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Scheduled Tribe Status for Adivasis inAssamSriram Ananthanarayanan aa University of MinnesotaPublished online: 12 Jul 2010.

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ESSAY

Scheduled Tribe Status for Adivasis in Assam

Sriram Ananthanarayanan

University of Minnesota

This essay examines the longstanding struggle that Adivasis in the NortheastIndian state of Assam have been waging with respect to their demand to beclassified as Scheduled Tribes (STs). It takes the position that ST status forAdivasis is a basic right considering the many generations of oppression thecommunity has faced and keeping in mind the Government of India’sconstitutional commitment to provide certain rights-based legal benefits inthe form of reservations, political representation, and socio-economic subsidiesfor historically-oppressed communities. However the argument is placed withina larger context. It considers the problems faced by the community, and therelevance of ST status in dealing with them.

The essay starts with a brief history of the Adivasis in Assam, followed by apanoramic view of their political, social and economic disenfranchisement.It then attempts to examine and deconstruct the various arguments revolvingaround the issue of ST status for the Adivasis in Assam. It ends with a look atthe issue of ST status in the context of the problems of disenfranchisementfaced by the Adivasis, and a brief discussion of future research avenues.

Before we begin though it is important to point out that while the term‘Adivasi’ in the rest of India refers to tribals in general, in Northeast India,and particularly in Assam, the term is generally used to refer to a specificcommunity of tribes or sub-tribes (the Santhal, Munda, Oraon etc.) whomigrated from the central Indian regions to work in the tea gardens of Assam.There are many other tribes in Assam and Northeast India such as the Bodo,Khasi, Naga etc. Most of these other tribes have ST status, and the many socio-political arguments in the Northeast Indian region about who ought to receiveST status are quite a central element in the issue with regard to the Adivasis ofAssam. While a discussion on the entire gamut of issues dealing with othertribes is certainly not within the scope of this essay, there will be elements of it

South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies,n.s., Vol.XXXIII, no.2, August 2010

ISSN 0085-6401 print; 1479-0270 online/10/020290-14 � 2010 South Asian Studies Association of Australia

DOI: 10.1080/00856401.2010.494823

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discussed that directly relate to the struggle by the Adivasis in Assam to obtainST status.

History and Background of the Adivasis in AssamThe Adivasis in India are traditionally known as the ‘first peoples’ orindigenous people. There is no proof of the exact inception of human culture inIndia since prehistoric Stone Age people migrated there in different periods oftime from different regions. However Adivasis were among the first people toarrive in India—before other communities such as the Aryans, Dravidians andMongolians.1

Over time the Adivasis evolved from hunter-gatherers to cultivators, andeven today they continue to be primarily agriculturists. Mostly, though,

1 Harka Bahadur Chhetri, Adivasis and the Culture of Assam (Kolkata: Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad

Institute of Asian Studies, 2005), pp.12–35.

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they grow crops for subsistence and live in tightly-knit communities. Thischanged from the 1850s onwards with the introduction of a major new cashcrop—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 British military man bythe name of Bruce.2 The English East India Company, motivated by thepossibility of breaking China’s monopoly over tea production, took overAssam in 1826 from the Ahom kings through the Yandaboo Treaty. In 1837the first tea garden was established at Chabua in Dibrugarh District ofUpper Assam, and in 1840 the Assam Tea Company started production on acommercial basis. The industry expanded rapidly from the 1850s onwards.Vast tracts of land were cleared for the establishing of plantations, and by theturn of the century Assam had become the leading tea-producing region in theworld.3

The rapid expansion of the industry, and its highly labour-intensive nature,meant that a plentiful source of labour was required. While initially someworkers came from the Bodo-Kachari tribes, local people proved difficult torecruit. The locals preferred to cultivate for their own needs, and were willing towork in the tea gardens—if at all—only on a temporary basis. Furthermore,having a fairly self-sufficient pre-capitalist economy they tended to consider teagarden work as demeaning. Added to this, the Burmese invasion of 1819–24,when the then Ahom Kingdom in Assam came under the control of theBurmese rulers of Pagan (defeated by the British in 1826), and the choleraepidemic of 1833–54, caused a shortage of manpower.4

In effect, there was no landless labour class in the region to exploit. The Britishtried to alleviate this situation by imposing heavy taxes on the subsistencefarming of the local peasants, but it was ultimately felt that uprooted labourwould be far easier to control and exploit. This is when the importation oflabourers began, primarily from the Adivasi regions of central and eastern

