Short Abstract:

In this session, we privilege the voices of the Adivasi peoples. Co-created with Adivasi scholars and organisers (TBC), this session will feature short presentations from each speaker – traversing grassroots movements and community-led projects for well-being, development, and justice. A panel discussion will follow, then a closing reflective session inclusive of all attendees’ voices.

Long Abstract:

The concept of “voice” is central to much of Amartya Sen’s work (see, for instance, Sen and Drèze 2002). A central feature of Sen’s articulation of the capability approach (CA) is his refusal to develop a general list of capabilities based on his commitment to the agency of communities to do so – in which a commitment to the voices of communities for determining what they have reason to value is critical. Additionally, Sen’s work on the idea of democracy as public reasoning gives significance to the voices of dissent that negotiate barriers of caste, class and gender (Sen 2005). He writes, “The right to comprehensive participation in democratic politics can be the basis of social and political use of ‘voice’ – through arguments and agitations – to advance the cause of equality in different spheres of life” (Sen 2005, 36).

But what limits are there to enabling and empowering the voices of individuals and communities in these ways on the ground? And what barriers might there be that prevent us from hearing those voices? More specifically, what are the epistemic and ontological barriers? And what “infrastructures” are required to remove them?

The concept of “voice” is also central to the culture-centred approach (CCA) pioneered by Mohan J. Dutta. Drawing upon the work in subaltern studies, which notes the impossibilities of listening to subaltern voices (Spivak 1988), the CCA seeks to build “voice infrastructures” through the co-constructive participation of subaltern and marginalised communities. The contribution of the CCA to the study of voices of dissent and resistance is the foregrounding of listening – specifically, listening to voices of resistance and fostering spaces for recognition, representation, and meaning-making, which in turn offers alternative rationalities for organising socio-political and economic spaces.

In this session, we privilege the voices of the Adivasi peoples. The panel will be co-created with Adivasi scholars and organisers (TBC). Beginning with short presentations from each speaker, this session will traverse grassroots movements and community-led projects for well-being, development, and justice. These short presentations will be followed by a facilitated panel discussion between the speakers on further related themes. Finally, a short reflective session inclusive of all the voices of those in attendance will complete the session.

These three interconnected mini-sessions provide space for reimagining development from the diverse perspectives and voices of Adivasi. It creates opportunities for cross-cultural understanding and learning through care-centred engagement. Importantly, this session provides HDCA participants with insights into the engaged and embodied commitment of the CCA pioneered by Mohan J. Dutta – privileging listening and the co-creation of knowledge for and with communities themselves.

More than this, the session begins a conversation about the way that “voice infrastructures” can, at least in part, be understood as not only requiring particular “capabilities” but also capabilities that can only be built and enacted through relationships. As such, this session presents an opportunity for participants to reflect on how such processes resonate with or further inform the capability approach and its application – offering insights at the theoretical, methodological, and policy levels of the CA.

Finally, one broader goal is to foster a space in the context of the HDCA conference for indigenous peoples from Aotearoa New Zealand and elsewhere to listen to and connect with Adivasi voices of resistance across the various sites of social change. In so doing, we aim to note the contribution that indigenous voices could make to the way development is framed and articulated by providing space for these voices to be listened to and heard.

Overview of the presentation (TBC):

Pankaj Baskey (TBC) is a community researcher with CARE and a school teacher in the Santhali language medium of instruction. Baskey works with Adivasi youth on youth-led education for democratic participation. As an educator, he focuses on the role of intergenerational learning of cultural practices of healing, art, performance, and play. He explores the strategies for building and sustaining community-owned spaces of pedagogy.

Assistant Professor Rabin Mandi (TBC) works in the Department of Zoology at the University of Kalyani in West Bengal. In the backdrop of indigenous resistance to police atrocities, state-sponsored corporate land grabs, and everyday experiences of indignity in Jangalmahal, West Bengal, a culture-centred project by Dutta, Baskey, Mandi, and others seeks to co-create community-owned voice infrastructures for peoples’ participation in democracy.

Associate Professor Maroona Murmu (TBC) teaches in the Department of History at Jadavpur University, Kolkata. As a historian, Murmu directs her interests towards the representation of the social life of women and the construction of female personhood by closely examining the writings of nineteenth-century Bengali women. She explores the intersections of class, caste, gender, language, and religion in these works to rectify the frequently essentialist conceptions of women’s writing. Alongside her academic work, Murmu actively participates in civil society movements, particularly in struggles against casteism. When the monocrop region in Hingalganj in the Subderban was devastated by floods, Murmu worked alongside Dalit and Adivasi women in 2018 to create economically sustainable opportunities for families.

Following the short presentations will be a facilitated discussion with the panellists on topics connected with the conference theme of “Crises, Capabilities and Commitment”. More specifically, the panel will explore rural democracy, participatory development and indigenous resistance. We will end with a short reflective session bringing in voices from the audience in attendance.