- Posted by MASTER VIKRANT ROHIN
- Categories GEOGRAPAHY, HISTORY, INDIA
- Date MAY 10, 2023
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Verrier Elwin was born in 1902 into an evangelical Church of England household his father was later the bishop of Sierra Leone. A brilliant career at Oxford led to ordination: but Elwin was already flirting with Anglo-Catholicism and devotional Hinduism, and in 1927 decided to go to India to promote the Gospel ‘in an eastern dress’ (p. 32), as part of a group greatly influenced by Gandhian ideas of faith and service. A visit to Gandhi turned Elwin into a disciple and the civil disobedience campaign of 1930 into an active Congress supporter. For some time he was ‘torn between [the claims of] quiet service or heroic martyrdom’ (p. 68). But by the end of 1932, the die was cast: he had renounced political activity as a condition of being allowed to stay in India and had started a center for religious and social work in a remote settlement of the Gond tribe
Gradually, his attachment to the Gandhian movement weakened and he became immersed in tribal life, renouncing his priesthood and later marrying a Gond: with this grew a burning desire to defend the tribal way of life and to justify it to the encroaching Hindu society. For over a decade, Elwin wrote about the tribes of central India in a series of monographs and a massive outpouring of articles, arguing that their ways of life were equal to, and in many ways better than, those of the Hindu (and Christian) improvers and exploiters. To protect the tribes, he at first advocated the exclusion of others from tribal territory. This brought harsh criticism from those anthropologists who saw the tribes as ‘backward Hindus’ needing ‘uplift’ (a word Elwin abhorred), and he was forced to modify his stand from one of exclusion to one of more general protection.
It was this policy that he was able to advance when in 1953, after deciding to stay on after independence and being granted Indian nationality (an exceptional privilege), he was made adviser for what is at present Arunachal Pradesh. With Nehru’s support, he put in place before his death in 1964 a policy of graduated integration — neither isolation nor assimilation. Criticized though it was by those who wished to extend their control, the region in which it was applied is now the most peaceful in northeast India.
What of Elwin as an anthropologist? Guha characterizes his first major monograph as the ‘work of a novelist who had strayed into anthropology’ (p. 115), and though Elwin called himself ‘a definite … adherent of the Functionalist School’ (p. 101) his writings lacked the systematic rigor and theoretical development of this approach, gaining instead from the enthusiastic humanism which he brought to life. In India, Elwin was controversial, abroad he was marginal — being coldly received by Malinowski on a visit to the LSE, and equally so by Evans-Pritchard when he visited Oxford (he in turn viewed professional anthropologists as desiccated academics). But he was a great deal more than a gifted amateur: rather, as Guha points out, Elwin was a very special kind of activist anthropologist — not only did he attack the ‘civilized’ and celebrate the ‘primitive’, but uniquely he lived with the latter, gaining an insider’s view vouchsafed to few, which his skill as a writer distilled into powerful statements champion in g the tribes.
Guha writes of Elwin dispassionately but with sympathy: a master of his material, he presents a rounded picture which Elwin’s autobiography does not, written as it was with the aim of presenting the public man. A brief review can only hint at the complexities of this life, which makes for an excellent read, besides raising issues that concern the more activist among us to this day.
Reference GUHA, RAMACHANDRA. Savaging the Civilized: Verrier Elwin, his tribals, and India. xii, 398 pp., illus. Chicago, London: Univ. of Chicago Press. 1999
ELWIN VERRIER: NEFA’S ARCHITECT AND DEFENDER OF INDIAN TRIBAL PEOPLE?
Ramchandra Guha in his famous book ‘Makers of Modern India’ considers Verrier Elwin as the defender of Indian tribals.
To quote the book, “Gandhi paid close attention to the problems of women, Muslims, and untouchables. However, despite being some eight percent of India’s population, the tribals had been ignored by the national movement. Other political thinkers and activists also did not focus on them.
