Introduction. Out of hidden India: Adivasi histories, stories, visual arts and performances

This issue of Anglistica AION is dedicated to indigenous India and to some of its forms of emerging subjectivity. After having been studied by ethnoanthropologists as cultural exceptions or worse after having embodied the stereotype of the ‘born offender’ in colonial legislation, Indian tribals are claiming a new articulated visibility and an amplified political resonance. As Rashmi Varma remarks, in post-independence India, tribals are emerging as political protagonists in their own right asking, and in part obtaining, attention and recognition. Unfortunately even in the postcolonial state tribals continue to suffer from an easy mis-representation of their role and status, figuring very often as dangerous insurgents who threaten national security or as backward minorities whose survival hinders development.