Re-centring the "Pariah": Caste, Tribe and Criminality in South Asia

With a particular (although not exclusive) focus on criminal/denotified tribes, it aims to highlight how such oft-considered peripheral groups are central to our understanding of colonial expansion and statecraft, processes of decolonization and democracy, and debates on citizenship and rights. Through such analysis, it seeks to re-centre their histories not only within these crucial themes of South Asian studies but in more direct dialogue with each other.

26th - 27th June 2017

Grant Room (3.11), 3rd Floor, Michael Sadler Building, University of Leeds

Professor Ganesh Devy (Chairperson, People’s Linguistic Survey of India) will be giving a public keynote at the workshop entitled:

'The People’s Bhasha Movement: Tribal Voice in India'

This lecture will present the context in which the Adivasi Academy at Tejgadh was set up, its engagement with the Adivasi and Nomadic communities, and how the institution and its work led to the idea of the People’s Linguistic Survey of India (PLSI), probably the largest known survey of language in history. The PLSI studied 780 living languages, several hundred of these spoken by the indigenous communities, and its results are being published in a 50-volume series in English, Hindi and several other Indian languages. The lecture will present an overview of the tribal activism and the language movement from a first-person perspective as an exercise in contemporary history of India.

All are welcome to attend for the whole workshop, individual panels or the keynote. Lunch will be provided on both days.