M UCH has been written about development and its inequalities. One only has to travel through Indian cities or visit rural India to have it stare one in the face. Poverty and inequality are prevalent and part of the everyday reality that one negotiates, often without even batting an eyelid. A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India: The Margins of the Marginals tells the story of one of India’s most marginalised social groups.
Whether the author, Debasree De, is correct or not in pointing out that little has been written about Adivasi women, her book provides important insights into how development has impacted them in that part of the country.
The story of Adivasi dispossession in the colonial and postcolonial period, often in the name of development and the greater public good, is fairly well known. Adivasi women are doubly “disadvantaged” as Adivasis and as women. They bear not only the brunt of development’s violence but also the adverse impact of that on gender relations. By drawing on short case studies from across West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, Debasree De offers glimpses of the hazardous work conditions that Adivasi women face as the project of development steamrolls ahead. She narrates how the Oraon, Munda and Santhal women who work in tea estates in West Bengal were hit by the crisis in the tea industry in the early 2000s, many losing their jobs and dying of starvation.
She also details the exploitative conditions of Adivasi labour in the brick and construction industries of Bihar and the mining industries of Jharkhand and Odisha. Many of these stories of development and dispossession, notably those of the industrial town of Kalinganagar, and POSCO and Vedanta, all in Odisha, are familiar, but what Debasree De does well is illustrate how such examples are ubiquitous across the landscape.
Her analysis of the political economy of development must be seen in the context of what was promised. Jawaharlal Nehru’s panchsheel, or five principles, spoke about the need for people to develop according to their own genius and for development not to be imposed. It also spoke of respecting Adivasi rights to forests and land. The reality is a far cry from this: Adivasi land alienation has been the order of the day and relocation and rehabilitation an almost complete failure. Forest-based livelihoods have been undermined with increasing state control over forests and common agricultural practices such as shifting cultivation have been made illegal. While the Scheduled Tribes and Other Forest Dwellers (Rights to Forest) Act, 2006, goes some way in redressing land alienation, implementation has been slow in many States.
What comes across from Debasree De’s narrative is that the state has tried but failed to cushion the impact of this dispossession. On the one hand, the state does not want to stymie capital accumulation; on the other, it is aware that it must cater to the needs of all its citizens. The vast bureaucratic machinery for tribal development in the country is testimony to the latter, as are government schemes such as the Integrated Rural Development Programme and programmes targeted at women such as the Mahila Samridhi Yojana, which have had a fairly large presence in Adivasi areas.
Tribal development can be seen, therefore, as a form of governmentality that seeks to create new subjects who on paper are increasingly provided for by the state but more importantly perhaps do not get in the way of the development juggernaut. In practice, it is questionable as to whether the state has actually provided adequate welfare.
Debasree De illustrates how tribal development agencies established throughout the Adivasi belt of eastern India have to a large extent been dysfunctional. She also depicts how the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the Indira Awaas Yojana amongst other schemes have not delivered, opening up the playing field for non-governmental organisations, which must now do what the state cannot. She points out that progressive land-related laws such as the Chhota Nagpur Tenancy Act, 1908, and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy Act, 1876, have been watered down to take away agricultural land for industrial and commercial purposes.
Debasree De is careful not to essentialise either Adivasis or Adivasi women while capturing the violence of development. She illustrates the huge diversity of Adivasi communities—differences in the realm of culture (folk traditions, crafts, marriage ceremonies, etc.) and economy (settled agriculture versus minor forest produce-based).
Gender relations
She also does not hesitate to point out that gender relations in Adivasi communities should not be romanticised. While it is true that many Adivasi communities have a bride price instead of dowry and that the ghotul (youth dormitory) is a common institution that improves gender relations at a young age, Debasree De suggests that Adivasi women are often denied inheritance, especially of property. Having said this, she reiterates that development is the main culprit in the worsening plight of women and the increasing objectification and commercialisation of the Adivasi woman’s body.
While much of the book’s focus is on “the discursive and material contexts that have historically produced tribal women as victimised, invisible and mute” (page xiv), the author also alludes to how Adivasi women have been central to Adivasi struggles: be it the Bhutia women in the Chipko movement or the Dhulia and Santhal women in the fight against land alienation in Maharashtra and Jharkhand respectively or Adivasi women more generally in armed resistance to the Indian state.
Moreover, the everyday stories that Debasree De narrates of women working in mines, tea estates and construction sites are testimony to the resilience of women under extremely adverse circumstances. One cannot help wonder, however, despite the strength and perseverance of Adivasi women, whether their struggles, everyday and long-term, can roll back the development that continues to marginalise them and have an adverse impact on gender relations within their communities. Debasree De suggests the same in her chapter on cultural silencing, making the case that Adivasi voices to a large extent have been drowned out in the process of development.
This book is worth reading if only to get a glimpse of the other side of development. To be honest, if one is looking for a positive spin on things, one will not find it in this book. My own feeling is that one must take cognisance of what is happening in the nooks and crannies of India that rarely catch the eye. One must also understand how the Indian economy is able to grow at 7 per cent and at whose expense that happens. These are fundamental questions about development that continue to haunt one and for which struggle seems the only option.
Is it possible to provide basic health and good education to Adivasi communities without displacing them and making them footloose labour? Neither Debasree De nor I for that matter would suggest that Adivasis are not interested in improvements to their lives, but surely it should be on their terms.
Although the story told is important, it is not always reader friendly. At times the book is too laborious. It has a somewhat long-winded conceptual discussion around what it means to be Adivasi, the difference between terms such as Adivasi and tribal, and how gender must be understood in the context of development. Important as these concerns are, they detract from the story the author wants to tell. Moreover, the anecdotal case study approach the author has taken, while revealing, only touches the surface of issues that require much more detailed enquiry. If one is to come to terms with the violence that development often brings, it is necessary to document much more systematically how it operates.
Ajit Menon is a professor at the Madras Institute of Development Studies.
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