Adi-vasis (ab-original dwellers) are people who have been isolated and confined to certain regions in the world. Because of their isolation, they seem to have retained the original values of human beings - as God made them. Forest is their home. They live in harmony and communion with nature. Mother Earth provides them with everything. The tribe is their family. They think of 'us and ours', not 'me and mine'. A person's worth is not measured by what s/he has. Their needs are meagre. They work only to fulfil their needs. They feel no need to accumulate and store for a 'rainy day'. They have time - plenty of it - to sing, dance, celebrate and enjoy themselves. Yesterday is gone, tomorrow is still to come. They live for the day, in the here and now. Everyday has its charms for them. Life is simple and relationships are direct. Spirits are all around - good ones and bad ones. The good ones take care of them. The bad ones have to be feared and placated. Birth, sickness, death are all part of the cycle of life - much like the seasons and the life cycle of all plant and animal life.

This could be a romantic, idealistic view of Adivasis - but certainly with some elements of truth.

In a way, I imagine, Adivasis belong to the Kingdom of God by birth, with many of their values close to the Gospel. That could be the reason for their openness, in general, to accept Jesus and his message. I feel that they would have accepted Jesus even more readily, had he been presented to them without the Church's rather rigid, man-made superstructure, bound in abstract, western theological propositions.

Adivasis in Gujarat form about 15% of the population. They are concentrated in the south, east and north of Gujarat. It was the dream of Fr Charles Gomes, then Jesuit Provincial of Gujarat, later Bishop of Ahmedabad, to establish the Catholic Church among the Adivasis of Gujarat as part of what he fervently believed was the evangelical mission of the Church and the Society of Jesus. The first aim of the missionaries, therefore, was to establish a viable community of Adivasi Catholics. In the early 1960s Catholic missionaries first ventured into the Adivasi areas of south and north Gujarat. Christianity had already been there for decades: the 'Church of the Brethren' in south Gujarat, and the Anglican Church in north Gujarat.

South Gujarat
Fr Samada in Bharuch Dt and Fr Zubeldia in Surat Dt were the pioneers. Almost all the first missionaries in south Gujarat were Spanish Jesuits. They followed the evangelizing pattern of Kheda district where the Church had begun among the Dalits about 70 years earlier. Studying the culture and way of life of the Adivasis, very different from that of the people in Kheda, was not considered important for evangelization at the time.

In the beginning they were strangers to the people, their history, culture, customs, geography, gods, festivals and rituals, their daily routine and agricultural cycles. They visited the Adivsis in remote villages - by foot, on bicycles, by bus, by train. They learnt the hard way, by living with the people, sharing their lives by spending days and nights at a stretch with them, eating the food they were served and sleeping where they were accommodated. The people and missionaries came to know and accept one another.

Jesuits opened hostels to educate the Adivasis, and tried to form Christian families. Soon Religious Sisters came and opened girls' hostels and started medical work. Some flourishing Adivasi mission stations developed in South Gujarat.

Towards the mid sixties the first Adivasi mission centres were established in Dediapada and Jhagadia areas in Bharuch Dt and Vyara and Unai areas in Surat Dt. God provided some unexpected openings. A rebel ex-pastor of the 'Church of the Brethren', Nathalal Mahida, who had evangelized the Dangs Dt, supported our missionary work in Unai. A local trader in Zankhvav, Shantilal J. Shah, donated land for boys' and girls' hostels, and a dispensary. He also sold four acres to the Church, and later handed over his high school to us.

Missionary work was a response to the condition of the Adivasis in the villages. It was one of overwhelming poverty with accompanying malnutrition and diseases, illiteracy, loss of identity, dignity and self worth because of centuries of oppression and the loss of their resources - forest, land and water. The drought years of 1965-69 brought hunger and misery.

When early missionaries stayed in villages and shared what Adivasis had to offer, in the late sixties, motor bikes and jeeps drastically curtailed the time the missionaries spent with the people. Jeeps unfeelingly sped past bare tribal feet, raising clouds of dust after them. A distance and a certain feeling of estrangement crept in.

But the missionaries launched massive relief work, supported by agencies eager to pour in huge supplies of grain and oil. They catered to the needs of the tribal people. Yet, from these massive movements of goods and services in their own backyards, the Adivasis got 'fish' to eat, but they did not learn 'to fish' for themselves.

