The Politics of Belonging in India: Becoming Adivasi

257 Pages·2011·3.339 MB·English

by  Daniel J. Rycroft, Sangeeta Dasgupta

The Politics of Belonging in India
Since the 1990s, the Indigenous movement worldwide has become increasingly
relevant to research in India, re-s haping the terms of engagement with Adivasi
(Indigenous/tribal) peoples and their pasts. This book responds to the growing
need for an inter-d isciplinary re-a ssessment of Tribal studies in postcolonial
India and defines a new agenda for Adivasi studies. It considers the existing con-
ceptual and historical parameters of Tribal studies, as a means of addressing new
approaches to histories of de-c olonisation and patterns of identity-f ormation that
have become visible since national independence.
Contributors address a number of important concerns, including the meaning
of Indigenous studies in the context of globalised academic and political imagi-
naries, and the possibilities and pitfalls of constructions of indigeneity as both a
foundational and a relational concept. A series of short editorial essays provide
theoretical clarity to issues of representation, resistance, agency, recognition and
marginality. The book is an essential read for students and scholars of Indian
Sociology, Anthropology, History, Cultural Studies and Indigenous studies.
Daniel J. Rycroft is Lecturer in South Asian Arts and Cultures at the School of
World Art Studies and Museology, University of East Anglia, UK.
Sangeeta Dasgupta is Assistant Professor at the Centre for Historical Studies,
Jawaharlal Nehru University, India.
Routledge contemporary South Asia series
1 Pakistan 8 Regionalism in South Asia
Social and cultural transformations Negotiating cooperation,
in a Muslim nation institutional structures
Mohammad A. Qadeer Kishore C. Dash
2 Labor, Democratization and 9 Federalism, Nationalism and
Development in India and Development
Pakistan India and the Punjab economy
Christopher Candland Pritam Singh
3 China- India Relations 10 Human Development and Social
Contemporary dynamics Power
Amardeep Athwal Perspectives from South Asia
Ananya Mukherjee Reed
4 Madrasas in South Asia
Teaching terror? 11 The South Asian Diaspora
Jamal Malik Transnational networks and
changing identities
5 Labor, Globalization and the Edited by Rajesh Rai and
State Peter Reeves
Workers, women and migrants
confront neoliberalism 12 Pakistan- Japan Relations
Edited by Debdas Banerjee and Continuity and change in
Michael Goldfield economic relations and security
interests
6 Indian Literature and Popular Ahmad Rashid Malik
Cinema
Recasting classics 13 Himalayan Frontiers of India
Edited by Heidi R.M. Pauwels Historical, geo-p olitical and
strategic perspectives
7 Islamist Militancy in Bangladesh K. Warikoo
A complex web
Ali Riaz
14 India’s Open- Economy Policy 23 Economic and Human
Globalism, rivalry, continuity Development in Contemporary
Jalal Alamgir India
Cronyism and fragility
15 The Separatist Conflict in Debdas Banerjee
Sri Lanka
Terrorism, ethnicity, political 24 Culture and the Environment in
economy the Himalaya
Asoka Bandarage Arjun Guneratne
16 India’s Energy Security
25 The Rise of Ethnic Politics in
Edited by Ligia Noronha and
Nepal
Anant Sudarshan
Democracy in the margins
17 Globalization and the Middle Susan I. Hangen
Classes in India
The social and cultural impact of 26 The Multiplex in India
neoliberal reforms A cultural economy of urban
Ruchira Ganguly- Scrase and leisure
Timothy J. Scrase Adrian Athique and Douglas Hill
18 Water Policy Processes in India 27 Tsunami Recovery in Sri Lanka
Discourses of power and Ethnic and regional dimensions
resistance Dennis B. McGilvray and
Vandana Asthana Michele R. Gamburd
19 Minority Governments in India 28 Development, Democracy and
