By Phrang Roy
Indigenous peoples have been one of the largest excluded and marginalized peoples of the world. Their total population is estimated to be around 370 million, more than the total US population of 311 million and more that the population of the 18 founding nations of the European Union which is 331 million. Tribal development is a major concern of North East India and rightly so. However, it is not rocket science provided we have the humility and openness to empathize with the alternative development paradigm of the indigenous peoples themselves.
One of the distinguishing features of the Indigenous peoples is their deep connection to their traditional lands and landscapes. Mother Nature is their source of survival because it:
l supports the dispersal of seeds and soil nutrients that are required for primary production;
l makes provision for the production of food, wild foods, medicine, energy, raw materials for housing and organic fertilizer;
l regulates the environment and our well being by handling waste decomposition, purification of air and water and control of pest and disease; and
l provides cultural services which includes recreation (outdoor sports, ecotourism) and aesthetic and spiritual experiences.
For indigenous peoples, development is essentially about the ability to sustain a functioning ecosystem. Indigenous communities have therefore become watchful guardians of the land and territories around them. Consequently they have become historical custodians of most of our biological and cultural diversity and that they have over centuries been expanding humanity’s pool of options through adaptive and resilient approaches. The Alder tree of Nagaland, the drip irrigation for betel nut cultivation in the War areas of Meghalaya and its living bridges are examples of indigenous adaptations and innovations. It is therefore not surprising to find the remarkable overlap between indigenous territories and the world’s areas of high biological and cultural diversity.
Indigenous communities also have a strong belief in the sacredness of the natural world and this belief is grounded in a collective and community paradigm and not on an individualistic pursuit of maximum economic production or excessive exploitation of the natural world through huge infrastructure investment programs for dams, hydro electricity and roads. They are afraid that these infrastructural programmes may compromise their autonomy over their lands which are being increasingly threatened by the economic growth interests of powerful and emerging countries as Nation States vie for more sources of energy, minerals and water. In short their holistic development paradigm is simply very different from our modern approach of extraction, limitless growth and homogenization of thoughts, dresses and lifestyles.
Indigenous peoples are not against development provided the likely and unlikely consequences on them are trustfully negotiated with their communities. Investment programs, they insist, must therefore have their free, prior and informed consent. Indigenous peoples have therefore been calling on state actors to take their development paradigm more seriously particularly in view of the compounding crises of climate change and irreversible loss of biodiversity. They have been affirming they too have knowledge, wisdom and practical experience for helping the world to adopt a more sustainable and caring world.
Fortunately, there are several thinkers, activists and policy makers who believe that the knowledge systems of indigenous peoples would add value to the global search for a more sustainable approach. On 18 September of 2013, UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development) came up with their “Wake UP Before It Is Too Late” Report which called for a development approach that will start shifting from the existing monoculture agriculture towards greater varieties of crops, reduced use of fertilizers and other inputs, greater support for small-scale farmers, and more locally focused production and consumption of food.
The Report cited a number of trends that collectively suggest a mounting crisis:
l Food prices from 2011 to mid-2013 were almost 80 per cent higher than for the period 2003-2008;
l Global fertilizer use has increased by eight times over the past 40 years, although global cereal production has only doubled during that period;
l Foreign land acquisition in developing countries (often termed “land grabbing”) in recent years has amounted, in value, to between five and ten times the level of official development assistance.
Indigenous communities are also being gradually heard at the global level and the credit for this development goes to indigenous peoples themselves. It was their determination and perseverance that bended the United Nations and all its Member States to adopt the UN General Assembly Resolution and Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in September 2007, after 25 years of hard negotiations. This was perhaps their biggest triumph to date at the global stage. The success of indigenous peoples in being united and in the adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples gives hope for more informed policies on the development of indigenous peoples.
Three basic principles that must be highlighted for tribal development in North East India are:
l development with identity must the driving force of all development initiatives;
l collective rights must be respected, promoted and safeguarded at all times;
l all development initiatives in indigenous lands must be with their free, prior and informed consent of the communities.
Our indigenous knowledge and governance systems are not perfect. For example, by excluding women from the ‘dorbars’, the Khasis are excluding, marginalizing and not using one of our society’s most valuable asset for a more productive local economy. We can learn from the more inclusive practices of others. Thus as indigenous communities partner with the modern world working closely as different but equal collaborators, we too can contribute to a more sustainable and caring world jointly creating a new political process of participatory democracy that will encourage
l a wider ‘ownership’ of decisions, processes and projects by the marginalized and the hitherto excluded and by
l paying greater attention to accountability so institutions, professionals and policymakers are held responsible for their acts of commission and omission.
We must also be vigilant of any consideration of amendment of architecture of the political system so that the constitutional guarantees of the rights of indigenous communities to their lands, territories and cultural heritage especially of smaller tribes are never compromised. I totally agree with the growing voices of people like Bah Mohrmen, Toki Blah and Fabian Lyngdoh for doing away with the part-based elections to the Autonomous District Councils. At the least, we must immediately ensure that the concept of winning a majority in a party based election does not break the social relationships and trust that traditionally exist in an indigenous community. We must be watchful of elected rulers who try to erode the constitutional constraints on their power as this is the first sign of a governance system that is heading for the rocks.
We must speak out against corruption as it eventually promotes a valueless society in an overwhelmingly Christian State and eventually fills it with violence, extortion and the rise of micro powers who will often reduce the effectiveness of the rule of law – a golden principle and best practice of democratic governance that has motivated people to stand up against abusive and autocratic authorities.
The political system that we will inherit and nurture will finally decide on the sort of tribal development we would follow. We must therefore seek to confirm or revise or update our autonomous political systems to address
l the emerging challenges to traditional indigenous issues and
l to be able to take advantage of opportunities that global and national best practices and systems uniquely offer to us.
By collaborating with all like-minded partners and by drawing on their respective passion and wisdom, we can significantly contribute to a new national and global policy environment that will pursue prosperity in a more sustainable and local direction
l where communities will re-establish their cultural, linguistic and agricultural distinctiveness; and
l where regions will produce more of their own food, generate more of their own energy and even exchange economically more of their own production, cultural expression and entertainment.
And central to this thinking is the promotion of a local food movement which will shorten the distance between farmers and consumers bringing many benefits such fresher and more tasty food and more income to small farmers. It will promote biodiversity so crucial for our wellbeing and above all reduce the increasing pollution we will see in the years ahead.
It will above all, help local communities to reclaim the food supply from big companies whose commercial food will eventually destroy our health as we are seeing in the rise of lifestyle diseases in the US, Europe and now even amongst some of our own people. We need to develop our own KFC and GFC – Khasi Fine Cuisine and Garo Fine Cuisine.
However, this new participatory tribal development approach can be become a reality provided there is leadership diplomacy and ability to listen and negotiate are important drivers of development and there are functioning institutions that can administer the rule of law.
(Based on a speech at NEHU’s Department of Sociology on 14 March 2014)
(Phrang Roy is the former Assistant President of IFAD and currently the Chair of the North East Slow Food and Agrobiodiversity Society (NESFAS). This article is based on a speech he gave at the Symposium of NEHU’s Department of Sociology on Tribal Development in North East India).