Ecocritical Perspectives on Adivasi Destiny

Past, Present and Ancient Futures?

Abstract

Adivasi culture is the essence of hidden India. Tribal people represent India’s most ancient cultures, and preserve the strongest set of nature-respecting values, which can be summarised as ‘deep ecology’ – an economy based on ecological principles, of living lightly on the land and minimising private property, with strong emphasis on co-operation and labour exchange. British rule brought huge iniquities, and Adivasis rebelled again and again against the scarlet or khaki uniforms and unjust laws that alienated the forest from those who had always lived in and around it. Independent India has continued the same power structures in a system of ‘internal colonialism’, enforcing a vast scale of dispossession. Adivasis’ present condition is then extremely harsh, as patterns of exploitation and outsider-domination have escalated to extreme levels of dispossession and marginalisation. Mining projects and metal factories are invading tribal lands, big dams are drowning them, and a hideous civil war in the areas of eastern and central India is enlisting Tribal people on both sides. Adivasi culture offers a vision of true, long-term sustainability and survival, but as communities are displaced and split between left and right, the human suffering escalates, and the way ahead is opaque. What will be the future destiny of Adivasis?