A Plebiscite?

Who Are The Jarawas?

• Descendants of migrants from mainland Asia who arrived in the Andamans about 60,000 years ago, they number around 300
• They’re hunter-gatherers
• Jarawa is ‘stranger’ in Aka-Bea, an Andamanese language. They call themselves Ang
• With high infant mortality, the tribe suffer from frequent bouts of measles and other diseases

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he longstanding dilemma of how to best ensure the survival of one of India’s extant prehistoric peoples—the Jarawas of the Andaman islands—and their traditions is again occupying centrestage. A controversial proposal to bring these people into the mainstream, that was to be taken up for discussion in June by the Andaman and Nicobar Islands Development Authority, chaired by the prime minister, has been deferred after the National Advisory Council (NAC) expressed concern about the likely impact of any such unilateral social engineering on the community and its identity. A committee headed by the tribal affairs secretary has now been asked to submit a detailed report in three months before any final decision is taken.

However, many from the local administration, as well as Lok Sabha MP Bishnu Pada Ray from Andaman and Nicobar Islands, have been urging for the Jarawas to be gradually integrated with the settlers (Indians from the mainland who have relocated). On the other hand, there are many scholars who prefer to maintain the present isolationist strategy and advise caution, fearing that the Jarawas could be easily overwhelmed by mainstream populations. A policy formulated for the Jarawas in 2004 endorses the latter position. It seeks to protect them from “harmful effects of exposure and contact with the outside world” and preserve their “social organisation, mode of subsistence and cultural identity”.

However, it has hardly been implemented effectively, especially because the local administration has chosen to focus more on recovery after the December 2004 tsunami devastated vast swathes of the islands. Moreover, a 2002 Supreme Court decision ordering the closure of the controversial Andaman Trunk Road, which cuts through Jarawa territory and links Port Blair in Lower Andaman to Mayabunder in Middle Andaman, has also been willingly ignored. Vehicular movement has increased exponentially on the road and many tourists and locals regularly stop to feed the Jarawas and take their pictures despite notices forbidding such activity.

As the administration looks elsewhere, the Jarawas have been interacting with settlers, says Ray. “They even have started killing deers for settlers, which they barter for things like vegetables, talcum powder and mirrors,” he adds. There also have been reports of sexual violence against Jarawa women by settlers. BSP MP Dara Singh Chauhan, who heads the parliamentary committee on social justice, made an official visit along with his colleagues to Jarawa territories in February this year. “We got the sense that they want to integrate. I think the government should intervene to give them access to healthcare first and then possibly think of integrating them with as little harm to the heritage they represent,” Chauhan says.

Ray is critical of policies that seek to protect the Jarawas that come at the cost of settlers’ interests, like the possibility of closing down the Andaman Trunk Route and using a sea route instead, or limiting fishing zones and tourism. He says all attempts at isolating the tribe are futile. “You will have to build another Great Wall of China here if you want to keep them separated from the settlers. Even Planning Commission’s Montek Singh Ahluwalia has asked why the Jarawas should not be covered under the Right to Education and National Rural Employment Guarantee Act,” he adds.

Researcher-author Pankaj Sekhsaria, who has worked on tribal populations of the islands, says the biggest challenge is to figure out what the Jarawas want for themselves, something that has hardly been looked at. “Do we really have to bring them into the mainstream, more so in the absence of informed consent from the community?” he asks. “Do we even have the sensitivity, the language, the institutions and the mechanisms required to get a just appraisal of their view?”