Colonial Constructions of the ‘Tribe’ in India: The Case of Chotanagpur

Adivasi studies: From a historian's perspective

“…Of course there were shifts within this broader understanding that were related to, among other things, the working of official minds; changing assumptions of race; tensions within the discipline of anthropology and its application in the colony; ideologies of governance and the imperatives of rule; and interactions with the “native” populace. For academics like Damodaran, colonial discourse, rather than conjuring imaginary landscapes, analysed real landscape differences: the colonial stereotype of a simple tribal people who needed protection against exploitation thus had a historical basis (Damodaran, , p. 44). Others like Devalle, Skaria and Guha (Devalle, ; Guha, ; Skaria, ), emphasize the hitherto fluid and interconnected relationships between social groups in the pre‐colonial and early colonial period which were erased with the idea of tribe.…”

“…Damodaran links with the adivasi the idea of indigeneity. Recognizing this link is critical at a moment when “the marginalisation and proletarianisation of many forest‐based communities and the demise of their traditional livelihood gains pace all over the world” (Damodaran, , p. 162). On them has been wrought, argue Padel and Das, a “cultural genocide” or “the killing of people's culture by uprooting them from their ancestral lands” (Padel, , p. 334).…”

The Dark Side of Indigeneity?: Indigenous People, Rights and Development in India

“…8 Others, such as Vinita Damodaran, would like to pursue more clearly the agency of Indians in colonial constructions of the tribe than Guha allows. 9 Nevertheless, one conclusion is that members of the Indian elite and colonial administrator-anthropologists together created a stereotype of the forest folk as living in a timeless harmony with nature, disturbed only in recent times by the market and the state -an image that has a powerful effect on society and politics in India today. In this argument, twentieth-century isolation of 'remote jungle tribes' is not some survival of a remote epoch but a product of the 'tribes of mind' of both colonial rulers and Indian elites.…”

Adivasis in and Against the State

“…The Fifth and Sixth Schedules-schedules are basically lists in the Constitution that categorize and tabulate bureaucratic activity and policy of the Government-provide an array of protective legislation, special entitlements and reservations for Adivasis. For a selection of perspectives on the issue of indigeneity in the Indian context, see Bétéille 1986;Singh 1986;Prasad 2003;Guha 1999;Ratnagar 2003;Bates 1995;Damodaran 2006;and Shah 2007. 2.…”