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Subalternity and Resistance in the Bhil Heartland: Historical Trajectories, Contemporary Scenarios

Subalternity and Resistance in the Bhil Heartland: Historical Trajectories, Contemporary Scenarios

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Subalternity and Resistance in the Bhil Heartland: Historical Trajectories, Contemporary Scenarios
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<strong>CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF LAW AND GOVERNANCE Jawaharlal Nehru University</strong> SEMINAR SERIES <strong>ALF GUNVALD NILSEN</strong> Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Bergen On <strong>Subalternity and Resistance in the Bhil Heartland: Historical Trajectories, Contemporary Scenarios</strong> <strong>Abstract : </strong>Current debates and research on Adivasi struggles in India tends to focus on the Maoist movement in central and eastern India and resistance against large-scale processes of dispossession. Important as this phenomenon may be, there are also other traditions of Adivasi struggle in other regions of the country which, if given their due attention, can enrich and diversify debates over subaltern politics in contemporary India. This paper aims to make a contribution in this direction by investigating the character and trajectory of democratic mobilisation among Bhil Adivasis in western Madhya Pradesh. The first part of the paper outlines the contours of Adivasi subalternity in western Madhya Pradesh - focusing in particular on the workings of local state-society relations. I then move on to trace the historical lineage of the political subalternity of the Bhils by delineating the restructuring of sovereignty that occurred across the tribal heartland of western India under as a result of colonial state-making projects from the 1820s to the 1940s. In the third and final part of the paper, I analyse the ways in and extent to which social movements rooted in the Bhil communities of western Madhya Pradesh in the 1980s and 1990s succeeded in democratising local-state society relationships in the region. I conclude by reflecting on what the conceptual challenges that the trajectory of these struggles throw up for the study of subalternity, resistance, and state-society relations. <strong>Friday, 29 January 2016</strong> <strong>About the Speaker: </strong>Alf Gunvald Nilsen is Associate Professor at the Department of Sociology at the University of Bergen, Norway. His research focuses on social movements and subaltern politics in the global South, with a particular concentration on India. He is the author of Dispossession and Resistance in India: The River and the Rage (Routledge, 2010) and We Make Our Own History: Marxism and Social Movements in the Twilight of Neo-liberalism (Pluto Press, 2014) and the editor of Social Movements in the Global South: Dispossession, Development, and Resistance (Palgrave, 2011), Marxism and Social Movements (Brill, 2013) and New Subaltern Politics: Reconceptualising Hegemony and Resistance in Contemporary India (OUP, 2015).

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.