Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses some of the landmark legal battles amongst adivasis over claims to land, laws of inheritance, and contests over electoral seats. In this context, it will analyze the anthropologist Sarat Chandra Roy's texts which shaped legislative and judicial opinion.

Paper long abstract:

By taking up some of the landmark legal battles amongst adivasis over claims to land, laws of inheritance, and contests over electoral seats, this paper will discuss how administrative-legal regimes have led to the making of adivasi identities in colonial and post-colonial times. Such cases point towards the ways in which different groups within the adivasis have sought to negotiate with the state and claim for themselves a 'tribal' identity, excluding others to similar claims in the process. Ultimately, the debates reflect a clash of dissenting voices and raise a fundamental question: who has the authority to speak on the tribal question? In this context, I will analyze some of the writings of the anthropologist Sarat Chandra Roy, whose texts were seminal for legislative and judicial opinion. And yet, Roy's understanding of the 'tribe' shifted as he interacted with different worlds constituted by both adivasis and non-adivasis.