Contribution short abstract:

Analysing the regional dynamics of the indigeneity concept within and across Adivasi community organising, this paper un-commons and disaggregates the Adivasi identity category, focussing on communication, representation, and practices of recognition in Central and South-East India.

Contribution long abstract:

This paper examines the multiple uses of the term indigeneity mobilized in cultural productions and representations in the South and Central Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, based on extended participatory fieldwork, online research, and ongoing social media connectivity. By investigating lines of communication and political organization between Adivasi groups, I offer an analysis of the multi-dimensional uses to which the indigeneity concept is put. Within a context of rapid and uneven economic transitions and sharp contrasts in the developmental histories of respective regions of the Central-Eastern ‘tribal belt’ of India, scholars observe continuity in the frameworks of oppositional politics that emerge. Unifying themes include land alienation, cultural marginalisation, detribalisation and assimilation. These connect to global discourses of indigeneity, yet the indigeneity concept is selectively and unevenly mobilised in Adivasi communication and self-representation. Through this paper I investigate what is at stake in local understandings of indigeneity; in articulating demands for justice, and representing themselves as distinct communities, how is indigeneity differentially translated and applied across Adivasi settings? Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and contemporary media publications from Adivasi cultural producers, the paper registers fine-grained diversity in how the terms of discourse are applied, and analyses this within the context of class, linguistic and regional distinctions. Amidst co-opted visions of decoloniality and indigeneity, I bring together literature on recognition, caste, and Adivasi studies to argue for a regionally disaggregated materialist understanding of how the indigeneity concept is used.