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Kashtakari Sanghatna: 15 Years of Struggle,1978-1993Recently, the Kashtakari Sangathana, which is an adivasi group in Thanedistrict of Maharashtra, celebrated 15 years of struggle. The Sangathanahas played a unique role in mobilising adivasi peasants, increasing theireconomic security and their self-awareness of their dignity.

On the occasion of the celebrations,the Sangathana released, in Marathiand English, a comprehensive social history of their work. It is a uniquedocument. Prepared over a year with the active participation of represen-tatives of the tribal communities, it reflects the multiple perceptions ofwhat it has meant for the adivasis, in their own distinct cultural context, toevolve a political response to the dominant cultural, religious and politicalprocesses. The Marathi document better represents the diversity andcomplexity of local voices while the English version is mediated by thenon-tribal activists who have spent a better part of the past decade with theSangathana. Both the documents powerfully convey the immense difficul-ties in establishing an independent political base in an area dominated by aleft party and a generally hostile state and by predatory capitalist interestsbent on extracting the natural resources of the area. More importantly, thedocuments are a commentary on our times and a statement of how, despitesignificant odds, political space is being redefined by creative initiatives.The English report will rightly generate contentious debates on how weview such non-party political processes. Highly recommended.

Available from: Kashtakari Sangathana, Malyan, Dahanu Road, ThaneDt., Maharashtra 401 602

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The Indigenous Question: The Search for an Identity-WaIter FernandesThe political debates on self-determination and on who are 'indigenous'have today become both highly charged as well as often, adventurist,particularly when these discussions or demands cast the state in a homoge-neously dismissive light. Both these questions are critically linked to theway in which tribal identities are being constructed by 'others' and howdifferentially, members of these communities define themselves and theirpriorities. This little volume will add to the contentious debate. It hasthirteen essays on both the Indian and international situation and whileeach of them relate to the wider context of identity, the volume as a wholeskirts some major issues within the Indian reality-for instance, issuesrelating to whether national boundaries are sacrosanct or the degree to .which, even empathetic commentators and activists themselves romanticisetribal sensibility and tribal identity. The book is nevertheless an importantattempt and points to the critical need for more debate and for more voicesfrom within these communities to express themselves.

Availablefrom::Indian Social Institute, 10 Institutional Area, Lodi Road,New Delhi 110003Price: Rs. 75

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Jharkhand Movement: Ethnicity and Culture ofSi/ence-Sajal BasuThe Jharkhand region has witnessed one of the most sustained politicalmovements for redrawing India's internal boundaries towards defining apredominantly tribal region out of parts of four states. The movement hasbeen widely written about and its internal divisions as well as efforts bypolitical parties to vitiate and muddy the complex struggles for autonomyhave been the subject of numerous political debates and negotiations.Sajal Basu's book is a small contribution towards understanding thecultural and political context of the demand for Iharkhand. He weaves thepowerful legacy of rebellions and protest with local myths and withdebates on nationality and identity. To the extensive available literature,Basu adds an important dimension: the importance and centrality oflanguage in sustaining struggle. While it is not fair to expect a detailedcommentary on the internal divisions within the movement or the role ofmany movement leaders in the decimation of the natural resource base,Basu's effort would have been strengthened by a more compassionaterepresentation of the diverse actors in the process of asserting a "ethno-regional identity." The book contains important unpublished documents.Available from:Indian Institute for Advanced Study, Rashtrapati Niwas, Shimla 171005Price: Rs. 175

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HoneyBeeThis is a quarterly newsletter to document innovations produced byfarmers, artisans and farm workers; to generate debate around sustainablealternatives based on people's knowledge and to lobby for protectingintellectual property rights (IPRs) of grassroots innovators. The HoneyBee (HB) network has been quite successful in linking up rural innovatorsfrom different parts of India and from other developing countries. Cur-rently Tamil, Gujarati, Hindi, Malayalam, Oriya and Bhutanese versionsare being produced with the help of various regional collaborators, besidesthe English edition. There are offers from another dozen national andinternational organisations to help in producing vernacular editions.

The Oct-Dec 1993 issue of the newsletter contains, among other things, areport on bark cloth preparation in Uganda, unconventional methods oftackling the locust menace in Rajasthan, a number of innovative agricul-tural and animal husbandry practices reported by farmers in Gujarat andscientists' comments on innovations reported in earlier issues. There is adialogue on traditional knowledge between Dr Winin Pereira and ProfAnil K Gupta, the editor of Honey Bee. The editorial raises important'issues in the current IPRs debate.

