Identity vis-a-vis the Constitution
Article 25(1) of the Indian constitution provides for the rights to freedom of religion for every citizen of the country. Being an integral part of India, tribal communities practising, professing, or propagating (unless it is subject to public order, health and morality) any religion is their fundamental right.
The Indian constitution does not identify scheduled tribes with any particular religion. As far as Scheduled Tribe status is concerned, it remains intact in spite of any organised religion tribal people belong to. Tribals follow different religions. This may provide a unique context in which space for negotiating identity questions can be created. It is essential to arrive at a consensus for collective Adivasi or indigenous identity, which may perform a larger political and constitutional function. Internal fissures and external socio-religious pressures in tribal politics have created situations of conflicts where distinct identity, interest, and rights of tribal communities might be compromised. For instance, recent resolution of Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) in which they have asked the central government to exclude ‘tribals who converted to other religion’ from the list of tribes (Sharma 2021) is a case to the point. Similarly, non-converted tribals oppose to recognise converted tribal people as tribals. The perils of such demands and its effects may affect constitutional provisions for Scheduled Tribes adversely as one of the important criteria of deciding on a Fifth Scheduled area is the preponderance of tribal population in the region.26.4
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