2 Amit Kumar Nag, ‘The Conditions of Tea Garden Labourers in North East India and its Background’, in

S. Karotemperel and B. Dutta Roy (eds), Tea Garden Labourers of North East India (Shillong: Vendrame

Institute, 1990), pp.51–7.3 R.K. Kar, ‘A Panoramic View of the Tea and Ex-Tea Tribes of Assam’, in Thomas Pulloppillil (ed.),

Identity of Adivasis in Assam (Guwahati: Don Bosco Publications, 2005), Chap.3.4 R.N. Chakravorty, Socio-Economic Development of Plantation Workers in North East India (Kolkata:

National Library Publications, 1997); Kar, ‘A Panoramic View of the Tea and Ex-Tea Tribes of Assam’; and

R.K. Bhadra, ‘Sociological Dimensions of Tea Plantation Workers of North East India’, in Thomas

Pulloppillil (ed.), Identity of Adivasis in Assam (Guwahati: Don Bosco Publications, 2005), Chap.5.

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India.5 The brutality of this process can be understood from the fact that in1841 the first batch of labourers from the Chotanagpur area all died en routedue to malnutrition and illness. By 1859 only 2000 Adivasis had been recruited.But this number had risen to 110,000 by 1909. While causality is impossible toestablish fully, it is likely that a major factor in the sudden increase was thepassage of the Transport of Native Labourers Act in 1863 to license andlegitimise formerly informal recruitment systems. The Act sanctioned recruit-ment by means of highly-abusive contractual networks, fraud, forciblerecruitment, kidnapping and torture.6 There was even a rumour that theBritish orchestrated a man-made famine in the Chotanagpur Santhal Parganasby cutting off imports of food so as to force the Adivasis there to seek paidwork in the tea gardens of Assam.7

All Adivasis in Assam trace their origins to this torturous and oppressiveregime of indenture. As B.B. Das wrote: ‘Tea is the product of the cumulativetoil of the labourers. It is mainly because of their hardships that we have thegolden brew which cheers thousands. The North East region of India is homeof the world’s finest variety of tea. It also accounts for a large bulk of theworld’s tea output’.8

Political, Social and Economic DisenfranchisementThe Adivasis who inhabit Assam today can broadly be divided into twocommunities: the tea garden workers; and those who left the tea gardens at theend of their contracts and settled in and around the area after procuring a littleland (mostly through government schemes). They are most numerous inKhokrajhar in western/Lower Assam, in Marigaon, Nagaon, Sonitpur andDarrang in Middle Assam, in Golaghat, Jorhat, Sibsagar, Dibrugarh andTinsukia in eastern/Upper Assam, in North Chachar and Karbi Anglong insouthern Assam, and in the Barak Valley.9 In labour-related economic terms,

5 Kar, ‘A Panoramic View of the Tea and Ex-Tea Tribes of Assam’; and Bhadra, ‘Sociological Dimensions of

Tea Plantation Workers of North East India’.6 Kar, ‘A Panoramic View of the Tea and Ex-Tea Tribes of Assam’; Bhadra, ‘Sociological Dimensions of Tea

Plantation Workers of North East India’; and Hippoletus Toppo, ‘Violation of Human Rights in the Tea

Plantations of Assam and West Bengal’, in Thomas Pulloppillil (ed.), Identity of Adivasis in Assam

(Guwahati: Don Bosco Publications, 2005), Chap.10.7 Gregory Horo, ‘Life in the Tea Plantations and Legal Problems’, in Thomas Pulloppillil (ed.), Identity of

Adivasis in Assam (Guwahati: Don Bosco Publications, 2005), Chap.9.8 B.B. Das, ‘Migration and Settlement of Tea Garden Labourers in North East India’, in S. Karotemperel

and B. Dutta Roy (eds), Tea Garden Labourers of North East India (Shillong: Vendrame Institute, 1990),

pp.58–62.9 George Kandulna, ‘Socio-Economic Conditions of the Adivasis in the Tea Plantations of Assam’, in

Thomas Pulloppillil (ed.), Identity of Adivasis in Assam (Guwahati: Don Bosco Publications, 2005), Chap.11;

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the position of the tea garden and ex-tea garden Adivasis is clearly different—but their experience of social and political disenfranchisement has been similar.

