Every day media screams about how India is doing in global market, some writer or artist receiving big awards thus lifting our country's pride. It is a usual thing, dancers or writers claiming that they tried to portray the soul and spirit of India. Correct me if i am wrong, but how can anybody portray the real India in art forms, for art is related to beauty and imagination. i am talking about those who were deprived of their right to live in their ancestral lands, who were forced to live a different life, yes they are the unfortunate tribal people of Indian republic.
Modern Indians are indifferent to the lives and deprivations of tribal people. Most of our generation oblivious to the fact that there are still tribal people live among us. Atrocities toward them are going unnoticed. Authorities are taking a neglecting attitude towards them. For instance take a case of tribal people in Kerala; Hundreds of tribal people, led by the Attappady Samrakshana Samithi (protection committee), put up huts on government land under the Attappady Valley Irrigation Project at Kattekkad and Kuravanpady, claiming their right over the land and to protest against the failure of the government to provide them land. These land were not given back to them even after the project were dropped. In Kerala 80% of the tribal population are in Wayanad near Calicut. Most of them are still landless even after the movement by Communist Govt.. to give away the land to them. Moderners treat them as illiterate and barbaric in nature, mainly due to their way of life.Yes they are illiterate, but why? it is not their fault. They are not getting proper facilities for a better future, not even basic amenities for that matter. If they are to get same education and proper exposure to the outside world, they are as mush as a moderner like you and me. Renowned Bengali writer Mahaswetadevi wrote about India's de notified tribes, how they were betrayed from their rights by our renowned Indian republic. How their population reduced to only 8% in the 1991 census. Out of 635 they only considered only 235 as tribes, what happened to the rest? don't they exist? are they ghosts from our past? Why is it so difficult to provide them what they deserve?
In modern India tribal women are getting raped their men are tortured, their children are made to work like mules. What is so beautiful about this India? The soul of India is still wounded, our mother country is still haunted by cries and helplessness of these people.
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