QUARRYING THE RELEVANCE OF TERM 'INDIGENOUS PEOPLES': RAJBANSIS OF NORTHERN WEST BENGAL

QUARRYING THE RELEVANCE OF TERM 'INDIGENOUS PEOPLES' IN A THREE-LEVEL-APPROACH (WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO RAJBANSI COMMUNITY OF NORTH BENGAL, WEST BENGAL, INDIA)

ABSTRACT     

 Application of the universally accepted dogma of 'Indigenous Peoples' upon all the aborigine folk peoples scattered world wide asks for systematic approach. Such a given community situated within a specific geo-ecological region of northern West Bengal, India for long could be subjected for postulation of the approach. Rajbansis here have transformed from a simple community to a complex social fold and adapted certain local characteristics that could promote their separate identity again with certain regional variations. They in the age-old trans-national trade route of North Bengal have admixed with other peoples and saturated with their cultures and vice versa. In this way, a marked difference could be developed from their fellow peoples living in other parts of Bengal (the entire West Bengal continuous with independent countries like Bangladesh and Moran, the eastern foothills of Nepal and adjacent areas like eastern part of Bihar state, Assam state and Tripura state). These people are chiefly agriculturists, know well about the ancient river routes passed through dense forests and also belong to caste hierarchy ascribed within Hinduism and occupy a prestigious rank of Bratya-Kshattirya with definite traces of Buddhism, Hinduism (both caste-based close-ended as well as egalitarian versions), Animism, Syncretism, prayer to snakes and rivers, worship of Fertility Cults and local agricultural deities plus regional versions of Islamic heritage.  No doubt they have developed certain values and beliefs quite non-functional in attitude and symbol-oriented in nature. The approach towards investigating the applicability of the label 'Indigenous Peoples' upon a given population demands an in depth observation within indigenousness and also the cultural lag created due to certain external influences (modernity, globalization and anti-globalization, migrations and culture contact, multiculturalism, politico-economic impetus, monetary economy and so on).

A three-level-approach could be used as the methodology for the justification:

firstly, attachment with land and historicity;

secondly, role of Indigenous Knowledge System,

 and lastly, the effect of globalization (most viable way of external impact) upon IKS dedicated to certain global public and environmental services.

Here, the Rajbansi Social Fold within the multicultural scenario of North Bengal has been taken as the reference for this very discussion.  

Introduction:

Indigenous Knowledge (IK) is basically local (Warren, 1991). It is actually oral and mostly undocumented (Ellen and Harris, 1996). It is more practical rather than theoretical and repeating with time. IK generates through informal experiments, intimate understanding of the environment in a given culture and accumulation of generation wise intellectual reasoning of day-to-day life experiences (Rajsekharan, 1993). It is generally tested in the religious laboratory of survival. So, it could be said that Indigenous Knowledge traits are oral, undocumented, simple; dependent over the values, norms and customs of the folk life (>folk culture>material apparatus), production of day-to-day life experience through trial and error, loosed and gained as well as asymmetrically distributed. These knowledge traits therefore form a system called on as the Indigenous knowledge System (IKS). To some portion, IKS of an indigenous community shares itself with the western and other major Knowledge Systems (and at the same time differing a lot); and integrated intensively with the foundation of Global Knowledge System. Holistically, IKS is quite fragmentarily distributed throughout the globe that is socially clustered. But within a specific society, it looks like the actual knowledge of a given population There it forms a systematic body of knowledge acquired by the local people. The knowledge bulk seems to be indigenous in respect to a particular geographic area. All of these farmers, landless laborers, women, rural artisans and cattle rarer are well informed about their own situations and their resources; what works and doesn’t work and how one change impacts other parts of their system. Culture of such a community is mentioned as the indigenous culture where it is really hard to separate the technical part from the non-technical one and the rational domain with the non-rational sector. IKS is a multidisciplinary subject and incorporates the following dimensions: physical sciences and related technologies, social sciences and humanities (Atte, 1989). IK is also regarded by several names, such as, folk knowledge, traditional knowledge, local knowledge, indigenous technical knowledge (ITK), traditional environmental/ ecological knowledge (TEK), People's science or ethnology that often look very much confusing and overlapping. On the community basis, IKS could be divided into various domains like Agriculture and Post-Agricultural Practices; Animal Husbandry and Poultry; Ethno-Fishery; Hunting and Gathering; Artisan; Disease Treatment, Ethno-Medicine and Folk Remedy; Traditional Economic and Political System (Banarjee, Basu, Biswas, and Goswami, 2006).

