Power in India: radical pathways to tribal self-rule

Movements and local organizations are using the ancient concept of swaraj, or “self-rule”, to spread a radical ecological democracy throughout India.

by Ashish Kothari & Pallav Das
Courtesy: Roar Magazine

This essay is part of a series of excerpts from the State of Power 2016 report, published by the Transnational Institute this week. 

Our government is in Mumbai and Delhi, but we are the government in our village.
— Mendha-Lekha village, Maharashtra.

These hills and forests belong to Niyamraja, they are the basis of our survival and livelihoods, we will not allow any company to take them away from us.
— Dongria Kondh adivasis (indigenous people), Odisha.

Seeds are the core of our identity, our culture, our livelihoods, they are our heritage and no government agency or corporation can control them.
— Dalit women of Deccan Development Society, Telangana.

 ( January 21, 2016, London, Sri Lanka Guardian)  These three assertions of “ordinary” people in different parts of India suggest the basis of a radical restructuring of political relations and a significant deepening of democracy.

The village of Mendha-Lekha, in Gadchiroli district of Maharashtra state, has a population of about 500 Gond adivasisi, “tribals” or indigenous people. About thirty years ago these people adopted the principle of decision-making by consensus at the full village assembly. The villagers do not allow any government agency or politician to take decisions on their behalf, nor may a village or tribal chief do so without full consultation. This is part of a “tribal self-rule” campaign underway in some parts of India, though few villages have managed to achieve complete self-rule (swaraj, an Indian concept we discuss below).

A struggle in the 1980s against a major dam that was to displace Mendha-Lekha and dozens of other villages highlighted the importance of self-mobilization. Since then, the village has conserved 1,800 hectares of surrounding forest, and recently gained full rights to use, manage, and protect it under the Forest Rights Act 2006, reversing centuries of colonial and post-colonial forest governance.The community has moved towards meeting its basic needs in terms of food, water, energy and livelihoods through, among other things, the sustainable harvesting of bamboo.

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