OC Volume 47-Number 32; Published on every Friday of Advance Week; Posted at LPC Delhi – RMS – Delhi – 110006 on Every

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PARTHA CHATTERJEE THE

AUGUST 8, 2022 `75

ED’S RS 20 CRORE QUESTIONS
BOMMAI INTERVIEW “IF THE RULE OF
LAW IS HINDUTVA, I DON’T MIND IT”

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FROM THE
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
henever there is an important post to fill, the
W media goes into a frenzy with the names of
possible candidates who could fill the vacancy.
With the NDA government incumbent since
2014, they mostly get it wrong. So it was with
the selection of the new President of India. By choosing Drou-
padi Murmu, an Adivasi woman who was relatively unknown,
the BJP top brass delivered a political masterstroke. To the
point where some Opposition parties felt obliged to vote in her
favour. By choosing a tribal woman to be the resident of Raisina
Hill, the Narendra Modi government has tapped into the power
of symbolism in a way that takes it several notches above the to-
W e take this occasion, therefore, both to celebrate and to
ken gestures of old. For, the powerful social import of the choice
blends right into a political strategy.
It was a choice made out of a menu of options by the BJP’s
top brains trust, and it was made for clear stra-
tegic reasons—for the political edge it affords
the ruling party. Although the Scheduled Tribes
of India may amount to only 9 per cent of the
country’s population, the regions where they are
concentrated give us a clue. Jharkhand, Chhat-
tisgarh, West Bengal, Murmu’s native Odisha,
Andhra Pradesh and Telangana—the classic tribal
homelands of east, central and peninsular India—
are all Opposition-ruled states now. And zones the
BJP is keen to crack open. Nor will the symbolism
do any harm in the tribal-rich Northeast, a region July 15, 1982
it has freshly acquired.
The sense it seeks to exude about the BJP,
in general, is even more crucial. This works at
two levels. The RSS has been keen to evangelise
in India’s tribal lands for decades, and Murmu,
blending as she does a capacity to be at home with
mainstream Hindu symbols while still articu-
lating her Adivasi roots, is a perfect vehicle for
that. Over and above that, it also becomes a step
towards extending the party’s political vocabu-
lary—burnishing its claim to be speaking for
India’s poorest sections is a vital bridge to cross if June 24, 2002
it wishes to emulate the old Congress consensus.
Regardless of partisan politics, the coming of Murmu puts a
much-needed spotlight on the appalling state of our tribal com-
munities. The disparity in socio-economic indices between them
and the rest of the population is rather stark. Naturally, as com-
munities often living closer to forest, hill or desert zones, some 90 with lavish photographic moments. We analyse the socio-
per cent of our Scheduled Tribes are rural, compared to India’s
average of 60 per cent. But critically, 45 per cent of those rural
tribals were in the BPL (below poverty line) category according
to the 2011 census, as against 26 per cent for the rest.
Everything else fits with that all too depressingly. To take
those 2011 figures, the literacy rate for tribals was just 59 per
cent, compared to 74 per cent overall—a massive gap of 15
percentage points that’s also reflected in the enrolment ratios at
the senior secondary level. Tech and engineering graduates count
for only 5.92 per cent among them; as for medical graduates, it’s
a near-blank slate at 1.94 per cent. The patterns also hold across
almost all health indicators, whether it’s the number of anaemic
women, infant mortality rates, mortality rates for children under
age five, or underweight children in that same age bracket. The
last shows the largest gap: 45 per cent among Adivasi children
against just over 30 per cent in the general population. The only
data point where the Scheduled Tribes make a better showing
is in the gender ratio—990 women per 1,000 males, as against
India’s abysmal average of 943—a reflection of the traditionally
more egalitarian ethos of many of these communities.
introspect. Our cover story package casts a wide-angle lens
over India’s tribal landscape. Group Editorial Director Raj Chen-
gappa examines the political import of Murmu’s arrival on centre
stage. Our team also visited her native village for a personal
profile. Murmu’s village, Uparbeda, did not have a pucca road till
she became Odisha’s transport minister in 2000—
the year when urban India was thrilling to the idea
of entering the 21st century. Back in the 1970s,
even getting to the backbenches of Bhubaneswar’s
premier government school was a giant leap for
this quiet Santhali girl from Mayurbhanj. Small
wonder, for Mayurbhanj still hugs the bottom in
India’s socio-economic rankings—the clichés ‘poor’
and ‘backward’ would fit in an unqualified way for
a district with a Human Development Index (HDI)
of 0.15 per cent, the second lowest in the country.
“Her father, in fact, had to mortgage his land to
send Droupadi to Bhubaneswar,” says Basudev
Behera, Murmu’s primary school teacher back in
Uparbeda. And he sent her Rs 10 a month, enabling
only a spartan life. As Murmu’s ascension to the
Rashtrapati Bhavan brings conversations around
India’s Adivasi communities, those ten rupees may
prove to be among the most valuable investments in
modern India’s human economics.
Her own story—elevating herself from im-
measurably modest beginnings, to which she stays
loyal in the most dignified way—has a fairy-tale
touch to it. Something like the Indian version
of the ‘A merican dream’, filled with a spirit of
can-doism, it’s a textbook model for the possibilities that our
democracy holds.
We also profile tribal achievers across all walks of life, visit-
ing many of them in their native locale—and returning enriched
economic data exhaustively. And we also cast a look at Adivasi
history, culture, language and culinary traditions. In the end,
we find ourselves in sync with a fact gleaned from the ground.
A friend from Murmu’s Uparbeda primary school recalls that
the Odia translation of Robert Frost’s famous lines “Miles to go
before I sleep” used to be a favourite of hers. That could also be
said for India’s pledge toward its oldest inhabitants.
(Aroon Purie)
AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 3
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 UPFRONT
UP: RUMBLINGS IN
THE YOGI REGIME
PG 7
SCREEN TIME A passenger
is checked for monkeypox
symptoms after arrival at the
Chennai international airport
MONKEY ON THE BACK
T
aking note of the over 16,000
monkeypox cases in 75
countries, the World Health
Organization (WHO) on July
23 declared the disease a public health
emergency of international concern.
First discovered in 1958, the virus was
mostly confined to central and western
Africa until the past few months when
it spread rapidly around the world. Four
cases have been reported in India so far.
H E A LT H
By Sonali Acharjee
“Previous cases happened when people
travelled to the endemic zone. The virus
was of less concern when it was con-
fined there, but now it is circulating in
large numbers around the world,” says
virologist Dr Gagandeep Kang.
Some symptoms of monkeypox are
similar to those of smallpox, though
clinically less severe. During past
outbreaks in Africa, the disease was
reported to begin with flu-like symp-
BRINGING BACK
THE CHEETAH
PG 8
ANI
toms, such as fever, fatigue and a swol-
len lymph node, followed about a week
later with painful blisters first on the
face and then the hands and feet. The
blisters, ranging from 10 to 200 bumps,
can get aggravated and filled with pus.
As the infection runs its course, the blis-
ters scab over and fall off. “If you scratch
the blisters, they could leave scars, just
like chickenpox,” says Mumbai-based
infectious disease expert Dr Anita
AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 5
UPFRONT
Mathew. With the global outbreak,
however, a slightly different progres-
sion is being reported—many of those
infected do not have flu-like symptoms
and get only one or two open sores or
pus-filled blisters near their genitals.
“There is still much to learn about
how the virus will behave outside its
endemic zone,” says Dr Sushila Kataria,
senior director of internal medicine at
Medanta - The Medicity, Gurgaon.
TRACING THE
THREAT
MORE THAN 16,000
CASES IN 75 COUNTRIES
Countries with highest number of cases
US Canada UK Germany
3,846 681 2,208 2,352
Source:
Spain Italy France CDC, as on
3,125 407 1,567 July 26
Graphic by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY
Spreading primarily through large
respiratory droplets, the virus can also
be transmitted through direct contact
with body fluids or lesion material, and
indirect contact with lesion material,
such as through contaminated cloth-
ing or linen. The virus has been found
in semen and can spread through sex
with an infected person. Though many
of the cases in Europe have been among
homosexual men, the WHO has since
stated that the virus can infect anyone.
While it is not as contagious as
Covid-19, doctors say similar steps are
needed to stay safe from monkeypox—
good hygiene, avoiding crowded or
poorly ventilated spaces, and keeping
away from those who have travelled
abroad recently. Those who show
6 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2
symptoms of infection need to be
isolated and a doctor informed at the
earliest. “We have to wear a face mask,
wash hands frequently and maintain
social distancing to prevent transmis-
sion,” says Dr Suresh Kumar, director
of LNJP Hospital, Delhi, which is
treating Delhi’s first and so far only
case of monkeypox. A self-limiting
disease, the symptoms typically last
2-4 weeks and treatment is generally
WHAT INDIA
IS DOING
Four confirmed cases in India
(3 in Kerala, 1 in Delhi) and a
suspected case in Telangana
States advised to focus on
contact tracing and symptom
surveillance
Hospitals are being identified
in each state for quarantining
those suspected of infection
All international arrivals being
screened for symptoms
15 labs set up to support NIV,
Pune, in testing for the virus
Contacts of all 3 cases in
Kerala have been traced and are
in quarantine
Contact tracing for the Delhi
case is ongoing
THE CURRENT FOCUS
IS ON SURVEILLANCE
OF INTERNATIONAL
ARRIVALS AND
CONTACT TRACING
TO STOP THE VIRUS
FROM SPREADING
symptomatic. As per the WHO guide-
lines, the antiviral approved to treat
smallpox (tecovirimat) can be used to
treat monkeypox if it turns severe in
those with weakened immune systems.
Mortality has been low so far, with five
deaths reported in non-endemic coun-
tries in 2022. “It is a painful disease,
though, and can impair quality of life
and productivity. So it shouldn’t be
taken lightly,” says Dr Kataria.
According to the US-based Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention
(CDC), the smallpox vaccine is at least
85 per cent effective in preventing
monkeypox due to close links between
the two viruses. In India, after smallpox
was eradicated in 1979, its vaccine was
dropped from the mandatory vaccina-
tion programme. Some reports suggest
that the disease is less severe in those
above 40 as they would have received
the smallpox vaccine. However, Dr
Kang observes that vaccine protection
wanes with age and more data needs
to be gathered before concluding that
those who have had the smallpox vac-
cine are immune to monkeypox as well.
For those who want to take the vac-
cine today, it will be a tough challenge.
After the global eradication of smallpox
in 1980, the live virus was preserved for
research at only two locations—the CDC
in Atlanta, US, and the State Research
Center of Virology and Biotechnology in
Koltsovo, Russia. And Denmark-based
Bavarian Nordic is the only company
that produces a smallpox vaccine, which
the European Union in July allowed
to be marketed as a protective mea-
sure against monkeypox. European
countries, according to the WHO, are
currently at the highest risk.
In India, there are currently no
plans to procure the vaccine or to make
it mandatory. Such plans may be made
later depending on how the infection
spreads, says a health ministry official,
who does not wish to be named. As of
now, the focus is on surveillance of in-
ternational arrivals and contact tracing
to stop the disease from spreading.
“The situation is under control and
health authorities are on high alert,”
says NITI Aayog member Dr V.K. Paul.
“Mandatory screening is being done at
international airports, and 15 labo-
ratories have been set up for testing
support.” The Union health ministry
has sent out treatment and surveillance
protocols to all states. It has advised
that a hospital be identified for quaran-
tining and treating those suspected of
 U T TA R P R A D E S H

infection, with an SOP in place for RUMBLINGS IN

THE YOGI REGIME
the protection of doctors and staff.
The states have been asked to
focus on contact tracing and quar-
antining of those who have met an
infected person. “As monkeypox is By Prashant Srivastava
less transmissible than Covid and
symptoms show up in a week or
two, if the numbers are less, it can
be contained by contact tracing
and isolation,” says Dr Kang.
Contact tracing has already
been done for the three cases in
Kerala and all are in quarantine,
and the Delhi government has
been asked to do the same for the
only case in the capital—a 31-year-
old man from West Delhi. Accord-
ing to LNJP officials, 14 contacts
have been traced already and are
in isolation with none showing
symptoms till date. While the cases
in Kerala had a history of foreign
travel, the patient in Delhi has no
travel history, leading to some wor-
ries that local transmission could
have begun. “We have a special
team to deal with monkeypox
patients,” says Dr Kumar of LNJP,
ANI

the hospital where anyone in Delhi

showing symptoms will be sent to.

