Being Adivasi: Existence, Entitlements, Exclusion brings together 11 essays on Adivasi rights, development, governance, identity and representation. In his 2023 review, Avadhoot Dongare values the collection’s range but argues that some contributors leave hard questions unresolved. Its disagreements are part of the book’s point: it offers no single account of Adivasi life.
What is Being Adivasi about?
The collection examines the Adivasi question through essays on constitutional and legal measures, development, land and livelihood, tribal heritage and rights, integration, class and identity politics, customary self-governance, Denotified Tribes, community media and alternative governance. It also considers the silence of popular media on Adivasi issues and ideas of an Indigenous Republic.
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Being Adivasi: Existence, Entitlements, Exclusion (Rethiniing India) | $26.93 | Buy on Amazon |
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Rosie Revere, Engineer: A Picture Book (The Questioneers) | $10.31 | Buy on Amazon |
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Ganesh Devy, who completed the volume as editor, describes its scope in the introduction as including “the question of Adivasis in the context of modern India” and how Adivasis question national ideas of development and understand democracy. The book’s range is a strength, but it means readers encounter distinct arguments rather than a single thesis.
How did the book come together?
Abhay Xaxa had planned to edit the volume, selected contributors and gathered most of the essays. After his death in 2020, the Rethinking India series editors asked Ganesh Devy to complete the project. Xaxa’s poem “I am not Your Data” appears as the book’s epigraph, framing a collection concerned with who gets to describe Adivasi lives and on what terms.
What does the review find persuasive—and unresolved?
Dongare’s assessment is mixed. He welcomes the collection’s sensitivity to varied voices and its broad coverage, but questions whether some essays fully address the problems they identify. His criticism is directed at particular arguments, not at the collection as a unified Adivasi position.
Participation in development
One essay advocates Adivasi participation in mining. Dongare asks what meaningful participation would amount to if communities reject the proposed exchange. The question exposes a tension between treating development as negotiable through participation and challenging the development model itself. The review discusses the Niyamgiri bauxite proposal, protests by the Dongria Kondh community, the Saxena Committee’s advice against the project and its eventual scrapping; this is the review’s secondary account, not a current legal history.
Rank #2
Political categories and customary governance
Dongare questions how an essay on Adivasi politics applies the category “ruling class.” He places that analysis alongside Vincent Ekka’s account of Parha, a traditional governance system among Oraon (Kurux) Adivasis in central India. Ekka presents customary governance as a source of alternative possibilities, while cautioning that such systems are not “foolproof” and may not fit neatly into modern political structures.
Media and the risks of reporting
Shubhranshu Choudhary’s essay discusses CGNet Swara, which the review describes as a mobile-based news service accessible by feature phone. Dongare notes that the security of citizen journalists working in conflict areas needs more discussion. The example raises not only who can share news, but also what risks community reporting can place on its contributors.
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Rank #3
Denotified Tribes and official labels
Ajay Dandekar’s essay examines the history and marginalisation of Denotified Tribes and the role of official and colonial labels. Dongare says these communities have less constitutional protection than some other disadvantaged groups. That is the reviewer’s comparison, not a fresh analysis of current law.
Does the book give one answer to the Adivasi question?
No. The review presents the volume as a polyphony: its essays sometimes point in opposing directions. They differ in whether they emphasize constitutional rights or political economy, integration or autonomy, customary institutions or modern political structures, and participation in development or criticism of its underlying terms. Those contrasts should not be collapsed into a single view attributed to Adivasis as a whole.
Dongare’s closing point is that disagreement does not automatically make the collection incoherent. The divergence can instead prompt readers to attend more carefully to whose perspective is present, what a broad category leaves out, and how communities understand democracy and a good life.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How should readers treat the displacement figure?
The review quotes N.C. Saxena as saying: “Tribals constitute 8 per cent of the [Indian] population but are 55 per cent of the total displaced people in the country.” The figure is reported through Saxena’s essay in the book; the review passage does not identify its underlying dataset. It should therefore be read as a claim quoted in the volume and review, not as an independently verified current statistic.
Best Value
Who may find the collection useful?
Readers looking for a single, definitive account of Adivasi communities may find the book’s divergent essays challenging. It is better approached as a set of perspectives on rights, development, governance, identity and representation, with attention to which contributor is making each argument and which communities or experiences that argument may not cover.
Dongare’s review of the book appeared in Scroll.in on 3 December 2023. Bibliographic information available for a 2021 digital edition lists e-ISBN 978-9-354-92315-9, but that record is not a publisher catalogue; edition and availability should be checked with a bookseller or publisher.
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