VoC Glossary

(from Vocabulary of Commons)

Glossary

Term	Explanation
ADB	Asian Development Bank.
Adivasi	Indigenous and tribal people. Literally ‘first dweller’. Used as a term of political assertion since the government of India maintains that there are no indigenous people in India and that the Schedule Tribe list is only an administrative list from which communities can be taken off or added. This term is not used in the Northeast, where the terms ‘indigenous and tribal people’ or ‘tribal’ are preferred. In this book we have retained the preferences of the authors for each chapter—which leads to the terms being used interchangeably.
Anganwadi	Government terminology for day care centre for children. The centre is important since government schemes for children, especially health (immunisation) and nutrition are routed through these centres. It is a lifeline for those below poverty line, as most Dalit children are.
Azan	Islamic call to prayer.
Babu	Government official (Colloquial).
Bada	Fruit cultivation area.
Bada mahana dangu	Graveyard for elders.
Bagada	Area from which minor forest produced are collected.
Balwadi	Common term for anganwadi.
Baru	When soru panga is used as a village.
Basa	Place of shelter, social gathering or festival.
BBMP	Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (Greater Bengaluru Metropolitan Council)
Bengaluru	Formerly Bangalore.
BOD	Biological Oxygen Demand, a measure for water purity.
CBD	Convention on Biodiversity.
Chennai	Formerly Madras.
Chuana	Bank of river where from water is used.
COD	Chemical Oxygen Demand, a measure for water purity.
Common school system	One school system from village to nation in primary and high school education without any discrimination. It should be free from private management and commercialisation of education.
CPI	Communist Party of India.
CPI(M)	Communist Party of India (Marxist).
CPR	Common Pool Resources (In popular Indian usage commonly Common Property Resources).
Crore	10 million.
CRZ	Coastal Regulation Zone.
CZM	Coastal Zone Management.
Dalit	Former ‘untouchables’ outside the Hindu caste system. The government has classified some of them as Scheduled Castes. Dalit means ‘broken’ or ‘oppressed’ and is a term of assertion.
Dangar	Land used for millet cultivation.
Dharani penu	Earth god.
DPT	The Doctrine of Public Trust. It is a legal principle which asserts that certain natural resources are of such immense value to society as a whole then it is unjustifiable to assign those natural resources to any individual as property.
Elu basa	Individual house.
Elu gunjare	Village with humans, animals, kitchen gardens, livestock shelter.
Eyu penu/Gangi penu	Water deity.
FAO	Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN.
FRA	Forest Rights Act, the common usage for The Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.
GATS	General Agreement on Trade and Services.
GoI	Government of India.
Gram sabha	Village assembly. Decision making authority consisting of all adult members of the village recognised by the Indian constitution and the Forest Rights Act.
Hata	Village fair and market.
IFA	Indian Forest Act.
IMF	International Monetary Fund.
INGO	International Non Government Organisation.
IPC	Indian Penal Code.
IPR	Intellectual Property Rights.
IT	Information Technology.
ITPGR	International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources.
KSMTF	Kerala Swatantra Matsya Thozhilali Federation, the Kerala independent fish workers federation.
Kolkatta	Formerly Calcutta.
Lakh	100,000.
Mandiarani parba	A festival.
MDG	The United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
Melia parba	A festival.
MFP	Minor Forest Produce. The preferred term is NTFP, though the forest department keeps to this term. The terminology MFP hides the fact that these ‘minor’ products are substantial sources of patronage and income. In popular usage these two terms are used interchangeably.
Mila mahana dangu	Graveyard for children.
MLA	Member of Legislative Assembly.
MNC	Multinational Corporation.
MoEF	Ministry of Environment and Forests.
Mumbai	Formerly Bombay
Munda, kata, bandha	Traditional water preservation and irrigation method of tribals.
Naxalite	Extremist or Maoist in popular usage. They are a banned radical far Left Maoist Communist group in India. The name comes from the village of Naxalbari in the Indian state of West Bengal where the movement originated.
Naju basa	Village with humans, animals, kitchen gardens, livestock shelter.
Nella	When soru seed is used for cultivation.
NFF	National Fish Workers’ Forum.
NGO	Non Government Organisation.
Niyam raja	God of law.
NTFP	Non Timber Forest Produce. More precise, but used interchangeably with MFP in common parlance.
Odisha	Eastern state of India, formerly Orissa.
Pano	One of the scheduled caste communities.
PDS	Public distribution system for sale of food grains and groceries through fair price shops commonly called ration shops.
Penu	Good.
PESA	Panchayats (Extension to the Scheduled Areas) Act 1996.
Pourakarmikas	Persons who clean roads, sewage pipes and storm water drains and collect garbage.
Sabha	Assembly.
Safaikarmacharis	People who clean human waste (night soil in dry toilets). Manual scavengers.
Salwa judum	Literally ‘purification hunt’, a militia armed by the Government of Chhatisgarh ostensibly to fight the Maoists, but in reality committed atrocities on the tribals and therefore ordered to be disbanded by the Supreme Court.
Santhe	Market (Kannada).
SC	Scheduled Castes. It is an administrative classification of the Government of India. (see also Dalit).
SEZ	Special Economic Zone.
Shifting cultivation	Tribals shift their cultivation to different places from time to time.
Sixth Schedule	The Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution provides for the creation of Autonomous District Councils (ADCs) in certain tribal areas of Northeast India. The ADCs have power to make laws over land, forest, water, agriculture, education, health and social issues. The primary purpose of the sixth schedule is to incorporate the predominantly tribal populations, as communities, into the Indian State. For further information on the Sixth Schedule refer: B. L. Hansaria. The Sixth Schedule to the Constitution of India. A Study. Gauhati: Ashok Publishers.
Soru jaka	Hill top.
Soru need	Lower hill slope.
Soru panga	Land at hill base.
Soru tude	Middle of the hill slope.
ST	Scheduled Tribes, the indigenous communities. ST is an administrative classification of the Government of India. (see also Adivasi).
Tedibasa	Place to sit and have conversations.
Thiruvananthapuram	Formerly Trivandrum, Capital of Kerala in South India.
TRIPS	Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights.
WTO	World Trade Organisation.
Yama	God of death.
Yamaloka	Literally Yama’s world, but ‘hell’ in normal usage.