animals, property, agricultural land, gains and individuals. ( P. C. Joshi, Sonia Kaushal, Shashi Katewa, Oinam Hemlata Devi, 2006). They are called ‘yoni’ or ‘bishahi’ referring to women witches. Witch craft is one of the most brutal forms of violence against women. Most of them are forever ostracized from the society with terrible consequences.

In the changing aspirations in the village, many forms of community knowledge is lost. Knowledge of medicinal plants, nutrients from local shrubs and trees, and the habitat and habits of endangered wildlife, folk songs, art etc. An older adivasis are disappointed that their oral histories and knowledge doesn’t pass to the newer generations and the younger generation don’t want to learn. One evening, I walked into an old man coming with plants in his hands. Asked him why did he have to walk 10 kms to get them, he replied, “my children can’t identify the exact leaves I want to make the medicinal juices. I used to go with my father, when he went for collection.” This isn’t limited to the medicines, the situation is same for the folk songs, crafts, oral histories, they are vanishing. In the process of mainstreamising the adivasis, the society is killing the spaces which were once marked by them.

What is worse is that if any art form is appealing to the society, an immediate monetary value is attached. In May 2010, young Raj Gond (having a lineage of the Ataram (king) family), from Adilabad, Andhra Pradesh, read out a story about his grandfather’s ( then King) conversation with the collector, that the collector wrote about in his book. Ataram Bhagat, the king of Raj Gonds was going through a bad time. Sometimes, the kings family couldn’t have food to eat. He was good at carving wood with design. So the collector asked him to come and meet him. Ataram, around 60years, walked almost 50kms to meet the collector. The collector said he know the economical situation of Ataram, so if he can carve tables and chair and sell them, it will be help his economic status. Atrium replied, “this is something I learnt from my ancestors. I just do it for myself. It’s not something that I would want to use to make economies. If you want one, I will make one for you.” The collector was ashamed to have even got the idea of commercializing the art that is dear to the adivasis. (Kumar, 1989) Unfortunately, Ataram Bhagat was the last person to have known that art, which died in that village with his death.

Jal Jungle Zameen

“The existence of Adivasis links with their culture. Their livelihood is linked with water, forest and land. 62 years’ experience of Independent India tells us that the Adivasis lost everything in this rat race of development” – Tudu

The adivasis face challenges that threaten the symbiotic relationship between their lives and natural resources , be it water forests and land (Jal Jangal Jameen). The fundamental reason for this being non adivasi intervention in the lives, culture of the adivasi. The conflict between the non-adivasi and the adivasi distinguished way of life and thought was based on the relationship to Jal-Jangal-Jameen. For adivasis, without these basic resources is a hallowed bond, life would be inconceivable without it. For non adivasis, the link is missing to a great extent, as resources being seen with monetised , market oriented and profitable may be in the cost adivasi right to dignified life and making decision for himself.

<strongJal</strong

In early 1980’s, a seasonal rain fed river named Parpatiya, that was flowing through Jagannathpur was transformed into a dam. This huge water body forms an essential feature in the lives of Jagannathpur villagers. Also with this dam, there are 7 ponds constructed by the government under the MNGREGA scheme as sustainable commons to preserve rain water to be used during dry spells.

The dam is a sustainable common, however the rights for fishing are given to only ONE Self Help Group, which consists of very influential people from the village and mostly they would comprise of non adivasis. This has led to privatisation of the sustainable commons and denies people the right to fish from dam. Similarly, the ponds are also constructed under the MNREGA for the community sake. But the rights are with the Panchayat and usually given to a self help group to do fishing. The SHG once applies, the lease is issue for 7 years for that SHG, which means, others can’t use the pond for the next 7 years. Introducing the concept of small group using the resource which is common resources is diminishing the community spirit among the people. The SHGs not just divide the community into smaller groups, but also commercialize what was once close to them. Due to intervention of such schemes for the sake economic sufficiency, the fabric of community spirit is getting disoriented. As contextual understanding of community ownership has been missing in policy formulation, these interventions will only lead to further discontentment. This is one of the ways to alienate the adivasis.