It soon became clear that relief work was not the answer to permanent poverty. The logical next step was development work. This took the form of projects for wells and pump sets, land leveling and "bunding" (embankments), seed projects, savings schemes, and in the 70s, Milk Cooperative Societies.

A number of Congregations of women religious came to the Adivasi mission centres to take care of girls' education, provide healthcare and help the formation of the young Christian community. Some diocesan priests too later joined the mission.

Although there was some opposition from the Arya Samaj and Jan Sangh in some missions, we received support from the Jesuit alumni in high places. The period of 1970-80 saw the stabilization and the expansion of the mission, which brought in many younger missionaries. Through discussions, sharing of experiences, imitation of others and learning from others' successes and failures a standardized pattern of mission work emerged: regular village visits by priests and Sisters for faith formation, hostels for boys and girls, dispensaries and medical work at the Centre and villages. A sizable group of catechumens received faith formation through trained catechists and missionaries. When they were ready, and asked for it, they were baptized.

When the number of villages under a mission centre grew, sub-centres were opened which later became independent. Eleven new mission centres emerged - out of the original six - in the 1970's and early 1980's. Many schools were also established. Jesuits worked among five Adivasi linguistic groups: Gamit, Vasava, Chawdhary, Kukna and Warli. As the parishes developed, some were handed over to the diocesan clergy.

To a limited extent Adivasi culture has blended into the liturgy and Church architecture. Liturgical books and the New Testament have been translated into Adivasi languages; a large number of bhajans have been composed, and recorded. Some Adivasi ceremonies have been incorporated into our liturgy in some parishes. The churches of Zankhvav and Unai are outstanding examples of Adivasi architecture and art. Korvi Mata's (Our Lady of Korvi) shrine is a popular Adivasi Catholic shrine, deep inside the forest.

North Gujarat
Sabarkantha district in north Gujarat, bordering Rajasthan, has some 63% Adivasis, mostly Dungri Garasias, who migrated from Rajasthan. Capuchin missionaries of Ajmer-Jaipur diocese had been working with them in Rajasthan for many decades. Fr Luis Maria Espasa (later Swami Dindayanand), then parish priest of Gomtipur in Ahmedabad, was the first Gujarat Jesuit sent to the region. In 1962, he hired a room in the bazaar of the small town, Bhiloda - 132 k.m. away from Ahmedabad - and visited the people in the villages for four days every week. Master Gabriel, a trained catechist of the French Capuchins, very good in preaching and singing in the Garasia dialect, joined him. He composed bhajans, and conducted popular mandalis and satsangs. Many of those who joined us were Anglicans.

SMMI sisters from the Leper Asylum in Ahmedabad came to do medical work in the villages. A dozen Adivasi boys were sent to Gomtipur hostel for a year, and later shifted to the Bhiloda hostel. A parish was established in 1965, with a priest's residence and hostel for boys. A convent and hostel for girls came up two years later. Small Christian communities grew in villages, scattered across the district.

Relief work on a massive scale was launched during the drought years. Food-for-work kept thousands of people alive. Wells were dug, bunds constructed, roads built and lands leveled. The sisters provided medical care, and fed children and nursing mothers. The Church's presence and reach expanded. Some opposition from Hindutva forces had to be faced.

More Jesuits came to work in new villages. Five sub-centres became parishes, all of them with convents and hostels for boys and girls. Five high schools now provide good education. The pattern of evangelization was the traditional one. Catechists stayed in the villages nurturing the faith. Priests and Sisters made regular visits. Children were sent to our hostels. Medical, relief and developmental works were undertaken. Later Sisters began to form Mahila Mandals (women's groups) and trained the tribal girls in various skills. But the groups of Christians were small and scattered in far flung villages.

Little attempt was made to go deeper into their culture, way of life and language. Use of their dialect in the liturgy and singing was very limited. Some innovative attempts were made to empower women in Nana Kantharia. In Nana Kantharia and Meghraj attempts were made to tackle environmental degradation and water scarcity.

