Adivasis in the Northeast Indian state of Assam have been waging struggle on with respect to their demand to be classified as Scheduled Tribes (ST) in the state. The paper takes the position that ST status for Adivasis is indeed a basic right considering the many generations of oppression the community has faced and keeping in mind the stand of the Government of India to provide certain rights-based legal benefits in the form of reservations, political representation, and socioeconomic subsidies for historically oppressed communities. However this position is placed within a larger context of other issues and problems faced by the community, and the relevance of ST status in dealing with them..

The paper starts with a brief history and background of Adivasis in Assam, followed by a panoramic view of their political, social and economic disenfranchisement. The paper then attempts to examine and deconstruct the various arguments revolving around the issue of ST status for Adivasis in Assam, which forms the bulk of the write-up. It ends with placing the issue of ST status in context with all the problems of disenfranchisement faced by the Adivasis, and a brief note on future research avenues.

NOTE: It is important to add here that the term "Adivasi" in the rest of India refers to tribals in general, except in Northeast India, and particularly Assam, where the term by and large refers to a specific community of tribes or sub-tribes (such as Santhal, Munda, Oraon etc.) who migrated from the Central Indian regions to work in the tea gardens of Assam. There are many other tribes in Assam and Northeast India like Bodo, Khasi, Naga etc. Most of these other tribes have ST status and the many socio-political complexities in the Northeast Indian region over who ought to receive ST status is quite a central element in the issue of Adivasis in Assam receiving the same. While a discussion on the entire gamut of issues dealing with other tribes is certainly not within the scope of this paper, there will be elements of it discussed that directly relate to the struggle by Adivasis in Assam to receive ST status.

History and Background of Adivasis in Assam

The Adivasis in India are traditionally known as the "first peoples" or indigenous people. There's no proof of the inception of human beings in India with all the population groups, since pre-historic Stone Age migrating in different periods of time from different regions. However Adivasis were among the first group of people to arrive in India before any other communities such as the Aryans, Dravidians, Mongolians etc. hence the moniker "first peoples".[1]

Adivasis evolved from hunter-gatherer societies to developing cultivation-based societies, much like numerous other population groups all over the world. The intimate connection to land and natural produce is something that can be seen to this day.

Across India, Adivasis were and continue to be primarily agriculturists and that too subsistence cultivators who live off the land in tightly knit villages and communities, with a history that can be traced back many centuries. However the history of the Adivasis in Assam really starts from the 1850s onwards and is directly connected to one industry…tea.

The British 'discovered' tea in the early 1820s when the native tea leaf in Assam, long brewed by the Singpho tribe, was presented to a certain military man by the name of Bruce.[2] The British East India Company (in realising the possibility of regaining monopoly from China in tea production) took over Assam in 1826 from the Ahom kings through the Yandaboo Treaty. Soon in 1837, the first tea garden was established at Chabua in Dibrugarh District of Upper Assam, and in 1840 the Assam Tea Company started production of tea on a commercial basis. The tea industry started expanding rapidly from the 1850s onwards. Vast tracts of land needed were cleared for the establishing of new tea plantations, and soon by the turn of the century, Assam became the leading tea producing region in the world.[3]

Of course, the rapid expansion of the industry and its highly labour-intensive nature meant that a large source of labourers were required. While initially some workers were derived from Bodo-Kachari tribes, local labour proved difficult to recruit due to a number of reasons. The locals generally preferred cultivation and, if at all, would work in the tea gardens out of temporary necessity. Furthermore the locals had a rather self-sufficient pre-capitalist economy and even considered tea garden work as derogatory. Added to this was the shortage of manpower due to the Burmese Invasion (1819-1824), when the then Ahom Kingdom in Assam came under the control of the Burmese rulers (later defeated by the British during the colonial annexation of the territory in 1826), and the cholera epidemic (1833-1854).[4]