The indigenous communities are all fallen under the great umbrella of Indigenous Peoples and share the basic attributes of Indigenous Rights (ILO, 1991). Indigenous Rights encompass the domains like general policy, land, recruitment and conditions of employment, vocational training, handicrafts and rural industries, social security and health, Education and means of communication, contracts and co-operations across borders, administration, general provisions- applicable to all the indigenous communities brought under the common umbrella of Indigenous Peoples. In a more formal side, these rights are also related with other issues such as prevention of bio-piracy, check to illegal knowledge-and-technology transfer, and performance of sustainable development, protection of basic human rights, rights for the minority communities and weaker sections, intellectual property rights as well as suitable management of various capitals for instance nature capital, social capital, culture capital, human capital, intellectual capital, instructional capital, and knowledge capital (in the forms of natural resource management, human resource management, knowledge management and so on) [See: Fig.1].

Rajbansis constitute the backbone of the agrarian social structure on the planes of North Bengal. They have been thoroughly nourished by these animists, Buddhist, Hindu, Islamic as well as Western connectivity; and could also claim their belongingness to the ancient state of Paundrawardhana of undivided Bengal. According to Sanyal (1965), these rulers typically of Kashyapa-Bratya Kshattriya combination have now turned down to the status of simply agriculturists and in North Bengal and its adjoining areas and developed themselves as the Rajbansis- a unique Social Fold. They should be able to constitute a very important IKS applicable in service of the bio-diversity, sustainable development and community welfare of North Bengal.

THREE-LEVEL APPROACH

In this paper, relevance of the term Indigenous Peoples is going to be checked out for the Rajbansi Social Fold of North Bengal, West Bengal, India through a three-level approach. These three approaches are attachment with land, role of IKS and response of Globalization. For a community living in rural areas and sharing the attributes of folk life, is it possible to mention it under the category of indigenous peoples even when it has been actually passing through the process of modernization and started loosing its IKS. Importance of this three-way approach is going to be discussed here in brief.

LEVEL 1: ATTACHMERNT WITH THE LAND AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

Ideally, if the community is in touch with the land for long so far to be recognized it the aboriginal or assimilated with the aboriginal, it may be considered as Indigenous Peoples, at least for its traditional rights on the land according to the indigenous rights prescribed by ILO. But these autochthons may not be deprived and part of the mainstream. They may be also in the process of this mainstreaming.

PRE-COLONIAL PERSPECTIVE OF INDIAN SOCIETY (with special reference to Eastern Part of Indian Sub-Continent including North Bengal):