Empowering Adivasis
Aboriginal people the world over face a systematic process of alienation from their own culture and way of life, and absorption into the so called 'mainstream culture'. It is often done subtly, in the guise of 'development'. It can also take the form of outright exploitation: expropriation of ancestral aboriginal lands, dispersal of the community from the resource-rich mountainous regions where they often live. The aboriginals are forced to give up their distinct identity, and merge with the dominant "mainstream", generally at the lowest rung of the societal ladder. In the process they acquire a sense of inferiority.

Many missionaries saw the link between the neglect and exploitation of the Adivasis by the "mainstream" forces, and the abject poverty which was their lot. They also knew that emergency relief work was not enough to ensure the Adivasis their fair share in the development of democratic India. They had to be empowered through education, mobilization and organization. But the missionary tradition till then consisted mostly of evangelization, with works of charity. The struggle to empower the marginalized was considered somewhat 'socialist/communist', not quite popular in the Church or the State. Most missionaries then were foreigners, and social activism could jeopardize their stay in India. Understandably, they were reluctant to organize and mobilize the Adivasis to fight for their rights.

The situation changed significantly in the seventies. Vatican II opened many windows, making Catholics see that the mission of the Church included the fight for the rights of the poor. For us Jesuits, GC 32 established the clear and unequivocal link between 'Faith and Promotion of Justice', at the core of the Jesuit mission. This inspired many young Jesuits in Gujarat, most of them Indians, to plunge into the mission of empowering Adivasis.

A number of Jesuit organizations and institutions used a variety of methods to empower Adivasis: free legal aid helping Adivasis fight for justice through the judicial system; mass mobilization and organization to claim their rights; formal and non-formal education to increase job opportunities; training in legal matters, management, social action, etc... to create enlightened leaders in the tribal community; health interventions - curative and preventive - and the revival of their millennia-old medicinal knowledge; cooperative movement to increase their income; support to obtain all the Government projects for their uplift which often did not reach them; research to study the process of their marginalization; promotion of Adivasi culture, art, music, dance, ... to enhance their identity, self-respect and place in the nation.

The first and very successful venture to empower Adivasis began in 1975 through the Free Legal Aid programme of Rajpipla Social Service Society (RSSS), Rajpipla, founded by Fr Joseph Idiakunnel, later joined by Fr Mathew Kalathil, an active Jesuit lawyer. They realised that the rich and powerful, including elected politicians, exploited Adivasis with little fear of being caught and punished by the state machinery. The legal system was simply beyond the reach of poor and illiterate Adivasis. RSSS, therefore, engaged good lawyers free of charge, to fight the criminal cases foisted on Adivasis by vested interests. The case of an Adivasi woman raped by a policeman was pursued right up to the Supreme Court of India, and won. Once the exploiters realized that there were people to defend them, they were forced to abandon some of their exploitation. Judges appreciated the work of RSSS, and ensured that justice was available to the poor tribal too.

SHAKTI - Legal Aid and Human Rights Centre (SHAKTI-LAHRC), Songadh, also provides free legal aid, in other Adivasi areas. They also help Adivasi youth to equip themselves to fight the cases of their people. They regularly organize Lok Adalats (people's courts) to settle disputes among Adivasis themselves. Such 'courts' save millions of rupees and time swallowed up by prolonged legal battles, besides reducing disharmony and enmity in the community. Both the above organizations train Adivasi 'bare-foot lawyers' (para-legal personnel) who assist the illiterate Adivasis to deal with the state bureaucracy, police and other service providers. SHAKTI-LAHRC has set up a large people's organization with over 26,000 members, entirely run by Adivasis. Sangath, Centre for Social Knowledge, Action and Development, Modasa (north Gujarat), is the latest Jesuit NGO taking the legal route to empower Adivasis, with the help of SHAKTI-LAHRC.

RSSS and SHAKTI-LAHRC joined many other NGO's to mobilize Adivasis to stop the construction of the giant Narmada Dam displacing thousands of Adivasis, and causing great ecological damage. They had partial success. The struggle is now focussed on a fair rehabilitation package for the displaced people.

RSSS joined many other NGO's all over India in order to get Adivais regain their rights to the forest lands they originally owned and cultivated for generations. After a nation-wide struggle that went on for months, the Central Government of India passed the required legislation in 2009. At present the struggle is to ensure the full implementation of the legislation, which would benefit millions of Adivasis.