Thus, there was no landless labour class in the region to exploit. The British tried abolishing certain local agricultural means of production and imposed heavy taxes on the subsistence farming of local peasants, but it was ultimately felt that uprooted labour would be far easier to control and exploit. This is where the import of labour began in the 1840s primarily from the Adivasi regions of Central and Eastern India.[5] The brutality of this process can be understood from the fact that the first batch of labourers in 1841 from the Chotanagpur area all died en-route due to malnutrition and illness. In 1859 only 2000 Adivasis were recruited which increased to 110,000 by 1909. While causality is impossible to establish fully, a couple of important events overlap with this period that can be directly linked to this sudden increase. The British government passed the Transport of Native labourers Act in 1863 to license and legitimise formerly informal recruitment systems. Recruitment carried on through highly abusive contractual networks and numerous episodes of fraud, forcible recruitment, kidnapping, and torture have been recorded as frequently occurring during the recruitment process.[6] There is even the rumour that the British orchestrated a famine in the Chotanagpur Santhal Paragana areas by stopping food supplies from reaching there so that the Adivasis would jump at the opportunity to work in the tea gardens of Assam.[7]

All the Adivasis in Assam trace their immediate history through this torturous route of indentured, immigrant labour brought in to work in the tea gardens and it is precisely this labour that has resulted in the now legendary Assam tea. Indeed DR. B.B. Das writes in his paper 'Migration and Settlement of Tea Garden Labourers in North East India': 'Tea is the product of the cumulative toil of the labourers.. It is mainly because of their hardships that we have the golden brew which cheers thousands. The North East region of India is home of the world's finest variety of tea. It also accounts for a large bulk of the world's tea output'.[8]

Political, Social and Economic Disenfranchisement:

In Assam, the Adivasis today can broadly be divided into two communities, the tea garden workers and those who came out of the tea gardens at the end of their contracts and settled in and around the area after procuring a little land mostly through government schemes. They are mainly present in Khokrajhar in Western/Lower Assam; Marigaon, Nagaon, Sonitpur and Darrang in Middle Assam; Golaghat, Jorhat, Sibsagar, Dibrugarh and Tinsukia in Eastern/Upper Assam; North Chachar and Karbi Anglong in Southern Assam; as well as the Barak Valley.[9] Specific labour-related economic disenfranchisement might be different for the tea garden and ex-tea garden Adivasi communities, however many aspects of their social and political disenfranchisement remain common.

The condition of the tea garden workers continues to be abysmal. While Adivasis form the vast majority of the workers, there are also small percentages of other tribal communities, as well as Nepalis, Bengalis, Oriyas and so on. Ranjit Das Gupta in his paper 'From Peasants and Tribesmen to Plantation Workers' describes that the plantation labour was essentially unfree labour and while payment modes, work organisation etc. were similar to other segments of the industrial labour force, there were also many distinctive socioeconomic traits, with plantations essentially being enclave economies combining both agricultural and industrial characteristics. Workers were in essence transported (forcibly, one might add) from non-capitalist, sustenance economies to working under the command of capital.[10]

During the initial decades from the 1850s until around the 1920s under the British, the working conditions were akin to slavery, with flogging, rape, torture and even the throwing of dead workers in rivers.[11] They were confined in concentration-like camps in the tea gardens and housed in segregated 'coolie' lines, kept under strict surveillance with the harshest punishments for perceived laxness. Even among the labouring classes, the wage differences between the tea-garden workers were much lesser than their counterparts in public works or railways. The tea garden workers were under a strict time-bound discipline with arduous work in all kinds of weather having to be done by men, women and children. Unbearably heavy loads of work, appalling wages, and forced to work even when ill due to the fear of ruthless punishments characterised the working conditions of the tea garden labourers.[12]

While certainly not comparable to earlier times, the working conditions today are still far from being the well-regulated environment that functions according to the Plantation Labour Act brought out in 1951 to protect the interests of workers in plantations. In addition there are numerous other violations under legislative measures meant to protect workers, all of which the plantation workers fall under, such as the Workmen's Compensation Act 1929 and the Assam Plantation Employees Welfare Fund Act 1959. [13] The North Eastern Social Research Centre based in Guwahati conducted a comprehensive study in 2004 across 172 tea gardens in Assam along with numerous interview and groups discussions with workers and families. The study brought to light numerous violations of the Act, including inadequate or completely non-existent provisions for drinking water, crèches, schools, proper health facilities, sanitation for women workers (who form the majority of tea industry labour) and shelter.[14]

Even a cursory observation of the tea gardens in Assam confirms these violations across the board. In addition one notices the expanded usage of child labour. Upon further investigation and discussions with workers, one learns that wages paid are much lower than prescribed minimum wages, no over-time payment is made, and occasional physical abuse occurs.

