During a recent visit to the Nilgiris area, Tamil Nadu Forest Minister Ramachandran announced at a public gathering that his community, the Badagas, would not be listed under Schedule Tribe (ST) as they were an economically and socially empowered community. His statement led to a furore among the Badagas, but also led to questions about their indigeneity, origins and their adaptability among their neighbour communities.
The mountains of Nilgiris biosphere, harbour the six indigenous tribes of Toda, Kota, Kurumba, Kattunayakan, Paniya and Irula. They share this high-altitude land with repatriates from Sri Lanka and Badagas. The Indian origin Sri Lankan repatriates involved themselves in monoculture and tea cultivation, but as labourers. On the other hand, the Badagas who migrated from the plains of Mysuru, according to the lore, have now emerged as the strongest community with great economic and social status.
On May 24, Tamil Nadu Forest Minister Ramachandran said that the Badagas cannot be listed as the Scheduled Tribe, in a meeting held in Jagathala a village located in Coonoor. The Minister said, "People from our community have studied well. Younger Badagas are working in many government organisations and others are involved in big businesses. I know a few men who earn Rs 10 crore as annual income. The constituted committee will inspect the lifestyle and economic background of the community before giving the ST status. So the longest demand of the Badagas to be listed under the ST cannot materialise." His statements drew flak from his community and political leaders from the community condemned the minister's comment. The Minister later attempted to calm the waters by saying that he meant to say that the ST tag was not possible for the Badaga community as long as BJP ruled at the centre.
Minister Ramachandran (Special Arrangement)
The Badaga community has been promised to be included in the ST list by all successive governments and all political parties to secure their vote banks. According to the Udhagamandalam MLA R Ganesh, around 3.5 lakh to 4 lakh Badagas live across the district.
"Our demands have less to do with getting economic benefits from the government and more to do with recognition to be identified as the tribes since we are having unique culture and language," he said. Speaking on Minister Ramachandran’s statement, he said that Badaga leaders had approached the Minister when he visited the Nilgiris area along with Vice President Venkaiah Naidu. “At that time, Ramachandran had clarified to Badaga members that the Tribal Welfare department would look into the matter and constitute a committee to work on the ST status. If we were to be declared as ST, then we would demand amendments to the reservation policy to increase (the reservation) percentage,” Ganesh said.
The Badagas are classified as Backward Class in Tamil Nadu through constitutional orders. The 1901 census classified them as tribes and the 1911 census denoted Badagas as Hindu animist tribals having a tribal mother tongue. In 1931, they were classified as important primitive tribes of southern India. TNM spoke with political leaders, tribal leaders and activists, to know the possible impact of ST status to the Badaga community on the other communities.
Scholars and ethnographers have arrived at differing conclusions on the indigeneity of Badagas by researching various aspects and folklores that passed from the one generation to others and from the progenitors. Despite arriving at different conclusions on the indigeneity claims, most of the researchers accept the legends of their migration from low-lying, arid, monsoon vagaries land of southern Mysuru to the hills of Nilgiris. In "Badagas of Nilgiris: Polemics of Caste and Tribe" paper, N Naveen Kumar, Assistant Professor, Centre for Folk Culture Studies, University of Hyderabad, concluded that the Badaga were not tribes. They migrated as peasants with their cattle and changed themselves according to the land they migrated to and neighbouring communities. "For that time being, they adopted the tribal way of life – gathering, slash and burn agriculture, cattle herding and looked for the opportunities to expand more after their acquaintance with the environment. Thus the journey of Badagas from the Mysore region to Nilgiris and thence in contemporary times have ups and downs. During the formative time of their relocation, they had a temporary setback of living like tribes,'' reads the study.
Badaga House in Nilgiris (TNM Photo by Nithya Pandian)
On December 28, 2017, while answering the question in Rajya Sabha, then Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Sudarshan Bhagat listed out the criteria specifications, in a written reply, that are being followed to title a community under the Scheduled Tribes of India. This includes indications of primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large, and backwardness.
Neeji, a Kota tribe, and a Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTG) district secretary, Nilgiris said, "They (Badagas) claim that they are native to the Nilgiris. In Nilgiris, they are also one of the inter-dependent mainstream communities. In any worst situation, tribes can survive with what they have and could make things on their own. But, Badagas followed the footsteps of other tribes in the hilly district. Their attire is from Irulas and their dance from Kurumbas. This millet-cultivating community needs support from Kotas to get all the agricultural tools. Kurumbas inaugurate and do poojas in Badaga temples for every festival. Where is the self-sustainability and unique identity that every tribe proudly boasts? If they got tribal status, it would lead to disaster for the tribal communities in this district."
According to her, the Kota tribe has a population of just 3,270 and live in seven kokals (tribal hamlet of Kotas) of Nilgiris. “Already we face unemployment issues and difficulty in getting seats in educational institutions and government posts, since Tamil Nadu provided a 1% reservation to the 36 tribal communities in the state. This 1% might've worked well when it was split from the SC, back in the 1990s. But now the number of tribes has increased and we are urging the government to rework the reservation policy for tribal welfare,” he said.
