Land, Identity, and Autonomy: Emotions and Resistance in the Pathalgadi Movement, India

In the Anthropocene, rogue forms of capitalist exploitation have degraded the environment severely-often at the cost of resource-rich but socio-economically marginalized tracts, especially those dominated by tribal populations. Movements rooted in their socio-cultural contexts have tried to conflate political and economic rights with the right to protect tribal identity. For these groups, land is central not only to economic survival but also to cultural and political resilience.

The Pathalgadi movement in Jharkhand, India, exemplifies how tribal groups utilize strategic essentialism to assert their identity, resist state control, and pursue autonomy. To comprehend this collective resistance formed by the movement, this paper explores the potential role emotions could play. In this regard, particularly focusing on how emotions such as anger and fear drive mobilization.

The initial mobilization fueled by anger over violations of constitutional rights, capitalist exploitation, and land dispossession continues to strongly resonate in the community’s collective pain and aspirations. Beyond demands for self-autonomy and environmental justice, protecting their land and resources is at the heart of the movement.

Based on ethnographic approach, this study bases its exploration of emotions shaping collective action in the movement on qualitative narratives from movement leaders and villagers. The study therefore shows how emotion complements political and economic struggles and thus situates tribal resistance within a broader context of material survival and environmental justice.

Tribal identity politics are not about just the better preservation of culture; they involve material contending for the very existence of tribal people. Emotions are what shape collective resistance against environmental destruction and capitalist expansion in the names of fear, solidarity, and anger. The Pathalgadi movement’s call for sustainable self-autonomy enacts emotions and uses strategic essentialism against encroachment, a potent response specifically in the Anthropocene.