Beyond subalternity: land, community, and the state in contemporary Jharkhand

Abstract

Subalterns, as Ranajit Guha famously argued, resist modern states on the basis of pre-existing social solidarities and an autonomous domain of consciousness. Critics of subaltern studies have argued, however, that subaltern resistance is, in fact, deeply implicated in the symbols and discourses of domination rather than simply constituting an autonomous political domain. Might it be possible to take this criticism of subalternity seriously and yet appreciate the complex ways in which adivasi subjects in contemporary India resist and negotiate their subjecthood? Can we, then, locate resistance in the process of negotiating states? Focusing on the eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, this paper takes up this challenge by probing into the tropes and strategies by which the contradictory mechanisms and meanings of modern state power have been reworked and resisted in two apparently opposed moments of resistance: the ‘peaceful’ Koel–Karo anti-dam movement of the 1980s and the ongoing ‘violent’ Maoist movement. In doing so, I show how land and community are intertwined inextricably in recent adivasi resistance such that the notion of ‘community’ underpins both territorial claims on the post-colonial state by Munda men and women and efforts to remake political selves in dialogue with statist discourses of primitivism.