It is the nature of things around us that if you try
to them they change their character.We would be doing
a service if we did not try to know them in Andaman
either.
However, Pankaj tells me that the 'developed' world is
forcing and undesirable change. So, there has to be a
well meaning force to root these guys out - kante se
kanta nikalta hai.
Subroto Roy
--- Nachiket & Jayoo Patwardhan
<baguram@...> wrote:
> Dear Friend,
>
> So true ...the real colonising starts like this
> and end with a burden
> that we are carrying,
> makes it difficult to recognise our real identity.As
> Indians these days we
> are an extremely
> corrupted people.......If,after the British had left
> and the brown sahebs
> like Nehru hadnt
> made rules of the game and we had been left alone
> to have our own
> agricultural and ethnic
> priorities we would at least have have had water
> leave aside self respect.
>
> How can we make agendas for people we know nothing
> about!In doing so we
> might just
> hurt their sensibilities and ruin their culture.
>
> I couldnt agree with you more.
>
> Jayoo Patwardhan.
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: ANANT <ganant@...>
> To: <andamanicobar@...>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2003 11:33 AM
> Subject: RE: [andamanicobar] Fwd: Re: Oram wants to
> mainstream A&N
> tribalsinseven years
>
>
> Regarding agenda setting for development, in the
> case of the ethnic people
> of the Andamans, there is a distinct difference from
> the history of the
> mainland.
> Their anthropological isolation from us must make us
> cautious about imposing
> our agenda on them. They have quite obviously been
> independent in every
> sense of the term. Ideally, they should simply be
> left alone. The Orams of
> our polity need not look for brownie points about
> having "civilized" anyone.
> We have a huge population even otherwise, and if the
> plight of the wretched
> among us is alleviated, they can feel satisfied with
> their performance.
> There is also the question of geo-political
> identity. Do we have the right
> to control a people merely because of political
> boundaries granted to us? In
> what way are they "Indian," for us to assume the
> role of controlling their
> destiny? There is not even the question of informed
> consent here, because
> they are not in a position to assess the
> alternative, in the face of or
> corruptive influence.
>
> G.Ananthakrishnan, Chennai, India.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Meena Menon [mailto:cats@...]
> Sent: 04 November 2003 19:06
> To: andamanicobar@...
> Subject: Re: [andamanicobar] Fwd: Re: Oram wants to
> mainstream A&N tribals
> inseven years
>
> Dear Rainer and others
> I visited the Andamans islands as a tourist a couple
> of years ago and drove
> through the ATR- a road that caused the deaths of so
> many Jarawa. The local
> administration has actually put up signs along this
> road saying beware of
> Jarawa as if they are some dangerous creatures.
> While the government has
> infested the beautiful islands with other settlers,
> there is no attempt to
> understand the indigenous tribes. In fact the local
> people are hostile to
> the Jarawa and often beat them up. The Jarawa
> dressed flamboyantly dressed
> in red, often stop the cars and beg for food. It was
> a horrific sight to
> witness. I think we have taken away their beautiful
> islands and ruined them
> as a people. In fact contact with our so called
> wonderful civilisation has
> decimated these people- there was a huge measles
> epidemic among them after
> some "wellintentioned" government efforts to give
> them food some years ago.
> Oram is only furthering this stupid process and
> will probably finish off
> what remains of these people.
> I saw at that time that some people were interacting
> with the Jarawa and
> liasing with them. They have become bizarre tourist
> attractions - and know
> tourists can give them food- in fact they stopped
> our vehicle and took away
> some things- this is the result of their contact
> with our great world.
> I really dont know what can be done?am not even sure
> tourism is such a great
> idea having been there once and seen the damage we
> tourists can cause. The
> Jarawa seem so remote from all this- how can we help
> them? CAn someone who
> has studied them give any constructive ideas? Is
> leaving them alone the best
> option?
> meena
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Rainer Hoerig" <rainer@...>
> To: <andamanicobar@...>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 04, 2003 1:53 PM
> Subject: Re: [andamanicobar] Fwd: Re: Oram wants to
> mainstream A&N tribals
> in seven years
>
>
> Dear Sugato,
>
> you have raised a point that is indeed relevant in
> the situation of the
> Andaman tribes people. The world they are living in
> is indeed so
> different from the one we "civilized" have created
> around us that it is
> very difficult to imagine a meaningful communication
> happening between
> those two worlds. For instance, if you would meet a
> Jarawa on M.G. Road,
> what would you like to tell him? Even if you meet
> within their own
> habitat, the forest, what will you talk about - the
> weather, latest
> Bollywood movie, the war in Irak?
>
> The Andaman tribes people are different in the way
> that their contact
> with modern way of life is nearly nothing. You may
> visit Adivasi
> villages in Madhya Pradesh or Jharkhand for instance
> and you will be
> able to talk to these people in Hindi at least and
> you can ask them
> about their problems and how they imagine them to be
> solved. After a
> visit to the Islands about two years ago I can tell
> you: Encountering a
> Jarawa you are lost of speech, you do not know their
> habits, you cannot
> judge their reactions. How then can you try to
> find out whether they
> like the settlers or not, whether they would like to
> have a road through
> their forest home or not? Well, in case of the road
> at least, they have
> made their stand very clear by raiding the
> construction camps many
> times. But in many other issues, it is not that
> easy.
>
> Mr. Oram is a catastrophe. He is an Indian Uncle
> Tom. How can he decide
> what is best for the tribes people in the Andamans
> whom he has never
> encountered? We should enshure that nothing is been
> forced on the jungle
> dwellers, that they can exercise their free will
> towards development or
> not. Development again is a construct of our world
> with hardly any
> relevance to theirs.
>
> A last point I would like to make.
>
> In the discussion about tourism it is good to first
> stick in your pole
> and express your doubts about the harmfull effect on
> the tribes people.
> I presume that if the administration would
> simultanously close the road
> and effectively take care that no intrusion by
> settlers can happen into
> the tribes territories, then I can see not reason
> why the visit of
> tourists on other islands may harm the Jarawas.
> Instead of fundamentally
> opposing the tourism plan, why not try to strike a
> bargain by putting
> the closure of the ATR as a precondition? Anyway,
> after the closure of
>
=== message truncated ===


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Protect your identity with Yahoo! Mail AddressGuard
http://antispam.yahoo.com/whatsnewfree