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Handbook of Tribal Politics in India, 2021
S u r y a s i k h a P a t h a k * This chapter was previously published in Economic and Political... more S u r y a s i k h a P a t h a k * This chapter was previously published in Economic and Political Weekly, 45(10), 2010, 61-69. 1 The word tribe is used with the understanding that its definition is contested and it does not necessarily denote a fixed social identity. 2 The British encountered two categories of tribes in northeast India: those who lived in hills and those in plains. The concept of plain tribe was coined to sharpen the differentiation. The earliest possible reference was by Ethnographer Endle (1911). The phrase continued to be used in the post-colonial period.
The term "Plains Tribal" was first used by the colonial rulers in Assam to lump together a divers... more The term "Plains Tribal" was first used by the colonial rulers in Assam to lump together a diverse set of people defined in semi-geographical and semi-sociological terms. It was taken up and crafted into an identity in the competitive politics of late colonial Assam by representatives of tribal groups who successfully welded this diverse set into a unified political and social category. This article traces the emergence of the "Plains Tribal" in the political map of Assam and shows how it came to be defined partly in opposition to other competing social categories and partly in terms of internal markers of identity.
Social Change and Development, 2023
Oriental discourses' simplified construction of natives as 'primitives' and 'savage' was further ... more Oriental discourses' simplified construction of natives as 'primitives' and 'savage' was further reified and nuanced with the advent of missionary accounts. These images were further strengthened as missionaries started taking pictures from the foreign fields. The success stories of the foreign field were regularly sent home and those were used to evoke social and financial support for the foreign mission cause. The missionary discourses in the late 19th and early 20th century marked out differences between the new converts and the indigenous population. The impact of mission and the missionaries were measured in terms of 'civilization progresses made by both groups. This contrast was represented in the missionaries' accounts of their work among the heathen population and studies in photographs. These photographs published in mission magazines and from private collections are used as a tool of differentiation, and as sources. These photographs were highlighted as a visual evidence of 'civilized' and 'uncivilized' and 'Christian' and 'heathen' dichotomy. Whereas the indigenous population was largely constructed from earlier and current ethnographic accounts, projected as 'savage', 'headhunting', 'primitive', 'naked' and the new converts were presented as 'civilized', 'educated', 'clean', 'clothed'. It served to make the missionaries' work seem like an adventure, a brave struggle not just on the topographical jungle but also metaphorically the jungle of wild 'unbelievers'. It served to shock and also to move the pity and the piety of the post-industrial west and reaffirm their belief in the superiority and necessity of such works.
Vidyasagar University Journal of History, 2019
The East India Company annexed the Ahom kingdom and this led to the modification of existing rela... more The East India Company annexed the Ahom kingdom and this led to the modification of existing relations between hills and plains and frontier regions. With the EIC flexing its muscles in the region, the dissolution of earlier power structures, which used to arbitrate over disputes previously, saw the rise in conflict over the narrow space of the foothills and the Duars. This period witnessed increase in skirmishes between the hill dwellers and plains settlers over the control of these strategic paths, the Bhutan Duars and EIC interfered in this to establish their authority over the subject population and territory.
Nidan : International Journal for Indian Studies, 2020
India's Northeast region (NER) has been framed politically over the years in myriad ways,... more India's Northeast region (NER) has been framed politically over the years in myriad ways, often as a frontier for resource extraction, or a frontier with strategic boundaries. It has also been perceived as the margins of a pan-Indian civilization, wherein the communities are constructed as the racial 'other'. This construction has prevailed in even the precolonial discourse of difference when Assam was ruled by several dynasties and was a not part of the Mughal map. Colonialism accentuated these polarities through its administrative and ethnographic discourses. Despite being fairly integrated as a part of British India, postcolonial northeast India witnessed growing marginalisation from the centre. Issues of demographic change, resource extraction, governance, sovereignty remained political issues for movements from the region. The region remained as a 'law and order' situation for India. The delegitimization of voices from the Northeast has been a long historical process. The movements against CAA and the entanglements of NRC bring back those issues of 'othering' and 'silencing'.
Explorations , 2021
Many historical studies of the census use the corpus of demographic knowledge as a part of ethnog... more Many historical studies of the census use the corpus of demographic knowledge as a part of ethnographic inquiry. But recent studies have brought into focus the politics of numbers, or the political arithmetic, because unlike in the 19 th century, quantitative approaches are no longer enmeshed in a scientific attitude which is now regarded as naïve empiricism. The census admittedly was a document of great ethnographic value. But the question of numbers also becomes important from the 20 th century onwards. Early colonial censuses were ethnographic classificatory exercises, but such concerns did not begin with the census. These issues and ideas were already a part of the administrative thinking by the 1850s. The census has also been an important historical source as a part of ethnographic inquiry, but it has also become important to inquire into the relationship between quantitative and qualitative definitions of populations. Though census enumeration and its awareness led to certain rigidity in defining collective identities to a considerable degree, it also set into motion controversial mobility of nationalist, ethnic, communal and other identities. This paper attempts to relook at the early censuses and the debates it generated within the purview of identity articulation. The situation in terms of enumeration and classification was complex in Assam, where the diversity of communities combined with remarkable fluidity in demographic structure made it challenging to pin down communities. Within such complexities reified identities took shape and articulated their politics.
