Paper short abstract:

Indigenous Peoples can resist extractivist development from populist regimes around the world. This article analyses the indigenous resistance in the tribal state of Jharkhand, India, where despite having a majority in the 2014 state elections, the BJP could not change crucial land laws.

Paper long abstract:

The twenty-first century is marked with immense global warming and climate change. This can be seen as an anthropogenic crises, the result of almost three centuries of colonisation, industrialisation, and extractive scientific development. This has long-term, devastating consequences for the planet. This gets further accentuated with the rise of right-wing, conservative leaders and regimes, whose sole goal seems to be to harness more fossil fuel-led development projects with investments worth millions without paying any heed to sustainable alternatives. If this trend continues and is not paid heed to, then global competition for resources in response to environmental and climate crises is likely to intensify in the future. These populists often seek unchecked political power through emotional appeals to the defense of “the people”, land, and territory against an external enemy. This external enemy is often alternately framed in terms of ethnicity, race, class, minority status, citizenship, or otherwise. Yet there are several indigenous peoples around the world who resist such extractivist development. This article looks into indigenous resistance in the tribal state of Jharkhand in India. Despite winning a majority in the tribal state of Jharkhand in the 2014 elections, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) could not amend some critical and historical land laws that have been designed to protect tribal land from usurpation. This article offers an analysis as to how tribal/indigenous peoples’ resisted a major populist force like the BJP in the state of Jharkhand.