Women, who are the backbone of the tea industry and the large majority of the workforce, face even harsher working conditions. In all the tea estates visited, one couldn't spot a single crèche for infants and toddlers. Sanitation facilities were either inadequate or completely non-existent. And while nothing explicitly was mentioned, there have been many instances of verbal, physical and even sexual abuse. Women are in fact preferred as labour because most managers feel that they are particularly suited for garden work and easier to exploit.[15]

Issues surrounding gender deserve special mention due to the feminised nature of the tea-picking industry as well as the specific ways in which oppression and marginalisation plays out for Adivasi women, both in and out the tea gardens. While traditional norms of patriarchy and strict gender roles are not as prevalent in Adivasi society as they are in many conservative upper-caste Hindu communities, there are certainly norms and traditions which have women bearing a disproportionate socio-economic and cultural burden. These range from taking on the bulk of unpaid, reproductive labour in the household to being seen as the bearers of Adivasi culture and tradition. Furthermore there has been a history of exotic sexualisation of the Adivasi woman from colonial times onwards, which plays out in numerous ways such as stereotypes of sexual looseness, and deviancy, which has resulted in a history of sexual violence, especially during colonial times and post-colonial communal clashes, specifically targeting Adivasi women.

The conditions of the Adivasis who came out of the tea plantations and settled as cultivators around the gardens, is certainly better but not by much. Those who have land tend to be better off and more self-sufficient, while those possessing no or uncultivable land often end up as informal labour in nearby towns and cities. Education levels, health indicators and poverty levels for Adivasis are among the worst of all communities in Assam. Many Adivasi families find it difficult to get their children into educational institutions and later on in finding proper employment. Furthermore, while Adivasis, both tea garden and ex-tea garden communities form nearly 20 percent of the population, their representation in the legislative assembly is markedly lesser. They are disproportionately affected by natural disasters with erosions and floods frequently taking away their small farms. The government's ex-gratia in the event of these disasters is insufficient, while exploitation through usury is rampant. Their land is often usurped by the state or private players because of lack of proper documentation. A disturbing trend is that, due to continued disenfranchisement and oppression, self-exploitation is on the rise with the fairly rampant spread of alcoholism among the community and the trafficking of women and children to work as domestic workers or sex workers in cities like Kolkatta and Mumbai.[16]

Overall, the historic injustices and discrimination that Adivasis face elsewhere in India are very much in existence in Assam as well.

Thus the issues of disenfranchisement that the Adivasis, both in and out of the tea gardens, face are numerous and deeply entrenched. Some of the more prominent Adivasi organisations like the All Adivasi Students Association of Assam (AASAA) as well as groups active with tea garden workers like the Assam Tea Tribes Students Association (ATTSA) point to a particular policy feature that is historically missing here in Assam, which is the granting of Scheduled Tribe (ST) status to the Adivasis. The granting of this status is something these groups feel would go great lengths in ameliorating the historically oppressed condition of the Adivasis in Assam, and it is often the central, if not only, point of many of their campaigns.[17]

Thomas Pulloppillil in his 'Foreword and Introduction' to the book Identity of Adivasis in Assam writes that the Adivasis in Assam are at a critical juncture today in terms of defining themselves socially, politically, culturally and economically. This situation is made particularly crucial given the emergence of autonomous territories such as Bodoland, Lalung, Karbi and Mishing Autonomous Councils.[18] It is thus immensely important to deconstruct this particular demand for ST status, which has been a longstanding struggle from all the Adivasi organisations in Assam ever since the state de-scheduled them in 1947 after Independence, especially as in all other regions of India, they have been deemed as deserving of Scheduled Tribes status due to historical oppression, conditions which are no different in Assam.

