Ethnicity and Adivasi Identity in Bangladesh

This book explores the transitions in the adivasi identity as well as in the political representation of adivasi communities in Bangladesh. It traces the use of categories such as “primitive”, “tribe”, and “adivasi” in post-colonial Bangladesh, both in the political discourse and in everyday life. The volume studies the history of these essentialized categories used for indigenous communities within the hierarchies of power and identity. It also analyses the diverse articulations of indigeneity through ethnographic narratives, exploring the formations of newer traditions and identity. The author highlights the persistence of the terms “simple” and “primitive” in contemporary discourses while also sharing examples of complex mediations and appropriation of these categories by adivasi groups in Bangladesh. This book will be of interest to researchers and students of sociology, social ethnography, social and cultural anthropology, indigenous studies, exclusion studies, development studies, political sociology, and South Asian studies.

Preface. Acknowledgements. 1 Transnational governmentality and adivasi subjectivity today. 2 Colonial archives and its effects. 3 Reloading the “Adivasi” figure? 4 Wanna or Wangala festival and its revival. 5 Adibasi ache? . . . ache. 6 Postscript. Appendix. Bibliography. Index.

Mahmudul H. Sumon is Professor of Anthropology at Jahangirnagar University, Savar, Bangladesh. He studied at Jahangirnagar University for his bachelor and master degrees and completed his Ph.D. from the University of Kent, at Canterbury, UK. He has co-edited two books, on adivasi politics of naming and land rights issues. His current research deals with questions of labour rights and justice in the wake of neo-liberal globalization.