Tribes, Tradition and the State: Reconsidering social practices of tribal development in India

22/07/2008 - 14:00

 

22 July 2008
Leiden, The Netherlands

14.00 - 17.00 hrs.

Lectures and debate

 

 

Convenor: Dr Markus Schleiter

Chair: Dr Erik de Maaker

Speakers: Dr Prasanna K. Nayak and Dr Prasanna K. Patra (IIAS)

Contact: Manon Osseweijer, m.osseweijer@let.leidenuniv.nl

Venue: Lipsius Building (room 148), Cleveringaplaats 1, 2311 VJ Leiden, the Netherlands

Meant to support 68 million members of "tribes" of India, an immense and often encompassing structure of governmental development institutions has been built up. Anthropological reflections on the ambivalent impacts of "tribal" development work have so far focussed on the "traditional" cultures of the "tribes" as a hindrance to their development and identified governmental officers as corrupt. By this, however, anthropological reasoning has played a part in reconfirming the idea that members of "tribes" of India are not able to cope with modernity by themselves.

In contrast, the speakers of this seminar are aiming to give a new insight into the topic by a first-hand focus on everyday practices at the settlements and houses of the members of "tribes" of India as well as inside the innumerable offices from where "tribal" development is implemented. This perspective on social practices - seen through the lens of recent theoretical work on the topic of Everyday Statehood - will, for example, allow us to see the side-effects of practices of state legitimation in offices such as stamping a document or personal supervision by a high-level officer.

As a whole the aim of the seminar is to verify how applicable this perspective is to discussions on "tribal" development and on this basis the speakers will suggest new ideas for an 'un-vulnerable' economic future for the people concerned.

 

Programme

Chair: Dr Erik de Maaker, Dept. of Cultural Anthropology & Development Sociology, Leiden University

 

 

14.00 - 14.15 hrsBeyond the loads of files: The scope of anthropological queries into office culture of India
Dr Markus Schleiter (convenor), IIAS research fellow, sponsored by the Fritz Thyssen Stiftung
 

14.15 - 14.45 hrsGovernment, Development, 'Tribals' and Citizenship: Reconsidering Modernity
Prof. Dr Prasanna K. Nayak, Dept. of Anthropology, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar, Orissa, India
 

14.45 - 15.15 hrsTraditions versus the State?: Everyday Experiences with a Governmental 'Tribal' Development Project in Uttarakhand
Dr Prasanna K. Patra, IIAS research fellow, Socio-genetic Marginalisation in Asia Programme, SMAP
 

15.15 - 15.30 hrsTea break
 

15.30 - 17.00 hrsDiscussion
 

Information
Manon Osseweijer (IIAS)
m.osseweijer@let.leidenuniv.nl
www.iias.nl