<strongJungle</strong

The adivasis have all along been living for years in harmony with nature; they have been depending upon the land and forests for their food, shelter and medicines; and that they have done without destroying or harming the nature at all. Jagannathpur has a small patch of forest area with mostly newly (5-10yrs) planted Sal trees by the Forest Department. But most of the people depend on the forest that is located 5kms towards north beyond Village Dharmpur and Village Madannagar for various forest produces. But due to rampant afforestation, adivasi’s dependency on the forest has also decreased.

In the recent times, it’s been noticed that under the forest development schemes to combat afforestation, the forest department has been planting eucalyptus trees, Sal trees, etc. which have higher economical value than others. This has destroyed the balance in their relationship with nature.

On one side, there is a destroyed balance of the nature and on the other side, people don’t have control of the forest resources. Since the time of revenue collectors during the princely states, the most of the Mahua tress even as of today belongs to them in the village. In the month of April, women wake up early in the inning to pick Mahua flowers, as a fee to collect Mahua flowers in the trees owned by the revenue collector’s family, the adivasis pay half of their collection as payment.

The struggle of Adivasis on securing autonomy and control over resources and territories has remained a critical center of attention and asserting their right to a cultural space free of domination. () The struggle is not just for rights live but also for freedom to live in their own environment with dignity. While dealing with questions of exploitation and struggles assert their right to self- determination and autonomous governance. In the present period of economic growth when global capital and resource oriented attention invades forest areas of natural resources , it tends to affect people and communities quite profoundly who live in these areas.

<strongZameen</strong

“For a colonized people the most essential value, because the most concrete, is first and foremost the land: the land which will bring them bread and, above all, dignity.”- Frantz Fanon (2)

Resource restructuring in post-liberalization India involves securing land from farmers to allow for commercial and industrial uses, including mining. The state propagate the mining agenda especially coal mining, with national development, energy security and hence strategic sovereignty. Coal is presented as indispensable to meet India’s huge energy need, which, once met, will light up electric bulbs in rural homes and raise literacy levels to assist in the growth of India’s “soft-power”. As for energy security, coal mining even becomes one of the keys to reinforce the sovereignty of India, and allowing private companies to mine coal at a large scale to quickly expand production becomes imperative. The major hurdle comes in coal mining is land acquisition.

Attachment to land is one of the aspects of adivasi identity. ‘This notion of bringing adivasi peoples into the ‘mainstream’ is based on the outmoded conviction that governments know best – a colonialist attitude with the effect of taking over adivasi lands and resources. This approach has destroyed many peoples and threatens many more.’- (Reports condemns India’s policy of assimilation of tribals into mainstream, 2011)

Unfortunately, Jagannathpur along with villages around ,falls prey to the mainstream notion of development. The land is going to be acquired by SECL and the notifications are given under the Coal Bearing Areas (Acquisition and Development) Act (CBAA). The SECL is going to acquire land for coal mining in 10 different phases, out of which 2 phases already functional. 3 hamlets in Jagannathpur have been given notifications under the 3rd phases is called Mahaan 3 project.

By virtue of the CBAA , the mining of coal generally supersedes the community rights. Procurement of land, particularly adivasi land, without free and prior consent, is devastating. (Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt, Radhika Krishnan, Nesar Ahmad, 2012) The adivasis not just lose their lands and livelihoods but also their cultural roots, their community togetherness and community support systems. Unfortunately Panchayat (Extension to Schedule Areas) Act, 1996 which entrusted the Gram Sabha as a decentralized unit for participatory democracy and restricted powers of the state to bring any law cannot oppose the mining under CBAA. (Land Acquisition Under Coal Bearing Area ( Acquisition & Development ) Act 1957)

