RECLAIMING FORGOTTEN HISTORIES: ADIVASI RESISTANCE AND THE MAKING OF MODERN INDIA

Abstract

Three Adivasi resistance movements in Odisha, at Niyamgiri, Kashipur, and Kalinga Nagar, together constitute one of the most significant chapters in postcolonial India's contested relationship with extractive development. Each movement was a direct response to the displacement of indigenous communities from mineral-bearing lands that they had occupied and governed for generations. This article examines the three movements comparatively, tracing their origins in colonial land law, their development under postcolonial extraction policy, their distinct trajectories and outcomes, and their cumulative significance for constitutional law, indigenous rights, and democratic governance. Drawing on field reports, court records, journalistic documentation, and scholarship in political economy, environmental history, and legal anthropology, the article argues that these are not peripheral protests but foundational episodes in the ongoing negotiation between the Indian state, corporate capital, and indigenous communities over the terms of development. The article also analyses available data on displacement, Forest Rights Act implementation, and legal protections to ground the historical narrative in documented evidence. It concludes that the differences in outcome between Niyamgiri, Kashipur, and Kalinga Nagar reflect not differences in the justice of the communities' claims but differences in the legal resources, organisational capacity, and external solidarity available to each.