Tribal Empowerment or Dispossession? A Comparative Analysis of Tribal Governance from Niyamgiri to Polavaram under PESA and FRA.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66871/trf-j.v1i3.024Keywords:
Tribal governance, PESA, Forest Rights Act, Indigenous Rights, Tribal Empowerment, Accumulation by Dispossession, Crony CapitalismAbstract
This paper employs discursive analysis to investigate whether the legislative framework for tribal governance under Panchayat (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act, 1996 (PESA) followed by Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006 (FRA), provides substantive justice or merely a procedural justice within the ambit of decentralised governance of neoliberal accumulation by dispossession. Relying on the Bhuria Committee Report, Gadgil Report, and the Xaxa Committee Report, this paper reconfigures the need for refinement in the political economy framework to counter the hegemony of private enterprises and crony-capitalism. Through a comparative analysis of Niyamgiri hills mining and the Polavaram dam project, this paper demonstrates how tribal empowerment remains unforeseen and irregular as most of the development projects idealise resource extraction instead of sustainable development. Furthermore, it investigates how the caste-tribe continuum and displacement in case of Niyamagiri and Polavaram have not only penetrated into the identity of tribal population in their geographical habitats but have also impeded into their socio-cultural paradigm. The paper concludes with pragmatic solutions to deal with the inefficiency in tribal governance by analysing policies adopted by various countries around the world for the structural transformation of tribal governance.
References
1. Ambagudia, N. 2010. “Tribal rights, dispossession and the state in India.” Economic and Political Weekly 45: 60-69.
2. Balaji, B. 2013. “Niyamgiri and the rights of tribal communities.” Economic and Political Weekly 48 (April).
3. Basu, Durga Das. 2019. Introduction to the Constitution of India. 22nd ed. New Delhi: LexisNexis.
4. Baviskar, Amita. 1995. In the Belly of the River: Tribal Conflicts over Development in the Narmada Valley. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
5. Bondla, D. J. N. n.d. “Resistance against the construction of Polavaram Dam in Andhra Pradesh: A fragmented tribal movement.” Centre Tricontinental (CETRI). Accessed March 2, 2026. https://www.cetri.be/Resistance-against-the-Construction-of-Polavaram-Dam-in-Andhra-Pradesh.
6. Brazil. Constitution of the Federative Republic of Brazil. Arts. 231-232.
7. Central Water Commission, Government of India. n.d. Design and Construction Features of Polavaram Project (Technical Report). New Delhi: Government of India. Accessed March 21, 2026.
8. Cernea, Michael M. 2000. Risks, Safeguards and Reconstruction: A Model for Population Displacement and Resettlement. Washington, DC: World Bank.
9. Comptroller and Auditor General of India. n.d. Report on Performance Audit of Polavaram Project. New Delhi: Government of India.
10. Constitution of India. Arts. 244(1)-(2), 275(1), 342, scheds. V-VI.
11. Coulthard, Glen Sean. 2014. Red Skin, White Masks: Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
12. “Dongria Kondh vow to protect Niyamgiri hills.” 2013. The Economic Times, August 19.
13. Fernandes, Walter. 1996. “Development-induced displacement and tribal women.” Economic and Political Weekly 31: 1468.
14. Fernandes, Walter. 2008. “India’s forced displacement: Policy and practice.” Social Change 41, no. 4: 453-65.
15. Forest (Conservation) Amendment Act 2023 (No. 38 of 2023), India.
16. Ghurye, G. S. 1963. The Scheduled Tribes. Mumbai: Popular Prakashan.
17. Government of Andhra Pradesh. n.d. Polavaram Project: Rehabilitation & Resettlement Status Report. Hyderabad: Government of Andhra Pradesh.
