Political Science · Ch 6 — Environment and Natural Resources
The Indigenous Peoples and Their Rights
The Indigenous Peoples and Their Rights
The question of indigenous peoples sits at the intersection of environment, resources, and politics. The United Nations defines indigenous populations as the descendants of the original inhabitants of a territory — people who were present when persons of a different culture or ethnic origin arrived from elsewhere and overcame them. Today, indigenous people live more in conformity with their own social, economic, and cultural customs than with the institutions of the country they now form a part of.
Who Are the Indigenous Peoples?
Approximately 30 crore indigenous people are spread across the world, including in India. Some specific examples from the textbook:
- 20 lakh indigenous people of the Cordillera region of the Philippines
- 10 lakh Mapuche people of Chile
- 6 lakh tribal people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh
- 35 lakh North American natives
- 50,000 Kuna living east of the Panama Canal
- 10 lakh Small Peoples of the Soviet North
Indigenous people occupy areas in Central and South America, Africa, India (where they are known as Tribals), and Southeast Asia. Many present-day island states in Oceania — including Australia and New Zealand — were inhabited by Polynesian, Melanesian, and Micronesian peoples over thousands of years.
Common Interests and Worldviews
Like other social movements, indigenous peoples speak of their struggles, their agenda, and their rights. Their voices in world politics call for admission to the world community as equals. They appeal to governments to recognise that indigenous nations continue to exist as enduring communities with an identity of their own.
The phrase 'since times immemorial' is used by indigenous people everywhere to refer to their continued occupancy of the lands from which they originate. The worldviews of indigenous societies — regardless of geographical location — are strikingly similar with respect to land and the variety of life systems supported by it.
The Central Threat: Loss of Land
The loss of land is the most obvious threat to the survival of indigenous people. Land is not just territory; it is an economic resource base. The textbook poses a critical question: Can political autonomy be enjoyed without its attachment to the means of physical survival?
Indigenous Peoples in India
In India, the description 'indigenous people' is usually applied to the Scheduled Tribes, who constitute nearly eight per cent of the population. With the exception of small communities of hunters and gatherers, most indigenous populations in India depend primarily on cultivation of land for their subsistence.
For centuries — if not millennia — they had free access to as much land as they could cultivate. It was only after the establishment of British colonial rule that areas previously inhabited by Scheduled Tribe communities were subjected to outside forces.
Although Scheduled Tribes enjoy constitutional protection in political representation, they have not received much of the benefits of development. In fact, they have paid a huge cost for development — they are the single largest group among people displaced by various developmental projects since independence.
The Rise of Indigenous Rights Movements …
The cartoon shows a single panel. On the left side stands a man in a suit and tie, clearly meant to represent someone from an urban, developed part of the world. He is holding a large spoon. On the right side, a small, barefoot indigenous man — likely from a forest or tribal community — is standing on a patch of land that looks like a tiny island of nature. Between them, the urban man is using the spoon to scoop up a portion of that land — a literal "spoonful of ecology" — as if he is helping himself to a serving of the natural world.
The caption reads: "Spoonful of Ecology". The cartoon is by Ares, published by Cagle Cartoons Inc.
The message is direct: the developed world, represented by the suited man, treats nature and the lands of indigenous peoples as a resource to be consumed — taken in spoonfuls, bit by bit. The indigenous man is shown as small, almost helpless, standing on what remains of his environment. The cartoon does not show violence or conflict, but the act of scooping is a quiet, greedy appropriation.
This connects directly to the textbook section on indigenous peoples and their rights. Indigenous communities worldwide depend on land not just for survival but for their entire way of life — their culture, economy, and identity. The cartoon illustrates the threat the textbook describes: the loss of land and resources to outside forces, often from industrial or urban development. The "spoonful" suggests that what looks like a small, harmless taking to the developed world is, for the indigenous person, the loss of everything he stands on. …
The cartoon shows a single panel. On the left side stands a man in a suit and tie, clearly meant to represent someone from an urban, developed part of the world. He is holding a large spoon. On the right side, a small, barefoot indigenous man — likely from a forest or tribal community — is standing on a patch of land that looks like a tiny island of nature. Between them, the urban man is using the spoon to scoop up a portion of that land — a literal "spoonful of ecology" — as if he is helping himself to a serving of the natural world.
The caption reads: "Spoonful of Ecology". The cartoon is by Ares, published by Cagle Cartoons Inc.
The message is direct: the developed world, represented by the suited man, treats nature and the lands of indigenous peoples as a resource to be consumed — taken in spoonfuls, bit by bit. The indigenous man is shown as small, almost helpless, standing on what remains of his environment. The cartoon does not show violence or conflict, but the act of scooping is a quiet, greedy appropriation.
This connects directly to the textbook section on indigenous peoples and their rights. Indigenous communities worldwide depend on land not just for survival but for their entire way of life — their culture, economy, and identity. The cartoon illustrates the threat the textbook describes: the loss of land and resources to outside forces, often from industrial or urban development. The "spoonful" suggests that what looks like a small, harmless taking to the developed world is, for the indigenous person, the loss of everything he stands on. …