History or tradition? Exploring Adivasi pasts in 19th century Jharkhand

Scholars of colonial and post-colonial India have widely agreed that the earliest Indian manifestation of history as a rational-positivist discipline occurred in the nationalist historiography of the late-19th and early-20th centuries. The British colonizers’ use of history as a tool of self-legitimation rested on the stereotypical assumption that India lacked a proper historical consciousness. This should not, however, erase other possible forms of historical memory which existed even in pre-colonial times. By dealing with 19th-century representations of the past centred on the history of villages and clan genealogies, this paper stresses the need to acknowledge oral traditions prevalent among adivasis of Jharkhand as repositories of a distinct historical awareness.