HATTIS

CONTEXT

The state government’s request for inclusion of the Hatti community in the list of Scheduled Tribes in the state is politically significant, as the Hattis have a considerable presence in about nine seats in the Shimla and Sirmaur regions.

ABOUT HATTIS

• The Hattis is a close-knit community that got its name from their tradition of selling homegrown vegetables, crops, meat, wool, etc. at small markets called ‘haat’ in towns.
• The Hatti community, whose men generally wore a distinctive white headgear, during ceremonies, is cut off from Sirmaur by two rivers called Giri and Tons. Tons divide it from the Jaunsar Bawar area of Uttarakhand.
• The Hattis who live in the trans-Giri area and Jaunsar Bawar in Uttarakhand were once part of the royal estate of Sirmaur until Jaunsar Bawar’s separation in 1815.
•  There is a fairly rigid caste system among the Hattis — the Bhat and Khash are the upper castes, while the Badhois are below them.
• Inter-caste marriages have traditionally remained a strict no. Due to topographical disadvantages, the Hattis living in the Kamrau, Sangrah, and Shilliai areas lag in education and employment.

DEMAND FOR TRIBAL STATUS

The community has been making the demand since 1967 when tribal status was accorded to people living in the Jaunsar Bawar area of Uttarakhand, which shares a border with the Sirmaur district.

Their demand for tribal status gained strength because of resolutions passed at various maha Khumblis over the years.

They share similar culture and socio-economic conditions with the Hattis residing in Sirmaur, those in jaunsar were declared tribals but those who remained in Himachal were not given the same status or benefits.

CONSTITUTION DEFINITION OF SCHEDULE TRIBES

PROCEDURE FOR INDUCTION IN ST CATEGORY

• The President may, concerning any State or Union territory, and where it is a state, after consultation with the Governor thereof by public notification, specify the tribes or tribal communities or parts of or groups within tribes or tribal communities which shall, for this constitution, is deemed to be scheduled tribes concerning that state or Union Territory, as the case may be.
• Parliament may by law include in or exclude from the list of Scheduled tribes specified in a notification issued under clause (1) any tribe or tribal community or part of or group within any tribe or tribal community
• Thus, the first specification of Scheduled Tribes with a particular State/ Union Territory is by a notified order of the President, after consultation with the State governments concerned. These orders can be modified subsequently only through an Act of Parliament.

CRITERIA REQUIRED FOR STs

• The criterion followed for specification of a community, as scheduled tribes are indications of primitive traits, distinctive culture, geographical isolation, shyness of contact with the community at large, and backwardness.
• This criterion is not spelt out in the Constitution but has become well established. It subsumes the definitions contained in the 1931Census, the reports of the first Backward Classes Commission 1955, the Advisory Committee (Kalelkar), on Revision of SC/ST lists (Lokur Committee), 1965, and the Joint Committee of Parliament on the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes Orders (Amendment) Bill 1967 (Chanda Committee), 1969.
• In exercise of the powers conferred by Clause (1) of Article 342 of the Constitution of India, the President, after Consultation with the State Governments concerned has promulgated so far 9 orders specifying the Scheduled Tribes concerning the state and union territories.
• Out of these, eight are in operation at present in their original or amended form. One order namely the Constitution (Goa, Daman & Diu) Scheduled Tribes order 1968 has become defunct on account of the reorganization of Goa, Daman & Diu in 1987.

PEOPLE BENEFIT IF THE GOVERNMENT CONCEDES DEMANDS

The Chief Minister has said that the move will benefit a population of about 3 lakh people in 154 panchayats in the trans-Giri area in the state.

POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE

In 2009, the BJP promised to give ST status to the Hattis in its election manifesto. That was the first time that any political party had incorporated this demand in its manifesto

The BJP has gained from Hatti support in the parliamentary elections in Shimla, once a Congress stronghold. In 2014, Defence minister Rajnath Singh, then BJP’s national president, had even announced the grant of Scheduled Tribe status to Hattis at a rally in Nahan in Sirmaur.

The Hatti community is concentrated in the four Assembly constituencies in the Sirmaur district — Shillai, Paonta, Renuka, and Pachhad, but they can play a significant role in at least nine seats spread across Shimla and Sirmaur. The BJP won 44 of the 68 Assembly seats in the 2017 elections.