Poaching Tribal Souls: Contesting the Secularist Version

The Nehruvian apologist Ram Guha in a recent article alleges that missionaries, Maoists and Hindutva groups regard Tribals as a vehicle for increasing their social and political influence. 1 His narrative is based on the presumption that the Nehruvian policy of allowing Tribals to develop along the lines of their own genius was dispensed by successive governments which created the developmental vacuum for other forces to exploit. Their economic development is hampered because the state usurps their lands to provide water to “Hindu farmers”, writes Guha. More problematic is the underlying assumption of his thesis, that Tribals are not Hindus.
The bigger questions we encounter include the historical relationship between Hinduism and tribal paganism? Secondly, who should be held responsible for the current socio-eco backwardness of the tribal? Thirdly, and more importantly, who has the right to convert a tribal? There is no dearth of authors who believe contemporary Hinduism is an 18th century construct and it can loosely be defined as a mosaic of different religious beliefs with certain commonalities. Yet, what leaves us nonplussed is the manner in which this non-Hindu definition of Hinduism which can be easily reconciled with tribal paganism is rendered unavailable, and instead the orthodox Brahmanical Hinduism is used as the appropriate standard of comparison against Tribal paganism.
Tribal groups have been part of marginalized populations throughout the world. In America, the White Settlers committed several native American genocides. In fact until 1824, killing of American Indians was not a crime. As the saying goes “the only good Indian is a dead Indian.” According to Ward Churchill, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado, the reduction of the North American Indian population from an estimated 12 million in 1500 to barely 237,000 in 1900 represents a "vast genocide . . . , the most sustained on record." However the Right Wing Christian apologists claim it was a case of divine providence; that it was a natural genocide through smallpox and plague which to which the natives were pathologically vulnerable with no group immunity. 2
In Australia, native aboriginal children were forcibly removed from the breasts of their crying mothers through acts of parliament, all in the great cause of establishing ‘white supremacy.’ ‘Stolen generations’ is the epithet referring to these children, a process which continued even until 1970. 3
Tribal pagan religions were subject to extreme torture by Christianity once it became Rome’s state religion. Thousands of pagan witches were burnt in the cause of championing Christianity. The Western European government’s track record towards unconventional tribal pagan religions continues to be a cause for concern. 4
Early indologists transplanted similar theories of aboriginal persecution on the Vedic Indians. The thesis of original people and invaders persists today among certain Dalit-Marxist intelligentsia. However, Western scholarship after critical studies of the Rig Veda is also coming round to the view that there was no Arya-Dasa physical or racial hostility. For instance, David Lorenzen discovers; “no evidence of this modern racist view in Vedic literature. There is no evidence that the Rig Vedic Aryas regarded the Dasas and Dasyus as either biologically distinct or as innately inferior in terms of intellect or strength or as divinely cursed to become slaves. The Vedic evidence does suggest, however, that the Aryas sometimes regarded the moral behavior and character of the Dasas as inferior and certainly Dasa religion as inferior to their own". 5
Recent genetic evidence 6 and new anthropological studies emphatically falsify the white man’s worldview of non indigenous upper caste Indians opposed to native aborigines which was uncritically appropriated by communists and social movement leaders in colonial India. Another study found no consistent difference in Y-haplogroups distribution between Brahmins, Dalits and Tribals, except for some differences confined to a given geographical region. It supported the supported the autochthonous origin of R1a1 lineage and a tribal link to Indian Brahmins. 7 Haploid mt-DNA and Y Chromosomal analysis reveal that the South Asian gene pool is made from the same basic components as other non African gene pools. 8
What we find apparent is tribal persecution has a worldwide historical presence but generalizing the phenomenon to the Indian condition is unacceptable. For, mainstream Hinduism and Adivasi religion has shared a dynamic relationship with inter-exchange and intermingling of religion both in theory and practice. Koenraad Elst explains “There exists a profound continuity between literate Brahmanism and the illiterate ‘animism’ of the tribal communities which gradually joined Brahmanic society in the past.” Hinduism has been described, in the introduction to a pre-independence Census Report (1901), as ‘animism more or less transformed by philosophy, or to condense the epigram, as magic tempered by metaphysics’. This echoes what leading archaeologist S.R. Rao said about the Harappan religion, ‘ranging from very elevated philosophical and ethical concepts down to a crude animism’. 9
Critical exchange of religious beliefs, motifs, myths, rituals, theological icons have taken place on a consistent basis between both groups. The Marxist Historian D.D. Kosambi pointed out several examples in his book “Introduction to the study of Indian History”. For instance, numerous blood thirsty tribal goddess cults were sanitized by the hand of Brahmanism which replaced sacrificial blood with vermillion marks. According to several modern writers, mainstream Hindu gods and goddesses like Ganesha, Varaha and Narasimha avatars of Krishna have provenance in tribal counterparts. Sandhya Jain in her “Adi Deo Arya Devata: Panoramic view of Hindu-Tribal cultural interface” considers Vishnu to have evolved out of several distinct deities, notably Vasudeva, supreme lord of the Vrishni/Satvata tribe, Krishna of the Yadava clan, Gopala of the Abhira tribe and Narayana of the Hindukush mountains. In Orissa, the evolution of Hinduism is most conspicuous. Jagannath was first worshipped by the Sabara (Savara, Saora) tribe and 'miraculously' appeared in Puri much later. Till today, Daita (Daitya) priests, descendants of the original tribal worshippers, alone have the right to dress the god, move him, and regularly renovate his wooden image. Similarly, at the Lingaraj Temple in Bhubaneswar, tribal Badu priests alone are allowed to bathe and adorn the deity. 10 Afterall, whether one is a Hindu or not, the Hindu way of life has touched local communities all over the country. In fact, there has been an excellent cultural synthesis as evidenced in the observance of rites and ceremonies and in the beliefs, the tales, the songs and the sayings. Indian folklore is as much the Hindu’s as is the tribal’s. 11
