New publication on the situation of indigenous people in India

The interdisciplinary anthology on State, Law, and Adivasi, Shifting Terrains of Exclusion was edited by Antje Linkenbach (Max-Weber-Kolleg of the University of Erfurt) together with Vidhu Verma (Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi). Vidhu Verma has also been a fellow at the Max-Weber-Kolleg in Erfurt in the past.

The anthology provides an overview of the relationship between the state, the law and the adivasis, who have undergone a profound political transformation through the privatisation of natural resources. It also discusses the role of economics and the impact of the increasing commercialisation of natural resources on the livelihoods of the Adivasis in India, who as indigenous peoples often live very close to nature.

For the Indian state, a major challenge is to create a new normative framework for indigenous autonomy based on the values of equality and sustainability. This requires the recognition of the right to self-determination and the exercise of the collective rights of the adivasis. The volume addresses concepts such as exclusion - as a useful framework for analysing the various axes of inequality affecting adivasi communities, but also the interconnections between state, development and adivasi policies in social, political and legal terms, and the interplay and deep tension between the promise of legal protection and the reality of inadequate implementation.