About the book
This volume presents an overview of the relationship between the state, law, and Adivasis that have experienced a profound political shift due to privatization of natural resources. It discusses the role of the corporates and its impact on livelihoods of the Adivasis in India.
For the Indian state, a significant challenge is to establish a new normative framework for indigenous autonomy based on the values of equality and sustainability. This calls for recognition of the right to self-determination and exercise of collective rights of the Adivasis.
The chapters in this volume examine:
• ‘Exclusion’ as a useful framework for analyzing the various axes of inequality that affect the Adivasi communities
• How state, development, and Adivasi politics play out in entangled ways in the social, political and legal domains
• The interplay of and the deep tension between the promise of legal protection and the realities of inadequate implementation.
Table of Contents
List of Abbreviations
Acknowledgements
Introduction: The Rights of Adivasi—Historical Predicaments and Contemporary Horizons Antje Linkenbach and Vidhu Verma
PART I: Conceptual and Ethical Questions
Development Hubris and the Dubious Recognition of the Environment and Indigenous Resource Rights in Indian Politics Antje Linkenbach
Adivasi and Natural Resources: Self-ownership, Dispossession, and Self-determination Vidhu Verma
Adivasi Economics and Investment-forced Displacement Felix Padel
PART II: Legal Perspectives and the Role of the Judiciary
Constitution as Commons, Spatial Justice, and Estrangements in Adivasi India: The Continuing Legacy of Three Legal Cases Kalpana Kannabiran
Judiciary and Tribal Rights in India: Shifting Terrains of Judicial Pronouncements Jagannath Ambagudia
PART III: The Realities of Legal Protection of Indigenous Resource Rights
Mining and Dispossession: Exploring the Exclusion of the Tribals in Keonjhar District in Odisha Seema Mallik
Water as Resource: Social Differentiation, Reform, and Water Users Associations in Western India Suhas Bhasme
Land is Our Ancestor: Gender, Land Acquisition, and the Nagri Movement in Jharkhand Rahul Ranjan
Changing Land Rights in the Khasi Hills of Meghalaya: A Gendered Approach Kavita N. Soreide
About the Editors and Contributors
Index
Editors
Antje Linkenbach, Senior Fellow, Max Weber Centre for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies, University of Erfurt, Germany; Adjunct Professor, University of Heidelberg, Germany.
Vidhu Verma, Professor, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.