This is true testimony to the power of syncretism and lack of exclusiveness in Hindu thought. India displays diversity and unity simultaneously. Kosambi saw a “process of syncretism” in the absorption of “primitive deities,” a “mechanism of acculturation, a clear give and take,” which allowed “Indian society to be formed out of many diverse and even discordant elements” It allowed the admission of many a “primitive local god or goddess into the ancient Brahmanical system.” But through the lens of dialectical materialism Kosambi found this syncretism objectionable as this (Arya-tribal) unity was secured at the cost of stagnation and subjection to a regime of superstition and primitiveness. 12
Nevertheless, the process of Sanskritization encouraged tribal groups to accept the higher civilization ethos of Brahmanical Hinduism including renunciation of beef and even meat, mantra based worship, abstinence from bloody sacrifices and acceptance of mainstream Hindu deities. It is important not to discount the role victorious kings played in promotion of Sanskritization since it helped in integrating the subjects of the newly acquired kingdom by assimilating their theological icons and beliefs. This is how Brahmins integrated tribes into a larger Hindu society, according to the Marxist historian D.D. Kosambi: “The tribe as a whole turned into a new peasant jâti caste-group, generally ranked as Shudras, with as many as possible of the previous institutions (including endogamy) brought over. (…) The Brahmin often preserved tribal or local peasant jâti customs and primitive lore in some special if modified form (…) This procedure enabled Indian society to be formed out of many diverse and even discordant elements, with the minimum use of violence". 13
Unfortunately, this process whose ultimately culmination was absolute integration suffered a death blow in the periods of Islamic and British colonization. Tribal resistance to colonialism prevented their submission to the foreign power. Kosambi points out how Ghiyasuddin Tughlaq during a march to Bengal narrowly escaped being killed by a tribal uprising. The British missionaries faced the brunt of several tribal uprisings including the famous one led by the missionary educated, Birsa Munda. After independence in post-colonial India, the 5000 yrs process of integrating the tribal with the mainstream through a most natural scientific humane and non discriminatory process of acculturation and Sanskritization was the cherished desire of most Hindu revivalists. Guru Golwalkar of the RSS proposed that for the integration of tribals and untouchables, one and the same formula applies: “They can be given yajñopavîta (…) They should be given equal rights and footings in the matter of religious rights, in temple worship, in the study of Vedas, and in general, in all our social and religious affairs. This is the only right solution for all the problems of casteism found nowadays in our Hindu society" 14 But unfortunately that didn’t materialize.
Who is responsible for Tribal Backwardness?
The contemporary socio-economic backwardness of the tribals has been uncritically blamed on the caste Hindus, although they had no political role to play in the periods of Islamic and British colonization.
We are reminded of the jibe of decades on the ‘Hindu rate of growth’? When, a nation following Nehru and Indira’s soviet socialism was registered barely 3-4% growth it was dubbed — with much glee by the Nehruvian economists — as ‘the Hindu rate of growth’ When our growth rate surged past the double digit mark under a supposedly Hindu nationalist government, it became improper to retain the title of Hindu rate of growth anymore. Now, the growth rate has become conveniently secular
Similarly, the Nehruvian genius in leaving tribals to their stultified status through euphemistic appellations is the real reason why the tribal problem exists today. For 50 years, his party followed this paranoid policy and when the failures became overwhelming, the blame was conveniently dumped through Marxist intellectuals on the caste Hindus! The hyper anti-Hindu stand of writers of this class like Guha is made most explicit when he considers water logging tribal areas to be part of a process of supplying water to ‘Hindu farmers’. Since when did secular state commissions under all but one “Secular” government base national policies on the basis of religion? The human factor involved while pursuing big developmental projects requires further consideration, but there is no scope for rejecting it altogether.
This developmental vacuum created scope for tribal exploitation through Maoists and Christian missionaries. The Niyogi Commission had warned the Nehru government of the impending danger of Christian missionaries and the means to check them, but the Hinduphobic Nehru conveniently ignored its recommendations. 15 Often it was treatment through quacks who baptized tribal children at their deathbeds in exchange for their lives. The Maoists had their more violent methods. Both feed on poverty and exploit its victims in their quest for hegemonic power! Both have now come together to form a common coalition against Hindu tribals. 16 Both are essentially against development because that would put their very existence in jeopardy. It is directly a consequence of their combined terror that prevents government-sponsored educationalists, doctors and engineers from working in these landmine infested areas. Recently, an entire medical team including the doctors on board were blown up by Maoists from Midnapore. 17
The charge of the secularists that Hindu organizations operating in tribal areas are as much a missionary force as the Christian, is outrageous. The larger question is why are tribals not Hindus? Yes, they do not follow the Vedas, and they might not worship the Hindu trinity. But that is only a very orthodox definition of Hinduism. Or else, how do you explain an Advaitin who virtually denies all gods a place in the Hindu pantheon as an ultimate illusion. The Sankhya and the Nyaya Vaishika, one of the six astika philosophical systems pay at most a lip service to God. The plurality of Hindu thought can be traced to the Vedas which say, ‘the truth is one, but the sages call it with different names’. In the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, there is a dialogue in which Vidagdha Sakalya asks Yaynavalkya how many gods are there. Yajnavalkya at first replied three thousand three hundred and thirty six. On being probed further by Sakalya he reduced them to thirty three, then six, then three, then two, then one and a half and finally one!