Indigenous Peoples and the Politics of Indigeneity in India: A Local Perspective on a Global Movement

Debasree De is an Assistant Professor, Department of History, Maharaja Sris Chandra College, Kolkata, West Bengal. She completed her MA, MPhil and PhD from Jadavpur University and has worked as the RUSA Post-Doctoral Fellow as well. Her publications include A History of Adivasi Women in Post-Independence Eastern India - 1947-2010 (Sage, 2018), Gandhi and Adivasi (Routledge and Manohar, 2022), Human Rights, Tribal Movements and Violence (Routledge and Manohar, 2023). She has publications in Economic & Political Weekly, South Asia Research (Sage), Community Development Journal (Oxford), Man in India, and so on. She has conducted research projects funded by University Grants Commission, Indian Council of Social Science Research and Indian Council of Historical Research, Land Acquisition and Tribal Development in Neoliberal Eastern India (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2024), Dissecting the Dilemma of Development – A History of Tribal Movements in Twenty-first Century South India (Manohar, 2025).

• Introduction – Institutionalising Indigeneity.- Vernacular Economy Matters – Subsistence and Capitalism.- Politicisation of Indigeneity – Being and Beyond Indigenous.- Indigenising the Academia – Education, Institutions, Curriculum, Language and Scripts.- Indigeneity and Culture – Religion, Festivals, Art and Craft.- Reflecting Indigeneity in Mainstream Media – Print, Audio-Visual and Digital.- Indigenous Activism – Global and Local.- Indigeneity and Essentialism – Preservation, Research and Methodology.- Conclusion – Indigeneity Revisited.