The politics of marginality and the construction of indigeneity in Chotanagpur

Damodaran, Vinita

doi:10.1080/13688790600657843

Cited by 18 publications

(10 citation statements)

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“…This is not only historically wrong, but is also a colonial idea in itself. Dalton's colonial legacy is continued in the works of postcolonial historians such as Damodaran (2006aDamodaran ( , 2006b, and is reflected in the postcolonial development planning for tribals in India, which ensures that they continue to suffer from marginalization, exploitation and inequality through the politics of co-option and domination. This historiographical construction creates a threat to tribal identities.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is important to understand the idea of the historical construction of identities revealing the ruling class's manipulation and its divisive ideas on identity formation. The permeation of the capitalist logics in identity formation can be found in the works of Dalton (1872) and Damodaran (2006aDamodaran ( , 2006b). 3 These works require a critical interrogation of their conceptualization of tribal identity, which is based on a territoriality that carries a colonial legacy that serves contemporary global capitalist interests, as well as the interests of the Indian political, social, economic and cultural elites.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“… 1. This paper contributes to ongoing debates on tribal identities in India. In particular, it is a response to the work of Prof. Vinita Damodaran, especially her two articles on the inadvertent construction of tribal identity (2006a, b). The work of Prof. Damodaran is not the result of an individual researcher’s intent to historicize tribal identity based on land and territory, but an extension of the Oxbridge school of thought that constructs history to justify many aspects of colonial rule in postcolonial contexts.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Colonial World of Postcolonial Historians: Reification, Theoreticism, and the Neoliberal Reinvention of Tribal Identity in India

Nayak

2020

Journal of Asian and African Studies

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This article develops a critical analysis of the colonial world of the postcolonial historians whose works inadvertently contribute to the process of reconstituting the colonial construction of tribal identities in neoliberal India. The monolithic and colonial construction of tribal identities in postcolonial India reinforces and preserves tribal identities along the lines of the colonial methods of identity formation based on territorialization. The article highlights the problematic features of the territorialization and deterritorialization of tribal identities and their reconstitution. Territorial-based identity formation is now being used and sustained by the neoliberal political and economic ruling and non-ruling elites in order to exploit tribal communities. The existence of upper-caste and class-based Hindu social order is concomitant with a social hierarchy based on the exploitation of tribal communities in India. This article locates the colonial and neoliberal capitalist logic of identity formation that serves elites, and helps to advance the neoliberal political-economic project of the Hindu right. A postmodern logic of identity formation facilitates the expansion of the neoliberal capitalist economy with the process of Hinduization. It contributes to identity formations that divide the people on territorial grounds. The article is divided into four parts. The first outlines the philosophical basis of identity formation and its links with neoliberalism; the second deals with identity formation based on territory; part three documents the debates on tribal identity formation in postcolonial India; and the final part elucidates the capitalist logic inherent in territorial-based identity formations.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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confidence: 99%

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Colonial World of Postcolonial Historians: Reification, Theoreticism, and the Neoliberal Reinvention of Tribal Identity in India

Nayak

2020

Journal of Asian and African Studies

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“…Foremost amongst the many tribal political organizations that emerged in the 1960s and 1970s was the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) that was hailed as India's ‘first Red Green Movement’ for bringing the interests of trade unions and adivasis together (Omvedt, 1993). Eventually, the statehood movement and the JMM, which had to appeal to a broader coalition of tribals and non‐tribal residents ( moolvasis ) to preserve its electoral base, had to create a new political discourse around regionalism instead of ethnicity (Damodaran, 2006; Tillin, 2013).…”

Section: The Extractive Regimes Of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarhmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Political Construction of Extractive Regimes in Two Newly Created Indian States: A Comparative Analysis of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh

Adhikari¹,

Chhotray²

2020

Development and Change

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This article presents a multidimensional account of the politics of resource extraction in two subnational regions of India in response to the question: what are the political conditions that facilitate extraction? Emerging from the same moment of state creation in 2000, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh are adjacent mineral-rich states with similar demographic profiles and comparable levels of economic development. The authors argue that despite these similarities and India's highly centralized legislative framework for natural resource governance, the two states have developed distinctive 'extractive regimes' in the years since statehood, which contrast in important ways across three dimensions: political organization and history, institutional effectiveness, and the nature and management of social resistance. The article offers the first in-depth, comparative account of how subnational territorial reorganization in India acts as a critical juncture enabling the formation of extractive regimes, which have also converged in important ways in recent years.1. Adivasis refer to the indigenous peoples of India, who are also broadly described as tribal and categorized as the Scheduled Tribes within the Constitution. We will use 'adivasi' and 'tribal' interchangeably in this article. Development and Change 51(3): 843-873.Scholars writing on the politics of extraction have challenged the hegemony of the 'resource curse' paradigm (Ross, 2015) in a number of ways. This 2. The Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2005 allows citizens to file information requests on aspects of governance, which the state is legally bound to respond to.

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“…Liberalism is widely regarded as a modern intellectual tradition that defends the rights and freedoms of autonomous individuals. Yet, in both colonial and postcolonial contexts, liberal theorists and policymakers have struggled to defend the rights and freedoms of political subjects whom they regard as “primitive,” “backward,” or in more politically‐correct terms, “indigenous” (Damodaran ; Jung ; Pagden ; Viswanathan ). Liberalism thus recurrently encounters its primitive other, a face‐off that gives rise to a peculiar set of dilemmas and contradictions for political theory, policy, and practice in colonial and postcolonial contexts (Banerjee ; Ghosh ; Ivison ; Ivison, Patton, & Sanders ).…”

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confidence: 99%

Liberalism and Its Other: The Politics of Primitivism in Colonial and Postcolonial Indian Law

Chandra¹

2013

Law Soc Rev

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Liberalism is widely regarded as a modern intellectual tradition that defends the rights and freedoms of autonomous individuals. Yet, in both colonial and postcolonial contexts, liberal theorists and lawmakers have struggled to defend the rights and freedoms of political subjects whom they regard as “primitive,” “backward,” or “indigenous.” Liberalism thus recurrently encounters its primitive other, a face‐off that gives rise to a peculiar set of dilemmas and contradictions for political theory and law. In what ways can postcolonial law rid itself of its colonial baggage? How can the ideal of universal liberal citizenship overcome paternalistic notions of protection? How might “primitive” subjects become full and equal citizens in postcolonial societies? To explore these dilemmas and contradictions, I study the intellectual trajectory of “primitivism” in India from the construction of so‐called tribal areas in the 1870s to legal debates and official reports on tribal rights in contemporary India. Through a close reading of these legal provisions for tribal peoples and places, I explore the continuing tension between the constitutional ideal of liberal citizenship and the disturbing reality of tribal subjecthood produced by colonial and postcolonial Indian states.

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The politics of marginality and the construction of indigeneity in Chotanagpur

Cited by 18 publications

References 3 publications

Colonial World of Postcolonial Historians: Reification, Theoreticism, and the Neoliberal Reinvention of Tribal Identity in India

Colonial World of Postcolonial Historians: Reification, Theoreticism, and the Neoliberal Reinvention of Tribal Identity in India

The Political Construction of Extractive Regimes in Two Newly Created Indian States: A Comparative Analysis of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh

Liberalism and Its Other: The Politics of Primitivism in Colonial and Postcolonial Indian Law

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