Tribal Agency in Indian Higher Education

Session 105 summary

It is known about the traditional definition or the lack of it when it comes to defining tribes in general, that the UN has come up with certain markers/indicators for defining tribes in India and all over the world. However there is something which is generally not discussed very much i.e. that the tribes today, specifically in India, are undergoing a transition. So, it is seen that the educational policies have transformed economic development of tribes and their aspirations are changing, belief systems are changing, communal life is changing and this change is of course not uniform across the states, clans and regions. In 2017 Nilanjana took a screenshot of the Google page showing the search results for images of Adivasi/ tribes in India. Again in 2022 she took the screenshots of the search page for Adivasi/ tribes in India – after many years when the tribal youths are able to access higher education. But the search page still displayed images which were not much different from that of 2017. Has this transition that education is bringing about amongst the tribal youth who are getting higher education find the reflection in the mainstream media – No. What exactly is going wrong? Where? Why is this transition that is taking place – the changing aspirations of the tribal youths today, not finding enough representation in the social media in the general mainstream? The problem is that of the critical mass. One of Nilanjana’s respondents during her PhD research told her “लिखेंगे तब ही तो दिखेंगे लोग जान पाएंगे कि आदिवासी क्या सोचता है” (When we’ll write then only we will be seen, people would be able to know what tribals think). N Ferray has very powerfully stated “The Oppressed need to write” and there is a famous African Proverb that is general heard; “until the lion learns to write, every story will always glorify the hunter.” The problem of the critical mass is that the situation of higher education specifically and education in general, among the tribals is pretty dismal. When it comes to the gross enrolment ratio among the tribals in higher education, the average is pretty much lower than the GER average. Most of the tribal states have the least number of higher education institutions per 100 age appropriate population, there is a considerable low representation of tribes within faculties in higher educational institutional. Participation of tribal students in technical courses is lesser than other caste groups. Average expenditure of a tribal household per student is far lesser on higher education. Rural-urban differences within tribes, poorest performers in rural areas. Percentage of dropout of tribal students in higher education is the highest amongst all caste groups in rural areas. Non-engagement in economic activities impact concern as compared to other social groups.

Exploring where does the problem lie: A lot of review of the literature as well as practical example from the field, brings about major issues that are in need of focus. So, mere political autonomy in the Fifth and Sixth Schedule as provided to the states has not done enough for the tribes, they have not been able to attain the developmental parameters that they are looking forward to. The paternalistic or welfareistic attitude of the government has constantly been a problem where in the government sort of feels that it knows best what has to be done and there is lesser consultation with the tribal communities when it comes to discussing about what kind of nature of development are they leaning forward to. The education system is more towards propagating cultural impositions of the mainstream system on the tribal communities and there is a widespread neglect of the rising tribal aspirations among the youths especially those who are getting higher educated. As the higher educated tribal individuals find themselves in asymmetrical relations of power within the higher education system, their conditions of poverty and experiences of social change further disadvantage them. It is a sad state of affair that the valuable indigenous knowledge systems are not in the control of the tribal communities themselves. Research also shows that there is an increased exit of the tribes who are becoming higher educated from their own culture, from their own ethnicity leading to a larger ethnocide among the tribal communities.

Nilanjana has used Albert Hirschman’s theory of ‘exit, voice or loyalty’ to understand how exactly is this change taking place. Albert was a renowned economist in the late 1900s who, while exploring a wide range of possible reactions of individuals who were experiencing, who were associated with firms or organizations that were experiencing a decline, or institutions which were going through a time of crisis. So, individuals who were a part of these institutions or organizations would typically demonstrate three kind of behaviour; they would either withdraw from the relationship i.e. exit or they would show an attempt to improve the conditions of the institution by voicing whatever was going wrong within the institutions and thereby showing a sense of loyalty towards the institution.

So, what can be observed amongst the tribal higher educated youth today is this paradox, wherein because the mainstream does not consider the higher educated and does not represent the higher educated tribals as much or do not accept them easily to be a part of the mainstream society, what is happening with these higher educated tribal youth is that they prefer to exit from their own culture and mask their identity so as to emulate the mainstream culture and hence in the process “de-tribalize” themselves to form a completely new class. The education system is constantly negatively affecting their perception of “tribalness”, not finding any representation of tribal ethos in the mainstream education system further motivates them to cut-off their association with the communities and this particular behaviour is very vehemently observable in the first generation of tribal higher educated individuals.

