Is it an obligation for all who inhabit this planet to be a part of the so-called organized society the way it has been built over the centuries? Is it a duty of the denizens of the civilized community to bring into its fold all those who have somehow been denied the capitalist cover of the cultured world? These two questions are at the core of the controversy that has erupted over a video of the tribal Jarawa women in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The Jarawa tribes are one among the many such groups that live in the interiors of the Andamans, far away from the ordered society of the outer world. They have their own culture and customs as yet uncorrupted by the mainland’s ways and means of living. Alas, the purity of these primitive tribes is not totally immune from the taints of the trained world. Tourism to the islands brings a lot of bad together with the good. It is definitely a source of some serious revenue for an otherwise backward territory of the country. Tragically, together with the money from the mainland, come many malpractices. The footage of the tribal women dancing in the nude is just symptomatic of the deeper malaise to exploit the marginalized. It is indeed ironic that the men we call as civilized seek to entertain themselves at the expense of another’s self-esteem.

Our tribes are a precious part of our heritage. We need to give them ample space and time to reach out to the world beyond their boundaries. They will gravitate towards the settled way of life. All we need to do is wait till the moment is right without unsettling them.