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P009


Where To South Asian Indigeneity? Reflecting on the shifting contexts of Adivasi, Dalit, and Indigenous politics in the 2020s 
Convenors:
Philipp Zehmisch (South Asia Institute, Heidelberg)
Éva Rozália Hölzle (Bielefeld University)
Markus Schleiter (University of Tübingen)
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Format:
Workshop
Regional groups:
South Asia

Short Abstract:

Indigenous politics play a significant and affirmative role in support of marginalized communities from colonial times until today. In this panel, we ask how the poly-crises of the 2020s shape South Asian indigenous politics and processes of un/commoning while reflecting on their directional future.

Long Abstract:

Various shifts and disruptions of global and transnational economic flows, new multimodal media environments and the accelerating effects of the Anthropocene have reshaped contemporary political negotiations related to indigeneity in South Asia and beyond. Significant for present-day indigenous politics is the rise of populisms, but also the more exclusive outlook of left-liberal movements and adjacent “culture wars”. Parallel to these wider developments, current academic engagements with South Asian indigenous politics appear to be less intense as compared to two decades ago. Such reshufflings raise several questions regarding the directional future of indigenous politics and related processes of un/commoning as well as the modalities of academic engagement with them.

In this panel, we intend to take stock of the past, assess the present, and explore the future of South Asian indigenous politics. We are especially interested in how particular practices of articulating claims of indigeneity in the various national and subnational contexts in South Asia contest wider socio-political developments and multiple crises unfolding in the present. Does the rise and adjacent fear of populisms correlate with the “cooling down” of academic discourse related to indigeneity? Do new forms of identity politics, and the discourse of decoloniality lead to a strengthening of indigenous voices or rather to a disruption of the engagement by social scientists with such movements? We invite academics, activists and artists to discuss the above issues based on ethnographic case studies, theoretical positionings, historically informed reflections and/or further interventions.


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