The paradox of indigeneity

Sharma, Ashmita; Khan, Saqib Ullah

doi:10.1177/0069966718761746

Contributions to Indian Sociology

2018

DOI: 10.1177/0069966718761746

|View full text |Cite

The paradox of indigeneity

Ashmita Sharma

Saqib Ullah Khan

Abstract: This article, based on a study conducted in a tea plantation of Upper Assam, documents and analyses the struggle for Scheduled Tribe (ST) status by the Adivasis in Assam, which is linked to a larger demand for indigeneity and tribal recognition in the state and in the Northeast. It examines the nature of this struggle in recent times through both its contestations of indigeneity and claims upon citizenship by drawing on personal narratives and interviews with activists and workers of Adivasi students’ organisa… Show more

Help me understand this report

Search citation statements

Order By: Relevance

Paper Sections

Select...

Citation Types

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Year Published

2021

2023

Publication Types

Select...

Article4

Relationship

Self Cite1

Independent3

Authors

Journals

Cited by 4 publications

References 6 publications

(13 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

A journey beyond colonial history: coolies in the making of an ‘adivasi identity’ in Assam

Sumesh

Gogoi

2021

Labor History

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The 'tea tribes' in Assam have a unique socio-cultural history. They were the prime labour force of tea plantations in colonial Assam. Originally, they were migrants brought in by British tea planters in different phases during the eighteenth to mid-nineteenth centuries from different parts of India. Colonial engagements with these labourers in tea gardens were akin to slavery. Construction of the 'coolies' community in colonial India had broader implications for the community in post-colonial India. Constitutional provisions and state mechanisms to uplift the community from the margins have never borne fruits on the ground. This underdevelopment, coupled with the colonial legacy of an 'outsider within', catalysed the larger 'Adivasi consciousness' among the tea tribes in Assam. In this article, we argue that attributing every problem faced by tea tribes to the colonial system is an elitist attempt to undermine the role of the post-colonial state and society in excluding and reproducing these community as the 'other' in the wider social structure. Seven decades of post-colonial experience have not changed the sociabilities of these tea tribes who still live in the margins of Assam's social landscape, causing them to unify within the 'Adivasi' consciousness.

show abstract

A journey beyond colonial history: coolies in the making of an ‘adivasi identity’ in Assam

Sumesh

Gogoi

2021

Labor History

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Beyond “Enclaves”: Postcolonial Labor Mobility to and from Assam Tea Plantations

Wolf

2022

Anthropology of Work Review

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Labor mobility to and from tea plantations in India has been treated as an exception. Plantations continue to be imagined as unaltered enclaves with an immobile, bonded, or fixed labor force as their key feature. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in India, this article investigates forms of labor mobility to and from Assam tea plantations. While tea labor is not spatially immobile, I argue that spatial mobility does not necessarily lead to upward social mobility. Based on this observation, I reconsider the plantation in the twenty-first century in two ways: first, plantations are permeable and transforming spaces, due to ongoing labor mobility and evolving changes in the political economy of Assam tea production; second, certain forms of inequality and injustice attributed to plantation economies need to be located beyond the Plantationocene.

show abstract

We Are Just Mazdoors! A Decolonial Ethnographic Account of Health Inequalities, and Inequities Among Tea Garden Laborers in Assam, India

Gogoi

Sumesh

2023

New Solut

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article investigates the lived experiences of health inequalities and inequities among tea garden laborers in Assam, India. By employing decolonial ethnographic research, this study explored long-standing health inequalities and inequities in the tea industry and workers’ illnesses and injuries due to inadequate occupational, environmental, and health care policies. Neither the state nor the management of the tea garden, according to the interviews, has taken the essential actions to safeguard the health and safety of the workers in tea gardens either during the pandemic or at any other time. Instead, hearing gaalis (verbal abuses) from babus (the tea garden managers) is a part of their everyday life. We argue that even after 7 decades of post-colonial rule, tea garden workers are subject to a ghettoized economy characterized by closure and control. Thus, we need to reexamine how the tea industry is structured in order to rectify existing health inequities.

show abstract

scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.

Contact Info

hi@scite.ai

10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614

Henderson, NV 89052, USA

Blog Terms and Conditions API Terms Privacy Policy Contact Cookie Preferences Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Made with 💙 for researchers

Part of the Research Solutions Family.

The paradox of indigeneity

Cited by 4 publications

References 6 publications

A journey beyond colonial history: coolies in the making of an ‘adivasi identity’ in Assam

A journey beyond colonial history: coolies in the making of an ‘adivasi identity’ in Assam

Beyond “Enclaves”: Postcolonial Labor Mobility to and from Assam Tea Plantations

We Are Just Mazdoors! A Decolonial Ethnographic Account of Health Inequalities, and Inequities Among Tea Garden Laborers in Assam, India

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About