‘Scheduled Tribe Dalit’ and the Recognition of Tribal Casteism

Abstract

While the term ‘tribalism’ in the West draws from outmoded anthropological theory to describe the hardening of partisan group boundaries, in Himachal Pradesh it describes the contested recognition of caste heterogeneity within Scheduled Tribes (ST). Based on 15 months of fieldwork among Gaddis, this article seeks to understand the intersectionality of low-caste groups embedded within tribal formations, partially assimilated, unevenly accepted and without legal protections afforded to other marginalised communities. I argue that recognising tribal casteism is the first step to theorise tribal multiculturalism and the ever-contested broadening of communal boundaries. By tracking the discourse of ‘Scheduled Tribe Dalit’ (STD) in the Western Himalayas, this article analyses the looping effect between emic belonging and the role of state ethnology in incentivising difference.

Ghar ki tension: domesticity and distress in India's aspiring middle class

“…The Gaddi are a formerly agro‐pastoralist, Hindu Shaivite community who live primarily in the mountainous districts of Chamba and Kangra in Himachal Pradesh. ‘Gaddi’ is a vexed identity category defined variably on caste, tribal, livelihood, and linguistic lines (Christopher 2020; Kapila 2008). In its broadest form, to be a Gaddi is to speak gaddi bolle .…”

Kamzori: Aging, Care, and Alienation in the Post‐pastoral Himalaya

“…By the time of Independence in 1947, the threat to the agro–pastoral economy intensified as slate mining, the lure of state‐provided education, and the dramatic increase in population and habitation in the Kangra valley restricted the land available for either pastoralism or agriculture. Divisions between caste groups within the tribe—high‐caste Gaddi Brahmins, Kshyatria Rajputs, Ranas and Thakurs, and low‐caste Halis, Badis and Sipis—were intensified by endogamous marriage, unequal access to land, and labor opportunities (Christopher 2020; Kapila 2008). These structural shifts in political and domestic economy feature heavily in the personal biographies of elderly Gaddi people.…”

“…Families became nuclearized, defined by blood rather than care, animated by a more rigid division between male as breadwinner and woman as housewife (Kapila 2003). The very question of who counts as a Gaddi was politicized by the access to reservations, where scheduled tribal status was awarded in Kangra in 2002 only to Gaddi Rajput, Thakur, and Brahmin castes and excluded low‐caste Hali (Badi) and Sipi castes, based on their unique lifestyle and shepherding livelihood at the very moment that it was being lost (Christopher 2020; Kapila 2008).…”

Health equity & tribal populations: Challenges & way forward

“…There are also issues of the same community being listed as SC and ST in different parts of the same State. The process of assimilation and acceptance, renders them without any legal or constitutional safeguards like other marginalized communities 22 , affecting their access to healthcare, civic amenities and school enrolment.…”