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Gladson Dungdung | |
|---|---|
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| Born | Simdega |
| Education | PG in Human Rights |
| Occupation(s) | Activist, Researcher & Writer |
| Organization(s) | Adivasi Publications, Adivasi Hunkar and Jharkhand Human Rights Movement |
| Known for | Activism and Writing |
| Awards | Samata Ratana Award 2014 |
Gladson Dungdung (born 2 May 1980) is a human rights activist researcher, writer, motivator and public speaker based in Ranchi, India. He is founder of the Adivasis Publications, Adivasis Hunkar and Jharkhand Human Rights Movement.
He comes from the Kharia Adivasi community in Jharkhand (India). His family was displaced for an irrigation project built at Chhinda River in Simdega district of Jharkhand in 1980. His parents were brutally killed in June 1990 while they were going to attend the civil court, Simdega in a land related dispute of a family in the village. Consequently, he has had to undergo through a long struggle for survival. He was unable to get admission in the college for lack of Rs. 250. He worked as daily wage labourer, cycle mechanic and helper in tea shop.
He was one of the first authors published by Adivaani with the English language book "Whose Country is it Anyway?", launched in 2013 at the New Delhi World Book Fair. [1] [2] [3]
He has spoken internationally on human rights issues, including police atrocities and gross violation of the rights of indigenous peoples. [4] [5]
His passport was taken in January 2014, following "a sensitive report from state police" related to his travel to Germany and Thailand to speak about the gross human rights violation. He reported refusing to pay bribes during his passport application process. [5] [6] In May 2016, he was also offloaded from a Delhi-London Air India flight, on his way to attend an international seminar highlighting the situation of Adivasis. On this occasion, he was branded an ‘anti-State and Maoist sympathizer’, even though he has always impartially criticized both sides in the Maoist conflict, and believes that criticism of wrongdoings by State officials should be understood in a positive light, as part of an effort to bring about changes for the better.
In 2016, his bank account with the State Bank of India was blocked in alleged suspicious of his involvement in money laundering. In June 2017, two cases were filed against him for protesting against the amendment of Chotanagpur Tanacy Act 1908 and Santhal Pargana Tanacy Act 1949, falsely accusing him for instigating the Adivasis for protesting against the Jharkhand government.
He is the author of more than two dozen books, which includes:
He has edited two others: Nagri Ka Nagara and Jharkhand Human Rights Report, 2001-2011. He has also written more than 500 articles focused on human rights issues, Adivasi rights, displacement, politics and social change published in edited books, daily newspapers, magazines, journals and news web portals.
He has spoken in the international seminars and conferences held in
He served as an honorary member in the Assessment and Monitoring Authority under the Planning Commission of India (Govt. of India) from May 2011 to April 2013, and was awarded the Samata Ratan Award, 2014, for his extraordinary work for the Adivasi communities of India.
The Santal people are an Austroasiatic-speaking Munda ethnic group of the Indian subcontinent. Santals are the largest tribe in the Jharkhand and West Bengal in terms of population and are also found in the states of Odisha, Bihar and Assam. They are the largest ethnic minority in northern Bangladesh's Rajshahi Division and Rangpur Division. They have a sizeable population in Nepal. The Santals speak Santali, the most widely spoken Munda languages of Austro-asiatic language family.
The Communist Party of India (Maoist) is a Marxist–Leninist–Maoist banned communist political party and militant organization in India which aims to overthrow the "semi-colonial and semi-feudal Indian state" through protracted people's war. It was founded on 21 September 2004, through the merger of the Communist Party of India (Marxist–Leninist) People's War (People's War Group) and the Maoist Communist Centre of India (MCCI). The party has been designated as a terrorist organisation in India under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act since 2009.
The Adivasi are a heterogeneous tribal groups across the Indian subcontinent. The term is a Sanskrit word coined in the 1930s by political activists to give the tribal people an indigenous identity by claiming an indigenous origin. The term is also used for ethnic minorities, such as Chakmas of Bangladesh, Bhumiputara Khasas of Nepal, and Vedda of Sri Lanka. The Constitution of India does not use the word Adivasi, instead referring to Scheduled Tribes and Janjati. The government of India does not officially recognise tribes as indigenous people. The country ratified the International Labour Organization (ILO) Convention 107 on Indigenous and Tribal Peoples of the United Nations (1957) and refused to sign the ILO Convention 169. Most of these groups are included in the Scheduled Tribe category under constitutional provisions in India.
Freedom of religion in India is a fundamental right guaranteed by Article 25-28 of the Constitution of India. Modern India came into existence in 1947 and the Indian constitution's preamble was amended in 1976 to state that India is a secular state. Supreme Court of India ruled that India was already a secular state from the time it adopted its constitution, what actually was done through this amendment is to state explicitly what was earlier contained implicitly under article 25 to 28. Every citizen of India has a right to practice and promote their religion peacefully. However, there have been numerous incidents of religious intolerance that resulted in riots and violence, notably, the 1984 Anti-Sikh Massacre in Delhi, 1990 Exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from Kashmir, 1992-93 Bombay Riots in Mumbai, the 2008 Anti-Christian riots in Odisha. Some perpetrators of the 1984 Anti-Sikh Massacre in Delhi have not been brought to justice despite widespread condemnation.
