Author: Manju Gupta
Wide Wings of Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram
by Surya Narain Saxena, Suruchi
Prakashan, 320 pp, Rs 140.00
This book by a radical Hindu thinker,
analyst and journalist is a painstaking effort on the quiet but dedicated
and multidimensional work of the voluntary organisation, called the
Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, for the uplift of the tribals
or the Vanvasis of the country. The book is a study of the missionary
endeavour, the odds faced on the path and how these were overcome
by those who gave their lives and years to build the body from a
non-entity to its present shape and size.
India is undoubtedly richer and
more colourful because of these peace- loving tribals known as Janajatis
or Vanvasis according to the Constitution of India. They have been
in the vanguard of most national movements, including the country's
national freedom movement. Today they are an inseparable part not
only of the country's folklore, mythology and history, but also of
sports and politics.
A few decades ago, RSS Sarsanghachalak
Shri Guruji had inspired a renowned freedom fighter, Shri Ramakant
(Balasaheb) Desh-pande, to start the Kalyan Ashram for the economic
development of the tribal society. Today the small step has acquired
the form of a mass movement. The Ashram has built up its presence
in almost every nook and corner of tribal India, serving through
hospitals, schools, hostels, balwadis, adult education centres and
various other humanitarian activities.
However, the Vanvasis of India have
yet to be educated on their nation's history. Scholars say that the
Vanvasis helped Shri Rama and that Sugriva, Shabari and Hanuman,
all were Vanvasis. In Arunachal Pradesh, Rukmini is believed to be
from the Idu Mishimi tribe. Legendary heroes like Birsa Munda, Rani
Gaidinliu and Thalakkal Chandu are immortal icons of India's history.
Ironically, in the past while certain
colonial `scholars' and anthropologists kept labelling various Vanvasis
as `criminal tribes', `head-hunters', etc., aggressive proselytisers
contemptuously called them heathens and pagans, posing as the sole
emancipators and well-wishers of these `sinful' souls. The Vanvasis,
called `aborigines' by Europeans, were kept apart from the mainstream
society and were declared `animists' having no religion worth the
name. The Vanvasi areas were sealed off as `protected areas' to all
except Christian missionaries to carry out conversions to Christianity
by force, fraud and allurements and destroy their rich culture and
heritage.
The Vanvasis, comprising some 400
tribes and sub-tribes-the Bhils of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra
and Madhya Pradesh being over 5,000,000 are the largest and the Great
Andamanese, merely 20 persons, are the smallest-about 8 per cent
of India's population. They generally inhabit the hills, forests,
deserts in the remote interior or border regions of the country,
where communications are poor or non-existent and life difficult
to sustain. Their environment and habitat are handicapped by several
factors-social, economic and anthropological-imposing on them a life
of want and suffering, resulting in extreme poverty, backwardness,
illiteracy, superstitions and inertia.
The author says, "The picture of
tribal life from Arunachal Pradesh in the east to Gujarat in the
west and from Ladakh in the north to Kerala or Nicobar in the south,
wherever they live, is more or less the same. Their physical isolation
or distance from the social or national mainstream over the centuries
has naturally instilled in them a sense of insecurity, aloofness
and separateness, which deprived them the much needed spirit of enterprise
and the will to better their lot, the qualities that develop from
close contact and interaction between various groups, castes and
classes of people." In the absence of contact and interaction, the
life of a group becomes static and a state of no-change takes over
which is generally broken by an alien culture through exploitation.
The author's regret is that the
fruits of modern age and the democratic process have not yet reached
these poor Vanvasis. According to the author, "poverty and ignorance
attract a number of exploitative forces, which, when allowed a free
hand among them, destroy their social fabric and delink them from
the socio-cultural mainstream of the country or nation. In India,
these forces have been working under three garbs-namely, religion,
politics and business." The author says that in religion, exploitation
is through Church- controlled education and health services aided by foreign
money. In politics it is through communist-led elements and agents
of neo- secessionist imperialists of the West, who mastermind violent
agitations and spread hatred among various sections of the society.
In business, it is through money-lenders, traders and other unscrupulous
economic exploiters.
The author has identified the various
roles the State can play in preserving the identity of the Vanvasis:
guarantee the preservation of cultural
heritage and continuity of living traditions; constitute various
agencies for ensuring State protection; procure, store and research
in tribal culture; popularise and develop tribal culture; ban
conversions; protect tribal cultural heritage.
(Suruchi Prakashan, D.B. Gupta Road,
Jhandewalan, New Delhi-110055.)