By P A Chacko
Sahibganj, July 6, 2023: “Cut his balls. Let him learn a lesson for life!” So screamed an Adivasi, hearing the most atrocious and immoral act of urinating on a poor Adivasi by an alleged BJP leader in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.
Given the character of the peace-loving Indian Adivasi, immediate expressions of anger or reactions to ill treatment are generally slow. But, like smoldering fire under burning coal, they slowly ignite and, once they catch fire, they become an unstoppable conflagration.
But the above noted reaction, though immediate and timely, looked like a flood gate burst open. However, it was undoubtedly the result of continuous acts of violence and oppression being meted out to the Adivasis by the Hindu majority.
History has witnessed such rebellious conflagrations over centuries of oppression and injustice done to the Adivasis. Particularly central India, consisting of Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Jharkhand, and Bihar, has had numerous Adivasi rebellions for regaining their human dignity, their religious and cultural identity, and freedom from injustice and oppression.
When the British invaded their territory, they were taken aback by the forcible back-door entry of the aliens with their guns and horses. When the ever-generous and hospitable indigenous people watched with anxiety such invasion of their territory and intrusion into their privacy, their blood boiled.
But they kept a studied silence and watched carefully every move of the alien. When the British introduced surveying Adivasi landholdings and wrote them off as British government possession, their restive murmur became slow outbursts. When the British tactically introduced tax revenue rules over Adivasi land and tax payment in cash currency, the Adivasis felt dispossessed in their own age-old territory and they began to sharpen their implements.
Adding insult to injury, the British encouraged the entry of money lenders from Bengal to lend money at exorbitant interest to the locals so that currency could be paid as land revenue to the British coffer. In a barter system-based economy to which the people were accustomed, the government insisted on land revenue payment in cash.
Again, victimized by the unjust lending system of the money lenders, the Adivasis painfully watched their land slowly and steadily slipping into the hands of the waiting landlords who were cultivated and groomed by the British as their local agents.
Enough was enough, they said. Their messianic leaders gave the clarion call. With their traditional weapons of bow and arrows, hatchets and spears, they came out in hundreds and thousands and hunted for the oppressors. Many were gunned down by the British and the landlords. Blood flowed.
But the oppressive administration, seeing the blood of martyrs flowing like streams, learnt a lesson not to let more such blood flow.
Land Tenancy laws were enacted like the Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (CNT Act) and the Santal Parganas Tenancy Act (SPTA) along with their recognition of tribal customary laws and socio-cultural system. Today the people honour their martyr saints like Birsa Munda, Sido, Kanhu, Chand, Bhairav, Phulo, Jhano and others.
Thus, the Adivasis won their freedom and regained their stolen dignity and identity through great sacrifices and struggle. But, in independent India, the Brown Sahibs are ever active to administer a hammer blow on them. The central Indian belt, with its rich mineral resources, has attracted business and corporate vultures to dispossess the people of their land and possessions.
Added to it is the atrocious attempt to thrust down into their throats, at bayonet point, the Hindutva agenda that the Adivasis are traditionally Hindus and, hence, they are given marching orders by the Hindu fundamentalists and their political agents to return to the Hindu fold (Ghar wapsi).
But even as they want the Adivasis to be inducted into a vote bank political bandwagon, their manner of looking down upon the Adivasis with their Brahmanical and Manuwadi caste-based thinking is obnoxious and inhuman.
Such despicable behavior has been amply demonstrated by one Pravesh Shukla in Madhya Pradesh. Using a poor Adivasi’s head as his piss pot, the man has created history by doing the most criminal, immoral and insane act. No sensible human being on earth will condone or even pardon such cruelty. Not even a dog will piss on another dog. Here a human figure pisses on another human being in public under the glare of cameras as if he is doing a noble act.
The intelligent Adivasi will revolt at this inhuman cruelty. No human being living on earth with clear conscience can refrain from feeling revolt and outburst of anger. No wonder, one Adivasi shouted: “Cut his balls.”
The Indian criminal law system, inherited from the British, though amended, will not allow such punishment. The perpetrator may even go scot-free from the judicial corridors, given the obliging prosecution’s playing the fiddle. His followers will even get him into Guinness Books.
Such criminal behavior of the alleged BJP leader towards an Adivasi is but a tip of the iceberg. It looks as if such acts will be the grand finale reception at the rechristening Ghar Wapsi ritual for the Adivasis. And, possibly, there may be more in the offing.
(Jesuit Father P A Chacko has worked in the Santal tribal belt of Jharkhand state in eastern India.)