Senior politician Paty Ripple Kyndiah, who belongs to one of the most educationally advanced tribal communities in India and who had been associated with the movement for the formation of Meghalaya comprising Khasi, Jaintia and Garo hills has had the opportunity to study the problems faced by the Indian tribal communities. Besides representing his own community in the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly for several years, he represented the hill state in Parliament and was appointed Union Minister for Tribal Welfare and the Development of the North Eastern Region. He has given some suggestions on improving their socio-economic condition.

In his latest book ‘INCREDIBLE TRIBES OF INDIA’, he provides a glimpse into the life of the tribals who constitute an important part of India. It will be folly to imagine that India can march forward to achieve its socio-economic goals by overlooking them. Fortunately their welfare and how to ensure their advancement has been accorded top priority ever since the First Five Year Plan was launched way back in 1951.

The author says that the Comprehensive Tribal Policy of the Union Tribal Ministry which he headed for five years focuses on improving the standards of living of various tribal groups while preserving their culture and traditions. The four principles which have been followed while conceiving the Tribal Policy are related to the recognition of the diversity of tribal communities, their special educational needs, an utmost concern for their genetic mutations and the recognition of the peculiar character of the tribal polity.

The former Union Minister has reminded the policy makers that it is necessary to recognize that all tribal communities are not alike and they are products of different historical and social conditions. Some of them belong to the aboriginal groups with a continuous cultural history while others have been pushed out of the mainstream and have been what he calls ‘drop-outs of our main history’.

However, there is no denying that the tribal polity is more closely regulated by the aesthetic pulse rather than ethical drives and hence, the implementation of the tribal self-governance provisions will have to go hand in hand with a special program for encouraging tribal arts, oral traditions and their unique skill in crafts. If we fail to recognize the difference, which is vital to the social organization of the tribal communities and fail to respect it, we will end up creating bands of forced nomads who will multiply the urban chaos already overburdened with problems. There can be no argument with Mr. Kyndiah on this valued observation.

‘The objective of the historic Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act of 2006 is to ensure forest rights and occupations in forest land to the forest dwelling Scheduled Tribes who have been residing in such forests for generations. The main objective of the draft prepared by the Union Tribal Affairs Ministry is to provide an environment conducive to the preservation of traditional and customary systems and regime of rights and concession enjoyed by different ST communities and reconciliation of modes of socio-economic development with these. It should be the constant endeavour of the Central and State Governments to maintain a right balance between the age –old traditions and customs of the varied tribal people and modernity as efforts are being made to uplift their social and economic advancement which must not be halted at all’. This is the advice given by Mr. Kyndiah through INCREDIBLE TRIBES OF INDIA to the people concerned with the mission to implement various projects for the uplift of the tribal communities.

P.K. Chakravarty