The condition of the tea garden workers remains abysmal. As Ranjit DasGupta has shown, plantation labour is essentially unfree labour and whilepayment modes, work organisation etc. may be similar to other segments of theindustrial labour force, there are also some distinctive socio-economic traitswhich derive from the fact that plantations are essentially enclave economiescombining both agricultural and industrial characteristics. Workers are inessence captive to the command of capital.10

But conditions were worse during the colonial era. From the 1850s until the1920s, working conditions on the tea estates were akin to slavery. Recruits wereconfined in concentration-like camps in the tea gardens themselves, housed in

Figure 2Male Tea Garden Workers, Upper Assam (author’s photo, April 2008)

and Kirti Mishra, ‘Adivasis in Assam’, in Countercurrents (internet edition) (12 Apr. 2005) [http://

www.countercurrents.org, accessed 15 June 2008].10 Ranjit Das Gupta, ‘From Peasants and Tribesmen to Plantation Workers’, in S. Karotemperel and B.

Dutta Roy (eds), Tea Garden Labourers of North East India (Shillong: Vendrame Institute, 1990), pp.1–34.

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segregated ‘coolie’ lines, and kept under strict surveillance. Discipline wasenforced by flogging, rape and torture, with the harshest punishments metedout for perceived laxness.11 Work never ceased, whatever the weather. Noconcessions were made for women and children. Yet wages in the tea gardenswere lower even than those received by coolies employed on public works or therailways.12 Not surprisingly, mortality was high, but such was the uncaringnature of the system that the bodies of workers who died were simply throwninto rivers.13

While certainly not comparable to earlier times, working conditions today arestill far from well regulated. The Plantation Labour Act of 1951 which wasenacted to protect the interests of workers in plantations is routinely violated,and the same goes for other legislative measures meant to protect workers ingeneral such as the Workmen’s Compensation Act 1929 and the AssamPlantation Employees Welfare Fund Act 1959.14 In 2004 the North EasternSocial Research Centre, based in Guwahati, conducted a comprehensivestudy of 172 tea gardens in Assam, holding numerous interviews and groupdiscussions with workers and their families. The study brought to light manycases of inadequate or non-existent provision of basic services such as drinkingwater, schools, health facilities and shelter.15

Women, who are the backbone of the tea industry and comprise the largemajority of the workforce, face particularly difficult working conditions. In thetea estates visited by the author during fieldwork in 2008, there was not a singlecreche available for infants and toddlers. Sanitation facilities dedicated forfemale use were either inadequate or lacking altogether. And while nothingexplicitly was admitted, one heard rumours of verbal, physical and even sexualabuse. It is not surprising to learn that female labourers are preferred to malesbecause managers feel that they are easier to exploit.16

11 Kar, ‘A Panoramic View of the Tea and Ex-Tea Tribes of Assam’; and Toppo, ‘Violation of Human Rights

in the Tea Plantations of Assam and West Bengal’.12 Das Gupta, ‘From Peasants and Tribesmen to Plantation Workers’, pp.1–34; Nag, ‘The Conditions of Tea

Garden Labourers in North East India and its Background’; Chakravorty, Socio-Economic Development of

Plantation Workers in North East India; Kandulna, ‘Socio-Economic Conditions of the Adivasis in the Tea

Plantations of Assam’; Kar, ‘A Panoramic View of the Tea and Ex-Tea Tribes of Assam’; and Toppo,

‘Violation of Human Rights in the Tea Plantations of Assam and West Bengal’.13 Kar, ‘A Panoramic View of the Tea and Ex-Tea Tribes of Assam’; and Toppo, ‘Violation of Human Rights

in the Tea Plantations of Assam and West Bengal’.14 Kar, ‘A Panoramic View of the Tea and Ex-Tea Tribes of Assam’; Toppo, ‘Violation of Human Rights in

the Tea Plantations of Assam and West Bengal’; and Gita Bharali, Labour Unrest and Social Insecurity of

Plantation Workers: A Case Study (Guwahati: North Eastern Social Research Centre, 2004).15 Bharali, Labour Unrest and Social Insecurity of Plantation Workers: A Case Study.16 Author’s visits to tea gardens in Lower and Upper Assam in March/April 2008.

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Issues surrounding gender deserve special mention due to the feminised natureof the tea-picking industry as well as the specific ways in which oppression andmarginalisation play out for Adivasi women, both inside and outside the teagardens. While traditional norms of patriarchy and gender hierarchy are not asprevalent in Adivasi society as they are in many conservative upper-casteHindu communities, local traditions do have women bearing a dispropor-tionate socio-economic and cultural burden. They perform the bulk of unpaidlabour in the household and are regarded as the bearers of Adivasi culture andtradition. Furthermore, a history of exotic sexualisation of Adivasi womendating back to colonial times has led to them being stereotyped as sexuallyloose and even deviant. This in turn has made them specific targets of sexualviolence, especially in recent times in the context of communal clashes.