Once, when charged with the question of why he didn’t take up tribal questions, BR Ambedkar answered: “I have never claimed to be a universal leader of suffering humanity. The problem of untouchables is quite enough for my suffering strength.”
This was reasonable, but it still left a large and vulnerable section unrepresented in public discourse. This was the gap that Verrier Elwin sought to fill.
Through the 1940s, Elwin published a series of major books on individual tribes. He also wrote many articles in newspapers and magazines on policy matters. The range and sheer bulk of his work were matched by a manifest sympathy with his subject, with the findings of his research communicated with a grace uncharacteristic of academic writing’.
Then Home Minister of India, Govind Ballabh Pant was of a similar view-” The great achievement of Dr Elwin in the last 20 years has been to make people all over India regard the tribals with respect. Previously we had looked at them as savages. But he has shown us that they have culture and arts of their own.’
Verrier Elwin (29 August 1902 – 22 February 1964) was born to a colonial bishop and was reared in a fiercely evangelical family. Educated and doctorate from Oxford, he came to India in 1927 as a missionary. In India, he became a disciple of Gandhi and abandoned his missionary work. Subsequently, Elwin was de-licensed by the Church of England in 1936 for his refusal to take the Gospel to the tribes.
During his days in Gandhi’s ashram, Elwin came in touch with Sardar Vallabhai Patel. It was Patel who advised Elwin to work among the tribes of India. Thereafter, life changed for Elwin as he became the foremost spokesman for India’s tribal people.
After independence, Elwin was the first Englishman to be a citizen of the Indian Republic. In 1954, Jawaharlal Nehru appointed him adviser on tribal affairs to the administration of the North East Frontier Agency.
Complying with the advice of Elwin, Nehru formulated the Panchsheel, the five principles for NEFA in the ‘A Philosophy for NEFA’:
1. People should develop along the lines of their own genius and we should avoid imposing anything on them. We should try to encourage in every way their own traditional arts and culture.
2. Tribal rights in land and forests should be protected.
3. We should try to train and build up a team of their own people to do the work of administration and development. Some technical personnel from outside, will no doubt, be needed, especially in the beginning. But we should avoid introducing too many outsiders into tribal territory.
4. We should not over-administer these areas or overwhelm them with a multiplicity of schemes. We should rather work through, and not in rivalry to, their own social and cultural institutions.
5. We should judge results, not by statistics or the amount of money spent, but by the quality of human character that is evolved.
Elwin wrote ‘A Philosophy for NEFA’ to formulate policy and a philosophy for the administrative and work staff of NEFA and to introduce new or uninformed NEFA personnel to facts about the area and its people. The deep understanding of the tribes of NEFA was necessary to administer them.
Nehru suggested the policymakers and administrators to ‘read carefully what Dr Elwin has written and absorb this philosophy so that they may act in accordance with it.’ Then he added: “Indeed, I hope that this broad approach will be applied outside the NEFA also to other tribes in India”.
Subsequently, under his guidance, the Indian Frontier Administrative Service ‘developed a cadre of capable and massively committed young men, almost unique in Indian political history for their readiness to live with and think like the people they had been sent to govern. The officers of the IFAS dwelt in thatched huts, bathed in streams, toured on foot and subsisted on daal and rice for months on end dropped by helicopter- for Elwin insisted that officers not take food from villagers unless it was surplus produce voluntarily sold(Guha)’.
The ideas manifested in ‘A Phihophy for NEFA’ were hailed and praised by many from different walks of life: From Vice President of India Sir Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, Governor of Bihar Dr Zakir Hussain, Home Minister Govind Ballabh Pant, High Commissioner to the United Kingdom Vijayalakshmi Pandit, (Nehru’s sister), and industrialist JRD Tata.
Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf, after his second visit to NEFA in 1963, wrote enthusiastically, “The 19th and early 20th-century policy of laissez faire of provincial and state government’s favored exploiters and land grabbers and the voices of the few devoted civil servants who spoke for the rights of the aboriginals remained largely unheard. There is only one region where a really bold and sympathetic approach to the problem of tribal development has saved the tribesmen from exploitation and the domination of outsiders. In the North-East Frontier Agency administration has been instituted which develops the country solely for the benefit of its tribal inhabitants, and all those who have had an opportunity to visit this area in recent years must have been impressed by the skillful combination of modernization of external living conditions with the retention of tribal traditions and values. Here the tribesmen have lost neither their dignity nor their joie de vivre, and they know that they themselves and their children are going to profit from the economic development of their country. The lessons learned from the decline of many of the tribal communities in other parts of India have here been applied, and it is an encouraging thought that the Philosophy for NEFA has borne such splendid fruit”.
However, there were also many who were opposed to the philosophy of Elwin. They saw the confinement of tribal people and deliberately avoided their assimilation of them with the rest of the Indians.
On 12th November 1958, Rammanohar Lohia arrived at the outpost of Jairampur and challenged the concept of ‘Inner Line’ permits to enter the territory. Lohia held that all Indians had the right to wander freely anywhere in their country. But his entry without a pass was stopped. Lohia after a year, once again attempted to enter NEFA without a permit. This time he was arrested and brought down to the town of Dibrugarh, where he was set free. In a press statement, he condemned the policy of the NEFA administration as a relic of British colonialism.
If we read the Philosophy for NEFA we find the answers to many criticisms in the book itself.
Elwin writes,” We are agreed that the people of NEFA cannot be left in their age-long isolation. We are equally agreed that we can leave no political vacuum along the frontier; that we must bring to an end the destructive practices of inter-tribal war and head-hunting and the morally repugnant practices of slavery, kidnapping of children, cruel methods of sacrificing animals and opium addiction, none of which are fundamental to tribal culture. We wish to see that the people are well-fed, that they are healthy, and enjoy a longer span of life, that fewer babies die, that they have better houses, a higher yield for their labor in the fields, and improved techniques for their home industries. We would like them to be able to move freely about their own hills and have easy access to the greater India of which at present they know little. We want to bring them into contact with the best people and the finest products of modern India. Above all, we hope to see as the results of our efforts a spirit of love and loyalty for India, without a trace of suspicion that the government has come into the tribal areas to colonize or exploit, a full integration of mind and heart with the great society of which the tribal people form a part, and to whose infinite variety they make a unique contribution. And at the same time, we want to avoid the dangers of assimilation and detribalization which have degraded tribal communities in other parts of the world”.
In another place, he sums up his hopes and his advice in these words: “We see now that the tribal people will be of the greatest service to India if they are able to bring their own peculiar treasures into the common life, not by becoming second-rate copies of ourselves. Their moral virtues, their self-reliance, their courage, their artistic gifts, and their cheerfulness are things we need. They also need comradeship, technical knowledge, and the wider worldview of the plains. The great problem is how to develop the synthesis, how to bring the blessings and advantages of modern medicine, agriculture, and education to them, without destroying the rare and precious values of tribal life. We can solve this problem if we do not try to go too fast: if we allow the people a breathing space in which to adjust themselves to the new world: if we do not overwhelm them with too many officials; if we aim at fundamentals and eliminate everything that is not vitally necessary; if we go to them in genuine love and true simplicity.
The idea of developing the NEFA people on the ‘Philosophy’ was not easy. Social upliftment and maintaining the cultural status quo itself looked paradoxical. This aspect is reflected in his autobiography ‘Tribal World of Verrier Elwin’ when he writes, “Hunger, disease, exploitation, ignorance, isolation are evils whose cure cannot be delayed; they must be treated rapidly and efficiently. … but the need for protection against every kind of exploitation was also constantly before us. I wanted to save what was beautiful, what was free: I wanted to save them from anxiety about their land, their forests, their next meal”.
