A Critique of Development in India’s Predominantly Adivasi Regions with Special Reference to the Hos of India’s Jharkhand

Abstract

This article seeks to look at the idea of development interventions (DI) in predominantly Adivasi regions that focus on the extraction of abundant forest and mineral wealth to benefit regions beyond Adivasi territories. While this process deprives Adivasis of their subsistence needs, it invokes resistance and resultant conflicts. Such interventions and consequent conflict need sociological elaboration. Hence, using two case studies, we explicate DI as a self-reproducing system embodying colonialism and racism as process and praxis. This article investigates how development facilitates resource accumulation and socio-economic differentiation of a few and pauperization of the rest. It further tries to find out how these systemic processes have historically found favour with political Brahmanism (PB), the dominant taken-for-granted socio-religious and political ideology (doxa) in India. In contrast to PB, Adivasis’ alternative imaginations based on their sacral polity (SP) are highlighted. Then, we contrast SP with PB and the dominant neoliberal development paradigm. SP has been contrasted with PB and the dominant neoliberal development paradigm. This comparison facilitates the conclusion that the secret of sustainable development rests with Adivasi social formations that adhere to SP-based self-restriction and egalitarian democratic principles. However, historical domination and co-option of Adivasi engender ambivalence of violence which helps to perpetuate ‘development’ as a colonial and racist system among Adivasi in forms of DI.