One of the provisions under PESA is that the Gram Sabha at the appropriate level shall be consulted before making the land acquisition, be it for development projects and before resettling or rehabilitating persons affected by them. But there lies a slight ambiguity. If we go by the word ’consult’, it means the state has only to consult the Gram Sabha, but their opinions on land acquisition and acceptance or rejection of the project is not legally bound by the law. This is a loophole that has often been misused by the state. (MICI Diary, 2011)

This was the case in the second phase of SECL mining. A village close to Jagannathpur was acquired by the company. The people opposed that company, they didn’t want mining company to open. Without gramsabha, the mining company started breaking people’s values and sentiments. They lure them with money and jobs. So the non adivasis convinced few adivasis especially younger generation youth. As a result most of them was forced to sell their land. The lands were sold at dirt cheap prices between 67-89 thousand per acre when the land price outside was around 4.5-5 lakhs/per acre.

In adivasis community here, the land is generally on the head of the family’s name. It is usually the father. If the couple has three children, they get the property on their name only when the father dies. Jobs were given to only one family member. In a situation like the above, only once member gets the job and the other two remaining unemployed or they migrate in search of jobs in the city, where they end up in physically exploited and mentally alienated. Others found work as day laborers in the upcoming small and medium size industries, particularly stone quarries and stone crusher machines enterprises, in the area. Here they are substantially under-paid and exposed to various health hazards. This is a human rights violation and gross violation of human dignity making the adivasis helpless of their lives. They remain nowhere, their community and identity is lost, their support system is gone. They remain lonely in an alien place.

Keeping the sensitive situation in Jagannathpur especially due to it being proposed for mining, any person, who speaks to people about rights and collectives people to protest against the mining company is often seen with an angle of suspicion. Few of the leaders who actively give information about various law and acts are seen as anti state and kept an active tap of their activities. Why? Protecting the adivasis from draconian laws and educating them of what’s happening with them a crime? After all, saying no to give up lands is hampering the so called development of the nation. But nobody talks about adivasis jail, jungle amen.

“As the twentieth century draws to a close, the world’s poor are the chief victims of Structural Violence “ a violence which has thus far defied the analysis of many seeking to understand the nature and distribution of extreme suffering. Why might this be so? One answer is that the poor are not only more likely to suffer, they are also more likely to have their suffering silenced”- Paul Farmer (3)

Food, agriculture and nutrition:

The government revises and develops schemes and programs every 5 years to integrate adivasis with modern techniques and technologies regarding agriculture, livelihoods, education facilities, health facilities etc (Raised, 1984).After the transfer of power in 1947, the government of India promoted the building of large dams and industrialization in these areas which contain 80% of the natural resources in India. The green revolution has brought new technologies and schemes that have changed the patterns of their livelihood by encouraging agricultural production for the market. This process was accelerated by globalization and liberalization. The exposure of their land to the outside world brought in the influx of the non adivasis to their territories, which further threatened the identity, culture and tradition of the adivasis.(Fernandes, 2006).

The introduction of modern technologies for agriculture has never happened with due consultation cultivators. Otherwise, these new technologies would have been customized and catered to maximize nutrition rich crops like local rice, Jowar, Maize, Ragi etc though they are not market oriented.

Similarly, the adivasis have changed their entire agriculture patterns to build the food security of the country but they have faced the brunt of it by being denied the basic needs of food and nutrition. Let’s accept that these people are not getting adequate food/ nutritious food to eat. Treating the issues of malnutrition or hunger by providing 35kgs of food grains through PDS, providing ready to eat food though ICDS for children below 3 years and pregnant women and lactating women is clearly insufficient but the bigger question is, if it is even the solution.

After all these years, the experience of ready to eat food for children below 3 years in addressing nutrition has remained inadequate. This is a very critical period of both physical and mental growth hence we have to understand that there is no substitute to fresh cooked food. Even with the best of intention through a very strong PDS system, we will only be able to address hunger not nutrition.

