Gujarat: Demand for 'Bhil state' gains momentum ahead of 2024

The call for a separate state for the Bhil tribes, a demand that has lingered for over a century, has gained momentum ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha and Rajasthan assembly elections. The proposed state would encompass parts of Rajasthan, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra.

Chaitar Vasava, an Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA from Narmada district in Gujarat, has become one of the vocal advocates of this demand. Vasava maintains that the Bhil tribes, who previously possessed substantial tracts of land, have been relegated to being daily-wage earners due to the government’s land procurement policy for mega-projects such as the Statue of Unity.

Dismissing the idea of a separate state for Bhils, Mansukh Vasava, a tribal MP of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from South Gujarat, said, “Instead of demanding a separate state, these leaders should draw the government’s attention to what is lacking and how schemes meant for tribals can be implemented properly.”

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“Besides, several tribal leaders have tried to revive this movement earlier, but they too did not get much support because a majority of the population does not support the idea,” he added.

For many years, the movement for a separate state for Bhils has been at the heart of tribal politics, with mainstream parties vying to woo Bhils, who account for 13.4 per cent of the tribal population in Rajasthan, 14.8 per cent in Gujarat, 21.1 per cent in Madhya Pradesh and 9.35 per cent in Maharashtra.

Incidentally, Somji Damor, a veteran BJP tribal leader and seven-time MP, was one of the leaders from Gujarat to raise the issue, but he did not get much support from his party. He quit the party in 2014 and is currently the president of the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Parishad.

The movement for ‘Bhilistan’ 

“The statement of the AAP MLA comes at a time when Chhotu Vasava, the big tribal leader from Bharuch, lost his seat in 2022 polls, along with his son Mahesh Vasava. With the Vasavas going down, there is now a void of a strong tribal leader in South Gujarat,” tribal activist Romel Sutariya told The Federal.

“The issue has always been a popular and sensitive one amongst the tribals. Multiple parties have raised the issue to maintain their electoral relevance in tribal politics,” added Sutariya.

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Notably, Chhotu Vasava, a seven-time MLA and one of the strongest local tribal leaders in Gujarat, has been at the forefront of the movement for a separate state for Bhils. He not only envisioned ‘Bhilistan,’ but also built his career in electoral politics around this issue.

Chhotu Vasava first demanded for a separate state for Bhils in 2009 through the organisation Bhilistan Vikas Morcha formed in the same year. He later joined the Janata Dal United (JDU) and remained the party’s only MLA in Gujarat for many years until 2017.

In 2017, he broke away from the JDU and jumped into electoral politics with his newly founded party, Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP). The BTP had one demand ahead of the 2017 Assembly polls: a separate state for Bhils. The party contested the elections with the Congress as an ally in six constituencies. Out of the six seats, the BTP won two seats: Chhotu Vasava and his son Mahesh Vasava from Jhagadia (Bharuch) and Dediapada (Narmada), respectively.

The party entered Rajasthan electoral politics in 2018 state polls and won two seats and finished second in two others in Banswara district. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BTP contested from four seats, from Basnwara, Udaipur, Jodhpur and Chittor.

People without a voice

“The Bhils have never had a voice, and no one to fight for our rights. We aim to do that,” Rajkumar, a BTP MLA, had said after winning.

However, the upsurge of tribal politics around the Bhils, the sub-group of tribes who form the majority of the tribal population in Rajasthan, had begun way before the advent of the BTP in the state’s electoral politics. Outfits like Bhil Pradesh Vidyarthi Morcha, a student organisation founded in 2015, came up as a response to the anti-reservation push of the then Vasundhara Raje government.

The Raje government, despite a High Court ruling against the issue, had sought to implement a quota for non-tribal local people in the tribal areas to meet the demands of the Samanta Manch, a sister organisation of RSS in the state.

“The demand for a separate land for Bhils is based on the constitutional rights enshrined in Article 5 of Forest Rights Act 2006, 5th Schedule, that have been brazenly violated by all parties when in the government. The movement has gained momentum in areas like Udaipur, where the tribal-dominated regions still lack basic amenities,” Hansraj Meena, a Rajasthan-based tribal leader and the founder of the rights organisation Tribal Army, told The Federal.

“Political parties, be it the BJP or Congress, have failed to provide adequate representation to tribals in both electoral politics and constitutional institutions. The issue has been reduced to a mere tool for securing tribal votes,” adds Meena.

State programmes

In 2021, the Rajasthan government launched a programme named after Kali Bai, a tribal girl who had saved her teacher’s life. Under the Kali Bai Scooty Yojana, the Congress government gave away scooters to tribal school students who excelled in academics.  In June last year, RSS hoisted saffron flag at Mangarh in Rajasthan — a place of religious worship of tribals — to commemorate Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav.

In July, BJP president JP Nadda began the party’s poll campaign with an assurance to make Mangarh Dham a national monument. In August 2022, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot celebrated World Tribal Day at Mangarh, inaugurating a slew of projects like digital monogram of freedom fighters and a new portal for forest rights worth Rs 399 crore, amongst others.

In Madhya Pradesh, the ruling BJP renamed railway stations and bus stops after tribal icons and legalised Mahua, a traditional drink made by tribals out of Mahua flowers, a heritage drink.

Influence of RSS on tribal movement

On September 17, 2021, Paul Muniya, an auxiliary bishop of the Protestant Shalom Church in the southern town of Jhabua, a tribal-dominated district in Madhya Pradesh, requested urgent intervention from the President of India to stop the rise in attacks against their schools, churches, pastors and congregations in the state.

The memorandum, addressed to the President, was submitted to the District Collector of Jhabua, where about 87 percent of the population are tribals. Christians tribals form around 3.7 percent amongst them.

The letter stated that “false cases were being filed against Christians who were also being attacked by the members of the VHP, Bajrang Dal, RSS, Adivasi Samaj Sudharak Sangh and the Hindu Yuva Janjati Sangathan.”

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Despite having the largest tribal population among the four states, Madhya Pradesh has seen the least intensity of the movement for a separate state for Bhils. This is because of the Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram, the 70-year-old tribal unit of the RSS that operates between Jhabua to Alirajpur, the state’s most densely populated tribal region. Several local tribal organizations in the area follow the stance of RSS on the matter and consider the Bhils as Hindus, referring to them as ‘Vanvasi’.

Political infiltration

“A systematic process of political infiltration camouflaged in cultural influence has been carried out by the RSS and other right-wing affiliated organisations for years in the tribal areas of Rajasthan, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh.  There has been a sudden rise in the visits by Hindu godmen and in events like Ramkatha, which is one of their many ways to infuse Hinduism and its practices into the tribal culture,” says Sutariya.

“Tribals are worshipers of nature. They worship their ancestors by laying a stone in their memory. For the past few years, these stones are being painted saffron and temples are being built around these stones. That’s another method of right-wing influence,” he adds.

In southern Rajasthan, which accounts for almost two thirds of the state’s tribal population, Vanvasi Kalyan Parishad, a sister organisation of RSS, has been active for years.

“Besides, the RSS also has schools across the tribal belt of the four states where amongst other Hindu rituals, the tribal kids are taught the right way to do havans  and chant mantras,” says Sutariya.