Examination and Deconstruction of Arguments revolving around ST status:

With Adivasis having borne a history of enormous exploitation, the Government of India (GOI) made special safeguards to protect them from exploitation as well as to ensure social justice since the inception of Planning in 1951.[19]

This policy of 'protective discrimination' in order to safeguard the interests of historically oppressed communities included reservation or posts in public services, guaranteed political representation, as well as seats in educational institutions. It emerged as a result of immense socioeconomic inequality in India since the 1800s. After Independence it was felt that for the all-round development of the country there was a need to provide additional attention to depressed communities, who were weak in a socioeconomic sense and politically disenfranchised.[20] The GOI sought to achieve, through legislation, ameliorative programs and treatment to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The primary objective being the creation of a civil society extending effective citizenship rights to the vast sections of the population who have been historically deprived and marginalised.

An important question to thus ask is: If Adivasis have been deemed as deserving of ST status in every other part of India, why then has it been denied to them all these years after Independence in Assam?

Among the prevailing broad-based arguments (and this is by no means an exhaustive list) surrounding this issue include:

1. Adivasis came from outside the region i.e. migrated here as labourers to work in the tea gardens, hence cannot technically be considered as indigenous tribals.
2. They have not faced the historic discrimination and exploitation that the other tribes in the region have faced.
3. Granting ST status to Adivasis will dilute the franchise that other communities have gained through years of struggle to gain their own special status as well as political power in territorial councils.
4. There is some question with regards to the economic contribution of the Adivasi community to the state of Assam.
5. Adivasis have not assimilated properly enough into Assamese society and often practise their own cultures, languages and traditions within secluded enclaves outside the purview of the larger Assamese society.

It is important to examine and deconstruct each of these arguments. They can by no means be converted to simple black or white reductions as numerous aspirations in the face of military and cultural hegemony play into this complex issue.

Migratory History

The most common argument against granting ST status to Adivasis in Assam is to point at their migratory history i..e. coming into the state as indentured labour to work in the tea gardens. The argument is that they're technically not indigenous tribals as they're from another region outside Assam.[21]

This argument is hugely problematic to make because it could then very easily be extended to numerous, indeed all, other communities in India who do receive special benefits. Harka Bahadur Chhetri in his book Adivasis and the Culture of Assam reveals that there is no proof of inception of human beings in India, and that all the population groups, since pre-historic Stone Age migrated in different times from different regions. Adivasis were, however, among the first group of people to arrive in the region, hence often known as 'first peoples'.[22]

It should also be noted that most of the other tribal communities in Assam who have been granted ST status (and deservedly so in the face of their own exploitative histories) trace their migratory histories to regions of present-day East and South East Asia, and thus it would be imprudent to somehow point to the migratory histories of Adivasis as an argument against the granting of ST status to them.

It's also important to note that the migration of Adivasis into Assam was as forced indentured labour and of an extremely harsh kind. Dr. B.B. Das indicates that the effects of migration for Adivasis included no choice or freedom and at the complete mercy of their recruiters and employers, further stating that the labourers settled in the tea belts of Northeast India are not a floating population but rather a settled population with no connection to their original homes, having adopted local ways and habits thus considering Assam to be their home.[23]

Finally it must be strenuously added that the granting of special status by the Indian government is primarily a means of undoing past historical exploitation that tribal and other communities have faced, rather than a moniker of identity. Thus it is around the issue of historic injustices that the argument should revolve around and not problematic arguments of indigenousness.

Historic Exploitation

As a follow up to the last sentence in the above paragraph is the argument that Adivasis in Assam have not faced the historical injustices that other communities in the state have.[24] This is highly specious because not only do Adivasis have among the lowest Human Development Indices of all communities in India, but they continue to face immense rights violations, despite legislative measures to protect them.

Literacy rates and health indicators are extremely low in comparison to other communities and while they're barely 10 percent of the Indian population, they constitute around 55 percent of the displaced people in the event of projects such as dams, power plants, industrial expansion etc. In addition those who have converted to Christianity are often targeted by Hindu extremist organisations. Of course there have been some improvements in many of these factors and particularly with respect to political representation due to the granting of ST status to them. Representation in public services, educational institutions and local governing bodies have increased proving that the affirmative measures being taken are resulting in some positive progress.[25] There is however a long way to go before their HDIs catch up with the rest of India, and continued protection through ST status is a must for that to happen.