Given that the demand for
smallpox vaccines will soon rise
globally, experts say it would be ad-
visable to place orders for essential
antiviral drugs and vaccines soon.
“We need to prepare. Vaccines for
the vulnerable or those coming into
close contact with confirmed cases
should be looked into. We also need
to build our testing capacity and
strategy, and include private labs
too,” says Dr Kang.
Though monkeypox has a
known cure and vaccine, it will
take time for the world to reach the
manufacturing capacity needed for
everyone to access them. Besides
focusing on surveillance, testing
and contact tracing, India should
also keep an eye on vaccine and
drug availability. Memories of the
discomfort and scars caused by
smallpox should drive us to take on
this new disease with foresight. ■
J
ust four months into its second TUG-OF-WAR CM Yogi Aditynath with depu-
term, the Yogi Adityanath-led ty CM Brajesh Pathak (left) at an exhibition
BJP government in Uttar Pradesh
is in fire-fighting mode over an considered close to Yogi) a letter seeking
unseemly tussle involving a slew of min- an explanation, so much so the CM had
isters and top figures in the bureaucracy. to order an inquiry.
Several cabinet ministers have com- Prasad is also under the scanner on
plained and Dinesh Khatik, Dalit leader two other issues. The prime minister’s
and MoS in the Jal Shakti department, office has asked the UP government
set off some extra panic by sending in to look into allegations of payments
his resignation (later retracted after the being held up for government projects
BJP top leadership intervened). handled by a private group and the state
State BJP leaders blame it on the Lokayukta has asked for clarifications
“free hand” Yogi has given officials, who regarding the purchase of “substan-
often overrule even the ministers in dard” PPE and other medical equip-
charge. The issue started with a clash ment during the first Covid wave.
between Brajesh Pathak, the deputy CM In the public works department,
and health minister, and Amit Mohan minister Jitin Prasada’s OSD Anil
Prasad, additional chief secretary Kumar Pandey has been transferred
(ACS), medical and health. while five others were
On July 4, Pathak sought GIVEN A suspended following alle-
a report over the transfers gations of corruption.
‘FREE HAND’,
made in the department in Prasada went to Delhi to
OFFICIALS
his absence. Matters came meet the high command
OFTEN EVEN
to a head after the deputy to discuss the matter but
OVERRULE
CM wrote Prasad (who is was apparently unable
MINISTERS  
to do so. The investigation report was
submitted on July 16. “Based on its rec-
ommendations, action was taken,” says
the CMO, but this has irked Prasada as
Pandey was apparently a close aide.
In the case of the Jal Shakti ministry,
Khatik bypassed Yogi and sent his res-
ignation letter to Union home minister
and BJP No. 2 Amit Shah. In the letter,
he made some damning claims, includ-
ing not being assigned any work in the
first 100 days of the government and
discrimination because he was a Dalit.
“I have no authority…I am not called for
meetings. This is an insult to the Dalit
community,” stated the letter. Things
seem sorted after a meeting with Yogi
and Swatantra Dev Singh, the cabinet
minister for Jal Shakti, on July 22.
Meanwhile, sources say excise min-
ister Nitin Agarwal and additional chief
secretary, excise, Sanjay Bhoosreddy are
also on a collision course, as are second-
ary education minister Gulabo Devi
and ACS Aradhna Shukla. Bhoosreddy
is said to have complete control over
the excise department and has report-
edly red-flagged and even overturned
some of Agarwal’s orders. On condi-
tion of anonymity, a cabinet minister
told INDIA TODAY, “For any important
decision, officials talk directly to the
CM’s office, they don’t even keep us in
the loop. So what is the point of hav-
ing a ministry? The public asks us for
help but we are unable to do their work
because the officials do not listen to us.”
CM Adityanath has now asked all
the ministers to work in coordination
with the officials and “keep an eye on
them”. The official reason is the “zero
tolerance for corruption”, but it’s evident
that there is some unease in the CMO
over ministers going public with their
grievances. Party functionaries are also
unhappy, saying if the situation wors-
ens, it could dent the BJP’s image lead-
ing into the 2024 Lok Sabha election.
The opposition is already going to
town over the recent events. Samajwadi
Party chief Akhilesh Yadav says the
government’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy
against corruption has been exposed.
In a statement, he said, “Where there
is no respect for being a minister and
disrespect for being a Dalit, the logical
thing for them [the ministers] to do
would be to resign.… At times the bull-
dozer does go in reverse.’’ „
UPFRONT
M A D H YA P R A D E S H
CHEETAH
COALITION
TAKES OATH
By Rahul Noronha
C
an the world’s fastest land
animal feel free to run like
the wind in an open-air
experiment—in a carefully
prepared new home? It’s the question
that nags the minds of all stakehold-
ers. Come August, as India celebrates
her 75th Independence Day, a ‘coali-
tion’ of cheetahs presently in captivity
in Namibia are expected to be grant-
ed their freedom—more than 8,000
km away from their present habitat.
On July 20, Bhupender Yadav,
the Union minister for environment,
forests and climate change, and
Namibian foreign minister Netumbo
Nandi-Ndaitwah inked the much-
awaited MoU for the transcontinen-
tal transfer of cheetahs to India. The
MoU covers other spheres of coopera-
tion between the two countries too,
but at this point the focus is on the
core part of it: the ‘Action Plan for the
Introduction of Cheetah in India’. The
Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) in
Namibia has identified and kept ready
eight animals, including four males
and an equal number of females, to
be transferred to India. Top govern-
ment sources say that an MoU is also
expected to be signed with South
Africa in the near future. Under that,
12 more cheetahs are expected to
sprint all the way to India.
Though the finer details are being
worked out, the cheetahs would
be brought to the 748 sq km Kuno
National Park in Madhya Pradesh.
The animals would be released in
eight sub-sections created within a
five sq km enclosure at Kuno. Males
would be segregated from females;
animals that are the prey base of the
cheetah have been introduced, and
will be increased in the future. The
coalition—a group of male chee-
tahs that stick together and defend
their territory—that is expected to
be formed while in the enclosure
would be released first in the wild.
All animals would be radio-collared
to be monitored constantly. A team
of Namibian wildlife experts will
accompany the cheetahs.
The cheetah is synonymous with
WILDLIFE
EXPERTS OPPOSED
TO THE CHEETAH
PROJECT SAY
BOTH HABITAT
AND PREY BASE
AT KUNO ARE
INADEQUATE
lightning speed, but, ironically, the
cheetah introduction project moved
with extreme tardiness. The first
attempts to reintroduce cheetahs
in India, after they were hunted to
extinction in the late 1940s, was
made in the ’70s, when talks were
opened with Iran—the only other
Asian country to have wild cheetahs.
The plan did not materialise. Decades
later, in 2010, the idea was put back
on the agenda by then environment
minister Jairam Ramesh but had to
be shelved after the Supreme Court
DAVID YARROW/ TUSK VIA AP IMAGES
put the brakes on it in 2013, saying such
a project would be “arbitrary and illegal”.
The Union government appealed the
SC again and in January 2020 got a go-
ahead. After an assessment of 10 habitat
options, including Kuno Palpur, Gandhi
Sagar Sanctuary in MP and Kota in
Rajasthan, the Wildlife Institute of India
(WII) found Kuno to be the best option.
And experts from South Africa and
Namibia who visited the reserve recently
have ratified the assessment.
The enclosure at Kuno has been
stocked with cheetah food—sambar,
spotted deer, wild boar, Indian gazelle
and blue bull. “We can augment the
prey base as and when required,” says
Amritanshu Singh, SDO (sub-divisional
officer) Kuno. Qatar Airways will fly in
the first lot of cheetahs from Windhoek
in Namibia to New Delhi, from where
the animals will be taken to Kuno by
road. However, amid the general excite-
ment about the project, considering this
will be the first inter-continental trans-
location of cheetahs in the world, there’s
no dearth of serious doubters.
Many among the conservation fra-
ternity who are opposed to the introduc-
tion of cheetahs claim that Kuno has an
inadequate prey base and is not an ideal
habitat for the species. Wildlife conser-
vationist Valmik Thapar has vociferously
opposed the plan, arguing that while
African cheetahs can be made to stay in
fenced areas, possibly being fed by hand
or baiting, their usual habitat—the large,
open grasslands of Africa—is missing in
India. Moreover, he argues that funds
being spent on the cheetah could have
been used to conserve species at risk,
such as the tiger, lion and elephant.
“
A
fter seeing 400 different chee-
tahs in Africa and studying
them minutely, I can say that I
have not seen any habitat in India that
has the prey to support free-ranging
cheetah,” says Thapar. “Even those who
argue that there were cheetahs in India
say that they were Asiatic cheetahs. What
are being brought in are African cheetahs
and therefore exotic species,” he adds.
Thapar says that the African cheetah,
while a graceful animal, is extremely
fragile. “Even in the eastern Serengeti,
with one million to 1.5 million prey ani-
mals for the cheetah, the mortality rate
of cheetah cubs is 90 per cent,” he argues.
And Kuno, he points out, has villages and
an abundance of feral dogs all around it.
On the other side of the debate
are conservationists such as M.K.
Ranjitsinh, a former chairman of the
Wildlife Trust of India, who argues
that cheetahs are not alien to India.
“If Humayun brought the cheetah to
India, then what explains its depiction
on millennia-old rock art? Also, Akbar
had over 1,000 cheetahs. They must
HOME GROUND
A cheetah prowls the
Namib desert in Namibia
have run a very successful conserva-
tion/ breeding programme for such an
increase,” says he. “Kuno is a grassland-
forest mosaic…cheetahs are known to
survive in forests too. The last cheetah
to be shot in India, in modern-day
Chhattisgarh, was in a Sal forest,” adds
Ranjitsinh, who was appointed head
of the expert committee to oversee the
cheetah translocation by the apex court.
“Kuno has about 30 chital per sq
km, a density that rivals many tiger
reserves…there are also nilgai, sambar,
peafowl, wild pigs and hare, enough
for around 20 cheetahs,” says Y.V.
Jhala, dean, Wildlife Institute of India,
Dehradun. “Kuno doesn’t have feral
dogs and no villages in the 750 sq km
area…. Our population viability asses-
sment suggests that the translocation
has a high probability of success in the
long term. The Cheetah Action Plan has
factored in all the doubts,” he adds.
“Project Cheetah aims to bring back
the only large mammal to go extinct in
independent India,” Bhupender Yadav
says. The Cheetah Action Plan, he adds,
will restore the balance of the grasslands
that cheetahs once inhabited, conserve
biodiversity and harness their ability
to sequester carbon to their maximum
potential, while promoting ecotourism.
A leopard, we know, never changes its
spots. Will the African cheetah blend his
with the new environs? „
AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 9
 UPFRONT

HERO TO ZERO
T he appointment of Sriram
Venkitraman, a 2012-
batch IAS officer accused of
drunken driving and killing
a journalist in 2019, as the

Illustration by SIDDHANT JUMDE

Alappuzha district collector
has the Kerala Opposition and
journalists up in arms. They
have demanded a review of
the appointment as the trial
is yet to begin. Sriram, now
35, had been suspened for
six months but later reins-
tated as a joint secretary in
the health department. He
now needs to complete two
years of service in this post
GL ASSHOUSE for his next promotion. A
post-graduate in medicine,
Sriram had become a youth
THE ELECTION MANAGER icon when as Devikulam
sub-collector, he had taken

A
ssam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s behind-the-scenes skills were on the land mafia and illegal
once again at work in the presidential and vice-presidential polls. In the July encroachments in Idukki.
18 presidential election, Sarma ensured that 22 Opposition MLAs—the highest How the mighty have fallen.
from any state—cross-voted for NDA candidate Droupadi Murmu. More intriguing
was his sudden, unscheduled meeting with rivals Jagdeep Dhankhar and Mamata
Banerjee, one the former governor and the other the chief minister of West Bengal,
in Darjeeling on July 13, four days before NDA announced Dhankhar as its VP pick.
Later, Trinamool said it would abstain in the VP polls. And guess who Margaret Alva
called after being declared UPA’s VP nominee? Ex-Congressman Sarma, of course.

Freaky Friday POLL BUGLE?

I n Parliament,
private member
bills are introduced
only on Fridays.
Except some of the
most talked about
private member bills
ANI have failed to see the
light of day because those proposing them
have gone missing on Fridays. BJP’s Kirodi
Lal Meena listed the Uniform Civil Code
Bill in 2020. But it has not yet been taken
up as the 70-year-old leader is never around
on Fridays. Ditto with Places of Worship
Bill, moved by BJP Rajya Sabha member
Harnath Singh Yadav, 81. Most MPs skip
Friday sessions to travel for weekend social
functions. There has been a demand to shift
private member bills to Wednesdays.
I s Jharkhand chief minister Hemant
Soren preparing for a fresh election?
Credit Score
Though assembly polls are still two
years away, various units of his party,
the JMM (Jharkhand Mukti Morcha),
W hatever the subject
of their presser,
Trinamool leaders never
have been pushing the twitter trend miss giving Chief Minister
#HemantnahitoKaun (who else but Mamata Banerjee credit for
Hemant?), fuelling the speculation. With all the development work
Soren already on the back foot with the taking place in the state.
Election Commission’s disqualification Slowly but steadily, another
notice over a mining lease and name is being added to the
the Jharkhand High Court list of acknowledgments—
hearing the PIL against him, TMC general secretary and
the JMM leader is perhaps Mamata’s nephew Abhishek
thinking out of the box. The Banerjee. The roles, though,
recent ouster of non-BJP CM are clearly defined. Mamata
Uddhav Thackeray in is hailed as the leader,
Maharashtra may have and Abhishek the
been another catalyst. commander-in-chief.

ANI
—Kaushik Deka with Jeemon Jacob, Amarnath K.
Menon, Amitabh Srivastava and Romita Datta
INVERTER & BATTERIES
THE BIG S TORY K A R N ATA K A
NOT AN
EASY RIDE
B
KARNATAKA CHIEF
MINISTER BASAVARAJ
BOMMAI, WHO
COMPLETED ONE
YEAR IN OFFICE THIS
WEEK, FACES THE
ONEROUS TASK OF
ENSURING THE BJP’S
VICTORY IN THE Basavaraj Bommai usually speaks ex
tempore at public events. The engi-
UPCOMING STATE neer in him has an eye for technical
ASSEMBLY ELECTION minutiae. Last week, for instance,
at the Karnataka Power Corpora-
tion’s anniversary celebrations in
By AJAY SUKUMARAN
Bengaluru, he recalled, with some
degree of detail, how the process of
laying the foundation for the state’s
tallest dam across the river Kali four
decades ago had been a particularly
tricky job—Bommai had apparently
witnessed the dam’s construction
as an engineering student. Then, he
cut to the present with a nonchalant
quip that drew a laugh from the au-
dience: topics such as power, power
grids and electricity distribution
interested him because they were
somewhat related to political power.
“Political power too is generated...
it is only generated in a few places,
then it is distributed,” the Karnataka
chief minister observed. “And it can’t
be stored... political goodwill can’t be
stored, it has to be replenished.”
Well into an election year, power
Photographs by BANDEEP SINGH
management is surely Bommai’s
challenge too. The 62-year-old, who
completed a year in office on July
28, faces the uphill task of ensuring
that the BJP’s supply of goodwill
in Karnataka is safe from any peak
demand fluctuation. There’s a his-
torical basis for this—since the mid-
1980s, a ruling party in Karnataka
has been able to return to power only
on three occasions, twice via coali-
tions. Even in its current avatar, the
BJP had had to play the defection
game to topple the Congress-Janata
Dal (Secular) or JD(S) coalition to
capture power in 2019—one year
after the assembly election was held.
Bommai took over as chief
minister last July in a surprisingly
smooth transition from the BJP’s
veteran Karnataka leader B.S. Yedi-
yurappa just as the second Covid
wave was ebbing. He hit the ground
running, as they say, by announcing
on Day 1 scholarships for farmers’
children, enhancing monthly pen-
sions under social security schemes
and setting to work on sprucing up
the administration. He also focused
on implementing a string of welfare
measures for the farmers, women
and the young that he had initiated.
On the economic front, the post-Co-
vid rebound driven by Karnataka’s
strong IT services sector helped the
state clock 9.5 per cent growth by
March 2022. Foreign Direct Invest-
ment (FDI) flows into the state were
THE BIG S TORY K A R N ATA K A
at a high—Karnataka topped the charts
with an equity inflow of Rs 1.63 lakh
crore last fiscal. In an exclusive inter-
view to INDIA TODAY, Bommai says, “I
am putting all my strength, my time
and energy into the upliftment of those
at the bottom of the pyramid. I am
convinced it’ll make a difference.”
But the dominant socio-political
narrative for much of Bommai’s year at
the helm has been another story alto-
gether, with communal issues taking
precedence. When he was chosen CM,
the persona most people gauged Bom-
mai by was of a balanced, non-contro-
versial politician with some vestiges of
his early Janata Party moorings. That
image changed somewhat dramatically
as right-wing groups infused a distinct
saffron flavour that Karnataka has
been unused to so far, or which had so
“The major issues that are plaguing
Karnataka right now are corruption,
price rise, unemployment and
lack of development”
— PRIYANK KHARGE, Congress legislator and spokesman
far been restricted to a few pockets of
the state. Last December, the govern-
ment brought in an anti-conversion
bill, which was passed via an ordinance
this year. Soon to follow was a row over
wearing the hijab at a women’s college
in Udupi which grew into a raging
controversy. In quick succession came
campaigns by the right-wing fringe
to boycott Muslim street vendors at
temple fairs and then a call to shun
halal meat. Bommai maintains that all
he did was follow the rule of law and to
charges that he was doing it to prove his
Hindutva credentials—he joined the
BJP in 2008 after defecting from the
JD(U)—he says, “If the rule of law to be
followed is Hindutva, I don’t mind it.”
In May, as the combined effect
of these shrill campaigns reached a
crescendo—and concerned citizens and
14 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2
prominent voices from the industry
flagged a threat to Karnataka’s image
as a top-performing state—the CM
doubled down on review meetings
and the implementation of welfare
schemes he had announced in the state
budget in a bid to change the drift.
Karnataka—pipping other states vy-
ing for electronic chip manufacturing
investments—signed an MoU with the
semiconductor consortium, ISMC, for
a proposed $3 billion investment in a
chip fabrication unit near Mysore.
Bommai then headed to Davos
and announced, on his return, invest-
ment commitments totalling about Rs
65,000 crore from 25 companies in
new sectors such as renewable en-
ergy and data centres besides ongoing
expansion plans. “Karnataka is very
progressive from the perspective of the
industry and the government is very ac-
cessible,” says K.R. Sekar, president of
the Bangalore Chamber of Industry and
Commerce (BCIC), who points out that
the recent liberal policies in acquiring
land for the industry have improved the
investment climate. However, on the
infrastructure side, especially logistics,
the challenges remain, he says.
Meanwhile, corruption allegations
have given opposition parties enough
ammunition to attack the Bommai gov-
ernment—starting with the complaint
late last year by the Karnataka State
Contractors’ Association that commis-
sions being demanded for work orders
were as high as 40 per cent. “The major
issues plaguing Karnataka right now
are corruption, price rise, unemploy-
ment and lack of development,” says
Congress legislator and spokesman
Priyank Kharge, who has been raising
questions about a series of issues such
as an alleged Bitcoin fraud, irregulari-
ties involving the digging of borewells
and a scam in the recruitment of 545
police sub-inspectors—the latter
leading to a large number of arrests,
including that of a local BJP worker and
a high-ranking police officer. Bommai
counters the contractors’ allegation as
being politically motivated while point-
ing out that it was the home ministry
which ordered an impartial probe into
the police sub-inspector recruitments.
An affable politician, Bommai is
seen to get along with people and, as
one party functionary puts it, “he’s not
a rash figure to antagonise people.”
Party leaders like to point to his ‘com-
mon man’ persona. The CM makes it a
point to meet and accept petitions from
citizens outside his RT Nagar home in
Bengaluru—which his father, the late
Janata leader S.R. Bommai, built. In
the assembly, Bommai is his party’s
main bulwark, having deftly steered
it through some tricky occasions. But
he does not fall into the mass-leader
mould like his predecessor Yediyurappa
though they are both from the same
Lingayat community. Nor was he, as
critics point out, as tactful as his Yediy-
urappa on communal issues. “He has to
maintain the citadel. So anything that
brings up Hindutva, he can’t afford to
oppose,” says a partyman.
Even so, Bommai hasn’t had as easy
a ride as when he pipped other claim-
ants for the top seat. Until recently, the
buzz was that his position as CM was
shaky, with partymen trying to second-
guess the central leadership’s thoughts
on changing the state leadership. The
apparent logic against such a move,
however, was that the party wouldn’t
risk a dramatic change with election
less than 10 months away. Besides, with
Bommai at the helm, the leadership
in Delhi is seen to have greater control
in steering Karnataka. With polls due
in May 2023, Bommai has to come
up with a “high-octane performance”,
as he terms it, if the BJP has to retain
power in this crucial southern state. „
 I N T E RV I E W

“IF THE
RULE OF
LAW IS
HINDUTVA,
I DON’T
MIND IT”
Karnataka chief minister
Basavaraj Bommai spoke to
Group Editorial Director
Raj Chengappa on the achieve-
ments and challenges of his one
year in the saddle. Excerpts:

Q.
You had vast
political experi-
ence, including
being a minister
in the past. You
are also the son of
a former chief minister of the state.
What was the novelty of the challenge
you faced as chief minister, and in
your approach to the task?
Right from the first day of my politi-
cal career, I had to make a choice
between people politics and power
politics. I felt that I should do peo-
ple politics because power is only a
byproduct of it. I have been associat-
ing with people’s causes and struggles,
and I love to be with them. Being
chief minister is vastly different and is
a huge responsibility with all kinds of
challenges. Even the last man in the
queue should feel that this govern-
ment is for him. People’s aspirations
are so high that you need a high-
octane performance to meet them.
Q. In the past year that you have been
chief minister, what are the three or
four things you have achieved?
The first thing is whenever people are
in distress, the government has stood
by them. Just to give you some exam-
ples, when there were huge floods, not
only did I visit these places but, apart
from rescue efforts, we also provided
them with huge relief...much more
than the norm. We also doubled relief
to farmers and gave Rs 1,600 crore to
them. We have already given over five
lakh houses to the needy. Secondly, the
entire development approach where
we have carved out over 100 aspira-
tional talukas, and whatever imbal-
ances are there, I want to set them
right, especially concerning education,
health, and maternal and child wel-
fare. Thirdly, we have focused on edu-
cation as a highway of prosperity, and I
have introduced scholarships for girls
from the 8th standard and for boys
from pre-university onwards.

AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 1 5

THE BIG S TORY B A S AVA R A J B O M M A I | I N T E RV I E W
Q. You have also started a special
scheme for women’s employment.
Yes, that’s the fourth point. Economy is
not about money but people and their
activities. So, I have got a scheme done
now where we are going to employ
more than five lakh women this year
through entrepreneurship. It will be
an end-to-end approach; we are giving
them seed money, ‘anchor bank’ inter-
ventions, products and marketing.
All these measures will help people
increase their per capita income and
the prosperity of the state.
Q. While your welfare schemes
have been lauded, there are issues
about corruption, with contrac-
tors alleging that they had to pay
40 per cent commission. There
have been graft charges against
policemen too.
Very good question. First, that con-
tractors’ complaint was made just
before I took charge. I was not the
chief minister then. Second, I called
these contractors and said, ‘Give me
some cases where 40 per cent has been
paid and I will act.’ They are unable to
give any cases. They instead came with
suggestions for system improvements,
and I had them done immediately. I
have also set up a high-level commit-
tee under a retired high court judge
to look into the estimates of the work,
especially tender commissions where
the crux of the corruption is. Any proj-
ect above Rs 50 crore will be scruti-
nised by this committee. In the police
cases, we have also acted, including
ordering a CID inquiry against a top
policeman. We have never compro-
mised our politics with corruption and
we have raided both BJP and Congress
people whenever needed.
Q. Your cabinet minister K.S.
Eshwarappa had to resign because
of allegations against him. What is
the update?
The whole thing was enquired into in
detail and the police have said there
is no evidence of his role in it. It will
16 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2
now be scrutinised in the court, so that
there is a judicial stamp to it.
Q. The other major issue is in
terms of the rising communal
tensions that have happened,
whether the hijab controversy, the
WE HAVE NEVER anti-conversion law that you have
passed, or the issue of halal meat
COMPROMISED being served. Critics say that you
OUR POLITICS are being more Hindutva than
WITH Hindutva itself.
I don’t see the hijab issue as something
CORRUPTION that is political or communal. I see it as
AND WE HAVE following the rules, and that approach
has helped. Now everything is settled
RAIDED BOTH BJP and there is no problem. Many of the
AND CONGRESS minorities also agree that there should
PEOPLE be a dress code. The whole problem is
that the opinion of the silent major-
WHENEVER ity is not taken into account and a
NEEDED few people that make noise are given
a lot of space by the media. As far as
the halal thing is concerned, that was
made a rule by the Congress govern-
ment earlier. So, we just followed it, as
we did about the loudspeaker issue on
which the Supreme Court had passed
a ruling. I don’t ascribe any colours to
it and that approach has helped me.
Now everybody is following the rule
and there is peace.
Q. What was the provocation to
pass the anti-conversion law in
the assembly?
ANTI- Anti-conversion laws are not new in
CONVERSION this country; they have been there
right from Mahatma Gandhi’s time.
LAWS ARE NOT We all know that conversion by
NEW IN THIS allurement and force is not allowed
in the Constitution itself. What the
COUNTRY... WE Constitution has said and what the
ALL KNOW THAT earlier laws have said have just been
CONVERSION BY reiterated. There will be no coercive
activity, no illegality. We will go by the
ALLUREMENT rule, you should also follow it.
AND FORCE IS NOT Q. Is it because you joined the BJP
ALLOWED IN THE only in 2008 that you are trying to
CONSTITUTION prove your Hindutva credentials?
ITSELF I am not worried about such drawing-
room statements. I will put it in one
sentence: If the rule of law to be fol- much easier that anybody who wants
lowed is Hindutva, I don’t mind it. to set up a shop will not face harass-
ment. We also have sector-specific
Q. The BJP has talked of dynas- policies. In major thrust areas, we
ty-mukt Bharat. In some senses, have given much more production-
you are a dynast too. linked incentives or PLIs than other
There is a lot of difference. First, my states have given. We are going to
father was no more there when I have the first semi-conductor plant if
joined the BJP. Then I built my own the Centre approves, and we are also
political career and not because I was setting up a cluster for FMCG. Apart
the son of a politician. And I have from these, we are carving out special
never used the family name in other investment regions, funding startups.
things. So, on my own hard work, We are the first state to have an R&D
people have recognised me and that policy—from garage to institution,
is recognised by the BJP. from genomics to space, encourag-
BENGALURU’S
PROBLEMS NEED A
PERMANENT SOLUTION
AND WE ARE SETTING
UP FOUR SATELLITE
TOWNS TO EASE THE
PRESSURE
Q. What about former chief ing youngsters to go into different
minister B.S. Yediyurappa who fields of startups. Now we have R&D;
has said he wants his son to Karnataka is the first state in the
become an MLA too? country to have an R&D policy. All
Yediyurappa is a person who has this will make Karnataka the future
dedicated his life to the BJP for the economic engine of our country.
past 40 years. He is representing
Shikaripura for the seventh or eighth Q. Bengaluru’s infrastructure is
time now and he has decided not to in a bad state and even Telangana
contest again. Since he is retiring minister K.T. Rama Rao invited
and the people of that constituency investors to come to Hyderabad
want his son to stand, he had sug- instead…
gested it. Now the party high com- Bengaluru is not competing with
mand will take a decision on this. any other city in the country. Our
competition is with Silicon Valley.
Q. When it comes to the indus- Our strength is the ecosystem that
trial development of the state, really helps entrepreneurs, the
what have you done to boost it? technological hub, a large pool of
To meet the present challenges, the technically talented people and
ease of doing business was necessary, the ease of doing business. Now
so we have taken a series of measures 38 per cent of the country’s FDI is
where we have made procedures so coming to Karnataka. As regards
infrastructure, there is no doubt
that there is a problem. To end traf-
fic jams, we are widening the roads
and creating a dozen corridors that
would have seamless signals. But
there is a need for a permanent solu-
tion. I am putting together a plan
where we will have four satellite
towns set up with rail and road links
to the city. It will be a beautiful, very
well-planned Greater Bengaluru that
we are planning to develop.
Q. Whenever you come to
Delhi, there is talk of you getting
sanction for your cabinet expan-
sion. Is it going to happen?
We are going to expand the cabinet.
When and how, the BJP central lead-
ers will decide. When they do, I will
let you know.
Q. With the state assembly elec-
tion due in May 2023, what are
you planning to focus on in the
remaining year that you have and
are you confident of bringing the
BJP back to power again?
My priority is to implement my bud-
get, which has been accepted very
well. The second is to bring about
a lot of changes in the government
that will ensure quick redressal of
people’s problems with time-bound
action to provide good governance.
Third, giving a sense of confidence to
all sections of society that this gov-
ernment is for them and is going to
take care of them, including young-
sters, farmers and women who are
our driving economic force, to help
them to such an extent that they
will lead a life of swabhimaani (self-
respect). Poverty doesn’t have any
caste. I am putting all my strength,
my time and energy for the uplift-
ment of those at the bottom of the
pyramid and my conviction is that
it is going to make a difference. As
regards the election, getting 150
seats is the target given by Amit
Shahji and we are going to strive to
get 150-plus. „
AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 17
 SPECIAL REPORT | CORRUPTION

PARTHA’S
FALSE NOTES
The controversy over teachers’ recruitment in West Bengal has a
material basis now: gold and cash. With TMC heavyweight Partha
Chatterjee in custody, the party has to survive the scandal
By Romita Datta

UNDER THE NET

Arrested TMC leader and
West Bengal minister Partha
Chatterjee appears in court
 f the Trinamool Congress thought it had effectively shut the lid on the
teachers’ recruitment scam that jolted the state a few months back, it

I
was wrong. Less than 24 hours after West Bengal chief minister Mama-
ta Banerjee told the massive turnout at the July 21 ‘martyrs’ day’ rally at
the Esplanade in Kolkata that she wanted to see her “party become the
only idealist party in the country”, her trusted lieutenant, high-profile
TMC leader and minister Partha Chatterjee was arrested by the En-
forcement Directorate (ED) in connection with the teachers’ recruitment
scam on July 23. It was accompanied by lurid details: the ED, probing
the money trail aspect of the scam being investigated by the CBI, found
a huge cache of unaccounted cash—totalling Rs 21.2 crore—from the
apartment of Chatterjee’s ‘close aide’, 27-year-old model-actress Arpita
Mukherjee. The bundles of 2,000 and 500 rupee notes are suspected to
be the proceeds of sale of teaching posts for government schools.

Chatterjee, who was education minis- on condition of anonymity. She was

ter when the scam allegedly took place,
was grilled for 26 hours; overnight
raids revealed a massive number of
property deeds, gold jewellery and
foreign currencies in Arpita’s name.
Arpita comes from a middle-class
family in Belgharia, north Kolkata; her
late father was a central government
employee, her mother a homemaker.
Though she modelled since her college
days and was active in the Bengali and
Odia film industries between 2008
and 2014, Arpita is not well-known in
either profession. The only brand people
remember her endorsing is Chatterjee’s
big-ticket community Durga puja,
Naktala Udayan Sangha. “She was its
brand ambassador and even shared
podiums with Mamata Banerjee while
inaugurating the puja. We knew her as
Parthada’s friend and naturally she held
a lot of clout,” says a resident of Naktala
The spectacle playing
out on television, of
heaps of money being
hauled off in 15 iron
DEBAJYOTI CHAKRABORT Y
also seen in some rallies, campaigning
for a party candidate in the 2021 as-
sembly polls and was also a regular at
some political programmes.
Party spokesperson Kunal Ghosh
said the party had nothing to do with
her, as she is not a member. But the
televised spectacle of heaps of money
being hauled away in 15 iron trunks
has stunned the people of Bengal.
THE ALLEGED TEACHERS’
RECRUITMENT SCAM
The teachers’ recruitment scam dates
back to 2017-18, when the West Bengal
School Service Commission (WBSSC)
announced results for the recruit-
ment of 17,000 teachers and for 5,000
posts in the Group C and D categories.
Instead of publishing merit lists with
marks, candidates had to check indi-
vidual scores and ranks online. They
sniffed a conspiracy, as there was no
way to verify if the person being called
for an interview and getting a job
deserved it. Many moved the Calcutta
High Court, seeking publication of the
merit list. When the SSC came up with
the updated list in September 2021
after a court order, it was found that

trunks, has stunned many candidates with lower ranks had

indeed secured jobs. One of them was
the people of Bengal Ankita Adhikari, daughter of minister
and embarrassed of state for higher education Paresh
Adhikary. One candidate, ranked
the TMC 20 in the waiting list, complained to
the court that she had been deprived,

AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 2 3


SPECIAL REPORT | CORRUPTION
while Ankita, without making
it either to the merit list and
waiting list, had got a job. Soon,
a revised waiting list showed
Ankita at the top.
Following a massive furore,
over 2,000 petitioners moved
court, seeking a review of can-
didates appointed on recom-
mendations by a panel formed by
Chatterjee in November 2019 to
“guide, supervise and dictate” the
SSC on appointments. The com-
mittee, comprising close aides of
Chatterjee, violated the SSC Act,
and allegedly pushed undeserv-
ing candidates. A judicial enquiry
committee—the Justice Ranjit
Bag Committee—constituted by
the HC had unearthed anoma-
lies like the use of the RTI Act to
procure answer sheets of unde-
serving candidates for increasing
marks, destroying OMR (Opti-
mal Mark Recognition) sheets
and issuing fake appointment
letters. Such irregularities were
carried out by panel members
themselves, as repeated inter-
rogation revealed. Shanti Prasad
Sinha, the panel head, reportedly
confessed during grilling that
he had acted as per instructions
of top authorities. All the time,
it was becoming apparent that
huge amounts of money were ex-
changed in lieu of appointments.
Allegations arose from all corners
about candidates having had
to pay bribes of Rs 8-18 lakh to
political touts. More complaints
poured in and Ramesh Malik,
who had been seeking a job as
a primary school teacher, filed
a petition in the Calcutta High
Court, drawing the attention of
the judiciary to 10 alleged illegal
appointments favouring the
family of Biswambhar Mondal,
Chatterjee’s bodyguard.
The HC has so far termi-
nated the services of 265 primary
2 4 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2
THE WAY
OF THE
MONEY
ARPITA MUKHERJEE, 27
Small-time model, acted in a few
Bengali and Odia films. Brand
teachers who allegedly bought jobs ambassador of Naktala Udayan
by submitting blank answer sheets. Sangha Durga Puja commit-
Some of those in the business of tee that Partha Chatterjee is
ensuring jobs had allegedly entered associated with. Below are the
into an arrangement with the can- ED’s claimed findings
didates whereby they would submit
Ô 39 prop- ment Pvt Ltd
blank answer sheets—a code that erties/ flats, recovered.
would help identify those who were a resort, 2 Investment is
to be empanelled. “The number of nail art stu- by Chatterjee
primary teachers recruited through dios across Ô Six shell
such irregular means will ultimat- the state, companies
ely cross 15,000,” claims lawyer alleges the ED; for alleged
Firdous Shamim. Four SUVs, hawala
As dramatic footage of money a house in transac-
stacked up like a pyramid was Hooghly tions. Money
broadcast, Union ministers Dhar- district parked in
mendra Pradhan and Jyotiraditya Ô Several Bangladesh
Scindia, who were in town for a BJP properties Ô Besides
programme, used the opportunity are claimed Rs 20 crore
to dub the ruling Trinamool as a to be in joint recovered, a
party “steeped in corruption, from ownership cache of Rs
top to bottom”. Pradhan insisted on with Chat- 15 crore and
meeting protesting candidates, who terjee 3 kg gold
claim they were unfairly deprived of Ô Deed recovered
teaching jobs because of the scam, of Ichhe from another
and said he would seek a reply from Entertain- Arpita flat
Mamata Banerjee on the issue. The
Congress and the Left too joined in,
demanding the government’s disso-
lution, as it had “lost the credibility
and ethics to govern”.
swered. In fact, on his arrest memo, Chat-
HOW TMC IS TACKLING terjee has allegedly put in Mamata’s name
THE BLOW and phone number as his nearest relative
Though Mamata had breezily in case of any emergency. This has caused
dismissed the scam on July 21 by consternation and Mamata, according to
saying that errors are natural in any sources, is livid with Chatterjee for leaking
big undertaking, the arrest of her her personal number to the ED.
top minister in a shower of allegedly In 2016, too, Abhishek was strongly
ill-begotten wealth has shaken against having Narada scam-accused
her. This prompted Mamata’s leaders in the cabinet. Early in 2022, he
nephew and party general secre- again sought the axing of tainted lead-
tary, Abhishek Banerjee, to step in. ers. But those veteran leaders, many of
Abhishek, it is known, was in favour them Mamata loyalists, made it look like
of making Chatterjee pay for his young leaders in Trinamool were growing
alleged role in the scam right away. impatient for a generational shift that
But some senior leaders are said to would bode ill for the party. Mamata was
have reasoned with Mamata that it persuaded to let things be.
would be too risky to leave Chatter- Nearly 19 hours after Chatterjee was
jee to his fate. Already, Chatterjee arrested, the TMC held a press conference,
has told the media that his SoS call demanding “a time-bound investigation in
to the party chief had gone unan- the case” and promising that action would

