What If We All Become Adivasis

Why do you call us poor. Why do we call us deprived. Why do you laugh at our clothes. Why do you ogle at our girls. Why do you call us lazy and drunkards. Why do you send the forces here. Do we go to your Delhi and dig a hole at India Gate.

Why does our constitution and our courts not protect us. Why is it always us who have to give up our lands for the greater good. Why? A few kings asked me.

Kings for they are, king of all that they survey. For hundred and hundreds of years. Pushed into corners in obscure cities, far from homes, as endless projects encroaches into our the lands of our gods and goddesses, where do adivasis go, for they have nowhere to go.

How will this end is a question that has been plaguing me for decades now. Oscillating between romantic visions of adivasi life to frequent reminders that little is left of the ancient adivasi world, where do we turn to.

..... exactly is adivasi life. As a non-adivasi, perhaps many of us will never be able to completely understand a world where less is more and the forest is enough, enough for not one but entire villages, where a single household in a remote corner of the world has enough to sustain not for one but several generations, where money is but still an alien construct.

For a while, I decided to become an adivasi. And evoke my deepest thoughts. And what did I find in these few moments of clarity.

Not much because it is not rocket science. It is a world where the people, cut off from much of the larger world is but dependent upon nature for their very survival.

Here the people trust nature’s constitution. Prakriti ka constitution. A sanvidhan which places value on everyday life and where everyone respects the life and livelihoods of all, where people do not need to travel long distances to attend a court which they don’t understand and talk to officers who show not much but contempt.

The manifesto of nature’s constitution has always been there. It entails a few simple principles namely, living off the land and being allowed to receive nature’s gifts without restrictions. Here, there are no forest guards to watch over you and invariably take a chicken or two.

Raju pointed at a house in the middle of a forest and pointed out its peculiarities. Hardly much material wealth, a few Gogra trees, 25 chicken, 5 goats and a couple of cows is all that is in this household. They did not need much else. And why would they need it. There was no need to compete against oneself and the other, for there was nothing to compete for. They are getting their daily nutrition right here, a few fish for breakfast, some liquor for evening jaunts, a little farming and a regular supply of millets. The frogs and snakes are always around, in case there is a need for meat.

And the Marias are content. There is little internet or mobile network but they do not feel the need yet or it. There is ample in the forest to get connected too. The annual festival is coming up in January and the topic for discussion is serious. There are plans to bring all 108 Maria villages together ad plan the Bablai mata festival deep inside the forest. There will be fairs and festivals, perhaps a lot of revelry. The Bhumiyas will discuss the future of their land and in the light of mining operations commencing in Surajgarh, adivasis leaders will discuss the next course of action.

Nature’s constitution is but a natural extension of our own venerable constitution, the one book that is as widely read and quoted as the Koran or the Gita. For it places the onus of a worthy life upon the people and the state, a simple vision where the most powerful institution stems from the soil.

The key principles of nature’s constitutions are simple. Let everyone have a right to exercise their genius, follow the laws of the land and use our constitution to ensure justice for all. The steel frame practices policies that are not detrimental to the people and where the idea of heaven as mentioned by an old Adivasi several decades ago, that the idea of heaven is miles upon miles of forest without a forest guard.

Here mining is not necessary and cities need to be their own growth engines, not a beast that constantly sucks the energy of the countryside. Here agricultural fields are so densely surrounded by giant trees that one might confuse it for a forest, but a forest it truly is. A forest where space is given to the first people of India to freely practice their craft and islands of biodiversity flourishes in an obscure world that is really nothing but a simple place. Here weekly haats are the main economic engines and not some alien’s enterprise who travels unannounced to Adivasi land, encroaches their space and decides to call himself a native.

It is virtually impossible to define this way of life but surely, it is marked by the simplicity of nature where humans constantly keep reminding themselves that nature should not be played around with or the implications will be grave.