In Assam, the situation is no different than the rest of India, and if anything worse because even the few benefits they're able to access through ST status is not present in the state. Poverty, illiteracy, political disenfranchisement and immense socioeconomic problems characterise the condition of the Adivasis in Assam.[26] Furthermore the political representation is hardly in tune with the size of the Adivasi population in Assam, standing at around 20 percent of the population. Often the only recourse in the face of this neglect from the state is to avail of some minimal services provided by various church-based organisations. Thus in tune with the GOI's longstanding policy of providing protection through special status to historically oppressed communities, it becomes particularly vital to correct a gap in that particular policy with respect to the Adivasis in Assam.

Dilution of Franchise for Other Communities

A fear among other communities is that granting ST status to Adivasis will dilute the franchise of other communities who have special status and protection under law.[27] This is an important issue to consider as it deals with the justified fears of other oppressed communities. Certainly the status and territorial councils granted to numerous other communities in Assam have come after many years of identity-based struggle, and those communities would not want to see those protective measures eroded.

However, it is difficult to argue that ST status for Adivasis would somehow dilute the franchise of other tribal and oppressed communities. For instance in Tamil Nadu, where protective policy-making for historically oppressed communities has been a very longstanding feature of the state, protection given to SCs, STs and OBCs has, if anything, played a role in marginally redistributing power from the hands of the Brahmins and other Upper Castes to the hands of the communities mentioned. And, while far from being a perfect social experiment, it has not necessarily resulted in any real dilution of power from other oppressed communities, rather the dilution of power from the ruling classes. In India, as per legislation, reservation or protective policy-making is not an exercise in getting oppressed communities to fight with each other for the same crumbs, but rather an exercise in redistributing power historically held by the ruling classes in an egalitarian manner to create a more just social order.

This is the same analysis with which other oppressed communities in Assam ought to view the issue of ST status for Adivasis. If anything, it would result in a further redistribution of power from the hands of the ruling classes in Assam, rather than a dilution of their own hard-fought rights to be granted special status. Furthermore granting access to franchise for any historically oppressed community only adds to the overall development of that society, which will ultimately bear fruit for all communities.

In addition to the fear that other marginalised communities might feel with respect to the granting of ST status for Adivasis in Assam, there is the larger, far more virulent, issue of historically powerful classes and castes in India utilising such arguments to maintain the status quo. While an ear certainly has to be leant to the fears of other marginalised communities in affirmative action programs, it must be done with extreme caution bearing in mind the co-optation of these arguments by the traditional ruling classes due to their (highly unjustified) fear of losing historically-held class and caste privileges

Economic Contribution of Adivasis

The contribution of the Adivasis to the economy of Assam is beyond doubt a great one. Right from the 1850s onwards when they were brought in an indentured labour, their toil and hardship made tea one of the pillars of the Assam economy. Robert Kerketa in his essay 'Adivasis in Assam: Their Past, Present and Future' indicates that though they have been paradoxically deprived of ST status, it was they who gave political stability to Assam, contributing crores of rupees to the state through their hard labour in the tea gardens placing the region on the world map for its fine tea.[28] Assam alone produces more than 50 percent of India's total tea, and the Assam economy is deeply reliant on tea-exports both within India and internationally.[29]

The history of the tea industry in Assam confirms that within a few decades of the migration of Adivasis into the tea plantations, Assam cornered 54 percent of the market in the United Kingdom and outstripping China as the leading tea-producing region in the world.[30] Thus the mammoth success of Assam tea can be directly traced back to the toil of the Adivasis and it is acutely dependent on that very same labour till date.

Assimilation of Adivasis into Assam Society

After many generations of Adivasi existence in Assam, it is quite clear that they have very much assimilated into Assam society and consider Assam to be their home. Almost all Adivasi families speak fluent Assamese and for most it is their primary language of communication even within the family.[31] Traditions, food habits and culture have been woven with mainstream Assamese culture, indeed to the point where their former linguistic identity has almost completely ceased to exist. Certainly there is an element of retention of former identities as written by Dr. Francis Ekka of the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore. Ekka writes that they are elements of cultural connectedness with Adivasis in Central India but which are fast being intertwined with Assamese culture.[32]

It must be added that culture is not static and what is seen as 'mainstream' Assamese culture is indeed an evolution of different influences, and it would only be enriched further were it to be influenced by the various forms of Adivasi culture as well, who are very much an integral part of the socioeconomic and political structures of Assam.

