It is difficult to classify who is a Hindu, broadly it can be referred to as those who follow rituals under Brahminical traditions or wherein the local God has some story that links to mainstream Hindu Gods (the trimurthis). Theoretically those who deny these can also be Hindus !!.
The tribes in India follow animistic traditions and in most cases have nothing to do with rituals associated
with Brahmins, they also don’t come under dreaded caste folds. Tribals have fiercely maintained their independence (Birsa munda is a well known name, probably one of the first Indians to take up arms against colonial British). This though has gone against them as they could not garner the benefits of development. It is also true that Macaulay designed education system that was followed enthusiastically till recently alienated most Indians from their surroundings- creating a mindset that is servile to Western. For the tribals the contradiction was so acute that they dropped at the very first instance from an education system that they didn’t see any practical applications nor had anything to do with their surroundings.Eventually tribals became one of the poorest and most exploited sections quite ironical since Adivasi means the earliest settlers. The mainstream India and the state machinery had nothing to gain from them hence their miseries were ignored for decades (although in paper lots of money was spend). The beauty of Christianity is that this religion produced some committed people who could travel to even difficult terrains to spread the message of Christ (there shouldn’t be any doubt that message of Christ was for goodness but the attempt of ‘civilizing’ which some took it with zest was ridiculous. In mid twentieth century though Catholics made attempts to adopt and assimilate the local traditions, sometimes even regressive like caste or say the recently acquired sindoor obsession in kerala. Organized religion understands rules of market!!).
Christianity provided an alternative for social mobility for tribals, missionaries filled the gap that was ignored by the state. If I place myself in the place of a tribal I would definitely see the benefits of following Christianity (note here there i
s no conversion since tribes don’t follow any religion that is conventionally understood). Also the following is basically part of economics (the idea that one religion has superiority over other in understanding spiritual is an exaggerated nonsense). Christian missionaries have done a remarkable job in last many decades to raise the self esteem of tribals crushed by the exploitative nature of surroundings. The widely spread education institutions under missionaries has given them the opportunity to learn and progress. Though elitism exists in these institutions and sometime they are reduced to commercial establishment. This blogger strongly feels that Christian community need to immediately put into perspective what is purpose of education institutions they run. There is an urgent need to increase reservations in these institutions to Christians from economically backward communities, next priority need be given to poorer section from not Christian background. Compassion shouldn’t have any space for elite or market defined merit, compassion is about competence. Christianity’s competence is in spreading the massage of goodness to all. (Colleges like St. Stephen should give preference to competence, I give this example since this college has been decided by and among elite section as torchbearer of merit, alumni include mostly of nuisance value and big time chatteratis).The State and people of India should be grateful to missionaries since they prevented the alienation
of huge section of population. The reason why Naxalism is not rampant in many poorer parts of India has to do a large extend with missionaries. Brahminical ideology instigated violence is nothing but consolidating power. Tribals will loose whatever they have if they enter ‘Hindu’ fold, they are numbers in the larger mission of power brokers. The heinous violence against tribals need be understood from the context of superiority of caste hindus over ‘lowly’ tribals and their audacity to challenge this authority. They also tend to patronize them as gullible people!Attack on tribals need also seen in the context of racism. Tribals have same reference point with ‘Indians’ of American continent or aborigines. The tribal leaders should also try to forge ties with these groups and try create a pan international protection. It is high time UN sponsor such an initiative. These racist attacks should be condemned at the international level, so far only Pope and Italians have reacted for what they think is an attack on Christianity. Unfortunately these attacks are much heinous and are part of systemic act of racism. There is a case for UNHRC against India, in particular the Orissa state. The Indian State stands accused of not protecting victims of racism.
