Exclusion of Tribal Community and Assertion of their Identity with Reference to North East India

Abstract

Asserting tribal identity is constitutive and extant power relations. This is widely deployed for reconstruction of social reality, especially to combat exclusion, engross political rights and to control natural resources. There is a need to map the changed meaning and usage of the term within the contemporary sociological practice. The argument being made through this exposition is that the concept gets reconfigured in a curious conundrum, where the manifestation of ethnicity has taken the center stage and has overshadowed the hegemonic tradition of caste and religion.