People's Democracy

THE adivasis (tribals) of Kerala are in the thick of a struggle that has created consternation in the ruling circles in the state. The UDF-backed adivasi leadership is in a dilemma as it could not get its government fulfil the promises it had made. Led by Kerala State Karshaka Thozhilali Union (KSKTU), an affiliate of the All India Kisan Sabha, the Adivasi Welfare Committee has urged the people to help the tribals grab the land earmarked for them. The adivasis’ struggle for land has now entered a new stage, with the slogan "Land or Jail!" Thousands of adivasi men and women have so far courted arrest.

As per the 2001 census, there are about 3.25 lakh adivasis in Kerala, about 1.10 per cent of the state’s population. Of the total adivasi population, 30 per cent are in Wynad district, about 26 per cent in Idukki and Palakkad districts and the remaining in other districts. About 5 per cent adivasis live in tree holes and caves in interior forest regions. They are the proto-tribals of Kerala and have mainly five clans: Chola Naikker, Kattunaikker, Kurumbar, Kadar, and Korugar. Their clan-based villages are called oors. There are about 670 oors with a total population is nearly 17,000. Proto-tribals depend for livelihood mainly on forest produce; these they collect and sell outside.

About 46 per cent adivasis are employed in different sectors, and constitute a good workforce in mountainous regions. Of them, over 55 per cent are agricultural labourers. The remaining depend on gathering forest produce, cattle breeding, etc. Thus more than half of the adivasis do some job for livelihood. Yet, most of them are impoverished. Officially, more than 37 per cent of the adivasis live below the poverty line. But the actual percentage is much higher than this concocted figure. The wages their employers give them are a pittance and the prices they get for the forest produce are meagre.

It is the KSKTU that always took up the adivasi problems and organised struggles to make the tribals’ life a bit smooth. It made tremendous gains among adivasi agricultural workers. In Vanimal (Kozhikode district) that has a considerable adivasi population, the landlords once began to grab the tribals’ ration cards by giving them nominal loans. The landlords used these cards to collect food materials and kerosene from ration shops and sell them at usurious rates. The KSKTU fought hard against this practice and succeeded in ending it --- a golden chapter in the KSKTU’s history.

The KSKTU also fought against the "pumpkin dance and pumpkin feast."

In Wynad, tribal dance has been an essential ritual before the paddy seeds are sown. But while it was a rite for the adivasis, the landlords treated it as a profitable ploughing and soil preparation work in paddy fields. The adivasis were given only food for the work. Called the "pumpkin dance and pumpkin feast," it involved an exploitation of the adivasis. After the KSKTU took up the issue, the ritual is performed outside the paddy fields, as a means of self-expression. Ploughing is now paid work.

The KSKTU also put an end to the hooliganism of the forest mafia and their henchmen who made the adivasis work for a meagre remuneration --- a bit of liquor and a few puffs of smoking. These elements, who had robbed the adivasis’ lands, were also dishonouring the adivasi women. The dire warning the CPI(M) and KSKTU gave these elements, stopped the practice to a great extent.

But the KSKTU alone could not succeed simply because all adivasis are not engaged in agriculture. Hence the birth of Adivasi Welfare Committee, called Adivasi Kshema Samithy (AKS) in Kerala. The AKS has made strides in all districts, taking up adivasi issues, warning the landlords and forest mafia, and waking up the adivasis to their rights.

Whenever the CPI(M)-led Left Democratic Front (LDF) came to power in Kerala, it enacted progressive laws for the adivasis’ welfare, taking them far above their counterparts elsewhere in India. In Kerala, 57.2 per cent adivasis are literate; 84.5 per cent of their children are in schools. Their dropout rate (31.4 per cent) is much below the all-India average. In 2000, there were 23,392 adivasi children in lower primary, 17,631 in upper primary classes, 13,831 in high schools, 1,109 at +2 level, 1,022 in degree and 134 in post graduate courses, 31 in medical and 471 in technical courses.

Adivasi areas have 59 out of 959 primary health centres and 268 out of 5,029 sub-centres. The LDF’s struggles and its governments’ progressive enactments have thus brought considerable change to adivasi life.

This is not to say that the adivasis have no problems or they have came on par with other sections. They still remain backward and deprived of their lands. A considerable section of the so-called immigrants are land-grabbers and belong to the forest mafia. The adivasis do want to regain their lost lands, lead a life of their own, protect their folklore and culture, and come on par with others. In 1999, the state assembly passed an act for protecting the adivasis lands and their traditions and culture. As per this law, each adivasi family was to be given one acre of land where it could live its own life. The LDF regime was making attempts to find out suitable lands for the purpose.

