International Day of World’s Indigenous People
International Day of World’s Indigenous People Day is celebrated on August 9 every year. The day is celebrated to spread awareness about the indigenous population around the world and to also protect their rights. The indigenous population across the world stays in close contact with nature. The places they reside in are home to around 80% of the world’s bio-diversity. The day had been brought into existence when the 49/214 resolution was passed by the U.N. General Assembly on December 23, 1994. August 9 was chosen as the commemorative date because that was when the first meeting of the U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Populations of the Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights was held in 1982. Every year, the day is honoured by governments and organizations holding education forums and conferences to meet and discuss the social issues faced by tribal groups worldwide. Although it is officially said that the United Nations had set up this Task Force to address the problems of tribal society such as neglect, unemployment and bonded child labour and to enforce and protect their human rights but the functional reality is quite different.
Global conspiracy to pit tribal society against India
21% of the total area of India is forest and 60% of it is tribal. 90% of Bharat’s mineral reserves are in the tribal areas. Tribal society constitutes 8% of Bharat’s population. This is a huge number in the context of Bharat. Is there any global conspiracy going on to pit this tribal society against Bharat? If we analyse the current situation properly, then we are forced to think seriously about this idea. Is The ‘World Indigenous Peoples’ Day’ of August 9, celebrated for the last few years, not a part of this global conspiracy? We need to think about this and dig a little history.
In 1989, the ‘Rights of Indigenous People’ Convention number 169 was declared by the ILO, which was accepted by only 22 countries out of 189 of the worlds, mainly due to the lack of definition of the term ‘Indigenous People’. The signatories to this treaty were the main countries which still have colonial colonies and where a large number of indigenous people are living the life of second-class citizenship.
This treaty was considered a failure due to acceptance of only 22 countries. After this the ILO was entrusted with the task of forming a more general opinion on the subject. Moving forward in this direction, the ILO formed a ‘Working Group for Indigenous People’. Its first meeting was held on 9 August 1982. That is why the announcement of celebrating ‘World Indigenous People Day’ on 9th August was made by the United Nations. In many countries, the holiday started being celebrated on this day. Today in India too, the practice of celebrating ‘World Indigenous Peoples’ Day has started on this 9th of August.
In 1492, despite the refusal of the Kings of Spain and Portugal, Columbus accidentally reached the east coast of America with the financial help provided by the Catholic mission, with the aim of finding a trade route to India. At that time, the entire American continent was dominated by mainly five natives. They were the Cherokee, the Chickasaw, the Choctaw, the Muskogee and the Seminole. After landing on the shore, Columbus mistook it as Bharat and the people he saw, he considered them as Bharatiyas.
It was the second Monday of October. After this, Spain, Portugal and the British made a complete plan to make their empire in America in a total of four sea voyages. Due to being such a vast country, the British had to face conflict from remote areas till about 1600 AD. The British had to wage the first two-way war with the Powhatan tribesmen in today’s Virginia province. The first battle in the series of these three battles took place on 9 August, in which the entire Powhatan tribe was killed while fighting. Even after 250 years of war and carnage with the natives, not much success was achieved. Then, in the name of free education and treatment, relations were made with them by the missionaries and a large number of “civilizational activities” were conducted and they were recruited in their army and fought among themselves.
Then the head of the British Army was Sir Jeffery Amherst. They killed about 80% of the people by mixing germs in blankets, handkerchiefs and clothes of deadly diseases like small pox, tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid through the world’s first chemical war. To establish an empire, the British army had done this horrific massacre with the natives of America. By 1775, the British had almost established their hegemony over the land of America.
In about 250 years after the arrival of Columbus, they occupied only a small part of the land even after killing the original inhabitants. Then the First British American War began under the leadership of George Washington and Henry Knox, and under the ‘Indian Removal Act of 1830’ all natives were forcibly pushed across the Mississippi River. In this struggle 30,000 people died on the way. This phenomenon is called the ‘line of tears’. In the meantime, such a number of people died that only 5 percent of the indigenous people survived.
