Livelihoods and Changing Notions of Sustainability Among the Tribes of Odisha

The paper discusses relations between two backward communities in the Rayagada district in Odisha: tribal Kondhs and Dalits. Both are subject to market entrenchment and commercialisation of resources. Dalits and Kondhs share a complicated bond, entangled by old hierarchies and new intermediary caste groups with commercial interests. The paper analyses these changing associations and their influence on food sovereignty at the local level. As the Kondhs engage with multiple actors and new power dynamics emerge, they refashion their own cultural identity.

The focus is on the impact of these changes on the local food system and customary land patterns of the Kondhs. Capitalist expansion and the emergence of new rural classes have resulted in conflict over scarce resources. As the exchange system turned cash-based, caste hierarchies subverted, with Dalits and sundhis (OBCs) taking advantage of the new system and acting as cotton traders’ middlemen. Significantly, Kondhs, though opting for commercial crops, have staunchly preserved their customary food practices and ecosystems. Still, Kondh women’s traditional system of preserving seeds, swidden farming and engagement in local markets endure in the face of economic pressure to participate in commercial farming practices.