Thus in conclusion to the above section on deconstructing the arguments revolving around this issue, it can be said that granting ST status to Adivasis is indeed a just need, which will benefit not only them but also Assamese society in general. To take up the example of Tamil Nadu again, the state has one of the highest education levels in the country and among the best HDIs, per capita income and industrialisation levels (all on par with OECD countries). The first Dalit president of India, K.R. Narayan, and Chief Justice of India, K.G. Balakrishnan, hailed from Tamil Nadu. Other states in South India have had success in social protection measures with one of the most celebrated Dalit social scientists, Kanchi Illaiah, who hails from Andhra Pradesh and a former chief minister of Karnataka, Veerappa Moily, attributing their success to the reservation they availed of through special protective status granted to their community. Kerala boasts of, now legendary, human development indices that are on par with most Western countries. It is no coincidence that these are states with some of the most progressive and longstanding policy-making measures in protecting historically oppressed communities. Thus when there is ample evidence showcasing how protection through policy-making can not only play a role in uplifting the beneficiary communities but also society in general, it stands to singular reason that such a policy in favour of Adivasis in Assam will produce similar results.

Relevance of ST Status

It is critical to note however that ST status alone, while important, will not be some kind of quick-fix panacea to cure all ills. This is evident in other parts of India, where political power via reservation often ends up in the hands of the political elite of that section of society, who themselves sometimes form an oppressive ruling class within the community. There are numerous other issues that the Adivasis face such as lack of economic franchise, serious labour exploitation and social problems such as alcoholism that will require strenuous social movements to tackle.

Serious examination of the vast gamut of issues that form the oppressive existence that the Adivasis have to contend with is needed, and mere political representation will not wish them away. A worrying feature when interacting with Adivasi political organisations like AASAA is the noticeable, single-point nature of their campaign demands.

Of course it is a certainty that most Adivasi organisations are indeed fully aware of these issues such as the conditions of Adivasi workers and women, as well as struggling against internal exploitation. The single-point nature of social justice campaigns has been and continues to be a common feature across the world, due to a (very justified) perception that engaging with numerous issues all at once dilutes the legitimacy of the immediate claim (in this case for ST status). This has been found even in much larger liberation movements such as the Indian Independence struggle and the Anti-Apartheid struggle in South Africa. However, a sobering feature is that there has also been a history of these issues being negated once the campaign achieves its immediate aims. Thus, while keeping the immediate goal at the forefront, an incorporation of labour and gender by the numerous Adivasi organisations, looking beyond just identity, and the building of movements based on that analysis would serve the community tremendously, and indeed the campaign for ST status. The Adivasis have a long history of valiant struggle behind them, with one of the first rebellions against the British Empire being the Santhal Rebellion of 1855 as well as a history of egalitarian living. This legacy of struggle and egalitarianism can certainly be a guiding force in taking on the oppression that the Adivasis face today in a truly fruitful manner.

Future Research: Evolving a Policy on National Identity of Tribals and Oppressed Classes

This paper provides an argument for providing ST status to Adivasis in Assam. However this is but a small step towards egalitarian policy-making, and is certainly not enough. An important avenue for future research is to examine ways in which protective-policy making can be improved in India. Specifically, examination is required on the need to evolve, policy-wise, a national identity of tribals and oppressed classes, because protection needs to be extended to them on a pan-India basis. Dalits and tribals cannot avail of the benefits of protective policy-making if they were to travel and settle down in some other region other than their native state, while continuing to face oppression and lack of franchise. This is particularly true, as most of these communities travel to different states as migrant labour and are in particular need of protection.

The forced migration of Adivasis as indentured labour in British tea plantations is one particularly prominent, historically rooted example of this. However across the length and breadth of India today, marginalised communities travel long distances in search of work. Evolving a policy of the national identity of tribals and oppressed classes would resolve most issues surrounding this longstanding problem of providing protection to historically oppressed communities in a manner that is egalitarian and can truly provide far-reaching benefits to these communities and society at large.