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| Sunday, December 21, 2003 |
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| Sunday, December 21, 2003 |
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Mobile and
Marginalized Peoples: Perspectives from the Past
There are two basic themes in this book. One is a bit of breast-beating about the changes that are being forced upon the tribesmen. The other is a little bit of information about the manner in which the tribaesmen have led their lives. On both counts, it seems to be a bad book. The only saving grace is that the papers in this book deal with a theme about which Indian historians have been somewhat ignorant. There is a considerable amount of information floating around about the tribal life, migration patterns and social behaviour from social anthropologists and government administrators. It seems the publisher was quite aware of the non-unique character of this book and therefore priced it at more than Rs 2 per page. The papers in this book deal with the history of those who are mobile. The constantly migrating pastoralists have been substantially ignored and there is very little information about them in our history books. So should one go about studying those who are constantly on the move and are not socially or politically significant? The papers by Heredia and Ratnagar in this volume provide us with something of an answer. Ratnagar gives a historiographical overview of the matter, while Heredia puts it in the form of an effort to save the cultural identity and dignity of the tribesmen. There is certain altruism inherent in the position taken by Heredia. For, here he argues for safeguarding the tribal identity from the onslaught of modernity. To me it occurs that such altruism is considerably misplaced and does disservice to the tribal communities. The question that arises is: should we force these people, in the name of protecting their identity, to stew in their own localities even when there are better options available outside. This point becomes significant since we have no evidence to suggest that the tribesmen like to lead a rather hard and atrocious life that is their current lot. Moreover, as the papers in this volume suggest, the tribesmen and nomads have had a rather changing lifestyle—changing with time and in ways to suit their changing environment. As Chetan Singh tells us, pastoralism is inevitably linked to and even dependent on non-pastoral economies and societies. Without the latter, the former may not be able to exist. Ajay Dandekar in a similar vein describes the pastoralists of early medieval Maharashtra while Nandini Sinha Kapur discusses the Bhils of Western India, especially Mewar and Dungarpur region and Archana Prasad gives information about the Baiga community of the Central Provinces. Supriya Varma and Jaya Menon discuss the strategies adopted for migration and the use of natural resources by the nomadic people of earlier times, while Champaklakshmi describes the transition of the nomadic people into settled agriculturists in the first millennium. If the nomadic people have continuously adapted to rapid changes in their surroundings, much in the manner of urban migrants who move from one place to another in search of education and employment, then are we not being somewhat unfair to them by trying to fix them in time merely to present them to the outside world as a body of people unspoilt by modernity? The contributors seem to think otherwise. Does this book add to our knowledge of Indian society? Not much. Should someone spend money on this book? Not unless you are feeling charitable. |
THIS
book presents before us the proceedings of a workshop held in December,
1998, at Ishvani Kendra, Pune, organised by the Sontheimer Cultural
Association and the Social Science Center, St Xavier’s College,
Mumbai, with financial assistance from the Life Insurance Corporation,
Pune. Besides the editors, the contributors include Chetan Singh, Ajay
Dandekar, Jaya Menon, Supriya Varma, Nandini Sinha Kapur, Archana Prasad
and R. Champaklakshmi.