Jaipal Singh's memoir reveals the legacy of an outspoken Adivasi leader

Mint

2 days ago

On 19 December 1946, Jaipal Singh, who was one of the six Adivasi members of the Constituent Assembly (out of a total strength of 389), rose to address his colleagues on the 'Objective Resolution". The latter had been introduced by Jawaharlal Nehru five days earlier and dealt with the soon-to-be-independent India's status as a sovereign democratic republic.
'This Resolution is not going to teach Adibasis (sic) democracy. You cannot teach democracy to the tribal people; you have to learn democratic ways from them. They are the most democratic people on earth," he said to B.R. Ambedkar, chairman of the drafting committee of the Constitution, and the others gathered.
'What my people require… is not adequate safeguards as Pandit Jawahar Lal (sic) Nehru has put it. They require protection from Ministers… We do not ask for any special protection. We want to be treated like every other Indian." The foresight, as well as prescience, in his statement induces goosebumps 80-odd years later.
This incident appears in Lo Bir Sendra: A Hunter in the Burning Forest, a memoir of sorts that Singh wrote in 1969, a year before his sudden death. The handwritten manuscript—which remained in the custody of an Italian anthropologist for several decades—was discovered and published in 2004 by the late Jesuit priest and tribal rights activist, Stan Swamy.
Recently, editors at Navayana, the Delhi-based indie publishing house, retraced the original text back to a student of the Italian scholar. Comparing the copy of the handwritten manuscript with the first edition, they corrected any errors and inconsistencies, added back the missing passages, and came up with a new, revised and annotated edition in consultation with Rashmi Katyayan, the Singh family lawyer. The intellectual sleuthing behind the making of this book is itself a feat of patient editing in the otherwise rushed landscape of trade publishing in India.
Although Lo Bir Sendra is more like a series of episodic reminiscences rather than a structured memoir, the reader gets a strong sense from it of the extraordinary man Singh was. Born in 1903 in Takra Pathantoli, a village near Ranchi (then in Bihar and now in Jharkhand), to a Munda family, he was lucky to be the beneficiary of a progressive education. Recognising his potential, W.F. Cosgrave, the principal of his school, arranged for Singh to study in England. Once there, he not only shone for his academic merit at Oxford but also received a prestigious 'Blue" for his excellence in hockey. Eventually, Singh would lead the hockey team (which included stars like Dhyan Chand and Shaukat Ali) to victory in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics.
The first Adivasi to qualify for the Indian Civil Service, Singh would also be the first to quit the profession. He married Tara Majumdar, granddaughter of W.C. Bonnerjee, the first president of the Indian National Congress. Later, he became a Member of Parliament and led the Adivasi Mahasabha party. His second marriage to Jahanara Jeyaratnam (also a politician) in 1952 was widely noted, too.
Singh started with a corporate job, then taught at Achimota College in former Gold Coast (now Ghana), founded a magazine for Adivasi issues (published in Mundari, among other languages) and was the principal of a college for Indian princes, before entering politics. A staunch opponent of Congress elitism, he was forced to accept an alliance with the party later in life.
Yet Singh never hesitated to air his opinions. He objected to the constitutional provision that advocated prohibition, arguing that alcoholic drinks like rice beer, consumed widely by Adivasis, is an intrinsic part of their culture. He spoke up against Article 13(1)(b), which defined peaceful assembly as one 'without arms". For the Adivasi, Singh argued, the bow and arrow are part of their attire and identity—not necessarily seen as arms and weapons.
For all his anti-establishment politics, Singh knew how to have a good time. Equally popular among Indian and British glitterati, he always managed to land on his feet. He was a victim of intrigue and envy fuelled by Indian babudom or the petty outrage of racist sahibs but made short work of these conspirators.
For instance, in 1953, in a typical act of bravado, he organised a two-day cricket match between the Prime Minister's XI, led by Nehru, and the Vice-President's XI, led by S. Radhakrishnan, for the PM's National Relief Fund for flood victims in Bihar, Andhra State and Uttar Pradesh. Nehru scored 1, and the match ended up in a draw.
As The Hindu reported, 'Jaipal Singh threatens that Parliamentary sporting activity has come to stay. He thinks that sporting events would bring all groups and parties much closer and enable them to consider national problems from a broader rather than narrow sectional viewpoint." Half a century after his death, Singh must be turning in his grave, considering the state his country is in.