Protect the Natives

Natives. Yes, the word natives suffice as a synonym for indigenous. As a twenty-first century subject, the word indigenous may have less significant yet when David Williams scored his first goal in a ISL football match for ATK, the newspapers wrote, Williams becomes the first indigenous player to score in ISL. So, who are these people? Where do they come from? Well, here is your answer.

Indigenous people are the often referred to the first people to inhabit a land. If this is taken as the truth, then all the continents have had indigenous people. I say, ‘have had’, because there aren’t many that re around. Colonial projects have turned them into colonial subjects and even the term indigenous was first used by Sir Thomas Browne in 1646 who used it to differentiate between the black slave, ‘negros’ of Africa and the natives to the land of America. It is to be remembered that the ‘slaves’ of Africa are also its indigenous people. Without proper development, these indigenous people have bore the burnt of nature and hence were same in physical appearance throughout the world.

Mass Colonization took place in almost every part of the world during the 1600s and 1700s. The English, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch set sail in order to colonize parts of the world for their own gain. Little do they know that these vast unexplored areas are already hotspots of humanity. They encounter the natives, black in appearance, spear in their hands, and terrible to look at. They find communities after communities of them, all synchronized to the tune of their tribe and ready to defend it at all costs. Guns are fired, thousands of dead bodies law sprawling in the ground and the very first bloods of the world are massacred. America falls first, followed closely by Asia, Africa and Australia. Christianity is imposed, freedom of speech becomes a myth, slavery was the norm, and humanity ends its life. Indigenous is extinct. While referendums are sent to the indigenous people of America to surrender and accept the rule of the ‘Whites’, Australian indigenous have lost generations as their new-born babies are abducted and brought up by the whites in a completely different environment. Africa succumbs to slavery while Asian unity is torn apart making them subjects of oppression.

Centuries of culture, heritage, language, lifestyle, all lost in three centuries of the ‘White’ rule. Brutality towards them without caring for even their basic rights, has now made us rue about the lack of justice showed towards them. Although the contemporary world in based out of their land, there is very little that is actually done towards them. While Australia have created their cricket jerseys based on their indigenous culture, India protects the indigenous people of Andamans. While it is too little too late, we definitely have the potential to safeguard their rights and uphold their culture because it is to them that he owe our heritage and it is their land that we so proudly call ours.

--- Chandradeep Roy