'Indigenous Peoples Day’ reflects colonial guilt, not India’s reality

In India, the Indigenous people are not perceived as different from other natives.

(RSSFACTS is a column that demystifies the functioning, organisational structure and ideology of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.) 

‘International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples’ is observed every year on 9 August. In recent years, this occasion has led to a clash of narratives. The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and the Akhil Bharatiya Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram (ABVKA), an RSS-inspired organisation, have taken a firm stand that this day holds no relevance in the Indian context, as it is a purely colonial and Western construct. It is largely seen as a project rooted in colonial guilt, aimed at addressing the historical oppression of Indigenous peoples under the so-called 'white man's burden'. In the West, there is a clear and defined divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations.

In contrast, in India, the Indigenous people are not perceived as different from other natives. According to ABVKA, “We believe that everyone living in India is a mool niwasi (original inhabitant) of the country. No one came from outside.”

India has always been civilisationally inclusive, unlike the West, where the ‘White’ man carried out brutal genocides across Europe and the Americas. These campaigns were unprecedented in their brutality.

Raphael Lemkin, who coined the term "genocide", identified two key phases in the colonial genocides that began in the 15th century, carried out by powers such as Britain, France, Portugal, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Sweden. The first phase involved the destruction of Indigenous cultures, leading to the second phase—the forcible imposition of the colonisers’ religion, language, and societal norms upon native populations.

Similar patterns of genocide were repeated in South America, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and several island nations, where Western colonisers systematically exterminated Indigenous communities.

The Americas

According to the Holocaust Museum Houston, when European settlers arrived in the Americas, historians estimate there were over 10 million Native Americans living there. By 1900, that number had dwindled to under 300,000. Native Americans were subjected to many different forms of violence, all aimed at destroying their communities. In the late 1800s, blankets from smallpox patients were deliberately distributed among Native Americans to spread the disease. Numerous wars were waged, and violence was actively encouraged; for example, European settlers were paid for each Penobscot person they killed. In the 19th century, around 4,000 Cherokee people died on the “Trail of Tears”, a forced march from the southern US to Oklahoma. Even in the 20th century, civil rights violations were common, and discrimination against Indigenous people continues to this day.

Australia

According to an Australian Human Rights Commission investigation titled,  “Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families, Indigenous children have been forcibly separated from their families and communities since the earliest days of European colonisation. Violent battles over land rights and access to food and water sources characterised race relations in the 19th century. During this period, Indigenous children were kidnapped and exploited for their labour. As recently as the early 20th century, Indigenous children were still being ‘run down’ by Europeans in the northern regions of Australia. The report stated that young Aboriginal servants were seen as advantageous because they were cheap and never paid beyond basic provisions of food and clothing. Consequently, almost any European near the frontier, regardless of their own circumstances, could acquire and maintain a personal servant.

The report further stated that both governments and missionaries specifically targeted Indigenous children for removal from their families. Their aim was to inculcate European values and work habits in the children, who would then be employed in service to colonial settlers.

Canada

In Canada, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and various other inquiries revealed disturbing facts about the repression of Indigenous peoples. According to a CBS News report, “In May 2021, when archaeologists discovered what they believed to be 200 unmarked graves at a former school site in Canada, it brought renewed attention to one of the most shameful chapters of that nation's history. Starting in the 1880s and continuing for much of the 20th century, over 150,000 children from hundreds of Indigenous communities across Canada were forcibly removed from their parents by the government and sent to what were called residential schools. Funded by the state and run by churches, these schools aimed to assimilate and Christianise Indigenous children by ripping them from their parents, their culture, and their communities. The children were often referred to as savages and forbidden from speaking their languages or practising their traditions. As Anderson Cooper reported last year, many were physically and sexually abused, and thousands of children never returned home.”

Conclusion

Balasaheb Deshpande, founder of the ABVKA, raised this issue in a letter to Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao. He argued that since every person living in India is Indigenous, there can be no division between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations. “(This) shrewd attempt at dividing India into Indigenous and non-Indigenous groups should be stopped immediately. This is in the country’s best interests," Deshpande stated. He also urged PM Rao to present India’s position at the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, which first met on 9 August 1982. The UN General Assembly later chose this date in 1994 to be observed as the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples.

Earlier RSSFACTS columns can be read here.