Aitihya: The Heritage, 2021
Nidan: International Journal for Indian Studies, 2020
India's Northeast region (NER) has been framed politically over the years in myriad ways, often a... more India's Northeast region (NER) has been framed politically over the years in myriad ways, often as a frontier for resource extraction, or a frontier with strategic boundaries. It has also been perceived as the margins of a pan-Indian civilization, wherein the communities are constructed as the racial 'other'. This construction has prevailed in even the precolonial discourse of difference when Assam was ruled by several dynasties and was a not part of the Mughal map. Colonialism accentuated these polarities through its administrative and ethnographic discourses. Despite being fairly integrated as a part of British India, postcolonial northeast India witnessed growing marginalisation from the centre. Issues of demographic change, resource extraction, governance, sovereignty remained political issues for movements from the region. The region remained as a 'law and order' situation for India. The delegitimization of voices from the Northeast has been a long historical process. The movements against CAA and the entanglements of NRC bring back those issues of 'othering' and 'silencing'.
Converging Spectrum of Anthropology with Emphasis on Assam and Adjoining Areas, 2020
Education of Marginalised Communities, 2016
Economic and Political Weekly, Aug 16, 2012
Ethnicity and identity have been the key issues of mobilisation in all of north-east India. The r... more Ethnicity and identity have been the key issues of mobilisation in all of north-east India. The region has had a long history of being marginalised; its inclusion in the Indian nation is seriously challenged by communities; and identity politics has shaped the politics of resistance. The struggle for power, both political and economic, has thus become bloodied. What lies behind the recent violence in Assam? The failure of the Sixth Schedule to deliver, the contest over land and resources, the lack of development, and the fear of disempowered smaller groups are all tangled in the web of electoral politics of the ruling classes.
Economic and Political Weekly, Mar 6, 2010
book reviews by suryasikha pathak
Handbook of Tribal Politics in India, 2021
S u r y a s i k h a P a t h a k * This chapter was previously published in Economic and Political... more S u r y a s i k h a P a t h a k * This chapter was previously published in Economic and Political Weekly, 45(10), 2010, 61-69. 1 The word tribe is used with the understanding that its definition is contested and it does not necessarily denote a fixed social identity. 2 The British encountered two categories of tribes in northeast India: those who lived in hills and those in plains. The concept of plain tribe was coined to sharpen the differentiation. The earliest possible reference was by Ethnographer Endle (1911). The phrase continued to be used in the post-colonial period.
The term "Plains Tribal" was first used by the colonial rulers in Assam to lump together a divers... more The term "Plains Tribal" was first used by the colonial rulers in Assam to lump together a diverse set of people defined in semi-geographical and semi-sociological terms. It was taken up and crafted into an identity in the competitive politics of late colonial Assam by representatives of tribal groups who successfully welded this diverse set into a unified political and social category. This article traces the emergence of the "Plains Tribal" in the political map of Assam and shows how it came to be defined partly in opposition to other competing social categories and partly in terms of internal markers of identity.
Social Change and Development, 2023
Oriental discourses' simplified construction of natives as 'primitives' and 'savage' was further ... more Oriental discourses' simplified construction of natives as 'primitives' and 'savage' was further reified and nuanced with the advent of missionary accounts. These images were further strengthened as missionaries started taking pictures from the foreign fields. The success stories of the foreign field were regularly sent home and those were used to evoke social and financial support for the foreign mission cause. The missionary discourses in the late 19th and early 20th century marked out differences between the new converts and the indigenous population. The impact of mission and the missionaries were measured in terms of 'civilization progresses made by both groups. This contrast was represented in the missionaries' accounts of their work among the heathen population and studies in photographs. These photographs published in mission magazines and from private collections are used as a tool of differentiation, and as sources. These photographs were highlighted as a visual evidence of 'civilized' and 'uncivilized' and 'Christian' and 'heathen' dichotomy. Whereas the indigenous population was largely constructed from earlier and current ethnographic accounts, projected as 'savage', 'headhunting', 'primitive', 'naked' and the new converts were presented as 'civilized', 'educated', 'clean', 'clothed'. It served to make the missionaries' work seem like an adventure, a brave struggle not just on the topographical jungle but also metaphorically the jungle of wild 'unbelievers'. It served to shock and also to move the pity and the piety of the post-industrial west and reaffirm their belief in the superiority and necessity of such works.
