The Future of Tribalism

Irrespective of the quality of education received in cities or in the tribal hinterland, Adivasis must arise and claim the promises of equality, justice, liberty and fraternity encoded in the Constitution to count as citizens rather than samples

- Sonajharia Minz

This is a sincere attempt to assess change in order to estimate the future of tribalism in post-truth politics, acknowledging the challenge. In times of rapid changes in various global phenomena such as economic growth, technological advancements, Artificial Intelligence (AI), etc., to delve into the topic of ‘‘Tribes’’ or for that matter tribalism, may not help in corelating the trends, looking back at history in order to determine the future.

The task begins with decoding a gamut of terms commonly used to denote tribals in the existing literature as well as in conversations. Here are a few of the many: ‘defeated people’, ‘uncivilised’, ‘illiterate’, ‘culturally primitive’, ‘impoverished’, ‘exploited’, ’anti-development’, ‘technology-unfriendly’, but ‘exotic’, ‘privileged’, and, the self-referred term Adivasi. The assertion of the Adivasis as the original settlers of the peninsula has been denied due to the inadequacy of the definition of tribes in India, besides the historic and political reasons. Thus the first matter at stake is the identity of Adivasis, and all the terms related to their actions such as ‘revolt’ instead of ‘resistance’. Some of these autonomous actions for preservation and assertion are known in history as Santal Hul, Tana Bhagat Movement, Birsa Munda Movement, including Adibasi Mahasabha, in Chota Nagpur and Santal Pargana. Similar historical accounts in other tribal-dominated areas of the Northeast region and western India are also available.