Orissa : Adivasi Assertion

Towards the middle of the year and about the same time as the spectre of starvation loomed large over Kashipur in Orissa, adivasis of the nearby district of Nabarangpur, bordering Chhattisgarh, were engaged in a prolonged struggle to recover land they claimed had been illegally settled by non-tribals, mainly Bangladeshi immigrants.

Clashes over land have been recurrent in the region since the 1990s, not only in Nabarangpur but the surrounding districts, Malkangiri and Gajapati, which border Andhra Pradesh – which are among Orissa's poorest districts. While the issue binding the tribals has been outrage at the continued alienation of land that they believe had been traditionally theirs, their opponents have varied. In the villages of Gajapati, adivasis have clashed with the Panas, scheduled caste converts to Christianity; in other areas it is the Bangladeshi settlers who have been seen as the wrongdoers. There have also been occasions when the adivasis have clashed amongst themselves – the Gonds arraigned against the Kondhas, in a bitter struggle over scarce resources.

For long adivasi concerns have not ranked high in the state government's scheme of things, even as encroachments continued into lands and forests protected by constitutional provisions. Since the mid-1990s, however, the adivasis have come together to campaign for their traditional rights, encouraged by NGOs.

The most prolonged tribal assertion of its kind has been that launched by tribal groups, chiefly the Kondhas, in Kashipur. For some eight years, Kashipur has seen a conflict between old adversaries – tribals and 'industrial development'. The tribals are hostile to bauxite mining and have opposed the UAIL alumina project ever since land acquisition for the project started in the early 1990s. The opposition has spread even to villages not directly affected. The resistance that often began relatively peacefully, in the form of roadblocks, has turned violent as the state administration, viewing this as a law and order problem, has used force to put down the tribals' protest.

Since the 1990s, areas of western and north-western Orissa too have seen frequent clashes between adivasis and settlers from Bangladesh who have been allotted land for cultivation in these areas. According to figures cited by the chief minister, Navin Patnaik, 21,990 Bangladeshi refugees have been legally settled in different districts of Orissa, the maximum number in the tribal-dominated southern districts of Malkangiri and Nabarangpur.

Resentment has grown among the adivasis who believe that the government has given away to the settlers land which was once theirs. In June the village of Jamadora saw armed clashes between Bengali settlers and adivasis over a piece of government land that resulted in death of two adivasis. In October clashes broke out between adivasis and police personnel at Rangabhatti village when armed tribals threatened to cut the crops grown by Bengali settlers and set their houses on fire. In areas like Raighar, a village in Nabarangpur, 700 km from the state capital, the state government is unable to enforce its writ as armed adivasi attacks on government buildings have turned the area into a virtual battle zone and adivasi leaders have threatened to run their own parallel administration.

Only recently the chief minister promised to initiate a dialogue with the centre to deport Bangladeshi infiltrators illegally settled in the state. The state government claims to have identified 2,060 such infiltrators. It also says it has returned to the adivasis 9,091 hectares of land encroached by non-tribals and Bengali settlers. The reasons for the state government's sudden alacrity in responding to an issue long neglected are not far to seek. Panchayat elections are due in February next year and Navin Patnaik, who only recently survived a no-confidence motion in the state assembly, is under increasing pressure from his ally in the government, the BJP. The latter, through its various affiliate bodies, is seeking to make inroads in Orissa's southern and western districts. In June the BJP-affiliated Akhil Bharat Adivasi Vikas Parishad (ABAVP) accused the centre and state governments of depriving adivasis of irrigation facilities. In an attempt to co-opt issues close to the adivasis' hearts, the Parishad also alleged that government land was being given to non-tribals in the district in violation of constitutional provisions and urged the government to protect the reserve forests and to evacuate encroachers.