The conditions of the Adivasis who made it out of the tea plantations andsettled down as cultivators around the gardens is certainly better—but not bymuch. Those who have land are managing well enough but those without ithave been forced to look for informal labouring jobs in nearby towns and cities.Overall education and poverty levels, and health indicators for Adivasis are

Figure 3Female Tea Garden Workers, Upper Assam (author’s photo, April 2008)

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among the worst in Assam. Many Adivasi families find it difficult even to gettheir children into primary school. They are disproportionately affected too bynatural disasters, with erosion and floods taking a toll of their small farms.Spurned by regular banks, they are preyed on by usurious moneylenders.Occasionally their land is stolen from them by the state or private playersbecause of a lack of proper documentation. Last but not least, they have littlepolitical voice. Although they account for nearly 20 percent of the populationof the state, their representation in the legislative assembly is miniscule.Due to continued disenfranchisement and oppression, self-exploitation withinthe community is on the rise, with alcoholism becoming rampant and thetrafficking of women and children to work as domestic workers or sex workersin cities like Kolkatta and Mumbai also increasing.17

Indeed, according to a recent study of the Adivasi problem in Assam byThomas Pulloppillil, the community is at a critical juncture today in terms of itssocial, political, cultural and economic identity. The Adivasis’ situation, hesuggests, is dire, and has been made even more perilous by the recent grantingof regional autonomy to territories such as Bodoland, Lalung, Karbi andMishing.18

Against this background of disenfranchisement, some prominent Adivasiorganisations such as the All Adivasi Students’ Association of Assam(AASAA) and groups active with tea garden workers such as the Assam TeaTribes Students’ Association (ATTSA) are agitating for the granting of STstatus to the state’s Adivasis. This, they feel, would go a long way towardsameliorating the historically-oppressed condition of the Adivasis in Assam.Indeed it is often the central, if not only, point of many of their campaigns.19

What is the history of this demand for ST status, what is the case for it, and willit succeed?

Interrogating Arguments for ST StatusAdivasis in South Asia have suffered a history of exploitation. However theleaders of the newly-independent Union of India incorporated special

17 Mishra, ‘Adivasis in Assam’; and conversations with self-help groups in Lower and Upper Assam, at

Adivasi women’s cooperatives in Guwahati, and with Adivasi families in Gossaigaon, March/April 2008.18 Thomas Pulloppillil, ‘Foreword and Introduction’, in Thomas Pulloppillil (ed.), Identity of Adivasis in

Assam (Guwahati: Don Bosco Publications, 2005), Chap.1.19 Conversations with AASAA members in Gossaigaon, March 2008.

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safeguards into the Constitution of 1950 to protect them, and to ensure thatthey got the social justice they deserved.20

This policy of ‘protective discrimination’, introduced to safeguard the interestsof historically-oppressed communities, included the reservation of posts in thepublic services and places in educational institutions and guaranteed politicalrepresentation. It emerged as a result of immense socio-economic inequality inIndia since the 1800s. It was felt that such measures were needed not simply onhuman rights grounds but also to maximise the all-round development of thecountry. The depressed communities had a contribution to make but they hadbeen economically disenfranchised.21 The government’s primary objectivethough was the creation of a civil society extending effective citizenship rightsto the vast sections of the population who had been historically deprived andmarginalised.

Therefore, an important question to ask is: if Adivasis have been deemed asdeserving of ST status in every other part of India, why has it been denied tothem in Assam?

The arguments which have been mustered by scholars with a view to explainingand defending this anomaly include the following:

1. The Adivasis in Assam came from outside the region and hence cannot,technically, be considered as indigenous tribals;

2. They have not faced the historic discrimination and exploitation that theother tribes in the region have faced;

3. Granting ST status to Adivasis will dilute the franchise that othercommunities have gained through years of struggle to obtain their ownspecial status as well as political power in territorial councils;

4. There is some question with regard to the economic contribution of theAdivasi community to the state of Assam;

5. Adivasis have not assimilated properly into Assamese society and oftenpractise their own cultures, languages and traditions within secludedenclaves outside the purview of the larger society.