Trans-National trade [between Tibeto-Burmese belt and China on one hand and South east Asia, eastern coast of Indian Peninsula, island of Sri Lanka and Kerala the gateway of Orient for the West and Arab countries on the other] is the most crucial aspect in this context. Trade through the high mountainous passes of Sikkim, Bhutan and NEFA, the dense forest in the foothills of Duars/Doors and the river ways of the fertile plains of North Bengal once brought prosperity to entire Bengal. That also created created several small states or settlements like of ancient Hindu stalks (worshippers of various fertility cults, mother goddesses, Shiva, snakes, birds, ghosts, angles); Buddhist, Kushana, Barmana, Pala, Kaivartha; Jalpa (at Jalpesh/Jalpaiguri), Khen (at Kamtapur), tribesmen from Tibeto-Burmese belt, Garo, Bodo, Kuchhur, Koch (at Coochbihar and Baikunthopur), Bhutia/Dukpa (in Bhutan), Lepcha (ion Sikkim); Brahmin, Kshattriya, Vaishnava, Nath, various Bengali Hindu caste groups; Turk-Afghan descendent, Portuguese-Mog alliance, semi-independent autonomous states and Mogul-Rajpur coalition till the British colonizers came in power.  This historicity is a proof of closeness of North Bengal (and the entire Bengal) with Assam, Manipur, Surma valley and Arakan coast of Burma/Bagan (today's Myanmar). The Hindu tradition in Bengal therefore always condemns the impact of Buddhism, local religious beliefs falling under the non-Aryan segment of Hinduism (Little Tradition) and Islamization. But what is more important to remember is that every time there were the agriculturist communities on the fertile planes. In case of North Bengal, the major agriculturists were today's Rajbansi People, categorized by the northern branch of the ancient ruler-cum-cultivator Paundra-Kshattriyas/ Bratya-Kshattriyas/ Borgo-Kshattriyas (identification by the myth of Parasurama in Hindu Puranas and common clan Kashyapa). From hoary past, competition and accommodation between trade and agriculture was always there in Indian Sub-Continent: battle between snake worshippers and bird worshippers, Danavas and Devas, Rakshashas and Aryas, Ravana and Rama, Bratya-Kshattriyas and parasurama, Pandava-Yadava and Kaurava, founders of Indus valley Civilization and Aryan stalks, Brahminical Heritage and Buddhist traders, semi-nomadic tribes from Silk Route in Central Asia/Iran and  followers of Indian agrarian civilization, Rajputas and Buddhists, Cholas and Buddhist-Arab combination and so on.  

COLONIAL PERSPECTIVE OF INDIAN SOCIETY (with special reference to Eastern Part of Indian Sub-Continent including North Bengal):

Nepalese ethnic groups under the Gurkha regiment in 19^th century British India as well as Santhal and other Adivasis. British brought these ethnic communities probably to reduce the relevance the trade regulated by the former Buddhist World in this region of North Bengal (and eastern part of the Indian Sub-Continent) from both-way pressure from Tibet and Burma. That was the same competition that the British had to face against other European Companies, Indian Trade Houses and dumping grounds like Andhra coast, Madras coast, Sri Lanka and Malaysia Kerala, Konkana, Gujarat, Sind, Punjab, Kashmir, Afghanistan, Iran, Near East, Turkey, Egypt, Arab Nations, Eastern and South Africa, Ghana, Chinese ports, Pacific Ocean Islands and the Caribbean. They fulfilled the incomplete job that no other former Native states in South Asia could have ever done (except Guptas of North India, Palas of Bengal, Cholas of extreme part of Indian Peninsula and Vijayanagara Empire of South India at different historical times to some extent).  

 INFLUENCE OF THE PEASANT MOVEMENTS:

 Pabna peasant movement against Permanent Settlement System led by the British in Bengal as well as agitation made by the Santals of Rajmahal Plains of Jharkhand against the cash-economy and thereafter, in the other tribal pockets of Choto Nagpur, Central India and Andhra, various non-tribal peasant movements were occurred. All these movements were the primordial proof of the fact that when Social Reformations and Western Civilization were being channeled into the mainstream Indian Society by the middle class intelligentsia, elites in the urban sectors and the dominant castes in the villages in the 18^th-19^th century British period; the rural Indian society, especially the tribal stalks, were successfully maintained its separate existence. The western traits could not replace the traditional rural customs and therefore, the rural sectors have the full power to decide what to accept and which one could be rejected! Secondly, the forest based tribal communities, agriculturist tribal groups, non-tribal peasants, caste and caste-like groupings, and complex type of rural social stratification in the Indian villages showed their closeness with one another, at least, at their agro-based cognitive level. The British Administration therefore had on option other than to set up some autonomous pockets for the tribal communities and ancient agricultural groups with some kinds of self-determination. They also postulated various protective measures for the notified tribal communities included under the Scheduled Tribe Category. The same was done for the lower caste peasant communities who were fallen under the Scheduled Caste category. Later on, these provisions were included in the Constitution of India together with the provisions of Human Rites Declaration.