But there is another observable behaviour which is loyalty or revivalism. Sometimes there are moral, social, religious obligations of individuals that brings in a sense of giving back to the society or a solidarity towards their society wherein they want to come back and give back to their community. This tendency is more-so observable among the second or the third generation of tribal higher educated youth which is said to be also cultivated by the education system which actually forces them to think about their own roots and a sense of revivalism is ignited. But there could also be negative connotations to this sense of revivalism wherein the negative self-image of the community could get propagated or the sacred social hierarchies of subjugation could further get propagated, hence what becomes important is the voice of the individual, who has become higher educated. Voice is also the agency of: the individual, the tribal individuals and informed descent. The aspiration to change something which is not right in the given circumstances of the tribal community, as well as get a share of the developmental benefits from the larger domain of higher education is what voice/agency of the higher educated youth is.

Agency requires to be explored: why is there a need to explore it in the higher education domain? A lot of scholars have talked about tribal autonomy as an essential domain and as a missing prerequisites for their economic development. So, it is possible that if there is more participation, there is more access, there is more representation in the higher education system in general, and tribal autonomy becomes a reality within the higher education system. In order to explore that, scholars say that capable institutions basically propagate this sovereignty- propagate this agency. It is believed that although the western model of education is not indigenous to India but education system has brought in a sense of enhanced agency as Freire puts it as ‘conscientization’ that is brought about by education and what are the suitable strategies that can actually help enhance this sovereignty or agency within the higher education system. These suitable strategies is the system of governance within the higher education system that Nilanjana has looked up in her research. This higher education system is definitely bringing in some sense of agency amongst the tribal youth but is this development that is taking place amongst the tribes culturally appropriate. Not quite so. A lot of researchers are talking about inclusive quality education that has to go beyond access but perspective such as the feminists perspectives talks about how being educated affords better possibilities for greater power and greater assertion levels hence studying participation of adivasis in higher education through the lens of agency is important.

How do we understand agency? How do we theorise agency? Concepts that are contained within agency are individual’s action, individual’s will, intentionality, choice, freedom, etc. and what are concepts that come beyond agency or kind of undermine agency are the structural aspects. In philosophy, Hume & Aristotle have talked about agency as performance of intentional actions. There are social and behavioural sciences have accepted that structure and agency act like a feedback loop. So, agency does exist but it exists within tight constraints. But then again it is also free because within those constraints to kind of assert in certain aspects, certain manners. Sociological and anthropological studies of education have debated on how agency can be constrained by structures such as class, gender, racial inequalities, etc. and in psychology it is a capacity to self-reflect, self-regulate and self-organise. In polity, agency is talked about as individual choices and the ability to influence one’s life conditions and chances. Then talking about collective agency, it refers to situations where individuals would pool their knowledge resources and skills etc. and hence they could lead to shaping their collective future.

For Nilanjana’s research, putting it very simply, borrowing from different definitions given by different scholars, she has defined tribal agency as the “tribal community’s will and capacity to exert a positive influence on their lives and world around them. Tribals within higher educational institutions are ‘actors’ engaged in the complex social ecologies of work, learning and social responsibility in congruence with the adivasi socio-cultural context.”
So, her research has majorly focused on tribal individuals as faculties within the higher education system and how are they dealing with their everyday lives as a tribal as well as managing the different aspects of governance within the higher education system.

What is Nilanjana exploring? How does education affect tribal agency? What is the nature and extent of tribal participation at different hierarchies in HEIs? How do universities in the schedule areas provide space and opportunity to tribal agency and influence it through its various functions? In what ways, the tribal agency can be energized to play proactive roles to make HEIs more responsive towards the tribal groups? For the methodology adopted she has used narrative enquiry design. The narrative enquiry gives voice to the respondent’s personal reflections of experiences of agency in the higher education domain – so that they do not become merely samples for the study/research but instead become quite lively participants within the research that is taking place. In addition to this focused root discussions were also organised as well as a survey was also conducted with tribal students from universities.

