The National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST), along with the Union Government, is now pushing for the “re-documentation” of the cultures and social practices of indigenous and tribal societies in India, existing scholarly literature on which, it says, is heavily reliant on the body of knowledge created by colonising governments.
The plan is to encourage more sociologists, anthropologists and researchers from India’s indigenous and tribal communities to research and document the cultural, social and historical practices of their own communities in a bid to replace the colonial-era body of work on this subject, NCST Chairperson Harsh Chouhan explained, adding that this will enable the government to understand tribal societies, identity and rights better.
Professors, Tribal Research Institute (TRI) Directors, researchers and other academics who have been attending a two-day workshop this week on the way forward to achieve this goal, also met with President Droupadi Murmu on Monday night at Rashtrapati Bhawan for a presentation to her, after which Ms. Murmu launched a book compiling unheard stories of the sacrifice and bravery with which tribal communities and leaders resisted British rulers.
During the closing remarks of the workshop, Ms. Murmu said, “This should not be the end. It should be the beginning of efforts to hold similar events and workshops across the country.” She added that she hoped this workshop would inspire youth to research and write about the histories and cultures of their own communities.
From ways to treat illnesses and ways to make weapons to ways of protecting nature and ways of passing along knowledge through community songs, Ms. Murmu said that the knowledge of tribal communities needs to be included in the Indian Knowledge System (IKS) that the National Education Policy is now focusing on, and that this knowledge of tribal communities will play an important role in making India a “knowledge superpower”.
“The efforts of the NCST in compiling this knowledge of tribal societies, irrespective of which form they are available in, and ensuring that it reaches the people of this country, will I am sure be successful,” she said.
The NCST laid the foundation for the workshop this week by holding a slew of events over the last one year at over 125 universities and TRIs along the theme of ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, where the history of tribal freedom fighters was a key focus.
Following these events, hundreds of sociologists, anthropologists, and researchers from these institutes were invited for the workshop in New Delhi, where multiple conferences discussed which aspects of research could be undertaken in the sphere of tribal identity, tribal rights and tribal development over Sunday and Monday. Over 70 Vice-Chancellors, Directors of TRIs, hundreds of professors, associate professors, researchers and students, many of whom were from ST communities, attended the workshop along with social workers.
One of these events on Sunday also had the University Grants Commission Chair, Jagadesh Kumar, on the panel, who emphasised how this larger project to document tribal societies by members of these communities is in keeping with the objectives of the new National Education Policy, which emphasises using and learning from the IKS.
“This workshop was just to get academics and those in the sector started on which way to focus their research and documentation efforts. The real work will now begin as and when scholars embark upon their efforts using the takeaways from this workshop,” Mr. Chouhan told The Hindu.
He added that a report on the takeaways from the workshop will soon be submitted to the government so that it can also redirect its efforts in building this database of literature about tribal communities by members of these very communities.
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