To commemorate this momentous occasion, ActionAid, an international non-governmental organisation whose primary stated aim is to work against poverty and injustice worldwide, organised a three-day workshop on Forest, Livelihood and Identity as part of the National Consultation on Tribal Empowerment held in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

I was invited to be part of the team from the North East to share our experience of implementing the FRA, the Sixth Schedule and the various iterations of Article 371 that also recognise the rights of indigenous tribal peoples in their territory.

My focus was on the challenges plaguing the Sixth Schedule and, based on its experience in Meghalaya, what indigenous peoples elsewhere in the country need to do to gain their rights, while also cautioning against the potential pitfalls. Those suggestions, along with those received from various indigenous groups from around the country, were collated and submitted to the Ministry of Tribal Affairs and Union Minister Jual Oram.

Attending the workshop was a great opportunity for me to meet indigenous groups from various parts of the country, especially those that belong to the Munda group (this includes Santal, Ho, Munda, Kharia, etc.), who reside primarily in Jharkhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Bihar and Chhattisgarh.

They are our kin, who became a separate linguistic group around 4,000 years ago, when some of the Austro-Asiatic groups, after arriving in the North East, continued to Central India and mixed with the existing Dravidian population, creating the Munda population of today. Those who remained in the North East are today known as the Khasi (made up of the War, Khynriam, Lyngngam, Maram, Bhoi and Pnar).

I had read about the dispossession and discrimination the Munda and other indigenous groups had faced over the years. However, it was the first time that I was listening to them in person, and the stories they told were heartbreaking: forcibly evicted from their ancestral territories, and despite the FRA giving them the right to habitation, their claims are still being denied.

In 2019, the Supreme Court of India ordered the eviction of 1 million indigenous tribal households across 20 states whose claims under the Forest Rights Act, 2006 had been rejected. So, despite the Act, they were still being denied their rights.

The pressure on indigenous groups is not just the loss of territory but also of identity, with both being linked. One of the demands being put forward by them is that there should be a category to indicate their indigenous faiths. F

or long, they have complained that they have been clubbed with Hindus, Christians, Muslims and other groups. However, these are foreign faiths and, in Khasi, would be termed as 'Niam Dkhar'. In fact, the word for outsiders in the Munda languages is Diko, which is actually the name of one of the lost tribes among the Khasi.

This raises the possibility that the lost tribe among the Khasi in the origin myth actually referred to all the non-Khasi groups in the world, who, after having arrived on earth with the original six clans/families, lost their way from the sacred site of Lum Sohpetbneng and are today residing elsewhere. Once these 'Niam Dkhars' start taking root, indigenous groups felt that their culture was getting eroded.

But it was not only their cultural identity which was under threat. In particular, the spread of Hinduism among some indigenous groups was raised by many in the workshop as a major concern.

According to some community members, accepting a Niam Dkhar like Hinduism creates a special kind of danger for them.

As long as they follow their indigenous faith, the lives of the people are governed by their customary law. But once they convert to Hinduism, they are then governed by the Hindu Marriage Act.

This is then used to transfer indigenous tribal land to the non-indigenous, non-tribal population. To prevent this, many therefore wanted that in the upcoming Census there should be a separate category for recording their indigenous faith, so that conversion of indigenous people to Niam Dkhar faiths like Hinduism, Christianity and Islam can be stopped and their land and identity protected.

When I was in Darjeeling a few weeks ago for another workshop, I came to learn that some of the Nepali-speaking groups were also dissatisfied that they were not included in the ST list. I was informed by a member of one such group that they do not practise Hindu rituals or the caste system and therefore are eligible for ST status.

However, they were upset that they had not yet received the status. In 2024, Darjeeling MP Raju Bista urged the Union Government in Parliament to grant ST status to 11 Nepali-speaking groups. There is also a political dimension to the demand for ST status. Once the majority of the communities in Darjeeling are considered tribal, it will also help the district obtain Sixth Schedule status.

In a recent press conference, Bhanu Lama, a former GNLF (Gorkha National Liberation Front) leader who is now the Convenor of Gorkha National Liberation Front (Subashbadi), stated that "the 6th Schedule will protect our land. We need the 6th Schedule to save Darjeeling, for industry, environment, tourism and our geographical boundaries".

Incidentally, the Sixth Schedule Constitutional (Amendment) Bill, 2007 and the Constitutional (One Hundred and Seventh Amendment) Bill, 2007 had been tabled in the Lok Sabha but, due to objections from the BJP, the Bill was referred to the Standing Committee on Home Affairs.

So, converting to a Niam Dkhar has immense repercussions for indigenous communities, not just for their identity but also for their political rights. For some, it is also a violation of their history, since indigenous faiths like those followed by the Khasi, Munda and other groups are older than these Niam Dkhars.

Christianity is a 2,000-year-old religion which emerged from Judaism, which itself has a history of 4,000 years. Hinduism arrived in South Asia with the migrating Indo-Aryan groups around 3,500 years ago. On the other hand, Austro-Asiatic groups like the Khasi and Munda were already settled in the region around 5,000 years ago. Their original distribution was, in fact, much wider.

In the 2025 book 'India: 5000 Years of History on the Subcontinent' by Audrey Truschke, there is a suggestion that multiple languages were spoken in the Indus Valley Civilisation, including Dravidian and Munda languages, the linguistic families that preceded Indo-Aryan languages found today in North Indian tongues.

Both Dravidian and Munda (Austro-Asiatic) words appear in the Vedas, including the Rig Veda (the earliest of the four Vedas), indicating communication between Indo-Aryan migrants and the already existing communities.

In fact, Sanskrit's retroflex sounds were borrowed from Dravidian languages. Peggy Mohan's 2021 book 'Wanderers, Kings, Merchants: The Story of India through Its Languages' describes the process in great detail and its implications for the linguistic landscape of the country.

Punjabi and Marathi are classified as Indo-Aryan languages, but their Dravidian foundation is still strongly visible. Today, Dravidian and Munda languages have all but disappeared from areas where they were previously spoken, i.e., North and North-West India, and are confined to South India and the Chota Nagpur Plateau of Central India.

So, if one were to travel to North India 5,000 years back in history, we would find people speaking languages related to Khasi, practising matrilineal customs and sharing a story similar to Lum Sohpetbneng. If history had turned out differently, today Khasi would have been the national language of India, something which is currently being argued for Hindi, an Indo-Aryan language.

Religion is a personal matter and should not be used for granting political rights. Imagine if many of the Bodo, Karbi, Tripuri, Rabha and Hajong are today deprived of their ST status because they have converted from their indigenous faith to Hinduism; it would be highly unfair.

For me, they are still indigenous because they are part of the group that arrived in South Asia around 4,000 years ago and, along with the Austro-Asiatic groups like the Khasi and Munda, are among the first settlers. They are the same people despite having changed their religion. This is the same dilemma faced by indigenous groups throughout the country.

Religion, therefore, should not determine identity. Attempts to do so will create problems which will make things very dangerous. So, whether one accepts Niam Dkhar or Niam Tynrai, indigenous people will remain indigenous people.

(The views expressed in the article are those of the author and do not reflect in any way his affiliation to any organisation or institution.)

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