ANI
THE MODUS
OPERANDI
Ô Touts contacted applicants,
offered primary teacher’s job for
Rs 8-10 lakh each; secondary &
Party veterans are reluctant to write
Chatterjee’s political epitaph, but pressure
is mounting on Mamata, as the scam, as
per ED estimates, could cross Rs 300 crore
be taken against anyone proven guilty.
Clearly, the script was Abhishek’s.
Mamata broke her silence on the is-
sue only after 48 hours. “If someone
is proved guilty in a trial, I wouldn’t
mind him getting life imprisonment,
but...if they (BJP) think they can break
my party and my government by using
central agencies, I will not let that hap-
pen. Tell me where nepotism doesn’t
happen?” she said on July 25.
link in Bangladesh for parking crores
of money. There’s another woman
CASH FLOW Left, Chatterjee with
from the academic world whose al-
Arpita; top, stacks of cash recovered leged proximity with Chatterjee and
disproportionate assets are also under
the scanner.
higher second- candidates, Even though the party is yet to di-
ary teacher’s their names are vest Chatterjee of his portfolios—com-
job for Rs 10-12 published, merce and industry, IT and parliamen-
lakh each pushing tary affairs and the post of secretary
Ô Names then deserving general of TMC—a cabinet meeting
pushed to candidates is likely to take a call on his ouster. In
Chatterjee’s way down the December 2014 when Madan Mitra
close circle, list
was arrested for being involved in the
recommenda- Ô Documents Saradha scam, his portfolios were
tions made. On related to taken away. Chatterjee is said to have
the basis of the appoint- returned the official car he was using.
their recom- ment of
Even though party veterans were rel-
mendations, Group C, D uctant to write his political epitaph,
RTIs were staff, admit
pressure is mounting on Mamata, as
made to fetch cards of candi-
the scam, as per the ED’s estimation,
answer scripts. dates, sum-
Ô Marked mary of
could ultimately cross Rs 300 crore.
Another person under the scanner
increase in final results
found is TMC MLA Manik Bhattacharya, a
answer
in Chatterjee’s former president of the state board of
scripts of
recommended residence primary education, who is suspected to
have played a role in the irregularities
in appointments. The ED has claimed
to have recovered some documents
related to the alleged scam from his
house, and he’s now being questioned.
“The party line is to wait for the
court verdict and go for a blackout to
uphold the image of the party. It will
be easier then to reason that on issues
of corruption TMC is uncompromis-
ing,” says a veteran TMC leader.
“Corruption has never been an
issue in Bengal. The Narada scam was
out during the 2016 polls, yet Mamata
won a majority and the accused leaders
Other aspects of the case have won handsomely. Bengal politics goes
also embarrassed the party. Accord- by identity. The 30 per cent Muslim
ing to ED sources, Arpita alone has vote will not desert Mamata, and if
39 properties, including flats, resorts you add the beneficiary votes, she
and farm houses in Shantiniketan. will continue to have the bulk supp-
It is now being widely alleged that ort,” says political analyst Biswanath
after his wife died in July 2017, Chat- Chakrabarty. For all the protestations
terjee’s visits to Arpita’s 2,000 sq. ft of the BJP about bringing the TMC
south Kolkata flat became frequent. government to its knees with more
On the money trail, the ED is said to exposes, Mamata is nearly invincible
have found six shell companies and a on her home turf. „
AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 2 5
 COVER STORY | THE TRIBALS

TRIBAL
T H E P R E S I D E N CY

DROUPADI MURMU’S JOURNEY FROM RAIRANGPUR

TO RAISINA HILL IS A GIANT LEAP FOR INDIA’S
NEGLECTED AND EXPLOITED COMMUNITIES AND A
WATERSHED MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF INDIA

MADAM PRESIDENT Droupadi Murmu greets

political dignitaries in the Central Hall of Parliament
after taking oath as the President of India on July 25
UNI PHOTO
POWER
By RA J CHENGAPPA
with ROMITA DAT TA
COVER STORY | THE TRIBALS
T H E P R E S I D E N CY
A
As Droupadi Murmu stood up to take the
presidential oath administered by Chief
Justice N.V. Ramana on July 25, a hush
descended on the power-packed audience
that included the prime minister and over
a dozen chief ministers assembled in the
Central Hall of Parliament to bear witness
to this moment in history. Once she was
sworn in as the 15th President of India,
though, the hall, with life-sized portraits of
national icons, former presidents and prime
ministers looking on, reverberated with
the sounds of loud clapping and chants of
‘Bharat Mata ki jai’. Prime Minister Naren-
dra Modi would later describe it “as a wa-
tershed moment for India, especially for the
poor, marginalised and downtrodden”.
Indeed, it was. The journey of a shy, quiet Santhali girl
from the rustic settings of Odisha’s Rairangpur to the pres-
idential mansion on Raisina Hill is more than just a rags
to Rashtrapati Bhavan story. It is an inspiring narrative
of how someone born on the margins of society overcame
2 8 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2
CHANDRADEEP KUMAR
all hurdles and struggles with an indomitable and tireless
spirit to earn a place in the country’s history. As Murmu
said in her first address to Parliament soon after becoming
President, “It is a tribute to the power of our democracy
that a daughter born in a poor house in a remote tribal area
can reach the highest constitutional position in India.”
The symbolism of her achievement is ginormous.
Murmu became the first Adivasi or tribal, the second
woman and, at 64, the youngest ever to be appointed
President of India. India’s tribals total around 110 million
people or close to nine per cent of its population, with 80
per cent of them living in clusters across nine of India’s
28 states. There are over 700 recognised tribes, but only
two of them—the Bhils and Gonds—have populations of
over 10 million, and 30 others number more than half
a million each. They occupy much of India’s heartland,
but are also spread out to as far as Kashmir in th2e
north, Kanyakumari in the south, the Dangs in the west,
Mayurbhanj in the east and Itanagar in the Northeast.
Like the scheduled castes, who are double their size in
terms of population, Indian tribals enjoy reservation in
government educational institutions and jobs, in addition
to reserved seats in parliamentary and assembly constitu-
encies. However, unlike the Dalits, who have been able to

mobilise themselves into powerful political groupings,
the tribals remain far more disadvantaged.
Ninety per cent of them live in rural areas. The
tragedy is that they continue to be the most deprived
communities when compared to mainstream India in
terms of poverty, health, education, and other critical
socio-economic indices. The last census that the country
conducted, in 2011, showed 45 per cent of the tribals be-
low the poverty line as compared to 26 per cent in the rest
of rural India. When it comes to health, infant mortality
rates, under-5 mortality rate and underweight children
too, they again fare much worse than the general popula-
tion. Literacy levels are low as well—only 59 per cent of
MAKING MURMU
PRESIDENT IS A FIRST STEP
TOWARD ENDING MARGIN-
MAINSTREAM, TRIBAL-NON-
TRIBAL BINARIES FOR BJP
TAKING
CHARGE
The new head
of state inspects
the guard of
honour at
Rashtrapati
Bhavan
the tribals are literate, compared to the national average
of 74 per cent. One outcome of this is that no Adivasi has
been elevated to the Supreme Court as a judge so far.
PLIGHT OF THE TRIBALS
Their economic condition also remains abysmal. For the
Adivasis, jal, jangal and jameen are critical to their liveli-
hood. But they face the maximum pressure on their land
ownership as much of it has been appropriated for mining
and mineral resources as well as for hydel projects and
industry. That has turned them into landless labourers and
forced them to migrate to distant towns and cities in search
of work. Taking advantage of their plight, Maoist insur-
gency has also taken root in some of the areas that tribals
inhabit. Professor Virginius Xaxa, an expert on tribal af-
fairs and a tribal himself, pointed out in a recent interview,
“The kind of exploitation that tribals experienced during
the colonial period is being repeated in more systematic and
aggressive ways today in the name of development.”
Murmu herself came from this background of depriva-
tion. Her father Biranchi Narayan Tudu was a marginal
farmer, who had studied up to only Class II. Luckily for
Murmu, she was the only girl in a family of predomi-
nantly male members, and therefore her father’s favourite.
AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 2 9
COVER STORY | THE TRIBALS

T H E P R E S I D E N CY

Though he did not have much of an education himself,

he wanted his daughter to pursue higher studies and
land a decent job. “He would often say that he would not
hesitate to sell his land to send his daughter to college and
university,” recalls Basudev Behera, Murmu’s teacher in
primary school. “He in fact mortgaged his land to send her
to Bhubaneswar.”
To reach the school that she attended in her village till
Class VII, Murmu would have to walk barefoot and cross
a canal that became a full-fledged river in the monsoon
months. “Such was her devotion to learning that she came
to classes regularly—neither a torrential downpour nor a
canal in spate could deter her,” says Behera. After finish-
ing Class VII, Murmu had two choices—go to the high
school seven kilometres away or move to Bhubaneswar.
She chose the latter because she was determined to study
hard, secure a job and improve the fortunes of her family.

OVERCOMING ADVERSITIES
Life at the Capital Government High School in Bhu-
baneswar in the early 1970s was another experience.
There was only so much that she could stretch the Rs
10 her father sent her every month. “She never went to
the school canteen even though we were always eager to

ROAD TO
treat her to ghugni, aloo chop and other delicacies. The
free meal at the tribal hostel was all that kept her going.
In her entire school and college life, she went to a cinema

RAISINA
hall once,” says Suchitra Samal, her friend in school. In
class, she would sit at the back with five other tribal girls,
perhaps conscious of her identity.
After graduating in the late 1970s, Murmu landed
a job as a junior assistant in the irrigation department THE TRAJECTORY OF DROUPADI
in the state headquarters in Bhubaneswar. Around this MURMU’S RISE FROM GRASSROOTS
time, she got married to Shyam Charan Murmu, a bank
officer in Rairangpur. The couple lived in Bhubaneswar,
till the death of their daughter at a very young age brought
EARLY LIFE keen that his daughter get
an education, especially
them back to Rairangpur. Murmu began teaching at the Ô Born on June 20, 1958, as his sons, Bhagat and
local school, accepting an honorarium instead of a salary in a Santhal family in Rai- Tarini, showed no inclina-
and earned a name for herself. She caught the attention rangpur tehsil of Odisha’s tion towards studying.
of local BJP leader Raj Kishore Das who brought her into Mayurbhanj district as the Originally named Puti, she
politics. “Since she was doing social work and helping only daughter in a pre- was given the name Drou-
dominantly male house- padi by her teacher.
people in her own way, I reasoned that if she joined poli-
hold, Droupadi was doted
tics, she would be able to do good in a larger arena,” Das
upon by everyone EDUCATION
recalls. She agreed and debuted in 1997 by winning the
local council polls and became the vice-chairperson of the Ô Her father, Biranchi Na- Ô Droupadi studied at the
Rairangpur municipality the same year. rayan Tudu, was a farmer village school till Class
and her mother, Singo VII. Having forgotten her
After that there was no looking back. At the turn
Tudu, a homemaker. Hav- compass in class once,
of the century, she contested an election for the Odisha
ing studied only till Class she was given one by her
assembly and won. She went on to become transport and II, Droupadi’s father was teachers. Once she fin-
commerce minister in the Naveen Patnaik-led BJD-BJP
coalition government. Her colleagues remember her as

