Adivasis, culture and modes of production in India

Abstract

Tribal minorities are crucial throughout Asia as bases of rebellion in today's rebellious world. The tribal peoples—carrying on slash and burn cultivation in mountainous, jungly border areas—were usually the last conquered by imperialist powers and have very often been the first bases for revolutionary communist movements. The support of national minorities was crucial to the Chinese during the Long March; the Vietnamese found their first guerrilla bases by integrating themselves with the tribal minorities in the north of their country and won their last decisive battle against the Saigon regime with Montagnards leading the liberation troops; the Malayan Communist Party found its longest jungle base during the period of Emergency among the asal or “aboriginal” peoples; and today in Thailand, Burma and elsewhere insurgent Communist movements have their strongest bases in tribal regions. In addition, “nationalist” movements for separation or autonomy continue to resist central state control in areas as diverse as Burma and the Philippines, sometimes in uneasy alliance with tribal-based Communists.