Adivasi Gallery

" Those who can sing the song can join the revolution. Those who can interpret it to the non-Adivasi world may lead the revolution."
-Xavier Dias
PSA Get-together Ranchi: 1999.

I met Xavier Dias for the first time at the Programme for Social Action (PSA) get-together on "Peoples' Spirituality and Emerging Fascism" in Ranchi. The City of Ranchi is in the Indian state of Bihar but also in a region called Jharkand, a homeland for some of the indigenous (Adivasi) people of India. It was there that I started my Adivasi education. Xavier invited me to continue my education on the 'Adivasi Sampark Yatra', an event that turned out to be a cross between a fact-finding mission and an activist's pilgrimage.

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So on the 20th October 1999 I found myself in the Visakhapatnam YMCA a day or two after the first cyclone had hit South Orissa. The inaugural press conference was held here and the following morning's papers showed that the gentlemen of the press had received the Adivasi quite well -something that they found later could not be taken for granted. As the sun rose over the Bay of Bengal on the morning of the 21st the participants gathered outside the YMCA ready to start their journey. Each delegate wore a green headband and as a gesture that demonstrated the inclusive nature of the organisation I was presented one too. This collection of people represented over twenty Adivasi campaigns from Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Bihar. These campaigns are now linked by 'mining minerals & People (mmP) the Organisation behind the yatra.

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mmP is a recently formed umbrella organisation acting on behalf of communities threatened by mining developments. They plan to redress the imbalance caused by multi-national companies and the World Bank applying pressure on India to develop quickly using a western consumer template. Such developments offers little for the Adivasi on whose land they are planned and although Mining Companies have been successfully fought at times, there is a need for the local struggles to become a national issue.

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The first leg of the yatra was a home coming for Ravi Rebbapragada, mmP's National Convenor. Another group with which Ravi is associated (SAMATA ) has been working for tribal villages in the East Godavari district of northern Andhra Pradesh where, for the past ten years, bauxite and calcite mining have threatened displacement and ecological destruction. The last two years had been spent in exile since his activities and successes had upset local Marxists-Leninist who felt they had the sole right to fight for the people. Three of their activists had been killed and the rest were forced into exile.

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A pattern, which was to become familiar through the course of the yatra, emerged here. The bus stopped at a village and a crowd of activists wearing green headbands descended. Notebooks appeared in the hands of each delegate as they split into groups and started questioning villagers. This process revealed two important phenomena about how mmP will have to work in the diverse world of the Adivasi.

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The first is that an Adivasi campaign fighting a proposed mine may have no contact with a similar struggle just a few hundreds kilometres a way. To a Westerner from a small country with a glut of communication technology this seems odd. At each stop the thirst for information was impressive. These yatra delegates are to be the prophets in their own areas who will go out to spread the word about other struggles, their success and failures. The value of this low-tech face to face, information gathering will be great and presumably on going.

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The aim of mmP appears to work in an Adivasi friendly way to empower but not to smoother with aid programmes that are out of sync with their way. Having so many groups and tribes represented seems to have been an effort to stop mmP, as an organisation, gaining too much control. After all, Xavier takes every opportunity to stress that mmP is an umbrella organisation, and will not run campaigns to resist mines itself.

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The second phenomenon is very familiar in India and one that I had grown to appreciate at the PSA conference. It is the language barrier. Or should I say barriers? Or even obstacle race? Each small group that surrounded a village member contained at least one (sometimes more) translators who had to cope with at least a three way translation.

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The next day was spent in Koraput district (South Orissa) which is littered with high purity aluminium ore, also a large chunk of this region is owned by Hindustani Aeronautical Ltd. (HAL). Here the rhythm of the yatra continued with much note taking in villages. One of these (Chikapa) has already been displaced twice; once officially by HAL and once half officially (by the upper Kolab Reservoir). The residents of Chikapa are worried about a third displacement, how official it will be remains to be seen. Since the second move was not sanctioned by the government (as far as I understood they were told simply that if they did not move they would be bombed) they are currently an 'illegal' settlement and not eligible for government aid for schools etc. This may be irrelevant since compensation was never paid for the first sanctioned displacement.

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Mining equipment being taken to a bauxite mine in Orissa	Bauxite ore refining plant in Orissa. The Plant has pumped waist into the lake making it red and too acidic to support life.	The landscape blackened by coal dust falling from trucks leaving the West Bokaro open cast coal mine near Hazaribagh, Bihar.

On the third day I began to encounter the strange world of NGO's in Orissa. There is a wide spectrum of these groups, some more Adivasi friendly than others. For instance a foreign mining company which wishes to enter a new Adivasi area will form an NGO supposedly to aid Adivasi 'development'. According to a member of Delhi Forum (another umbrella group), Corporate funded NGO's are becoming increasingly popular with the present Indian government because they aid, rather than hinder, industrial development. Several yatra delegates claimed that such NGO's help facilitate false claims of resettlement, and prevent village activists from gaining grass root support while fighting displacement.

