Description
The essays in this book develop a systematic critique of the romanticised notions of tribal life, identity and ecology that informs so much of today’s scholarship as well as the popular perceptions and ‘everyday commonsense’ relating to these themes. The author has examined genesis of certain visions found in the work of Verrier Elwin, the grand old man of Indian anthropology and ‘tribal’ policy, and has shown how it links up with the contemporary realities of ethnicity, caste and community in India. The revised and updated version of this book also explores the gender dimension within tribal societies to strengthen its argument. The framework advanced in this book contests the hegemonic neo-liberal and hindutva visions of these decades of economic reforms.
CONTENTS
Preface to the Revised Edition
Introduction
Ecological Romanticism and Environmental History: The Contemporary Relevance of Verrier Elwin
- Adivasis as Swadeshis: Unpacking the Myth of the “Original Inhabitant” in Gondwana
- The Baiga and its Eco-Logic: Reinterpreting Verrier Elwin’s Cultural Ecology in Central India
- Paving the Way for Hindutva: The Tragic Tale of the Transformation of Elwin’s Romanticism
- More Marginal than the Marginalised? Tribal Women as Breadwinners in Central India
Afterword
Looking Beyond Ecological Romanticism
Select Bibliography
Archana Prasad
Archana Prasad is Associate Professor at the Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, and was earlier a fellow of the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. She has written extensively on tribal development, identity formation and local systems of natural resource conservation for scholarly as well as popular journals. Her books include Environmentalism and the Left: Contemporary Debates and Future Agenda in Tribal Areas (2004); Tribal Livelihoods and Globalisation: Exploring the Potential of Non-Timber Forest Produce in Eastern and Central India (2005), and an edited volume on Environment, Development and Society in Contemporary India: An Introduction (2009).
