"The world is for all people," now says Chayan Vaddhanaphuti, an anthropologist with Chiang Mai University, "great and small."

Mr Chayan, 56, is well known to people from the different highland tribes. He has stood up for them before the almighty state in demanding that they receive permanent homes and Thai citizenship.

He came to the attention of the media as director of the Ethnic Studies Network when he joined about 5,000 members of different tribes who railed in April and May to demand that the government not designate the areas where they live as conservation forests and they be treated the same and receive equal rights as all other Thais.

Mr Chayan has joined such gatherings before. The move by the Agriculture and Co-operatives Ministry in 1994 to declare certain highland settlements part of preservation areas sparked protests in Lamphun and he negotiated with then Minister Prachuab Chaiyasarn to dissuade him from going ahead with the scheme.

Not surprisingly, his assistance to the hilltribes, in the name of the Network of Academics for the Poor, has not been accepted universally.

Opponents calling themselves the Natural Conservation Group have accused him and other scholars of being paid by foreign interest groups to support the hilltribes. He and friends have been called communists, their effigies have been burnt, and there have been demands that he be investigated by his university on charges of serious misconduct.

Mr Chayan said he had adopted the response that "silence is gold". There is no point trading insults, he said, as the accusations are groundless and the Chiang Mai University administration realise he has the best interests of the underprivileged at heart.

But at the same time, he would always welcome "man-to man" talks to iron out these differences.

Mr Chayan grew up in Chiang Mai but graduated in the arts from Chulalongkorn University. He later earnt a master's degree in public administration from the National Institute of Development Administration.

It was a home-stay while at Nida in the 1970s in a village in Nakhon Ratchasima to observe the people's ways of life that ignited his interest in anthropology, and this later took him to Stanford University in the United States to pursue another master's degree and a doctorate in that field.

It was a "very educational environment" in the United States, according to Mr Chayan, as scores of Thai scholars were already there studying anthropology. There was a free exchange of opinions on different topics.

Many of the Thai scholars were helping their lecturers conduct research, but Mr Chayan decided to go his own way with his own studies of Thai society.

He returned home to study the relationship between rural villages and the state, a thesis topic which developed in him a deep understanding of how villagers are manipulated by representatives of the state, the role played by northern farmers in Thai society, the drugs problems wracking certain sections of the public, and highland development projects.

"I find these rural communities interesting because they vary in terms of race, belief and culture," he said recently. "They are affected heavily by the wave of development."

His studies brought with them new friends, including Toenjai Deethet, a crusader for the better treatment of hilltribe people in Chiang Rai.

Mr Chayan has helped her on different projects and has acted as an adviser. "That was how I started working with non-government organisations."

His special interest in minorities was influenced partly by his foreign friends' in-depth research on hilltribes in Thailand, while his personal contributions to society have been inspired by Sulak Sivaraksa, the outspoken social commentator.

The Southeast Asia Centre, formed by Thai students in the United States shortly after the bloodbath of Oct 6, 1976 to promote social studies, also encouraged long-lasting friendships between Mr Chayan and other scholars such as Kanoksak Kaewthep, Anand Kanjanaphan and Chalardchai Ramitanond, some of whom are now with him at Chiang Mai University.

Mr Chayan joined the university's social sciences faculty as a lecturer in 1979.

The experience he received in helping establish the Research Development Institute at Khon Kaen University was used later to set up a similar body at Chiang Mai University, and Mr Chayan served as the director from 1989 to 1997.

The door of the institute under his directorship was always open to NGOs and local people so they could air their problems. This way scholars, students and the public generally could appreciate what was happening to block the success of rural development and thus help eliminate them.

"I am happy that I could help find a channel for the underprivileged to talk about their problems," said Mr Chayan. "I am glad that now we have the so-called space for minorities."

The institute also provided scholarships for NGO activists to pursue post-graduate studies.

Mr Chayan sees a change occurring in academic circles-from serving the state exclusively to helping the people.

"Academics used to do feasibility studies on the construction of dams for the electricity authority and the Forestry Department, but lately they are turning their attention to working with the villagers.

"We now use our knowledge to serve communities, particularly those made up of minorities."

It is important, he said, that teachers have an insight into the multi-faceted cultures of different races of people, their ways of life and their problems, and pass on this knowledge to their students and so stimulate an understanding and the desire to help.

"We have not only businessmen, the elite and bureaucrats here but women, farmers, hilltribesmen and lots and lots of the underprivileged."

Mr Chayan established the Ethnic Studies Network after his term at the Social Research Institute ended to gather knowledge on the different hilltribes and the effects of development policies on them.

He earlier had helped advise the United Nations Development Programme on a highland people development project in Cambodia and worked with the ethnic studies centre in Vietnam.

In 1996, Mr Chayan joined 50 NGOs in the North in demanding that the state guarantee the rights of minorities and communities.

This struggle proved successful. The latest constitution, in force since Oct 11, 1997, has several provisions on the right of communities to manage natural resources.

The next step, he says, is to test if the rule of law is being implemented.

Police have arrested hilltribesmen and are holding them without charging them, but this practice comes under test under Article 40 of the constitution. Complaints have been filed with the courts arguing that these arrests violate human rights and that the hilltribesmen should be released, he said.

The arrests have prompted scholars to form the Legal Aid for Marginalised People (LAMP) group for rural people who know nothing about the law.

Mr Chayan's recent activities concerning the community forests bill are aimed at protecting local wisdom and the rights of people to manage their community's natural resources. Mr Chayan said hilltribesmen should also be granted Thai citizenship.

He has had talks on these matters with Sangsit Piriyarangsan, an adviser to Interior Minister Sanan Kachornprasart, and he seemed to have grasped the situation well and agreed to help push for the acceptance of these ideas. But this was not the case when these matters were discussed by the cabinet, said Mr Chayan.

The Forestry Department argues that conservation forests should be off-limits to the public, meaning local communities would not be allowed to settle in preservation areas so they are protected from encroachment and their resources are better managed for present and future use.

Mr Chayan accepts that prejudices held against highland people will not be eliminated for some time. He said the middle-class and scholars should try to get to know these people better so they are not always misjudging these minorities.

"They are Thais too, just like us," he said.

Mr Chayan is content with his dual role as an academic and an activist. Although he is kept busy, he still has time to dream about getting to know more about the minorities he has come to respect and to helping them more.

He wants to study the impact of policy implementation on minority groups in Southeast Asia. He also dreams of setting up a university where hilltribesmen can study together with other Thai people.