Telangana tribes stir up state
Northern Telangana has been roiled by mounting tribal protests over the past two months because of a single demand: Throwing the most dominant tribe, the Lambadas or Banjaras, out of the state scheduled tribes list.
The agitation, fronted by youth associations of the Gond and Koya tribes, began in a few pockets in three districts — Adilabad, Kumaram Bheem Asifabad and Mancherial districts in the Northern part of the state— but has since spread to other tribaldominated districts of Jayashankar Bhupalpally, Bhadradri Kothagudem and Khammam in East Telangana.
Tribals have taken out processions, held protests and dharnas and submitted petitions to the state government to press for their demand. Recently, thousands of tribals took out a massive rally in Kothagudem town, claiming injustice to the other tribes due to the domination of the Lambadas, a nomadic tribe.
In Komaram Bheem Asifabad, some groups have blocked Lambada teachers from entering tribal welfare schools, passing resolutions at village councils seeking the removal of Lambadas from the ST list and staging protests in front of the collectorate.
“All these years, the real Adivasis were subject to a lot of injustice in education and employment because the Lambadas had grabbed all the opportunities. They destroyed our culture and tradition,” Gond Youth Association leader Kanaka Ambaji Rao told HT. Experts say the discontent against Lambadas has been brewing for at least three decades but a recent government announcement regarding staff recruitment through the Telangana State Public Service Commission blew the lid off the anger. Other tribals fear the Lambadas will corner most of the jobs available under the ST quota. The state reserves 6% of its jobs for scheduled tribes and in April, passed a bill to take that figure up to 10%. Komaram Bheem Asifabad district collector Champalal said there had been no major law and order trouble and that the tribals were agitating peacefully.
“As regards to the boycotting ofLambadateachersbyAdivasis, we have formed official committees to negotiate with the agitators and see that there were no disturbances to the classes,” he said. Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao also held a few rounds of meetings with tribal representatives and officials to find an amicable solution, the collector said.
According to Rao, Lambadas migrated from Rajasthan and Maharashtra in large numbers in the last three decades, and have cornered all government benefits. But the Lambadas, who have not resorted to any major retort, say their legitimate rights were being threatened. “We constitute more than 70% of the STs in Telangana. It is only in the recent past that we were able to get our legitimate share in education and jobs,” Bhukya Sanjeeva Naik, a Lambada leader, argued.
G Haragopal, retired professor at the University of Hyderabad, said, “Though they are treated as non-tribals in some states, Lambadas too have tribal characteristics. So, demanding their deletion from the ST list may not be possible, but the best solution is to categorise the STs based on their population and backwardness ...”