Catholic Ashram, Bhiloda, and SHAKTI-LAHRC have organized the Adivasis to ensure that Government projects for the development of Adivasis actually reach them. They make use of Public Interest Litigation and the Right to Information Act. Catholic Ashram, Bhiloda have formed over 100 'Self-Help Groups' of women and men to resist exploitation by money-lenders, and obtain employment under the Employment Guarantee Scheme of the Government. Educated and well-to-do Adivasis of the area have been brought together to provide leadership to their community.

Catholic Church, Mandal, is in the forefront of organizing Adivasi women, the weakest segment among the poor. In twelve years the Mandal Women's Credit Cooperative has some 2500 members, and has saved over Rs 20,000,000, which are disbursed as loans. It has undertaken some very innovative measures to empower women. They have added to the original 20 villages 30 new villages.

Non-Formal Education was used by Behavioural Science Centre (BSC), Ahmedabad, RSSS, and SHAKTI-LAHRC to spread critical awareness of the exploitative structures that keep the Adivasis marginalized. Xavier Centre for Migrant workers, Katamba, educates the children of migrant Adivasi workers. It uses the flexibility of the 'open school system' for innovative education, and to reduce the long years of the formal educational system. Most of our Centres working with Adivasis provide training in karate, the martial art, that enhances their their self-confidence and courage.

BSC started, some thirty years ago, a post-graduate programme to prepare managers of development and social change. Now it has started MSW (Master in Social Work), under the Indira Gandhi National Open University. Last year, RSSS began a diploma programme in Community Development and Rural Development, a Post-Graduate Management Diploma in socio-economic development. It is a very practical and experiential programme - one week of intensive theory followed by three weeks of practice in villages, every month. It follows the philosophy of Paulo Freire. In October 2009, the diploma programme was given recognition by the National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad, a University run by the Central Government of India.

Fr Lancy D'Cruz of St Xavier's College, Ahmedabad, runs a project to revive and revitalize the ancient Adivasi medicinal system. He brings together healers from different Adivasi communities, helps them to expand their medical practice, sets up farms to grow medicinal plants in Adivasi Schools to spread awareness among students, produces and distributes Adivasi herbal medicines, and so on. Fr Vinayk Jadav, also from the College, started two years ago an Adivasi bi-monthly called Adilok (ab-original people). It is entirely produced by educated Adivasis under his guidance, and has been very well received for its contents as well as its presentation.

Gurjarvani, Xavier Centre for Culture and Communication, Ahmedabad, has been using modern media to empower Adivasis. Scores of Audio and Video programmes have been produced in Adivasi languages about their culture, art, music, dance, and so on, to create pride in their culture. It set up a professional audio recording studio, called Jai Adivasi Studio, at Mandal, in the heart of Adivasi land, to record songs and audio-plays in Adivasi languages. RSSS uses Adivasi dances and street theatre to spread awareness of the Adivasi situation. SHAKTI-LAHRC organizes big, colourful Adivasi fairs and competitions to bring together thousands of Adivasis to celebrate their culture and fellowship. Both these NGOs distribute very colourful calendars every year, with information about different Adivasi tribes, their festivals, history and heroes.

Centre for Culture and Development, Vadodara, conducts research, organizes seminars and publishes books to highlight many issues of the Adivasis, like displacement due to dams, deforestation and its impact on their life, and so on. BSC and RSSS too do similar research and lobbying work.

Adivasis, the original dwellers of the earth, have a distinct culture and way of life. Their relationship with Mother Earth is unique. In the context of the capitalist-consumerist society, focussed on profits at any cost, heading for an environmental disaster, Adivasis, and their way of life and values have a very crucial role to play in the world today. The Gujarat Jesuits' mission of empowering Adivasis has a twofold goal: giving a very marginalized community their 'place in the sun', and preserving and presenting a value system and way of life that could help heal the earth.

Fr Rappai Poothokaren, SJ, presently resides at Xavier Technical Insititute, Sevasi, Gujarat. He can be contacted at rappaisj@gmail.com

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"As he saw the crowds, his heart was filled with pity for them, because they were worried and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd". Mt.9:36.