Personally I believe this is structural violence that the system is creating for the adivasi people of Jagannathpur and other adivasi groups in this area and by structural violence I mean creating a structure or a system that directly or indirectly denies or prevents the people from meeting their basic needs. Structural Violence is problematic because many factors converge to create the conditions for suffering and marginalization. Starvation can be a form of direct violence, cultural violence or nonviolent resistance. For a community that earns its living primarily by physical labour, any factor that affects the diet or nourishment of the people hits directly at their livelihood. This translates to poor earnings which, by reducing the purchasing power of people, results in starvation which leads to continuation of the vicious cycle.

The fundamental argument of structural violence deals with the question of choice, where the systemic approach to nutrition has failed to adopt and understand the already existing knowledge system. The system hegemonies in the form of a dominant arrangement influenced and inclined towards a market force. The pattern of consumption has mostly been defined by a mainstream society disregarding a sustainable pattern of nutrition flow . The realization of crafting a country as food sufficient largely devoid itself from the understanding and importance of a nutrition sufficient state. The limited source of nutrition severely compromises the state of mental growth with increasing vulnerability in fifth scheduled areas. The significance of such practise has only reduced it to a supplementary food arrangement mostly defined by a populist political approach.

Money as a concept:

Similarly, the change in the cropping pattern from millets, paddy to only paddy brought in the shift in the economical aspect in the lives of adivasis. Money economy entered the villages. The Adivasi culture, as subsistence economy bases society, did not develop the habit of savings or taking up business entrepreneurship. Money-lenders from outside could play upon the community’s lack of experience and information. They provided credit for high interest rates leading to further land alienation, of bond labour to pay the loans.

Silence Spaces

“ There’s really no such thing as the ‘voiceless’. There are only the deliberately silenced, or the preferably unheard.”- Arundhati Roy (4)

Special Gram Sabha and media coverage

In the last week of March, 2012, a special gram sabha was called by the district administration in the village. The agenda of the gram sabha was to take consent from the people to open coal mines in the village, which means that the people have to give their lands for the larger development and in return they get money from the company. The district administration wanted to speak and negotiate and take their consent on this issue.

The gram sabha was announced three days before the gram sabha. The Thesildhar, SDM of the block were attending the gram sabha along with the mining company officials. The Gram Sabha was to be held in Panchayat bhavan, a small room which holds around 100 people. The Panchayat Bhavan was the main highway around 2-3 kms away from most of the hamlets. For the first time, a tent was put up outside the Panchayat building so that it can hold more people, along with special arrangement such as water tank, chairs, fans, mikes etc were set up. It was done by the government in association with the mining company. It was after all a big event, where the mining company people are going to directly negotiate with the adivasis, in the presence of the government officials.

The SDM, thesildhar, other government officials, mining company people, along with the people especially non adivasis who wanted the mining company to open mines in the village were present in the panchayat bhavan. No adivasi attended the gram sabha in the Panchayat bhavan.

All the adivasis from various hamlets gathered in the open lands under the Sal tree(that is considered auspicious for them), near a hamlet around 2kms away from the road, which accommodate more people. They said that, “gram sabha is where ‘we’ decide to meet not where the government wants us to meet.” So more than 500 people waited from 10 am for the gram sabha to start. The Government officials denied to go to the place where people were gathered as they felt unsafe, as they thought they will be either captured or beaten up the people and no security preparations were made there. One of the senior officials said “it’s a special gram sabha, it should be held where the government decides to have it.” After all, the our sarkari babus think that they have the higher authority to decide what adivasis in this area want and the resistance from the adivasis has hit their egos a little hard.

The officials from the mining company were very clear about their agenda. The sole agenda was to meet the people and tell them how much land was going to go, how much compensation will they be given and more importantly, taking the consent of the people. So they didn’t mind going to places where the adivasis were waiting. They reached the place with a jeep of security guards and water tank. The adivasis greeted them and gave them chairs to sit and the program continued.

