Papers by Ritambhara Hebbar
Sociological Bulletin, 2024
There are over 150 tribal communities in South India. Many of them live in remote and forested ar... more There are over 150 tribal communities in South India. Many of them live in remote and forested areas. However, historically, they have had a close relationship with caste society. The dominance of caste is evident in their everyday contexts, economic relations and social status within the local social hierarchy. The article reflects on how the situation of tribes in South India cannot be fully comprehended without acknowledging the overbearing influence of caste ideology and politics on their lives. It will focus on two Scheduled Tribes in South India, the Paniyan and the Koraga, to illustrate practices of untouchability and social deprivation among them. Despite their Scheduled Tribe status, the Paniyan and the Koraga continue to face caste-based discrimination and cannot access basic services provided by the state. There is a deep sense of dispiritedness among them, and, increasingly, they are isolating themselves from ‘others’ in their vicinity. Isolation has become an active mode of distancing from caste and asserting their tribal identity. It expresses their rejection of tribal integration, and associated politics, responsible for their marginalisation.
Sociological Bulletin, 2024
Edited along with Chandan Kumar Sharma, a special issue on tribes in contemporary India in the jo... more Edited along with Chandan Kumar Sharma, a special issue on tribes in contemporary India in the journal Sociological Bulletin, 73 (4): pp 361-518.
Social Change, Dec 1, 2022
HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory
Seminar, 2023
The endeavour of tribal philosophy and politics the world over has been twofold: one is to transc... more The endeavour of tribal philosophy and politics the world over has been twofold: one is to transcend the particularisms of tribal traditions and ethnicities to evolve a shared vision about the world, and second, to forge a ‘paradigm war’ against Western thinking and instrumentalism that has destroyed tribal habitats and ways of life. How does this shared vision embedded within lived experiences and knowledges contribute to the critique of instrumental rationality and, its doppelganger, extraction?
Full Reference: Reframing the Debate: The Tribal Question and Contemporaneity in Savyasaachi, ed,... more Full Reference: Reframing the Debate: The Tribal Question and Contemporaneity in Savyasaachi, ed, Intractable conflicts in Contemporary India: Narratives and social movements, London & Delhi: Routledge, 2018. ISBN 9781138363717. Tribal areas in many parts of India have been characterised by insurgency and labelled as a part of the ‘red corridor’. There have been two polarised positions on the subject of insurgency in India. One that considers insurgency as an inevitable and logical consequence of the complete disregard of tribal rights on land and forests by the state, and the other that associates insurgency as a threat to the Indian nation-state and its democratic apparatus. Tribes have been rendered disposable and dispensable in the ensuing violence between the insurgents and the counter-insurgents. The paper seeks to explore and explicate this politics of insurgency, which also provides the context to reflect on what has become of the tribal question in India and the uncertain future that await tribes as a people.
Full Reference: Reframing the Debate: The Tribal Question and Contemporaneity in Savyasaachi, ed,... more Full Reference: Reframing the Debate: The Tribal Question and Contemporaneity in Savyasaachi, ed, Intractable conflicts in Contemporary India: Narratives and social movements, London & Delhi: Routledge, 2018. ISBN 9781138363717. Tribal areas in many parts of India have been characterised by insurgency and labelled as a part of the ‘red corridor’. There have been two polarised positions on the subject of insurgency in India. One that considers insurgency as an inevitable and logical consequence of the complete disregard of tribal rights on land and forests by the state, and the other that associates insurgency as a threat to the Indian nation-state and its democratic apparatus. Tribes have been rendered disposable and dispensable in the ensuing violence between the insurgents and the counter-insurgents. The paper seeks to explore and explicate this politics of insurgency, which also provides the context to reflect on what has become of the tribal question in India and the uncertain future that await tribes as a people.
Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears... more Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
A recent seminar in Mumbai attempted to adjudge the direction of change in existing social instit... more A recent seminar in Mumbai attempted to adjudge the direction of change in existing social institutions and those established after independence, as well as the obstacles to forming effective social institutions in the country. In spite of the disheartening picture that emerges, of an iniquitous process in terms of development and empowerment, there are hopeful signs of fruitful alliances in various segments of society as well as of audible articulation of alternatives.
