On 15th November 2000, a sizable southern portion of the Indian state of Bihar came into being as the state of Jharkhand. This was a great success and cause for celebration among India's Adivasi activists and indigenous rights activists around the world. The long struggle for separation of the region from Bihar and the creation of Jharkhand was fought in the name of the Adivasi, loosely translated as “first residents” or indigenous people of the land. The rhetorical idea of Jharkhand's adivasi history and identity articulated by activists for the broader national audience and for international indigenous organizations had finally materialized as the first new “indigenous” state within India.
In this book, Shah asks “what it means to live in an indigenous state” (p. 32) from the perspective of poor and marginalized indigenous people of Jharkhand. This is an important empirical question not only for indigenous rights activists...