20 Pranati Dutta, ‘Tribal Population in India’, in K. Uma Devi and Neera Bharioke (eds), Tribal Rights in

India (New Delhi: Serials Publications, 2006), Chap.8.21 Troilukya Gogoi, Reservation Policy and the OBC Movement in Assam (Kolkata: Maulana Abdul Kalam

Azad Institute of Asian Studies, 2005).

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It is important to examine and deconstruct each of these arguments. They canby no means be converted to simple black and white reductions, as severaldisparate factors are involved in this complex issue.

Migratory HistoryThe most common argument against granting ST status to Adivasis in Assam isto point at their migratory history—i.e. the fact that they came into the state asindentured labourers to work in the tea gardens. The argument is that they aretechnically not indigenous tribals as they are from another region outsideAssam.22

Yet one could very easily say the same thing about numerous—indeed all—communities in India who receive special benefits. As Harka BahadurChhetri points out in his book Adivasis and the Culture of Assam, allpopulation groups in South Asia have migrated at different times from otherplaces.23 Thus, most of the other tribal communities in Assam who have beengranted ST status (and deservedly so in the face of their own exploitativehistories) trace their migratory histories to regions of present-day East andSoutheast Asia. It is also important to note B.B. Das’s point that thelabourers settled in the tea belts of Northeast India are not a floatingpopulation but rather a settled one. They no longer have any connection totheir original homes, having adopted local ways, and they look on Assam astheir home.24 Finally it must be strenuously stated that the granting ofspecial status by the Indian government is primarily a means of undoingpast historical exploitation; so it is around the issue of historic injusticesthat the argument should revolve—not the problematic arguments ofindigenousness.

Historic ExploitationStill it is sometimes said that Adivasis have not faced the historical injusticesthat other communities in the state have experienced.25 This is highly specious.Not only do Adivasis have among the lowest Human Development Indices

22 M.S. Prabhakara, ‘Behind the Adivasi Unrest in Assam’, The Hindu (internet edition) (3 Dec. 2007) [http://

www.hinduonnet.com, accessed 15 June 2008]; and Moirangthem Prakash, ‘The Adivasi Question in Assam’,

Tehelka (internet edition) (17 Dec. 2007) [http://www.tehelka.com, accessed 15 June 2008].23 Harka Bahadur Chhetri, Adivasis and the Culture of Assam (Kolkata: Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad

Institute of Asian Studies, 2005), pp.11–13.24 Das, ‘Migration and Settlement of Tea Garden Labourers in North East India’.25 Prabhakara, ‘Behind the Adivasi Unrest in Assam’; and Prakash, ‘The Adivasi Question in Assam’.

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(HDIs) of all communities in India, but they continue to face immense rightsviolations despite the enactment of laws ostensibly designed to protect them.For instance, while they constitute a minority of the Indian population (barely10 percent) they make up around 55 percent of those displaced by the buildingof new dams, power plants and factories. In addition Adivasis who haveconverted to Christianity are often targeted by Hindu extremist organisations.To be sure, the representation of Adivasis in public services, educationalinstitutions and local governing bodies in Assam has increased, demonstratingthat affirmative measures are being taken and are bringing some progress.26

There is, however, a long way to go before their HDIs catch up with theIndian average. Special Adivasi political representation does not even comeclose to reflecting their population share—around 20 percent of the state’spopulation.

Dilution of Franchise for Other CommunitiesA fear among other communities is that granting ST status to Adivasis willdilute the franchise of other communities who already have special status andprotection under the law.27 This is an important issue to consider, as itconcerns justified fears. Nevertheless it does not necessarily follow that STstatus for Adivasis will somehow dilute the franchise of other tribal andoppressed communities. For instance in Tamil Nadu, where protective policy-making for historically-oppressed communities has been a very longstandingfeature of the state, the protection given to SCs (Scheduled Castes), STs andOBCs (Other Backward Castes) has undoubtedly helped to improve theirsocio-economic position. Yet the losers in this process—perhaps onlymarginally—have been the Brahmins and other upper castes. Protectivepolicy-making is not designed to make oppressed communities fight with eachother for the same crumbs, but rather to redistribute power—historicallymonopolised by the ruling classes—to create a more just social order. Inaddition, whatever other marginalised communities in Assam might fear, theconsequences of granting ST status to the Adivasis is outweighed by anotherconsideration—the likelihood of historically-powerful classes and castesutilising such arguments to maintain the status quo.

