'TRIBAL' CITIZENS AND BORDER THINKING IN INDIA

<strong>CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF DISCRIMINATION &amp; EXCLUSION (CSDE) JAWAHARLAL NEHRU UNIVERSITY</strong> a talk on <strong>'TRIBAL' CITIZENS AND BORDER THINKING IN INDIA</strong> <strong>Dr. Mollica Dastider </strong> (Associate Professor, CCP &amp; PT, SIS, JNU) In re thinking minority cultures, this study engages with the interventions that minoritarian position constantly makes in the modernity of national culture. The practices are evident among those social groups who when confronted with modernizing state power, have more often than not produced unpersuaded social behaviour like that of the marginalized indigenous in post colonial societies. 'Tribal' citizens of India, this paper argues, are negotiating with the modernizing state from the position of their traditional community knowledge while they accept the modern category of 'scheduled tribe' status for themselves. In narrating from the Janajati (indigenous) discourses from East Himalayas the paper highlights the collective agency of groups of our times who offer sites of alterity with their non modern and non rational knowledge practices. Their practices are much endorsed when Sikkim gets global recognition for its bio diversity preservation, and when the chief minister proudly claims that all three indigenous communities of the state possess rich indigenous knowledge of conservation. The study points out that with their temporal disjunctive character the marginalized indigenous are making important interventions in the modernity of national culture. Date: <strong>20th November, 2015</strong>