18. Harvey, David. 2003. The New Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
19. Kashwan, Prakash. 2017. Democracy in the Woods: Environmental Conservation and Social Justice in India, Tanzania, and Mexico. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
20. Levien, Michael. 2018. Dispossession without Development: Land Grabs in Neoliberal India. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
21. Ministry of Rural Development, Government of India. 1995. Report of the Committee on Panchayati Raj Institutions in Scheduled Areas (Bhuria Committee Report). New Delhi: Government of India.
22. Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India. 2023. Annual Report 2023-24. New Delhi: Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
23. Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India. n.d. Report on Scheduled Areas and Tribal Sub-Plan Regions. New Delhi: Government of India.
24. Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Government of India. n.d. Status Report on Implementation of FRA. New Delhi: Government of India.
25. Nepstad, Daniel, Stephan Schwartzman, Barbara Bamberger, Marcio Santilli, David Ray, Paul Schlesinger, Paul Lefebvre, Ane A. C. Alencar, Elaine Prins, Gregory J. Fiske, and Alicia Rolla. 2006. “Inhibition of Amazon deforestation and fire by parks and indigenous lands.” Conservation Biology 20, no. 1: 65-73.
26. “Niyamgiri tribals reject Vedanta mining plan.” 2013. Business Today, August 19.
27. Orissa Mining Corp. v. Ministry of Environment & Forests. 2013. 6 SCC 476 (India).
28. Ostrom, Elinor. 1990. Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
29. Padel, Felix, and Samarendra Das. 2010. Out of This Earth: East India Adivasis and the Aluminium Cartel. New Delhi: Orient BlackSwan.
30. Padhi, Ranjana. 2013. “Niyamgiri and the Dongria Kondh.” Economic and Political Weekly 48, no. 19: 20-22.
31. Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 (No. 40 of 1996), India.
32. Polavaram Project Authority, Government of India. n.d. Polavaram (Indira Sagar) Multipurpose Project: Salient Features. Ministry of Jal Shakti. Accessed March 21, 2026.
33. “Polavaram - displaced and nowhere to go: Tribal families robbed of rights, livelihood in resettlement colonies.” 2021. Down to Earth, December 8.
34. Reddy, D. N., and A. Mishra. 2010. “Forest Rights Act and tribal rights.” Economic and Political Weekly 45, no. 19: 16-18.
35. Sanyal, Kalyan. 2007. Rethinking Capitalist Development: Primitive Accumulation, Governmentality and Post-Colonial Capitalism. London: Routledge.
36. Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2007 (No. 2 of 2007), India.
37. Sinha, Surajit. 1965. “Tribe-caste and tribe-peasant continua in central India.” Man in India 45, no. 1: 1-9.
38. State of Orissa v. Union of India. 2011. Writ Petition (C) No. 424 of 2011, order dated February 23 (India).
39. Sundar, Nandini. 2009. “The rule of law and the rule of property.” Economic and Political Weekly 44, no. 8: 14-20.
40. Survival International. n.d. “The Dongria Kondh.” Accessed March 21, 2026. https://www.survivalinternational.org/tribes/dongria.
41. United Nations General Assembly. 2007. United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. G.A. Res. 61/295, September 13.
42. United Nations Human Rights Council. 2018. Free, Prior and Informed Consent: Human Rights-Based Approach. U.N. Doc. A/HRC/39/17.
43. W. Ghats Ecology Expert Panel. 2011. Report of the Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel (Gadgil Committee Report). New Delhi: Ministry of Environment & Forests, Government of India.
44. World Bank. 2016. World Development Report 2016: Digital Dividends. Washington, DC: World Bank. https://doi.org/10.1596/978-1-4648-0671-1.
45. Xaxa, Virginius. 2008. State, Society, and Tribes: Issues in Post-Colonial India. New Delhi: Pearson Education India.
46. Xaxa, Virginius. 2011. “Tribes and development in India.” Economic and Political Weekly 46, no. 23: 23-27.
47. Xaxa, Virginius. 2014. Report of the High-Level Committee on Socio-Economic, Health and Educational Status of Tribal Communities of India. New Delhi: Ministry of Tribal Affairs.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 The Research Frontline - Journal
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
