“I am not your data, nor am I your vote bank
I am not your project, or any exotic museum object
I am not the soul waiting to be harvested
Nor am I the lab where your theories are tested
I am not your cannon fodder, or the invisble worker,
Or your entertainment at India Habitat Center
I am not your field , your crowd, your history
Your help your guilt you medallions of your victory,
I refuse reject resist your labels
Your judgements, documents, definitions
Your models, leaders and patrons
Because they deny me my existence my vision my space
Your words, maps, figures, indicators
They all create illusions and put you on pedestal
From where you look down upon me
So I draw my own picture, and invent my own grammar
I make my own tools to fight my own battle
For me, my people, my world, and my Adivasi self!”
Such a powerful poem by Abhay Xaxa, an Advasi Poet
