Latest news with #VanvasiKalyanAshram
Scroll.in
09-07-2025
- Politics
- Scroll.in
A new book studies the ideologies and functioning of the RSS's tribal wing, Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram
The formation of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram happened over concerns regarding the increasing activities of Christian missionaries in tribal areas. There was a fear that as the Muslim League started to demand a separate nation for Muslims, the Christian missionaries could instigate converted tribals to demand a separate nation-state for Christians. Indeed, the issue of conversion was prominent in many tribal areas, including Madhya Pradesh (then Central Provinces), even before Independence, with some princely states initiating enactments to ban conversion. These included the Raigarh state Conversion Act, 1936, the Surguja state Hindu Apostasy Act, 1945, and the Udaipur state Conversion Act, 1946. What is interesting is that all these bills were introduced or passed primarily to ban the conversion of tribes to Christianity. During the national movement, proselytisation by Christian missionaries emerged as one of the key contested issues and a matter of concern. Even Mahatma Gandhi expressed his concern regarding conversion by Christian missionaries. In Bihar Notes (10 August 1925), he underlined that, Christian missionaries have been doing valuable service for generations, but in my humble opinion, their work suffers because at the end of it they expect the conversion of these simple people to Christianity … How very nice it would be if the missionaries rendered humanitarian service without the ulterior aim of conversion. After its formation, the RSS focused largely on the aspect of mobilising Hindus against Muslims, its leaders expressed their concerns regarding the roles of Christian missionaries in tribal areas. However, they could not start systematic work in tribal areas before the early 1950s, but its leaders, particularly Golwalkar, always raised the issue of the conversion of tribal people. During the late 1930s and 1940s, one can find two facets of the concerns among the Congress leaders related to the role of Christian missionaries: For some leaders like Rajendra Prasad, the key issue was to maintain the political popularity and acceptance of the Congress among tribals, but for some (like Ravishankar Shukla) the chief concern was the supposed separatist tendencies enhanced by Christian missionaries. It is noteworthy that in the tribal belt of the Chota Nagpur region of Bihar, the Jharkhand movement started to take shape by the late 1930s. The Adivasi Mahasabha continuously raised the issue of a separate tribal province and became more prominent when Jaipal Singh Munda joined it and became its president in 1939. Jaipal Singh Munda was a famous hockey player who was the captain of the Indian hockey team in the Amsterdam Olympics of 1927, where they won the gold medal. Thereafter, he was selected for the Indian Civil Services under the British India Government, but rather than joining it, he focused on different administrative works and teaching, before joining politics. Incidentally, when he returned to India, Rajendra Prasad asked him to work with the Congress. But after discussions with the then Bihar governor, Munda decided to work separately for the adivasis. The Bihar Congress leadership was not happy with the growing influence of the Adivasi Mahasabha. Jaipal Singh Munda wrote to Rajendra Prasad on 16 January 1939, 'I have now been recognised the natural leader of the Adivasis and I feel I must use all my weight to make the Adivasis work for their advancement within the national movement.' In the same letter, he emphatically argued that 'I have always felt that nothing should be done to weaken the nationalistic force and I am most concerned that the Adivasi movement should be within the major national struggle for an all-India struggle.' In another letter written to Rajendra Prasad on 1 February 1939, Munda underlined that 'I have always been and shall remain an ardent lover of the Congress principles.' He criticised the Bihar government for overlooking the interests of adivasis. Again, in his letter to Rajendra Prasad on 14 June 1939, Munda underlined that ' … the aims and objects of the Adivasi Sabha … were in full harmony with the Indian National Congress.' However, Rajendra Prasad was not convinced. He wrote to Munda on 3 July 1939 and mentioned, 'I do not know how the Adivasi Sabha can be said to be in harmony with the Indian National Congress when it thought fit to set up candidates against the Congress candidates.' Rajendra Prasad and other Congress leaders felt that the church was also helping the political activities of Jaipal Singh Munda and the Adivasi Mahasabha. Munda's biographer Ashwini Kumar Pankaj claims that due to instigation by Congress leaders, the issue of Christian and non-Christian also emerged in the Adivasi Mahasabha, which led to a split in the organisation and a senior leader, Theble Uraon, formed a separate organisation named 'Sanatan Adivasi Mahasabha'. Uraon had a close relationship with many Congress leaders. In 1940, when the Congress organised its annual