30 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2


ished school, she returned
the compass and geometry
box so some other poor
student could use them.
She did the same with her
textbooks.
Ô During monsoons, she
would walk barefoot to
school, crossing a canal
with fast-flowing water. Of-
ten soaked to the skin, she
would contrive to keep her
books dry. Good in sports,
she won the first prize in
various athletics events.
Ô Her father mortgaged
their land so she could move
to Bhubaneswar and join
the Capital Government
High School. She would sit
with five other tribal girls on
the back benches, perhaps
conscious of her identity.
While her friends ate ghugni,
aloo chop or sweetmeats
at the school canteen, she
ANI
survived on the free food at
the tribal hostel. It was all
she could manage with the
Rs 10 her father sent her
every month. In her entire
time at school, friends recall
her going to the cinema hall
just once.
Ô After completing her
Intermediate in Arts in 1974,
she had to wait a year to join
college as getting a caste
certificate took a lot of time.
In that time, she helped out
her father in the fields and
gave tuition to students.
Later, she completed her BA
from Rama Devi Women’s
University, Bhubaneswar.
JOBS AND FAMILY
Ô In the late 1970s, she
joined the state irrigation
department as a junior
assistant in Bhubaneswar.
She then married Shyam
A LIFE WELL-LIVED
(Clockwise from top left)
Murmu being conferred
an honorary D.Litt.
degree; with predecessor
Ram Nath Kovind in Rash-
trapati Bhavan; Paharpur,
her in-laws’ village
Charan Murmu, who worked
at the State Bank of India’s
Rairangpur branch. The
couple had a daughter, but
the child died at a very young
age. Droupadi quit her job
in Bhubaneswar and moved
back to Rairangpur, where
she joined the Sri Aurobindo
School of Integral Education
as a teacher, settling for
an honorarium instead of a
full salary and helping tribal
children with their educa-
tion. Meanwhile, the couple
were blessed with another
daughter and two sons.
POLITICS
Ô Impressed by her work
at school and her social
outreach, BJP leader Raj
Kishore Das convinced her
to join the party in 1997. She
won the local council polls
that year and became vice-
chairperson of the Rairang-
pur municipality. She could
be seen driving around in her
Maruti 800 and supervising
sanitation works.
Ô In 2000, she won the as-
sembly poll from Rairangpur
constituency and became
the transport and commerce
minister and later the fisher-
ies and animal resources
development minister in the
Naveen Patnaik-led BJD-
BJP coalition government.
It was during her tenure
as transport minister that
Uparbed (her home) and
Paharpur (her in-laws’ place)
saw pucca roads being built.
Earlier to reach Paharpur,
the couple would hire a cycle
and take turns riding pillion.
Ô As president of the BJP
ST Morcha and three-time
district party president of
Mayurbhanj, she worked
for social development and
women’s empowerment. She
also played a big role in bring-
ing the Santhali language
under the Eighth Schedule.
Ô She overcame personal
tragedy—losing her two sons
and husband—to devote her-
self to the cause of tribals,
which included opening a
residential school for them in
the name of her husband.
Ô She became the first
woman Governor of
Jharkhand in 2015. Her
school friends remember
being invited over to the
Raj Bhavan. “She was just
the same,” a friend recalls.
“Only the oily plait and school
uniform had given way to
spectacles and sarees.”
Ô More than just a rubber-
stamp governor, Droupadi
returned the contentious
amendments to the Chho-
tanagpur Tenancy Act and
the Santhal Pargana Tenancy
Act in 2015 to the government
with queries. In 2018, she
used her negotiation skills
to pacify gram sabhas that
had stopped the entry of the
police and the administration
into tribal villages by invoking
the Pathalgadi custom.
Ô The Odia translation of
PM Nehru’s favourite poem—
Robert Frost’s ‘Stopping by
the Woods’—was her favou-
rite too. When friends would
tease her about it and ask if
she was planning to become
the PM or the President, she
would say, “Why not?” She
was nominated NDA can-
didate on June 21 and took
oath as the 15th President of
India on July 25.
— Romita Datta in
Mayurbhanj, Odisha
AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 31
 COVER STORY | THE TRIBALS
T H E P R E S I D E N CY
UNI PHOTO
conscientious and hardworking, and someone who never
forgot her roots. It was during this stint that Murmu
ensured that the five km stretch from Kadauni on the state
highway to her home in Uparbeda became a pucca road.
However, the course of Murmu’s life changed when
she lost her two sons in quick succession, and then her
husband. Having nearly lost her mind, and sunk into deep
depression, it was only after she joined a Brahmakumari
unit that Murmu managed to regain control over her self
and her surroundings. She set up a school in memory of
her husband and sons, which she ran as a public ser-
vice, and also devoted herself to social welfare and the
upliftment of tribals. Her work caught the eye of both
the RSS and the BJP and Murmu was made governor of
Jharkhand in 2015, a post she handled with grace and
dignity along with firmness till she demitted office at the
end of her term in July 2021.
As President of India, Murmu’s powers will be largely
ceremonial. She will be bound by the advice and consent of
the Union council of ministers headed by the prime min-
ister. Under the Constitution, the President appoints the
prime minister and Union ministers, and he or she is also
the supreme commander of the armed forces. But while
these powers are only notional, officials who have served in
the office of the president say that each incumbent leaves
32 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2
WELL
DESERVED
Prime
Minister
Narendra
Modi greets
the new
president
his or her stamp on the office. So, if Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam
was a ‘people’s president’, Pranab Mukherjee played elder
statesman. Ram Nath Kovind continued Kalam’s legacy
of demystifying the presidency, and Murmu is expected
to raise tribal awareness and consciousness, even though
presidents resent being identified by caste or community;
the office is meant to be representative of all citizens. Kov-
ind, for instance, disliked being called a Dalit president.
PRESIDENT MURMU’S ROLE
Where the presidents do play a crucial role is if a general
election returns a hung Parliament. The President then has
the discretion to act in a manner he or she thinks appropri-
ate. When the 1989 general election did not throw up any
clear winner, the then president R. Venkataraman went
by the principle of inviting the leader of the largest party
to form the government. The Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress,
which had won 197 seats, was given the first choice, but
when he declined, Venkataraman called V.P. Singh, the
Janata Dal leader, who accepted. He then asked Singh
to prove his majority. K.R. Narayanan preferred to look
at the strength of pre-poll alliances and wanted letters of
support as proof before he invited a claimant to form the
government, as Atal Bihari Vajpayee had to do in 1998. The
President can also show their displeasure over a bill passed
by Parliament by sending it back for review but is bound to
sign it if Parliament returns it to them. But there is no time
limit on when a President can sign a bill. Zail Singh, for
instance, delayed signing a 1986 postal bill passed by Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi in Parliament because he found it
draconian. In doing so, Singh rendered it infructuous.
Those who believe Murmu will be a docile, rubber-
stamp president need only check her track record as
Jharkhand governor when Raghubar Das was the BJP
chief minister. Murmu had in June 2017 returned a Bill
seeking to amend two tenancy acts—the Chhotanagpur
Tenancy (CNT) Act and the Santhal Pargana Tenancy
(SPT) Act—for giving rights to tribals to make commercial
use of their lands and for allowing the government to use
the land for public projects. Murmu refused to give her
consent, forcing the Das government to withdraw the bill
later. Murmu believed the proposed amendments would
make the tribals vulnerable as allowing commercial use of
their land would put them at the mercy of vested interests
and pluck them from their roots.
BJP’S TRIBAL GAMEPLAN
There was more than symbolism in Modi’s choice of gifting
the nation a tribal president to celebrate the ‘Azadi ka Am-
rit Mahotsav’ marking India’s 75th year
of Independence. It also had a large ele-
ment of cold political calculation. The
BJP, whenever it has been in power at
the Centre, has always used the selec- POLITICAL
tion of the president to convey a strong SYMBOLISM CAN
political message and boost its electoral
TAKE THE BJP
chances. When Vajpayee was the prime
minister of a coalition government, he ONLY SO FAR.
chose eminent scientist Kalam as presi- TRIBALS NEED
dent partly because he was a Muslim,
and it would sit well with the party’s
A REAL CHANGE
allies and the Opposition. When Modi IN THEIR SOCIO-
became prime minister, he nominated ECONOMIC
Kovind because of his Dalit origins,
a gesture that would help the party
CONDITIONS
win favour with the powerful political
constituency of scheduled castes. They
had taken a leaf from the Congress
playbook, when the party appointed former diplomat K.R.
Narayanan as the country’s first Dalit president and later
Pratibha Patil, who became the country’s first woman to
hold the high office. Indira Gandhi chose Zail Singh, a
Sikh, and two Muslims—Zakir Hussain and Fakhruddin
Ali Ahmed—as presidents during her prime ministerships.
Some see Murmu’s elevation as an effort by Modi and
the BJP to subsume the indigenous religious identity of the
tribals under the wider Hindutva umbrella. The right-
wing, however, is projecting it as an endeavour to build an
inclusive India, to counter the charges of divisive politics
against it. It’s a beginning, they say, towards dissolving
caste-class barriers, and ending the margin-mainstream,
tribal-non-tribal binaries. Placing a woman, that too from
a tribal background from Mayurbhanj district, which has a
human development index (HDI) of 0.15 per cent, the sec-
ond lowest in the country, on the top perch of the country is
a political masterstroke. Several opposition parties, includ-
ing the BJD in Odisha and the JMM in Jharkhand, backed
her presidency against the Opposition’s choice of Yashwant
Sinha, enabling her to win by a handsome majority.
All of which segues well with the BJP’s larger and
longer term gameplan to woo tribals and women. While
the RSS has a long history of working with tribals through
its Vanvasi Kalyan Ashrams, even if it was to counter the
influence of Christian missionaries, the Congress has
always fared better electorally in the seats reserved for STs.
Only recently have the combined efforts of the BJP-RSS
paid off. Nalin Mehta, author of The New BJP, points out
that in 2014, the BJP won 26 of the 47 ST reserved seats.
In 2019, however, the party upped its tally to 31, with the
Congress winning only four. Even in 55 other Lok Sabha
constituencies where the tribal vote was dominant, the BJP
won a majority with 36 seats and 46 per cent vote share in
2019. Strangely though, as Mehta observes, the BJP has
been unable to replicate this success in central India where
it lost the tribal-dominated states of Madhya Pradesh and
Chhattisgarh in 2018 to the Congress and
Jharkhand to the JMM coalition in 2019.
The BJP, however, remains relentless
and innovative in its pursuit of winning
over the tribals. Union home minister
Amit Shah recently pointed out that the
Tribal Sub-Plan budgets have increased
four-fold, from Rs 21,000 crore in 2013-
14, before Modi came to power, to Rs
86,000 crore in 2021-22. The special
initiatives launched include piped water
for 12.8 million tribal homes and 3.8 mil-
lion pucca houses for them. The budget
for Eklavya Model Schools, specially
developed for tribals, has grown six-fold to
Rs 1,418 crore. The Modi government has
also set up district mineral foundations to
enable 30 per cent earnings from mining
activities to be spent on tribal welfare.
Simultaneously, it is paying homage to tribal heroes,
declaring the birth anniversary of tribal freedom-fighter
Birsa Munda on November 15 as Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas.
An additional Rs 200 crore is being spent to develop mu-
seums for other tribal freedom-fighters. Experts, though,
warn that the current BJP and successive governments
should know that cultural solidarity and political symbol-
ism can get them only so far. Only real change in their
socio-economic condition, which is currently wretched,
will help tribals feel a part of India. That said, any de-
velopment should not be at the cost of subsuming their
unique identity and culture. It’s a fine line India must
tread. President Murmu has shown the way. „
AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 3 3
 TOP 10 TRIBAL
COVER STORY | THE TRIBALS

KEY INDICES
GROUPS

A STATUS
Around 30 tribes in India have more
than 500,000 population; only two
have over 10 million population

REPORT
The tribal population is minuscule and
public spend on bettering their lot has
risen over the years, so why are they
at the bottom on almost all indicators?
By KAUSHIK DEKA
Illusrations by RAJ VERMA

1. BHIL

T
he tribes of India constitute a 12,689,952 (12.1%)
numerically small minority, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh,
just about 9 per cent of the total Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra,
Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka
population. But their expanse is
vast, and their cultural imprint
on Indianness way deeper than 2. GOND
the rest—with many of them 10,859,422
seen as descendants of the
subcontinent’s original inhabit-
(10.4%)
ants. Spread over the length Bihar, West
Bengal,
and breadth of the landmass, mostly in forested and
Jharkhand,
mountainous country, they are a heterogeneous Odisha,
set, varying greatly in language, culture, means Chhattisgarh,
of primary livelihood and state of development. Madhya Pradesh,
Nearly 80 per cent of them are concentrated Gujarat, Andhra
in nine states—Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Pradesh, Karnataka
Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Jharkhand,
West Bengal, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.
About 12 per cent live in the northeastern states,
five per cent in the south and three per cent in
the northern region. Of the 700-plus recognised
tribes, only two have more than 10 million
population and 30 more than 500,000.
When India adopted its Constitution in 3. SANTHAL
1950, the communities identified and enumer-
ated as tribes by the British government were 5,838,016
rechristened Scheduled Tribes (ST). No criteria (5.6%)
were defined for the recognition of the STs. Bihar, Tripura,
Later, the Lokur Committee of 1961-62 recom- West Bengal,
mended five criteria for their identification that Odisha,
Jharkhand

3 4 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2

 TRIBALS
IN INDIA
TOTAL POPULATION
8. MUNDA
(% OF TOTAL TRIBAL POPULATION) 104,545,716
1,918,218 (1.8%) (8.6% of total
Bihar, West Bengal, Jharkhand,
Chhattisgarh, Madhya population)
Pradesh, Tripura, Odisha

6. ORAON

Ladakh 3,142,145 (3%)

Bihar, West Bengal,
J&K Jharkhand, Odisha,
Chhattisgarh,
4. MINA Himachal Madhya Pradesh,
Pradesh Maharashtra
3,800,002 (3.6%) Punjab
Rajasthan, Madhya Uttarakhand
Pradesh Haryana
Arunachal
Sikkim
Pradesh
Rajasthan Uttar
Pradesh Assam Nagaland
Meghalaya
Bihar
Manipur
Gujarat Tripura
Madhya Jharkhand Mizoram
West
Pradesh
Bengal
h
ar
sg
tti
ha

Odisha
Ch

Maharashtra

Telangana

5. NAIKADA 9. NAGA

3,344,954 (3.2%) Goa

Andhra 1,820,965
Karnataka, Pradesh (1.7%)
Rajasthan, Gujarat, Nagaland
Daman & Diu, Dadra Karnataka
& Nagar Haveli,
Maharashtra, Goa
Tamil
Ker

Nadu
laa

10. KHOND
7. SUGALIS
1,397,384 (1.3%)
2,077,947 (2%) Bihar, West Bengal,
Andhra Pradesh Jharkhand, Odisha

Graphics by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY Source: Ministry of Tribal Affairs

HOW POOR % OF POPULATION BELOW POVERTY LINE
ARE THE TOTAL URBAN TOTAL RURAL
TRIBALS? URBAN TRIBAL RURAL TRIBAL

45.3
25.7
24.1
30.4
13.7

33.8
The gap in share

33.3
20.9
25.7

47.4
47.3
41.8
of population
below poverty line
between tribal
population and
2004-5
2009-10
2011-12

2004-5
2009-10
2011-12

2004-5
2009-10
2011-12

2004-5
2009-10
2011-12
overall population
is increasing in
cities and villages
Source: Planning Commission
THE URBAN-
WORKING LABOUR FORCE UNEMPLOYMENT
RURAL DIVIDE
PARTICIPATION RATE RATE
BUT WITH While 60 per cent live in
villages, the share of rural
47.1 6.1
LOW 41.8 42.5 5.8 population among tribals is
EARNINGS 4.8 much higher at 90 per cent
37.5 40.1
36.9 4.5
The labour force 4.3
OVERALL TRIBAL
participation rate 3.4
of STs is better
2019-20

2019-20
2017-18

2018-19

2018-19
2017-18

than the rest. Yet

its share in BPL 69% 90%
population is higher, 31%
Total population Tribal population
indicating low
10%
productivity jobs Source: Periodic Labour Force Survey

377,105,760 10,461,872
833,087,662 93,819,162

Urban population
Rural population
Source: Census 2011

THE OWNERSHIP PERCENTAGE OF

PATTERN HOUSEHOLDS OWNING
MARGINAL LAND WOMEN POWER
Land holding, and better- (BELOW 1 HA) The sex ratio among tribals—
quality houses are still number of women per 1,000
distant dreams for tribals OVERALL TRIBAL men—has been better than
the national average
68.4%

53.9%

56.3%
67.1%

PERCENTAGE OF HOUSEHOLDS
WITH GOOD HOUSES OVERALL TRIBAL

OVERALL TRIBAL 933 943 978 990

53.1% 40.6%
2010-11

2015-16

2010-11

2015-16

2001 2011 2001 2011

Source: Census 2011 Source: Agriculture Census Source: Census reports

3 6 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2

IN POOR UNDERWEIGHT
UNDER AGE 5
COVER STORY | THE TRIBALS

HEALTH 60
45
KEY INDICES
On all health indicators, 30
tribals have fared 15
(% Share)
worse than other
0
communities 2004-05 2015-16 2019-20 now seem remnants of colonial anthropology—
primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical
INFANT ANAEMIC isolation, shyness of contact with the community
MORTALITY RATE WOMEN at large and backwardness. Despite relying on
80 80 tropes that fit ill with contemporary understand-
(%) ing, those criteria linger in the formal lexicon
60 60
because the idea of a ‘tribal’ marks out not just a
40 40
(% Share)
sociocultural entity but also a politico-adminis-
20 20 trative category: it is on these bases that admin-
0 0 istrative and political concessions are extended
2004-05 2015-16 2019-20 2004-05 2015-16 2019-20 to them. Including reservations in education and
employment. Indeed, when the Gujjars agitated
UNDER -5 INSTITUTIONAL
for tribal status a few years ago, it was denied to
MORTALITY RATE DELIVERIES
them because—after holding up trains for weeks
100 100 and other modes of public protest—the courts
(%)
75 75 found them lacking in ‘shyness of contact’!

T
50 50
(% Share) wo distinct administrative arrange-
25 25
ments have been made for India’s tribal
0 0
2004-05 2015-16 2019-20 2004-05 2015-16 2019-20 populations in the Constitution in the
form of the Fifth and Sixth Schedules,
Overall Tribal; Source: National Family Health Surveys theoretically applicable in places where they are
numerically dominant. The Fifth Schedule pro-
vides for constitutional safeguards to tribals living
in “scheduled areas” in 10 states—Andhra Pradesh,

CRIMES Telangana, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, MP,

Maharashtra, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand
AGAINST and Rajasthan. The President can declare an area

THE
‘scheduled’ based on some criteria: high share of
tribal population, social and economic backward-

TRIBES
ness, and the possibility of a compact administra-
tive unit. The discretionary powers of the governor
play a critical role in such administration. Gener-
There is a rise in the ally, this constitutional pledge has mostly been
number of crimes observed in the breach.
against tribals, but The Sixth Schedule covers the administration
7.9% 7.9%
experts say the and control of 10 autonomous tribal regions in
hike is because of Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram. Here,
increasing awareness greater powers are devolved to the Autonomous
of the Scheduled District Councils (ADCs), which have significant
Tribes (Prevention of legislative, judicial and administrative autonomy.
Atrocities) Act, 1989, As the Sixth Schedule has been more empowering
so that people are 6.3% than the Fifth, several other regions, including
registering more cases parts of Chhattisgarh, Arunachal Pradesh and
Ladakh, have been demanding this provision.
8,272
8,257
6,528

No. of crimes The key concern everywhere, of course, is

against tribals people-oriented development. India has multiple
Rate of crime welfare programmes for the socioeconomic uplift of
against tribals 2018 2019 2020 tribals. Around 40 central ministries and depart-
ments earmark 4.3 to 17.5 per cent of their total
Source: National Crime Records Bureau reports

AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 37

 COVER STORY | THE TRIBALS

GROSS ENROLMENT RATIO

KEY INDICES FOR TRIBAL STUDENTS
The GER of tribals in primary education is
higher than national average but not so in
higher education

THE LEARNING OVERALL

POPULATION
TRIBAL
POPULATION

CURVE Primary
(I-V)
101.4
99.2
113.2
106.7
Tribals are yet to catch up with 6-10 years 103.3 106.7
the rest of the population in Upper Primary 89.3 91.3
accessing quality education (VI-VIII) 92.8 96.7
11-13 years 92.2 95.8
LITERACY RATE LEVEL OF HIGHER EDUCATION Elementary 97.0 105.5
As per Census
(I-VIII) 96.9 103.3
Of the graduates among tribals, a
majority were non-technical ones
6-13 years 99.1 102.7
74%
65% Non-technical Non-technical Secondary 76.6 70.2
15% graduates post-graduates (IX-X) 80 74.5
14-15 years 79.8 78.6
52% 18% 64.1% 12.3%
44% 59% Senior
Secondary 52.2 35.4
22% 47% 56.2 43.1
(XI-XII)
28% 16-17 years 53.8 45.2
30% Others
Higher 23 11.3
16%
Education 24.5 14.2
6.5% 18-23 years 27.1 18*
Engineers
1981

1991

2001

2011

Medical and tech 2013-14 2015-16 2021-22

Teachers graduates graduates
Source: Unified District Information System
Overall Tribal Gap 9.3% 1.9% 5.9% for Education Plus 2020-21, All India Survey
Source: Annual Report, on Higher Education Report, 2019-20
Source: Census reports Ministry of Tribal Affairs, 2021-22 *for 2019-20, all figures in per cent

scheme allocation every year as tribal sub plan or scheduled the poorest and most marginalised sections of India. Some
tribe component funds. These allocations rose by 50 per 90 per cent live in rural areas, according to the 2011 Cen-
cent between 2017-18 and 2020-21: from Rs 22,906.54 sus—which is natural, given their old life patterns. But in
crore to Rs 34,492.87. The ministry of tribal affairs provides terms of poverty, there is huge disparity between tribals and
additional funds to these initiatives to plug the gaps. Its the rest—45 per cent of rural tribals were in the BPL cat-
budget shot up by 53 per cent from egory in 2011-12 as against 26 per cent
Rs 5,494.51 crore in 2020-21 to Rs of all rural Indians. Their literacy rate
8,451.92 crore this fiscal. Besides in 2011 was just 59 per cent, compared
these, the Pradhan Mantri Adi to 74 per cent for India. On almost
ON ALMOST
Adarsh Gram Yojna (PMAAGY) aims all health indicators, such as infant
to provide basic infrastructure in ALL HEALTH mortality rate, underweight children
36,428 villages with significant tribal INDICATORS, and anaemia in women, tribals have
population. And the Pradhan Mantri fared much worse than the rest. This
Janjatiya Vikas Mission (PMJVM),
TRIBALS HAVE stark contrast further alienates many
with a total outlay of Rs 1,612.27 crore FARED MUCH tribals, with human development no-
for five years (2021-26), is designed to WORSE THAN where commensurate with the official
facilitate tribal entrepreneurship ini- spend. A focused, inclusive approach
tiatives and livelihood opportunities.
THE GENERAL is clearly imperative. With a tribal now
Despite all this, socio-economic POPULATION as the first citizen, this could be the
indicators suggest tribals are among beginning of a new era. „

3 8 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2

 COVER STORY | THE TRIBALS

ACHIEVERS

THE NATIVE
DRUM BEATS
Men and women whose success has done
their indigenous communities proud
Photograph by BANDEEP SING H

CONRAD K. SANGMA, 44
Chief Minister, Meghalaya, Garo tribe

An alumnus of St Columba’s School in Delhi

and with management degrees from Whar-
ton and Imperial College London, Conrad
K. Sangma seamlessly combines his tribal
identity with a ‘mainstream’ persona. The
son of former Lok Sabha speaker, the late
P.A. Sangma, he has been trying to build up
his NPP, or the National People’s Party, as a
representative voice of the Northeast.