As I started my legal ministry among the Adivasis in Gujarat, I had similar feelings. In India the population of Adivasis is 8%, but in Gujarat it is 15% and in South Gujarat it is 65 to 98%! Their problems are many: Crisis of Adivasi identity, erosion of their culture, unity and dignity, loss of control over their natural resources, violations of their human rights etc. One of the main reasons why their condition has not improved is lack of value- based Adivasi leaders (shepherd)'- that could lead them (sheep) to green pastures! But we hoped that 'one day, their own people could lead themselves'. With this hope, we started using our legal ministry to foster Adivasi leadership. Today there are signs that show we have somewhat succeeded!

42 years back, a major dam called Ukai was built displacing people of more than 150 adivasi villages. They were never given proper compensation or rehabilitation!. That dam was supposed to have had two main canals: The left canal going beyond Surat city and the right canal irrigating 59 Adivasi villages. The left canal is a fact today but not the right one. The people believed that their leaders would ensure they got what was promised to them. Three years back, some awakening happened and a few Adivasi leaders took the initiative. They organized a 'road block' and forced the Government to promise once gain what was promised many years ago. But this time too the promise was not kept. So they have now taken the Government to court. They have filed a case in the Gujarat High Court, asking it to order the State government to fulfill its promise.

In a remote town called Songadh, 250 adivasi men and women have been selling vegetables for many long years. Now they are being pushed out by outsiders and harassed by different elements! They- the sons and daughters of the soil - have no place to sell their goods. So the women went to different authorities but all in vain. Now they have taken the Municipal authorities to the High Court to redress their rights.
The Tribal people of Gujarat have begun to fight legally to gain their dignity and rights. The on-going struggle for getting their rights over forest lands is a good example of the rising level of awareness and Adivasi leadership!

Celebration of Indigenous Peoples Day, the yearly Adivasi Cultural Festival at Songadh and the recently concluded mass wedding (See p.12) in which 29 couples of different groups of Adivasis participated in spite of their differences are some more positive examples. These are helping in bringing together all the Adivasis as one community on one platform to fight for their dignity and rights.

The Adivasis have legally registered themselves into 7 People's Organizations (POs) called Adivasi Sarvangi Vikas Sanghs. It has 27,200 subscribed memberships of women and men. These POs have formed a Federation called Adivasi Mahamandal Charitable Trust, Gujarat. These POs and Federation provide them platforms to take Leadership. Their issues are taken up at different levels by these POs and Federation. They are able to find their own solutions. SHAKTI-LAHRC (Legal Aid Human Rights Centre), the Jesuit centre facilitates the process.
- J. Stanny, SJ

Jebamalai Stanny, SJ is the founder of SHAKTI-LAHRC, Mandal, Surat Dt, Gujarat

A year and a half ago members of the Jesuits in Social Action (JESA) of Gujarat Province had requested the Centre for Culture and Development (CCD), Vadodara, for an in-depth study of the degradation of forests and its impact on the tribals of Gujarat from 1947-2007. A few JESA members are involved in the struggle for forest rights of the tribals and wanted to have an objective picture of the of forests and their impact on tribal life and livelihood during 1947-2007.

Tribals and forests are mostly concentrated in the eastern belt of Gujarat covering 18 districts. Forest map and tribal map overlap. There are about 13043 villages in 146 talukas of 18 districts covered in our study area. Tribals compose around 15% of the total population of Gujarat and forests cover 9% of the total land area of Gujarat.

CCD began gathering village wise land-use data from different sources: district census handbooks, District Inspector for Land Records, and Working Plans of the Forest Department. It found discrepancies and inconsistencies in these sources. There remained still another source - Satellite imagery.

I.Satellite Imagery
Satellite remote sensing techniques developed in recent years have proved to be of enormous value for accurate land use, land cover mapping and monitoring changes at regular intervals of time. Land use/cover attributes cover agriculture, forests, open area, wasteland, settlement, fallow land, mangroves, open forest, water bodies, wetlands, floodplains, canals etc. In the case of inaccessible regions, this technique is perhaps the only method of acquiring the required data on a cost and time - effective basis
CCD partially downloaded post-monsoon Land Sat images for 1972, 1990 and 2000 from USGS and bought Liss 4 images from National Remote Sensing Agency (Hyderabad) for the year 2007. Land Sat images ranged from 80, 30, 15 metre resolution while Liss 4 were from 5.8 metres. The latest images can even identify hutments and dwellings of people accurately.

