Question
Highlight the sources of conflict between national development and tribal development.
Solution
- National development, particularly in the Nehruvian era, involved the building of large dams, factories and mines. As tribal areas were located in mineral-rich and forest covered parts of the country, tribals have paid a disproportionate price for the development of the rest of Indian society.
- This kind of development has benefited the mainstream at the expense of the tribes. The process of dispossessing tribals of their land has occurred as a necessary byproduct of the exploitation of minerals and the utilisation of favourable sites for setting up hydroelectric power plants, many of which were in tribal areas.
- The loss of the forests on which most tribal communities depended has been a major blow. Forests started to be systematically exploited in British times and the trend continued after Independence.
- The coming of private property in land has also adversely affected tribals, whose community-based forms of collective ownership were placed at a disadvantage in the new system. Example: Narmada Dam.
- Heavy in migration of non-tribal also threatens the tribals community and culture. This threatens to disrupt and overwhelm tribal communities and culture.
