Programme
Christer Norström
Graduate Student
Department of Anthropology
Stockholm University
E/
christer.norstrom@socant.su.se
Situating Adivasi identity: Contested Resources Among Castes and Tribes of the Palani Hills in Tamil Nadu, South India
To be indigenous in general and to have indigenous knowledge in particular have become intensively debated in recent years. In India this discussion has often been focused on questions related to the rights of local people versus the State, highlighted through national or state-run projects like dam constructions, forest management and protected area management. One of the reasons behind this controversy is that the concept has become heavily politicized and the claim of being indigenous, or the Indian equivalent adivasi, is often used as an argument for enhancing the negotiating force of some groups in relation to other groups. In other words, the identity as indigenous has a significant capacity of boundary creation, promoting a view of those who “have” and those who “have not” rights in relation to political and economic issues.
In 1994 the Tamil Nadu Government declared about one third of the Palani Hills in Tamil Nadu as a sanctuary. This act gave way for new kinds of arguments and strategies in the ongoing negotiation over resources in the area. In relation to this a discussion promoted by certain environmentalists in India has also started with the aim of widening this negotiation space further, introducing the idea of Joint Protected Area Management (JPAM), including the possibility of making local people part of the management of protected areas.
In the light of this discussion I will place this debate at the local arena of the Palani Hills, an area I have been following closely since the beginning of the 1990s. By situating the notion of indigenous/adivasi locally my aim is two-fold. The first aim is to give a more sensitive account of the way local people look upon their relation to the physical environment, views that to a significant extent influence the political processes concerning their relation to each other, to the government and state policies, as well as to non-governmental organizations working in the area. Secondly, by putting the local perspective in the forefront my suggestion is that some of the controversies concerning the otherwise often internationally laden use of the notion indigenous, with its tendency of increasing competition in political processes, may be avoided.
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Mr. Norström is currently pursuing his doctoral studies where his research
projects include, food as a metaphor for the past and the future among farmers
in South India, the perception of food and food production in a fast changing
world, an anthropologist among environmentalists: modern environmentalism
through the eyes of three India-based activists. His publications include, 2006
"Review" Hunter-Gatherers in History, Archaeology and Anthropology. Alan Barnard
(ed.), in The Australian Journal of Anthropology 17 (3) (2006); "The
Paliyans of South India and Their Quest for Autonomy," in J. Oakes et al (eds)
Aboriginal Cultural Landscapes (2004) "From Avoidance to Alliance.
Hunters and Gatherers — State Relations in Tamil Nadu, South India," In Eva
Poluha and Mona Rosendahl (eds) Political Webs: Anthropological Accounts of
Power Relations (2003).