Indigeneity and violence: the Adivasi experience in eastern India

This paper aims to unravel the changing forms of violence encountered by the ‘tribal’ or Adivasi communities of eastern India from the nineteenth century till the present times. The very identification of particular communities as ‘tribes’ and the imposition of attributes of tribalism, such as primitivity, and childlike innocence, by British colonial writers constituted an epistemic violence, the psychological impact of which persists to this day. The resultant infantilizing of Adivasis divested them of their own agency and effectively transformed their representation from perpetrators to victims of violence, oppression and displacement. After Independence, this notion of victimhood was appropriated both by the post-colonial state which reserved for itself the role of the redeemer/ provider, as well as by Adivasi communities who thus sought to reshape their community identity in their fight for indigenous rights. However, Adivasis continue to suffer from an easy misrepresentation of their role and status, figuring very often as dangerous insurgents who threaten national security or as backward minorities whose survival hinders development. This paper demonstrates the increasing exposure of Adivasi communities to ‘slow violence’ and to ‘everyday forms of violence’ whereby they are progressively dispossessed of their livelihood and cultural heritage.