session at Ramgarh, Jaipal Singh Munda claimed that it was a ploy by the Bihar Congress leaders to suppress his organisation. A day before the Congress session, Uraon organised a meeting in Ramgarh and severely criticised Munda, asserting that he was not a representative of non-Christian tribals and should not mislead them with his separatist ideas. It is noteworthy that Congress leaders were against the Jharkhand movement. One argument was that the Bihar Congress leaders wanted non-tribal Bihar people to be dominant in tribal areas. This argument could be partially true, but it seems that the more credible reason for opposition to the Jharkhand movement was fear of separatism, fuelled by the church and Christian missionaries. Rajendra Prasad met a Catholic bishop in Ranchi in July 1939 and requested that the church keep a distance from politics and should not support any political party with separatist leanings. He wrote a letter to the bishop of Ranchi and requested him to keep away from the political activities of different organisations. There was concern that an organisation like the Adivasi Mahasabha could create a feeling of separatism in the minds of tribal youths. The Congress leadership was also against the demand of Jharkhand. Gandhian leader, AV Thakkar, popularly called Thakkar Bapa, wrote to Rajendra Prasad on 8 March 1939 regarding the resolutions of the Adivasi Mahasabha conference held on 20 and 21 January 1939. He wrote, 'The chief and the first resolution is about the separation of Chota Nagpur from Bihar, to which we, of course, cannot agree.' Thakkar Bapa suggested that Rajendra Prasad form a distinct organisation to create confidence among the tribal people. On 27 March 1939, he wrote to Prasad, 'The Adivasi Sabha is a talking body or an agitating body. The committee that I propose is a silent, constructive body of actual workers. Political work will not form part of it and it is expected to win the confidence of people, as you say, by its selfless work.' He also urged Prasad that the Bihar provincial government should provide economic help to such organisations. Following his suggestions, a separate organisation, 'Admi Jaati Sevak Mandal' was formed. Thakkar Bapa had worked in tribal areas for many decades but did not directly advocate the spread of Hindu values in tribal society, but had deep suspicions about Christian missionaries who he thought could foster separatism in tribal areas. This feeling was prevalent among many Congress leaders as well, which played a crucial role in the formation of the VKA. In 1948, when the then chief minister of Central Provinces, Ravishankar Shukla, was on a visit to the tribal areas of his state, he saw black flag protests and sloganeering by tribals for a separate Jharkhand state. Shukla thought it was a dangerous and divisive campaign propagated by Christian missionaries and was worried about the conversion of adivasis to Christianity and discussed his fears with Thakkar Bapa. Bapa told Shukla that it was necessary to bring tribal people into the 'mainstream' to stop conversion and contain separatism. For this, he said, the help of nationalist organisations should be taken.
Scroll.in
03-05-2025
- Politics
- Scroll.in
May nonfiction: Six newly published books that present the many ways of seeing India
All information sourced from publishers. Hostile Homelands: The New Alliance Between India and Israel, Azad Essa In the past decade, under the Narendra Modi-led government, India has changed dramatically. As the world attempts to grapple with the country's sharp turn towards authoritarianism and Hindutva, little attention has been paid to the way India has leaned on Israeli weapons, military tactics and technical support to build its own ethnonationalist state. As a leader of the much-lauded Non-Aligned Movement, India was once perceived as a pillar of pro-Palestine solidarity. New Delhi had equated Zionism with racism, after all. It was the first non-Arab state to recognise the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. How, then, did Israel become a cornerstone of India's foreign policy? If India was an opponent of colonialism and apartheid, why does its agenda in Kashmir look so similar to Israel's settler-colonial project in Palestine? And how did a traditional supporter of the Palestinian cause become such a willing partner to Israel's genocide in Gaza? Hostile Homelands puts India's relationship with Israel in its historical context, looking at the origins of, and connections between, Zionism and Hindutva. It examines the nature of India's changing position on Palestine and its growing military-industrial relationship with Israel from the 1990s onwards. The Last Bench, Adhir Biswas, translated from the Bengali by V Ramaswamy A village barber's son who migrated with his family from erstwhile East Pakistan to India in 1967 revisits his childhood in the lost land. When his father set up a hair salon in the local weekly market near their new home, it fell to the little boy to seek out customers and bring them to the shop for a haircut or a shave. But the father was keenly aware that only an education could offer his boy a way out of the penury that had been their