The concept of ‘tribe’ in India is a beleaguered one, and shares overlapping definitions with a number of nomenclatures-‘adivasis’, ‘indigenous people’, and even ‘Scheduled Tribes’. For centuries, over widely dispersed territories, groups of communities were subjected to very similar inimical processes that led to their destitution.
First Citizens engages with the political and historical processes which go into the making of differential identities and adoption of specific labels by communities, and explores a number of critical issues confronting this extremely vulnerable section of Indian society. The essays document the diverse causes for migrations of India’s ‘tribal’ populations, notably women, and their absorption into both rural and urban informal economies; the multi-layered aggression of ‘development’ policies impinging on the lives of those inhabiting mineral-rich habitats; the violent interface between politicized forest dwellers and the Indian state; the theory and practice behind the Forest Rights Act and the environmentalists’ dilemma; and state legislation which may be enabling or otherwise for forest-based communities. Highlighting these communities’ attempts to organize a broad-based social movement to challenge ecologically destructive and non-inclusive economic policies, this volume chronicles their struggle to claim a common identity as Indian citizens.
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