Bhopal: The remains of the HOWL (How ought we live) collective’s campus in Shukrawasa village were set on fire by unidentified individuals months after its demolition by the local administration. The blaze, which broke out on October 30, gutted books, two vehicles, machinery and a flour mill that had long helped several tribal families in the village. 

Built on land owned by Devraj Rawat, a Samiti member of HOWL, the campus used to serve as a centre for employment, informal education and community initiatives led by the Parvatpura Panchayat Development Committee (PPDC). The fire signified more than material loss for the Adivasis who ran the Samiti – it was a destruction of a space that embodied their dignity and self-reliance.

Scheduled Tribes comprise about 8.6% of India’s population, nearly 10.4 crore people. According to Census 2011, Madhya Pradesh is home to the country’s largest tribal population, with over 1.53 crore Adivasis – nearly 21% of the state’s total population. The state also includes 31 nomadic and 20 de-notified tribal communities.

‘No one dares to speak’

“We saw who set the fire, but no one dares to speak,” said a woman associated with the Samiti, who requested anonymity for safety reasons. “We are poor and afraid.” 

Speaking to The Wire, she said the attack followed a verbal threat earlier that day. “We were cleaning the campus that morning. Nilesh Patel and Brahmanand Chaudhary came asking if Sir Sourav Banerjee was returning, and warned us before leaving: ‘See at night. It will cost you to leave the village’.” The woman said that night, the campus caught fire. 

“At midnight, we saw everything burning, including the vehicles, library, kitchen, and our chakki (flour mill). People are so scared for their lives that no witnesses gave a statement when the police came to inquire. Everyone knows it was Nilesh and Brahmanand who set the fire, but nobody dares to take their names. Those who threatened us are the ones who acted. We merely wanted equality but they burned down everything.”

The Double Chowki police station, when contacted, denied it as a serious incident, stating, “Nothing major happened. It was a small fire in the fields nearby. The campus was already demolished.”

However, Shweta Raghuvanshi, a member of the PPDC and life partner of Sourav Banerjee, told The Wire that soon after the incident, the Double Chowki police officials summoned two Samiti members, Hari Singh Rawat and Devraj. 

“They were cautioned not to support HOWL and the police also reminded them that Sourav is already at risk, which means they might also face danger.” Despite the clear sequence of threats and the attack, she added, the police registered an FIR against “unknown persons”.

According to the NCRB (National Crime Record Bureau) report 2023, Madhya Pradesh recorded the second-highest number of crimes against Scheduled Tribes in the country, with 2,858 cases reported in 2023, 2,979 in 2022, and 2,627 in 2021. 

Manipur topped the list with 3,399 cases, although its figures are largely attributed to the ongoing conflict and instability in the region; only one case was recorded in 2022 and none in 2021. Rajasthan took the third spot with 2,453 cases. 

Losing a learning space and livelihood

The HOWL campus in Manjira Tola was more than a physical space for the villagers. Together, they were learning to shape self-reliance for a dignified life. 

“People in Shukrawasa had unemployment issues. They were either migrating or working for low wages in fields belonging to the upper caste, who exploited them. The Samiti planned initiatives such as aata-chakki, fishery and poultry to generate employment, and opened these within the campus. The fishery had 25,000 fish at the time the campus was demolished,” Tola said.

According to the 2011 Census, Shukrawasa village, in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh, has a predominantly Scheduled Tribe (ST) population, comprising 49.62% of its residents, while Scheduled Castes (SC) make up 5.62%. The villagers allege that a new sense of confidence developing among the tribals had unsettled the local power balance.

The HOWL campus was situated amidst a green forest in Manjira Tola, about 1.5 kilometres from Shukrawasa. The villagers earlier had to walk two kilometres to Tanda for wheat grinding but the Samiti’s chakki had eased their lives. 

“Children and the elderly had to carry heavy weights on their shoulders. We started this chakki where Inder ben used to get paid. The campus had become a space of change. Children came to play, and adults learned to read and write. People who had never opened a book were now filing applications and complaints. One girl who had dropped out after Class 11 restarted her education and even contested panchayat elections," Shweta remarked. 

A 2022 report on People’s Archive of Rural India, which studied Scheduled Tribes and Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups (PVTGs) in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, paints a clear picture of the economic reality of Adivasis. 

The average annual income of an Adivasi household in Madhya Pradesh is Rs 73,900. With an average household size of 4.8, this amounts to an annual per capita income of Rs 15,396. In comparison, non-Adivasi households earn Rs 19,098 per person, while PVTG households earn Rs 14,622.

‘They have eyes on our lands’

A Bhil man, who was part of the Samiti and requested anonymity, said the loss of the campus shattered the community’s sense of progress. “The group gave hope to us labourers, uneducated people, and the oppressed. The upper castes ruled everything, even politics. We were invisible and abandoned. We found our voices when HOWL began working here. The upper caste or the OBCs felt threatened of losing dominance, and hence built this scandal of conversion.”

“Attacking the collective was a well-structured plan to weaken the tribals because the upper caste was frustrated. They had always seen the tribals as slaves working in their fields, making decisions based on their advice. We Bhils hardly get jobs. Losing the campus broke us,” he said. 

The Bhil community is the largest tribal group in Madhya Pradesh as per the last census, with a population of 46,18,068. It constitutes 37.7% of the state’s total Scheduled Tribe population, followed by Gonds and other tribal groups. 

He added, “The oppressors think they control everything, but truth can’t be destroyed. One day, they will have to admit to their wrongs. The discrimination will end one day. This village has been through a lot in the past three months. We need patience to process it. Healing takes time.”

“These people, instead of dialogue, initiated a war against us, as if we were anti-nationals. They labelled us Naxals. The truth is, they have eyes on our land. People here say, ‘Adivasi ki zameen kathir, dusre varg ki zameen sona (Adivasi land is forbidden, but land owned by others is like gold)’,” he said.

The Status of Adivasi Livelihoods (SAL) report states that landlessness remains widespread in Madhya Pradesh. Around 36.1% of Adivasi households do not own any land, while 50.3% are small or marginal farmers who depend on limited plots for survival.

A pattern of suppression

The fire incident on the HOWL campus came months after a chain of actions that, members say, were aimed at dismantling everything the collective had built over the years. The administration demolished the campus in August this year without following legal procedure. That was only a couple of weeks after HOWL’s founder, Sourav Banerjee, who was arrested on charges of “hurting religious sentiments”, got bail.

“They want to root us out,” said Pranay Tripathi, who has been associated with the collective. “Who burns the library? It is barbaric. The campus was a product of shared labour and hope that we built with our hands, becoming carpenters and masons without even having a skillset or machines. The backlash grew precisely because HOWL had begun to alter long-standing hierarchies. The labour, songs, learning – all that was burned down but they can’t destroy what people have already learned. They can burn a building, not an idea,” said Tripathi. 

The Samiti members have demanded a high-level inquiry into the fire, alleging political intimidation and repeated administrative neglect.

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