Critically examine the concept of Alienation.

  According to Marx, in a capitalist society an alienated man lives in an alienated nature and he performs estranged labor and the product of his labor becomes alien to him. Alienation as a concept is used by many social scientists in India, merely as a sociological phenomenon. Since land alienation is the crux of the de-peasantization of the tribals, the concept assumes utmost importance in the analysis of tribal rights as part of human rights discourse. The problem of land alienation is a much deeply connected phenomenon with full of contradictions related to the existing socio-economic order. The separation of land from the tribal communities can be understood in a more scientific way with the assistance of the theoretical formulations of the concept of alienation.

Alienation was defined by Hegel and was used by Marx to describe and criticize a social condition in which man far from being the active initiation of the social world seemed more a passive object of determinate external processes. Marx says, alienation is fundamentally a particular relation of property, involving involuntary surrender to autagonistic ‘other’. Alienation is inherent in exploitative relations of production and its nature varies with that of exploitation. Hence, manifestations of alienation also differ among societies based on slavery, serfdom and capitalism, etc. Thus, the concept of alienation may be interpreted to understand a specific problem of the tribals where land becomes the primordial source of exploitation and results in the creation of a society where exploitative production relations exit.

i) Typologies/Mode of Alienation

The alienation can be defined both in narrow and broad sense. In narrow sense, it could mean the alienation of individual land holdings and means of livelihood. In the broader sense, the alienation could mean not only loss of common property but also the rights of the community over the common including property rights. Alienation ought to be viewed in both the contexts because tribes and activists have been basically struggling for the restoration of illegally alienated land as well as their community rights of over the land (water and forest) intertwined together.

The mode/typology of alienation varies between both individual and institutions. In the case of land alienation to individual, it can be divided into two categories, namely urban and rural areas as well as tribal to non- tribal and tribal to tribal. In both the areas the reasons varies. In the urban areas, the primary reasons have been demand induced primarily for housing (by outside population) and non agricultural purpose. This type of alienation has continued and accelerated in the post Independence period. The alienation is primarily illegal: collusive titles suits, chappar bandi, collusive restoration, suits sada hukumnama, sada patta, marrying a tribal woman, etc., have been some of the most popular methods adopted over the years. In the rural areas, the alienation is basically to meet the day to day needs of cash strapped poor tribes. The mortgages and at times outright sales have been the primary method in the absence of active land markets in rural areas.

The institutional alienation for public purpose for various projects has been very high and some workable estimates are available. The lands taken under there are both for big, medium projects (with some rehabilitation packages in which habitations are disturbed) and small land acquisition without habitation being disturbed and with only cash compensation.

ii) Forms of Land Alienation

The first and foremost is the manipulation of land records. The unsatisfactory state of land records contributed a lot to the problem of land alienation. The tribals were never legally recognized as owners of the lands which they cultivated.

The second form of land alienation is reported to have taken place due to ‘benami’ transfers. The report of the study of the Union Home Ministry (May 1975) pointed out that large scale transfers of ownership of the Adivasis’ lands are being allowed to go out of hands through illegal and benami transactions, collusive civil proceedings, etc., in which land remains to be in the names of the original owners who are reduced to the level of share croppers.

Another form of land alienation is related to the leasing or mortgaging of the land. To raise loans for various needs the tribals have to give their land as mortgage to the local money lenders or to the rich farmers.

Encroachment is another form of dispossessing the tribals of their lands and this is done by the new entrants in all the places where there were no proper land records. Bribing the local Patwari for manipulating the date of settlement of land disputes, ante-dating etc., are resorted to claim the tribal lands.

Concubinage or marital alliance is another form to circumvent the law and grab tribal lands at no cost at all.

Fictitious adoption of the non-tribals by the tribal families is also another method to snatch the lands of the tribals.

Also the slackness in the implementation of the restrictive provisions encourages the non-tribals to occupy the tribal lands. Lands alienation which takes place in various ways has assumed alarming proportion threatening the right to life of the tribal population. Though the problem lies elsewhere, it is being unfortunately always interpreted as the handi work of certain individuals like the money lender, traders, land lords, etc, without understanding the class connection of these individuals. The unsystematic land records of the precolonial and colonial periods was followed by the present State. There was collection of ‘taxes’- (a strange phenomenon for the natives and it was the beginning process of alienation) in the tribal areas.

In the name of protecting the interest of the tribals stringent laws were enacted by the government but the non-tribals found the loopholes to their advantage. This double edged nature of State policy is one of the facets of the existing contradictions in the Indian tribal society. The process of land alienation is not an accidental one, but it had arisen because of the concerted efforts of the antagonistic class interest that are operating in the tribal areas. This is not just migration of the non-tribals into tribal areas rather there is a history behind this migration and the State has supported the migrant non-tribals to settle down in the tribal lands.

However, being the natural owners of forests and its adjoining lands the tribals are being deprived of their rights to own them. They have been relegated from their earlier ‘self-reliant’ status to a ‘dependent’ one. Coupled with the exploitation by the non-tribals, the State Legislations also proved detrimental to their interest. Therefore, to understand the root causes of the land alienation process of the tribal communities its relationship with the changes in the socio-economic structures have to be understood properly.

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