In the Shadows of the State: Indigenous Politics, Environmentalism, and Insurgency in Jharkhand, India

by Alpa Shah

In the Shadows of the State suggests that well-meaning indigenous rights and development claims and interventions may misrepresent and hurt the very people they intend to help. It is a powerful critique based on extensive ethnographic research in Jharkhand, a state in eastern India officially created in 2000. While the realization of an independent Jharkhand was the culmination of many years of local, regional, and transnational activism for the rights of the region’s culturally autonomous indigenous people, Alpa Shah argues that the activism unintentionally further marginalized the region’s poorest people. Drawing on a decade of ethnographic research in Jharkhand, she follows the everyday lives of some of the poorest villagers as they chase away protected wild elephants, try to cut down the forests they allegedly live in harmony with, maintain a healthy skepticism about the revival of the indigenous governance system, and seek to avoid the initial spread of an armed revolution of Maoist guerrillas who claim to represent them. Juxtaposing these experiences with the accounts of the village elites and the rhetoric of the urban indigenous-rights activists, Shah reveals a class dimension to the indigenous-rights movement, one easily lost in the cultural-based identity politics that the movement produces. In the Shadows of the State brings together ethnographic and theoretical analyses to show that the local use of global discourses of indigeneity often reinforces a class system that harms the poorest people.

Genres: Anthropology, Nonfiction, Politics

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Ella · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting ethnography of the indigenous Munda people in the small village of Tapu in Jharkhand in India. Takes up topics as the inhabitants relation to the land itself, the other people in neighbouring towns, their traditional culture in contact with urban middle class influences, work opportunities, the naxalites et c.

[D]

"Well-meaning indigenous rights activists and their middle-class ideals may be shrinking the spaces from which a truly radical politics may emerge."

Alpa Shah's In the Shadows of the State: Indigenous Politics, Environmentalism, and Insurgency in Jharkhand, India (2010) offers a persuasive ethnographic critique of Jharkhand's indigenous rights activists. Based on over five years of fieldwork with Munda tribes, Maoist Communist insurgents, and Bihar landlords, Shah presents a complex picture of competing class interests at the turn of the millennium, a time in which the postcolonial nation state feverishly embraces Hindutva ideology.

In the Shadows of the State is at its strongest when Shah digs into the tensions and contradictions of indigenous identity politics. She asks difficult questions: to what extent do middle-class activists buy into a reductive image of adivasis as "eco-savages" who are naturally and spiritually rooted to the forests? How do adivasis' own attitudes, viewpoints, cosmologies and behaviours complicate their status as India's victims? And how have environmental policies such as elephant protection intensified adivasi displacement? Shah argues that Jharkhand's adivasis have been materially and discursively "eco-incarcerated". If they migrate out of the forests, middle-class activists no longer see them as indigenous. If they stay, they face the prospect of elephants destroying their homes.

Shah presents an even-handed and nuanced interrogation of adivasi politics. But some of her conclusions on identity politics and class struggle are slightly fuzzy and bathetic, focusing more on critique than on workable alternatives. And in a handful of Shah's ideas for resolving seemingly intractable problems, she arrives at bewildering suggestions. In an endnote about the conflict between indigenous peoples and elephants, for instance, she writes that "perhaps we should consider more imaginative solutions that go beyond national boundaries and move the elephants to the United Kingdom or the United States". Displacing elephants from their habitats, shipping them thousands of miles to inhospitable climates, is definitely not the answer we need.

Despite these problems, In the Shadows of the State is an important and thought-provoking book for anyone interested in adivasi politics. Shah's writing is reflexive, crisp and clear, and is accompanied by photos and paintings (some even painted by Shah herself) which deepen our involvement in her fascinating story about the lived experiences of some of India's poorest and marginalised communities. And Shah's introduction provides a substantive assessment of the existing scholarship on indigeneity and adivasi history. This will appeal as much to newcomers as it does to specialists.

[Deepthijayaraj]

A bit dense but I soldiered on and found many interesting ideas. Would like to explore ways of how democracy can be made to work for inclusive development

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shah’s a fantastic writer

[Hiranya Gupta · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed reading it very much. Meant for anyone, easy to read but has academic insights for anyone interested. My professor has some valid criticisms but despite the flaws, beautiful read

[dEstInEdnOmAd · Rating 4 out of 5]

Enjoyed her take but not sure if I agree with her conclusion because if it it not for the tribal elite, then who would speak for them?
Regardless it was a wonderful read and I also appreciated the dialogue between being an anthropologist and an activist in the narrative.

[Rallie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting ethnographic account of indigeneity as a discourse and a living practice. Definitely worth a read for those interested in ethnography and/or indigenous studies.