RIS Discussion Paper Series - International Discussions on Indigenous People and India

It was on that basis that India had voted in favour of the adoption of the Declaration.14 The term, ‘indigenous’ was used in the deliberations and instruments of an international organisation for the first time in 1957 (Xaxa:3590) in the discussions of the International Labour Organisation (ILO) on 5 the Convention concerning the Protection and Integration of Indigenous and Other Tribal and Semi-T. [...] At the time of the Independence of the country, the development of the socially and economically backward groups attracted attention and the Constitution of India made special provisions for their socio-economic development. [...] The translation of tribe used in the Hindi version of the Constitution is Janjati and not Adivasi.52 The Assembly, however, extensively debated the issue of the development of the tribes. [...] In the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019, the term ‘indigenous’ has been used in the context that “the Bill further seeks to protect the constitutional guarantee given to the indigenous population of North Eastern States covered under the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution and the statutory protection given to areas covered under “The Inner Line” system of t. [...] But this is different from the kind of usurpation that took place in Australia or the USA and the appropriateness of the use of the term ‘indigenous’ which emerged in response to a particular experience in a particular part of the world in the Indian context is debatable.