“EARLIER, THE TRIBALS

FELT ALIENATED. TODAY,
TRIBAL YOUNGSTERS ARE
CONFIDENT, COMPETITIVE
AND RARING TO SHOWCASE
THEIR CAPABILITIES”
COVER STORY | THE TRIBALS

ACHIEVERS
 Photograph by BANDEEP SING H

PABIBEN RABARI, 38
Entrepreneur, Rabari tribe

Brought up in pover t y in Gujarat’s Kutch,

Pabiben Rabari was a homemaker before she dec-
ided to concentrate on the intricate embroidery of her
Rabari tribe. After she invented a new form of stitch
work, Hari Jari, avenues opened up, and her brand,
Pabiben, is now a fashion staple with exports to 45
countries. Her Banyan Tree Foundation employs 300
tribal women, with an annual turnover of Rs 40 lakh.

“VILLAGE WOMEN SHOULD

GET OPPORTUNITIES TO EARN
HANDSOMELY WITHOUT
LEAVING THEIR HOMES”
 COVER STORY | THE TRIBALS

ACHIEVERS

LIPIKA SINGH DARAI, 38

Film director, Ho tribe

Her first non-fiction film Eka Gachha Eka

Manisa Eka Samudra (A Tree, A Man, A
Sea) won the National Award in 2013 for Best
Debutante Director in the non-feature section.
Born in Mayurbhanj district, Darai gradu-
ated from FTII, Pune, in sound recording and
design. She is the recipient of four National
Awards—three for film direction and one
for sound recording and mixing. Her latest
documentary, Backstage (2021), featured the
puppeteer community of Odisha.

“BEING AN ADIVASI IN INDIA

MEANS TO LIVE UNDER THE
BURDEN OF A MISREPRESENTED
HISTORY AND, OFTEN, A
MISQUOTED IDENTITY”

“TRIBALS ARE SEEN

AS FOREST-DWELLERS
OR HUNTERS. THAT
PERCEPTION SHOULD
CHANGE. THEN EVERY-
THING ELSE WILL FALL
INTO PLACE”
ARABINDA MAHAPATRA

4 4 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2

 Photograph by MANDAR DEODHAR

SHANTARAM SIDDI, 59
First graduate of his community & MLC, Siddi community

Siddi has many firsts to his name. When he completed a BA in Economics in 1988, he
became the first graduate from his community. He then set up a hostel for tribal children
along with the Hindu Seva Pratishtana. The following year, Siddi—from the Malnad
region in Karnataka’s Western Ghats—became the first karyakarta of the RSS-linked
Vanavasi Kalyana Karnataka. As a Member of the Legislative Council (MLC), Siddi’s goal
is to push for speedy distribution of land title deeds to all tribal communities in the state.

AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 45

COVER STORY | THE TRIBALS

ACHIEVERS
 BHAJJU SHYAM, 51
Artist, Gond tribe

In 1994, Bhajju came from Patangarh in Madhya

Pradesh’s Dindori district to Bhopal looking for
a job. While in the alien city, he lived with pio-
neering Gond artist Jangarh Singh Shyam. With
his encouragement, Bhajju began painting and,
within the next three years, carved a niche for
himself. In 2001, some months after Jangarh’s
tragic suicide, Bhajju was commissioned to paint
the walls of a London restaurant. On his return,
the series of paintings he made on life in the UK
capital as he saw it were compiled into The Lon-
don Jungle Book. Bhajju has since authored 16
more books. He received the Padma Shri in 2018.

“OUR LIVES ARE CLOSELY

INTERTWINED WITH NATURE.
OUR ASSOCIATION WITH
NATURE IS REFLECTED
IN OUR ART TOO”
Photograph by CHANDR ADEEP KUMAR
 Photograph by MANDAR DEODHAR

Location courtesy ASR Studio Mumbai

“I HOPE TO SEE MORE

IMPORTANCE BEING
GIVEN TO INDIGENOUS
AND MINORITY COMMU-
NITIES IN TERMS OF
DEVELOPMENT AND
NEWS COVERAGE”

ANDREA KEVICHUSA, 22
Actor, Angami, Ao tribes

Born in Nagaland to an Angami father and Ao mother, Andrea, the youngest of five sis-
ters, wanted to become a doctor. But a modelling opportunity, when she was 15, changed
the course of her life and took her to Mumbai, and landed her the female lead in the film
Anek. Andrea believes the rest of India will soon better understand people from the
Northeast, who face varying degrees of estrangement in the ‘mainland’.

4 8 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2

 COVER STORY | THE TRIBALS

ACHIEVERS

VIJAYA PAWAR, 39
Entrepreneur, Banjara handicrafts,
Gorbanjara tribe
In a bid to revive the languishing Gormati
art, Vijaya Pawar formed an NGO in 2004,
the Harappani Gorbanjara Mahila Kala
Vikas Mandal, which has trained hundreds
of tribal women to make Banjara handi-
craft products and earn a good living. A
silent worker, Pawar achieved instant fame
after PM Narendra Modi chose her among
the women achievers to take over his social
media handle on International Women’s
Day in 2020. A winner of two international
awards, Pawar hopes to take her brand
‘Pono’ global in the near future.

“BANJARA WOMEN NEED

Photograph by AJEEB KOMACHI

TO BE ENCOURAGED. THE
STEREOTYPES ARE
THE MAIN HURDLE IN
EMPOWERING THEM”

SHREEDHANYA SURESH, 29
IAS officer, Kurichiya tribe

Sreedhanya’s daily-wage labourer parents in Kerala’s Way-

anad district worked hard to educate their three children.
After completing her postgrad, Sreedhanya met IAS officer
S. Sambasiva Rao while working for the tribal development
department. Motivated by him, she appeared for the civil
services examination, which she cracked in 2018—the first
tribal woman from Kerala to do so. Now the sub-collector
and sub-divisional magistrate in Perinthalmanna, Malap-
puram district, she is an inspiration for her community.

“DEVELOPMENT IN TRIBAL
Photograph by MANDAR DEODHAR

AREAS SHOULD HAVE A

NOVEL APPROACH THAT
HONOURS THE TRADITIONS
AND PRACTICES OF THE
COMMUNITY”

AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 49

 DINESHBHAI BHIL, 45
Archer and archery coach, Bhil tribe

Early in his life, ace archer Dineshbhai Bhil had taken

aim at his career goals. Even though he could study only
up to Class IX due to acute poverty, Dinesh found his
calling while playing with his desi bows and arrows in
his native Chhota Udaipur district of Gujarat. His spe-
cial archery skills helped him shift to a Sports Authority
of India (SAI) centre at the state’s Devgadh Baria, and
later to Delhi and Kolkata. In between, he tasted mul-
tiple successes, winning a gold and two silver medals in
the 1996 and 1997 National Archery Championships
respectively. In 2005, he set up the Eklavya Archery
Academy in the tribal-dominated Naswadi tehsil of his
district. His students, including his 18-year-old daugh-
ter Tejal, have won many national championships.

“WE MUST FREE OURSELVES FROM OUR

REGRESSIVE TRADITIONS AND THEN EDUCATE
EVERYONE. EDUCATION HAS BECOME
THE GREATEST LEVELLER, LETTING OUR
CHILDREN ACHIEVE ALL THEIR DREAMS”
Photograph by BANDEEP SING H
COVER STORY | THE TRIBALS

ACHIEVERS

—by Kaushik Deka, Kiran D. Tare, Jeemon Jacob,

Ajay Sukumaran, Amitabh Srivastava and Rahul Noronha
 COVER STORY | THE TRIBALS

H I S T O RY/ C U LT U R E

SMELTED
IDENTITIES
What does ‘tribal’ mean? At best it’s an ensemble of archetypes,
each one more problematic than the other
By SUNIL MENON

T
‘ RIBAL’. The word
teems with life, like
a forest of meanings.
Its very arrival sets
off in our minds a
sensory explosion.
Colour, sound, feel—
a rich, compound
expressivity. But what does it mean
really? Here we trail off into a zone of
semantic ambiguity. Neither average
townsfolk—equipped with a sense of
the self as ‘non-tribal’—nor scientist
will be able to supply an exact meaning.
That’s because it lacks one. The most
anyone can do is tap into an ensemble of
archetypes: primitive and/or unsophis-
ticated, savage, tightly-knit communi-
ties living isolated in forest, desert or
savannah, away from the systems of
rationality that built civilisations.
Each of those is problematic. Take
‘irrational’. An environmentalist travel-
ling to the uplands by the Narmada in
the mid-’90s was astounded to see the
local Bhils making river water flow up-
hill—using a series of strategically cre-
ated depressions to aid the flow in their
‘pat’ irrigation system! Consider ‘primi-
tive’. Iron was first smelted in India, in
the second millennium BC, by people
you would now call tribals, all across
the land. From sites dotting the Deccan
to the Netarhat hills in Jharkhand and
the Kaimur range, south of Banaras—
INDIA PICTURE
Asura and Agaria people there is what
made the Iron Pillar of Asoka, which
stands unrusted by time. “Itinerants of
the forest in 800 BC had access to state-
of-the-art military technology,” writes
historian Sumit Guha, in a wry aside in
Environment & Ethnicity in India. As
for the ascription of ‘savagery’ to tribal
peoples, speaking after a century of the
Empires rose from
tribal communities.
The Sakas were horse-
back archers from the
Steppes, the Kushanas
were the Yuezhi,
the Hoysalas were
Malenadu tribals
most mechanised systems of mass hu-
man killing invented, the irony there is
savage. Just like Anglo-Saxons presum-
ing to call others ‘criminal tribes’.
Take non-material culture. The peo-
ple who composed the Vedas—whom
you would now not think of as trib-
als—were pastoral nomads wandered
off from the Sintashta culture of Central
Asia, entering a phase of sedentarisa-
tion. The Buddha was born among the
Shakyas, a republican clan with elected
leadership and forms of egalitarianism
that strongly suggest ‘tribal’ political
ideals—ideals that flowed into Buddh-
ist conception of the Sangha, as Guha
writes. St Augustine, as key a figure in
western philosophy as in Christian the-
ology, was a Berber from North Africa.
And more and more scholars are tracing
the European Enlightenment ideals of
“liberty, fraternity, equality” to ideas ex-
pressed by Huron chief Kondiaronk, in
conversations with a French soldier-ex-
plorer, Baron Lahontan, in 16th century
Canada. From Voltaire to Rousseau,
everyone seems to have ingested a bit of
trans-Atlantic native wisdom.
‘Isolation’ from the mainstream is,
by scholarly consensus, a product of
interaction rather than the lack of it.
The Harappan cultures and contem-
porary Neolithic cultures had robust
contact—up to north Deccan sites like
Jorwe, perhaps up to Maski in north

the bloomery furnace still used by the Karnataka, they all existed in a network

52 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2

Toda temple in the Nilgiris

of ‘symbiosis and exchange’. And em-
pires rose from tribal communities. The
Sakas, or Scythians, were horse-back
archers from the Steppes. The Kusha-
nas were the Yuezhi, from the more
Sinic-flavoured borderlands of Inner
Asia. The Mughals branched off from
that same continuum. The Hoysalas
were Malenadu tribals. Names like
‘Gurjara Pratihara’ or ‘Pala’ retain
the old pastoral imprint. The Rajputs
separated themselves from surround-
ing nomadic herdsmen with invented
genealogies only in medieval times.
The Siddis, of African origin, approxi-
mated to royal status in the Deccan and
Bengal through centuries before being
shoehorned back into ‘tribal’ status by
the modern Indian state. Why? African,
after all. The Bedas, a hunting com-
munity from Karnataka, had a similar
A light and shadow effect from a piece of tribal art
trajectory—an illustrious martial his-
tory during the Maratha period, then
relapse. Nor are any of these ‘ethnicities’
watertight or ‘racially distinct’. The
geneticist Cavalli-Sforza spoke of the
Huns as a loose assemblage. Anthropol-
ogists working on India would find that
familiar—people traversing imagined
endogamous boundaries was the norm.
Too much of the historical data speaks
of humankind as a hopelessly mixed-up
species, right down to community level,
to satisfy blut und boden (blood and
soil) fantasists. Heck, we even mated
with the Neanderthals.
So whether you take our biology or
capacity for the scientific temper, our
philosophical artefacts or our material
culture, we are all on the same boat—
born to Neolithic Noahs, carrying mem-
ories of Old Stone Age cave art. That’s
CATCH THE RAYS
made with wrought iron by tribals from Bastar
INDIA PICTURE
why anthropologist Morton Fried asked
in his 1975 classic, The Notion of Tribe,
“Do tribes exist? Or are they chimeras,
imaginary compounds of various and,
at times, incongruous parts, societal il-
lusions fabricated for diverse reasons....”
In his reading, the idea of “primordial
communities” does not stand up to
scrutiny; they are, rather, “secondary
formations” that arise among undiffer-
entiated populations as a reaction to the
formation of states and empires, who
cannot be defined independently of the
latter. If defining the ‘self’ as separate
from the ‘other’ is a tribal act, that’s
what we all do. Thus it may have been
those who called themselves ‘arya’ spoke
of others as ‘va-nara’ (‘perhaps a man’)
and ‘kin-nara’ (‘what kind of man?’).
The latter may have been asking the
same question. „
AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2 INDIA TODAY 5 3
 COVER STORY | THE TRIBALS

AUSTRO-ASIATIC
LANGUAGE DISPERSAL

FROM THE Meghalaya

Odisha
Vietnam

MEKONG TO Nicobar

MALKANGIRI Source: You-

Tube video by
Paul Sidwell

E
thnonyms like
Bhil and others
figure in the
old Indian
epics, where
princely figures encounter-
ing the forests is a recurring
trope. And genetic studies
confirm what archaeolo-
gists always knew: human
presence on the subconti-
nent is as old and stable as
a grandfather clock. The
word ‘Adivasi’, a conceptual
bundle expressing rooted-
ness and genetic continuity,
is a recent coinage spun off
from ‘aboriginal’, though.
We interpret that maxi-
mally because the actual
history stretches before us
like an aranya of the epics,
deep and mysterious. But
science has of late been thr-
owing fascinating new light
on one aspect here.
India’s ‘tribes’ can be
found among all our four
major languages families:
Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-
Burman, Dravidian and
The
Indo-Aryan. Bhili, spoken
Bonda
by our most populous Adi- speak
vasi group, belongs to the a south
last named—and is thus in Munda
a kin group with Marwari, language
Gujarati, Punjabi, Hindi,
INDIA PICTURE
Sanskrit et al. Gondi, the
second largest, is Dravi- Garo-Boro that straddles ethnic kinship, the 89 Naga
dian. Garo, the native the Northeast, sweeping in languages are mostly mut-
tongue of Meghalaya CM everything from Assam’s ually unintelligible; that’s
Conrad Sangma, is part Bodo to Tripura’s Kokbo- why they use Nagamese, a
of a continuum of Tibeto- rok to the largest Naga lan- creolised form of Assamese,
Burman languages called guage Konyak. (Despite the as lingua franca.) But the