These imageries were processed and maps and tables were generated: slope, altitude, and aspect, land use, and land cover maps at district, taluka and village levels for the four different periods mentioned above. Hence CCD has change detection maps and tables today for 13043 villages within 146 talukas of 18 districts of mainland Gujarat.

Shift in Tribal Population from Forest Areas: There was a prevalent perception that due to degradation of forests, tribals have been migrating in search of livelihood. CCD did another exercise to investigate the incidence of migration from tribal areas to non tribal areas from the decennial Census 1971-2001. The census database contains a lot of attribute information which can be linked to spatial units by spatial referencing. CCD took up the census of 1971 and 2001 and plotted village wise, taluka-wise and district-wise shifts in population in Scheduled Tribal Talukas as well as non-Scheduled Talukas of mainland Gujarat.

II.Our Findings:

1. There is a belief that forests are only degrading and never regenerating. However, it can be seen from our study that nearly 22% of the forests have witnessed regeneration, while almost 41% show degradation or destruction of forests. The rest 37% has remained unchanged, i.e., neither degraded and nor experienced any regeneration.
2. If we compare the data of the total area of forests based on 1971 and the 2001 Census, the forests in the scheduled areas (talukas having majority tribal population) have increased by 18.53%, while in non-scheduled areas they have increased by 23.06%.
3. It is significant to note that the forest areas have shown regeneration and an increasing tendency of the same since 1990. If we compare the satellite imageries for the period 1990 and 2007, the results are encouraging. However, often such regenerations have been mono-cultural for their commercial exploitation, and thereby lacking in any potential to benefit a larger section of tribals.
4. The forests in the scheduled and non-scheduled areas show an increase of 10.45% and 56.82% respectively while compared with the years 1990 and 2007.
5. The 1972 satellite imagery shows that there was 21.33% forest area compared to 17.17% in the year 2000. The 1990 satellite imagery shows 14% of forest area and the 2007 satellite imagery shows 16.18% of forest area out of the total study area. The one percent decrease in forest area in Gujarat from the year 2000 to the year 2007 may have been due to the Forest Rights Act 2006 in anticipation of staking claims for forest land.
6. Prima facie it appears that links between changes in the forests and changes among the tribals are not as strong, even with increase in the forest area, i.e., regeneration of forests. The migration of tribals for their livelihood is found all across the study area. This observation becomes much clearer when we relate increase and decrease in the forest area with the migratory pattern of the tribal communities. Their migration does not appear to be as much dependent on forests and their coverage any more. Even where there is no change in the forest area, the migration has been observed to be more than double (37.69%) than where forests have increased (16.43%) or decreased (20.21%). It appears that in recent times, the tribals are not as dependent for their livelihood entirely on the forests or forest products but on alternative sources of livelihood such as dairy farming, horticulture, and agriculture applying modern techniques in agriculture like drip irrigation and better seeds. This observation has to be seen in the light of continued alienation of tribals from the forests who had no way out except migrating seasonally, temporarily and permanently in search of livelihood. Many are living in the periphery of urban spaces and are engaged with jobs in informal sector, such as construction, power looms etc.
7. A section of the tribal youth over the time has reduced their dependence on forest for their livelihood. Even regenerated forests are not holding them back. They are not ready to work in the village. They want to leave village and get jobs in the towns and cities.

III.Beliefs that need reconsideration in the light of satellite and primary data:

1. That degradation of forests leads to migration. CCD's study s has found that migration is the general norm in degraded and regenerated forest areas both in Scheduled and non-Scheduled tribal areas. There's only a slight difference between the two areas.
2. That tribals are totally dependent on forests for food, fodder and fuel. CCD's study shows that this is not totally true, however in general they are somewhat more dependent on forests for fodder and fuel.
3. That education leads to greater migration among the tribals. This need not be so. Often those without education or with less education migrate for wage labour either seasonally or for longer periods than the educated ones. A section of educated seek livelihood in the villages by innovation and use of modern technology or availing themselves of government and non-governmental schemes.
4. The perception and description of tribals as simple, guileless and hospitable, with a lot of community feeling, love of equality, sharing and caring, needs to be reconsidered (this observation is drawn from our primary data source). The character of tribal society perceived in general needs a review.

