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Who is not a sentinelese?

By Rashid Ali. Dated: 12/10/2018 10:58:20 PM

The sound is perennially etched in our consciousness that produces and reproduces various identities. This kind of consciousness also takes us to linguistic domain where all tribal languages are reduced to the syllables of jhinga lala hoho and unify them into one homogenous oral speech. North Indian consciousness is a sure victim of this cacophony and keeps on colonising the sublime, the natural trusteeship of tribal societies.

Whenever you listen to a famous Kishore Kumar number- 'Hum Bewafa Hargiz na the', you are transported to a musical pastiche of Bollywood techno and an imagined tribal vocal chant- jhinga lala ho ho. As a famous Hindi poet Manglesh Dabral wrote- (Asswaaz bhi ek jagah hai) the voice is also a space, the vocal chant Jhinga lala becomes the part of our cacophonous fancy. In fine, as per the definition of the civilised, the tribal society is nothing but the sound it produces. It is in this context that the sound is perennially etched in our consciousness that produces and reproduces various identities.
This kind of consciousness also takes us to linguistic domain where all tribal languages are reduced to the syllables of jhinga lala hoho and unify them into one homogenous oral speech. North Indian consciousness is a sure victim of this cacophony and keeps on colonising the sublime, the natural trusteeship of tribal societies.
But did John Allen Chau listen to this song too? Of course not! Barely 26 year old, the American missionary who was killed by Sentinelese can't be that prodigious if he hasn't stayed in linguistically diverse north India. But as they say superciliousness is ubiquitously present in all cultures, he too was driven by this realization. His unfortunate landing on the island of Sentinelese in Andaman is testimony to this flamboyance.
Sentinelese like many other tribal people elsewhere are a big enigma to our understanding of religions. Genetic studies claim that they are the direct descendants of modern humans who ventured out of Africa almost 55,000 years ago. This migration would have happened at a time when religions were not even in their embryonic stage. Their existence precedes even the construction of different languages in the world. The name Sentinelese is given by the Britishers and we don't even know what their real name is and in which language.
Ironically, a 'civilised' John Allen Chau wanted to convert them to Christianity. A religion which has more than 2.2 billion followers in the world, wanted an addition of barely 100 more in the form of Sentinelese.
Was it all about conversion? What made him jeopardise his life when he knew that these people have been in voluntary isolation for thousands of years? Chau's quest to evangelise the Sentinelese sounds absurd given the hegemonic will of America to conquer the space. But it definitely resonates with the spirit of capitalism, an idea lauded by Max Weber, a German sociologist where he says that religious ethics was responsible for the development of capitalist profit. Phrases like 'time is money' and 'honesty is best policy' are but few unintended consequences of this. That means if Sentinelese were converted to Christianity, they would automatically be converted to 'Free Men' of Adam Smith. This is how capitalist rationality works irrespective of orthodoxies-- be it Hindutva or Radical Islam. Market idolatry is the main weapon through which conversion into different religions happens.
And probably this is the reason why Indian government also allowed outsiders to mix with the people who love voluntary isolation. Indeed, the government loves the word 'voluntary.' In the mainland, it forces its employees into 'salvation and redemption' through voluntary retirement that pontifically goes by the name- VRS.
This agenda of the government borders on two ambivalences-- one is to expand its political economy through opening up tourist destinations at the island. The other is to turn the Bay of Bengal into battlefield. For any capitalist enterprise, tourist destination is a predestined business and often divinely ordained. Who knows Patanjali products may land in the island as they have remained 'naturally pure' since the time of Atharva Veda. As we are already trapped in Iron Cage of business ethics, we must impose it on the ancient people who find passion in their work. This iron cage is important for two reasons. One is for turning the Sentinelese into 'museum show-pieces' for our voyeuristic pleasure and second is for making moolah.
On the other hand, Sentinelese knew exactly how to ward off the spirit of a predatory civilisation that bays for blood. We are filled with remorse when one John Allen Chau is killed by the Sentinelese but our middle class consciousness is never hurt when we know that our civilisation has killed more than 3 billion people in the last one hundred years. Sometimes, it's better to be in the museum than to be the part of modernity. If tribal people in Chhattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand were equally 'museumised', they would not have been killed by the security forces on daily basis for opposing corporate development.
The strategic importance of the Bay of Bengal is equally important as world's two major powers India and China seem to be testing the water of military influence. But when you are nuked, how will you fight the Fourth World War? With bows and arrows? So finally, we shall all be Sentinelese. O Jesus! Your apocalypse is all but atomic (damp) squib.
Marco Polo, a 13th century traveller had dubbed Sentinelese as cannibals who eat everyone they catch. Whether Marco Polo had visited Andaman or not, is a question directed towards the people who contumaciously worship facts. But the middle-class consciousness sees in all tribal population a streak of cannibalism. Just a month ago, some Africans were almost mob-lynched in Delhi, the heart of India. They were accused of kidnapping and eating a boy in the locality. Around 250 men had tied an African man to the pole, yanked him by his bound feet and hit hard on the sole with sticks.
Sentinelese, the direct descendents of modern humans who left Africa almost 55000 years ago have much in common with modern Africans. Antiquity and modernity no longer remain different connotations. They mean the same. They mean everywhere. Delhi or Sentinel Island or London- is just a constructed name just like the constructed sound- Jhinga lala hoho.
(The author teaches in Central University)