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A village called Kuchipara has so far managed to overcome these obstacles and prevented a Norwegian backed bauxite mine starting work. Despite their land having been technically acquired by the mining company local civil disobedience and a campaign in Norway have stopped displacement despite the failure of court action.

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It was in this village that the yatra's first showing of "Buddha Weeps in Jadugoda" was attempted. This film documents the effects of uranium mining on the people in its locality and won third prize at the " Film South Asia ' 99" festival in Katmandu. This is same achievement since the footage was gathered on archaic VHS equipment over a four year period, on a minuscule budget. Due to a funding short fall of a different nature the yatra did not have its own audio-visual equipment and generator. Although a hired VCR materialised, it could not manage sound and so a running commentary was given in Oriya. Despite these set backs the sight of several hundred people sitting in a village street watching a 21" TV screen is unforgettable.

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I could not quite find out where this funding shortfall had occurred, in fact despite asking many questions I could never quite find out where the money for the yatra had come from. It had come from some NGO or other via a third party but in keeping with the tangled relationship that exists between Adivasi activists and large NGO's. I never found out which one. Sometime later, back in Delhi my source at Delhi Forum tried to describe the intricate methods employed by groups to get funding. I'm not convinced that he meant me to understand fully however, the basic aim is to get foreign NGO money for small empowerment activities with minimal government interference.

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A resettlement camp for families made homeless by the West Bokaro open cast coal mine near Hazaribagh, Bihar.	Roads near the West Bokaro open cast coal mine near Hazaribagh, Bihar.	Roads near the West Bokaro open cast coal mine near Hazaribagh, Bihar.

On the third night of the yatra this interference became apparent. We were due to stay at the HQ of an NGO in Rayagada but it's head took fright when he found out the we had visited Kockepudar. The Orissa government has threatened NGO's with removal of funds if they help oppose Bauxite Mining; thus we spent an uncomfortable night on the bus. In the eyes of this NGO, at least, the yatra had crossed the fine line between passive observation and activism.

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The fourth day was cyclone affected. The highway was littered on both sides with fallen trees and telegraph poles and the areas that the yatra planned to visit were inaccessible. There was nothing to be done except head for Bhubaneshwar. Here we encountered more NGO mystique in the form of the four storied, marble interior HQ, which was to be our resting-place. There is some serious money tied up in this building built by NGO's that mainly seem to be connected with tribal education. Canvassing opinion on this building among the yatra delegates produced general noises of disapproval as they wondered open mouthed around the complex.

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Shivshankar Oraon went further in his scepticism of large NGO's. He accused them of being self-serving and too concerned with keeping paymasters happy with bits of papers, since these bits of paper have to be written in English, they rob tribal leaders of their traditional power. He added that in his opinion there would be a back lash against NGO's that do not work in a method that is sympathetic to Adivasi ways. Shankar pointed to a cute photograph on the wall depicting a tribal women carrying a baby - " that's all Adivasi are to these people" he said " pictures to hang on the wall". These pictures were the only clue that we were in an NGO's offices rather than a 5 star hotel.

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Shanker's next comments returned to the fear of losing the golden FCRA (Foreign Contribution Registration Act) number. The government use the FCRA to control money going to Indian NGO's, once an NGO's officials are considered to be involved with political group (e.g. activists) the government can remove funds. NGO's at least have to be seen to be non political and activists claim that while NGO's may claim to be sympathetic they turn their backs when the grass roots turn to direct action. In Shanker's view getting an FCRA number is the end of an organisations active life.

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However, the reception from a group of Bhubaneshwar NGO representatives was quite sympathetic which is more than could be said for the atmosphere at the press conference held later. The press men had arrived with the opinion that the Adivasi were making a furore about nothing and despite Xavier's best efforts, left with the same view. Seemingly unmoved by the pictures, in Sri Prakash's film, of children born with severe handicaps due to radiation they were dismissive when detailed medical surveys could not be produced as factual, numeric proof. Orissa TV were present at the press conference, they are owned by Bansi Panda a well known industrialist I had already been warned about upper caste vested interests in the Orissa press. Ravi had added that conservative local papers were a problem, even Indian national papers appear in local editions conveying little news from state to state. A phenomenon he said, that makes mmP's work more important.

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After the press conference I left the yatra and the yatra left for Bihar a few days before the super cyclone hot Orissa. Apparently once out of conservative Orissa things got better. Large NGO's seem to have less of a presence in Jharkhand and where the Adivasi have more of a tradition of fighting for their rights.

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The yatra left me with a feeling that all Adivasi groups fighting displacement for whatever reason, are fighting an up hill struggle. Such is the pressure of development that no victory won in the courts or through other means seems permanent. Defeat one project and another pops up, the onslaught is relentless. mmP plans to forewarn areas where development has yet to occur, hoping to make the Adivasi faster out of the starting blocks when projects become public. At present most campaigns seem to be rear guard actions.