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At one level the debate now appears to be whether the tribals,with their pristine way of life,should be dragged into the “mainstream”,or allowed to be on their own terms. Should they be won over to the more rushed way of life,with mechanisation,access to modern medicine and the clamour for “good” jobs?

That debate was settled when the Constitution was agreed upon,and tribals,along with Scheduled Castes,were given preferential access to government jobs and education. Areas they inhabited were reserved for them and often kept deliberately inaccessible — even today,Election Commission officials take days to reach Abhujmarh. The argument was that there was to be full opportunity to keep their areas away from “others” though they would be provided with full access to opportunities outside.

In the Northeast the debate played out differently. Given the demography,they could collectively develop a voice and a tribal elite in a way that did not happen in central India. Education was part of the missionary exercise and benefited people in the Northeast immensely in helping them take advantage of opportunities that India offered.

However,just after Independence,several kinds of politicisation aimed at the tribals were attempted — the Christian missionaries,the Left movements,and the attempts by the RSS/ Hindu nationalists under the banner of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram set up in 1952 saw tribals get pulled into the mainstream through various devices.

Till the ’80s,the Congress,though without any ideology or ideas about how to incorporate the tribals,managed to hold sway till an aggressive push by the BJP,in central India particularly,managed to elbow out the Congress and establish durable political spaces here. The sway that the BJP holds in MP,Chhattisgarh,Gujarat and even in Jharkhand owes in some measure to a slow process of capturing the tribal imagination. In the 2002 upheaval in Gujarat,tribals were known to be the backbone of the BJP’s attempts to consolidate their hold.

The Forest Rights Act enacted by UPA-I was also interpreted as a shrewd move to win over tribals by giving them what should have been their due anyway six decades ago — rights to the forests they inhabited,the minor forest produce they collected and sold and was their economic mainstay.

Despite that,while the ruling UPA did see a significant return of the minority vote and even the Dalits,the tribal support did not waver away from the BJP in central India or from the BJD in Orissa — the Left,even in 2009,held on to its tribal heartland.

So while the Congress has seen a revival in UP and is intent on attacking Mayawati’s core support base,reaching out to the tribal centre,even if it’s the 1,500-odd Kondhs in Niyamgiri,is a bigger symbol of intent. It could also signal a new pattern — of the Congress getting into agitational politics in states where it is not in power,despite being in power at the Centre,claiming to redress “wrongs” where a critical flashpoint of public protest is reached,using critical state support from the government in Delhi.

Many possible motives,corporate and others,too are being attributed to the move to single out one particular project and hold out hope for distraught locals,as opposed to holding out clear policies for illegality of all sorts. (According to the annual report of the ministry of mines,2009-10,there are 30,551 illegal mines in the country,of which several are in Congress-ruled states,and of the 30,551 cases,just 1,255 FIRs were registered and 3,306 cases filed — an appalling record.)

But more than being just an environmental or mining issue,it has all the advantages of a mixed metaphor. It’s a battle being contested on a wider platform,with many mixed messages — of all the “special” groups,the debate was centred around minorities,the Dalits,and then the Maoist discourse took the debate to the tribals,each articulating their needs in terms of their own politics. The Christian and Hindutva groups posed it as an identity question,both ignoring the animist aspects of the tribal debate. The Left raised tribal issues as a need to integrate tribals but from a point of view of strength,as a “people’s rights” cause. And then there was an eloquent defence of the Maoist case for “protecting” tribals articulated in Arundhati Roy’s famous romanticisation of the Maoist way of life in Dantewada.

The Congress,after a Nehruvian assertion in the early days,didn’t have a set of ideas for the tribals it stood for. But over the last six or seven years,Indira Gandhi’s “gharib” being replaced by the “aam aadmi” demonstrated a shrewd approach to try and develop an inclusive discourse,so “development” could be married to a redistributive idea,but one that sought to weave in all forms and shades of India. In 2004 and then again in 2009,the appeal to minorities too,for instance,was subtle and a sense of even-handedness was sought to be conveyed. And it seemed the electorate bought the line.

But by taking over the Niyamgiri hills agitation (actually waged on the ground locally by all parties opposed to the BJD in the state) as a Congress victory,the party shows it’s keen to discover and establish that it recognises grades of the aam aadmi. And tribals are seen as an important constituency to win over — especially if vital states in the heart of India are to be conquered.

However,for the same reason that there is no Tribal Party of India yet,there are limits to what central leaders,who are in power at the Centre,can do in the context of such a dispersed population. There is also the limitation the Congress faces of an absence of credible work on the ground in each of these states. But one thing is clear — another chapter of a different kind of politics being attempted by the grand old party is upon us.

seema.chishti@expressindia.com

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