kagadpatra | documents_ 🌱

we returned to pen city by the afternoon itself because we had to get the train for mumbai. we met ms vaishali in the office, the general secretary of the ankur trust. she briefed us about the work of their organization. meanwhile, she said that the katkari adivasi community is still not sufficiently literate. they are unaware of their rights and powers as the 'indian citizens.' the katkari have been staying and working on this land for centuries. still, they do not have recognition and ownership of land. so the organization is working on getting ownership of their tenancy land. most families don't have essential documents like electoral cards and ration card. according to her, there is a need to build a movement of katkari adivasi so that they could claim their rights more assertively and 'rightfully.'

taking note of this discussion, we had a meeting with our supervisor in the institute about civil society and its approach towards adivasis. i found familiar in both discussions that there was an essentialization of civil society towards adivasi from the outsiders. it indirectly separated the Adivasi from the concept of civil society, which i found problematic being in the discussion. the second thing we discussed in class was studying tribes and their culture. we are bound to use pluralism as a method of understanding communities. if we look at social aspects, there cannot be one society, social work, or indigenous society. it needs to make all the words plural to differentiate the social issues across the concepts. so there will be societies, social works, etc. one must not essentialize an idea taken from outside, especially regarding tribe culture. otherwise, it may alter the distinctness of adivasi cultures.

📑 in the mountains of sahyadri_
🖋 @dnyanesh_____

🌱 read this piece on blogspot, link is in the bio.

bajarakade | towards market_ 🌱

we reached bhorkas, and visited a home. they were preparing their vegetables to send to the nearest market. daily, they would walk till the ambegaon fata and then take a rickshaw for pen. the adivasi woman was cleaning radish roots and gave greetings to wasanti taai. she asked about us, where we were from, and asked us, "ka ra baba evadha door alas tumhi?" (why you gentlemen come this much longer?) we replied that we wanted to meet people of bhorkas. wasanti taai said that the woman is a leader and mobilizer of the families of bhorkas. she is very active in all the activities of ankur trust. she asked us again, "saap-beep disla ka rastaa ma? lay mokkar ahat pausache " (have you seen snakes on the road? there are plenty of them due to the rain). we laughed and said to her that, fortunately, we didn't see any snakes on the way.

a boy came out of the room and gave us water in a mug. we had the water as we wanted it from ages of thirst. taai told the woman to get a few documents for their rationing card application. the boy went inside to search for the papers. i asked the woman about the boy and whether he was studying. she said he was in the 5th class and had come from his hostel as he was not feeling well.

meanwhile, we asked her about the road and how they built it. she just replied, "ti tar paayvat padi gayil n gadyaa" (that automatically became a walkable road, by regular use of people). the man near her was cleaning the vegetables and said there were a few holes of flooding water on it. we poured clay and stones into that. they said we didn't have our person in the gram panchayat. he is from another waadi. as they were getting late to the market, we couldn't have more conversation.

📑 in the mountains of sahyadri_
🖋 @dnyanesh_____

🌱 read this piece on blogspot, link is in the bio.

bai-manus, aan wadi | people and hamlet_ 🌱

while roaming in the adivasi environment, there were challenges that i faced in understanding. it was challenging to hold consciousness to understand things without assumptions.i tried controlling that while looking at the field, road, greenery, etc. specifically, listening to what datta and another person were telling was difficult. being a person from a non-adivasi background, i felt safe in blaming the state machinery, which has not yet reached this place. there was no public transport, no communication asset, no network, or basic amenity. 

i thought of being scattered in thought processes while connecting all this with katkari adivasi as an indigenous tribe. i have not yet met any katkari person and listened to him about what this land and forest mean to them and what they think about the government. while talking to Wasanti taai, we discussed the presence of other communities other than katkari, which are more prominent in population.

agri is one of the dominant castes that live in this region. this community has been included in the other backward classes (OBC) schedule. its primary occupation is fishing, but the community has been expanded and based in the village, semi-urban spaces. it now holds the majority of land and livelihood means.

the kunabi maratha is another sub-caste group that lives near katkari Waadi'es. But there is a clear separation of both the settlements. most katkari laborer families work under contract at the fields and brick factories owned by kunabi maratha families.

📑 in the mountains of sahyadri_
🖋 @dnyanesh_____
🌱 read this piece on blogspot, link is in the bio.

nadila baand, shalelapan | dams to river, and to schools as well_ 🌱

moving forward, we met at a dam called "ambegaon dharan." on both sides of the road, we saw a new plantation of trees. we got to know that the panchayat of "ambegaon" had planted them. we saw a child of 13-14 coming from the "dhamani" side. he had a school bag on his back. after speaking with him for 10 minutes, he finally told us his name was datta. he was from "bhorkas", which is still 5 km from where we met him. as we moved, we saw that a small river flooding was blocking our road from the mountainside towards forests from the slope. we held each other's hands and made a chain to cross the river confidently. we did that.

we kept speaking with datta about his school. he said that he walks daily to his school from "bhorkas". very few of his friends come to school due to 'no vehicle.' he also noted that there were wolfs in the jungle that would attack us; better to stay at home. some of his classmates have got a hostel near to the school. he also said that the road we were walking; on was made by people of his villages.

one another person named ganesh had joined us alongside. he added more things to datta's narration. he said he got his relatives' letter after one and a half months. the postmasters do not come without any absorbing (interest) purpose.

rathichi wadi is next to dhamni. "wadi" is an indigenous name to call an adivasi settlement. wasanti taai told us about the wadi with 35-40 families. she has already visited this place while working on one of their surveys. as we were moving towards bhorkas, we saw all the doors of the wadi were closed. on the road to the side, there was a chuck of rice fields planted by the people of this region. the watering to this plantation was coming altogether from the mountain. we couldn't see any electric motors or machines joined to force water into the field. the 'baand" (small canals) stopped the water at various steps.