The Kharia are an Austroasiatic tribal ethnic group from east-central India. They originally speak the Kharia language, which belong to Austroasiatic languages. They are sub-divided into three groups known as the Hill Kharia, Delki Kharia and the Dudh Kharia. Amongst them, the Dudh Kharia is the most educated community.
Baba Kartik Oraon was an Indian politician and an Adivasi leader from the Indian National Congress. He also participated in the Indian freedom movement of 1947. He founded the Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad organisation.
Salwa Judum was a militia that was mobilised and deployed as part of counterinsurgency operations in Chhattisgarh, India, aimed at countering Naxalite activities in the region. The militia, consisting of local tribal youth, received support and training from the Chhattisgarh state government. It was outlawed and banned by a Supreme Court court order but continues to exist in the form of armed auxiliary forces, District Reserve Groups, and other vigilante groups.
Swami Agnivesh, was an Indian social activist and the founder of Arya Sabha, a political party based on the principles of Arya Samaj. He also served as a cabinet minister in the state of Haryana. He is best known for his work against bonded labour through the Bonded Labour Liberation Front, which he founded in 1981.
The Naxalite–Maoist insurgency is an ongoing conflict between Maoist groups known as Naxalites or Naxals and the Indian government. The influence zone of the Naxalites is called the red corridor, which has been steadily declining in terms of geographical coverage and number of violent incidents, and in 2021 it was confined to the 25 "most affected" locations, accounting for 85% of Left Wing Extremism (LWE) violence, and 70 "total affected" districts across 10 states in two coal-rich, remote, forested hilly clusters in and around the Dandakaranya-Chhattisgarh-Odisha region and the tri-junction area of Jharkhand-Bihar and-West Bengal. The Naxalites have frequently targeted police and government workers in what they say is a fight for improved land rights and more jobs for neglected agricultural labourers and the poor.
Christians are a religious community residing in the Indian state of Jharkhand. As per 2011 Census of India, 4.3% of people in Jharkhand are Christians. Christians are majority in Simdega district of Jharkhand.
Ram Dayal Munda, known as R. D. Munda, was an Indian scholar and regional music exponent. He was awarded the Padma Shri of the year 2010 for his contribution to the field of art.
Hemant Soren is an Indian politician from Jharkhand, who served as the 5th Chief Minister of Jharkhand from 2019 to 2024 and from 2013 to 2014. He is also the working president of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha, a political party in Jharkhand. He represents Barhait constituency in the Jharkhand Legislative Assembly since 2014 and from Dumka from 2019 to 2020 and from 2009 to 2014. He was also the Deputy Chief Minister of Jharkhand from 2010 to 2013, leader of the opposition, Jharkhand Legislative Assembly from 2014 to 2019 and member of Rajya Sabha from Jharkhand from 2009 to 2010.
Most of the languages of Bihar, the third most populous state of India, belong to the Bihari subgroup of the Indo-Aryan family. Chief among them are Bhojpuri, spoken in the west of the state, Maithili in the north, Magahi in center around capital Patna. Maithili has official recognition under the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India. The official language of Bihar is Modern Standard Hindi, with Standard Urdu serving as a second official language in 15 districts.
Kartam Joga is an adivasi Indian political activist of the banned Communist Party of India (Maoist). He was imprisoned in Chhattisgarh on suspicion of participating in the Tarmetla ambush in which 75 members of the Central Reserve Police Force were killed by CPI (Maoist) forces. Amnesty International named him a prisoner of conscience and described the charges against him as "fabricated". He was acquitted at his trial for lack of evidence.
Soni Sori is an Adivasi school teacher turned political leader of Aam Aadmi Party in Sameli village of Dantewada in south Bastar, Chhattisgarh, India. She was arrested by the Delhi Police's Crime Branch for Chhattisgarh Police in 2011 on charges of acting as a conduit for Maoists. During her imprisonment, she was tortured and sexually assaulted by Chhattisgarh state police. By April 2013, the Indian Courts had acquitted her in six of the eight cases filed against her due to lack of evidence. After release from prison, Sori began campaigning for the rights of those caught up in the conflict between Maoist insurgents and the government, in particular criticising police violence against tribespeople in the region.
Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar is an Indian writer.
The Adivasi Will Not Dance: Stories is a collection of short stories. The second book by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, it was nominated for The Hindu Literary Prize in 2016 and included by Frontline (magazine) in August 2022 in a list of 25 books “that light up the path to understanding post-Independence Indian literature.” As of April 2021, this book has been translated into Hindi, Marathi, Tamil, Gujarati, and Bengali, while the Malayalam and Austrian German translations are forthcoming.
The Pathalgadi movement was started by tribals in Khunti district of Jharkhand as a resistance movement to assert their rights, including the right to sovereign territory. Pathalgadi literally translates to 'carving a stone'. On these stones orders would be carved by the tribals, orders such as restricting the entry of outsiders.
Adivaani is a platform that aims to support indigenous expression and assertion, based in Kolkata, India. It is a publishing, archiving and chronicling outfit of and by indigenous people of India's Adivasi Tribes.
Jacinta Kerketta is an Indian Hindi-language journalist, poet and activist. Her poetry and journalism discusses the Adivasi identity of youth, protests against the systemic oppression of Adivasis in India, gender-based violence, especially against women, displacement and questions the state apathy of governance. Forbes India named her one of India's top 20 Self-Made Women list.