HUL some 150 years—from

the Chuar rebellion in

JOHAR! Bengal (1771-1809), and

not ending with the post-

T
here’s a silent
chapter in
Indian history—or
perhaps a whole library.
Some of the fiercest
resistance to British colo-
nial power came from the
tribal communities. Wave
upon wave of armed
uprisings, strung over
WW-I Kuki uprising. If
the bows and arrows of
the Kurichiyas aided
Malabar’s Pazhassi Raja
in his long guerrilla war
against the East India
Company (1793-1806),
the Bhils of Rajputana
rose up in 1818, and a
series of Ho and Munda
unrests led up to the Kol

5 4 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2

 A FEW ‘GREAT
LEADERS’
Northeast also supplied one mat—or original homeland—of
part of an old jigsaw puzzle. proto-Austro-Asiatic was Viet-
Khasi, in Meghalaya, was nam’s Red River delta, from
clearly Austro-Asiatic—unlike where a Chinese influx drove
its neighbours—and thus part them out in waves of migra- JAIPAL SINGH MUNDA
of a family that mostly stays in tion. Primary route: the sea, From a cattle-herding boyhood
another part of India. This is through the Strait of Malacca, in Jharkhand’s Khunti division to
the canonical ‘Adivasi’ group: with a pit-stop at Nicobar, up Oxford to cap-
Munda, Santhal, Kol, Ho et al, to the Mahanadi Delta. Time- taining an Indian
strung around the contiguous frame: circa 2000 BC, around hockey team that
tribal districts of Jharkhand, the same time as the Vedic won the Olympic
Bengal and Odisha. There was people up north. As with the Gold in 1928, to the
Indian Civil Service,
another outlier: Nicobarese. latter, and most other ancient
to presiding over
(The Andamanese groups migrations, there was a gender
the Adivasi Mahas-
speak entirely un- skew: a small, pre- abha and becoming
related languages.) dominantly male the first prominent
Outside India, the What this founder population voice for a separate
biggest representa- does is mixing with local Jharkhand state, to
tives of Austro-Asi- dispel the Ancient Ancestral membership of the Constituent
atic are found on myth of an South Indians. Assembly, he was really ‘Marang
the far side of Indo- umbilical Both linguistics Gomke’ (Great Leader).
china—Vietnamese cord tying and genetics
and Cambodia’s people and converge here. A
Khmer—and some separate, secondary
NANJIYAMMA
on the Malay coast.
language dispersal—inland,
Quite a disunited up the tributaries
family, by geography. How did of the Red River—deposited
this come about? languages like Palaungic and
There has never been a Khmuic in Laos and Yunnan,
dearth of theories, including with Khasi being the western-
(inevitably!) an overland ‘Out most sibling. What all this does
of India’ one. But linguist Paul is dispel the common myth
Sidwell, refining a model over of an umbilical cord between
years, has furnished us with ‘people’ and ‘language’. Imag- Musicologists have long speculated
a new, compelling one: the ine a Mundari Eve, with a on the folk genesis of Indian classi-
cal music. But it took a song in the
Munda Maritime Hypothesis. Dravidian matriarch and a sea-
Irula language by Nanjiyamma for
In this reading, the Urhei- weary father from out east. „
the film, Ayyappanum Koshiyum
(2020), and a national award for
best female playback singer to
announce the arrival of a distinctive
southern tribal vocalism on stage.

rebellion of 1831. The

great Santhal Hul of ALICE EKK A
1855 was the big one, To answer the question, ‘Can
overshadowed only by
the Subaltern write?’...well, yes.
1857. The names of its
A strikingly
protagonists, Sidu and
original voice,
Kanhu Murmu, or
Ekka’s Hindi
that of a stray Tantia
Bhil (left)—bandit to the stories—written
British, but ‘Robin Hood’ mostly in the
to compatriots—and an 1950s-60s, pre-
iconic Birsa Munda figuring even
remain the few we can much of the
write on a monument Dalit resistance
that’s yet to be made. „ writings—are
currently being rediscovered by
local and western scholars. Leit-
motif: strong female characters.
 55
 COVER STORY | THE TRIBALS
CUISINE
FOREST
FLAVOURS
Red ant chutney, you said? You need to
consume more than cliches...indigenous
foods are a full-bodied celebration of terroir,
linking taste to a sense of place and identity
By SOITY BANERJEE
IF
it’s going to swim upstream, it will happen quickly,” texted
Mr F, who also called “it” a “bravery item”. He should
know. He met those breathtaking, blustery hills long before
Salman Khan and his tribe Mechuka’d their way up to the
Lost Frontiers of Arunachal Pradesh. The “it” in question
was no upstart carp with Olympic ambitions, but a light,
bright, raw fish soup that sometimes carpe-diemed through
unsuspecting mainland gullets. Except, it was too late. I
5 6 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2
A TASTE OF TERROIR
(from far left) A Gond
thali, Goolar ke kabab and
tender peepal leaves
was in Namsai and nose-deep in a bowl of brilliance,
slurping my way through pasa, a Tai Khampti delicacy
that has since become a cold favourite.
The point is, even the best of us, who have—inten-
tionally or accidentally—discovered the joys of eating at
indigenous kitchens around the country sometimes find
ourselves at the crossroads of a taste test. It doesn’t matter if
pig’s trotters or snails, fresh buckwheat leaves or camel milk
have been consumed with great relish before. At the pearly
gates of new culinary discovery, we may pause, if only for a
fleeting second, before crossing over to the ‘Other Side’. But
foot-dragging and culinary blindness are not the same dish.
Sometimes, I wonder, if in India we have more culture
than is good for us. Consider the stats: We have over 700
indigenous communities, who account for about 8.6 per
cent of the population, or 104 million people, outnumber-
 COVER STORY | THE TRIBALS
CUISINE
ing all other countries at least on one global index. And yet,
ask almost anyone at a dinner party in Delhi to name one
indigenous dish they have tried, or loved, and most would look
stricken; like they had been summoned to gather red ants for
a chutney. A quick aside: red ant chutney has become some-
thing of a poster dish for the inexhaustible wealth of indig-
enous food cultures we know so little about yet so crudely and
confidently condense into a ‘tribal cuisine’.
So it’s somewhat reassuring to stumble upon more and
more conversations in mainstream digital dining rooms today
on the virtues of indigenous food in these pandemicked times.
From locavore chefs to permacultured farmers, heirloom
millets to #UglyDelicious tubers, indigenous ingredients and
their InstaChampions are clearly having their moment now.
So much so that matrons of the Kurumba community or
patrons of the Palghar pendhra (divine jasmine) are virtually
reeling in new urban tribes daily.
And then there are those who work
closely with forest-dependent communi-
ties across India to sustainably harvest
and market forest produce to urban SADLY, WHEN
audiences; reminding us that conserving
local ecosystems, traditional livelihoods
AN INDIGENOUS
and indigenous wisdom go hand in hand. INGREDIENT
Organisations such as the Centre for MAKES IT TO THE
Pastoralism (CfP) work with nomadic
and semi-nomadic tribes to identify and
HIGH TABLE
protect native breeds of livestock, and URBAN TASTES,
promote non-bovine dairy—mostly goat IT IS YOKED TO
and camel milk that seem to have many
takers globally, but few in India, where GOOD HEALTH
it’s plentiful. Now available in Tetrapacks, LIVING
camel milk is yet to become Amul Kool, if
you will. While weaning Indians off cow
and buffalo milk has proved anything
but easy so far, Vasant Saberwal, director, CfP, has an appetising
plan. With over 30 kinds of high-quality cheeses in the mak-
ing, he says milk, like wine, should celebrate its terroir, offer-
ing a sense of place and taste that distinguishes a Himalayan
feta from a Kutchi one, or a kalari cheese of the Van Gujjars of
Jammu from the chhurpi of Arunachal’s Monpa tribe.
It’s a different matter that each time an ingredient fora-
ged, harvested or milked by a listed tribe finds itself on the
High Tables of Urban Tastes, its virtues are almost always
yoked to good health and good living. It’s as if anything that
lies two degrees south of our comfort zone must always be
validated by the presence of Omega 3 acids or polyphenols.
If it’s not ‘exotic’ enough, why, it must be superfood, honey!
In an experience economy, when gastrotourism is no longer
confused for a ramble down the small intestines, why should
treating constipation or bronchitis be the only incentive to
eat the flowers or fruits of a Mahua tree—an ingredient forest
5 8 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2
communities across central India favour and savour? Have
we ever masticated about the health benefits of meen moilee
and alu posto before scubadiving into them at supper?
Growing up in Jamshedpur, I knew more about dhan-
sak—our city and my classroom had a sizeable population of
Parsis, thanks to the Tatas—than about dhuska, deep-fried
balls of fermented dough. Even my friends, with names that
ended with Toppo, Kujur, Murmu or Mahato, brought tiffins
that looked exactly like mine. Sandwiches and cakes, paran-
thas and sabzis.... No one told us that the Mundas—called
the Nisha-das or turmeric-eaters in the Vedas—had lent the
names to many of the ancient Indian fruits and vegetables
that we still find on our plates… kadali (banana), panasa
(jackfruit), narikela (coconut), nimbuka (lime), haridra
(turmeric), and so on. Or that the Santhalis had a sweet or
savoury, meaty even, pitha for every season.
And so it was that I decided I liked Aruna Tirkey, a former
development professional who set up
a rare restaurant in Ranchi four years
ago to mainstream Oraon, Santhal,
Ho, Munda and Kharia cuisines, and
create jobs for local women. She named
her place Ajam Emba, or great taste in
Kurukh, her mother tongue. The kind of
woman who travels 200 km for her for-
aging adventures, Tirkey talks tirelessly
OF about umbilical connections between
taste, tradition and indigenous identity.
Her recent foray into the forests near
Gumla, in search of kukhri and rugda—
AND seasonal fungi her mother cooked during
a 10-day window every June—have only
strengthened her resolve to resist the
‘gentrification’ of the indigenous kitchen.
A champion of microlocal flavours, she
has been building a black book of recipes few have encountered
before. Relying on aromatics instead of spices, and seasonal
produce, like jute flowers for the kudrung chutney, freshwater
fish like buddu and ghetu, and ‘mota anaj’ (or coarse grains,
steadily replaced by wheat and rice from the PDS) Tirkey is
fiercely traditional in her cooking.
A couple of years ago, perhaps to cure my childhood
myopia, or to make the most of a Lockdowned Spring, when
the world was busy making banana bread and Dalgona coffee,
I made goolar ke kebab from wild Indian cluster figs and a
pleasantly sour peepal ki bhaaji. Unlike the Baiga women of
Madhya Pradesh’s Mandla and Dindori districts, I had never
celebrated the rare, ephemeral flavours of the tender pink
leaves of this common tree. But now I look forward to cooking
it every March. Not because it cures fever, dysentry, heart dis-
ease, constipation, mumps and (but, of course) sexual debility.
But because it’s there, and it’s delicious. „
 IMTIAZ ALI: FULL INDIA’S TOP MEDAL
STREAM AHEAD CONTENDERS AT CWG
PG 61 PG 62

TETSEO SISTERS: Q&A WITH

ROOTED TO THE DISHA PATANI
SOUND PG 64 PG 66

CINEMA

HIS GRAND
SCHEME
OF THINGS
With Brahmastra,
director Ayan Mukerji
says he has melded love,
myths and VFX to give
India a kind of cinema it
hasn’t seen before

t an
Made a ed
t
estima 350
f R s
cost o art I of
p
crore, STRA,
MA
BRAH ’s magnum
ji
Muker ill release
opus, w ept. 9
on S

SOURABH PAUL
LEISURE
N
Nine years have passed since much of
young India found itself enamoured
with Ayan Mukerji’s Yeh Jawaani
Hai Deewani (YJHD). In the interim,
Mukerji, much like a James Cameron
who has devoted almost all his ener-
gies to making the Avatar films, has
invested nearly a decade of his life to
Brahmastra, a fantasy action series,
part one of which will release on
September 9.
“Don’t mock me,” says Mukerji
when he hears the comparison. “What
he is achieving—making really good
mainstream cinema at a very high
quality, cinema that is enjoyable for
everyone—is what I want to acc-
omplish in my filmmaking career.”
The director, 38, is seated in his office
surrounded by books, concept art from
Brahmastra and figurines that show
his love for Marvel’s Avengers fran-
chise and Harry Potter. A whiteboard
lists the deadlines he has to meet. A
trishul is perched in one corner.
It has been a long, arduous jour-
ney for Mukerji. Getting Brahmastra
started and part one completed has
not been easy. As shooting went on
for nearly five years, the budget shot
up—an estimated Rs 350 crore if the
industry grapevine is to be believed.
It soon became clear that Brahmastra
was Mukerji’s magnum opus, but
given the hype and hoopla around its
scale, how did Mukerji keep himself
motivated all through? “Sometimes
when you do big things in life, you
jump in without clearly knowing
what you are jumping into. There is
no turning back,” he says. “I really did
feel we are creating something unlike
what has been created before and we
must see it through.”
6 0 INDIA TODAY AUGUST 8 , 2 02 2
WITH BRAHMASTRA,
“HIS HOMAGE TO
THE SPIRIT OF LORD
SHIVA”, MUKERJI
HAS CREATED HIS
“OWN UNIVERSE
OF CINEMA”, ONE
HE CALLS THE
“ASTRAVERSE”
Much like his characters, be it
Sid of Wake Up Sid! (2009) or Kabir
from YJHD, Mukerji embarked on a
journey of self-discovery as he went
about executing his ambitious proj-
ect. Unlike his two films, it was heavy
on visual effects (VFX) and action.
He says, “I didn’t have a roadmap, I
didn’t know what to expect.” Self-be-
lief propelled him. “Through all these
years, I have believed that this could
be my Star Wars moment where I
will create something which would
be an amazing achievement in In-
dian cinema,” he adds. Mukerji spent
nearly a year in London acquaint-
ing himself with how VFX works.
Helping him were the professionals
at Double Negative, a renowned
multiple Oscar-winning studio, who
have worked on “the biggest and
most complex” bits of Brahmastra,
says Mukerji. The remaining work
took place at Prime Focus, a stone’s
throw away from co-producer Karan
Johar’s Dharma office in Khar, and
ReDefine in Andheri. The experience
that many Indian VFX artists had
acquired while working on Holly-
wood projects in the past few years
has helped Brahmastra. Mukerji
adds, “At one level, the vision of what
we can do had exceeded. I scaled it up
as much as I could.” Mukerji also met
action specialists employed by S.S.
Rajamouli, Red Chillies Entertain-
ment and Yash Raj Films. In fact,
Rajamouli’s Bahubali films would
end up having a huge influence on the
filmmaker. “I feel that in many ways,
he’s a filmmaking guru now,” Mukerji
says about the auteur who is helping
promote the film in four southern
languages. “My vision [for Brahmas-

