Bhil tribe have demanded a separate Bhil Pradesh

Bhil tribe have demanded a separate Bhil Pradesh

Subject: Polity

Sec: Msc

Context:

A large number of people from the Bhil tribe recently gathered at a rally in Rajasthan’s Mangarh Dham, where Banswara’s Member of Parliament Rajkumar Roat again raised the “long due” demand for an independent ‘Bhil state’.

More about News:

• “In a democracy, there is freedom of expression. Every person has a right to demand, and there should be smaller states as it is good for development. However, creating a state on the basis of caste is not apt. If it is Adivasis today, tomorrow you will have other communities demanding the same on the basis of their caste, which is not good for the society and the country, while we talk of social harmony.”
• The idea of a tribal state, comprising parts of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Bhill Tribe:

• Largest tribal groups,living in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.
• They speak Bhili, which is an Indo Aryan language.
• Baneshwar fair is the main festival celebrated among the Bhils. This fair is held during the period of Shivratri (in the month of January or February) and is dedicated to Baneshwar Mahadev also known as Lord Shiva.
• The name is derived from the word ‘billu’, which means bow.
• Excellent archerscoupled with deep knowledge about their local geography.
• Traditionally, experts in guerrilla warfare, most of them today are farmers and agricultural labourers. They are also skilled

Bhil Pradesh:

• The demand for a separate tribal state in western India was previously put forward by regional parties such as the Bharatiya Tribal Party (BTP). The BTP was formed in 2017 in Gujarat, with this issue as a major agenda.
• The Bhil community has been demanding that 49 districts be carved out of the four states to establish Bhil Pradesh.
• Bhil social reformer and spiritual leader Govind Guru first raised the demand for a separate state for tribals back in 1913.
• This was after the Mangarh massacre, which took place six years before Jallianwalla Bagh and is sometimes referred to as the “Adivasi Jallianwala”. It saw hundreds of Bhil tribals being killed by British forces on November 17, 1913, in the hills of Mangarh on the Rajasthan-Gujarat border.

Why do tribals want separate state?

” According to the 2011 census, tribals comprise almost 14% of Rajasthan’s population and are mainly concentrated in the Vagad region, comprising Pratapgarh, Banswara Dungarpur and parts of Udaipur districts.

Constitutional Provisions:

• Indian constitution empowers the Union government to create new states out of existing states or two merge one state with other. This process is called reorganisation of the states.
• The basis of reorganisation could be linguistic, religious, ethnic or administrative.
• Article 3spells out the modes/ways of formation of States in the country.
  • by separation of territory from any State
  • by uniting two or more States or parts of States or
  • by uniting any territory to a part of any State.
• Article 3 provides the following procedure:
  • Presidential reference is sent to State Assembly.
  • After presidential reference, a resolution is tabled and passed in Assembly.
  • Assembly has to pass a Bill creating the new State/States.
  • A separate Bill has to be ratified by Parliament.