Even today, when the country's highest constitutional post is being held by a woman from the tribal community, what are the reasons behind the poor image of the tribal community in the public mind?
The answer is, because till date the life of the tribes has been depicted in this way through every medium of propaganda. The so-called intellectual class, after going among these tribes, describes whatever they see in their own words and on the basis of their urban understanding.
Neither did these intellectuals have knowledge of the language of that particular tribe, nor could their language be understood by the innocent people of that tribe. Also, in the name of study of tribal subjects, this class has been presenting only comparative assessments made against itself.
As a result, this class of intellectuals has engraved such a destitute image of the tribal society in the minds of the common people with such ink that it seems very difficult to erase it today.
However, even today, if someone tries to understand deeply, he will easily understand that though they do not wear clothes like those in urban areas, do not build brick-cement houses like cities, and depend on forests for livelihood, but They have been rich in advanced, organized and self-reliant lives.
While our urban homes require coolers, ACs in summers and heaters in winters, their houses are constructed entirely from natural materials with such amazing technology that the house remains warm in winters and cool in summers.
Even if we get fever, we become dependent on the doctor for treatment, on the other hand, there are those people who treat themselves at home with the herbs found in the forest.
Even when the whole world is at our fingertips with modern means of communication, we still find ourselves far away from our loved ones. And others are those people who even today live together, share each other's happiness and sorrow, and celebrate festivals together.
In this fast-paced life where we are not able to eat food properly due to a hundred kinds of worries, those people eat a full meal every day without worrying about tomorrow.
In such a situation, the second question arises that why are so many efforts being made to imprint this inferior image in our minds of these people who live life happily in the true sense?
So the first one is political interest. In India, the tribal class is seen merely as a vote bank, which is used only to win elections.
For this purpose, big votes can be easily gathered by giving some small inducements like roads, water etc. Some intellectuals from these tribes, who are somewhat active, are given some facilities and the rest of the class is motivated to vote unilaterally.
If an assessment is made since independence, it can be clearly seen that there has been no major change in the life of this community. Even today, most political parties use them as a crowd.
In election rallies, an attempt is made to gather the community in large numbers with some money and inducements. Even the so-called selfish intellectuals do not want their development to be at the level that is happening in other urban areas.
The reason behind this probably does not require any explanation, as it is well known that who would want to increase their troubles by linking such an easy means of voting to the mainstream!
The second main reason is religious conversion. Since the times of subjugation, missionaries have used tribal areas to spread Christianity.
“Innocent people of the tribal society are forced to accept Christianity through means of inducement, fear, terror etc. Since the reach of government and administration as well as other social organizations is less here, it becomes easier for those who want to convert people to convert people there.”
Today we can see that the penetration of such heretics is becoming very strong in tribal dominated areas. As a result, a large section of the tribes are denying their Indian identity and leaning towards Western civilization.
The biggest problem with this is that these foreign conspirators will not only destroy the originality of these tribes, but at the same time, by pitting them against their own country, they will harm the ancient civilization of the country and the expected development in the future.
Today we may not realize this, but if this continues then it will turn out to be a very serious and big problem. When under the influence of foreign powers our own brothers will stand against us and cause harm to themselves, us and the nation.
Then what can we do? Education. Yes! Only the spread of education can clear these clouds of confusion. But in this too we will have to show great sensitivity and caution. Because it is also important that in our efforts to simply teach them, we do not violate their originality (as has been the case).
At the same time, by learning their advanced methods, adopting them and spreading them to other areas of the society on priority, so that their ancient preserved knowledge about nature does not diminish but becomes helpful in improving the lives of other sections of the society.
This effort will boost their self-esteem and keep them conscious towards the nation. Due to which not only the people but the standard of living of the remaining community is certain to improve.