tra] got more Indian-ised af-
ter the [Bahubali] films.” But
even while Brahmastra is epic
in its canvas, Mukerji clarifies
that there is a key aspect that
sets his Ranbir Kapoor- and
Alia Bhatt-starrer apart.
“There is also the filmmaker
in me writing about young,
modern relationships,” adds
Mukerji. “It gave me con-
fidence and reaffirmed the
faith of everybody who was
involved in the project.”
Brahmastra had been
brewing in Mukerji’s mind
even as he was making
YJHD. As a child, he says
he grew up having a con-
nection with Indian gods
and goddesses. By his 30s,
Mukerji had what he refers
to as a “feeling”, a “spiritual
call” that told him that his
fantasy trilogy needs to
emerge from “the primal
and powerful” stories he has
read and heard. He headed
to the hills—retreats in the
Himalayas—to start shaping
the story. Brahmastra, he
says, is “what Shiva means to
me. It’s a homage to the spirit
of Lord Shiva. It’s modern
spirituality at its core.” Over
two years, a pictorial script of
Brahmastra was developed,
detailing its visual landscape.
With Brahmastra,
Mukerji has created his “own
universe of cinema”, one he
calls the “Astraverse”. He has
also set up a film company,
Starlight. “It could mean that
I probably give up my lifetime
to only making these films,
my own version of Marvel,” he
says. That said, the future of
his fantasy action series does
depend on the success of the
first film. In Shiva, though,
Mukerji believes. ■
- Suhani Singh
Full Stream Ahead
We only ever knew Imtiaz Ali for his love stories, but OTT platforms
are showing the filmmaker in a new light
p until Febr-
uary 14,
U 2020, Imtiaz
Ali was best
known as
a chronicler of mod-
ern love. There was
something simultane-
ously contemporary
and old-fashioned about
his romances, be it Jab
We Met (2007), Love Aaj
Kal (2009) or Tamasha
(2015). Then came She
(2020—), a Netflix series
about a police constable
who goes undercover as
a prostitute. Produced
by Ali’s banner, Window
Seat Films, the dark, sen-
suous thriller was a far
cry from anything he had
done on the big screen.
Streaming, he feels, has
“liberated” him by all-
owing him to give up the
romantic tag and revisit
the many stories he had
put on the backburner.
E N T E R TA I N M E N T
For once, “duration” inhibitions in small-town
was not a hurdle. Ali India—had been with Ali for
learned to embrace a a while. “While taking the
new role—that of a show- train from Jamshedpur to
runner—and “emphasise Delhi, I’d always be fasci-
his creative vision in nated by the many hoard-
absentia” by trust- ings for sex doctors, their
ing other writers and services and products,”
directors. It was they says Ali. “There’s a certain
who infused new energy discomfort that comes with
and perspective into his it and it was interesting for
stories. Ali, though, still me to see how people in
had his plate full. He has small towns deal with it.”
conducted workshops The writer-director has
with actors like Aaditi seen OTT come of age in
Pohankar (She) and has the past two years. “Early
also been involved in on, when OTT platforms
post-production. came to us, they asked us
It’s how both his for ideas that had worked
shows, She and the in the West,” citing the suc-
latest SonyLIV series, cess of shows like Narcos.
Dr Arora, got made. The deluge of crime dramas
The idea for Dr Arora— and thrillers emerged from
a sex doctor battling that need, he notes. “But
now a fatigue has set in
and in the past few months,
they [platforms] are asking
me to suggest love stories
Z ALI
IMTIA directing that could lend themselves
n be h
will soo biopic, whic to the long format.”
fi rst pular
his
be on the po ial Busy as he has been
wil l rs
ntrove
and co musician, writing, Ali is also currently
i
Punjab r Singh focused on returning to the
Ama ila
Chamk director’s chair. His next
will be his first biopic—on
the popular and contro-
versial Punjabi musician
Amar Singh Chamkila.
Actor-singer Diljit Dosanjh
has been roped in to play
the lead. Speaking about
Chamkila, Ali talks about
the many layers of the
artist’s life, layers that
might enable him to delve
and explore themes such
as “censorship”. More ac-
customed now to sharing
writing duties, Ali has roped
in two writers, including
one from Punjab “to help
with the local flavour”. Also,
MANDAR DEODHAR
given Ali’s stellar record
on delivering memorable
soundtracks, Chamkila and
Ali promise to be a match
made in heaven.
- Suhani Singh
 SPORTS

INDIA’S TOP MEDAL

CONTENDERS AT CWG
India is a rising force in sport, as demonstrated by their best-ever haul of seven medals at
last year’s Tokyo Olympics. Another step in the journey for the country’s athletes will be the
Commonwealth Games, which will take place in Birmingham from July 28-August 8. India is
competing in 15 sports at the Games and here are the athletes poised for a podium finish:

Ô WOMEN’S Ô BAJRANG Ô P.V. SINDHU Ô AVINASH SABLE

CRICKET TEAM PUNIA (Badminton) (Steeplechase,
The Indian women’s (Wrestling) India’s most Athletics)
cricket team, which After failing to consistent In the past five years,
has consistently match his own performer in big Avinash Sable has
been on the up in expectations in events in recent consistently raised
the past five years, Tokyo, where he times, P.V. Sindhu the bar in his pet
will represent the won a bronze, Baj- is taregting her event—the 3,000m
country at a multi- Ô G. SATHIYAN AND rang Punia is hoping first gold at CWG in steeplechase—in India.
sport event for the MANIKA BATRA to return to his best women’s singles. Having broken the
first time. Women’s (Table Tennis) in Birmingham. He She had lost to national record eight
T20 cricket is set to At the 2018 CWG, India won a gold medal Saina Nehwal in times, Sable’s best
debut at the CWG won eight medals, inclu- in the previous the singles final in now stands at 8:12.48
in Birmingham and ding three golds, to finish CWG edition. Punia, 2018. The two-time minutes. He qualified
India have sent to the as the top nation in table World No. 5 in the Olympic medalist for the final at the
UK a strong squad, tennis. While the men’s 65kg category, has announced her recently-concluded
led by Harmanpreet and women’s teams won recovered from return to form World Championships
Kaur. Since cricket is gold, Manika Batra claimed a knee injury that by winning the in Oregon, but finished
predominantly played gold in women’s singles. hampered him in Singapore Open in 11th with a time of
in Commonwealth Batra and G. Sathiyan, Tokyo. He won a July. While Sindhu 8.31.75 seconds, his
countries, it is exp- who will compete in bronze medal at is the spearhead, slowest since October
ected to be very mixed doubles, will lead Bolat Turlykhanov the recent Thomas 2019. Competing
competitive. India is India’s hopes. They won Cup in June. Wres- Cup win has raised in his first CWG,
in Group A, along with the WTT Contender title tling is not the most hopes from India’s the Indian athlete
Australia, Pakistan in Budapest in 2021 and competitive CWG male players— will have stiff
and Barbados. The were the first Indian pair sport, and India is Kidambi Srikanth competition from
eight-team event to make QF of a World expected to win a and Lakshya Sen Kenyan
also includes Championship last year. medal in almost all 12 in men’s singles runners.
England, Sri Lanka, categories they have and Satwiksairaj
South Africa and entered. Rankireddy and
New Zealand. Chirag Shetty in
men’s doubles
as well.

ANI GETT Y IMAGES AFP INDIA PICTURE

 GETT Y IMAGES
Ô NIKHAT ZAREEN Ô HOCKEY
(Boxing) Ô MIRABAI There has been a spike in interest in Indian hockey since the Tokyo
‘World Champion’ CHANU Olympics. While the men’s team won the bronze to bring home India’s first
Nikhat Zareen is eager (Weightlifting) medal in hockey in over four decades, the women’s team’s scintillating run
to perform at her first After claiming to the bronze medal playoff was the feel-good story of the Olympics. Indian
CWG. Zareen, who had India’s first men have finished runners-up twice, behind Australia, their rivals who have
been unable to find a medal at the swept gold medals in all the six editions. Indian women won gold at the
place in the Indian CWG Tokyo Olympics, 2002 Commonwealth Games and finished fourth in the previous edition.
squad before this as Mirabai Chanu
she competed in the is expected to
same weight category rake in more
as boxing legend M.C. medal glory in
Mary Kom, will finally Birmingham. Gold
get her chance this in 49kg is Chanu’s
year. She qualified for to lose, as her
the event days after nearest rival,
winning the World Nigeria’s Stella

GETT Y IMAGES
Championship in 52kg. Kingsley, has
This will be the first recorded a best
time that the 26-year- effort of 168kg.
old will be competing in Chanu’s personal
the 50kg category. She best is 205kg. The
hopes to use her height 27-year-old won
to her advantage. gold in 48kg at the
2018 Gold Coast
CWG and will lead
a 15-member
strong Indian Ô SAURAV GHOSAL AND
contingent in DIPIKA PALLIKAL (Squash)
weightlifting. Having won a silver at the 2018 CWG,
She is hoping Saurav Ghosal and Dipika Pallikal will be
to use the CWG keen to go one step further. Since squash
platform to break is not an Olympic sport, CWG is the biggest
her world record multi-sport event in the game. The eight-
of 119kg in ‘clean member contingent will rest their medal
& jerk’ and push hopes in the trio of Ghosal (35), Joshna
past 90kg in Chinappa (35) and Pallikal (30). Within six
‘snatch’—88kg is months of giving birth to twins, Pallikal won
her best so far. two golds—mixed doubles with Ghosal and
women’s doubles with Chinappa—at the
World Doubles Championship in April.
- By Deepti Patwardhan
CHANDRADEEP KUMAR

INDIA PICTURE
 M USIC
Rooted to the
Sound
Melding folk music with modern influences,
the Tetseo Sisters have taken their Naga
roots to an international audience
In
the music video for the Tetseo
Sisters’ 2019 hit ‘Hiyo’, the
four Chakhesang Naga
siblings stand in the centre
circle of a misty football field,
garbed in white traditional
dress. Straight out of K-pop,
a pitch-shifted vocal melody
repeats a simple phrase in
Chokri as the sisters perform
elegant folk-dance moves.
Bright synths shimmer, the
production dripping with
contemporary-pop gloss.
However, the beating
h
ke muc
‘Hiyo’, li TSEO
E
of the T RECENT
R S ’ s
SISTE a masterclas
, is
MUSIC to bring folk
in w sation with
h o
er
in conv orary music
p
contem t losing the
withou of the
purity l
origina
heart of ‘Hiyo’ is the earthy
vitality of its inspiration—a
traditional Naga work song
that weaves its beauty out of
the simple rhythms and har-
monies of communal labour.
‘Hiyo’—like much of the Tet-
seo Sisters’ recent music—is
a masterclass in how to bring
folk in conversation with
contemporary music, without
losing the purity of emotion
of the original.
The four sisters—Müt-
sevelü (Mercy), Azine (Azi),
Kuvelü (Kuku) and Alüne
(Lulu), often accompanied by
brother/ guitarist/ producer
Mhaseve—from Kohima
have been performing Chokri
folk songs (called ‘Li’) as well
as folk-fusion since 1994,
when the youngest of them
was still a toddler.
“We were very interested
in performing, whether it
was in our own living room
or in school and church,” says
Mercy over the phone. “Music
was a part of our social
circle, and there were a lot
of opportunities to perform.
Eventually, it became more
professional, and we started
getting paid to perform.”
What gave the sisters an
edge was that while most
people sang western pop in
school or hymns and gospels
in church, they were one of
the rare groups that sang
traditional folk music, often
adapted to the context. Mer-
cy recalls how their mother
helped them write gospel
lyrics in Chokri, so they could
sing folk songs in church.
“We became popular, and
when Doordarshan came
to Kohima, we recorded a
couple of programmes and
they would be broadcast
on repeat,” she says. “From
there, it just took off.”
The release of their de-
but album Li Chapter One:
The Beginning in 2011 saw
the sisters get national, and
eventually international atten-
tion. Since then, they’ve won a
litany of awards, per formed at
some of the top stages in India
and its neighbourhood. They
have built a massive fanbase on
YouTube, thanks to their faith-
ful interpretations of Li and
other folk music, as well as an
eye for tasteful experiment—
dance edits, K-pop collabora-
tions and even hip hop-tinged
protest-pop.
The Tetseo Sisters have
spent most of the pandemic
creating new music, with two
singles in the pipeline, a sopho-
more album nearing comple-
tion and a 10-track OST they’ve
finished for an upcoming
Indian indie film. But they’re
itching to perform at the Horn-
bill festival to do what they
love: introducing Naga kids and
others to the wonder of Li.
“Many have an idea that
the Northeast is one big mass
of people who are very similar,
but we are very different states,
very different tribes,” says
Mercy. “To talk about it and
create some curiosity feels like
an achievement.” ■
—Bhanuj Kappal
SREEDHAR VAIDYA
LEISURE
L O N G L I V E S T H E B LU E S
SOULMATE, SHILLONG’S ICONIC BLUES-ROCK ACT, WILL SOON TURN 20,
BUT THIS ISN’T MAKING THEM COMPLACENT
ocked down in Shillong
for much of the past three
L years, Rudy Wallang and
Tipriti Kharbangar—better
known as blues-rock trail-
blazers Soulmate—had live-streaming
as the only option to connect with their
fans and promote their latest album Give
Love, released in August 2020. Even the
handful of occasions they got to travel last
year, like a small live-streamed gig in Gu-
wahati, were tense affairs, tainted a little
by pandemic paranoia. Which is probably
THE HILLS ARE ALIVE…
…W ITH THE SOU NDS OF MUSIC THESE A RTISTS A RE M A K ING
LO! PENINSULA
This Imphal shoegaze/ dreampop trio
embody the DIY dream, creating moody,
distortion-drenched soundscapes refle-
cting a sense of alienation. Psychedelia
filtered through new-wave’s ironic
dourness. Their debut album AKA Lo!
Peninsula comes highly recommended.
Back when Soulmate first started
per forming in 2003, only a handful of
groups were playing blues music in India,
all of whom performed to a dwindling au-
dience of older fans. But over the past 19
years, aided by an assortment of accom-
plished session musicians, Soulmate has
been instrumental in reviving interest in
the blues. They have picked up a legion of
adoring fans and toured the world.
“It has been a wonderful journey, filled
with adventure and love from fans,” says
Wallang. “At our gigs these days, we have
a wide spectrum of people coming, from
16 to 17-year-old kids to 60 to 70-year-
olds. That really feels good.”
Most bands about to hit the
ast 20th-year mark would be making
the p
Over ears, big anniversary preparations, but
19 y TE has
LM A in Soulmate are too busy with their
SOU stumental
in in plans for 2022 to think that far
been ng interest
why Rudy Wallang i
reviv ues in Indi a ahead. The duo has a big event
sounds so happy h e b l
when we talk about
the five-city tour the
t coming up in Shillong for Interna-
tional Blues Music Day, and they
are in the mixing and mastering pro-
band has just concluded. cess for their next album, which they
“It’s a good feeling to be able to hope will be out before Christmas.
play in front of live audiences again, to see “It will be a surprise,” says Wallang, a
people actually listening to us, and then little mischievously. “It’s a little bit different
meeting them afterwards,” says Wallang from what we usually do. But we made this
over the phone from Shillong. “Wherever with The Clansmen [a Khasi-folk group
we played, you could feel the electricity in who regularly collaborate with Soulmate],
the room. There was so much anticipation so that should probably give you a hint.” ■
and joy on people’s faces.” —Bhanuj Kappal
TABA
CHAKE VIRIE
Kohima-native
Born in a
small village Virie has been
making waves
in Arunachal
Pradesh, with moody,
dreamy pop
this Mumbai-
based gui- songs that
showcase her
tarist and
singer-songwriter blends twee, ethereal voice.
finger-plucked acoustic guitar with Singles like
indie-pop melodies and tribal folk ‘Aliya’ and ‘Feel
storytelling influences. He’s also Good’ hint at an
a polyglot, performing with ease artist who’s just
across five languages—English, about to reach
Hindi, Nepali, Assamese and Nyishi. her creative
peak.
Q A Q. The intimate scenes are
creating quite a buzz. How

FIGHTING FIT
challenging were they?
I am not at all comfortable with
them. I have a team of profes-
sionals, including an intimacy
choreographer, who are taking
care of each and every thing
Given the stunts Disha Patani performs, it’s and making sure it is easier and
obvious she is an action star in the making, less awkward. John [Abraham],
but releasing theatrically on July 29, along with Mohit [Suri, director]
Sir ensured that I felt comfort-
Ek Villain Returns has ensured the actor
able. It’s part of the job, and as
brings oomph to the table instead long as it looks good for people
to watch, that’s what matters.

Q. Your Instagram feed

highlights your ability to pull off - with Suhani Singh
breathtaking moves like the triple
kick and front flip. Any offers to
be an action heroine yet?
You may see me in something soon,
but I do these things not just for
films. To be honest, I am a boring
person. So, when I am able to do a
front flip on my own, I feel extremely
cool about myself. That’s the
motivation, to get those five sec-
onds of pleasure.

Q. On a day-to-day basis, what

does it take to be a youth
fitness icon?
I am consistent with my diet and
my workouts. Once a week, I do,
of course, have my cheat day but
the remaining six days, I am totally
on it. I must say I am not perfect. I
have days where I feel like eating
whatever. On others, I feel bloated
and uncomfortable with myself,
but all I try to do is be disciplined. I
believe in making fitness a habit.

Q. You seem to have a mean

streak going in Ek Villain Returns.
How did you get into the skin of
Rasika?
I am still confused about whether I
played it right or wrong. There’s a
transition point where the charac-
ters change. That, I felt, was hard. I
saw lots of thrillers and picked up a
few nuances from them and made
my own Rasika. She is someone
who uses her sex appeal to attract
men and to get what she wants.
She feels greed is good. I had to
digest the fact that that’s how she
functions.

66 Volume 47-Number 32; For the week August 2-8, 2022, published on every Friday Total number of pages 68 (including cover pages)