Former Chief Minister Arjun Munda has emphasised on more and more research based study of tribals and their history. While launching a book named ‘Adivasiyon Ki Paramparagat Nyay Vyavastha’ by a young writer Yogesh Kumar, he said that having almost no or very little documented history of prevailing justice system of tribals of Jharkhand since ages has appeared to be one of the reasons of conflict between them and establishment in recent days.
“It is very important to see how we look at tribals, their history and culture. When it comes to justice system, we speak about a word called Swaraj. However, we have not been able to define this word and its real meaning right since independence of the country. But tribals of Jharkhand and neighbouring States have been practicing it since thousands of years and we don’t have documented history of it,” said Munda while talking about the content and relevance of the book.
He said that tribals never compromised with their values; hence those values became their identities. “Once this identity is tempered with, they take it seriously and become offensive and aggressive. At least this is what we have been witnessing for some decades,” said Munda.
Munda also appreciated Kumar for working on and documenting such a relevant subject and said that writing such a research based book in Hindi was a welcome move. Munda, Chief Guest of the event, was accompanied by Jharkhand Assembly Speaker Dinesh Oraon, Kanke MlA Jeetu Charan Ram, Ranchi College History Department Associate Professor Geeta Ojha, veteran journalist Balbir Dutt, and his wife Mira Munda at the event.
Describing about the book, Kumar said that it was not an easy task to write about something which didn’t help with reference materials in abundance. The writer of his first book said, “I had to do everything by my own and there we almost no reference books available. Serious efforts of research on traditional tribal justice system and its development with passing time have been avoided since centuries and centenaries. However, I have tried my best to let audience and readers know what the justice system of tribals was and how their society could afford to travel thousands of years with those sustainable and fair systems.”
Dutt said at the occasion that absence of Grantha Academy was also one of the major reasons of lack of documents and books on tribal history. He also pointed out that formation of Indian Tribal Service as a separate cadre in UPSC like IAS and IPS was also advised by one of the governors of Bihar, so that those with keen interest in tribals could be deployed as officers in tribal region. However, it never came true.
The book, published by Parikrama Prakashan (Delhi) has been divided in seven chapters to focus on from historical studies of justice system of prominent tribes to their present status. However, a price tag of ` 700 could confine its reach to selected intellectuals extremely focused to know about the subject.