Tribes together

For four days this month (November 15-18) tribals from across the country will meet in Jamshedpur to exchange notes on their culture, heritage, arts and inheritance. Known as Samvaad, the Tribal Conclave, organised by Tata Steel every year, will this time discuss the threat to tribal languages and the initiatives needed to revive their popularity among the next generation and in the country as well.

It is widely known that though we speak of the two marginalised communities — the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) — in the same breath, their progress in self-assertion has been somewhat unequal.

Over the years the dalit population has been able to make its presence felt by forging movements, asserting its identity and reminding the rest that it too needs to chart its own course. Why, it has even started its own Chamber of Commerce.

In comparison, tribals across States have been somewhat left behind. Despite comprising eight per cent of the population, at 70-million strong, STs have little political representation. Problems plague them in almost every State. There is insurgency in their backyard and exploitation of their resources by corporations and commodity mafia, and hence the community struggles to move ahead in its own development.

Though ST communities have had to combat poverty, their cultural life and living practices have always been more holistic than what is deemed ‘modern’ today. “Unlike ours, adivasi lives effortlessly embody sustainability. They don’t hoard or overuse resources. They switch cultivation between farmlands and forests...” writes Biren Bhuta, chief of Corporate Social Responsibility at Tata Steel, who has been working among the community for some years and is behind the Tribal Conclave in Jharkhand.

The company with a massive presence in Jamshedpur, the headquarters of East Singhbhum district (nicknamed Tatanagar or the Steel City), has been involved in building leaders from within the tribal community. The aim is to take the community towards self-determination, so that it can flower, flourish and preserve its anthropological heritage and culture.

Recently, the company brought out On the Road to Initiatives of Change , a large hardback that showcased the lives and work of several tribals who have donned leadership roles. Portraying their struggles and successes, more than anything else it displayed a commitment to the community.

After all, was it not Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata, the founder of the group, who said, “In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in business, in fact the very purpose of its existence.”