ABSTRACT
Empowerment and education are closely linked because generally empowerment follows as a result of consciousness of rights disseminated by modern education. In the case of the adivasis of Jharkhand, what we notice is that their empowerment was delayed due to lack of literacy. It is true that pre-literate adivasi communities fought the feudal and colonial masters driven by a sense of natural right (Datta 1957; Majuumdar 1962; Singh 1966; Singh 1978; Baskey 1982; Sahu 1985; Jha 1987; Sen 2008). It is also true that their anti-colonial struggles led to such empowering rules and acts as Wilkinson’s civil rules (1834), Sonthal Parganas Act (1855) and Chotanagpur Tenancy Act (1908). 1 But after the British tightened their noose, they resorted to petition to defend their hold over land and forest as the Sardari Larai (1859–95) in Chotanagpur plateau region and the collective protest of the Hos of Kolhan (1906 and 1922) showed (MacDougall 1985: 260–2; Sen 2011a: 215–17). Though meanwhile a small section had emerged as recipient of modern education, clamour for democratic rights for better quality of life and opportunities, which was rife among literate communities elsewhere in India, did not largely feature adivasi societies. Jharkhand movement in assertion of their rightful claim over jal, jungle and jameen (water, forest and land) was plagued by lukewarm social support (Vidyarthi and Sahay 1978: 85–91; Devalle 1992; Singh 2006: 1–30). This chapter argues, first, that this failure may be assigned to lack of political consciousness which in all other societies across the globe has largely been generated by literate education. Second, adivasi communities in general have shown that their graduation to literacy had/has been hesitant and tardy due to critical historical factors.
