The adivasi world figured in official perceptions as the backdrop of the counter-insurgency measures of the colonial state and the adivasi was portrayed as a savage, whether ‘criminal’ and wreaking terror in the countryside, or ‘noble’ and living a life of Arcadian simplicity in an egalitarian society. Through such models, British administrators sought to justify their presence and portray themselves as the protectors of life and security in the region.
The essays in this book discuss a range of issues affecting the socio-economic and cultural life of adivasis and explore the long-term continuities and discontinuities between different political regimes.
Adivasis are the indigenous people of eastern and central India who were identified as “tribes” under British colonial rule and who today have a constitutional status as “Scheduled Tribese. The notion of tribe, despite its evolutionist character, has been internalized to a large extent by the indigenous people themselves and has had a considerable role in shaping community identities. Colonial studies, moreover, were the first systematic investigations into these marginalized and subordinated communities and form an important primary source in historical research on Adivasis.
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