Why Assam’s adivasis are soft targets

GUWAHATI: It was in the second half of the 19th century that the British planters first brought the adivasis from Chhotanagpur plateau and central India to work as indentured labour on their Assam tea estates. Much later, a second batch came to western Assam looking for a better life. But over the two centuries, little has changed for the state's adivasis.
They are as sup pressed, marginalized and exploited as they were when they first set foot in the state Of Assam's 40 lakh adiva sis, more than 11 lakh work in the state's 800-odd tea gar dens, many of them owned by multi-national companies They are called the "tea gar den tribe" though they don' have ST status in Assam They become "ex-tea garden tribe" the moment they stop working.
Adivasis find both these terms "derogatory". They earn a paltry Rs 94 a day, far below the state mini mum wage of Rs 169. Their literacy rate is abysmally low at 23%. And more than 70% of them are landless and live on encroached forest land.
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The marginalized com munity has now become a soft target for militant attacks by groups like the National Democratic Fron of Boroland (Songbijit faction) which massacred 76 adivasis across three border districts two days before Christmas. The first two districts come under the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District (BTAD) administered by the Bodoland People's Front, an ally of the Congress in the state government.

An adivasi woman cries after the massacre carried out in her village by Bodo militants.
Apart from the Bodos, Nagas too have been tangled in a conflict with the adivasis. They ac cuse them of settling in areas that both Naga land and Assam claim to be their own. "Last September, the Nagas massacred our people in Golaghat district (Assam). The attacks are part of a conspiracy — one state wants to use us as shield and the other wants to evict us," alleges Raphael Kujur, president All-Adivasi Students' Association of Assam (AASAA).
Adivasis, say observers, suffer because they are caught in the vortex of Assam's ethnicity-based politics. The BTAD has tried to use the adivasis as a buffer against Bengali-speaking Muslims with whom Bodos have a long history of land disputes. (The Muslims want the BTAD to be scrapped because they say Bodos are in a minority in areas that comprise the autonomous council).
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It is ironical that the Bodos are now in con flict with the adivasis who they thought would be a shield against the Muslims. Long before last week’s violence in 1996, about 200 adivasis had died and more than 2 lakh turned homeless after clashes with the Bodos. Two years later, they struck again and killed more than 50 adivasis and displaced about 1.5 lakh.
Pushed to the wall, adivasis have in the past taken up arms. Over the past decade, they floated as many as five militant outfits but all of them laid down their weapons before former Union home minister P Chidambaram a few years ago.
Security agencies fear the recent attacks may provoke adivasis into picking up arms again. "They may get swayed by the Maoists who have already set up bases in areas close to Arunachal Pradesh," says a state agency offi cial. A home affairs official, on the other hand, dismisses this fear. "The adivasis here want the government to recognize them as a scheduled tribe," he points out.

An adivasi with an axe at a roadblock erected in Assam following the carnage carried out by Bodo militants against members of the adivasi community.
Unhappy at the denial of ST status, Kujur remarks: "We neither have the ST status nor any development. And to make things worse, we have been turned into stateless people."
Adivasi leaders who have made it to positions of power refuse to take responsibility for their community.
Says Assam revenue minister Prithivi Majhi, a Santhal adivasi and a Congress leader: "The adivasis are still backward. Politi cal representation is just a minute factor in the development of a community. A community cannot develop unless it has writers, intellectu als, better literacy rates."
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Traditionally loyal to the Congress, the adivasis have moved closer to BJP in recent years. In the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, BJP won seven of the 14 seats in Assam. Two of its MPs are adivasis.