Pardhi Criminality in Postcolonial Chhattisgarh—of Tigers, Tribals and Misfits

Abstract

Efforts aimed at canvassing the past–present continuum of criminal tribes, though appreciable, have proven to be piecemeal, sporadic and awkward. Avoiding some characteristic pitfalls, a historical anthropology of the Pardhis of Chhattisgarh reveals how geographies that were relatively untouched by a colonial programme of criminalization before independence can become active sites of the same in the post-independence period. In avoiding either extremes of emphasizing absolute continuities or alternatively marking a putative rupture between the (colonial) past and (postcolonial) present, this article makes a case for how the colonial programme frequently mutates with/through a number of other discourses, such as regional state formation, administrative procedures, wildlife conservation, nascent ideas of tribal development, and democratic struggles, as part of its relentless movement. This article summarizes the effects of the same for the Pardhis at the level of ‘history’.