India's stone-age tribes are dying

When does ‘modernisation’ and ‘development’ actually harm a people?

Let’s look at the Andaman Islands and their primitive tribes.

Indigenous societies such as the Wanniyala Aetto and the Jarawa have always lived in the same place for generations – the forest is their home and animals and birds their neighbours and friends. They give back to the forest what they take from it.

Unfortunately,

these societies have been marginalised

by political and economic greed, and their freedom violated.

The Wanniyala Aetto and the Jarawa and other tribes of Andaman Islands have been through an almost similar cycle of history and social exercise in rehabilitation at a very high cost.

They have survived waves of migrants and colonists but fallen prey to Government policies which looked upon them as ‘primitive’ and in dire need of ‘development’.

The development policy of the Governments meant encroaching on their traditional hunting grounds, clearing the forests to settle thousands of migrants , relocating the indigenous people to ‘settlements’, splitting communities that had always lived together, and introducing them to an alien way of life, language and religion.

Such changes have impacted their physical and mental health. Contact with non-indigenous people exposed these groups to diseases to which they had no resistance. An epidemic of measles last year wiped away ten percent of the Jarawa population. [There are only 300-400 Jarawas ].

Alcoholism, obesity, diabetes, depression, are other ailments which are now appearing among those who have been ‘relocated’ to ‘civilisation’.

Most indigenous societies are highly evolved groups, that have, over thousands of years, developed a symbiotic relationship with their environment and live in close harmony with nature. Land is sacred. The Wanniyala Aetto, who had lived in their forest abode for time immemorial, clear and cultivate small plots of land within the forest for 1 or 2 years and then let the land rest for 7 to 8 years. They gather forest produce such as honey, plants, roots and hunt for jungle fowls and fish.

Similarly, the Jarawa, who have lived in their rainforest home forever, hunt wild pigs, monitor lizards, fish and gather fruits and berries. Their lives are synchronised with their environment. More they do not need.

But we do. Our consumerist society does. We need more money. We need their prime land. We need to develop resorts and attract tourists. We need to exploit the last remaining forests. Pollute their rivers. And so these primitive tribes must go for the ‘greater good’ of the most populous democracy in the world.