Conclusion
Reduction of dependency of tribals on the forests may be largely due to the legal interventions of the state in collusion with the market over a period of time. Having been alienated from the forests for a long time they appear to be less dependent as they were forced to look for alternative sources of livelihood either outside their habitats or in the habitats itself. The developmental interventions of the state and NGOs have also had some impact on their livelihood, according to our study.

The progress of the Forests Rights Act (FRA) of 2006 implementation has been considerable in Gujarat but is uneven in different sub-regions of our study.

One may carry out similar studies in other states and see if some of these observations can be validated or not before generalising for the forests and tribals in other states

Lancy Lobo, SJ is the Director of Centre for Culture and Development, a social research institute in Vadodara, Gujarat. His email id: drlancylobo@yahoo.com.

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BETWEEN US

In the slum with a HIV family

By Noel Oliver, SJ

In all my years as a Christian and as a Jesuit Brother, I do not recall having ever spoken to any non-Christian about my religion. Whenever I had to address my staff or trainees from different religious backgrounds, I did not quote the Gospels or make any direct mention of Jesus. Did I fail Jesus?

I have always thought that we have to lead by example. I am convinced that you cannot ask trainees or staff to be punctual, if you yourself are not. You cannot ask them to give a hand in helping to keep the premises clean, if you yourself are ashamed to bend down and pick up a scrap of paper that should not be there. The toilets in our institutions and communities will be kept clean, if we are not ashamed to hold the toilet brush in our hand - many of us have held a broom and scrubbed the toilet for the last time when we were in the novitiate.

And so it is with Jesus and our faith. I cannot expect others to be curious about the person whom we worship as our Lord and Saviour, if I myself do not truly follow him. It should be those with whom I work and with whom I interact, who should notice something special in my way of life, who should come and ask me about what it is that makes me live my life as I do. The fact that in all these years no one has come and asked me about Jesus is a clear indication that they do not see anything special in me! It is here that I have failed Jesus.

Jesus chose to be born in a stable. He told the person who wanted to follow him that he has nowhere to lay his head. What about me and the demands that I make for my own comfort? Am I failing Jesus on a daily basis here? Jesus was poor and remained poor till the end. How will he actually be feeling kept in the tabernacle in a gold-plated ciborium and then exposed for adoration in a gold-plated monstrance? From this gold-plated abode we make for him he must be seeing out there at the gate, the poor who are living off the garbage heap! Is Jesus there in the monstrance or is he there on the garbage heap with the poor children? I seem to fail Jesus again in that I do not recognize him on the garbage heap.
In the hierarchical system that we have so gotten used to in the institutional Church and society, so much goes around power and the desire to control. I see Jesus the Good Shepherd, who when asked by someone as to who was the greatest, saying: "Who is greater, the one who sits down to eat or the one who serves him? The one who sits down of course. But I am among you as one who serves". Is that the normal impression our 'shepherds' project? Think of the titles we use: Reverend, Very Reverend, Most Reverend, His Grace, His Eminence, His Lordship etc.

The negative aspects of this hierarchical system have also penetrated my own self and some of our own communities and institutions. I realize what I and my colleagues do is moreabout controlling the lives of others - not accompanying them. Much of what we do in the name of governing appears to me as unchristian.

What has all this got to do with what I started out to write - about proclaiming Jesus, about converting others? I feel that it is I who really needs to get converted first. I have to be what Jesus wants me to be. And so conversion has to begin with me. And this is such a long and painful process.

I do hope and pray that one day someone will eventually come up and say to me: Hey, can you tell me what it is that keeps you doing all that you do? What is it that makes your life so special? What is it that makes you treat all people like your own brother and sister? What is it that has made you give up so much that people normally cling to? Who is it that gives you the strength to do all that you do?

If only I could answer: 'Only Jesus!' Then I would have the chance to convert someone. I would then not have failed Jesus.

Br Noel Oliver, SJ, (PUN) is the Director of Xavier Technical Training Centre (XTTC), Shrirampur, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra.

