Episode 2 Migration and the Adivasi

A History of India

Michael Fisher (2016)

Film Review

The Adivasi were the earliest settlers in the Indian subcontinent. Hundreds of millions of them still live in India’s forest areas – the largest number of aboriginal people anywhere on earth. The term was coined in 1930s to advocate for forest dwellers. The government calls them tribal and doesn’t acknowledge them as indigenous. 30,000 years ago they comprised 100% of the Indian subcontinent. At present they represent 8.6%

They speak a number of different languages. Most had no written script until recently. About one-half of Adivasi women are illiterate and one-third of Adivasi men. There are hundreds of different Adivasi groups, each with their own origin story.

India’s wet, acidic soil makes carbon dating extremely difficult. Instead archeologists use DNA testing (specifically the rate of genetic mutations) and linguistic changes to identify migration patterns and date human remains and artifacts.

They have established that modern Adivasi are descended from human beings who left Africa 60,000 – 70,000 years ago. They have been in India at least 30,000 years and possibly longer.

They have a long history of using fire and stone and bone tools and molding soft copper into ornaments, as well as slash and burn agriculture. Using fire to create small forest clearings for crops, they moved in a continuous circle as soils depleted, returning to their original fields after 20 years. Men tended to specialize in hunting and raiding other groups for food. Women specialized in weaving and gathering forest products. Because there were no agricultural surpluses, there was no wealth accumulation.

Each time new settlers arrived in India, they cleared land, reducing forest area available to Adivasi. Some took menial jobs working for settlers, but in most cases they were simply pushed onto less productive land.* In some instances they were subject to special taxes.

Adivasi have also been displaced by the timber, coal and hydropower industry. The latter destroys a massive amount of forest and agricultural land, as well as housing, through dam construction. Often Adivasi are cleared from forest land to protect endangered animals.

Maoist insurgencies are common in regions with large concentrations of Adivasi. In 2000, Adivasi activism led to the creation of two new provinces: Jharkhand and Chhaltisgarh.

Since 2008, the Forest Rights Act requires Adivasi be compensated if they’re removed from their lands. Many are on a list of 704 legally designated tribals, which entitle them to special quotas for college admission and parliamentary seats.

*At present 90% of India’s forests have been cleared or deeply degraded. Only 3% virgin forest remains and 40% is wasteland. At present, most of India’s forests are  monocrop forest plantations that don’t support Adivasi lifeways or culture.

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