Criminalisation Of The Tribal Identities: The Impact Of State Violence
- IJLLR Journal
- Jun 22
- 2 min read
Tvesha Uniyal & Neerajita Dutta, Symbiosis Law School, Hyderabad
ABSTRACT
The repression of tribal identities in India, particularly the marginalized and the tribes classified as vulnerable tribal groups (PVTGs), is a complex issue that deserves more attention considering how these groups that have steeped in socio economic disadvantage and are treated with violence and discrimination, is not only a result of the actions of the state but also of their policies. Even with the existence of legal frameworks for protection and rights, PVTGs continue to be dispossessed forming the ‘criminal descendants’ as their nationality is stripped off as well as their modes of wealth creation illegalised as under the Habitual Offenders Act.
These were the legal issues they had to grapple with but added on to this were the so-called ‘development’ initiatives that worsened the situation of PVTGs. The addition of the Sardar Sarovar Dam, the diamond and uranium mines in Orissa and the jailing of pahariyas from Jharkhand including violent humiliation of tribal people, added to the criminalisation and stigmatisation of the desperate lives they already lead. However, even with these difficulties, PVTGs have also demonstrated strength through various forms of resistance including challenging the legal and identity construction by the state.
This research attempts to examine the nuances of these issues by posing a number of important questions about the legal, political, and socio-economic aspects that enhances the fabrication of criminalization of PVTGs. Drawing upon primary and secondary sources of development literature, case law, government documents, and media reports, the focus of this study is on how legal settings, state’s action and policies foster structural violence, forced removals, and conversion of tribal personalities into criminal ones. It also contrasts the positioning of PVTGs within Indian society, with that of indigenous peoples of other countries, thus providing additional perspectives on how these people manage with ethnonational identity and state policies.
Keywords: Criminalization, PVTGs (Particularly Vulnerable Tribal Groups), Structural Violence, Dispossession
