Threads of Indigeneity in Central India

Joseph Bara is Senior Research Associate with the Centre for World Environmental History of Sussex University, UK. He has an MA in history and PhD in education from Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the University of Delhi, respectively. Bara was previously Professorial Scholar-in-Residence with the Faculty of Tribal Studies, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, Amarkantak, Madhya Pradesh. Since 1985, he has coordinated a research programme on the history of education in modern India at the School of Social Sciences, JNU. His areas of interest range from the past and present problems of the Adivasis of India, Christian missions, educational developments in India, Gandhian educational ideas to Indian nationalist educational thinking and policies. Besides editing four books, Dr. Bara has published articles in leading professional journals in India and abroad. He was on the international editorial board of the journal, History of Education (Taylor & Francis) (2006-2016). A regular participant in the national and international academic forums, he has been a visiting scholar with the Zentrum Moderner Oriental, Berlin (2008), a Fellow of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (2007-2009), and a Fulbright Visiting Senior Scholar at Columbia University, New York (2015). He has been a member of academic or executive bodies of the Indian Institute of Advanced Study, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University (Amarkantak) and the Indian Social Institute, New Delhi. He is a former Member of the Court, Tripura University and Trustee of the Bhasha Research and Publication Centre, Vadodara.In 2013-14, Dr. Bara was appointed a member of the Prime Minister of India’s High Level Committee on Socio-Economic, Health and Educational Status of Tribal Communities.Anjana Singh taught History Ranchi University, Jharkhand, India, and is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Adivasi and Indigenous Studies (JAIS). Most of her research and publications are on two broad themes: historiography on Jharkhand, and the impact of demographic, social and political changes relating to Adivasi culture and language. Her research interests include regional language movements among the indigenous groups Mundas and Uraons of Chotanagpur, oral history, gender issues, popular protest, ecological movements, and cultural movements. Her articles have appeared in leading national and international journals as The International Journal of Human Rights, Economic and Political Weekly, Journal of Adivasi and Indigenous Studies (JAIS) and others. She has also published chapters in edited volume books: Kalpana Kannabiran ed. Routledge Readings on Law, Development and Legal Pluralism: Ecology, Families, Governance (Routledge); Rahul Ranjan ed. At the Crossroads of Rights: Forest Struggles and Human Rights in Postcolonial India (Routledge); Varsha Ganguly-Bhagat and Sujit Kumar eds. India’s Scheduled Areas: Untangling Governance, Law and Politics (Routledge); and Rekha Pande eds. Gender and History (Rawat publications). She was Principal Investigator of a major project on “Understanding the Impact of Hinduism and Christianity on Tribal Language and Culture in Jharkhand: With Special Reference to Mundas and Oraons”, funded by the University Grants Commission under its STRIDE scheme (2020-2023).

• Chapter 1. Introduction.- Part I: Land, Forest and Customary Rights.- Chapter 2. Khuntkatti Question: Polity, Society, and History in Kolhan - 1913-1918 and Beyond.- Chapter 3. Vanishing Traditional Forests Rights and Adivasi Protest: Manbhum in the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries.- Chapter 4. Making of A Santal Colonial Subject: Damin-i-Koh in Santal Parganas, circa 1790-1850.- Part II: Adivasi Struggle for Survival.- Chapter 5. Discovery of an Adivasi Icon: Birsa Munda and the National Movement of India.- Chapter 6. Interpreting Santals and the Santal Rebellion in Critical Memory of Ranajit Guha.- Chapter 7. Adivasi ‘Bandit’ Hero as Political Other: Transitory Narratives of Tantia Bhil (1840-1889).- Chapter 8. Reinventing the Ho Revolt of 1836-1837 in Kolhan and Poto Ho.- Chapter 9. Nationalist India’s Last Priority: Adivasi Question and its Labyrinth, 1920-1940.- Part III: Adivasi Idea and Identity.- Chapter 10. Engaging with the Question of Indigeneity in India.- Chapter 11. Disputed Identity: Politics of Status of the ‘Tea Tribe’ Adivasis in Assam, 1930- 1965.- Chapter 12. Deciphering Dialogic Epistemology: Colonial Racialism and Adivasi Agency in Central India, 1850-1895.- Chapter 13. ‘Ecological Noble Savage’ to Ecological Warriors: Culture, Environment and Adivasis in Central India.- Part IV: Art, Religion, Language and Culture of Adivasis.- Chapter 14. The Transformation of Santal Domestic Art.- Chapter 15. Redefining Sarnaism and the Politics of Sarna Code in Jharkhand.- Chapter 16. Revitalization of Adivasi Language and Culture: Grammars by Christian Missionary.