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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | The Constitution set in stone: Adivasis in Jharkhand are using an old tradition as a novel protest -Priya Ranjan Sahu

The Constitution set in stone: Adivasis in Jharkhand are using an old tradition as a novel protest -Priya Ranjan Sahu

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published Published on May 14, 2018   modified Modified on May 14, 2018
-Scroll.in

Several villages have erected stone slabs inscribed with details of constitutional provisions, laws that safeguard tribal rights over land and natural resources

Budhua Munda greeted the visitors to his village in Jharkhand as they all settled down on a bamboo straw mat spread under the shade of a tree on the morning of May 1.

The Adivasi youth, who wore a blue track pant and a white T-shirt, then pulled out the Hindi edition of the Constitution of India from a plastic bag he carried. Flipping through the thick tome, he stopped at a few paragraphs marked with a yellow highlighter. “See, what the Constitution says,” he said. “It says that the gram sabha is supreme in Fifth Schedule Areas. It is above Parliament, Assembly or any other institution.”

This was at Kudatoli hamlet of Bhandra village under Sadar block of Jharkhand’s Khunti district. Located on the side of a metalled road not very far from the Khunti district headquarters, Kudatoli is home to around 45 Munda Adivasi families.

The visitors were a group of journalists and researchers, including this correspondent, who had travelled to the area from across the country to gain an insight into the Pathalgadi movement, which seems to have taken the political establishment in Jharkhand by storm.

Pathalgadi, which means “erecting a stone” in the local Mundari language, has been a tradition with the Mundas of Jharkhand for hundreds of years. In the tradition, pathar or stones are erected to notify, mark or demarcate important spots such as boundaries, homes, land, forests, and graveyards. The Adivasi community also erects similar stone slabs in honour of their dead.

However, since early last year, Adivasis have been using Pathalgadi as a mode of protest against the state government’s alleged anti-tribal policies, and to draw the attention of the community towards the the rights of the tribals under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution and the supremacy of the gram sabha or village council. As a result of the movement, huge stone slabs inscribed with details of the constitutional provisions and laws that safeguard the rights of tribals over land, forests and other natural resources in Fifth Schedule Areas, written in Hindi and Mundari languages, have been erected in over 300 villages across five districts.

Adivasis and the law

India has a population of over 10 crore tribals who are protected by the Fifth Schedule and Sixth Schedule of the Constitution. The Fifth Schedule covers Adivasis in nine states, while the Sixth Schedule is applicable to the North Eastern states. Though tribals under the Sixth Schedule have been provided with considerable autonomy, the protections extended to Fifth Schedule areas have remained on paper only. For instance, theoretically, no development activity can be taken up in Fifth Schedule areas without the approval of local tribal bodies. But in reality, these areas have witnessed rampant mining and industrial activities since Independence, in blatant violation of laws. This has resulted in Adivasis in these areas being pushed to the margins of society.

Similarly, another law meant to benefit Adivasis – the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 – encouraged local self-government in Fifth Schedule Areas to ensure that they planned their own development. But this too has never been implemented properly.

At the crux of the Pathalgadi movement is land, the core identity of Adivasis who fear that their identity is being eclipsed by development strategies devised at the top – an approach that ignored their rights under the law as well as the community’s own wishes.

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Scroll.in, 14 May, 2018, https://amp.scroll.in/article/878468/the-constitution-set-in-stone-adivasis-in-jharkhand-are-using-an-old-tradition-as-a-novel-protest


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