Social Movements — Sociology STD 12 Humanities — Question
CBSE BoardEnglish MediumSTD 12 HumanitiesSociologySocial Movements6 Marks
Question
Describe the Tribal Movements in India.
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Answer
Introduction:
Jharkhand is one of the newly-formed states of India, carved out of south Bihar in so be the year 2000.
Behind the formation of this state lies more than a century of resistance.
The social movement for Jharkhand had a charismatic leader in Birsa Munda, an adivasi who led a major uprising against the British. After his death, Birsa became an important icon of the movement. Stories and songs about him can be found all over Jharkhand. The memory of Birsa's struggle was also kept alive by writing.
Christian missionaries working in south Bihar were responsible for spreading literacy in the area.
The work of literate adivasis:
Literate adivasis began to research and write about their history and myths.
They documented and disseminated information about tribal customs and cultural practices.
This helped to create a unified ethnic consciousness and a shared identity as Jharkhandis.
Literate adivasis were also in a position to get government jobs so that, over time, a middle-class adivasi intellectual leadership emerged that formulated the demand for a separate state and lobbied for it in India and abroad.
Reasons for the movement:
Within south Bihar, adivasis shared a common hatred of dikus-migrant traders and money-lenders who had settled in the area and grabbed its wealth, impoverishing the original residents.
Most of the benefits from the mining and industrial projects in this mineral-rich region had gone to dikus even as adivasi lands had been aliented.
Adivasi experiences of marginalization and their sense of injustice were mobilized to create a shared Jharkhandi identity and inspire collective action that eventually led to the formation of a separate state.
The issues against which the leaders of the movement in Jharkhand agitated were:
Acquisition of land for large irrigation projects and firing ranges
Survey and settlement operations, which were held up, camps closed down, etc.
Collection of loans, rent and cooperative dues, which were resisted.
Nationalization of forest produces which they boycotted.
The process of state formation initiated by the Indian government following the attainment of independence generated disquieting trends in all the major hill districts in the region.
Conscious of their distinct identity and traditional autonomy the tribes were unsure of being incorporated within the administrative machinery of Assam.
The rise of ethnicity in the region is thus a response to cope with the new situation which developed as a consequence of the tribe's contact with a powerful alien system.
Long isolated from the Indian mainstream the tribes were able to maintain their own worldview and social and cultural institutions with little external influence.
While the earlier phase showed a tendency towards secessionism, this trend has been replaced by a search for autonomy within the framework of the Indian Constitution.
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