JAMMU: The recent protests by Gujjar and Bakerwal tribal leaders and activists in Jammu and Kashmir threaten to disturb the political balance of power in two border districts of Poonch and Rajouri besides escalating the tensions with Paharis, which are proposed to be included in the reserved category list of Scheduled Tribes in J&K.
Since July 2023, Gujjar and Bakerwal tribals have been staging demonstrations and protesting against the Indian government’s move to include non-tribals in the Scheduled Tribes (ST) list through the Jammu and Kashmir Scheduled Tribes Order (Amendment) Bill, 2023 which was introduced in the Lok Sabha on July 26.
According to this Bill, the Paharis and three other communities – “Gadda Brahmin”, “Koli”, and “Paddari Tribe” – will be included in Jammu and Kashmir’s Scheduled Tribes list. These three linguistic groups will also be provided reservation in jobs, educational institutions and professional institutions thereby shrinking the share of Gujjars and Bakerwals.
Ahead of the winter session of the Indian Parliament, the protests once again picked up momentum. The Gujjars and Bakerwals, essentially Muslim pastoral communities, comprise the third largest ethnic group in Jammu and Kashmir. They claim that the move is an onslaught on their constitutional rights. After years of agitations and demands, in 1991, Gujjars and Bakerwals were granted ST status.
On December 7, 2023, the authorities prevented Gujjar and Bakerwal groups from taking out a ‘Delhi Chalo’ march on Thursday to protest the attempt to grant ST status to the Paharis.
Several Gujjar and Bakerwal activists were detained along with some students, while unofficial curbs were imposed in Rajouri on Thursday to foil the march to the national capital against the Bills.
Some students in Jammu, Srinagar and other towns of both the regions posted videos of their protest and police making attempts to arrest some of them. It could not be ascertained where were these videos recorded. They were posted on their ‘Tribals Bachao March’ handle on the Facebook. These can be accessed here.
Some more videos of some of the leaders speaking about the issues involved and what happened on December 7, 2023, have now emerged.
Roots of the Conflict
In May 2022, the Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission submitted its report, according to which nine seats were reserved for STs – six in Jammu region (Rajouri, Budhal, Thanamandi, Surankote, Mendhar, and Gulabgarh) and three in the Kashmir Valley (Kangan, Gurez, and Kokernag).
The J&K Delimitation Commission report reserved nine seats for Scheduled Tribes in accordance with the Delimitation (Amendment) Act, 2008, and the J&K Reorganisation Act.
The Scheduled Tribe population is spread across several districts of Jammu and Kashmir but five out of the nine seats were reserved in the twin border districts of Rajouri and Poonch.
Two out of five seats are in Rajouri and all three seats in Poonch were reserved for Scheduled Tribes, converting Poonch into an exclusive Scheduled Tribe electoral area and leaving the non-scheduled-tribe population of Poonch district unrepresented. If a constituency is reserved for Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes, the entire electorate can vote, but someone only from the reserved category can contest the election.
Rajouri and Poonch are border districts with complex demographic dynamics. In both Rajouri and Poonch, 36% of the population is Gujjar-Bakerwal, who speak Gojri and have a distinct culture.
The rest of the population, both Muslim and Hindu, speak Pahari, a dialect of Punjabi. In Poonch district, 10% of the population is Hindu and Sikh, mostly concentrated in the town of Poonch and others like it, whereas the rural areas are populated by Muslims, primarily Scheduled Tribes and Paharis. The reservation of five Assembly seats in Rajouri and Poonch for Gujjars and Bakerwals threatened the Paharis. So, they started demanding ST status for ‘Paharis’.
Electoral politics and the political narrative in Rajouri and Poonch has traditionally been determined by both the Gujjar-Pahari divide and the Hindu-Muslim divide.
With a bill proposed to include the Paharis and other ethnic communities into the fold of the reserved Schedule Tribes, the Gujjar-Bakerwal community that had rejoiced the recommendations of the reserved ST seats are now apprehensive of losing electoral heft in the elections.
They fear that if the Paharis are accorded tribal status, this will not only make the reserved seats in Rajouri-Poonch districts irrelevant, but it would also alter the region’s political dynamics and create further complexities.
The Jammu & Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Act 2014 defines Paharis not in terms of location but linguistic identity: Paharis also include about half a million Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK), who settled mostly in Jammu district since 1947. There is still not much clarity on what the new amendment bill entails.
Fears of the pastoral communities
The Gujjar-Bakerwal groups fear that if the Paharis get tribal status, their quota of reservation seats in jobs and education sector will also get divided. In addition to this, the twin communities fear, the ST welfare grant under Article 275 (1) of the Constitution will also get divided among the newly added communities.
They also fear that this will dilute the benefits of the Forest Rights Act, and the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendment Act, which became applicable to Jammu and Kashmir after August 5, 2019. The Gujjar-Bakerwal tribals had partially welcomed the abrogation of Article 370 in the light of the extension of these laws.
Tribal leaders also say that the move to include Paharis, who comprise upper-caste Muslims and Hindus, would also amount to reviving the old order and tilt the balance of power in the favour of the Paharis.
The Gujjars and Bakerwals are traditionally pastoral communities. Though a section of them now leads settled lives and a small section within them has gained economic and political influence, a large section of them continue to struggle for existence. Their challenges have multiplied amidst increasing urbanization, ecological degradation and militarization that pose a hinderance to their traditional migration routes. In recent years, they have also suffered the brunt of the government’s scaled up anti-encroachment drives.
They fear that the hopes that laws like Forest Rights Acts kindled are now diminishing because of their weak implementation. In this backdrop, the grant of ST status to Pahari speaking people, is seen as an existential threat.
A Pandora’s Box
By introducing the Scheduled Tribes Order (Amendment) Bill, 2023, as an antidote to reserving the over 60 percent of Rajouri-Poonch’s assembly constituencies for STs, the government has opened a Pandora’s box.
The move is largely seen as sharpening the traditional cleavages between the Paharis and the Gujjars that have intersected with no just electoral politics but also the military conflict in the past.
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