26 Dutta, ‘Tribal Population in India’; and Rattan Singh and Mamta Mehmi, ‘Constitutional Status of

Scheduled Tribes in India: An Introspection’, in K. Uma Devi and Neera Bharioke (eds), Tribal Rights in

India (New Delhi: Serials Publications, 2006), Chap.9.27 Subhir Bhaumik, ‘Ethnic Showdown Looms in Assam’, BBC News (internet edition) (6 Dec. 2007) [http://

news.bbc.co.uk/, accessed 15 June 2008]; Prabhakara, ‘Behind the Adivasi Unrest in Assam’; and Prakash,

‘The Adivasi Question in Assam’.

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Economic Contribution of AdivasisThe contribution of the Adivasis to the economy of Assam is beyond doubtsubstantial. Since the 1850s their toil in the tea plantations has contributedcrores of rupees to the state’s coffers (as well as helping to place the region onthe world map as a source of fine tea).28 Incidentally, Assam accounts for morethan 50 percent of India’s total tea production, and plays an important part inkeeping the country’s balance of trade in the black.29

Assimilation of Adivasis into Assamese SocietyAfter many generations of Adivasi habitation in Assam, they have pretty muchassimilated into Assamese society. Almost all Adivasi families speak fluentAssamese and for most it is their primary language of communication evenwithin the family.30 Food habits and culture too have been interwoven with themainstream. Francis Ekka believes that some elements of cultural connected-ness with Adivasis in central India remain, but concedes that these are fastbeing swamped by Assamese influence.31 It might be added that culture is notstatic, and what might be seen today as ‘mainstream’ Assamese culture is in facta melding of various different streams. The further assimilation of elements ofAdivasi culture can only enrich this socio-cultural mix.

Relevance of ST StatusIt is critical to point out, however, that conferring ST status will not by itselfbring a quick fix. Evidence from other parts of India shows that politicalpower acquired via reservation often ends up in the hands of a small elite fromthat section, who then sometimes turn into an oppressive ruling sub-class.Numerous other issues that the Adivasis face, such as labour exploitation andalcoholism, will require strenuous social intervention. Mere political represen-tation will not wish them away. From this point of view a worrying feature ofAdivasi political organisations like the AASAA is the single-point nature oftheir campaign demands.

28 Robert Kerketta, ‘Adivasis in Assam: Their Past, Present and Future’, in Thomas Pulloppillil (ed.), Identity

of Adivasis in Assam (Guwahati: Don Bosco Publications, 2005), p.17. Within a few decades of the migration

of Adivasis into the tea plantations, Assam had cornered 54 percent of the tea market in the United Kingdom

and outstripped China as the leading tea-producing region in the world. See Bharali, Labour Unrest and

Social Insecurity of Plantation Workers: A Case Study.29 Government of Assam, Economic Survey Assam, 2006–07. India was the world’s second largest tea

producer after China in 2007.30 Conversations with Adivasi families in Gossaigaon and Guwahati, March/April 2008.31 Francis Ekka quoted in Kerketta, ‘Adivasis in Assam: Their Past, Present and Future’, p.14.

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Of course Adivasi organisations are well aware of the parlous condition ofAdivasi workers and women. And social justice campaigns focussing on asingle point are a common feature across the world, due to a (very justified)perception that engaging with too many issues at once can dilute the legitimacyof the main claim (in this case for ST status). However there is also a soberinghistory of these ‘lesser’ issues being discarded once a campaign has achieved itsimmediate goal. Thus Adivasi organisations need to look beyond just theidentity issue and give attention to labour and gender problems too.

Future Research: Evolving a Policy on the National Identity of Tribalsand Oppressed ClassesThis essay canvasses the case for providing ST status to the Adivasis in Assam.However by itself that would not transform their lives in any fundamental way.In this respect the Adivasis of Assam are not unique. By way of conclusion letme suggest that scholars and policy-makers need to think outside the ‘political’

Figure 4Members of the Assam Sangrami Cha Shramik Sangh (AssamStruggling Tea Workers Union), Middle Assam (author’s photo, April2008)

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box and focus more on the question of how the livelihood of backwardcommunities can be improved. Moreover this cannot be done by consideringdifferent groups in isolation. What is required is the evolution of a strategy thatrecognises the national identity of tribals and oppressed classes, because Dalitsand tribals are typically mobile people and cannot avail themselves of thebenefits of a protective policy that is specific to just one state or region. Acrossthe length and breadth of India today, marginalised communities travellong distances in search of work. Evolving a national policy with regard to theuplift of tribals and oppressed classes would go a long way to resolving thislongstanding problem.

SCHEDULED TRIBE STATUS FOR ADIVASIS IN ASSAM 303

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