Gladson Dungdung (born 2 May 1980) is a

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

activist Activism (or Advocacy) consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived greater good. Forms of activism range fro ...

researcher, writer, motivator and public speaker based in

Ranchi Ranchi (, ) is the capital of the Indian state of Jharkhand. Ranchi was the centre of the Jharkhand movement, which called for a separate state for the tribal regions of South Bihar, northern Odisha, western West Bengal and the eastern area ...

, India. He is founder of the Adivasis Publications, Adivasis Hunkar and Jharkhand Human Rights Movement.

Early life

He comes from the Kharia

Adivasi The Adivasi refers to inhabitants of Indian subcontinent, generally tribal people. The term is a Sanskrit word coined in the 1930s by political activists to give the tribal people an indigenous identity by claiming an indigenous origin. The term ...

community in

Jharkhand Jharkhand (; ; ) is a state in eastern India. The state shares its border with the states of West Bengal to the east, Chhattisgarh to the west, Uttar Pradesh to the northwest, Bihar to the north and Odisha to the south. It has an area of . It ...

(India). His family was displaced for an irrigation project built at Chhinda River in Simdega district of Jharkhand in 1980. His parents were brutally killed in June 1990 while they were going to attend the civil court, Simdega in a land related dispute of a family in the village. Consequently, he has had to undergo through a long struggle for survival. He was unable to get admission in the college for lack of Rs. 250. He worked as daily wage labourer, cycle mechanic and helper in tea shop. He was one of the first

authors An author is the writer of a book, article, play, mostly written work. A broader definition of the word "author" states: "''An author is "the person who originated or gave existence to anything" and whose authorship determines responsibility f ...

published by

Adivaani Adivaani (stylised as adivaani, in lower case) is a platform that aims to support indigenous expression and assertion, based in Kolkata, India. It is a publishing, archiving and chronicling outfit of and by indigenous people of India's Adivasi Tr ...

with the

English language English is a West Germanic language of the Indo-European language family, with its earliest forms spoken by the inhabitants of early medieval England. It is named after the Angles, one of the ancient Germanic peoples that migrated to the is ...

book "Whose Country is it Anyway?", launched in 2013 at the

New Delhi World Book Fair The New Delhi World Book Fair, hosted at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi, is India's second oldest book fair after the Kolkata Book Fair. The first New Delhi World Book Fair was held from March 18 to April 4, 1972 in roughly 6790 m2 area with 20 ...

. He has spoken internationally on human rights issues, including police atrocities and gross violation of the rights of

indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

Issues with the government

His

passport A passport is an official travel document issued by a government that contains a person's identity. A person with a passport can travel to and from foreign countries more easily and access consular assistance. A passport certifies the personal ...

was taken in January 2014, following "a sensitive report from state police" related to his travel to Germany and Thailand to speak about the gross human rights violation. He reported refusing to pay

bribes Bribery is the offering, giving, receiving, or soliciting of any item of value to influence the actions of an official, or other person, in charge of a public or legal duty. With regard to governmental operations, essentially, bribery is "Corru ...

during his passport application process. In May 2016, he was also offloaded from a

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

Air India flight, on his way to attend an international seminar highlighting the situation of Adivasis. On this occasion, he was branded an ‘anti-State and

Maoist Maoism, officially called Mao Zedong Thought by the Chinese Communist Party, is a variety of Marxism–Leninism that Mao Zedong developed to realise a socialist revolution in the agricultural, pre-industrial society of the Republic of Ch ...

sympathizer’, even though he has always impartially criticized both sides in the Maoist conflict, and believes that criticism of wrongdoings by State officials should be understood in a positive light, as part of an effort to bring about changes for the better. In 2016, his bank account with the

State Bank of India State Bank of India (SBI) is an Indian multinational public sector bank and financial services statutory body headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra. SBI is the 49th largest bank in the world by total assets and ranked 221st in the ''Fortune ...

was blocked in alleged suspicious of his involvement in

money laundering Money laundering is the process of concealing the origin of money, obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption, embezzlement or gambling, by converting it into a legitimate source. It is a crime in many jurisdictions ...

. In June 2017, two cases were filed against him for protesting against the amendment of Chotanagpur Tanacy Act 1908 and Santhal Pargana Tanacy Act 1949, falsely accusing him for instigating the Adivasis for protesting against the

Jharkhand government The Government of Jharkhand also known as the State Government of Jharkhand, or locally as State Government, is the supreme governing authority of the Indian state of Jharkhand and its Districts of Jharkhand, 24 districts. It consists of an exec ...

Books

He is the author of more than two dozen books, which includes: * Adivasis and Their Forest. * Endless Cry in the Red Corridor. * Mission Saranda: A War for Natural Resources in India. * Whose country is it Anyway? – Untold Stories from India's Indigenous Peoples. * Crossfire. * Asuron Ki Pida. * Adivasi aur Vanadhikar. * Vikas Ke Kabargah. * Jharkhand main Asmita Sangharsh. * Ulgulan Ka Sauda. He has edited two others: Nagri Ka Nagara and Jharkhand Human Rights Report, 2001-2011. He has also written more than 500 articles focused on human rights issues, Adivasi rights, displacement, politics and

social change Social change is the alteration of the social order of a society which may include changes in social institutions, social behaviours or social relations. Definition Social change may not refer to the notion of social progress or sociocult ...

published in edited books, daily newspapers, magazines, journals and news web portals.

Speeches

He has spoken in the international seminars and conferences held in *

Hague The Hague ( ; nl, Den Haag or ) is a city and municipality of the Netherlands, situated on the west coast facing the North Sea. The Hague is the country's administrative centre and its seat of government, and while the official capital of ...

(Netherlands), *

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

(France), *

Geneva Geneva ( ; french: Genève ) frp, Genèva ; german: link=no, Genf ; it, Ginevra ; rm, Genevra is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous city of Romandy, the French-speaki ...

(Switzerland), *

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

(Denmark), *

Bonn The federal city of Bonn ( lat, Bonna) is a city on the banks of the Rhine in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, with a population of over 300,000. About south-southeast of Cologne, Bonn is in the southernmost part of the Rhine-Ruhr r ...

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

and

Bad boll Bad Boll is a municipality in the district of Göppingen in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. History In 1321, the County of Württemberg purchased title over Bad Boll and came to possess it ''de jure'', but it was ''de facto'' still controlled by a ...

(Germany), *

University of Sussex , mottoeng = Be Still and Know , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £14.4 million (2020) , budget = £319.6 million (2019–20) , chancellor = Sanjeev Bhaskar , vice_chancellor = Sasha Roseneil , ...

(England), *

Chiang Mai Chiang Mai (, from th, เชียงใหม่ , nod, , เจียงใหม่ ), sometimes written as Chiengmai or Chiangmai, is the largest city in northern Thailand, the capital of Chiang Mai province and the second largest city in ...

(Thailand). He served as an honorary member in the Assessment and Monitoring Authority under the

Planning Commission of India The Planning Commission was an institution in the Government of India, which formulated India's Five-Year Plans, among other functions. In his first Independence Day speech in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced his intention to diss ...

( Govt. of India) from May 2011 to April 2013, and was awarded the Samata Ratan Award, 2014, for his extraordinary work for the Adivasi communities of India.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dungdung, Gladson Living people Kharia people People of Kharia descent People from Simdega district Indian human rights activists Indigenous activists of Asia Date of birth missing (living people) Adivasi writers 1980 births Adivasi activists