POST-COLONIAL PERSPECTIVE OF INDIAN SOCIETY (with special reference to Eastern Part of Indian Sub-Continent including North Bengal):

Still in the post-colonial perspective of Indian society, tribal and non-tribal peasant movements have come to see in several parts of India also including North Bengal as part of the state West Bengal and North East India:

·               West Bengal: movement for protection of land rights, justification in crop sharing, uprooting of the land lord system, demarcation over private land area, labor movement, Naxalite Movement, Leftist movement, land distribution, three tirel village governance system (Panchyat System), decentralization of power, reservation of seats for the lesser gender and the backward categories/ Dalits categorized under S.C. and S.T.; empowerment of the poor, protection to the immigrated peoples and minorities, co-operative system;

·               North East India: demands for separate state, autonomy and self-control on the basis of ethnicity; protest against so called dominance of mainland India; terrorism and violation of human rights; emergence of regional political parties and separatist outfits; ethnic violence among the autochthons as well as with the invaders; parallel governance; total localization, support at the regional political level; alleged conspiracy against revival of the ancient trade routes helpful for both agriculture and industry.

Rajbansis at the juncture of North Bengal, North Bangladesh (Pabna) and North east; have developed close attachment to the agricultural plains of North Bengal and other adjoining areas. This could be regarded as the primary step towards considering Rajbansis as Indigenous Peoples of North Bengal with some sorts of land rights in respect of the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial period of Indian history.       

LEVEL 2: INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

What has to be taken care off at this level is the proper networking among IKS of local people, language and power of words, folk taxonomy, formal and informal communication, institutions, non-functional domains, cultural diversity, modern inputs, local ecosystem, agro-ecology, agro-forestry, soil and water management, disaster management, food preservation, labor-oriented handloom industry, traditional type of division of labor, sustainable rural and human recourse development. Among the non-functional domains (various traditional institutions constituting structure of the society); IKS is generally tested in the religious laboratory of survival (religious institution). Together with cultural values, social norms, folkways, taboo and traditional belief; festivals and customs (religious, seasonal, agriculture-oriented) act as symbols and mostly non-functional in nature; they allow the path to enter into World View of a given community/ society/ huge social fold. These symbols are each an assemblage of culture-traits and these traits could be categorized into artifacts, sociofacts, psychofacts as well as agrofacts. Traits could be of two major types: intangible and tangible (material). Material part consists of tools and goods aided by certain technologies and information (all adaptive). The tangible part indicates the presence of some kind of civilization (low-level) in the folk societies. Intangible part is obviously more non-adaptive and highly cultural as compared to the tangible part. It is the symbolical expression of the nature, reflected on human mind and drawn in its World View. It tries to resist the change in tangible part and caused cultural lag. It tries to hold the tangible part (functional) intact and keeps so many information and knowledge capital secured in service to the Global Public affected by the negative impacts of modernization, consumerism and exploitation of nature- the challenges of globalization.

Again, the culture pattern of a community is constituted by whole of the intangible part (non-adaptive), the tangible part (tools, items and goods), adaptive domain (knowledge, information and technology on local basis), the civilization input and the way of communication. The latter is again of two major types: informal and formal and be held with people, nature and/or super-nature via gesture, speech, word, language, drawing, singing, music, dancing, drama, play, performances, magico-religious performances/ tantra, script, chantation/ mantra, exchange of message, exchange of goods and exchange of women). Culture pattern has to be understood very clearly as it could bring an equilibrium between the civilization input and the internal aspects of the community (traditional institutions, symbolical expression, non-adaptive intangible part, tangible part, adaptive domain and World View).

For a specific cultural pattern within a definite ecosystem, the reflection of nature on human mind creates symbolic expressions of non-adaptive domains (intangible part) and causes invention of new products (tangible and adaptive) with aid of certain new technologies enriching the knowledge capital and the information bulk (intangible but adaptive). The whole process happens according to the psycho-biological functioning of mankind as well as functioning of the social structure organized by various institutions, different social fragments and strata (occupation-wise, gender-wise, status-wise, etc.).

A proper negotiation between the civilization input and the internal aspect (World View) could deliver an all-accepted output: the way from development to sustainable development. In that case, the aspects of Indigenous Rights and Indigenous Peoples are highly needed in favor of the local peoples, even when they are approaching very fast in the track of modernization, in order to check their complete transformation in the non-adaptive domain and protect the adaptive part encompassing IKS in service to the Global Public and the Nature on real ground. The collection of traditional knowledge traits of the Rajbansis and systematic functioning would prove itself helpful in bio-diversity management, sustainable development and protection of the ecology.

