Please hand-in the microphone
[Yet another note from my previous website. This relates to my participation in a discussion at Joipurhat…. ]
On 3rd January 2008, at the Joipurhat Press Club, a ‘view exchanging’ session was held on the occasion of Adivasi Nari Kallay Sangsta, (a newly found NGO headed by adivasi women in Joipurhat) survey findings of adivasi people in No 5 Atapur Union of Pach Bibi upazila, Joipuhat. Local journalists, eminent personalities and some members of the adivasi community in the area were invited to attend the program.
The program was organized by ANKS with support from Incidine, Bangladesh, a Dhaka based organization working on agriculture, trade and other rights issues. I was participating as a researcher interested in this area with the Incidine team from Dhaka.
The survey was conducted from 14 July 2007-03 October 20007 and by members from the adivasi community. In development parlance, this may be called a baseline survey. A 5 page documentation paper of the survey was provided for a read and then Manik Soren, student from RU and also a member of ANKS, read it out. The moderator from Incidine, Nasimul Ahsan, termed this as a ‘historical moment’ as he reckons there have been no surveys in the past which have been solely organized and conducted by the adivasis in the region. The principle behind his assertion perhaps was that ‘let the adivasis speak for them selves’, a view often taken by development actors in the quest of fulfilling adivasi rights and demands.
To my surprise, after the presentation, the discussion begun almost with no mention of the survey in question! Some representatives from NGOs, somewhat embarrassingly took the opportunity to inform the audience (a section of adivasi women and men from the area) of more upcoming events meant for adivasi people and requested their participation. Some others pointed out their own achievements with regard to issues of land rights, and in here the issue of reclamation of adivasi people’s land through legal battle sounded promising. I personally was happy to know about an initiative taken by BLAST where one adivasi family was able to win a legal battle. The strong point in the case, says the NGO representative, was that the land was recorded with an adivasi name in the CS record of 1927. With regard to land rights issue of the northwestern adivasi people in Bangladesh, I’ve heard about the importance of this sort of initiative for a while but never have seen any case where a legal battle was won. This was an important case I thought and needed close follow up.
On few occasions, the speakers, mostly Bengali journalists, and eminent personalities from the locality, made a point to talk about the specific issues of the adivasis. One notable mention was that the adivasis do not have the ‘citizen rights’. Cholesh Richils’s death in custody comes in mind and there are surely many more instances where constitutional provisions of equal rights and opportunity are denied, regularly in this state. The government’s role with regard to its ‘minority’ (in terms of ethnicity and religion) needs a thorough review in this respect. (Human Rights in Bangladesh 2002. ASK)
Another issue, unexpected from my side, came in the meeting was the issue of funding. It looked like the journalists present on the occasion were very keen to know how much fund is channeled out in the locality for the Adivasis, an issue definitely important from the perspective of governance and transparency but not so when we have gathered to discuss ways of doing things in the ground and that too with a newly founded organization. Frankly, I find this discussion less productive in the context of a very marginalized existence of adivasi people in the northwest. So a view that there is a division of leadership within the adivasis and that too due to funding issues etc, does not sound productive. However, I could sense that the issue was somewhat comforting for the majority of people present on the occasion. Who does not know that the division in the national politics of Bangladesh has created a comfortable space for the international! Talks of adivasi 'division in the leadership' sounds more like that in the end. This only helps make adivasi leadership speechless, thus justifying all atrocities, discrimination and state violence.
Here we were looking at a very small initiative by a very new organization and I thought one need not to think that the organization or the people involved in the program were flooded with development funding. Instead, I wished to see this as an opportunity where the concerned people would have tried to curve out a space, which would ultimately be useful for the adivasi people living in the northwestern Bangladesh.
So all we needed perhaps was to literally hand-in the microphone to the adivasi people, who took all the pain to come and ‘participate’ in the program.
But unfortunately that did not happen to the extent that I expected. But deep down inside I was screaming: Please hand-in the microphone to the adivasis!
