It is true that tribals as Scheduled Tribe (ST) is a small community in Uttar Pradesh. The tribals in schedule category constitute merely 0.1%, that is, 107,963, of the total population of Uttar Pradesh. They are spread into communities such as Tharus, Buksa, Bhotia, Jaunsari in nine districts of central Uttar Pradesh. One may find them in the districts such as Kheri, Balrampur, Sarawasti, Bahraich, but the non-scheduled tribes live in Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, Allahabad, Chitrakut, Banda and few other districts of Bundelkhand in communities such as Gond, Kol, Saharia, Kharwar, Jagoria and few others. They live in clusters in these regions and affect electoral politics. If we combine Scheduled Tribes and non-scheduled tribes together, they may become visible in the electoral politics of UP. They have already acquired political capacity in these regions to produce their own leaders, pradhans and MLAs. But it also true that they rarely get a representation in Parliament and ministries.
If we map the political history of these social groups, we will find that after Independence, the tribes of Uttar Pradesh mostly appeared as a base vote for the Congress. The Congress attracted them till 1980s due its legacy of the freedom movement and the various welfare policies. The Gandhian social organisations started working with them in 1960s and also prepared the ground for their political mobilisation. But in 1980s and 1990s, the Congress hegemony among tribal communities of UP started getting eroded and a few Communist organisations entered the tribal zones for their political mobilisation. It was the time when Hindutva social mobilisations also started among these tribal groups. The Banvasi Kalyan Kendra, an RSS-inspired organization, expanded its base among tribes of UP through its various progammes in education, health, revival of traditional water resources of the forest area of Bundelkhand and Sonbhadra. The BJP as a political party slowly entered and expanded its base among the tribes of UP. It gave political space to various local leaders of these communities in the party, in the form of political representation.
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The leaders from large communities among these non-scheduled tribes are Kols, Gonds and Saharias who are now able to aspire for political representation. One can easily find that several leaders of these communities are aspiring and also getting space in the electoral politics of local self-governance and state assembly through various political parties.
The Congress, few Left groups and the BJP are politically active among these communities. Interestingly, their political choices are not so fixed. Once I asked an old Kol labourer in Shankar Garh area near Prayag about his voting choice in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, he replied, “Modi ji ko”. However, PM Modi was contesting from Banaras and not Allahabad (Prayagraj) constituency where his area is located. I further asked, “Do you know who Modi ji is? He replied, “Son of Gandhi ji”. By such responses one can easily understand what politics means for them.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath’s emphasis on developmental opportunities for these small groups makes the BJP a attractive opportunity for these tribes. The BJP has emerged as a powerful political alternative for the tribes of Uttar Pradesh where the Congress, the Samajwadi Party, the Bahujan Samaj Party and the Left groups are still struggling to expand base. The most popular demand of these non-scheduled tribes, who have been declared Scheduled Castes in UP, is to acquire their Scheduled Tribe status. This will also redefine their relation with forest products, which are the basic sources for their livelihood. They are deprived of their share in development and democracy under the SC category, where they have to face tough competition. Let’s see what is in the store for these tribes in the UP assembly elections next year.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.)
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