Rethinking ‘tribe’ identities

Abstract

The encounter between the state and disparate tribal groups in India’s north-east or elsewhere not only affirms the state’s monopoly of material and symbolic power but also opens up a complex and shifting discursive space. This article examines how the state’s practice of recognising ‘tribes’ legitimises fixed and legible ‘locational dialectal identities’ among the ‘Zo’ in India’s north-east and successfully transforms them into receivers of the state’s largesse. At the same time, these practices also reveal the unsettled nature and fuzziness of ‘tribe’ identities as clans, dialects, and languages overlap and cross-cut each other. Although enlisting tribes among the Zo fits the state’s ‘classificatory’ and ‘serial-isation’ grid, it also highlights the ‘narcissism of minor differences’ among them. While such enlisting helps expedite the integration of ‘tribes’ into the Indian state–nation building projects, it also unleashes contentious politics that prevent the emergence of larger frameworks of unity and solidarity across ‘tribes’. Against this backdrop, the article ex-amines ongoing attempts among the Zo to redefine and rethink ‘tribe’ identities to tran-scend their ‘locational dialectal identities’.

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