Adivasi Identity, Haunting and Reconciliation- Negotiating Cultural Memory and Displacement

Gajare, Rashmi and Taru, / (2018) Adivasi Identity, Haunting and Reconciliation- Negotiating Cultural Memory and Displacement. In: ICOMOS 19th General Assembly and Scientific Symposium "Heritage and Democracy", 13-14th December 2017, New Delhi, India. [Conference or Workshop Item]

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Abstract (in English)

Palimpsest and ‘ghost’ have been an integral part of studies on cultural memory, erasure and its ‘haunting’. Be it Jacque Derrida’s use of ‘spectral bodies’ to analyse the ‘phantomatic’ in ideology or Foucault’s unraveling of ‘haunting’ in his interview, “Film and Popular Memory,” it is accepted that pieces of identity and memory remain as imprints that drive and influence the individual or the community experiencing such ‘haunting.’ The Adivasi way of life is pluralistic, where each community has its own dynamic oral history, and allegorical understanding of their habitats. Their idea of the sacred, like the sarna, often herald to spirits of their ancestors and derive the ‘sacred’ from the living history, their cultural identity from their life in the forests and now, with increasing loss of habitat (Jal, Jangal, Jameen), memory. This research explores the nuances of the Adivasi identity and the ramifications of displacement on their collective memory by exploring a palimpsest of the Adivasi way of life as it survives and morphs, despite an era of displacement and erasure and as they struggle for acknowledgment and survival. While conflict ruptures familiar systems of living, cultural memory is a representative form that assists in attempts to recreate a past and foster reconciliation of ‘identity’ in the present. Utilizing ethnographic studies of grassroot organizations, an analysis of contemporary Adivasi literature and individual interviews of Adivasis involved in the advocacy efforts in Bihar and Jharkhand, this research seeks to map the ways the Adivasis and the grass-root organizations negotiate the conflictridden landscape to evolve as a society even as they seek to legitimize, preserve and celebrate critical aspects of what is self-recognized (in their own literature) as a five thousand year-old ‘othered’ culture of India, often de-legitimized or alienated in the face of the mainstream ideology of the time.

Item Type:	Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)
Authors:	Authors Email Gajare, Rashmi UNSPECIFIED Taru, / UNSPECIFIED
Languages:	English
Keywords:	adivasi; identity; conflict; reconciliation; human rights; haunting; cultural memory; ethnography; India; segregation; minority; ostracising; untouchability
Subjects:	L.PRESENTATION AND TRANSMISSION OF HERITAGE > 04. Public awareness L.PRESENTATION AND TRANSMISSION OF HERITAGE > 07. Education N.ANTHROPOLOGY > 03. Ethnology O.INTANGIBLE HERITAGE > 02. Oral traditions and expressions (including language) P. GEOGRAPHIC AREAS > 04. Asia and Pacific islands
National Committee:	ICOMOS International
ICOMOS Special Collection:	Scientific Symposium (ICOMOS General Assemblies)
ICOMOS Special Collection Volume:	19th General Assembly, New Delhi, 2017
Depositing User:	intern icomos
Date Deposited:	18 Dec 2018 15:34
Last Modified:	14 Nov 2019 16:04
References:	Assman, J. (2008) Originalveröffentlichung in: Astrid Erll, AnsgarNünning (Hg.), Cultural Memory Studies. An International and Interdisciplinary Handbook, Berlin, New York 2008, S. 109-118 Central Tibetan Administration, (2017) Department of Education, http://tibet.net/department/education. Accessed November 14, 2017 Goverment of Zharkhand. (2017, October 30). Goverment of Zharkhand. Retrieved October 30, 2017, from http://www.jharkhand.gov.in/ Government of India. (26 January 1950). The Constitution of India.National Legislative Bodies/National Authorities. Halbwachs, M. (1992).On Collective Memory. (L. A. Coser, Trans.) The University of Chicago Press. HansdaSowvendraShekhar, (2015)The Adivasi Won’t Dance, Speaking Tiger Publishing Pvt. Ltd Huyssen, A. (2003). Diaspora and Nation: Migration into Other Pasts. New German Critique, Winter(88), 147-164. Jewitt, Sarah. 2008. "Political ecology of Jharkhand conflicts." Asia Pacific Viewpoint, Vol. 49, , No. 1 pp68–82. KrishanuMukherji, (2017) ww.bloombergquint.com/business/2017/02/17/jharkhand-signs-209-mousworth-rs-3-lakh-crore-in-investment-summit.February 17. Accessed November 14, 2017 Ministry of Tribal Affairs, S. D. (2013).Statistical Profile of Scheduled Tribes and castes.Government of India. Munda, R. D., and S BosuMullik. (2003). The Jharkhand Movement - Indigenous Peoples' Struggle for Autonomy in India. Copenhagen: IWGIA, BIRSA. RT. Anon. (See note in abstract.)(2014) Interview in Hindi by Taru.Conversation on the Adivasi world vision (July 5). Translated by Taru SM. Anon. (See note in abstract.) (2014) Interview in Hindi by Taru.Post Movement: Conversations with NGO workers (July). Translated by Taru. Shah, A. (2010).In the shadows of the state: indigenous politics, environmentalism, and insurgency in Jharkhand, India. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Sundar, Nandini. (2009). "Framing the Political Imagination." In Legal Grounds, by NandiniSundar, Delhi: Oxford University Press. Survival International Charitable Trust, n.d. http://www.notprimitive.in/. Accessed November 14, 2017. Taru, Kudva, N., & Forester, J. F. (2015).NGOs in the face of Conflict and Structural Violence: The Jharkhand Story Toppo, Richard. (2012). Jharkhand: The failed promise of an adivasi state. July 12. Accessed April 11, 2015. http://infochangeindia.org/human-rights/analysis/jharkhand-the-failed-promise-of-an-adivasistate.html
URI:	https://openarchive.icomos.org/id/eprint/1999

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