📑 in the mountains of sahyadri_
🖋 @dnyanesh_____
🌱 read this piece on blogspot, link is in the bio.

 

jangal mhanje may-baap | forest means guardians_ 🌱

the day of the actual field, i.e., 10th august of 2016, we set our first visit. the destination was an adivasi wadi named "bhorkas". Along with the visit, we had a responsibility to fill out applications for the BPL rationing card for families which don't have it. we took an auto-rickshaw for the next 10 km pakka road. the auto dropped us near ambegaon fata (a local landmark). we walked 5.5 Km on an open street towards the mountain to reach bhorkas. that was a set route for us for the next three weeks.

throughout the travel, there was greenery; at hills covering small canals, alongside the rivers, it seemed as if the whole beautiful ecological set-up was architected so well by nature. meanwhile, on the way to bhorkas, we also visited a few more wadi'es like "dhamani", "ambegaon", and "rathichi wadi".

"dhamani" was the first wadi we saw. it had two separate settlements. one part was of the permanent residential families who have been residing there from their generation to generation. according to our resource person, the second part was rehabilitating families from the satara district koyana dam region. they were settled there by the government a few years ago. we were still 5 km back to "bhorkas". there was no public transport available. the whole area was full of forest and vegetation.

📑 in the mountains of sahyadri_
🖋 @dnyanesh_____
🌱 read this piece on blogspot, link is in the bio.

 

misalan | mixture_ 🌱

the city of pen is popularly known for idols of ganesha, a famous hindu deity. the city is considered a leading producer and exporter of ganesha's idols. it even engaged in interstate as well as international trade of idols of various hindu deities. we saw two closed industries where the crashed idols of ganesh were dumped beside the gate. we roam in two markets. one was famous for fish and crabs, while the other was just for vegetables. the nagar panchayat and the mahatma gandhi bhawan nearest to that were closed when we reached. soon the day finished, and we planned to stay in the rest house of the ankur hostel. this hostel was built and executed by the same organization. it is a philanthropic institution where adivasi children of the first to twelfth class could stay.

"dada tumhi srikant dadachya college madhye shikata?" (aada, do you study at shrikant dada's college? with a timid voice, one student asked me if i was studying in college where her known person srikant was studying. i didn't know who shrikant was, but i responded, "haa, haa toh srikant dada ka mumbai madhye shikato toh?" (yes, is it that srikant dada who studies in mumbai?). then she said, "haa." (yes). then i also replied yes to her.

a similar mistake that everyone makes, i assumed that srikant was the same student who did fieldwork at akur trust the previous year. later on, i got to know he was the same srikant. now she began to open to me and asked, "tumhi pan shahar madhun yayal ahe?" (so have/do you also come from the city? "haa." (yes) i said. then she ran towards her room. ~

📑 in the mountains of sahyadri_
🖋 @dnyanesh_____
🌱 read this piece on blogspot, link is in the bio.

office te waadi | office to hamlet_ 🌱

it was the drizzly morning of 9th august 2016. my field co-worker abhinav and i were supposed to visit pen city for the first time. we had prepared to take an early train from panvel to reach on time. the pen city is two and a half hours far from mumbai. unfortunately, we missed the first train because we couldn't figure out the distance between the institute and panvel and got late to reach like two of the afternoon.

the day was as cloudy as typical of western maharashtra's rainy season. we went to the office and saw three people were working. we had an introduction with all. including two of us, everyone was non-adivasi until one activist entered the office. sanjay works as a hostel super-wiser and is a crucial leader of the katkari adivasi community in organizing rallies and advocating rights. we couldn't talk much with him because he was in a bit rush and went back immediately. we asked a person sitting in the cabin to let us see the city first. then we could also visit an adivasi wadi. he talked to his colleague wasanti taai to be accompanied us.

📑 in the mountains of sahyadri_
🖋 @dnyanesh_____
🌱 read this piece on blogspot, link is in the bio.

paaywat | roadless travel_ 🌱

several adivasi wadis are, at most of the places, situated in the upper part of the hill/mountain area. thus, walking or taking vehicles at that height becomes difficult. however, small, narrow, open streets are the best navigators to reach adivasi wadis. the ecology of the forests has been drastically changing due to high temperature, low rainfall, and things like increment in urbanization impacting adivasi living.

regular engagement of non-adivasi, both in terms of power and empathy, is giving birth to a tremendous epistemic contestation (to save freedom and maintain/counter the complex relationship of integration and negotiation) between adivasis and the non-adivasis; basically, outsiders can be seen and studied.

this is a series of blogs consisting of twelve articles. it is essential to disclose that these reflections are mine, meaning an outsider's reflections. this series has been conceptualized and written from the collection of field recordings. it is based on experiences and learnings the author has collected and gained in the field. The fieldwork had conducted during his master's program in social work course. The objective of the fieldwork was to understand and comprehend Adivasi communities to process the "perspective from within."

📑 in the mountains of sahyadri_ 

🖋 @dnyanesh_____
🌱 read this piece on blogspot, link is in the bio.