Elwin emphasized most on the land rights of the tribal people in NEFA. No outsiders need to be allowed to possess and buy land in the tribal territory. And also the indigenous people need to have right over the forests and mountains. The best aspect of Elwin for the people of NEFA seems to be his experience and study among the central Indian tribes for two decades. He saw the exploitation of the tribes by the mainstream Indians. They were exploited, marginalized and became landless in their own land. Therefore, we find Elwin vociferously debating for keeping away the mainstream Indians away from the NEFA tribes who at that time were very much vulnerable to exploitation and persecution.
As an adviser in NEFA, Elwin visited many places in the region, mostly on foot. From Tawang to Kibithoo, from Karko in Siang to Rangpangs of Tirap, from Sipi Valley in Upper Subansiri to Mechuka, Geling and Kepungla, wherever he visited, he was fascinated by the people and its rich culture. However, he also witnessed the suffering and poverty of the people. Their first-hand experience with the people of the region enabled him to formulate appropriate policies for them.
Elwin spoke often of his wish ‘to make of the whole of NEFA a work of art.’
In 1956, he suggested the creation of a Tagore Memorial Fellowship, for the study of dance and music of the region; and of a Gandhi Memorial Fellowship for the study and spread of indigenous traditions of weaving. For this reason, he wrote the famous book ‘The Art of NEFA’ which documented the rich art and textile of the region.
In his guidance, Elwin established the Research Department to document the tribal culture. Volumes of outstanding works were documented in those days. Until his last days, Elwin was working on the tribal councils compiled by his colleagues in the NEFA Research Department. In publishing them, he hoped that in time, ‘more and more responsibility for development will be transferred from officialdom to the tribal bodies’.
This step, he felt, ‘will do a great deal to give the people self-confidence, to make them feel that they are masters of their own destiny and that nothing is being imposed on them, and to forward true progress throughout the hills’.
Elwin’s work and behavior were always filled with compassion for the NEFA and its people. Though slavery was abolished and Indian government under the advice of Nehru was buying and freeing them in NEFA but it was prevalent in many interior pockets. In one of his tours in Upper Subansiri, after seeing the plight of an old Tagin lady slave, Elwin bought and freed her and settled her at then Along.
A group of Tagins were convicted of murder (Achingmori tragedy in 1953) they were sent to a prison in Banaras. Elwin knew the city to be hot, damp, and not likely to suit the tribal mind or body. He recommended the Tagins be transferred to Lucknow, and be allowed to spend summers in Almora jail up in the Kumaun Himalaya.
The initiative of Elwin, in the Third Five-Year Plan, made the Government of India sanction a whooping amount of 30 crores for new tribal blocks.
However, the 1962 Chinese invasion drew fresh criticism of Nehru-Elwin’s NEFA policy. The opposition parties were accused of isolating the territory from the rest of India to deadly effect. Cornered, Nehru’s government was desperate. The opposition politicians in Delhi pushed for settling 100,000 farmers from Punjab in NEFA for the assimilation of tribals and to dissuade the Chinese from coming again.
Meanwhile, Elwin despite his ill health went to attend a meeting of the Frontier Services Selection Board on 20th February 1964 as he always liked to help pick best young officers for NEFA. On the 21st, Verrier visited the home ministry.
His young colleague, Rashid Yusuf Ali now worked there; when Verrier walked into his office he had on his desk a fresh proposal to send sturdy 100,000 Punjabi farmers to settle in NEFA which was proposed by the rightwing opposition leader.
Elwin objected tooth and nail to this proposal profusely the whole day.
He was back in the home ministry the next morning, the 22nd; Elwin in any case wanted the intruders out. That evening he complained of heartache, and within two hours he was dead at the age of 62. As William Paton had predicted many years earlier, Verrier Elwin lulled himself in India with overwork. On the 23rd Nehru was the first to offer a wreath. The next day the body was flown to Shillong. Elwin was cremated on the afternoon of 24th February 1964, amidst the chanting of Buddhist hymns.
