In this remarkable book, Debasree De breaks the stereotypes that the Adivasi women have gender equality and are largely free from Brahmanical patriarchy in their society. This study has explicitly brought out how the Adivasi women are being subjected to a double burden inside and outside their society. That the Adivasi women are bold and actively participate in agricultural and other means of livelihood, however, does not save them from patriarchal domination. Adivasis, the original inhabitants of India, have now become like foreigners in their own place, struggling for rights to their own land, and against various government policies. De traces the impact of industrialization, modernization, and development on Adivasi women of Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha and West Bengal which has resulted in various wrongs like killing of women in the name of witch-hunting, trafficking of girls, decrease of the value of bride price and practice of dowry among Adivasis. One of the chief concerns of the author is to understand the historical process in constituting tribal women as silent, victimized and inconspicuous.
Debashree De has divided the book into six chapters, and each chapter is systematically weaved around the experience of a provincial State in India. It begins by framing a perspective to understand the gender question in Adivasi society. In ‘Demystifying Adivasi Women’, De examines the various reasons for the changing position of women in Adivasi society. It is underlined here that there was less differentiation among the sexes in the early tribal society where women had higher control over the economy. Land rights were with women in most Adivasi societies. This continued in inaccessible hill areas till the advent of British colonial power in India. The British revenue system that insured property rights to males as head of the household came as a blow to the Adivasi women. The subsequent immigration of caste Hindu peasants to hills and forests not only led to the displacement of Adivasis but also Sanskritization of their society, which further resulted in class formation. While trying to fathom how patriarchy evolved in Adivasi society, De also explores how tribal women experienced displacement differently from men.
The case of West Bengal is explored in the chapter on ‘Changing Livelihood Pattern of Adivasi Women’ and its impact in shifting to settled agriculture as their movement in forests was curtailed. There was strong resistance against this process as the Adivasi women consciously began fighting for their rights. Party workers of the village tried to generate awareness among the Santhal and other agriculturist women workers by organizing a strike in 1984 that brought some positive results. De argues that the population growth and acquisition of land for industrialization were the main causes for the migration of Adivasis to cities and the plantation sector. Indeed the plantation sector remained the most important factor of Adivasi women’s migration since its inception, and women workers were increasing in the plantation sector. According to De, it was because the ‘planter prefers to employ women as he thinks that women are more committed workers than men.’ However, she also traces various cases of women suffering: like women trafficking from the plantation sector, and many girls returning pregnant or HIV infected. But one of the important issues that the author has missed is gender politics in the plantation sector. Industrialization and development have affected the cultural traditions of Adivasis. This is shown in the case of the Rabha community of Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal, which was a matrilineal community where women were the ancestral owners of property, but now the community is transformed to a patrilineal one.