The tribal communities of South Asia have been generally concentrated in the north-east, north-west (now in Pakistan), and in central and western India. Three different religions — Islam (in north-west), Christianity (in north-east) and Hinduism (in central and western India) — made inroads into these communities. Their absorption into these religions was always partial and tentative and never to the satisfaction of the big religions. Relative isolation, internal coherence, absence of the written word and of private property, and a loose connection with the outside world characterised these tribal communities. They often occupied territories extremely rich in natural resources. This attracted the outside forces. The maximum encroachment happened in modern times when the predatory economy entered these areas for resources, thus disrupting both their livelihood and culture. The tribals invariably resisted, leading to conflict and violence. The book under review tells the story of the struggles of the Bhil community for their dignity, livelihood and identity. Bhils, as a large tribal community, were scattered across much of central and western India, in present-day Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. Traditionally, they were nomads, peasants and forest dwellers. Their nomadic pursuits led to their dispersal across a large area. However, they remained internally connected through cultural ties. Numerically a very large community, they also developed their own political structure and small principalities, ruled by chieftains. Through much of their history, the Bhils moved about voluntarily. Their first major encounter with the outsiders happened when the warrior Rajputs, riding their horses, entered into what later became the Rajputana region, from 11th-12th centuries onwards. As a result, some Bhils retreated to the hills and forests. Some other Bhil chieftains entered into alliances with the Rajputs and became their subordinate partners in the new political system. However, a much larger and qualitatively different encounter developed closer to modern times. The British were interested not only in political domination but also in complete control over the rich natural resources. One such region, Khandesh, attracted the British because of its fertile soil and cotton cultivation. The region was prosperous and so was its Bhil population. Whereas the Bhil-Rajput encounters had created new alliances and political arrangements, the nature of the encounter with the British was different. The medieval Indian polity, prior to the arrival of the British, was centralised at the top but at the regional and local level, accommodated various groups and interests which retained their autonomy. The traditional Indian sovereignty was both diffused, negotiated and shared across regions. The British, by contrast, introduced an impersonal bureaucratic system, in which various stakeholders had to either become subordinates or face total marginalisation. Many Bhil chieftains responded by rebelling. The new system endangered not just their traditional rights over jungles and mountains, but their very lifestyle. Thrown off their natural habitat, and deprived of their dignity, the Bhils had no option but to take to violence. This often led to their being declared as criminal tribes. The book by Subhash Chandra Kushwaha, written in Hindi, and brilliantly translated into English by Naresh ‘Nadeem’, tells the stories of rebellions and protests by the Bhils. These struggles were only superficially against the Rajputs, Marathas and the British. Deep down, they were against a new economic system that had begun to be established in the 19th century, in which all the natural wealth was seen as investible resource to be utilised in the service of the industrial economy. The original custodians of this natural wealth were the victims in this venture. The marginalised and displaced tribals revolted and it took many forms, ranging from open warfare, non-payment of taxes, violation of rules to theft, kidnapping and dacoity. One weakness of the book is that it adopts a very unselective and omnibus approach while studying protest and violence. The British designated all protests as criminal activities. This book has gone to the other extreme and designated every act of individual theft and robbery as revolt and protest. The trouble with both these approaches is that the supreme importance of protest as a critique and a questioning of the system gets overlooked. We need an account of the tribal protest that makes a distinction between genuine protest and routine acts of crime and violence. — The reviewer is a visiting faculty at BML Munjal University, Gurugram