Born in Kamuthy, an old Jesuit parish in Madurai province, on 19 Sept 1946, A.X. Alexander had his early and secondary education in different schools in Thanjavoor district and entered the portals of St Joseph's College, Tiruchirappalli to pursue his degree and post-graduation in English Language and Literature.

Having done well in his college, he was appointed as a lecturer at St Joseph's immediately after the final examinations ended. After three years of lecturing at St. Joseph's, Tiruchirappalli and Loyola College, Chennai, he joined the Indian Police Service in 1970, scoring a first place in the all-India list. He was allotted to the Tamil Nadu cadre and he served in Tamilnadu in different ranks, and rose up to be the state's Director-General of Police.

His main forte in policing was Intelligence. Yet, he was equally adept in maintenance of law and order and prevention and detection of crime and had been a deliberate choice of his superiors for tough assignments. But he had to face rugged times. When he was in the line for promotion to be DGP, his detractors pushed him to a posting to Mandapam Refugee Camp. He utilized this posting to work for the refugees in association with the Jesuit Refugee Service. Later he was posted to look after Dalit issues under the aegis of the Social Justice Department. These gave him an opportunity to alleviate the suffering of the marginalized. He has been awarded the President's Police medal for Meritorious Services and President's medal for Distinguished Services. His men and officers describe him as an officer with a crusty exterior but with a soft heart.

Sent by the Government to Europe to study various police establishments, he was trained in the command course at the West Yorkshire Metropolitan Training School, Wakefield. He has written many tracts and pamphlets of professional value to police men and officers.
As a student, he knew almost every Jesuit at St Joseph's. Fr K.P. Joseph, his spiritual mentor, would prompt him to become a Jesuit. Fr Guy Bergeron drafted him into the CSU and AICUF and helped him develop his talents. He admired Fr Theo Mathias who pushed him into studying English and Fr Lawrence Sundaram, who appointed him as a lecturer. Fr T.N. Sequiera encouraged him to join the IPS. Fr Julian Fernandes, who later became Regional Assistant to the Jesuit General, was his classmate. From Fr Singarayar, Alexander learnt to empathise with the poor.

Among the younger crop, he likes many - like Fr Xavier Vedam, who, while at Loyola, reached out to the poor, Fr Joe Antony who breathed fresh life into the New Leader and Fr Christy who has built up LIBA.

What do you like best about the Jesuits?
Their commitment; their thoroughness; their ordered thinking; their scholarship;

The Jesuit Saint whose life appeals to you?
St Francis Xavier. His obedience to his General, his dedication to work, his zeal to save souls, his sprit to conquer 'new kingdoms' for the greater glory of God, his wanderlust, his courage to travel and charter a course up to Japan - all these and many more things about him appeal to me.

The Jesuit who inspired you the most?
Fr Jerome Desouza. He was a powerful figure in Loyola College and was well known in public and political circles when his superiors ordered him to go to De Nobili College, Pune. He wrote to his superiors to cancel his posting to Pune as he had a lot of plans for Loyola College. But his request was rejected. He reluctantly proceeded to Pune and it offered him opportunities to grow important in Rome and in Delhi and in the United Nations. Whenever I was pushed into certain uncomfortable postings, what comforted and inspired me was The Great Indian Jesuit, a biography of Fr Jerome DeSouza by Fr Lawrence Sundaram.

The main contribution of Jesuits to the Church?
In the Renaissance period the counter-Reformation launched by the Jesuits is the main contribution to the Church.

The main contribution of the Jesuits to the country?
Education in liberal arts and science; Management education as in LIBA, XLRI, XIM and Goa; Study of social matters as in Indian Social Institute, Delhi and Bangalore; Social activism, exercise of preferential option for the poor, altering the economic, social, cultural scenario of the country by helping the poor; Steady supply of successful, ethical administrators to Government and business.

Should the Jesuits change anything in their life or work?
Yes. In their life they should strictly adhere to the three vows they take. Violators should not be lightly dealt with. Jesuits should not be casteist. They should not covet any post of authority, nor develop any pressure groups. In their work they should be transparent in dealing with money, properties, depositing money in financial institutions, lending, borrowing etc.