Here, festivals symbolizing inner meaning of the behavioral expression and supporting the communication network with ecology, nature, technological aid & the dependence on super-nature for the Rajbansis are as follows:

Mecheni Khela, Tista Buri, Satya Pir, Modon Ka/Bans Khela, Jagannath & Balaram Thakur, Dharam Thakur, Geram Thakur (summer); Kachibuna, Hudum deo/ Benger biao(monsoon), Amati, Sotyonarayana, Dodi Kado, Othai pothai,  Jitau, Bara bhasha, Bharar Ghorchhura, Lokhi dak, Devi, Boro Debi, , Bishahari, Jatra Puja, Bhandani (spring); Chondi, Dhap chandi, Kali Thakur, Khet Uthani (hemanta or after-spring), Pushuna, Shial Thakur, Baruni sinan/ Maghli sinan, Shiva rati, Gamira Thakur, Chorok, Shiva Chaturdashi (winter); Dham, Rakhal Thakur, Shaleshwari, Gorakhnath, Bishua (autumn); Jiga Thakur, Tulshi Thakur, jurbandha Thakur (anytime in the year) and fear of Pairy, Jak, Mashan and other harmful entities. On magico-religious to religious ground, importance has been given up on fish, snake, tortoise, rivers, bird: connectivity is there with the concepts of ancestors' sprit, soul, graveyard, megalith, Shiva Lingam, fertility cults, ghosts, angels, malevolent and benevolent entities, deities, black magic, witchcraft, music, musical instruments, song, dance, ornaments, clothing, alcoholism, sexual behavior, tantra, sacrifice, medication, mantra, Sun and fire, day and night, heaven and hell, non-violence and violence, peace and war, defensive and aggressive attitude, hunting and gathering, fishing, domestication and trade, handlooms of wood, bone, bamboo, jute, etc.

LEVEL 3: GLOBALIZATION AND INDIGENOUS PEOPLES

In this era of globalization, the rapid developmental activities of the Western-Modern Society have caused 6 major problems as pointed out by UNDP report: Challenges of global warming, Rapid loss of bio-diversity, Crisis-prone financial market, Growing international inequality, Emergence of new-drug resistant disease strains & Genetic engineering (Kaul, Grunberg and Stern, 1999). In this regard, Science, Traditional Knowledge and Sustainable Development (ICSU) in the Series on Science for Sustainable Development No. 4 have truly mentioned that the IKS of the local/rural/indigenous communities (basically under the banner of 'underdeveloped' or Indigenous Peoples category) could be applied so as to control these crises. Loss of biodiversity is one of the four highest risks to natural ecology and human welfare. Biodiversity is a public policy as well as a scientific issue. It is stratified into a four-level hierarchy (i.e., genetic, species, ecosystem and landscape. It maintains ecosystem stability. It provides major cost-free Global Public Services in terms of food, fiber, industrial compounds, fuel and drugs. It has some definite anthropocentric reason so as to preserve different IKS and related cultural diversities. It would ultimately help in the issues of genetic conservation, agriculture and fisheries, forests, wildlife and wetland management [Cairns, and Lackey1992]. The highest extinction rate of 1,000-10,000 species per annum since the mass extinction of 65 million years ago has become a serious problem and need help from IKS of the folk people living in nature for thousands of years. 

Establishment of small tea gardens growing parallel with the Tea Estates at the end of 1990s was highly opposed by the local peasants afraid of land alienation that ultimately led to the initiation of ethnic movement by the Rajbansis in the name of indigenous state Kamtapur and with a demand to announce the several spoken dialects of the Rajbansis together as separate language. A new branch of separatist movement for the very formation of a new state is thus eventually emerged out.

