Adivasis have principally been studied in the context of rebellion, environmental history and the politics of identity. However, preoccupations with definitions and notions of identity, while important in themselves, tend to shift attention away from the inner
lives of these communities. This book deals with different aspects of the histories of adivasi communities—from Rajasthan in the west to Bengal and Orissa in the east. 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. They also reflect some of the new concerns that have come up relating to methodology and sources, historiography and colonial concerns, the impact of missionaries, gender issues, the agrarian situation, famines and migration. Some of the issues addressed in this volume are the genesis and development of ‘tribal’ studies in India during the colonial period; the peasantization of adivasi groups and their assimilation within the Hindu  caste fold as reflected in Tulsidas’ Ramcharitmanas; the work of the Protestant missions among the Santhals of Chotanagpur; the social and ritual relations between the Bhils and the Rajput ruling dynasties of Dungarpur in southern Rajasthan; the aspect of agrarian change among the Hos of Singhbhum; the factors behind the migration from Chotanagpur, its nature and organization and its impact upon the adivasi village community; the question of women’s agency in colonial Chotanagpur; and an exploration of  land rights, witchcraft, employment patterns and how women challenged patriarchy in their everyday lives; and the impact of globalization and liberalization upon adivasis in contemporary India. The book will be of use to students and scholars of history, anthropology and sociology and also to policy-planners concerned with ‘tribal’ issues.
About the Author
SANJUKTA DAS GUPTA is Associate Professor of Indian History at the Department of Oriental Studies, Sapienza University of Rome Italy. She has earlier taught at the University of Calcutta. Her research interests include agrarian and environmental history and the
social history of colonial India. She is the author of Adivasis and the Raj: SocioeconomicTransition of the Hos, 1820–1932 (2011) and has co-edited Subjects, Citizens, and Law: Colonial and Postcolonial India (2017), Narratives from the Margins: Aspects of Adivasi History in India (2012) and Narratives of the Excluded: Caste Issues in Colonial India (2008).
RAJ SHEKHAR BASU is an Associate Professor at the Department of History, University of Calcutta. He has earlier taught in the Centre for the Study of Discrimination and Exclusion at Jawaharlal Nehru University. He has specialized in the history of marginal groups in south India. He has co-edited Narratives of the Excluded: Caste Issues in Colonial India (2008) and Medical Encounters in British India (2013). His monographs include Many Varieties of Dalit Experience in Colonial and Postcolonial India (2010) and Nandanar’s Children: Paraiyar’s Tryst with Destiny, Tamilnadu 1850–1956 (2011)
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