The officials greeted the people and came to agenda directly and started speaking about how much land and how much compensation would they be getting. One of the adivasi leader, went up the stage and took the microphone and said, “we are not interested in giving our lands, so if there is anything you want to talk please do, otherwise please go.” There was no more conversation held. The officials from the mining company left the place along with the jeep of security personals. The people shouted slogans “SECL vaapas jao” (SECL go back) as they left. It was a moment of triumph for the people.

But the drama didn’t end here. The people wanted the gram Sabha minutes be noted in the official record book by the gram sachiv (village administrative officer appointed by the government). But the sachiv didn’t want to write it because his higher officials didn’t want to write about it as it was held. People repeated “gram sabha is where ‘we’ decide to meet not where the government wants us to meet.” Why not, PESA gives them the right to claim that. According to PESA, the decision of the gram sabha under the special gram sabha is held final. ( PESA ). People at last convinced the gram sachiv to write in the records that the gram sabha decided that they will not give their land away endorsed by all the people present including the Sarpanch.

After as they were about to disperse, some of the people who were present in the Panchayat building informed that non adivasis were negotiating with the mining company people. The women got more irritated and started walking towards the panchayat bhavan to send them away but as they reached half a distance, the SECL officials left the village. So the women also went back to their houses. But they were more happy and smiles of what they have achieved today. Some of the adivasis who had contacts in the media informed them about how the gram Sabha denied the negotiations of the mining company and how the gram Sabha held.

Next day, the news paper carried a big caption on the front page saying “log ne kiya gram sabha ka brahastekar (people protested and denied to attend the gram sabha)” left the people’s fight unheard and manipulated that to a point that denied their integrity of what they achieved. The media turned out to their foes too. Their voices and resistance to protect themselves and their identity, culture, remains unheard in vacuum spaces.

The whole event depicts a struggle where the most justifiable democratic institution of Gram Sabha is undermined vis-a-vis a media which inclined towards a state of bureaucracy which is monopolistic in nature. What is not evident here is the recognition of the thousands of voices and establishing a system what Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky says in their book “Manufacturing Consent” (Herman, Chomsky, 1988) . The hijacking of those unheard voices by non-adivasis with a systemic propaganda focuses on unequal power equation and depriving a particular community from accessing justice. This particular village of Chhattisgarh epitomises a struggle as parallel to hundreds of movements throughout the country. This could be attributed to the growing form of discontent and process of suppression leading to taking up arms against the state.

Survival for dignity

To the natives of this world

Now it belongs to a system

That is tainted with wars

The wild fields of old

Live on in our dreams

Dreams that our forefathers bared

I’m a native, a warrior

Born of this land

I fight for the freedom

To be indigenous and free

I call forth my forefathers

To claim to all whom I am

An indigenous person

Who fights to be free?

-Kaila George (5)

Each day, all of them go about doing their daily chores as if nothing has effected them. Phua laughed and joked about lives, daily struggles and unknown future. She did her daily chores. Started her day at 5 in the morning, she works until the days ends. Ofcourse affected by the politics of survival. But she is hopeful. The day we went to meet her, she smiled and said “ I dont know if I get to see my future here.”

The smile baffled me. It is a constant reminder for me and for all those who are working with advices that they silently absorbed the change, making them more vulnerable. The stories of their life are also lit by the courage to face a battle for survival. Despite they have fallen into the clutches of the market; they smile, talk, dance, go about their daily routines, and pray to their gods to have a better life. Some of them left hope. But most of them, quietly battle all of it just to live- in search of hope and dignity.

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End Notes

• Folk song sung in Jharkhand (Vandana Tete)
• Quote from Fanon’s book , The Wretched of the Earth
• Quote from Paul Framer’s article “On Suffering and Structural Violence: A View from Below”
• Quote from Arundhati Roy’s 2004 City of Sydney Peace Prize Lecture. 7 November 2004
• Kaila George, poet from New Zealand, poem Indigenious People