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Identity Politics, Adivasi-Dalit Resistance and National Integration: Discourses of Justice, Discrimination and Governance Dilemma in Postcolonial India
Language: English
South Asian states including India are engaged in tackling the issues of legitimacy of the state, self‐determination, and ethnic identities in view of their diverse social, ethnic and religious components, and their respective aspirations.
In India the tribes and ‘lower-castes’, known as ‘scheduled tribes’ and ‘scheduled castes’ in administrative parlance, have followed different strategies in their struggle against social, economic and cultural discrimination, including pursuing ‘transnational advocacy network’ (within UNO and outside) having been betrayed by Indian affirmative action policies. These segments have variously formed political forums to mobilize themselves in electoral politics as political pressure groups. There are groups also using extremism as means of justice as also groups attuned with mainstream neo-liberal discourses.
Identity politics is witnessed with demands of regional autonomy, issues of indigeneity including indigenous -feminism, especially in northeast region where women are fighting against ‘patrilineal’ customs, demands for ‘scheduled’ constitutional category on parts of legitimate groups, immigration issue in frontier regions, and Adivasi-Dalit Movements against persistent underdevelopment, misgovernance, and distrust shape India’s postcolonial challenges for governance and justice.
The aim of this session is to invites paper on themes concerning to the dynamics of identity politics and concerns of Indigenous/ Adivasi and Dalit communities with special reference to discourses of justice, discrimination and governance dilemma in postcolonial India.