As per the will of Elwin, his ashes were immersed in the Siang River.
DISCLAIMER: passages from the Verrier Elwin’s books ‘APhilosophy for NEFA’ and ‘The Tribal World of Verrier Elwin: an autobiography’. Ramchandra Guha’s book ‘Savaging the Civilized’ and ‘Makers of Modern India’.
VERRIER ELWIN: CREATOR OF INSURGENCY IN NEFA : IN REFERENCE TO MANIPUR CRISIS
What lit the spark for the violence?
Demonstrations by tribal groups against any move to grant the majority Meiteis Scheduled Tribe (ST) status, which the residents of the hills have. The high court had on April 19 asked the Manipur government, which has been sitting on such a proposal for a decade, to make its stand clear to the Union tribal affairs ministry.
WHAT IS THE ETHNIC COMPOSITION OF MANIPUR? ETHNIC FAULTINESS
Meiteis comprise a little more than half of the population while the tribals, Kukis and Nagas, are nearly 40%, 25% Kukis and 15% Nagas. Most of the Meiteis live in the Imphal valley while the tribals live in the hill districts. (The tribals — mostly Nagas and Kukis — make up 40 percent of Manipur’s population and live largely in the hills. The Meiteis make up 53 percent of the population and live in the Imphal Valley. The fertile valley makes up about a tenth of the total land mass of the state while the hills account for 90 percent. (Data are a little confusing)
Who are the Meiteis?
Meiteis are predominantly Hindus but also follow their ancient animist beliefs and practices. 8% of the Meiteis are Muslims called Meitei Pangals. The state had seen violence between Meitei Hindus and Muslims in 1993. The Meiteis are more educated and also better represented in business and politics of the state than Kukis and Nagas
The majority of Meiteis now fall in the Scheduled Caste and Other Backward Classes categories. The government in Manipur, regardless of which party comes to power, has always been dominated by Meiteis.
Who are the kuki and Naga?
Most of the Kukis and Nagas are Christians. Kukis are spread all over the northeast and Myanmar. In Manipur, most of them migrated from Myanmar, beginning centuries ago. They were initially settled by Meitei kings in the hills of Manipur to act as a buffer between Meiteis in the Imphal valley and Nagas who used to raid the valley. Later, during the insurgency in Nagaland, Naga militants claimed that Kukis were settled in areas that must be part of the separate Naga state they had demanded.
In 1993, Manipur witnessed fierce Naga-Kuki violence in which more than a hundred Kukis were killed by Nagas. While Nagas and Kukis traditionally oppose each other, they are united against Meiteis.
WHY ARE THE CHRISTIAN TRIBALS ANGRY?
The eviction drive, which began in February, declared the forest dwellers as encroachers and was seen as anti-tribal. It caused alarm and discontent not only among the Kukis, who were directly affected but also among other tribals who have villages within reserved forest areas. The tribals say they have been inhabitants of the forests even before the forests were notified. Ahead of chief minister N. Biren Singh’s visit to Churachandpur district last week, a mob vandalized and set on fire the venue where he was scheduled to speak. It also partially torched an open gym which Singh, an ethnic Meitei, was to inaugurate. The attack took place 11 hours before a “total shutdown” called by the Indigenous Tribe Leaders Forum in Churachandpur district. The Forum said that despite repeated memorandums against the drive to evict farmers and other tribal settlers from reserved forests, “the government has shown no sign of willingness or sincerity in addressing the plight of people”.