Toda tribesman, Nilgiris PVTG president Manikandan said that it was not upto them to check the indigeneity claims of Badagas. “The government knows very well who deserves such status or who doesn't. Our fears of losing job opportunities are meaningless. The Tamil Nadu government has listed 36 communities as STs. "But, do we know whether all those communities are living inside the state?" he asked. While sharing his concerns over misusing ST status to gain favours, he said "I urge the government to take the survey on the tribes in the state and also want them to address the issue of giving tribal community certificates to those who are not identifying themselves as tribes anymore. In Nilgiris, some Toda tribes converted to Christianity during the British era. They stopped speaking the Toda language a long back, and married partners from non-tribal communities. But, they are obtaining ST certificates for the reservation gains only."
A person belonging to the Toda tribe (TNM Photo by Nithya Pandian)
On the social and economic ladder, Todas and Kotas from the Scheduled Tribes list are always ahead of the rest of the tribes. Their population is low and they have lived in areas with access to the modern world and its conveniences. But this is not the same with the Irula, Paniya, Kattunayakkan and Kurumba tribes. Be it Irani, Vachukolli, Kariyasholai, Nadugani, Kuzhimula of Gudalur, where Paniyas and Kattunayakans live, Kurumbas hamlets in Coonoor and Kotagiri, Irulas of Masinagudi and Mudumalai the access to the education is still a daydream. School dropouts are high and the modern-day education system sounds very alien to the children and their environment. Child marriages are common as the tribes follow it as one of the cultural practices. The rough terrains of the mountains are a barrier to the teachers, medics, and service providers doing their jobs. Lack of sanitation facilities, road access and street light access inside the hamlets lead to the human-wildlife interactions. Sometimes, the tribes fight with the administration using the corpses of their tribespeople trampled by elephants, to get street lights and roads. The hurdles to accessing basic rights cannot be articulated.
It is not about the money or schemes or government posts, but about social justice, according to Mudumalai Tribal Welfare Association member Maadhan. The reservation could help them to get fair opportunities in educational institutions and government jobs. "It takes years of hard work and effort to enrol our kids in the schools. In past years, NGOs came forward to help our kids get a better education. Now, a small number of students make it to the colleges. But the empowerment of our communities is still low. The ST status demand from the Badagas would increase the competition and their social and economic status would help them to secure what they want from the government. But we just have to wait for a few more generations to have the community filled with the majority of first-generation graduates. The government announces many schemes to the tribes but nothing reaches us. I don't know if there is any mechanism the government has to monitor whether the end-user benefitted with such schemes," Maadhan said.
An Irular community centre in Nilgiris (TNM Photo by Nithya Pandian)
If Badagas were listed under the ST, this decision would impact the reservation in education and government jobs. The government allocates huge funds for the tribal communities. But, in the future, it would only benefit the well-educated, well-settled Badagas and not others, said tribal activist Odiyen Lakshmanasamy. Odiyen also pointed out the need for the internal reservation to the Kattunayakan and Paniya tribes to ensure that they received all the benefits from the schemes announced by the government and enjoyed all the rights provided by the constitution.
Tamil Nadu BJP president Annamalai seized the opportunity to question why the DMK-Congress alliance had not heeded the demand of Badagas when they were in power. In a press statement released on May 29, Annamalai said, "DMK rejected all the demands from the Badaga community when it was in power. After receiving condemnation from various political leaders, the DMK minister changed his stand," he said.
AIADMK coordinator O Panneer Selvam called the DMK’s stand a betrayal. He said, "DMK captured the power by getting the votes from the people of Narikuravar, Kuruvikaarar, Vettaikarar, Lambadi, and Badagas by promising if it got elected to power, it would recommend the Union Government to add the communities to the ST list. But now, the minister arbitrarily said Badagas are not likely to be listed in ST.”
"படுகர் இனத்தை பழங்குடியினர் பட்டியலில் சேர்க்க வாய்ப்பில்லை" என வனத்துறை அமைச்சர் அவர்கள் தன்னிச்சையாக கூறியிருப்பது கண்டிக்கத்தக்கது.
— O Panneerselvam (@OfficeOfOPS) May 30, 2022
தேர்தல் வாக்குறுதியை நிறைவேற்றும் வகையில், படுகர் இனத்தை பழங்குடியினர் பட்டியலில் சேர்ப்பதற்குத் தேவையான நடவடிக்கைகளை முனைப்புடன் எடுத்திடுக! pic.twitter.com/c1cnvS3VWJ
The state government made a recommendation for the inclusion of the Badagas Community in the list of ST of Tamil Nadu on July 27, 1990. The Ministry of Tribal affairs looked into the matter and started its procedure. But, the Registrar General of India (RGI) raised some concerns over the proposal since the native tribes are not in the favour of inclusion of Badagas into the list. As per OPS's statement, "erstwhile Chief Minister Jayalalitha wrote a letter, on September 5, 2003, to the ministry of tribal affairs to include the Badagas on the ST list. And again in 2011, on July 28, she wrote a letter to the Prime minister on the reinstatement of the tribal status of the Badaga community". Again in 2013, Badagas made a fresh proposal to the ministry of tribal affairs that is now pending at RGI.