The universe of the research was Jharkhand: Jharkhand is a state which has witnessed unbalanced intra-district growth in literacy. In state public universities only 12.7% of the teachers are ST. 5% ST of the total number of teachers in all categories. 18% of female teachers are Adivasi in Jharkhand. Number of female ST teachers higher than male teachers. ST male and female teachers in state government colleges is 10.6% and 20% respectively, percentage of male and female ST teachers in private unaided colleges of Jharkhand is 2.7% and 14% respectively. Tribal students are less represented in government universities offering technical courses, except for agriculture. Higher representation of ST in non-teaching staff including contractual staff, library staff, non-teaching staff and physical education staff comprises of 17.8%, SC comprise of 11% and OBC 33.3% of the non-teaching staff. 22 government colleges are serving >90% ST population in Kolhan. The 2 universities that she looked up was the Kolhan University and Ranchi University. Ranchi University is one of the oldest university of Jharkhand, established with the goal of making higher education within the reach of a large numbers of tribal youth. It now has a more cosmopolitan culture of university and courses. Stronger emulation of mainstream culture amongst faculties. Kolhan University on the other hand established after a long drawn struggle for the establishment of the university which in itself is an assertion of educational rights of the tribals and this region is predominantly known to be a self-governed where the Munda/Manki system has been followed for a very long time. The whole community specifically here is known to have a very strong fights against the non-tribals in the region.

The concept of agency, operating in the higher education system: agency of a tribal individual is influenced by the Adivasi identity, the Adivasi culture, the different institutions of which these individuals have been a part so all these institutions have a role to play in finding the agency of this Adivasi individual, language, culture, economy, the politics and the polity of the place where this individual is situated. So, when the tribal individual is actually becoming a part of the higher education institution and when this individual is acting as a faculty or an administrative within the higher education institution. The circles that surrounds the individual’s agency freedom can be called as the process of governance. For this research the process of governance Nilanjana has considered them to be researched within the domain of the university, community outreach programs that are taking place within the university, the curriculum and the pedagogy and the administrative functions of the university. These 4 comprise the governance process of the university and for Nilanjana’s research what she has majorly looked at is ‘how is a tribal individual in the shoes of a faculty or an administrator dealing with these governance processes. What are the enablers in these processes that is helping the tribal individual to assert his agency as a tribal in the education domain and what are the barriers that these governance processes are presenting to the individual in the process of the governance of higher education system.’

Major Results: looking at the university outreach programs that are taking place at this point of time, tribal faculties as well as tribal students have tried to assert their culture through various celebrations, the participation of students in movements such as the Pathalgadi Movement of Jharkhand, celebration of Sarhul where the gaon pramukh or the Munda are invited to be a part of these celebrations. These celebrations, collective actions of promulgating their culture is a kind of an assertion that the tribal individuals, both the faculties and the students, are trying to take up within the domain of higher education. But when it comes to the educational activities and how the university is engaging with the tribal community in general, the respondents told her that the university system is not solving local problems by involving communities. Some of the respondents said that this is happening because non-tribal are at the helm of affairs and more tribal participation could lead to a better situation but in the same breath some other respondents mentioned that “aguwa logo ne maddat nhi kia”. So, there are situations where tribal people at the helm of affairs have not been able to assert themselves adequately. Some of the respondents told her that that was because of the missing critical mass about tribal welfare there and statements are made such as one cannot just talk about tribal welfare. Many times these individuals even though in a position of power feel aloof, feel alone because the number are less because at times they are the sole representative in such domains and then they utilise silence as their agency. At the same time educational activity in the university could involve talking more about the local laws like the Chotanagpur Tennacy (CNT) Act, Santhal Pragna Tennacy (SNPT) Act, etc. with the students so that there is greater appreciation – greater awareness of these aspects within the tribal community in general but that again is missing. Indigenous knowledge systems find no representation in the syllabus in general even good practises such as almost no or minimal dowry death amongst tribals are not topics that are discussed in classes which could actually help enhance the social status of the tribal communities given these good social values that are prevalent within the tribal communities.

When it comes to research, one major problem that researchers face, delving in the domain of tribal research is the lack of documentary evidence, tribals being majorly oral tradition of knowledge management, inadequate researches are taking place on local knowledge systems, how they evolved and more specifically what are the cultural uses of certain practices, geographical uses taking place within these tribal communities and this has a huge connotation towards a sustainable life as local knowledge systems are now becoming a thing. The constraints of research: non-tribes are generally not allowed to participate in tribal rituals which are tribal specific, so it becomes difficult for researchers to take up researches.

