Imagining Santal rationality as empowerment

This chapter deals with the question of rationality among the Santals, one of the major ‘tribal communities’ of Central India. They are known to follow the voices of ancestors and custom, but how does this accord with ‘rationality’? The argument, in brief: rationality must be assessed in relation to culture as well as to the possibility of realizing sensible strategies. Strongly egalitarian Santal ideas of economic surplus and wealth inform their economic rationality, that is, their strategies of production and consumption. I show the relevance of ideas of rationality, variously conceived, to the lived and remembered experiences of Santal men, women and children. Men, in this context, have to carve out their own sphere of intervention and forge new knowledge and imagination in a world where they have to become entrepreneurs, while women succeed by limiting their initiatives to the tribal world, where indigenous knowledge prevails. Children learn how to adjust to school norms, but, quite conscious of the contradiction between school and village knowledge, still have faith in the latter. The main argument of the article is that actors need a context of equity if they are to develop a rational agenda.