What is the grievance of the Kukis? General secretary of the Kuki Students Organisation, Churachandpur, D.J. Haokip, said: “Several areas in the hill district have been declared as reserved forests, protected forests, and hundreds of Kuki tribals have been dislodged from their traditional settlement area. The anguish of the Kuki people is not about the evictions but the failure to provide rehabilitation to hundreds of those affected.” In March, a violent clash occurred at Thomas Ground in Kangpokpi district where protesters tried to hold a rally against “encroachment of tribal land in the name of reserved forests, protected forests, and wildlife sanctuary”. Five persons were injured, following which the state cabinet withdrew the tripartite Suspension of Operations (SoO) talks with two Kuki-based militant outfits — the Kuki National Army and the Zomi Revolutionary Army. The SoO deal is a ceasefire arrangement inked by the Centre, the state government and Kuki outfits that began more than a decade ago. The cabinet reiterated that the “state government will not compromise on steps taken to protect the state government’s forest resources and for eradicating poppy cultivation”. Three churches in Imphal’s Tribal Colony area were demolished on April 11 for being “illegal constructions” on government land, leading to more discontent.
Reservation for Meiteis
The current conflict between Meiteis and ‘tribals’ is the extension of the hills-versus-plains conflict seen elsewhere in the northeast. Kukis and Nagas who live in the hills complain that most of the benefits in the shape of development go to the Meitei-inhabited areas which is mainly the Imphal valley. They also complain that 40 of the state assembly’s 60 seats are reserved for Meiteis while they are only half of the population.
These grievances got a new life when the High Court, acting on a petition by Meiteis, asked the state last month to send a proposal to the Centre on including Meiteis in the Scheduled Tribes (STs). Kukis and Nagas are against granting the ST status to Meiteis because they fear Meiteis are already better represented in jobs and government and have better economic status than the tribals. They argue that with the ST status, they will corner more jobs and benefits than they should.
Meiteis, however, say that they were unfairly kept out of the list of Scheduled Tribes. Before Manipur became part of India in 1948, the government considered Meiteis as tribal people. But they were put in the general category because they had become Hindus centuries ago. Meiteis did not complain in 1948 because it was yet to be seen what difference the ST status would make. After the Mandal Commission, Meities were granted the OBC status. They had approached the High Court in 2012 for the ST status, and the issue had been pending since then.
Meiteis insist on getting the ST status because being in a general category weighs against them in the state. In Manipur, Meitei or any non-tribal person cannot buy land in the hill districts where tribals, Kukis and Nagas, live. But Kukis and Nagas are free to buy land in the Imphal valley, or anywhere else in the state, where most of the Meiteis live. With the rising influx of illegal immigrants from Myanmar, especially after the military junta took charge in the country, Meiteis fear they will be slowly outnumbered in the valley. If Meiteis are granted the ST status they would be able to buy land in the hill districts which are supposedly being encroached on by illegal immigrants from Myanmar.
Illegal migrants
Illegal influx of immigrants has increased sharply after the coup in Myanmar by the military which has cracked down on its own Kuki population. Illegal Kuki immigrants find it easy to settle down in hill districts of Manipur since they are similar to local Kukis in language, culture and appearance. The new Kuki villages come up on the protected forest land. The government had recently evicted one such village from the government land, a factor that contributed to the protests. However, the protesting Kukis claimed the village was there for centuries. Meiteis have asked for #NRC (National Register of Citizens) to identify illegal immigrants.
The drugs problem
Areas in the hill districts are being used for poppy cultivation allegedly by the Kuki immigrants from Myanmar. Poppy is used to make heroin and many other narcotics. The government has destroyed thousands of acres of poppy farms in the hill districts. It is said one of the reasons behind the protests by Kuki groups was the government crackdown on poppy cultivation, However, Kuki groups say they are unfairly blamed for poppy cultivation and the main issue behind the protests was reservation for Meiteis.
Has the Meitei demand added fuel to the fire?
When the “Tribal Solidarity March” organized by the All Tribal Student Union Manipur was announced for Wednesday to protest the proposal to grant ST status to the Meitei community, there were fears this could lead to tension and clashes. The march was organized by Nagas and Kuki tribals after Manipur High Court asked the state government last month to send a recommendation to the Centre within four weeks on the demand for ST status by the Meitei community.