Vidyasagar University Journal of History, 2019
The East India Company annexed the Ahom kingdom and this led to the modification of existing rela... more The East India Company annexed the Ahom kingdom and this led to the modification of existing relations between hills and plains and frontier regions. With the EIC flexing its muscles in the region, the dissolution of earlier power structures, which used to arbitrate over disputes previously, saw the rise in conflict over the narrow space of the foothills and the Duars. This period witnessed increase in skirmishes between the hill dwellers and plains settlers over the control of these strategic paths, the Bhutan Duars and EIC interfered in this to establish their authority over the subject population and territory.
Nidan : International Journal for Indian Studies, 2020
India's Northeast region (NER) has been framed politically over the years in myriad ways,... more India's Northeast region (NER) has been framed politically over the years in myriad ways, often as a frontier for resource extraction, or a frontier with strategic boundaries. It has also been perceived as the margins of a pan-Indian civilization, wherein the communities are constructed as the racial 'other'. This construction has prevailed in even the precolonial discourse of difference when Assam was ruled by several dynasties and was a not part of the Mughal map. Colonialism accentuated these polarities through its administrative and ethnographic discourses. Despite being fairly integrated as a part of British India, postcolonial northeast India witnessed growing marginalisation from the centre. Issues of demographic change, resource extraction, governance, sovereignty remained political issues for movements from the region. The region remained as a 'law and order' situation for India. The delegitimization of voices from the Northeast has been a long historical process. The movements against CAA and the entanglements of NRC bring back those issues of 'othering' and 'silencing'.
Explorations , 2021
Many historical studies of the census use the corpus of demographic knowledge as a part of ethnog... more Many historical studies of the census use the corpus of demographic knowledge as a part of ethnographic inquiry. But recent studies have brought into focus the politics of numbers, or the political arithmetic, because unlike in the 19 th century, quantitative approaches are no longer enmeshed in a scientific attitude which is now regarded as naïve empiricism. The census admittedly was a document of great ethnographic value. But the question of numbers also becomes important from the 20 th century onwards. Early colonial censuses were ethnographic classificatory exercises, but such concerns did not begin with the census. These issues and ideas were already a part of the administrative thinking by the 1850s. The census has also been an important historical source as a part of ethnographic inquiry, but it has also become important to inquire into the relationship between quantitative and qualitative definitions of populations. Though census enumeration and its awareness led to certain rigidity in defining collective identities to a considerable degree, it also set into motion controversial mobility of nationalist, ethnic, communal and other identities. This paper attempts to relook at the early censuses and the debates it generated within the purview of identity articulation. The situation in terms of enumeration and classification was complex in Assam, where the diversity of communities combined with remarkable fluidity in demographic structure made it challenging to pin down communities. Within such complexities reified identities took shape and articulated their politics.
Aitihya: The Heritage, 2021
Nidan: International Journal for Indian Studies, 2020
India's Northeast region (NER) has been framed politically over the years in myriad ways, often a... more India's Northeast region (NER) has been framed politically over the years in myriad ways, often as a frontier for resource extraction, or a frontier with strategic boundaries. It has also been perceived as the margins of a pan-Indian civilization, wherein the communities are constructed as the racial 'other'. This construction has prevailed in even the precolonial discourse of difference when Assam was ruled by several dynasties and was a not part of the Mughal map. Colonialism accentuated these polarities through its administrative and ethnographic discourses. Despite being fairly integrated as a part of British India, postcolonial northeast India witnessed growing marginalisation from the centre. Issues of demographic change, resource extraction, governance, sovereignty remained political issues for movements from the region. The region remained as a 'law and order' situation for India. The delegitimization of voices from the Northeast has been a long historical process. The movements against CAA and the entanglements of NRC bring back those issues of 'othering' and 'silencing'.
Converging Spectrum of Anthropology with Emphasis on Assam and Adjoining Areas, 2020
Education of Marginalised Communities, 2016
Economic and Political Weekly, Aug 16, 2012
Ethnicity and identity have been the key issues of mobilisation in all of north-east India. The r... more Ethnicity and identity have been the key issues of mobilisation in all of north-east India. The region has had a long history of being marginalised; its inclusion in the Indian nation is seriously challenged by communities; and identity politics has shaped the politics of resistance. The struggle for power, both political and economic, has thus become bloodied. What lies behind the recent violence in Assam? The failure of the Sixth Schedule to deliver, the contest over land and resources, the lack of development, and the fear of disempowered smaller groups are all tangled in the web of electoral politics of the ruling classes.
Economic and Political Weekly, Mar 6, 2010