lot. Disappointed in his older sons who had both dropped out of school, he now pinned all his hopes on the youngest son. But school was brutal on the young boy who was always shown his 'place', the last bench, where he sat alone, with his cracked slate and a wet rag to wipe it clean. His only refuge was his ailing mother, with whom he sometimes forayed into the woods and up to the outskirts of the village. They saw the world through each other's eyes. And after her passing, he found another constant companion: Bhombol, the dog that followed him like a shadow. The Last Bench is a poignant childhood memoir about what it means to be invisible in an unequal society, about the exchanges between man and nature, and most of all, what it means to lose those whose absence changes everything. Adivasi or Vanvasi: Tribal India and the Politics of Hindutva, Kamal Nayan Choubey Akhil Bhartiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, popularly known as Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram or VKA is the tribal wing of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS). As the largest tribal organisation in the country, it works in many areas of Kerala, Jharkhand and the North-east of India. Till the late 1970s, VKA's work was limited to a few districts of Chhattisgarh (then Madhya Pradesh), Jharkhand (then Bihar), and Odisha but it has gradually and continuously expanded its footprint in different parts of the country. It is noteworthy that from its inception, VKA focused on spreading Hindu values by organising religious rituals in tribal areas and working in the area of education and hostels. It has tirelessly worked to provide medical help to the tribals from the mid-1960s. However, after the late 1970s, it started to work in different aspects of tribal communities' lives. By the 1990s, it also formally began to raise questions related to the rights of tribal communities over forest land and its resources. Exploring its genesis, historical journey, the nature of ideological discourse, and various functions of the VKA, this book opens a window to the contribution of an organisation, which largely remained untold and therefore unknown. Hijacked: A True Story of Surviving 331 Days with Somali Pirates, Pralav Dhyani On 11 April 2010, Pralav Dhyani, a freshly minted deck officer in training on a cargo merchant vessel, was contemplating the intense discipline life at sea would require from him, when armed pirates forcefully boarded the ship off the coast of Africa. As confusion ensued, one thing became clear to Pralav: the MV RAK Afrikana was being hijacked. It was the beginning of a nightmare that Pralav – then all of 21 – has never been able to forget. The crew was taken to an obscure location in Somalia, from where negotiations commenced with their ship's company for their release. For 331 days, the small band of men, who had come together from different countries to earn a living for their families, stuck together through mock executions and mental torture, terror and betrayal, as a complex web of politics and piracy revealed itself to them. It would be eleven months before Pralav and his crewmates would be free again. Learning To Make Tea For One, Andaleeb Wajid In the summer of 2021, India was throttled by the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hospitals were running out of oxygen and the daily news recorded the soaring death count. Families were torn apart as beloved ones were quarantined or confined in intensive care units and lost to the deadly virus – leaving survivors without even a chance to say goodbye. In that cruel summer, Andaleeb Wajid lost her mother-in-law, and then just five days later, her husband, even as she was hospitalised with COVID herself. Wajid's grief struggled to find words as she returned to a home that was shorn of the love that had once inhabited it and was now empty, but for her two children. Wajid finally turned to her writing to make sense of it all. She found herself wanting to tell the story of her life and her loss. She chronicled her family life, of growing up as a cherished daughter of a father whom she lost too early. She wrote about her marriage, the happy companionship that marked it, and the many ways in which her husband and she looked at life so very differently. She described the incredible joys and the unbearable pain of motherhood too. Learning to Make Tea for One is Andaleeb Wajid's journey through her grief. Chasing a Conjecture: Inside the Mind of a Mathematician, Chandrashekhar B Khare A conjecture is like an unfulfilled fantasy in the world of pure mathematics, where the most fantastic things happen routinely. Proving a conjecture is like trying to make a fantasy come true, and it can consume a mathematician for years, just as the effort to produce a great work of fiction, music or art can take over the life of its creator. This unusual, beguiling memoir is about such a journey. It begins with a child growing up in Mumbai, fascinated by mathematics, and ends with a man, just turned 40, winning a prestigious prize for proving, with a fellow traveller, one of the most important conjectures in number theory – the branch of mathematics that studies whole numbers.
