The Adivasi Girijana Janata Parliament has opposed the Karnataka government’s reported move to establish an Adivasi university in Challakere, Chitradurga district, and demanded that the institution instead be located in the Old Mysuru region, where tribal communities have a significant presence.
Organisation president Harsha raised the demand at a meeting of members of the Adivasi community held at the DEED organisation in Hunsur. He welcomed the government’s interest in creating a university for the comprehensive development and study of tribal communities, but questioned the decision to locate it in Chitradurga rather than in the region where many of the communities live.
According to Harsha, a committee headed by Prof. Asadi and constituted by the High Court in 2014 had recommended that the government establish a university in the Old Mysuru region for an integrated study of tribal communities. The organisation said the recommendation should be considered while deciding the institution’s location.
The report also referred to a comprehensive report submitted to the government by environmentalist and retired senior Forest Department officer Dr Yallappa Reddy. The report recommended establishing an Adivasi university and study centre in the Kallabetta forest area on the outskirts of Hunsur taluk, according to the organisation.
Harsha said these reports were already before the government, but alleged that the Minister for Social Welfare had moved ahead with identifying 150 acres of land in Challakere for the proposed university. He described the move as unscientific, while arguing that the institution would have greater relevance in the Old Mysuru region.
The organisation identified Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru, Mysuru and Chamarajanagar districts as areas where tribal communities have traditionally settled in larger numbers. Locating the university in this region, it said, would provide stronger access to subjects and field contexts relevant to the study of tribal communities.
The demand places the proposed university’s location at the centre of a wider institutional question: whether a specialised public university should be sited primarily on the basis of available land or in proximity to the communities and landscapes it is intended to study and serve. The meeting’s participants urged the government to respect the demand for establishing the university in the Old Mysuru region.
Tribal leaders Shivanna, Jayappa, Vittal, Basavaraj and Srikanth attended the meeting. The government’s next decision on the proposed location was not stated in the report.
