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Papers by Asoka Kumar Sen

Introduction The early historicization of Adivasi anti-colonial movements in Jharkhand is replete... more Introduction The early historicization of Adivasi anti-colonial movements in Jharkhand is replete with methodological problems.2 Since the celebration of the centenary of the Great Rebellion of 1857–8, scholars reconstructing narratives of anti-colonial struggles sought to prove that these were truly pan-Indian in character (Majum- dar 1962: 196–9).Those belonging to the nationalist and leftist schools tended to subsume these struggles, to use Ranajit Guha’s expression, under the ‘pre- history’ of the national and socialist-communist movements (Guha 1983: 4). Even if nationalism had inspired the making of provincial narratives where tribal or Adivasi struggles found space (Datta 1940, 1957: 66–76; Roy Choudhury 1959: 74–9; Das Gupta 2007: 96–119; Sen 2008: 82–107), the historiographic agenda were more or less to enrich the national mainstream.

Springer eBooks, Nov 4, 2014

This chapter is divided into three broad sections. The first section reconstructs the story of Ho... more This chapter is divided into three broad sections. The first section reconstructs the story of Ho rooted to a backward or no technology; the second explores the technological changes that conducted the transformation of material base of Ho life; and the last embodies the moral changes that shaped attitude and mentality in their life. Set in the pre-industrial backdrop, the present chapter attempts to historically reconstruct the story of transformation of Ho adivasis (tribals) from stone-age to iron-age technology that may help us in understanding to what extent this aided or impeded its graduation to industrial-age technology that later ruled over the world.

Concept Pub. Co. eBooks, 2011

This book engages with notions of self and landscape as manifest in water, forest and land via hi... more This book engages with notions of self and landscape as manifest in water, forest and land via historical and current perspectives in the context of indigenous communities in India. It also brings processes of identity formation among tribes in Africa and Latin America into relief. Using interconnected historical moments and representations of being, becoming and belonging, it situates the content and complexities of Adivasi self-fashioning in contemporary times, and discusses constructions of selfhood, diaspora, homeland, environment and ecology, political structures, state, marginality, development, alienation and rights. Drawing on a range of historical sources-from recorded oral traditions and village histories to contemporary Adivasi self-narratives-the volume will be of great interest to scholars and researchers of modern Indian history, sociology and social anthropology, tribal and indigenous studies and politics.

South Asia-journal of South Asian Studies, Apr 1, 2004

British ethnography is part of the discourse commonly known as Orientalism. But one has to unders... more British ethnography is part of the discourse commonly known as Orientalism. But one has to understand that, even in their oneness, Indian Orientalism and ‘tribal Orientalism’ had a major difference. When Indian Orientalism was recreated, scholars at the Asiatic Society of Bengal could draw upon literate and archaeological sources. But when it came to dealing with tribal society, British administratorethnographers as well as Indian scholars were forced to make do with oral traditions and their observations of lived reality as their main sources of information. This information was saturated by ideologically-structured tribal epistemology.

Routledge, 2018

Indigeneity Landscape and History - Conclusion

Taking into account the context of Birsa Munda, an Adivasi freedom fighter, given special honour ... more Taking into account the context of Birsa Munda, an Adivasi freedom fighter, given special honour by the Indian nation of late, this essay relooks into his life and political legacy. Locally, in Khunti district, a fondly remembered leader for his sacrifice to protect the Adivasis from British colonial excesses, Birsa figured in the freedom fighters' list of the country only at the time of independence, pressured by the powerful Dalit-Adivasi agenda. Historical writings on him since then have showed Birsa as a freedom fighter of secondary importance, at times not even a freedom fighter proper. Writings and commentaries have also nurtured ideas incongruent to his being a leader of the Adivasi masses. The essay surveys historical and other writing on Birsa and points out the creeping misunderstandings on his persona, which are a mismatch to the honour he has received by the nation. For a judicious estimation of Birsa as a national hero, the essay pleads a scholarship that moves beyond the paradigm of treating Adivasis as backward primitives and reads an active Adivasi psyche under their various anti-colonial protests.

Journal of Adivasi and Indigenous Studies (JAIS), 2022

Lt. Samuel Richard Tickell (1811-75), 2 the first Assistant Political Agent of the Kolhan Governm... more Lt. Samuel Richard Tickell (1811-75), 2 the first Assistant Political Agent of the Kolhan Government Estate (founded in 1837), was the founder of British administration in the Kolhan region of erstwhile Singhbhum in Bihar. He is also the pioneer of colonial ethnography as the author of Memoir on Hodesum (improperly called Kolehan), published in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal in 1840. 3 He may also rightly lay claim to be the pioneering linguist of the Ho language through his companion works 4 named Vocabulary of the Ho Language and Grammatical Construction of the Ho Language published in tandem with the Memoir in the above Journal the same year. In fact, early documentation about the Ho, more famous as the Larka (fighting) Kole, which had begun in a fragmentary form in the correspondences of E. Roughsedge, the General leading British assault against the Larka Kole in 1819-20 5 and the like of T. Wilkinson in 1836-37 6 was given a more elaborate and solid foundation by Tickell. A researcher has therefore to invariably

Journal of Adivasi and Indigenous Studies (JAIS), 2015

Adivasis identify rusticity as a significant marker of their collective identity. Though sociolog... more Adivasis identify rusticity as a significant marker of their collective identity. Though sociologists and anthropologists have played a major role in developing village studies, historical intervention have so far been scant in this regard. This essay intends to fulfil this want in the context of the Adivasis of West Singhbhum district in Jharkhand. As reconstructing Adivasi rural history is problematic, the problem increasing due to its heavy dependence on collective memory, the essay begins by identifying the problems like lack of temporal depth, synoptic nature of memory, manipulation of facts, social contests and deliberate erasure of past that sets up an inevitable contest between memory and history. The next part dwells at length on how this conflict had been resolved paving the possibility of reconstructing Adivasi village history of a region.

Journal of Adivasi and Indigenous Studies (JAIS), 2014

The story of resistance and rebellion by the Ho adivasis of Kolhan in erstwhile Singhbhum distric... more The story of resistance and rebellion by the Ho adivasis of Kolhan in erstwhile Singhbhum district of Bihar has for some decades been studied under the broad rubric of anti-British uprisings. These writings more or less foregrounded adivasi struggles as negating colonial rule, rather than emphasising identity assertion as the positive trigger. Moreover, there is not much attempt to critically examine colonial records, on which these reconstructions were largely based, to expose the hegemonic mentality, which conducted the erasure of the indigenes. This essay seeks to underline their assertion, over the territory they inhabited. This is premised on the very consciousness of agency or a maker, rather than subjecthood and marginalisation, stimulating them either to resist any bid to encroach into it or rebel when alien rule was imposed on them. The paper is divided in three broad sections. After exploring the fructification of Ho agency in the first, the second portrays the story of resistance and rebellion by progressively narrating Ho resistance to feudal expansion: 1770-1800, to local chiefs and the English in 1820-21, to feudal rule and British expansion 1830-37 and Civil Rebellion of the Hos during1857-59. Summing up the deliberations, the last highlights how this assertion may be identified as the prehistory of Jharkhand movement.