Rethinking Tribe in Indian Context: Realities, Issues & Challenges

Book Details

• Publisher: Rawat Publications

• Author: Bidhan Kanti Das

• Binding: Hardcover

• ISBN: 9788131608173

• Pages: 244 pages

• Release Date: 01-01-2017

• Languages: English

• Package Dimensions: 10.5 x 6.9 x 2.5 inches

About the Book
The general understanding of tribes in India is often unclear, biased, and at times, overly simplistic. Tribes are commonly associated with marginalized, disadvantaged, or deprived groups. With rapid changes in the so-called 'development' landscape since independence, it has become essential to re-examine and reassess the status of tribes in India. This book aims to contextualize tribal formation by analyzing geographic location, historical perspective, ethnicity-linked development and displacement, administrative categorization, identity politics, economic priorities, and growing political consciousness.

Tribes in India are not a monolithic group; each has its unique challenges and characteristics. This volume emphasizes the need to rethink the one-sided view of tribes that often revolves around social exclusion and inclusion. The book critiques this simplistic view, which is often propagated by both academic theorists and those in governance.

By critically engaging with the process of tribal formation and examining current issues faced by tribes in various contexts across India, this volume offers insights into a wide range of challenges, such as tribal identity, social inequality, politics, forest policies, and livelihood concerns. It also presents the role of tribal autonomy and self-government, and discusses tribal entrepreneurship.

This work is valuable for tribal activists, policy makers, and a broad audience including researchers and students from anthropology, sociology, political science, economics, tribal studies, and social work. It is a significant contribution to tribal studies, offering perspectives beyond the typical inclusion-exclusion debate.

Contents

1. Introduction – Rajat Kanti Das and Bidhan Kanti Das

2. Contextualising Indian Tribes – Rajat Kanti Das

3. Conceptualising the Context – Samir Kumar Das

4. Application and Distortion of Indigeneity as an Expression of Tribe – Rajat Kanti Das

5. On the Question of Inequality in Tribal Social Formation – Rajatsubhra Mukhopadhyay

6. Politics of Identity and Growing Tribalism in the Darjeeling Hills – Swatasiddha Sarkar

7. The Teesta Warriors – Jayanta Madhab Tamuly

8. The Need for Promoting Indigenous Indicators to Tribal Development – Arun D. Paul

9. Towards Demarginalisation of the Lodhas in West Bengal – Santanu Panda and Abhijit Guha

10. Forest Policies and Tribal Livelihood – Pradeep Kumar Mishra

11. Making Forest Dwellers Deprived – Bidhan Kanti Das

12. Tribe, Political Party and Local Self-Government – Dayabati Roy

13. Conceptualising Tribal Autonomous Rule in Tripura – Dipannita Chakraborty

14. Salvaging a Common Descent and Lineage Between an Ex-Criminal Tribe of India and the Present-Day Gypsies of Europe – Subir Rana

15. Tribal Entrepreneurial Growth – Rajanita Das Purkayastha

About the Author / Editor
Bidhan Kanti Das is an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK). He has worked as a Protected Area Sociologist at Buxa Tiger Reserve, West Bengal, under the World Bank-assisted India Eco-Development project from 1998 to 2003.
Rajat Kanti Das is a former Professor and UGC Emeritus Fellow at the Department of Anthropology, Vidyasagar University, Medinipur, West Bengal. He has extensive teaching and research experience in the field.