Sammanfattning

The adivasi population represents a special case in India's new land wars. Strong individual and community rights to agricultural and forest lands have been enacted for this group based on notions of adivasi identities as primeval, but without linking these to economic and political influence. This article interrogates the adivasi land question seen through a caste lens. It does so via case studies in two states to understand the ways in which adivasi identity can be mobilised for its instrumental value and used to demand land rights. In Andhra Pradesh, the Supreme Court's Samatha Judgement has prevented virtually all private mining activities. In Jharkhand, however, similar legislation is seen to be trumped by the national Coal Bearing Areas Act, as well as by former and current land acquisition acts that allow industrial land claims to take precedence over identity-based ones. Available evidence indicates the challenges involved in bringing support for land rights that are premised on a supposedly unchanging adivasi identity when these rights go against dominant interests. This circumstance serves to highlight the possibilities present in caste analysis to understand the plight of adivasis, despite their usually distinct treatment in scholarly analyses.

Nyckelord

Adivasi; land rights; caste; identity politics; indigeneity; sub-national regions

Publicerad i

Journal of Contemporary Asia
2020, Volym: 50, nummer: 5, sidor: 831-847

SLU författare

• Oskarsson, Patrik

  • Institutionen för stad och land, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

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UKÄ forskningsämne

Övrig annan samhällsvetenskap
Kulturgeografi
Socialantropologi


Publikationens identifierare

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2019.1656277

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/101620