On 3rd January 2008, at the Joipurhat Press Club, a ‘view exchanging’ session was held on the occasion of Adivasi Nari Kallay Sangsta, (a newly found NGO headed by adivasi women in Joipurhat) survey findings of adivasi people in No 5 Atapur Union of Pach Bibi upazila, Joipuhat. Local journalists, eminent personalities and some members of the adivasi community in the area were invited to attend the program.
The program was organized by ANKS with support from Incidine, Bangladesh, a Dhaka based organization working on agriculture, trade and other rights issues. I was participating as a researcher interested in this area with the Incidine team from Dhaka.
The survey was conducted from 14 July 2007-03 October 20007 and by members from the adivasi community. In development parlance, this may be called a baseline survey. A 5 page documentation paper of the survey was provided for a read and then Manik Soren, student from RU and also a member of ANKS, read it out. The moderator from Incidine, Nasimul Ahsan, termed this as a ‘historical moment’ as he reckons there have been no surveys in the past which have been solely organized and conducted by the adivasis in the region. The principle behind his assertion perhaps was that ‘let the adivasis speak for them selves’, a view often taken by development actors in the quest of fulfilling adivasi rights and demands.
To my surprise, after the presentation, the discussion begun almost with no mention of the survey in question! Some representatives from NGOs, somewhat embarrassingly took the opportunity to inform the audience (a section of adivasi women and men from the area) of more upcoming events meant for adivasi people and requested their participation. Some others pointed out their own achievements with regard to issues of land rights, and in here the issue of reclamation of adivasi people’s land through legal battle sounded promising. I personally was happy to know about an initiative taken by BLAST where one adivasi family was able to win a legal battle. The strong point in the case, says the NGO representative, was that the land was recorded with an adivasi name in the CS record of 1927. With regard to land rights issue of the northwestern adivasi people in Bangladesh, I’ve heard about the importance of this sort of initiative for a while but never have seen any case where a legal battle was won. This was an important case I thought and needed close follow up.
On few occasions, the speakers, mostly Bengali journalists, and eminent personalities from the locality, made a point to talk about the specific issues of the adivasis. One notable mention was that the adivasis do not have the ‘citizen rights’. Cholesh Richils’s death in custody comes in mind and there are surely many more instances where constitutional provisions of equal rights and opportunity are denied, regularly in this state. The government’s role with regard to its ‘minority’ (in terms of ethnicity and religion) needs a thorough review in this respect. (Human Rights in Bangladesh 2002. ASK)
Another issue, unexpected from my side, came in the meeting was the issue of funding. It looked like the journalists present on the occasion were very keen to know how much fund is channeled out in the locality for the Adivasis, an issue definitely important from the perspective of governance and transparency but not so when we have gathered to discuss ways of doing things in the ground and that too with a newly founded organization. Frankly, I find this discussion less productive in the context of a very marginalized existence of adivasi people in the northwest. So a view that there is a division of leadership within the adivasis and that too due to funding issues etc, does not sound productive. However, I could sense that the issue was somewhat comforting for the majority of people present on the occasion. Who does not know that the division in the national politics of Bangladesh has created a comfortable space for the international! Talks of adivasi 'division in the leadership' sounds more like that in the end. This only helps make adivasi leadership speechless, thus justifying all atrocities, discrimination and state violence.
Here we were looking at a very small initiative by a very new organization and I thought one need not to think that the organization or the people involved in the program were flooded with development funding. Instead, I wished to see this as an opportunity where the concerned people would have tried to curve out a space, which would ultimately be useful for the adivasi people living in the northwestern Bangladesh.
So all we needed perhaps was to literally hand-in the microphone to the adivasi people, who took all the pain to come and ‘participate’ in the program.
But unfortunately that did not happen to the extent that I expected. But deep down inside I was screaming: Please hand-in the microphone to the adivasis!
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