This volume presents an overview of the relationship between the state, law, and Adivasis that have experienced a profound political shift due to privatization of natural resources. It discusses the role of the corporates and its impact on livelihoods of the Adivasis in India. For the Indian state, a significant challenge is to establish a new normative framework for indigenous autonomy based on the values of equality and sustainability. This calls for recognition of the right to self-determination and exercise of collective rights of the Adivasis. The chapters in this volume examine: • 'Exclusion' as a useful framework for analyzing the various axes of inequality that affect the Adivasi communities • How state, development, and Adivasi politics play out in entangled ways in the social, political and legal domains • The interplay of and the deep tension between the promise of legal protection and the realities of inadequate implementation.

In Adivasis and the State, Alf Gunvald Nilsen presents a major study of how subalternity is both constituted and contested through state-society relations in the Bhil heartland of western India. The book unravels the historical processes that subordinated Bhil Adivasi communities to the everyday tyranny of the state and investigates how social movements have mobilised to reclaim citizenship. In doing so, the book also reveals how collective action from below transform the meanings of governmental categories, legal frameworks, and universalising vocabularies of democracy. At the core of the book lies a concern with understanding the dialectics of power and resistance that give form and direction to the political economy of democracy and development in contemporary India. Towards this end, Adivasis and the State contributes a sustained and nuanced Gramscian analysis of hegemony in order to interrogate the possibilities and limits of subaltern political engagement with state structures.

This book looks at the contested relationship between Adivasis or the indigenous peoples, migrants and the state in India. It delves into the nature and dynamics of competition and resource conflicts between the Adivasis and the migrants. Drawing on the ground experiences of the Dandakaranya Project – when Bengali migrants from erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) were rehabilitated in eastern and central India – the author traces the connection between resource scarcity and the emergence of Naxalite politics in the region in tandem with the key role played by the state. He critically examines the way in which conflicts between these groups emerged and interacted, were shaped and realised through acts and agencies of various kinds, as well as their socio-economic, cultural and political implications. The book explores the contexts and reasons that have led to the dispossession, deprivation and marginalisation of Adivasis. Through rich empirical data, this book presents an in-depth analysis of a contemporary crisis. It will be useful to scholars and researchers of political studies, South Asian politics, conflict studies, political sociology, cultural studies, sociology and social anthropology.

This volume explores the complexities of governance, law, and politics in India’s Scheduled Areas. The Scheduled Areas (SAs) are those parts of the country which have been identified by the Fifth and Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India and are inhabited predominantly by tribal communities or Scheduled Tribes. SAs are often identified by their geographical isolation, primitive economies, and relatively egalitarian and closely knit society. Irrespective of the constitutional provision for governance and a mandate of devolution of power in terms of funds, functions and functionaries, the backwardness of these areas have remained a challenge. This volume attempts to explore the reasons behind the disregard for legal and institutional mechanism designed for the SAs. It examines the role of the state in the neoliberal era on fund allocation and utilisation, the governance of land and forest resources, and the ineffectiveness of the existing administrative structures and processes. It also looks into the interpretations of law by the judiciary while dealing with community rights vis-à-vis the state’s prerogative of bringing development to the regions, and how development concerns are addressed in the name of ‘good governance’ by various stakeholders. Comprehensive and topical, this volume will be useful for scholars and researchers of political studies, development studies, developmental economics, sociology and social anthropology, and for policy makers.

As calls for reparations to indigenous peoples grow on every continent, issues around resource extraction and dispossession raise complex legal questions. What do these disputes mean to those affected? How do the narratives of indigenous people, legal professionals, and the media intersect? In this richly layered and nuanced account, Pooja Parmar focuses on indigeneity in the widely publicized controversy over a Coca-Cola bottling facility in Kerala, India. Juxtaposing popular, legal, and Adivasi narratives, Parmar examines how meanings are gained and lost through translation of complex claims into the languages of social movements and formal legal systems. Included are perspectives of the diverse range of actors involved, based on interviews with members of Adivasi communities, social activists, bureaucrats, politicians, lawyers, and judges. Presented in clear, accessible prose, Parmar's account of translation enriches debates in the fields of legal pluralism, indigeneity, and development.

This volume examines the processes and impacts of exclusion on the Adivasis (tribal or indigenous people) in India and what repercussions these have for their constitutional rights. The chapters explore a wide range of issues connected to the idea of exclusion — land and forest resources, habitats and livelihoods, health and disease management, gender relations, language and schooling, water resources, poverty, governance, markets and technology, and development challenges — through case studies from different parts of the country. The book argues that any laws intended to safeguard the fundamental rights of Adivasis must acknowledge the fact that their diverse and complex identities are not homogenous, and that uniform laws have failed to address their systemic marginalisation since the colonial era. This work appeals for a serious and meaningful political intervention towards tribal development. The volume will be useful to scholars and researchers of tribal and Third World studies, sociology and social anthropology, exclusion studies and development studies.

Study on the tribal customary laws with emphasis on establishing cohesion with the national legal system of India.

This book is an attempt to find new ways of inter-disciplinary theorisation about this moment when both the unitary idea of the Indian nation and the bureaucratic dream of a centralised Indian state are falling apart. At this juncture, the Indian state has two choices. Either it can recognise the political nature of the struggles confronting it and radically re-imagine itself or it can wage a losing war against the democratic aspirations of people. It is essential that political movements in the subcontinent let go of their differences and organise together to agitate for modernisation. By bringing these disparate struggles together, this book explores the possibility of an alliance between them such that they are able to inform each other against a colonial state. Taken together, this book is thus an experiment in politics, rather than being about specific events. The chapters in this book were originally published in various Taylor & Francis journals.

The Adivasis are indigenous peoples and are believed to be the first inhabitants of India. Adivasis have distinct languages, religions and forms of self-government, together with a deep bond to their land and respect for nature. However, India has ignored their demands to be recognized as indigenous and – as this Report demonstrates – taken steps which threaten the Adivasis’ very survival. Adivasis’ traditional homelands have been taken for industrialization; for coal, forest and mineral exploitation; for tourism developments; and for nature and wildlife parks. This ‘internal colonization’ has combined with the forces of globalization to forcibly displace Adivasis from their territories, and to ensure that while 85 per cent of Adivasis live in poverty, they receive little or none of the wealth extracted from their land. While discussing these India-wide issues, The Adivasis of India also explores the situation in three specific regions: Jharkhand, the Blue Mountains region and the North-East region. Here the Adivasis’ increasingly effective methods of campaigning and organizing to demand their rights are discussed, alongside the Indian state’s often violent and brutal responses to these movements. The Adivasis of India, written by activists on Adivasi issues, provides a full, yet accessible, historical and legal context to the Adivasis’ claims and to the Indian state’s policy developments towards Adivasis. Both are analysed and their practical implementation discussed. The Report is illustrated with several maps and tables. The Adivasis of India concludes with a call for an end to state violence and discrimination, and for a recognition and granting of the Adivasis’ rights. This is backed by a set of recommendations which could help protect Adivasis’ human rights and promote peaceful coexistence, meaningful development and equality for all. Please note that the terminology in the fields of minority rights and indigenous peoples’ rights has changed over time. MRG strives to reflect these changes as well as respect the right to self-identification on the part of minorities and indigenous peoples. At the same time, after over 50 years’ work, we know that our archive is of considerable interest to activists and researchers. Therefore, we make available as much of our back catalogue as possible, while being aware that the language used may not reflect current thinking on these issues.