Exploring Indigeneity in South Asia: Contested Representations and Identities

The Special Issue is dedicated to representations of the subjectivities of ‘indigenous’ or ‘tribal’ populations in South Asia who have been perceived for long as cultural exceptions but have attained a new articulated visibility and an amplified political resonance today. How indigeneity has been represented was, and is, instrumental in its construction/constitution. The aim of this Special Issue is to interrogate the diverse objectives, processes and facets of such representations. While representations of indigeneity by state power and mainstream society have limited the agency of various indigenous communities, the latter is now increasingly taking upon itself the task of self-representation. Mainly articulated around expressions of moral and political discontent, such forms of self-representation are, at the same time, making demands for artistic recognition. Today, indigenous/tribal voices resonate across novel and diverse modes of articulation where their perspectives from the margins challenge the centrality of hegemonic knowledge practices and generate new narratives. All of this, furthermore, constitutes a fluid, contested space where the notion of indigeneity is constantly being ‘made’ and ‘unmade’. The Special Issue proposes to interrogate this space to understand better its many dimensions.