CONTESTING FOR SPACE AND IDENTITY: IS NON-TRIBAL MIGRATION UTTERLY RESPONSIBLE FOR TRIBAL LAND ALIENATION?

Tribal is considered to be the earliest inhabitants of India that bearing a common culture, common dialect and territory as well as have assessed the system of reciprocity and mutuality of obligations, survived with their unchanging way of life for centuries. Most of them are still in primitive stage that is far from the rays of modern civilization; so that they can be referred as “submerged humanity” as they abide in the forest areas, hilly regions, mountainous places and deep valleys. For them, land is not only the source of economic sustenance, but it can be measured as a hub of their identity. The land is neither just a ‘means of property' nor just ‘a form of property', rather it can be considered as the way of life. The proverbial attachment of a tribal to his land is a complex web of relationships, the primary force being no doubt economic. However, it is also interrelated to traditions, family, ties and religion. Alienation of tribal land is one of the weighty problems; cultivate a frustration among the tribals, which in turns become an intimidation to their distinguishing identity. Therefore, to preserve their identity and land from being alienation, they usually engage themselves in a conflict with the interlopers. For them, foremost reason of land and identity alienation is the massive influx of non-tribal migration to the tribal homeland that have grabbed large amount of tribal land. But there exist other explanations that are also accountable for the tribal land alienation. Here, the concentration is given on the concern of tribal's contest for space and identity in general and on the question “is non-tribal migration utterly responsible for tribal land alienation” in particular