Here the aspect of Indigenous Peoples and Indigenous Rights could be implemented in protection of the land rights provisioned for an indigenous community. But a chance is also there of its use in provoking a separatist movement on the same issue of land right and participation and share in the development input by the state, the private sector and the civilization machinery. Here output should be Sustainable Development aided by protection indigenous rights, land rights, basic human rights, betterment of life-style, human resource development, poverty eradication, prevention of biodiversity-loss, protection to the ecosystem, pollution control and feed back in exploitation of natural resources. What is needed for a proper output is an appropriate negotiation between development input and the World View of local agrarian social structure headed by the Rajbansis (associated with other Bengali castes, local Muslim population, Nepali ethnic groups, mongoloid tribal communities and the Adivasis like santal, Oraon, Munda, etc.).  The primordial factors are here firstly, to understand the Folk Life; to make a bridge between traditional and modern perspectives as well as local and global. A negotiation between emic and etic is highly required in this context. 

Rajbansi Social Fold with their IKS could be used in Global Public Service to reduce or replace the harms done by unidirectional and highly exploiting applications of the modern technologies in this current era of Global Market Economy that searches for new customers, thriving markets, more profit, better technologies, more production at low cost, easy access of the energy, cheep labor and machinery. That could result in the problems like massive unemployment, war for oil and market, free market economy, equity, capitalist hegemony, pollution, massive exploitation of nature and dominance over all the alternative ways in economics. Such IKS would be emerged out with a helpful role in providing a harmless or less harm way of cultivation of crop, production of goods, local traditional economy and exploitation of natural resources with feed back within the specific geography and bio-diversity of North Bengal.

Information about safe, hygienic, disease-resistant and local varieties within the gene base of local crop-diversity and secondly, indigenous knowledge capital about every steps of cultivation, storage and preservation could become very exclusive if applied without any kind of toxic or non bio-degradable substance in the form of manure or pesticide in soil, water, air or bio-geo cycles and food web within an eco-system.

Conclusion:

From this above three-level-approach, it is relevant to include the Rajbansi community of North Bengal within the category of Indigenous Peoples approaching towards the modernity and at the same time preserving their IKS with the help of non-adaptive domains (symbols) with a basic sentiment of utilizing indigenousness as a tool to defend the challenges made by Globalization and Global Market Economy perishing all other alternatives.

REFERENCES

Atte 1989, In A. Agrawal 2004, Indigenous and scientific knowledge: some critical comments, IK Monitor 3(3).

Babu, S.C., B. Rajsekaran, and D.M. Warren 1991, Indigenous Natural Resource Management System for Sustainable Agricultural Development, Journal of International Development 3(4):387-402.

Banarjee, S. with D. Basu, D. Biswas, and R. Goswami 2006, Indigenous Knowledge Dissemination through Farmers' Network: Exploring Farmer-to-Farmer Communication, In B. Choudhuri and S. Choudhuri, (eds) 2007, Indigenous People: Traditional Wisdom and Sustainable Development, IUAES Inter Congress (Vol-4), New Delhi: IIP.

Brokensha, Slikkerveer and Warren 1993, Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Cultural Dimensions of Development, CIESIN.

Ellen, R. and H. Harris 1996, Concepts of Indigenous Technical Knowledge in scientific and Developmental Studies Literature: A Critical Assessment, Electronic Document.

Inge Kaul, Isabelle Grunberg and Marc Stern 1999, In Kelkar, G. with D. Nathan, and P. Walter (eds) 2004, Globalization and Indigenous Peoples in Asia- Changing the Local-Global Interference, New Delhi\Thousand Oaks\London: Sage Publication.

International Labour Organization 1991, Convention No. 169 (concerning indigenous and tribal peoples in independent countries, 1989) In: International Labour Conventions and Recommendations vol.2 (1919-1991), Geneva: International Labor Office.

Rajasekaran, B. 1993, In: Role of Indigenous knowledge in Preserving Biodiversity: Incorporating Indigenous knowledge Systems: A Framework for Incorporating Indigenous knowledge Systems into Agricultural Research, extension and NGOs for Sustainable Agricultural Development. CIESEN.

Sanyal, C. C. 2002 (1965), The Rajbanshi of North Bengal, Kolkata: Asiatic Society.

Warren, D.M. 1991, Using indigenous Knowledge in Agricultural Development, Paper No. 127. Washington D.C.: World Bank