National
NEHRU: THE GREAT LOVER OF TRIBALS
By Dr. Shyam Singh Shashi
When we remember the dynamic personality of
Jawaharlal Nehru and his varied interests in different subjects, we recall his
own words because we cannot put them better. He said: "If any people chose to
think of me then I should like them to say-this was the man who with all his
mind and heart loved India and the Indian people. And they in turn were
indulgent to him and gave him their love most abundantly and extravagantly."
These words depict how Nehru loved his people and how he got abundant love from
them.
His humanitarian thinking, indomitable courage, wisdom, administrative ability,
statesmanship and, above all, the charm of his magnetic personality have had a
deep impact on our social, political and economic structure which he shaped in
its formative years. He had unparalleled sincerity towards the people in general
and weaker sections in particular. Though he had reached the Himalayan heights
in every sphere of life, Panditji was the commonest among the commons and was
always approachable to the common man.
Nehru was a great friend of tribals, and an ardent lover of their art and
culture. His interest in the tribal people transcended the political, cultural
and economic affinities of the tribals with the rest of the community. He
regarded them as the repositories of the original human culture of India. Their
way of life to a great extent was still not adulterated by the complexities of
the modern culture and civilization. He extended his sympathy to tribal people.
Every year, he would spare some time from his busy schedule to be with tribal
folks coming from the distant tribal belts for the Republic Day celebrations in
Delhi. He would sing and dance with them and forget for a moment the cares of a
Prime Minister. Panditji was very critical about the vices that were replacing
the virtues of the tribal social life in the name of civilazation. He found the
folk songs and dances more inspiring than the cinema and theatre. To him the
open hostility of the tribal society seemed much better than the evil practices
prevailing in the urban society.
He once said: "They are a virile people. I approach this simple folk in a spirit
of comradeship and not like someone aloof who had come to look at them, examine
them, weigh them or try and make them conform to another way of life."
He opposed the idea of keeping tribals as a separate class or group. Nehru had
great admiration for the tribal way of life. He liked their innocent behaviour,
clean heart and straightforwardness. He once remarked: "They are an extremely
disciplined people, often much more democratic than most others in India.
Without a constitution and the rest, they function democratically and carry out
the decisions made by their elders or their own representatives almost without
exception. Above all, they are a people who sing and dance and try to enjoy
life; not people who sit in stock exchanges and shout at each other and call
that civilization. I would prefer any day to be a nomad in the hills rather then
being a member of stock exchanges or being made to sit there and listen to those
frightfully ugly noises. Is that the civilazation we want the tribal people to
have? I hope not. I am quite sure that ultimately the civilization of the tribal
folk, of song and dance, will last when stock exchanges have ceased to exist in
this country and other countries."
Nehru had a poetic heart and was ardent lover of nature. He liked hills, rivers,
trees and natural environment for which he desired to be a nomad and live among
nomadic communities. It was Nehru, who helped the nomadic people, particularly
Gadia Lohar of Rajasthan and Gujjars of Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, in
rehabilitation. But this adjustment was not based on damaging the tribal or
nomadic culture. His approach was different from theoretical anthropologies.
I had the opportunity to work among nomads of the Himalayas, particularly Gaddis
and Gujjars of Himachal Pradesh. Both the communities are nomadic and
seminomadic. I have interviewed a large number of Gaddis, Gujjars and other
nomads of the Himalayas from time to time while working in Ashok Ashram, Kalsi,
Dehra Dun, with Pt. Dharm Dev Shastri. I had the privilege of attending the
Gujjar nomadics tribal conference addressed by Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru held at
Choharpur (now Vikas Nagar) in Dehra Dun district.
Nehru was also interested in Banjaras and Indian Roma Gypsies who left India
over 1,000 years ago and still wander from place to place in Europe and America.
I had the opportunity to study these people indepth and found the educated Roma
were aware that both Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi had been very
sympathetic to them. The groups of Roma Gypsies met Nehruji and Indira Gandhi
whenever they came to India.
Nehru as a Prime Minister was directly concerned with the tribal policy and
decision-making about the tribal problems. In his speeches and writings he
always stressed that the approach to the tribal people should be one of learning
from them and, having learnt, of trying to help and co-operate with them.
In his foreword to the second edition of Verrier Elwin's Philosophy for NEFA,
Nehru said: "It is between these two extreme positions that we have to function.
There has to be, development in various ways, such as communications, medical
facilities, education and better agriculture. These avenues of development
should, however, be pursued within the broad framework of the following five
fundamental principles:
1. People should develop along the lines of their own genius and we should avoid
imposing anything on them. We should try to encourage in every way their own
traditional arts and culture.
2. Tribal rights in land forests should be respected.
3. We should try to train and build up a team of their own people to do the work
of administration and development. Some technical personnel from outside will,
no doubt, be needed, especially in the beginning. But we should avoid
introducing too many outsiders into tribal territory.
4. We should not over-administer these areas or overwhelm them with a
multiplicity of schemes. We should rather work through, and not in rivalry to,
their own social and cultural institutions.
5. We should judge result not by statistics or the amount of money spent, but by
the quality of human character that is evolved."
Nehru was consistently opposed to any type of imposition on the tribals. He made
it clear that we should help them to develop along the lines of their own
tradition and genius. Speaking on tribals' integration with national life, he
said: "If you approach the tribal people with affection, go to them as a
liberating force and as a friend so that they may feel you have come not to take
away something from them but to give them something, that is the right
integration. But if they feel you have come to change their methods of living,
then it is all completely wrong." This was the vision of Panditiji, the great
lover of tribals. -CNF
(The author is an eminent social scientist-poet Padma Shri awardee and Former
Director General, Ministry of I&B, Govt. of India who has 300 books to his
credit in English and Hindi including poetry and encyclopaedic works.)