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ABSTRACT
In the context of the changing nature of India's relationship with her tribal or Adivasi population, this paper seeks to analyze the construction 'tribes' in colonial India and how these came to influence contemporary India's understandings of the category. Arguing that state policies are actuated by myriad ways in which target populations are defined, conceptualized and represented, this paper seeks to trace the contentious categorizations and multiple identities that have been imagined for, thrust upon and assumed by such communities since colonial times. It thus critically explores and engages with a range of ideologies that informed and shaped independent India's tribal policies.
Key words: Adivasi, Scheduled Tribes, British colonialism, post-colonial India
INTRODUCTION
Smacking of evolutionist notions and long discarded in other parts of the decolonized world, the problematic category 'tribe' is still retained and enjoys acceptability in the Indian social and political discourse. Conceived of in colonial times, the notion of 'tribe' as the 'primitive other' indicates a people distinct from 'mainstream' Hindu and Muslim population, and characterized by egalitarianism, a primitive subsistence economy, radicality, autonomy and isolation - in other words, the marginalized and politically excluded 'others' of the modern.1 While today the term 'tribe' is increasingly replaced by expressions such as: Adivasi, Scheduled Tribe, Indigenous People,2 the idea of exceptionalism has strengthened and often erases the heterogeneity of their historical experiences - even though recent research highlights the historical linkages and relationships involving these communities with other groups.
The idea of exceptionalism also endorsed the notion that 'tribes' as a distinct - and vulnerable - segment of the Indian population required the state's protection through special legislations. Introduced by the British colonial state, and both challenged and corroborated by opposing interest groups over the years, such legislations were reiterated in the constitutional provisions in post-Independence India. Debates on tribal/Adivasi subjectivity have been resurrected today in the context of the state's development agenda. While state policies are framed on the basis of certain assumptions and understandings of such communities, the state also actively seeks to popularize and push its own characterization of different groups and their relationships with others. These multiple understandings have helped to shape the diverse identities and contentious categorizations that have been thrust upon, as well as assumed by...