Teacher’s agency through curriculum and pedagogy – respondents informed Nilanjana that if language related jobs are not created in schools, in universities, the use of language will get lesser and lesser. Another major problem is: who is actually composing, who is writing, who is documenting the knowledge systems of the tribes and who is reading them. There is an issue of subaltern literature at present i.e. although there has started being a mention of tribes within the curriculum and the pedagogy to some extent but then again they are still mostly focused on the problematic issues such as discrimination amidst the communities. What is required more and more now are researches in the domain of tribal knowledge system and integration of these knowledge systems within the curriculum rather than just talking about their problem and simply glorifying that they are a vulnerable section.

Nilanjana observed that one of the methods that the teachers use is Fugitive pedagogy, which comes from the black educational movement in the United States wherein the black faculties secretly read black histories and cultures in classrooms asserting their cultural identity. Nilanjana observed a lot of tribal teachers organising tribal fests, giving assignments on specific communities etc. to assert their culture and identity within the classrooms. But it is still a difficult task to achieve.

Administration: In the case of administration there are too many fights to be resolved (told by the respondents) – the difficulties of discrimination, non-representation and some difficulties are unfathomable e.g. some tribal students are not enrolled in doctoral degree because there are not enough faculties who would want to take them under them and become their guides because of a completely false notion that they will not be able to complete their PhD degree in time. With the lack of specific tribal faculty development programs, tribal faculties are always struggling with their score in academic performance index and related promotions. The tribal students talk about lack of career guidance and counselling mechanisms. There is a negative self-image being propagated. A dual problem is that the native community is not supportive of the modern education system because they think that this education system is making them lose their ethnic culture.

‘Adivasiyat’/ Identity as Agency: one of the respondents told her that “garv karo adivasi ho” is a common statement thrown around but what should Tribals be proud of? Their culture is ridden with poverty, alcoholism and all the good things do not find reflection in the curriculum. Similarly, another person asserts that education in some sense has fostered a recognition of deprivation and tribals need to do something about it. Another one says that education has brought in the recognition to identify themselves from the constitutional powers that have been rested in them and it kind of supports their resistance against the jal jungle jameen. Higher education also provides the capacity to recognise all these numbers about sustainability, humanism and universalism that is now being talked about across the country in great numbers and with great enthusiasm is actually a part of the culture, that is why it becomes more and more important for the tribal communities to assert their knowledge systems, their culture within the higher education system. Even if not culturally appropriate, to some extent higher education is enhancing the individual’s identity for sure.

What can be done about it? There is a cultural context: the adivasiyat, individuals identity as an adivasi, the individuals cultural context, individuals ethos and there is this individual within the academic space, juggling with the curriculum and pedagogy, the outreach program, research, administrative structure, politics, policies, etc. At each point of time a tribal faculty within the academic space is having to balance his cultural context which at times is also rejecting the higher education system at the same time as an academician within the higher education space they are also balancing the government’s processes and trying to assert themselves through different processes. At the same time their skills are also getting enhanced.

The outcome of this struggle that is taking place has led to increased participation access assertion and increase in their voice growth of opportunities but at the same time there are issues of endurance fatalism struggle for survival and a silent acceptance of a lot of things that are going on in the system.

Is there any hope? Yes. Conflicts and contradictions often allow possibilities of social transformation changing aspirations and perspectives of the tribal youth. Power and silence in classroom: marginalised sections often wish their children to access discourses, language and interactions that lend to success in society. Can open the gates to ensure larger numbers of tribal students enter academia and get subjects of their choice.

What can be done? Rising aspirations for agency should be targeted in government higher education policies. Let tribals self-identify; the past, identity that the tribal individual derives from the legal definitions proposed makes self-identity as primitive and shy. Governance system operates to delivers systemic marginalisation. Create pathways to curtail channels of negative assertion like extremism. Increased university community linkage beyond the traditional ivory tower approach to sustainably disrupt historic inequities and enhance agency. Fugitive strategies should find space in curriculum. Policy making should not expect uniform self-determinism towards economic development amongst tribes not all tribal communities share a similar goal or definition of development. Differences need to be respected.