Time of India
24-04-2025
- General
- Time of India
Khandu pays homage to local hero who chose to save others
1 2 3 Guwahati: Arunachal Pradesh CM Pema Khandu lauded IAF corporal Tage Hailyang on Thursday for his exceptional bravery during the Pahalgam attack , where he prioritised others' safety, despite having a chance to escape. While Hailyang's wife, who was holidaying with him, remains distraught, Khandu shared his valiant story on his X account. "In the face of grave danger, Tage Hailyang demonstrated exceptional courage. He had the chance to escape but chose instead to protect those around him. Risking his own life, he guided civilians to safety, helping them escape the line of fire," Khandu wrote on his 'X' handle after visiting Tajang village in Arunachal's Lower Subansiri district on Thursday morning to honour Hailyang. Hailyang's mortal remains arrived at his home at Tajang village, near the district headquarters in Ziro, on Thursday morning. Praising Hailyang's act as 'rare' and 'inspiring', Khandu met his wife, parents and family members to offer condolences. As Hailyang's remains reached his residence at 7.30 am by road from Assam's Tezpur, villagers gathered, shouting "Tage Hailyang Amar Rahe" and "Pakistan Murdabad". His body arrived in Guwahati, via New Delhi, at approximately 11 pm on Wednesday and was received by Assam minister Jayanta Mallabaruah. It was then transported to the IAF base in Tezpur early on Thursday, before proceeding to Lower Subansiri. District administration officials confirmed that Hailyang's last rites will be performed in the village on Friday. Acknowledging Hailyang's supreme sacrifice, Khandu announced employment for a member of Hailyang's family, Rs 50 lakh financial assistance and construction of a permanent memorial in his native village. Tage Hailyang's educational journey began in Ziro and Haryana's Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, followed by graduation from Don Bosco, Itanagar, before joining the Indian Air Force in 2017. He was scheduled to begin his new posting in Assam shortly. "We strongly condemn this heinous act of terrorism. Pakistan's continued sheltering of terrorists is a grave threat to global peace," Khandu said, commending Prime Minister Narendra Modi's firm stance. "I am confident that under his leadership, the nation will respond with the strength and resolve that such a grave sacrifice demands," Khandu added. "Late Tage Hailyang's legacy will endure. His name will forever be etched in the history of Arunachal as a symbol of valour and his sacrifice will inspire generations to come," he added. Accompanying Khandu were Arunachal East MP Tapir Gao, BJP state president Kaling Moyong, Minister Gabriel D Wangsu, and MLAs Hage Appa and Nakap Nalo, who paid their final respects to Hailyang. "We strongly condemn this barbaric act of terrorism and salute the unparalleled bravery and courage of our fallen hero," Tapir Gao said.
NDTV
24-04-2025
- Politics
- NDTV
Arunachal To Construct Memorial For IAF Corporal Killed In Pahalgam Attack
Itanagar: Indian Air Force Corporal Tage Hailyang, who was vacationing in Pahalgam with his wife, risked his life and guided tourists to safety, helping them escape before he fell to the bullets of the terrorists, Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu said on Thursday. Pema Khandu, who went to Hailyang home at Tajang village in Lower Subansiri district shortly after his mortal remains reached there, said his name will forever be etched in the history of Arunachal Pradesh as a symbol of valour and his sacrifice will inspire the generations to come. The CM announced that his government would provide Hailyang's family with financial assistance of Rs 50 lakh, in addition to a job for a member. Hailyang, one of the 26 people killed in the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam on April 22, will be laid to rest in his village on Friday. Pema Khandu met the IAF Corporal's wife, parents and family members and offered his condolences. "The loss is beyond measure, and the people of Arunachal Pradesh stand in solidarity with the family during this time of profound sorrow," he said. Describing the airman's final moment as an act of 'exceptional courage' in the face of grave danger, Pema Khandu said he had the chance to flee but chose instead to protect those around him. "Risking his own life, he guided civilians to safety, helping them escape the line of fire. His selflessness in that critical moment stands as a rare and inspiring act of bravery," the chief minister said. He said that the state government will construct a permanent memorial in Hailyang's native village, showcasing his early education in Ziro and Haryana's Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, to his graduation from Don Bosco, Itanagar and his dedicated service in the Indian Air Forces since 2017. "His life is a shining testament to the strength, discipline, and patriotism of our youth," Khandu said. The chief minister said Pakistan's continued sheltering of terrorist elements is a grave threat to global peace and must be met with resolute action. Praising the firm stand taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he expressed confidence that the nation will respond with the strength and resolve that such a grave sacrifice demands. Earlier in the day, Hailyang's mortal remains reached his home in Tajang village around 7.30 am by road from neighbouring Assam. Assam minister Jayanta Malla Baruah received the body at the Air Force base in Guwahati around 1 am. "Receiving the mortal remains of someone who travelled from afar only to return lifeless is an immensely painful experience," he said in a post on X. "May terrorism end once and for all! I firmly believe that the Government of India will respond to this heinous act without delay," Baruah said. Senior officials of the Assam government and the Indian Air Force were also present and paid their tributes to the deceased officer. Ziro-Hapoli MLA Hage Appa, Lower Subansiri deputy commissioner Vivek HP, SP Keni Bagra and heads of government departments, and community-based organisations received the remains of Hailyang at Hapoli check gate at the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border. Khandu, along with minister Gabriel D Wangsu, MLA Nakap Nalo, Lok Sabha MP Tapir Gao, state BJP president Kaling Moyong, and IGP (Law and Order) Chukhu Apa joined thousands of people to pay their last respects.
