T HE book under review provides a historical analysis of the life experiences of the tribal people and Dalits of Odisha and revisits the contested terrain of middle-class politics and its interactions with socially excluded groups. It thus contributes to the broader problematic of how rural hierarchies were created and how they were continually challenged.
The theme of the book is discussed over six chapters, with the author, Biswamoy Pati, taking a long-term view spanning the precolonial, colonial and post-Independence regimes. The first chapter situates the context of the research and interrogates the invisibility of marginalised communities.
The second chapter analyses the nature of colonial intervention and the social fractures that colonial capitalism created. The third chapter focusses on the complex strategies of survival that evolved within tribal and “untouchable” communities and on confrontations and resistance that challenged both the colonial and the Brahmanic hegemonic orders.
The two following chapters explore aspects of the lived experience of tribal people and “lower-caste” communities. Chapter Four highlights Adivasi traditions and customs concerning health and medicine and the emotive concerns that characterised the incidence of disease and epidemics in tribal localities.
It also discusses the “medical” gaze of colonialism, which operated to regulate and “sanitise” Indian society, thereby conditioning the perceptions of the privileged classes. Chapter Five studies the diverse rituals involved in the acquisition and legitimisation of power within the caste hierarchy and underscores the subversive transgressions and the counter-rituals that arose in the popular sphere, with special reference to anti-Brahmanism, the Mahima movement and the national movement. The final chapter examines the State people’s movements in the princely state of Nilgiri between 1937 and 1948, underlining the role of the communists.
The book makes several important points. In the first place, it argues that the impact of colonisation cannot be discussed in terms of a single narrative, given the wide geographical, cultural and social diversity of the region. The author points out the contradictions inherent within the colonial regime. This is seen, for example, in the contrasting processes of negotiations between colonial officials and the village leadership, on the one hand, and of the colonial “civilising mission” and the zeal to replace the traditional order with colonial modernity on the other.
Tracing the genealogy of the colonial construction of “tribe”, Pati points out the ambiguities and grey areas that existed between so-called tribes and the caste hierarchy. Furthermore, the author traces the continuities between colonial and postcolonial practices, drawing attention to the postcolonial “civilising mission”, and convincingly shows how contemporary concerns are mapped onto a non-existent and imagined past.
Another important contribution of the book lies in its emphasis on the interface between middle-class politics and the movements of socially excluded groups with the Kisan Sabha and the Praja Mandal movement. Challenging the assumptions of both right-wing and subaltern historiographies, the author highlights the linkages between these two domains and provides a new analytical framework to understand how the socially oppressed or excluded sought to contest and alter the systems of middle-class control/domination in different ways.
Perhaps the most novel proposition of the book is the author’s thesis of reading survival strategies as resistance, provoking us to rethink the everyday patterns of Dalit and Adivasi confrontation of dominance and exploitation. Attempting to understand how the system of exclusion, discrimination and humiliation were rooted in and legitimised by the institution of caste, the author critically interrogates the internal order of exploitation. In doing so, he shows how lower caste/tribal resistance drew upon features of colonial modernity in order to delegitimise Brahminical Hinduism.
The author also specifies the inclusive character of such resistance, pointing to the linkages between lower-caste and tribal societies, a factor that is often overlooked in Adivasi histories.
Histories of the socially marginalised are difficult to reconstruct since they only intermittently feature in mainstream archival sources. The author has made skilful use of a variety of sources—both archival documents and vernacular writings—in order to address colonial and postcolonial transitions. The book makes a valuable contribution to the understanding of the social history of Odisha. Written in lucid and readable prose and free of abstruse jargon, the book will be of interest to a wide readership.
It is tragic that Pati did not live to see the publication of this book, which was so dear to his heart. His earlier research into the world of the peasantry in Odisha encouraged him to undertake a detailed study of Dalits and Adivasis. A committed Marxist, Pati’s theoretical leanings inspired him to look into the richness of peasant culture and the diversities that characterised peasant resilience against exploitative regimes.
The outcome of several decades of serious research, the book does not disappoint.
Sanjukta Das Gupta is an associate professor of modern Indian history at the Sapienza University of Rome.
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