Indigenous Conservationist Dayamani Barla Fights to Protect Adivasi People’s Land and Rights
04/12/2023
By Marlon Pitter
Leading a life dedicated to conservationism, feminism and activism, UMass Lowell’s 2023 Greeley Scholar for Peace Studies Dayamani Barla has built a legacy fighting for the rights of the Indigenous Adivasi people in India.
“She’s been referred to as a conservationist, climate change activist, journalist, author, tea seller and, like many of us, is a composite of many, many different pieces rather than just a single piece,” said Chancellor Julie Chen when introducing Barla at the annual Day Without Violence lecture at Coburn Hall. “Perhaps one of the most important pieces is that she is a woman who is fighting to save her people’s land, their forests and their rivers – something that she has done for nearly four decades.”
Speaking in Hindi with Greeley Endowment for Peace Studies Advisory Committee Chair and Assoc. Prof. of Psychology Urmitapa Dutta translating to English, Barla told stories to a crowd of students, faculty and staff about her long-standing efforts in Jharkhand, India, to peacefully protect the land and its inhabitants from governmental oppression.
“What we’re seeing happen across the world is that governments are coming together with corporate giants and trying to dispossess people of their lands,” Barla said.
As Indigenous people who have lived on their land for generations, Barla said it is a personal responsibility for her and the Adivasi people to defend it from the government.
“If the forests, lands and water belong to us … then the protection of (them) also should fall upon us, which means we have to empower ourselves and develop leadership within our own communities in order to protect what is ours,” she said.
Barla, nicknamed “The Iron Lady of Jharkhand,” said education and research have been some of her most effective tools in winning battles as a peaceful activist.
As a journalist and author, she has written and edited several publications exposing systemic violence against Adivasi women. Barla has also worked to stop development and land dispossession that would have affected hundreds of villages.
“I don’t have a Ph.D. like many of you here, but I have studied and researched very hard for my community,” she said. “If there is a company that is trying to take land away from our people and they’re in the process of creating (a memorandum of understanding), I make sure that I go there and I learn everything about it so we are in a strong position to fight.”
Despite changing interests and different opportunities for upcoming generations of Adivasi people, Barla said young people have been and will remain key contributors to conservation efforts.
“This isn't a linear thing where young people are going in one direction,” she said. “I firmly believe that young people will continue to be central to our movement.”
The Greeley Scholar for Peace Studies program was established in 2008. Greeley Scholars are chosen by a UMass Lowell committee and the Greeley Foundation for Peace and Justice for their humanitarian efforts and for promoting peaceful conflict resolution at local, regional, national and international levels. The foundation is named after the late humanitarian Rev. Dana McLean Greeley. Previous Greeley Scholars include Nobel Peace Prize winners Tawakkol Abdel-Salam Khalid Karman and Leymah Gbowee.
“This is a program that is amazing at bringing people to campus who are leaders all over the world,” Chen said. “The people who have come as Greeley Peace Scholars represent those who are leaders in thought and leaders in action. Today’s speaker is no different.”