But after the LDF lost the 2001 election and the Congress-led United Democratic Front (UDF) came to power, the UDF’s policies deprived many adivasis of their employment, and adivasi oors became the centres of poverty and starvation. Starvation deaths became a routine. Then the Adivasi Kshema Samithy organised a "Starvation March" with wide support from all sections.

When the UDF saw the CPI(M) and KSKTU making strides in adivasi areas, it sought to counter them by floating a Tribal Gothra Sabha under Congress patronage, with C K Janu as leader. They were allowed to besiege the State Secretariat, by a chief minister who has banned all types of demonstration in front of the Secretariat. This UDF-sponsored strike (!) ended with the farce of a negotiation which finally decided that each adivasi family would be given five acres of land. The chief minister declared on October 11, 2001 that 42,000 acres of land were identified for the purpose. He promised to distribute this land before December 31.

But this proved to be a wild promise, no land was distributed, and the ceremony held to "distribute" land turned into a farce. The adivasis then realised the truth behind the Secretariat satyagraha under Janu and the subsequent talks.

It is in this background that adivasis launched their present struggle. It also involves capturing the land allotted to them on paper. Over 800 adivasis in Wynad district are now in jails. Of them, 272 are women, some of them pregnant. More than 100 children are behind the bars. They are denied even minimum facilities. These hapless men and women are no criminals, but are being treated worse than criminals. Their food is a kind of porridge, mixed with chilly paste.

Even though a considerable sum is being spent in adivasi areas, it has not led to any development there. There are not many lavatories or even wells. Many homeless adivasis sleep under the sky. The actual beneficiaries of pro-adivasi schemes are most often the tribal welfare officers, some politicians and a few paper organisations. The KSKTU is trying to fight their unholy alliance and stop their exploitation, by making the adivasis aware about the welfare projects and schemes meant for them. To create such awareness, the LDF government had recruited paid volunteers from among the educated adivasi youth. But the UDF retrenched these volunteers as soon as it came to power. The old nexus of politicians, bureaucrats and paper organisations has been restored to manipulate the sum meant for adivasi welfare. The UDF is in fact persecuting the adivasis by refusing to provide them free ration during days of stress, take steps for elimination of contaminating diseases, and take measures to stop starvation deaths.

The adivasis do not have any right even in places where the government had started adivasi rehabilitation works. The Sugandhagiri project was begun in 1976 to rehabilitate 750 adivasi families in a 1500 hectares area. The Pookkod milk production scheme (1978) aimed to rehabilitate 110 families. The Vattachira collective farm was started to rehabilitate 40 families liberated from bondage. The Attappadi Farming Society was started on 1000 acres to rehabilitate the homeless adivasis. But in none of these areas have the adivasis any right at all, nor have they got any land except on paper.

The force enacted by Antony and his cohorts has thus come to an end, leaving C K Janu and her likes in a wild fury of despair. The forest mafia still has a field day. Mathikettanmala and Pooyamkutty reserve forests are only two examples of land grabbing and deforestation by the mafia. Cabinet members are at loggerheads about it. If K M Mani has his men at Mathikettanmala, why can’t Sudhakaran and Sankaranarayanan?

In the erstwhile princely state of Travancore, there were adivasi protection acts and one of the king’s proclamations gave the adivasis the right to collect forest produce on a small scale. Some traders too were given license to buy these produce from the adivasis. It was clearly stipulated that adivasis would not be paid in liquor or drugs for the produce they sell; they would be given either money or food materials. The act had provided for issuing a gun to every oor mooppan (head of an oor) to protect the adivasis from wild beasts.

But the "democratic" rule under the Congress is harming the adivasis. The UDF government is trying to dismantle the cooperative societies trading in honey, wax, spices, medicines, etc. An outfit consisting of all anti-adivasi forces --- called Vana Samrakshana Samithy (forest protection committee) --- has been formed, as a cover to the exploitation and destruction of organic diversities. All bigwigs of Kerala, and interested foreign companies, are out to ‘protect’ the forests.

But the adivasis are now up in arms against this ruthless government and the brigands it is patronising. It is a struggle for the adivasis’ survival, akin to the one that put an end to landlordism in the 1970s. The adivasis of Kerala are not ready to die like Red Indians of the American continent. They are proving worthy successors of the Kurichiya soldiers who fought the British under Pazassiraja of Kottayam.