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   From: alt.fan.jai-maharaj@googlegroups.com   
      
   IN SOLIDARITY WITH INDIGENOUS PEOPLE   
      
   By Atul Jog   
   Editorial, The Pioneer, dailypioneer.com   
   Friday, August 10, 2018   
      
   European countries physically eliminated and destroyed the   
   identities of indigenous peoples; the world has much to   
   learn from India and its Constitution   
      
   Christopher Columbus embarked on an expedition in search of   
   India in 1492 and reached the Western Islands. The Spanish   
   travellers mistakenly thought, in their search for gold,   
   that they had reached India. So, this new world was given   
   the name of India and its residents came to be known as   
   Indians. But when the team led by Vasco-de-Gama that had   
   set sail to search for India landed on the east side on the   
   Calicut port of India, this time the real deal, in 1498,   
   the local inhabitants were naturally called Indians.   
      
   People in the area that had been searched for by Columbus   
   had a reddish tinge to their complexion and ended up in   
   popular parlance being called Red Indians; there were at   
   least four major such Spanish expeditions. An Italian,   
   Amerigo Vepucci went on two expeditions and wrote a letter   
   saying. "(Here is) A new world -- more densely peopled and   
   full of animals (much more) than our Europe or Asia or   
   Africa. Based on this letter by Amerigo, German map-makers   
   named the landmass 'Land of Amerigo' on their maps, which   
   gradually and over time came to be known as America (in   
   1507) and is today known as the United States of America.   
      
   Columbus, at the head of seven ships, started from Spain   
   with 90 fellow Spaniards and landed on the sea coast of   
   present-day Salvador on 12 October, 1492. The local   
   'Araawak' tribe welcome them with an open heart and   
   honoured them by giving gifts to all the members of the   
   expedition. Columbus wrote to the King of Spain: "How   
   peaceful and supportive these people are. On the basis of   
   this, I say with certainty that there is no other nation   
   superior to them in all the world. They behave politely   
   with their neighbours. Their speech is accompanied by a   
   very sweet and gentle smile. Although they remain naked,   
   their behaviour is very gentle and commendable" Bur even   
   after such praise of the locals, the Spanish unleashed a   
   reign of terror over the next 50-60 years in the region   
   subjugating the native population, their well-documented   
   tyranny marked by oppression, exploitation and genocide. It   
   was the start of the Spanish Empire. In 1493, Columbus came   
   again with 17 big ships. Around 1,500 soldiers were   
   accompanying him this time. He took control over many other   
   islands in the region including Puerto Rico as his men   
   slaughtered the native inhabitants of these territories. A   
   large number of indigenous people of the many native tribes   
   were taken captive.   
      
   After the death of Columbus in 1506, the Spanish explorer   
   Hernando Cortez arrived in Cuba with 500 soldiers in 1519   
   and reached Mexico for the first time. While the indigenous   
   'Aztec' tribal people welcomed him and gifted him gold, the   
   Spaniard exploited some local discontent against tribal   
   chiefs and a section of the Aztec people collaborated with   
   Cortez in attacking their own capital or seat of power.   
   Though he was supposed to return with gold, Cortez   
   impounded all Aztec gold and more -- he also established   
   the Spanish Empire over the whole of Mexico. In a backlash,   
   Aztecs rebelled and forced the Spanish army along with   
   Cortez to flee. But the Spanish colonists returned in 1520   
   with enough firepower and heavy arms to create havoc and   
   massacre the indigenous population where they resisted. The   
   Aztec capital was destroyed and a colonial administrative   
   capital called Mexico City was established.   
      
   During the expansion of this empire, Spaniards exploited   
   both natural and human resources of the Americas   
   ruthlessly, committing barbaric atrocities including   
   exploitation of women. A large number of massacres were   
   carried out repeatedly over the next 200 years. According   
   to historical documents, in 1517, the Spanish first took   
   five thousand Africans as slaves in several ships and   
   transferred them to the neighbouring countries (the current   
   West Indies) to work as bonded labourers. In the year 1607,   
   the 'Virginian Company of London' was formed, and for the   
   first time, one hundred English merchants were sent to that   
   new area. A local tribals welcomed them. Using negotiations   
   and what could be termed colonial diplomacy, the local   
   tribal chief 'Vahunsonakuk' was declared the king of that   
   tribe. This newly anointed 'King' was then 'persuaded' to   
   get his daughter married to a prominent Englishman named   
   John Rolf on 5 April, 1614.   
      
   With a matrimonial alliance in place, the British started   
   to cultivate tobacco on the land of the people there on a   
   large scale; the indigenous tribal people fought back. The   
   conflict started in 1622. Although the indigenous peoples   
   fought valiantly and killed hundreds of their British   
   oppressors, they were defeated. The British created the   
   first settlement named Jamestown. In 1675, Nathaniel Bacon   
   attacked the native inhabitants of Virginia's intermediate   
   areas along with a 1000Englishmen. The tribal population in   
   the area got reduced from 8000 to less than 1000 and the   
   population of White men rose to 40,000. The saga of loot   
   and plunder continued.   
      
   Similarly, during the age of empire, many European   
   countries invaded the territories of indigenous peoples in   
   the Americas, Australia and Africa. They destroyed the   
   identities of the indigenous peoples who are till today   
   searching for their pre-imperialist identities, before the   
   'civilised' savaged them. To remember the history of these   
   indigenous peoples, we observe World Native Day on 9 August   
   each year.   
      
   It is an acknowledgement of their sufferings and an attempt   
   to strengthen their efforts to protect their culture.   
   Bharat has stood with them in the fight for their rights.   
   Ours is the only country in the world where we recognised   
   rights of tribal/indigenous people in our Constitution,   
   that is 55 years before the United Nations Declaration on   
   the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (107th plenary meeting   
   September 13, 2007).   
      
   A representative of the Government of India in the United   
   Nations, while signing the declaration in 2007, had said   
   that all the people living in our country are 'native'. No   
   one came here from outside and managed to de-populate local   
   communities wherein the settlers became the 'natives'   
   unlike what happened in Australia and the Americas.   
   Therefore, to protect the native inhabitants in the other   
   countries of the world, India's Constitution must be   
   studied by these countries and they can follow in our   
   footsteps.   
      
   (The writer is the All-India Organising Secretary of   
   Vanvasi Kalyan Ashram and has worked among tribal   
   communities for decades)   
      
   https://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/edit/in-solidarity-with-   
   ndigenous-people.html   
      
   Jai Maharaj, Jyotishi   
   Om Shanti   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)