Current debate on ST status among Pahari & Gujjars, who truly deserve it According to Article 342 of the Indian constitution, the Scheduled Tribes are the tribes or tribal communities or part of or groups within these tribes and tribal communities which have been declared as such by the President through a public notification. The criteria presently followed for specification of a community as a Scheduled Tribe are : (i) indications of primitive traits, (ii) distinctive culture, (iii) geographical isolation, (iv) shyness of contact with the community at large, and (v) backwardness. However, these criteria are not spelt out in the Constitution.
Government of India on 15.6.1999 (as further amended on 25.6.2002), has approved modalities for deciding claims for inclusion in, exclusion from and other modifications in Orders specifying lists of Scheduled Tribes (STs). Accordingly, only those proposals which have been recommended and justified by concerned State Government / UT Administration can be processed further. Thereafter, it has to be concurred with by Registrar General of India (RGI) and National Commission for Scheduled Tribes (NCST) for consideration for amendment of legislation.
A Task Force under the Chairmanship of the then Secretary (Tribal Affairs) was constituted by the Ministry of Tribal Affairs in February, 2014 to examine the existing criteria and procedure. The Task Force in its report submitted to the Ministry has made recommendations, among other things, for revision of criteria and procedure for scheduling of tribes as STs. The recommendations of the Task Force were examined and accordingly the proposal for streamlining of procedure for scheduling of communities as STs and revision of criteria for scheduling of communities as STs was circulated to States / UTs. Views / comments have been received from all States / UTs except one state.
This Press Release is based on the information given by the Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Sudarshan Bhagat in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha on 28.12.2017 (Thursday).
The term ‘Scheduled Tribes’ first appeared in the Constitution of India. Article 366 (25) defined scheduled tribes as “such tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within such tribes or tribal communities as are deemed under Article 342 to be Scheduled Tribes for the purposes of this constitution”. The criterion followed for specification of a community, as scheduled tribes are indications of primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large, and backwardness. This criterion is not spelt out in the Constitution but has become well established. It subsumes the definitions contained in 1931Census, the reports of first Backward Classes Commission 1955, the Advisory Committee (Kalelkar), on Revision of SC/ST lists (Lokur Committee), 1965 and the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes orders (Amendment) Bill 1967 (Chanda Committee), 1969.
In exercise of the powers conferred by Clause (1) of Article 342 of the Constitution of India, the President, after Consultation with the State Governments concerned have promulgated so far 9 orders specifying the Scheduled Tribes in relation to the state and union territories. Out of these, eight are in operation at present in their original or amended form. One order namely the Constitution (Goa, Daman & Diu) Scheduled Tribes order 1968 has become defunct on account of reorganization of Goa, Daman & Diu in 1987. Under the Goa, Daman & Diu reorganization Act 1987 (18 of 1987) the list of Scheduled Tribes of Goa has been transferred to part XIX of the Schedule to the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order, 1950 and that of Daman & Diu II of the Schedule of the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) (Union Territories) Order, 1951.The Gujjar and Pahari communities continue to fight over the inclusion of the latter in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) status.
The rift over the ST status is widening and deepening with each passing day with the leaders of the Gujjar community, who got the status from the Central government in 1991, opposing any effort to share the status with the Paharis.
While Pahari leaders have fought hard and even presented their case in front of the Central government on several occasions, but to no avail. After the Gujjar and Bakarwal community got the ST status in 1991, Paharis pleaded in front of every Prime Minister, starting from PV Narasimha Rao to Manmohan Singh, and now their case is lying with the Registrar General of India. However, they are yet to be considered a tribal community.
Gujjar leaders have been opposing the demand with an argument that the ST status can’t be given on linguistic basis, which violates the basic principle of giving the tribal status. Paharis on the other hand believe that the Gujjars have availed enough benefit from the ST status and now it is their turn to get the same.
“First, the Gujjars took benefit of the ST status and got employment in government sector in the state. By exploiting reservation in promotion, they even got higher positions. Now, their children, who study abroad and in top schools of the state and the country, are also getting the benefit of the ST status,” said Lokesh Sharma, a Pahari leader of Poonch. Paharis are spread in Poonch and Rajouri districts of the Jammu region and Baramulla and Kupwara districts of the Kashmir region. Hindus, Muslim and Sikhs in these districts consider themselves Paharis.
Former vice-chairman of Pahari advisory board Mushtaq Ahmed Bukhari said, “We will not demand the ST status if the facilities, which people get in Srinagar or Jammu city, are extended to Paharis living in far off areas. Provide us schools like Burn Hall, Bisco and DPS in our areas, we will shun this demand.”
Since these two communities are fighting over the ST status, Punjabis, Dogras and Kashmiris have managed to get whatever they wanted from the government ,we Opposses the inclusions of upper castes non tribal communities into schedule tribe category. Now days we see Paharis started to adopt the culture of Gujjers ,started wearing topes etc,etc, we can say to copy one’s traditions is not the criteria to get status.

Author is post graduation from AMU
Email:--------nisarulislam08@gmail.com