On October 12, 1992, 500 years were completed since the arrival of Columbus in America. Then preparations were on for a big celebration. But a campaign called ‘Columbus Go Back’ was launched in protest against these festivals. To pacify this campaign, this day was declared as America’s Indigenous People’s Day out of a sense of guilt. The United Nations was also to celebrate World Indigenous Day on 12 October. But due to the opposition in America it was deferred to 9th August. This day has historical significance as it was the day of establishment of Britain’s power in the Virginia province in the Britain-Powhatan War and Christian missionaries had gotten the opportunity to spread Christianity there.
Today, the tribal groups of Bharat observe 9 August as ‘World Indigenous People’s Day’ by becoming a part of a sheep procession. Whereas the natives living in America consider this day to be the day of American genocide. Every 9 August, several thousand people protest against this day outside the United Nations. For the past several years, ‘World Indigenous Day’ has been celebrated under the leadership of the Church on 9 August. In this, a large number of anti-India ideas have been propagated. Incidents like Pathalgarhi are the result of these separatist global indigenous conspiracies.
International forces are working to break the tribal society from this country. The purpose of these powers is also to encourage the celebration of Natives Day. This conspiracy has to be understood. We have no relation from this day. In countries like America, Australia and New Zealand, what happened to the natives there, that type of situation never existed in Bharat. Unfortunately, some foreign forces are working to mislead the tribal society and fight it with other communities. For this, they have used the day of August 9 as a weapon.
In recent years, the information revolution and social media have almost removed these geographical and linguistic barriers, the disruptive forces are getting stronger by their use. Its consequences can be fatal for the integrity of Bharat. War and commercial prosperity in the name of religion have complemented each other since the 11th century. Its basis is the “New Christian Economic Theory”, which seeks to Christianize black or non-European people. For this, the big European powers of the world are working in the developing countries, who work on the principle of religious conversion and then new nation on the pretext of humanitarian work in large numbers. The UN organization UNPO provides the aids to groups demanding human rights, identity to separate country. The Organization of Nagaland from Bharat (Nagalim) is a member of the UNPO, which is demanding a separate country from Bharat. Norway and many European countries, are advocating a separate country for Nagas on ethnic and religious grounds. East Timor is a prime example of this.
In 1947, Bharat was divided into two parts by the British on religious grounds. Is this, why a large number of tribal communities of about 705 tribal communities of Bharat are being separated from Hinduism? For the tribal society, many organizations in the country and abroad are fighting for a separate religion code or for the demand of a separate religion from Hinduism in the 2021 census, so that the number of Hindus on the world table can be reduced. Then these new religions could be mixed with Christianity by the Christianisation mission organizations, which could lead to religious separatism. Various anti-national forces of our country are seen working in this direction. Various movements and Naxal movements going on in different states of our country especially Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha and Maharashtra are becoming part of this international conspiracy. More recently, the revival of cultural nationalism, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi had talked about in the Ramjanmabhoomi temple Bhoomipujan program, is the answer to all these conspiracies. The relation of tribal society to Ram and Ramayana is not hidden from anyone. Lord Ram’s mother Kaushalya belonged to the “Kashyapa” gotra, which is the gotram of Kanwar tribe and even today the people of the “Kanwar” community worship “Kaushalya” as the daughter. Bhagwan Ram is considered as the “Bhanej” (nephew) of the tribal society. Kaushal was then called Chhattisgarh and mother Kaushalya was the daughter of king of Kaushal Province. Ram had dark complexion while his father, King Dashrath, was fair, this was because Ram’s mother was also of the dark complexion. Similarly, Usha, daughter of Tribal King Baan of the Tezpur, Assam, and Aniruddha, the grandson of Sri Krishna, were married with each other. Ram and Krishna are deeply lined with tribal society not only socially linked but also by blood, which is being strongly tried to be siphoned off under a global conspiracy.
References
(Different articles by a prominent Tribal Studies Scholar Lakshman Singh Markam, appeared in The Narratives, Patheykan and News 18)