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With the help of SRISTI (Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustain-able Technologies and Institutions). the HB network is planning tocomputerise the data bases it is coilecting on technological and instirutionalinnovations and ecological knowledge systems. The HB network stronglybelieves in the IPRs of peasants and hopes to help them earn money fromthese innovations. "Poverty alleviation through value addition to theircreativity" is what the network aims at. This, and the linkages that thenetwork has developed among farmers and between farm based innovatorsand scientists makes this initiative highly significant in a globalised worldwhere the commercial exploitation of science and technology has benefit-ted mega-corporations to the exclusion of grassroots peasants and tribalswho are innovators and bearers of traditional knowledge arising out ofyears of historical experience.

Available from.: Honey Bee, clo Prof Anil K Gupta, Indian Institute ofManagement, Vastrapur, Ahmedabad 380015, India.

Tribals in our Global Vii/age: Agenda for the ThirdMillennium - Edwin JayadasA short and readable book that throws up some interesting questions forthose concemed with problems of social transformation. Primarily aret1ective exercise based on grssroots work and experience, the book issomewhat different from most tribal studies. As stated in the preface,"though harsh on the present dominant culture. it never recommends thatwe retum to the past." It emphasises the right to be different and in thecourse of the discussion throws up various important issues to ponder

over: the mechanisms of power and cooption, forms of protest andquestions of democratic leadership.

Available/ram: Pan Media, 43/1-2, 6th Cross, Wilson Gardens, Bangol-ore 560027.

Price: Rs 951 $ 5.95.

Tribes in.Perspective - B K Ray BurmenThis is the first volume in a series comprising an Encyclopaedia onScheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes and Disadvantaged Peoples. Theauthor has been working on tribes for over four decades now. Though hebegins with a discussion on scheduled tribes in India, the primary focus ofthe book is to explore issues relating to tribal ethnography, including itsepistemologiical bases. Prof Roy Burman, reiterating his earlier positions,argues against many prevalent views that see tribal communities as"primitive", undeveloped and "timeless entities of history". The selfimage of tribals is not one of being "backward" but rather one of being"different". The author has discussed and debated these issues exten-sively with reference to diverse academic traditions ranging from empiri-cal anthropology to the hermeneutics of Gadamer.

Available/ram: Mittal Publications, A-II0, Mohan Garden, New Delhi-110059. Price: Rs 495. 165Ngoma Ya Mano"Let us be ourselves", appeals this quarterly to African NGO leaders andintellectuals, who, it says, abound in hybrid consciousness and raise thespectre of "cultural fundamentalism" and "reverse apartheid". Thismagazine, urging the world to fight Northem onslaughts in all fields isavailable free of charge to interested individuals and groups of the ThirdWorld. And to individuals and organisations in the North on the basis ofvoluntary donations. "Ngo Ya Mano" comes from the Tonga of Zambia.It means "Drum of Wisdom". When the people have a problem a drumis sounded, people get together and find a solution to the problem in theircollective wisdom. The magazine is produced by the Bataka Forum."Bataka" is a Luganda word from the Baganda of Uganda meaning"children of the soil" or "those who do not aspire to other people'sresources, but defend the rights of other peoples to their historical,territorial, material and spiritual heritage". Well said! Are the neo-colonisers listening?

Available from: Ngo Ya Mano, Box 72511, Nairobi, Kenya.

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LOKAY AN ("Dialogue of the People") has been an intellectual initiative topromote active and sustained exchange among activists from non-partypolitical organisations and movements and other concerned citizens.

Among the activities through which these aims have been.pursued are dia-logues among movement groups and activists and between them and commit-ted professionals, research and documentation on issues highlighted in thesedialogues, debates on these issues among various individuals and groupsinterested in social transformation, and dissemination of all this.

Through these dialogues, debates and dissemination, involving a net-work of •individuals, activists and opinion makers, the Lokayan programme has s9ughtto evolve a systematic critique of the modes of established developmentandpolitical action and move towards a new ideological crystallisation for adecentralised democratic order which respects the cultural and social diversitY·...;:~,~:·~-::'IIIof marginalised sections of society. The thinking, values, aspirations andexperience of these sections are attempted to be brought into the centre ofeducational, economic and political thinking.

At another level, Lokayan can be seen as a part of an incipient movement, theprecise contours of which are yet embryonic and evolving. A movement thatdeals with very specific problems facing the people, such as survival in theface of destructive developmental processes and a repressive state apparatus,limits and range of political struggle (local and national) against these .tendencies, the inimical role of modem science and technology and itsinternational tentacles, all of these conceived in the framework of the strugglefor civil and democratic rights of the people. A movement that seeks tocrystallize the large array of micro initiatives into a macro movement througha concrete programme of research and action.

Lokayan is to be seen as part of this basic search for transforming a societyand a world-in deep trouble.

Lokayan, 13 Alipur Road, Delhi 110054. Phone 231378