The puzzle of elusive majorities the State
Csaba Nikolenyi Critiquing the Kerala model of
development
20 The Maoist Insurgency in Nepal
K Ravi Raman
Revolution in the twenty-fi rst
century
29 Mohajir Militancy in Pakistan
Edited by Mahendra Lawoti and
Violence and transformation in the
Anup K. Pahari
Karachi conflict
21 Global Capital and Peripheral Nichola Khan
Labour
The history and political economy 30 Nationbuilding, Gender and
of plantation workers in India War Crimes in South Asia
K. Ravi Raman Bina D’Costa
22 Maoism in India 31 The State in India after
Reincarnation of ultra-l eft wing Liberalization
extremism in the 21st century Interdisciplinary perspectives
Bidyut Chakrabarty and Edited by Akhil Gupta and
Rajat Kujur K. Sivaramakrishnan
32 National Identities in Pakistan 39 Microcredit and Women’s
The 1971 war in contemporary Empowerment
Pakistani fiction A case study of Bangladesh
Cara Cilano Amunui Faraizi, Jim McAllister
and Taskinur Rahman
33 Political Islam and Governance
in Bangladesh 40 South Asia in the New World
Edited by Ali Riaz and Order
C. Christine Fair The role of regional cooperation
Shahid Javed Burki
34 Bengali Cinema
‘An Other nation’ 41 Explaining Pakistan’s Foreign
Sharmistha Gooptu Policy
Escaping India
35 NGOs in India Aparna Pande
The challenges of women’s
empowerment and accountability 42 Development–induced
Patrick Kilby Displacement, Rehabilitation
and Resettlement in India
36 The Labour Movement in the Current issues and challenges
Global South Edited by Sakarama Somayaji and
Trade unions in Sri Lanka Smrithi Talwar
S. Janaka Biyanwila
43 The Politics of Belonging in
37 Building Bangalore India
Architecture and urban Becoming Adivasi
transformation in India’s Silicon Edited by Daniel J. Rycroft and
Valley Sangeeta Dasgupta
John C. Stallmeyer
38 Conflict and Peacebuilding in
Sri Lanka
Caught in the peace trap?
Edited by Jonathan Goodhand,
Jonathan Spencer and
Benedict Korf
The Politics of Belonging in
India
Becoming Adivasi
Edited by Daniel J. Rycroft and
Sangeeta Dasgupta
First published 2011
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2011 Selection and editorial matter, Daniel J. Rycroft and Sangeeta
Dasgupta; individual contributors, their contributions
The right of the editors to be identified as the authors of the editorial
material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted
in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and
Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-Publication Data
The politics of belonging in India : becoming Adivasi / edited by
Daniel J. Rycroft and Sangeeta Dasgupta.
p. cm. – (Routledge contemporary South Asia series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Adivasis–Ethnic identity. 2. Adivasis–Social conditions. 3. Group
identity–India. 4. India–Ethnic relations. 5. India–Social conditions,
I. Rycroft, Daniel J. II. Dasgupta, Sangeeta.
DS432.A2P65 2011
305.800954–dc22
2010040882
ISBN: 978-0-415-60082-8 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-0-203-82601-0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
To our families

Contents
List of maps xi
Notes on contributors xii
Preface xiv
Hul Johar/Acknowledgements xvi
1 Indigenous pasts and the politics of belonging 1
DANIEL J. RYCROFT AND SANGEETA DASGUPTA
PART I
Contesting categories, blurring boundaries 15
2 The dangers of belonging: tribes, indigenous peoples and
homelands in South Asia 19
WILLEM VAN SCHENDEL
3 Performative genres as boundary markers: folklore and
the creation of Purulia as a border zone 44
ROMA CHATTERJI
PART II
Revisiting resistance 59
4 Rebellion as modern self fashioning: a Santal movement in
colonial Bengal 65
TANIKA SARKAR
5 Reconstructing an event: the Great Rebellion of 1857–8 and
Singhbhum Indigenes 82
ASOKA KUMAR SEN