Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s Role in the Context of India's Tribal Society

 

As per 2011 census the Scheduled tribe population consists of 8.60 % of India’s total population. Historically speaking, tribal society in India has lived in the forests and hills and enjoyed greater autonomy in managing their affairs all by themselves. They suffered the biggest setback only during British colonial rule who wanted to establish their supremacy over forest resources, carefully guarded by tribal people for ages.

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar strived hard and played a significant role in strengthening and providing social status to the tribal communities in India. As a member of a committee constituted by Government of Bombay Province in 1928, he recommended for the establishment of public schools, hostels, scholarships, industrial training for the benefit of children from the tribal communities. Further, in his report, he had also recommended the representation for the tribal persons in the rural cooperation associations and also their appointment in police and army services. The report had also suggested the provision of housing facilities, distribution of government wasteland for the tribal people.

Further, he had demanded for the accordance of the voting rights to the men and women of tribal communities before the Simon Commission. In 1933, Dr. Ambekar upheld the cause of tribal communities and pressed for the policies to provide social rights and protection of the tribal communities before the Joint Constitution Improvement Committee. He ensured voting right, education, employment and political reservation to the tribal communities under the Government of India Act, 1935.

As the Chairman of the Drafting Committee at Constituent Assembly, Dr. Ambedkar was instrumental in drafting several constitutional provisions for tribal communities such as-

·         Article- 16(4): Provision of 7.5% reservation in Government Employment and 7.5% reservation for availing education in the educational institutions.

·         Article-46: Governments are to frame the educational and economic programmes for the progress of the tribal communities.

·         Article-244: Recommends Local Administration in Scheduled and tribal regions.

·         Article-275: Central Government through parliamentary laws are directed to release money for the welfare of scheduled tribes of any state.

·         Article-330: Reservation of seats in Lok sabha for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe according to the population.

·         Article-335: Reservation of seats in state Rajya sabha for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe according to the population.

·         Article-338: To establish a national level commission for monitoring the welfare of Scheduled caste and scheduled tribe.

It’s important to note that Dr. Ambedkar did not accept Jaipal Singh Munda’s demand of the usage of the term ‘Adivasi’ to represent tribal communities in India. He reasoned that the term ‘Adivasi’ did not connote any particular meaning and was a common word as that of word ‘untouchable’. In the Constituent Assembly debate on the issue he had observed - “Now, coming to the question of the scheduled tribes and as to why I substituted the word ‘Scheduled’ for the word ‘Aboriginal’, the explanation is this. As I said, the word ‘scheduled tribe’ has a fixed meaning, because it enumerates the tribes, as you will see in the two (Fifth and Sixth) Schedules. Well, the word Adivasi is really a general term which has no specific legal de jure connotation, something like the Untouchables, it is a general term. Anybody may include anybody in the term ‘untouchable’. It has no definite legal connotation.” (Debates of Constitution Assembly of India, Vol. 2, 2/12/ 1948)

Though Jaipal Singh Munda claimed to be the representative of all tribal people in India, the fact of matter remains that he was not. This proposition has to be seen in the light of the fact that the local tribes of north eastern regions of India find it humiliating to identify themselves as ‘Adivasi’. The term has pejoratively been used for the Santhals, the Mundas, the Oraons and the Hos who had migrated to these regions as the tea plantation laborers during the British colonial period. 

Therefore, it needs to be reiterated that it would be a gross mistake to consider the term ‘Adivasi’ to be equivalent to the term ‘Tribe’ in India. This could only reinforce the anti-Indian feelings among many of the tribes inhabiting North Bengal, Sikkim and other North-Eastern States. The term will be considered humiliating to most of them. The so-called ‘friends of tribes’ in India have been amateurishly trying to romanticize the term in the name of radical empowerment. The tribal situation in India is extremely heterogeneous and this has to be understood in the context. It must also be understood that the definition of ‘Indigenous Peoples’ as projected by the UN Working Group for Indigenous Peoples has a European bias.

It’s in the context that we must remember Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s contributions for the welfare of tribal communities in India as we celebrate his 133rd birth anniversary on 14^th April, 2024. The great man was hugely concerned for the cause of tribal communities and at the same, he did not succumb to the pressure aimed at undermining India’s unity and integrity.