The scion of former Gond kings of Chandagarh, or Chandrapur in Maharashtra, Birshah Atram has offered to represent Raj Gonds and other aboriginal tribes of erstwhile undivided Adilabad district if the Government invites him to participate in talks which could be held to end the continuing friction between the Adivasis and Lambada tribe.
He expressed solidarity with the ongoing movement of the ethnic people in Telangana State seeking protection of their rights. Until the advent of the rule of the Nizam, the Adivasi areas falling under the present day Utnoor and Kagaznagar and Asifabad Revenue Divisions of Adilabad and K.B. Asifabad districts respectively were ruled by the Atram clan kings of Chandrapur.
Mr. Birshah Atram, who is more familiar as Gond Raja of Chandrapur, had on Saturday come on a visit to Asifabad, Modi, Sirpur (U) in K.B. Asifabad and Utnoor in Adilabad to meet his relatives and check the state of their small fortresses called ‘garhis’.
“I had participated in a protest way back in the late 1970s at Utnoor against inclusion of Lambadas in the list of Scheduled Tribes. Raj Gond leaders Kotnak Bheem Rao and Godam Rama Rao, both served as Ministers in the then undivided Andhra Pradesh Cabinet under separate governments,” Mr. Atram recalled of his association with the Adivasis here during an informal chat with The Hindu at the residence of Modi village headman Atram Laxman.
The scion is a well-known social worker based at Warora in Chandrapur district and is a double Ph.D, in English language and Ancient Indian History. He also has a doctorate in Christian Theology from Marthoma Theological College, Kottayam, Kerala.
Comparing the current situation in the agency areas in Telangana with that of elsewhere in the country, Mr. Atram said the aboriginal tribes are an exploited lot everywhere. “Without proper education, our children either join naxalites or police ranks and end up fighting each other,” he lamented. “There should only be permanent measures taken to do away with the kind of exploitation being seen everywhere in the Adivasi lands today. It is true of the situation in the agency areas of undivided Adilabad too,” he opined.
Mr. Atram, who has been exerting pressure on Maharashtra and Central governments for long to find a solution to the Adivasi problem, proffered a possible way out. He said the Union Government needs to constitutionally recognise Gondi language, Gondi religion called Gondi Dharma besides carving out Gondwana to promote self rule for the aboriginal people.
