“Tribals merely believe in harvesting crops
without putting in efforts or investments.”
The draft highlights the need to imbue
tribal people with a sense of ownership of
the land and to “sensitise tribals about
alternative economic strategies so that
they can come out of shifting cultivation.”
It adds that legal and institutional
arrangements are needed to “protect their
(i.e., tribals’) intellectual property rights”
so as to prevent the value of their labour
and ingenuity from being appropriated by
“corporate and other agencies”. The MTA
clearly perceives tribal peoples’ culturally
rooted “lack of attachment” to private
property as both sign and cause of their
backwardness.
The MTA asserts the need to strengthen
the powers of Tribal Advisory Councils
and to install tribal affairs administrators
who have “adequate knowledge, experi-
ence and a sense of appreciation for tribal
problems.”^19 Study of tribal administration
and research on all aspects of tribal soci-
eties and cultures are to be promoted
through existing Tribal Research Institutes
and establishment of “a national-level
research institution”. Above all, a “partici-
patory approach” to tribal development
should be adopted, involving, where pos-
sible, non-governmental organisations and
voluntary agencies that “act as catalysts
in reaching benefits of Government pro-
grammes and policies to the grass-root
level.” No mention is made of encouraging
tribal peoples’ participation in the process
of “research” or in conceptualising the
goals to be achieved. The draft asserts
the need to “preserve and promote... tra-
ditional knowledge and wisdom,” to “dis-
seminate” it and “transfer” it to non-tribal
areas; to “validate identified tribal reme-
dies” and to “encourage, document and
patent tribals’ traditional medicines”.
Nowhere does the draft propose incorpo-
rating indigenous ways of knowing into
social development or environmental con-
servation measures. It concludes by reit-
erating the importance of preserving the
cultural distinctiveness of tribal groups
while noting that the tribals suffer from
cultural isolation. It states that tribals’
“geographical isolation shall be minimised
through development of roads, transport
and means of communication... “
Assimilation in many senses is taken as a
prerequisite of tribal development.The 2004 draft national policy on tribals
shows the impress of proposals circulating
among development economists, environ-
mentalists, human rights activists and
advocates of indigenous peoples. Even as
a statement of general principles or
ideals, however, it is difficult to see how
the draft policy can be beneficially applied
to the Great Nicobar scenario. For
instance, how is preservation of tribals’
cultural distinctiveness to be reconciled
with encouraging means of communica-
tion and travel between tribal areas and
the outside world? In the case of the
Jarawas in the Andamans, for whom
exposure to modernity has been nothing
short of catastrophic, the Shekhar Singh
Commission appointed by the Indian
Supreme Court recommended that all log-
ging cease on Little Andaman Island and
other islands containing tribal reserves
and that the Andaman Trunk Road be
closed to traffic on South and Middle
Andaman. The Sekhar Singh Report was
accepted by the Supreme Court on May 7,2002.^20 The Court took into consideration
the fact that the forests of the Andamans
were being rapidly depleted and that the
trunk road was facilitating outsiders”
exploitation of the Jarawas.
Like other isolated tribal populations, the
Shompen have been susceptible to
pathogens for which they lack natural
immunity, and as recently as the 1990s
numbers of them have fallen victim to
epidemic diseases. Many indigenous peo-