Tribal Autonomy and Life Support Systems-Ritambhara Hebbar ©Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems ... more Tribal Autonomy and Life Support Systems-Ritambhara Hebbar ©Encyclopedia of Life Support Systems (EOLSS) homogeneous, "primitive" other, which would only hasten the processes of peripheralization of tribes and their life support systems. The last section documents one experiment at restoring life support systems in a Ho village in West Singhbhum, Bihar. Such experiments not only redefine the contours of the notion "tribal autonomy" but also restore the tribes as "agents" vis-à-vis their life support systems.
Contributions to Indian Sociology, 2015
Migrants and the Neoliberal City edited by Ranabir Samaddar (Orient Blackswan, Delhi), 2018
The chapter explores the lives of migrants who serve as security guards in Mumbai city, India. It... more The chapter explores the lives of migrants who serve as security guards in Mumbai city, India. It explores the paradox of their role as ' security guards or protectors' of the city's apartment complexes, malls, educational and other public institutions, businesses and corporations and their insecure conditions of life and work as migrants in Mumbai.
Contributions to Indian Sociology
Sociological Bulletin
Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR) was established in 1986 and since then various environmental proj... more Nilgiri Biosphere Reserve (NBR) was established in 1986 and since then various environmental projects have been introduced in the region, across the three southern states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala. Local tribal communities have been protesting against these projects, both for its vision and politics that disregard their traditional association with forests. The article substantiates on both these protestations. There have been significant shifts in the governance of forest areas following the establishment of the NBR. Environmental projects have initiated host of actors and interest groups who, along with state departments, play a critical role in the management of forest resources. The focus would be on enunciating the ensuing politics and its implications on the lives of local tribal communities.
Social Change
Roma Chatterji (Ed.), Wording the World: Veena Das and Scenes of Inheritance. Delhi: Orient Black... more Roma Chatterji (Ed.), Wording the World: Veena Das and Scenes of Inheritance. Delhi: Orient BlackSwan Private Limited, 2015, viii+481 pp., 2015, ₹1295.00, ISBN-13: 978-0823261864 (Hardcover).
Contributions to Indian Sociology
Economic and Political Weekly, May 31, 2003
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Papers by Ritambhara Hebbar
Full-text Book · Jan 2016
turning point in the tribal politics of India.
Subsequent developments however proved
otherwise. Jharkhand is now a political conundrum,
with the spread of Maoism in the area and the
increasing inability of the Indian state to address the
deep-seated concerns of the local people. In such a
scenario, this book is an attempt to relocate the
issue of self-rule in the everyday life of the locals
through a detailed ethnographic account of the Ho
tribe in South Jharkhand.
Traversing the academic distance between the
‘archives’ and ethnography, the author seeks to
expose the continuity between the representation of
the Ho through history and sociology/ anthropology,
and subsequently in their struggle for self-rule in the
region. In contrast to the historical and sociological/
anthropological writings on tribes that represent
tribes as homogeneous communities, caught in a
time warp, the ethnography brings out the
contemporariness of tribal life and struggle over
issues of ecology, culture, politics and science
which are marked with as much a sense of
uncertainty, as pride.
The book illustrates how this not so rigid articulation
of the ‘self’ in everyday life finds expression in the
ideological, social and economic differences
reflected in the context of an experiment with
self-rule vis-à-vis the issue of forest restoration.
Through the book, the author seeks to emphasize
that unless the essentialism associated with theunderstanding of tribes as the ‘other’ of mainstream
society is overcome, the present stalemates in tribal
regions as in Jharkhand will continue.
Migrants, Vigilants and Violence: A Study of Security Guards in Mumbai. In Ranabir Samaddar Ed, Migrants and the Neoliberal City, Delhi: Orient Blackswan, 2018. ISBN 9789352872909.