3 Review(s)

The rich life-worlds of Adivasis living in the shadows of the state in the forests and hills of eastern India are often lost in the activism of well-meaning indigenous rights and development activists. Drawing on a decade of ethnographic research in Jharkhand, Alpa Shah follows the everyday lives of some of the poorest Adivasis as they chase away protected wild elephants, try to cut down the forests they allegedly live in harmony with, maintain a healthy skepticism about the revival of indigenous governance systems, escape village life as seasonal casual migrant labour to brick factories and seek to avoid the initial spread of an armed revolution of Maoist guerrillas who claim to represent them. Juxtaposing these experiences with the accounts of village elites and urban activists, Shah reveals a class dimension to indigenous-rights activism, one easily forgotten in the culture-based identity politics that the movement produces. About the Author Alpa Shah teaches anthropology at the London School of Economics and Political Science.