Abstract
The book under review, Betwixt Development and Discontent is based on a study conducted on ‘Dalit Adivasis’ residing in South-Eastern part of Uttar Pradesh comprising of Sonbhadra, Mirzapur, Chandauli, Allahabad and Chitrakoot by selecting 3,000 sample households. Divided into seven main chapters, the book contains too many objectives (total 9) and hypothesis (total 11), which somewhere dilutes its sharpness. The study critically questions the trajectory and paradigm of development, both before and after independence, bestowed through various government plans and schemes by arguing that the tribal development efforts have failed miserably in the region so far as the question of socioeconomic conditions of the ‘Dalit Adivasis’ are concerned: a word coined by the author for denoting such Dalits of Uttar Pradesh who are under Adivasi category in other states but are not considered under Scheduled Tribes category here. In support of the argument, the book cites references of tribulations encountered by ‘Dalit Adivasis’, for example, land alienation, displacement and rehabilitation, unemployment, etc. The argument goes further by mentioning that the area under study is highly stratified and dominated by feudal social structure, mafias of various kinds, political goons, brokers and government agents, who marred the possibilities of development due to their vested interests culminating into the menace of ‘Naxalism’, which is widespread in the region. The author takes a very strong view of the pathetic condition of ‘Dalit Adivasis’ by underlining that, ‘It is shameful that not even one officer in the rank of Secretary to the Government of India and not even half a dozen Joint Secretaries are from these communities, and no ‘Dalit Adivasi’ has been allowed to reach a position of heading any public sector undertaking’ (p. 5) is a matter of further investigation in order to ascertain ground reality. He further reiterates that, ‘It seems that we have failed miserably in our tribal development efforts and managed to marginalise and ignore them … and as a result, this region has been in the news for some years as a Naxalite activity zone’ (p. 1). The author fails to record any kind of development in the region and, hence, considers Naxal outbreak as a direct repercussion. However, the study fails to enumerate that during last couple of decades many development projects have come up in the area under study, especially in ‘Singrauli Region’ known as India’s ‘energy capital’, accelerating overall growth and living standard of the inhabitants and ‘Dalit Adivasis’ being an integral part of the society also benefitted from it at large. Moreover, even though the area that was once notoriously known for Naxal activities is now showing no sign of it; slowly and steadily it is fading away from the scene defying the claim of the author about failure of developmental schemes. Hence, the utility of searching Naxal flavour has not much relevance in the study. In a close scrutiny, some contradictory trends are noticed that undermine the consistency of the book and need to be discussed here. The author writes that, ‘It is pertinent to point to make at the very outset that officially the state of Uttar Pradesh did not have any Scheduled Tribe population, when some groups concentrated mostly in Sonbhadra and Chitrakoot were notified as Scheduled Tribe’ (p. 5). However, on the very next page (p. 6), the author describes a long list of Scheduled Tribes residing in the state of Uttar Pradesh.
In an analytical purview, the volume looks more like a research report rather than an academic book. The content part of the book providing details of the chapters indicate that the field research report is directly sent for publication without getting properly edited. Here, one specific chapter is devoted to ‘Research Methodology’ (Ch. 2). It would have been better if the author had made it part of the chapter one captioned as ‘Introduction’. Repeated use of the same word, ‘Profile of … District’ while providing details of chapter three has not much meaning. It would have been better if the author had just given the name of the chapter in the content part and specified remaining details in the inner part of the chapter.
Some basic flaws are observed in the volume. To catalogue a few, the introduction chapter seems to be written in a haphazard manner by picking contents from diverse sources and trying to convert into a collage without giving much botheration to inter-link different paragraphs and sections with each other. In the concluding chapter captioned, ‘Summary, Conclusion and Suggestions’, socioeconomic status, problems and suggestions to improve the condition of ‘Dalit Adivasis’ are given in number form, following standard pattern of writing research report. A narrative form in running text would have been far better way to analyse, interpret and conclude about the findings which perhaps much suited to the appetite of the book. While analysing the data collected from the field in a tabular form; rather than data interpretation, conclusion drawn and report writing, the author has given objective before each table followed by statistical analysis by providing such details as ‘Mean’, ‘SD’, ‘DF’, ‘Sign’, and so on which has no significance in a standard book, and is apparently not required.
‘Citation’ is given in the text following American Psychological Association (APA) pattern. After each chapter ‘References’ are provided and at the end of the book, a consolidated list of ‘Bibliography’ is given. A mismatch between all the three is noticed. Some of the citations are not found either in references or in bibliography (e.g., Majumdar, 1961: 367, p. 7; Mukherjee et al., 1981, p. 11; George & Sree Kumar, 1993, p. 11 are neither in reference nor in bibliography). Even few references are missing from Bibliography section. Most important, there are inconsistencies with APA style of citation and referencing. In some instances, names are not written properly and, in others, year of publication are missing. Numbering problem is noticed (p. 6) while providing the list of notified Scheduled Tribes. Similarly, the heading (p. 6), ‘The Scheduled Tribes are the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) (Uttar Pradesh)’ is absolutely vague, misleading and does not describe the true spirit of the content. Throughout the volume, vague sentences and grammatical errors are noted.
In a nutshell, even though the area and topic of research selected by the author is most contemporary but its final outcome seems to be missing focus and precision. Further, the study report is converted and published into a book in haste without giving much heed to basics by ignoring the fact that as a source of knowledge, it will reach into the hands of readers across globe.